Delawar Hossain, Ajmiriganj (Habiganj)

A Dhaka-based contracting company Bismillah Trades has been given the contract to construct a total of 130 submersible tubewell structures and platforms in 5 unions in the upazila in the fiscal year 2023-24 at a cost of Tk 1.5 lakh per tubewell, amounting to about Tk 2 crore.

Although the work started on time and was almost completed, the victims told us that due to the negligence of the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), Ajmiriganj, the contractor company Bismillah Trades did not work as specified in the work order and design and continued to work as they pleased. The victims also told us that the authorities concerned were silent on the verbal complaints of the victims, and the work worth crores of taka was carried out with great irregularities. Under pressure from the victims and local authorities, and due to their own share-sharing problems, the Public Health Engineering Department conducted an official investigation by their mechanic on the Ajmiriganj Submersible Tubewell, which is currently preserved with us.

The investigation report signed by Birendra Chandra Das, Mechanic of the Public Health Engineering Department, Ajmiriganj, was sent to the Deputy Assistant Engineer, Ajmiriganj on December 2, 2024. The work mentioned in that report exactly matches the irregularities that emerged in our own investigation. Birendra Chandra Das, Mechanic of the Public Health Engineering Department, mentioned in the investigation report of almost all the submersible tubewell works completed by Bismillah Trades in the first phase of 5 Shibpasha Union No. 5. He found evidence of the use of very low quality construction materials in this work worth crores of taka.

According to the design and estimate, the structure should have 3 inches of soling, 3 inches of CC, 15 inches of brick joints, 10 inches of brick joints on the ground, height of joints 10", RCC slab 3 inches, diameter of circular slab 4 feet, height of RCC block 6" and instructions to provide brick sand, but Bismillah Trades did not use soling in the structure, They did not provide CC, the brick layer was 3 inches and the brick layer above the ground was 9.5 inches, the height of the layer was 4 feet, the RCC slab was 2 inches, the diameter of the circular slab was 3 feet 4 inches, they did not provide RCC blocks and did not feel the need to use any kind of brick sand, just like the structure, they have completed the platform and other works without considering the design estimate. It has been confirmed after talking to construction experts that there is a possibility that the structure and platform of the submersible tubewell may be damaged or collapsed at any time in such work of Bismillah Trades.

Many users of submersible tubewells have blamed the contractor for the lack of relevant authorities, while construction workers claim that the authorities and the contractor colluded with the government to do substandard work to pocket crores of taka.

On the other hand, the contractor company Bismillah Trades has started rushing to handover the work. If they can somehow handover and collect the bill, they will go beyond the reach of arrest. On the other hand, another party claims that initially the contractor and the Public Health Engineering Department did the substandard work together.

The issue of corruption is coming to the fore due to the dispute over their share while preparing the bill. Many have confirmed that if all the works under the Public Health Engineering Department of Azmiriganj are investigated, evidence of even bigger corruption will be found.

When this correspondent called Ahnaf Adib, the owner of Bismillah Trades, he said that he is busy and will talk to you later. Later, when I contacted him on WhatsApp, he did not respond.

When contracted Rabiul Alam, Deputy Assistant Engineer, Azmiriganj Public Health Engineering Department contacted him, he said, "I have received the investigation report. A letter of protest has been sent to the contractor. The contractor has not yet responded. Regarding the handover, he said, "We have not yet prepared such documents, so how will we do the handover?" When I informed Azmiriganj UNO Nibhip Ranjan Talukder in detail and provided the information, he said that he would take appropriate action after looking into it.