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  Most of the money was embezzled by contractors, WDB officials

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Special Correspondent:

Allegation of throwing away about Tk 38 lakh into the water in the name of tree plantation programme on the occasion of Mujib Year has been intensified against the unscrupulous officials of Water Development Board (WDB) in Sirajganj and their recruited contractors.

Most of the money allocated for the tree plantation progremme was embezzled by the then WDB officials in collaboration with the relevant contractors after submitting several fake documents and bill-vouchers.

As a result, the objectives of the tree plantation programme mentioned in the papers and pen have not been achieved anyway except throwing the government money into the water, experts said.

According to the data of WDB obtained through RTI act, the then Awami League government marking the Mujib Year undertook river, canal and water-body reclamation project for 64 districts in the country. As a part of the project, a total of Tk 3782491 was sanctioned for tree plantation in three upazilas of Sirajganj district under the supervision of WDB.

Of the allocated funds, some Tk 891,059.4 was provided to Chattogram based contracting firm Mohammad Yunus and Brothers (Pvt.) Ltd in three packages for planting 3,300 trees on about 22 km both side banks of Katakhali canal in Sirajganj town.

On the other hand, Tk 121778.11 was sanctioned to Tajwar Trade Systems Ltd, Chowdhury & Company Joint Venture (TTSL-C&C JV) in Mirpur of Dhaka for planting 451 trees on the 20 km banks of Beel Surjyo river in Ullapara upazila of the district, while Tk 869781.744 was allocated to TTSL-KSA-MRM Joint Venture of Sherpur in Bogura for planting 451 trees on the 10 km banks of the Hurasagor branch-1 and Tk 200363.54 to Dhaka based Ataur Rahman Khan Limited for planting 7419 trees on the 5.50 km banks of the Hurasagor branch-2 in Shahzadpur upazila.

Similarly, the work order for planting 5,980 trees on the Crossbar-1, 2, 3, 4 and Hard Point area under the Operation and Maintenance (O & M) Division of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) in Sirajganj was given to contracting firm –‘Nirmata Kousholi’ of Kushtia at a cost of Tk 1,477,623.2 in two packages, while Tk 221890.412 was provided to Messrs Salsabil Enterprise of Panchthakuri in Sirajganj Sadar for planting 898 trees at various places of BRE under Brahmaputra Flood Control Embankment project.

The government also allocated additional funds for taking care of those newly planted trees so that those are not damaged by anyway. Maintaining balance of the environment and playing important role in preventing erosion were the main among many other objectives of the project.

It is to be mentioned that, the then Senior Secretary for the Ministry of Water Resources and former Cabinet Secretary of the Awami League government Kabir Bin Anwar launched the tree plantation programme-2020 at the banks of Katakhali Khal in Sirajganj town.

Later, though, the bills of all packages under the project were withdrawn by the contractors in collaboration with the unscrupulous officials of the concerned WDB in Sirajganj, there is no sign of single tree on the mentioned places under the project jurisdiction.

There is a complaint that, the contracting firms planted a few number of tree saplings on the project area just for public eye wash. Then, they withdrew all the money after showing their works as completed.

While visiting to the project sites in the last few days, this correspondent found no tree or sapling in the areas.

Speaking to The Daily Sky, locals said, a few number of tree saplings were planted at that time just for public eye wash. But, some of those died, while some were uprooted and eaten by animals like cow and goats due to lack of fence and care.

Nabokumar, a renowned political personality in Sirajganj town told The Daily Sky that, “Sometimes some projects are designed for getting benefited by some influential quarters. The tree plantation project of Sirajganj town was one of them. As a result, we did not get any benefit. Only the contracting firms and the WDB officials have become benefited by these projects. If trees were planted properly and those were cared by the concerned authorities in proper means, the government money was not wasted. Besides, Sirajganj dwellers would be benefited.

While contacted, Mokhlesur Rahman, Executive Engineer of the WDB in Sirajganj said, “We have got a little amount of fund for its one year maintenance. Now, I have no information about the status of the trees planted at that time. Probably, all of those have eaten by goats and cows.”