UNFORTUNATELY, like many other sectors, allegations of widespread corruption have been raised in purchasing books for “Bangabandhu Corner” at around 65,000 government primary schools across the country. Those books were allegedly purchased at a high rate compared to their original price, creating an extensive criticism among the people.
Allegations have also been raised that Copyright Act has grossly been violated while reprinting two books on Bangabandhu, namely “Bangabandhu means independence” and “3053 days”, a book on Bangabandhu’s life in prison. The accusations were raised against a senior reporter of Jamuna television Nazmul Hossain of violating the Copyright Act while reprinting and delivering the books. However, Nazmul, owner of Journey Multimedia Limited and Swadhika Publishers said that he supplied the books following all rules.
It is to be noted that the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has published the book on “Bangabandhu Means Independence” while the Department of Prisons published the “3035 days” of Bangabandhu’s life in prison. Officials of the Directorate of Primary and Mass Education Ministry said they have purchased the reprinted books from the two publishing houses for the Corner worth Tk 17 crore. Earlier, the government had allocated Tk 150 crore to purchase 30 different books on Bangabandhu to set up the Corner at all government primary schools.
Media reports said that following the allegations, the parliamentary standing committee on Primary and Mass Education on Wednesday formed a four-member sub-committee, headed by ruling Awami League MP Nazrul Islam Babu (Narayanganj-2) to submit its report before it within a month. Other members of the sub-committee are AL MP Ali Azam (Bhola-2), JSD’s Shirin Akhter (Feni-1) and BNP’s Mosharraf Hossain (Bogura-4).
Meanwhile, the parliamentary watchdog also asked the secretary to the Primary and Mass Education Ministry to submit a detailed report on the purchase process before the JS committee’s next meeting.
Needless to say, big corruption is government protected and the government cannot combat corruption. The government itself is the corruption. Why it should be so when everybody in connection with the government is the beneficiary and everybody is tolerating?
