Allegation was brought against Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Shailkupa in Jhenaidah Saiful Islam that his office attendant Mintu was constructing a house without any concrete made base under the ground.
Locals including a poor rickshaw van peddler Arab Ali of village Habibpur under Shailkupa municipality said the authorities sanctioned a house for him under the housing project. A wall of the house collapsed on Saturday noon and a helper of the construction work injured when a wall of the under construction tin-shed building.
Arab Ali said his wife with their one-month aged child was cooking there, while they escaped by luck. The poor man said UNO’s office attendant Mintu did not care any objection about using low quality sand, cement and wire against rod for the construction work.
When a number of journalists from Shailkupa upazila town and district headquarters were talking to the affected houseowner, UNO Saiful Islam was threatening to talk to the journalists if they want their house once again constructed.
Rais Uddin of Habibpur Karikarpara said the UNO was constructing a house for his family where UNO’s man had collected a few thousand Taka for constructing the house. The pillars constructed on the varanda of the hose were leaning and collapse any time leaving casualty. Further, raw wooden pieces were used for the tine-shed as against mature ones, he said.
According to Rais Uddin, the construction workers did not care their objections when the work was done with below quality cement and sand. The authorities also did not establish any concrete made base before doing the brick walls, they said.
Project implementation officer (PIO) in Shailkupa office sources said the government has been constructing 37 houses in the upazila at a cost of Taka 44.40 lakh for the fiscal 2019-2020.
PIO Abdullahel Al Masum, the member secretary of the project when contacted said he was somehow informed that below quality of cement, sand and other materials were used for the work, while he could not interfere there as the president (UNO) did not involve him anyway with the work.
Further, he cannot provide any information regarding construction of any house in the upazila.
Ward councilor of Shailkupa municipality Safiqur Rahamn when contacted said the UNO does not care any one in furnishing any activities in his ward. No concrete was made under the ground for the construction, he said.
The Ward councilor questioned how a house could be constructed with only 20 bags of cement and other low quality materials.
Chairman of Shailkupa upazila parishad Shikder Mosharraf Hossain and vice chairman Jahidunnabi Kalu when contacted for their comments, said they were informed about the unabated corruption and irregularities by UNO Saiful Islam in houses project for poor initiated by the Prime Minister Shekh Hasina.
