A parliamentary body yesterday asked the agriculture ministry to identify persons responsible for sale of huge properties of state-owned Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) at throwaway prices to different private parties during the regimes of the last BNP-Jamaat and caretaker government.
“We have asked the agriculture ministry to identify the persons involved in the sale of the properties at nominal prices through misusing their authority,” Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, chairman of the parliamentary committee on public undertakings, told reporters after a meeting at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
The parliamentary body asked the ministry to submit its report before the committee within next one month.
It also asked the ministry for measures to appoint as many as 35,000 employees against its vacant positions at different levels of the organisation.
The committee observed that BADC had 40,000 employees across the country that has come down to only 5,000 massively hampering its activities.
It also asked the authorities to implement its 38-ongoing project quickly.
The meeting expressed grave resentment over the authorities' negligence in publishing the BADC's annual report as well as the audit report.
“The BADC has no audit report done since 2003. It also failed to publish its annual report since 2004-05,” Alamgir, also a ruling Awami League lawmaker, said asking the organisation for updating the report to ensure accountability.
The committee observed that BADC had many a success in distributing seeds and fertiliser among farmers across the country. Now its activities have been shifted in course of time.
“Now BADC needs appointment of experts to identify in which diversified fields it should work for the betterment of the agriculture sector, a lifeline of the country's economy,” added the committee chief.
Lawmakers TIM Fazle Rabbi Chowdhury, Khaledur Rahman Titu, Biren Sikder, Dhirendra Chandra Debnath, Moyeen Uddin Khan Badal, Bazlul Haq Harun and SK Abu Bakr were also present.