Jubo League leaders admit charge of misappropriation
Two activists of ruling Awami League (AL) in Parbaipur upazila under the district have confessed to bribery and misappropriation concerning 96 tonnes of wheat, a special allocation from Disaster Management, Relief and Rehabilitation Ministry for 23 educational institutions in the upazila.
Police on Monday detained Al-Amin, 30, joint secretary of Habra union unit of a Jubo League, and Golzar Hossain, 40, another Jubo League leader of Palashbari union of Parbatipur upazila for interrogation, following instruction of Rahenul Islam, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Parbaipur.
The two persons confessed to police and the UNO that a few upazila AL leaders sold the 96 tonnes of wheat for Tk 19.20 lakh and paid Tk 9 lakh as bribe to officials and staff of the Directorate of Disaster Management for obtaining the special allotment letters, said officials.
Besides, Tk 1.15 lakh was distributed among a few officials of upazila administration as bribe, sources said.
After quizzing, police released Al-Amin and Golzar yesterday morning.
After learning about misappropriation of the 96 tonnes of wheat worth Tk 20.16 lakh by a few upazila AL leaders, local lawmaker Md Mostafizur Rahman, also minister for primary and mass education, on July 20 instructed the UNO of Parbatipur to take immediate steps to recover the amount.
"Tk 4.5 has already been refunded to me. Hafizul Islam Pramanik and Rezaul Karim, president and general secretary of Parbatipur upazila AL respectively, refunded Tk 2 lakh each while a few other AL leaders jointly refunded Tk 50,000 recently," UNO Rahenul Islam said.
"My administration is working for full recovery of the embezzled amount," he added.
Hafizul and Rezaul claimed that Tk 4.20 lakh was distributed among the educational institutions while sources of Parbatipur UNO office said the amount handed over to the heads of the institutions would not be more than Tk 1.5 lakh.
The two top leaders of upazila AL should be arrested and interrogated for detailed information about the misappropriation of the allocation for the institutions and its full recovery, said several local leaders and activists of AL.
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