EU cancels funding of Dinajpur project

European Union (EU) yesterday cancelled its funding of the Adarsha Gram Project--II at Baradal village under Parbatipur upazila of the district in reaction to the incident of eviction of the indigenous people from the village.

Following a report published in The Daily Star on July 31, Esko Kentrschynskyj, ambassador and head of the delegation of the EU in Bangladesh, yesterday visited the village and regretted the June 22 eviction that left 65 families homeless.

Terming the eviction "a major instance of rights violation" in the country this year, the ambassador told newsmen that Bangladesh government has violated the rules of Adarsha Gram Project Agreement by evicting the indigenous people of the village.

The EU will not fund anymore in the Baradal project, the ambassador said, adding that the EU will urge the government to stop the Baradal programme.

On the arrival of the EU delegation at 10:30am, the villagers gathered around the team and described their unbearable sufferings since the eviction.

Julian Francis, European Project Director of Adarsha Gram Project II, was with the ambassador.

During the three-hour visit under tight police security, the delegation listened to the villagers, who alleged that their houses were looted during the eviction.

Government also filed false cases against 39 villagers on July 8 accusing them of resisting the law enforcers doing their duties, the villagers told the delegation.

There was apparently no landless family at Baradal, rather, the government officials made many of the villagers, who had been living there for some 40 years, landless by demolishing their thatched houses, Julian Francis told the press.

The ambassador urged the government to rehabilitate the evicted families as soon as possible.

He also asked the government to withdraw the false cases filed and probe the incident of eviction in order to bring those responsible under trial.

Utpal Dutta, community development specialist of the project under the land ministry, and Mostafizur Rahman, deputy director of the regional office of the project, accompanied the delegation while Upazila Nirbarhi Officer Sarifuddin was present during the visit.