KAUKHALI — Contractors are accused of pocketing allocations for development work worth about 35 crore taka (about $2.9 million) under the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Kaukhali without completing the projects. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed cases against contracting firms and some LGED officials.
An investigation found that 25 to 28 projects had been launched in the upazila’s various unions, including roads, girder bridges, cyclone shelters and drains. Contractors withdrew the project funds without finishing most of the work, and local officials are alleged to have been involved in the irregularities.
Contractors went into hiding after the change of government on Aug. 5, 2024, leaving development work in disarray and causing severe difficulties for residents. Unfinished roads and broken bridges are now the principal cause of public hardship in the upazila. In many places only piling has been done; elsewhere roads have been dug up and bricks and sand left behind, making vehicular traffic, and even walking, difficult.
Projects being implemented under LGED include GoBM, BJP, IBRP, IRIDP-3, CCTF, IPCP, PDRRIDP and DRRRIWP. Under the BJP project, work on the Mollarhat-Sapleza road and the road and bridge adjacent to the Adam Ali Bridge in Parsaturia was to have been completed in 2022, but the contracting firm Ifty ETCL has left the work half done.
Similarly, work on a 6 crore taka (about $500,000) girder bridge in front of the Shialkathi union council under the IBRP project remains stuck at the piling stage. The girder bridges on the Parsaturia Salekia Madrasa, Soyna Raghunathpur, Joykul Kheyaghat, Chirapara Subidpur, Jolagati Folaibunaya and Keundia roads are in the same state.
Most of these contracting firms are owned by former member of parliament Mohiuddin Maharaj and his brother, former upazila chairman Miraj Hossain, residents alleged. Under the IRIDP-3 project, M/s Faisal Enterprise partially completed the Chirapara GM School-Dumjuri road project and abandoned it. Ifty ETCL has also failed to finish the road from Hoglabetka Bazar to Pulerhat.
Cyclone-shelter construction at the Shialkathi Darud Sunnat Kamil Madrasa, financed by the Climate Change Trust Fund, and the Sonakur ferry ghat road project are also incomplete. The road from Hogla High School to Nanna Member Bari, the Chirapara Subidpur road and the Raghunathpur Meghpal road have also been left in a similar state by Ifty ETCL after only minor work. In all, about 28 projects worth 35 crore taka are unfinished and the contractors are absconding.
Residents alleged that the contractors took the government allocations and vanished.
Upazila Engineer Mohammad Imtiaz Hossain said: “The higher authorities are aware of the issue. Letters have been sent to the contracting firms to complete the work quickly. The senior LGED authority is also monitoring it regularly.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report