JS body asks ministry to take action against Huda

A parliamentary committee yesterday asked the ministry concerned to take legal steps against former communications minister Nazmul Huda and officials concerned for 'illegally' allocating four bighas of railway land to a human rights organisation 'only in name' headed by the minister's wife in 2004.
The former communications minister [Nazmul Huda] and officials concerned should be brought to book for allocating at a token price railway land worth about Tk 200 crore near Bangabazar in the capital, said Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, chief of the Hous Public Accounts Committee.
“Nazmul Huda was responsible for the illegal act,” Alamgir said at press briefing after a meeting of the committee at the jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
The land was given to Bangladesh Manobadhikar Bastobayon Sangstha headed by Sigma Huda, wife of the former minister, at a token price of Tk 1,000, said Alamgir, a ruling Awami League lawmaker.
The House body also asked the railway authorities to report to it in a month details of the land handover process.
Alamgir also said the committee found that the past BNP-Jamaat alliance government allocated to BNP activists 49 plots on railway land in the capital and Chittagong for establishing CNG refuelling stations without any tender process.
The committee asked the railway authorities to report to it how the decisions were taken.
Contacted by this correspondent, the former minister said the ministry had allocated the land following the procedures properly.
He also said 11 to 12 kathas of land were allocated to the organisation, not four acres.