Jehangir Hussain :
Huge irregularities, detected by print and electronic media, in the construction of homes for landless people under the administration’s much trumpeted Ashrayan Project have dented the government’s credibility. According to the reports, substandard materials were used for the shelters which were built at inappropriate sites.
The irregularities also include, distorting the original design and distributing the shelters to people who are not at all landless. The irregularities were detected during the construction of the shelters at 36 upazilas in 22 districts.
About 50 families were rehabilitated in 121 sites in eight divisions under the project in 2019-20, and some of the upazilas had more than one site. Officials said that an internal investigation was launched following media reports on the irregularities. The exposure shocked the nation.
It also caused embarrassment to the Prime Minister’s Office, which supervises the project, admitted officials. The pictures of substandard shelters for the landless printed under screaming newspaper headlines, shocked a rickshaw puller Shahidullah Khan and his younger brother Nurullah Khan.
‘We can’t believe that the landless people could be cheated like this by highly paid and educated engineers and officials,’ they said in utter disbelief.
The prime minister’s office appointed five teams to investigate into the alleged irregularities into the government’s largest humanitarian project. One of the investigation team is led by the director of Ashrayan Project-2. He said that no mercy would be shown to anyone found to be involved with the irregularities in the administration’s largest humanitarian project.
Until now, five officials have been made Officers-on-Special Duty for their alleged involvement with the irregularities.
The government said that 1.18 lakh landless families had been provided with shelters across the country under the Ashrayan Project. Earlier, the government had identified 5.92 lakh families across the country, who own no home or land, or have some land but no shelter.
All of them will be provided with the government built shelters under the Ashrayan Project, announced Prime Minister Shekh Hasina repeatedly.
(Mr. Jehangir is a senior journalist. Email: [email protected]).
