Noor Ali admits to crime

Businessman Noor Ali has confessed doing various illegal work during the tenure of previous Awami League, and BNP-Jamaat-led alliance governments in constructing a 20-storey public building in the capital, a parliamentary body said yesterday.
The House standing committee on expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry asked Borak Construction firm owned by Noor Ali to complete the construction work immediately and handover the building to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET).
“Noor Ali (who was summoned to appear before the committee meeting yesterday) confessed that he did various illegal work during the tenure of previous governments,” Mahmud said.
“BMET and Borak Construction signed a contract towards the end of 2000 [when AL was in power] for construction of the building on a government plot at Eskaton,” chief of the House body Anisul Islam Mahmud told journalists after the meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
“As per the contract, Borak Construction was supposed to construct a 2.79 lakh square feet building for BMET,” said Mahmud, a Jatiya Party lawmaker.
In 2000, BMET planned to construct a multi-storied building at Eskaton using the expatriate welfare fund to provide residential accommodation for expatriate Bangladeshis, and for various activities of the bureau. The partially completed building now houses a one-stop-centre for manpower export.
Mahmud said, "Borak Construction committed irregularities as it sold 30 kathas of land to BMET although government land cannot be sold. We are yet to unearth how it was done."
He however said the then officials of BMET and the ministry concerned might also be involved in the irregularities.