Special Correspondent :
Three high officials of Water Development Board have been suspended in the wake of widespread allegation about large-scale financial corruption, negligence and delay in constructing and maintaining the dams in the country’s northeastern haor belt.
The Ministry of Water Resources on Tuesday in an official order conveyed the decision to the WDB authorities. The suspended officials are: Chief Engineer of Sylhet [Northeastern Zone] Mohammad Abdul Hai, Superintendent Engineer of Sylhet Nurul Islam Sarkar and former Executive Engineer of Sunamganj Afsar Uddin.
Officials said the decision of suspension was carried out at the directive of Minister for Water Resources Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud.
Of the suspended, Afsar Uddin was earlier withdrawn from Sylhet and attached to the Head Office by the WDB authorities on April 15 when local people and farmers had raised specific allegations of corruption against him.
In a statement issued by the Ministry concerned yesterday termed the above allegations against the WDB officials “serious” and added that three officials, directly involved in the embankment construction, were suspended for the sake of impartial investigation.
At the same time, the Water Resources Ministry has also reconstituted the investigation committee, which was formed on April 9 to probe the allegations of corruption. In the new four-member probe committee, Additional Secretary of Water Resources Ministry Mohammad Ali Khan has been made convenor and Joint Secretary Montu Biswas Member-Secretary.
Two other members are Joint Secretary of the same Ministry Khalilur Rahman and Chief Monitoring Officer of WDB Kazi Tofail Hossain.
As per estimation given by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, the Boro paddy of 2,19,840 hectares of land in six haor districts has been damaged in the flash flood where 50,088 families have directly been affected.
Meanwhile, a primary investigation report of the Ministry concerned found large-scale financial corruption and irregularities in constructing new dams and repairing old ones in the haor areas.
The situation was a man-made crisis, it is alleged, as the WDB Engineers and its enlisted contractors did not complete the construction of the dams in many areas in due time. Of the 116 packages, the contractors had only completed 20 per cent of the total works though the contractors were given work order to complete the works by March 31.
Whereas the Ministry of Finance had allocated Tk 86 crore in the haor areas for construction and maintenance of the dams. Of them, Tk 65 crore was given through the WDB and the rest Tk 21 crore was given through the Money for Work programme. The contractors had withdrawn Tk 25 crore without completing their works.
Apart from departmental WDB investigation, the Anti-Corruption Commission the Water Resources Ministry and Sunamganj district Administration have formed separate inquiry committees to find out the irregularities in constructing the dams.
The vast haor area went under waters due to flash flood and upstream water caused by heavy rain in late April. Blaming the WDB Engineers for embankment collapse, several organizations held human chains and rallies in Dhaka at that time.
Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid a visit to Sunamganj on April 30 to see the condition of haors and cautioned that stern action would be taken if anyone is found involved in corruption and negligence in constructing the dams.
According to officials, there are 2200 kilometers of dam in entire Sylhet division, of them; about 1450 kilometers in Sunamganj district. Out of 2, 23,082 hectares of land in Sunamganj, the paddy on 1,49, 912 hectares washed away due to the flash flood, said Sheikh Rafiqul Islam, Deputy Commissioner of Sunamganj district.
The vast area of Kishoreganj, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Netrokona is a mosaic of wetland habitat, where there are rivers, streams, irrigation canals and large areas of seasonally flooded cultivated plains, and hundreds of haors and beels. This zone consists of about 400 haors and beels, varying in size from a few hectares to several thousand hectares, officials said.
The New Nation in a report titled ‘Corrupt WDB officials to face music’ on April 27 pointed to such massive corruption by the WDB Engineers.
