Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday stayed for 30 days a decision taken by the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) managing director demoting its Executive Engineer Md Mozammel Haque on charge of giving information to media in 2017 on irregularities at WASA and waterlogging in Dhaka.
The order if executed would demote the Executive Engineer to the post of Sub-Divisional Engineer. The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim passed the order after
holding hearing on a writ petition filed by Mozammel Haque challenging the legality of MD’s decision.
Lawyer SS Arefin Junnun who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the Engineer said few newspapers including two Bengali dailies published reports in 2017 on the waterlogging and irregularities at Dhaka WASA.
Later a show-cause notice was issued on Mozammel Haque for talking to newspapers and a probe was conducted in this issue, he said.
Caretaker Engineer of the organization Md Ruhul Amin conducted the inquiry and submitted the probe report to the secretary of Dhaka WASA on December 21 last year.
In the probe report, he said Mozammel Haque violated the provisions concerned of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority Regulations, 2010 by supplying information to media about internal affairs of Dhaka WASA.
On January 8 this year, WASA Secretary issued another notice on Mozammel Haque, saying that Mozammel committed a misconduct by giving information to media and therefore a departmental case had been lodged against him, lawyer Arefin said.
Arefin further said WASA MD Engineer Taqsem A Khan, who is now abroad on leave, on July 4 this year issued a notice demoting Mozammel Haque from the office of executive engineer to the post of sub-divisional engineer, which is illegal.
Citing the grounds mentioned in the writ petition, Arefin said WASA MD Taqsem A Khan has been on leave from March 19 this year and he is not in the office now and therefore, he cannot issue such a demotion notice.
The lawyer also said Mozammel Haque will discharge duties as an executive engineer following the HC’s stay order.
