An undue favour!

A private organisation has set up its temporary office at a government building in the port city's Nandan Kanan area, apparently without any official permission. 

Abdul Mannan, divisional commissioner of Chittagong, inaugurated the office of Greater Mymensingh Samity Chittagong on the first floor of Firingi Bazar Land Office on Monday, said sources.

President of the samity, Masud-ul-Hasan, said they submitted an application to the deputy commissioner (DC) of Chittagong around one and a half months back, seeking permission to set up their office at any government building. Asked whether they obtained any official permission from the DC office, Masud, also additional commissioner (admin and finance) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, replied in the negative.

“The DC office allocated us the space for the time being through a verbal agreement,” he said. “They (DC office) said they would issue an official letter immediately.” 

To verify the matter, this correspondent talked to Zillur Rahman, DC of Chittagong, on Tuesday afternoon. He acknowledged that his office had received an application from the samity seeking allocation. But he said he was yet to give it a thought.

When he was informed that the office had already been set up there, the DC said he was currently out of office and would look into it after returning to office. 

Asked if any government property can be given to any organisation or any body for use, he said, in such case, they first check whether the property is leasable after receiving any application.  If it is leasable, they call a meeting and take decision about leasing the property, the DC added. But a member of the samity, on condition of anonymity, said they set up the office there after getting verbal permission from Abdul Mannan, divisional commissioner of Chittagong.

This correspondent talked to Abdul Mannan. He said the first floor of the building has been allocated to the samity on a temporary basis on condition that they would be bound to vacate the place whenever the authorities ask them to do so.

He said, “I shifted the Firingi Bazar land office to the ground floor of the building in 2013 when I was deputy commissioner of Chittagong. The initiative was taken then to ensure that none can grab the government building.” “But its first floor remained unused since then and when the officials of Mymensingh samity approached me, I asked them to use the first floor on a temporary basis,” he said.