Netrokona Correspondent
On behalf of Bangladesh Youth Rights Council Netrokona District Branch, on Sunday afternoon, the President of Durgapur Upazila Youth Rights Council, Enamul Fakir, submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner’s office to the Honorable Chief Advisor, Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, through a transparent and impartial investigation against irregularities and corruption in the construction of the Boro crop protection dam, the desired dream of farmers. The leaders of the Youth Rights Movement said that according to the Water Development Board’s structure, the PIC and project list for the construction of crop protection dams in haors were supposed to be completed between October 30 and November 30, and work was supposed to begin by December 15. The work was supposed to be completed by February 28. But now the work of damming the haor is ongoing until March 10th.
A prank is being carried out with farmers in Haor due to an irregularity. This is why they could not complete the dam work on time, officials of the Water Development Board said. Upon visiting the public land in Netrakona Haor, it was seen that a crop protection dam was being constructed through an irregularity. Based on information collected by Haor News, evidence of widespread irregularities and corruption by contractors and PICs in the construction of crop protection dams has been found. A human chain was organized by the District Haor Bachao Andolan Committee on Saturday, 1-3-2025, at 11 am on the road in front of the Netrokona Central Shaheed Minar regarding irregularities in the dam work. Partial corruption in the dam work was highlighted. Among them, the Netrokona Kalmakanda Upadakhali sub-project, amounting to 18 lakh 52 thousand taka, PIC President Md. Hasen Ali. The Singhar Bill sub-project of Barhatta Upazila, amounting to 9 lakh 02 taka, PIC No. (1) President Md. Anwar Hossain. Mohanganj Upazila Charhaizda Dam Sub-Project Bridge Closing Amount of Tk 29 lakh 37, President Aminul Haque Agur. Khaliajuri Upazila FCD Project Polder PAEC President Elahi Mia Amount of Tk 21 lakh 69 thousand, PIC No. (1) Khaliajuri Chunai Crop Protection Dam PIC No. (22) Amount of Tk 20 lakh 85 thousand, President Prithish Ranjan Sarkar. Jamalganj Khaliajuri Upazila FDC Project Ponder (1) PIC President Kiran Sarkar Amount of Tk 20 lakh 8 taka. Khaliajuri Polder No. (2) 1 PIC President Md. Abdul Karim Amount of Tk 20 lakh 79 thousand. 2 PIC President Md. Faisal Ahmed, amount of money 22 lakh 23 thousand taka, 3 PIC President Pauline Talukder, 23 lakh 93 thousand taka. PIC President Abdus Salam 24 lakh 99 thousand taka. PIC President Saiful Islam 22 lakh 37 thousand taka. PIC President Md. Akhter Hossain 20 lakh 73 thousand taka. There are 7 PICs working. Besides, every work in the district is riddled with irregularities. No officer from the district is monitoring.
This work will take 1 month to complete. Going to the ground, it was found that the PIC presidents had stopped working. Therefore, we, the District Youth Rights Council, seek your kind attention to protect the only Boro crop of the Haor. If the haors are submerged, disaster will befall the common people, including farmers, across the country. There will be food shortages. There will be crop losses worth billions of taka in the Haors. We want an investigation into the allegations of corruption in the construction of the crop protection dam in Haor and the construction of the crop protection dam properly. We demand that the dam work be investigated through the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and legal action be taken against the criminals.