At last Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Saiful Islam leaving Shailkupa amid dissatisfaction and much criticism over his alleged corruption which was investigated by a team of anti corruption commission (ACC) last week.
He was transferred as the head of the senior assistants in the planning and energy section of the planning commission. The order came from the APD section deputy secretary of the public administration Alia Meher on October 29 (Thursday).
UNO Saiful Islam was blamed for constructing below standard houses for the homeless people and defalcated Taka several lakh. The fund was allocated under the Ashrayan 2 project of the Prime Minister for constructing 37 houses in Shailkupa upazila at a cost of Taka 1.2 lakh each.
The beneficiaries said five of the under construction houses were collapsed during and after the construction work at different places due to use of low quality bricks, cement, sand and other building materials.
Arab Ali Sheikh, a poor van peddler at Habibpur village in Shailkupa municipality said the under construction house at his court yard collapsed in the afternoon when her wife taking their one-month child was cooking. The woman escaped any way, while a mason sustained injuries. Later the UNO constructed the house once again demolishing the collapsed one.
Some others at Habibpur Karikarpara showing their houses said the pillars of the newly constructed houses were leaning since the construction work. As the massive corruption by the UNO had appeared before the people through online news portals, newspapers and televisions, a three member probe committee of the ACC on previous Thursday visited different places of the housing project and talked to the beneficiaries. They also contacted the UNO following the said irregularities.
When contacted for his comments about the ACC investigation, UNO Saiful Islam had denied this sort of probe by ACC. He informed the ACC members might visit Shailkupa for otherwise purposes which he did not know.
In the other hand ACC Jashore regional office deputy director Nazmus Sadat said he sent the three-member probe committee when massive news items was published in the newspapers, online news portals and electronic media following collapse of some of the under construction houses under the Asharayan project 2 at Shailkupa.
When this correspondent talked a cross section of people at Shailkupa said the UNO along with the union parishad chairman of Sarutia union in Shailkupa had defalcated cash and rice allocated from the office of Jhenidah deputy commissioner for the river erosion victims at Baruria village in Sarutia.
Further, a several sacks of rice meant for distribution among the needy people during the global pandemic corona virus, were seen rotten in a room of the UNO that came to light also.
Some of the government employees and locals said UNO Saiful Islam came to light once again when his alleged handling of government money of a number of projects was transferred to his personal accounts as against the project committee chairmen. When contacted, UNO Saiful Islam said a section of media activists went against him.
It may be mentioned that UN Saiful was transferred in Dhaka a few months back, while he managed to cancel the order managing e influential personalities with his capability.
