Tk 42cr thrown into water

 Sirajul Islam Shishir:

Both the frustration and anger have been prevailed among Sirajganj dwellers as a project of Tk 42 crore taken by the ousted Awami League government to establish a ‘Wind Power Plant’ at the Jamuna Crossbar-3 in the town has not yet been gone into production even after passing seven years due to massive corruption, irregularities and lack of supervision by the authorities concerned.

The main objective of the power plant was generating 2MW power and supplying it to the national grid with the aim to reduce power shortfall.

Pan Asia Power Service Limited under supervision of Bangladesh Power Development Board started the project work involving Tk 42 crore in 2018. A foundation stone was also laid at the project site on February 16 in the same year. But, it is wondering that, the project is yet to see the ray. Not only that, there is no one, who is able to provide appropriate information about the project progress or when it will be completed.

There is allegation that, the ousted Awami League government and some dishonest officials of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) brought this project here for plundering of the government money in the name of development. Nothing has been done and the project is currently lying on its face. The common people have various questions about this unplanned project of Tk42 crore. They suspected that, the involved persons have amassed the project money and siphoned to abroad without completion of project works. As a result, there is no visible progress of the project. They urged the high-ups to take necessary steps to implement the project as soon as possible for the sake of town dwellers. They also draw the attention of ACC to conduct an investigation into the matter to find out the culprits who were involved to misuse the government money.

During a spot visit, this correspondent found that, though eight towers along with big shaped fans were set up in the project site, no fan is able to whirling due to their substandard quality. In contrary, it is feared that, those may cause of occurring fatal accident by collapsing on human beings during storm or cyclone.

Student leader Imran Hossain, also the then one of the Anti Discrimination Student Movements’ coordinator said, “There is no sign of work progress. Besides, we don’t find anyone of the contracting firm. Not only that, no one of the Power Development Board’s officials is able to make any comment or provide any information about the project progress. So, question has raised that, what is happening here? Who is basically responsible over the project work?”

While contacted over cell phone, Eng. Fazlur Rahman, Proprietor of Pan Asia Power Service Limited declined to make any comment in this regard.

Ashit Poddar, Executive Engineer of Power Development Board’s Sales and distribution Division-2 (NESCO) said, “I know nothing about the project. Besides, no one informs me about it so far.”

Shamim Hassan, Director and Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the Power Development Board said, “The work of the project has remained hanged on the balance due to several bureaucratic complications. This is why, it is not possible to say, when the works will complete fully.”