Md Mahabub Alam :
Irregularities are allegedly taking place at Madbarchar union under Shipchar upazila of Madaripur district where the government is paying compensation among those whose lands have been acquired for the Padma Bridge.
Kickback, taking compensation on false documents and middlemen interference are among the irregularities, causing untold sufferings to the genuine land owners.
The affected people told The New Nation that the government had acquired lands of several hundred people of the union for construction of the bridge. Now it has started paying compensation only against ‘living houses’ and ‘trees’, while compensation for land will be paid later on.
Sources said about 50 per cent people have received compensation from the DC land office for their houses and trees. But majority of them have to pay kickback for the compensation.
“We were forced to pay 8 to 10 per cent as bribe of our total bills paid for houses and trees to the officials,” said at least eight sufferers to this correspondent.
Narrating the method of payment, they said after entering the office of land officer they had to put a fixed amount of cash in an almirah as bribe and then waited outside the room.
When the staff of the land office confirmed the percentage to the high-officials, the cheques are issued, they said.
When contacted, Firoj, one of the staff members, over cell phone, he denied that no such incident occurred in the office. But just after a moment, he claimed that he was not Firoj. “I work in a workshop. You mistakenly phoned me,” he said.
However, The New Nation confirmed that the man is no one but Firoj who used to take kickback from many people in exchange of compensation money.
One of the affected people, preferring anonymity, told this correspondent that all his lands were under the acquisition project. “I had to pay Tk 4 lakh as bribe for getting Tk 24 lakh as compensation of my living houses and tress”.
Locals alleged that a section of powerful people had set up houses overnight on others’ lands and fraudulently withdrawn compensation money against those houses and thereby putting the government in a big loss.
Besides, there are also allegations against the union parishad staff of taking bribe from Tk 1000 to 5000 for getting holding documents, certificates and photos attested.
When contacted, Chairman of Madbarchar Union Parishad Chowdhury Sultan Mahmud denied the allegation. “No person takes extra money from the land losers,” he claimed.
The victims also named Mojibor, Nadir Morol and Lutfar who are allegedly working as middlemen on behalf of the land officials.
When contacted, the Deputy Commissioner of Madaripur said that he was not aware of such allegation.
Why did the victims pay kickback instead of not informing him? He asked. “My door is open for all. If anyone can come and complain in this regard. I will take legal action against the accused,” he said.
When the DC was told about the involvement of Firoj in taking bribes, the DC avoided the question.
