The river-ringed green forest of Dashmina upazila has now turned into an empire of corruption, residents allege. By holding local fishermen and ordinary people hostage, business worth hundreds of thousands of taka is run in this empire of corruption — and its undeclared king, locals say, is the forest department’s beat officer, Rawshan Hasan, whom they accuse of controlling the bulk of the corruption in the forest.
It is alleged that his reign continues by ‘managing’ senior authorities. Although he has served at the same posting year after year, for mysterious reasons he is not being transferred, residents say — even though, under government service rules, the time for his transfer passed long ago. Besides Rawshan Hasan, many others connected to the forest department are also alleged to be involved in the forest’s web of corruption. Ordinary people have endless complaints against what they describe as the corrupt dominance of the upazila forest department’s officials and staff, saying they are left helpless by the oppression of officers out to plunder the forest and extort money.
On February 16, 2021, in the upazila’s Charhadi, a herdsman died by suicide after being unable to free six buffaloes from impoundment despite paying a 12,000-taka bribe demanded by a beat officer, residents said. Even after that widely discussed incident, they allege, the roots of corruption have remained.
According to relevant sources, the forest department has social forests on the upazila’s important chars — Charhaydar, Lalchar, Charalga, Charhadi and Charshahjalal. Forest department sources say there are 20,000 acres of forest department land on the chars, of which 5,821 acres are forest. It is alleged that, taking advantage of the vast forest and land, beat officer Rawshan Hasan and other dishonest forest department people are helping influential figures cut the forest’s trees and soil to build dam after dam across the canals.
Every year, in the months of Falgun and Chaitra, the char areas are leased out — formally and informally — for the following year for hundreds of thousands of taka in various ways, residents allege. Bribery worth hundreds of thousands of taka is also conducted by granting the chance to net the forest’s canals. In addition, by secretly selling forest trees and granting permission to graze buffaloes on forest department land, thousands of taka are collected from herdsmen in monthly and yearly instalments. Money is also pocketed by selling coconuts from the coconut trees. Locals claim that those who protest against these irregularities face oppression, attacks, lawsuits and harassment.
Md Ohiduzzaman, one of those affected, said: ‘State Minister Nurul Haq Nur has forbidden building dams in the char canals. Even so, the forest department takes money and arranges dams in the canals for the influential. As a leader of the Gono Odhikar Parishad, I protested. Angered by this, the forest department is harassing me and nine others with two false cases.’ He demanded an investigation into the forest department’s irregularities by those concerned, and also called for the cases to be withdrawn.
A man named Sahidul Islam said: ‘They have more than a hundred buffaloes. Every year, 2,000 taka has to be paid for each buffalo to beat officer Rawshan Hasan and other forest department people. Money is taken and dams are built in the canals.’ Another man, Hasan Sardar, said forest department people run business worth hundreds of thousands of taka on the chars.
Asked about the allegations, beat officer Rawshan Hasan told Jugantor that he was in charge of Charfatema, Charalga and Charhaydar. Saying he had been at the same posting for more than three years, he said he had no empire of corruption and was not involved in any irregularity or corruption. He claimed all the allegations against him were false. Upazila range officer Md Jahangir Hossain said it was not true that Rawshan Hasan was a godfather of corruption; he carried out his duties properly. While dams had been built in the canals under political patronage in the past, he said, there was no such scope now, and the dams had been cut. Cases had been filed only against those who had done wrong, he said, and no one had been harassed unjustly.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report