A Baset Panchagarh Correspondent: An LGED executive assistant was the victim of a public outcry over the irregularities in the road paving and carpeting in Panchagarh.
It is learned that the incident took place on Saturday afternoon in the Dhanipara area of Maidandighi union in Boda upazila of Panchagarh. The victim of the robbery was Jahidul Islam, an assistant at the Boda upazila office of LGED. Local sources said that in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, a contracting company was awarded the job of paving a one-kilometer road from Dhanipara to South Gaighata Government Primary School, which is connected to the Panchagarh-Dhaka highway in Dhanipara area of Maidandighi union in Boda upazila. Earlier, after the paving work of the road started, allegations of irregularities were raised, and the road work had been stopped for some time.
The contractor recently started paving this road. After the work started on the road, when the local people complained about irregularities, the LGED and the contractor threatened them. Angered by this, the local people stopped the work on Saturday. Later, they called the Boda Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and media personnel to complain. When several journalists present at the time asked the LGED’s work assistant whether there were any irregularities, he said, “There are no irregularities here,” and the people present got angry and started pushing him (work assistant Zahidul Islam). At one stage, to save himself, he ran down to the nearby Aman paddy field. At that time, a young man followed him and started punching him. At that time, Zahidul was trying to resist the beating with his own hands. Later, public representative Belal Hossain rescued him from the hands of the local people and put him on a motorcycle. A video of the incident has gone viral on social media Facebook.
Belal Hossain, a member of ward number 3 of Maidandighi Union Parishad, was present there at the time of the incident. He said that for two days, local people had been calling him and informing him about the irregularities in the work. “That’s why I went there on Saturday afternoon. When I went there, I saw that the road was being filled with bitumen without cleaning it properly (without sweeping it). Bitumen was being filled in less. Since the quality of the work was poor, the local people stopped the work and showed me the carpet with their hands. At that time, an LGED official present there was videoing the local people on his mobile phone. This made the people angry. Later, I informed the UNO of Boda Upazila, the army camp and journalists.
LGED’s assistant, Jahidul Islam, who was the victim of a mobile phone scam, was called several times, but the connection was disconnected.
When I called Boda Upazila Engineer (LGED) Abul Kalam Azad several times regarding this matter, he did not pick up the phone either. I wrote a message on WhatsApp asking if I had filed a complaint with any police station, but there was no response.
Boda Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Azim Uddin said, “Police were sent there after receiving information about irregularities in road work in Dhanipara area. However, no one has filed a written complaint yet.
