Tk 10 rice: 11 held for irregularities

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) today arrested 11 persons including three food inspectors in three districts in connection with alleged misappropriation in a government programme of selling rice at Tk 10 per kilogramme for ultra poor.

Food inspectors of District Food Controller Office of Chittagong -- SM Sahabuddin, Shahnewaz and Suranjit Dey – were arrested from Agrabad for allegedly taking bribe from Open Market Sale (OMS) dealers in Tk 10 per kilogramme rice distribution programme for the poor.

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Dealer Syed Md Maruf and a representative of dealer Jahangir Alam were also arrested for irregularities in selling rice.

Assistant Director (AD) of the anti-graft body, Ajay Kumar Saha conducted the drive and detained them in Chittagong.

In Faridpur, ACC’s AD ASM Sazzad Hossain detained four dealers -- Sahidul Sikdar, Firoz Khan, Dabir Talukdar and Ali Hossain Khan -- for committing irregularities in the district.

“They gave less amount of rice to the poor,” said Sazzad.

The target group was supposed to get 30 kilogrammes of rice a month. Some 5.5 lakh tonnes of rice have been allocated for this purpose.

In Dinajpur, ACC’s AD Rauful Islam conducted a drive and detained two persons -- Rashidul Islam and Bonmali Roy for enlisting their names in the poor and misappropriating the rice meant for poor at Baluari of the district.