Bangladesh Muktijoddha Kalyan Trust [BMKT], the country’s lone freedom fighter welfare organisation, now has been facing serious set back due to mismanagement and unbridled corruption of its operating officials.
Twenty-nine of the 32 industrial and business units run by the BMKT have been closed owing to alleged plundering and looting. Besides, the operation of another multi-million taka project– Gulistan Complex [former Gulistan Cinema Hall in Dhaka], is now facing crises due to huge irregularities, the sources said.
They said a powerful section is now is illegally occupying about 343 shops of the complex. Besides, several shops have been allotted to ghost tenants while several other shops still remained vacant.
Out of total 1076 shops, 733 are shown rented to businessmen. But the BMKT gets highest 50-60 percent of the total rent. The rest of the rent money is allegedly pocketed by some dishonest officials, the sources added.
When contacted, AKM Mozammael Haq, Minister for Liberation War Affairs, told The New Nation on Thursday night, ” Yes there are 343 illegal occupants in the Gulistan Complex. But I don’t know how they managed possession of the shops. We will settle the issue in a meeting of BMKT next week. We are trying to arrange a public hearing involving the businessmen about the shops.”
“Most of the units of BMKT are closed. BMKT is under my ministry and I admit that there are allegations of corruption against it. But the allegations have not been proved,” the Minister said.
It is to be noted that Liberation War Ministry recently hit the headlines for supplying sub-standard gold-coated crests to foreign friends for supporting the liberation war.
The work of Gulistan Complex was given to a developer company named Western Engineers Limited to construct a 20-storey commercial building during the tenure of BNP government in 2001. But the work of 12-storey is only completed during last 13 years.
Besides, the BMKT has locked in a squabble with the developer company over sharing of property and they filed case and counter case against each other. As a result, the construction work has been stopped, after completion of 12-storey, the sources added.
In this backdrop, the parliamentary standing committee on Liberation War Affairs’ Ministry yesterday expressed annoyance about irregularities in various projects and programmes undertaken by the ministry.
The JS body also formed a three-member sub-committee headed by Nurun Nabi Chowdhury MP to recover the grabbed land and properties of BMKT.
“We have asked the BMKT to show the papers as to whom the shops of Gulistan Complex have been allotted. We also wanted to know the identity of illegally occupants of 343 shops. Strangely, the BMKT failed to show any paper and give any satisfactory answer,” Dr Afsarul Amin MP [Chittagong-9], who is former Mass Education Minister and also member of JS committee, said yesterday.
“Though unbelievable, the BMKT has no legal contact paper of the allotted shops. It does not even get 50 percent rents from those 733 allotted shops. We wanted to know as to where the money really goes,” Dr Amin said.
Twenty-nine of the 32 industrial and business units run by the BMKT are closed. The condition of rest three units-Purnima Filing and Servicing Station, Mimi Chocolate Ltd and Eastern Chemical Industries Ltd -is also not good, official sources said.
“Most units [industries and commercial] of Trust are not in operation at present. Those are permanently closed. A few industries still under operation are also on red,” Md Fazlul Hoque Khan, Manager, Land and Law, MKT said yesterday.
“Purnima Filling and Servicing Station in Dhaka remained operative as a no-loss, no-profit concern while ECI Ltd factory in Chittagong and Mimi Chocolate Ltd factory in Dhaka are in operation but fully unprofitable,” he said.
In the wake of widespread corruption, the JS committee in its earlier meeting had advised MKT to refrain from all commercial activity. It also had asked the Ministry to submit a report immediately elaborating its activities including Tower ’71. But the ministry still not submitted any report.
The JS body also had asked to give a copy of the agreement signed for the construction of Joi Bangla Commercial Building with Eastern Chemical Industries Limited in Chittagong. But the Trust also did not make any response.
