Local administration in Chaugachha, Jashore, has seized 37 sacks of government-allocated fertilizer that were being smuggled onto the black market.
Local residents intercepted the fertilizer at the Chandpur Mor area of Chaugachha municipality on Monday morning, August 25, and alerted the administration.
Residents said the fertilizer, wrapped in black polythene with no valid documentation, was being transported toward Jhikargachha in a nasimon (a local motorized cart). When word spread, local residents detained the vehicle.
After being notified, Chaugachha Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) G.M.A. Munib and Upazila Agriculture Officer Musabbir Hossain went to the scene and seized the fertilizer, taking it into custody.
Upazila Agriculture Officer Musabbir Hossain said initial information indicates that Khairul Islam, a trader in Chaugachha town, had illegally stockpiled the fertilizer, from where it was being smuggled elsewhere. A subsequent raid on Khairul Islam’s shop found it closed. He said a case would be filed naming Saiful as an accused in connection with the incident.
Separately, allegations have surfaced that Saiful Islam, the municipality’s sub-assistant agriculture officer, tipped off the trader involved before the raid took place. Saiful Islam has denied the allegation.
Reports on fertilizer shortages in various parts of the upazila had previously appeared in national and local newspapers. Since then, the administration has stepped up action against illegal fertilizer stockpiling and smuggling.
Local residents allege that farmers are not getting the fertilizer they need, even as a section of unscrupulous traders, in collusion with those responsible for oversight, smuggle government fertilizer elsewhere. They question how government fertilizer is being smuggled out amid a shortage, and why the main figures behind it remain beyond the law’s reach.
Local residents have demanded that, rather than detaining only the transporter or the cart driver, the traders and officials involved in illegally stockpiling and smuggling government fertilizer also be investigated and brought to justice.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report