Staff Correspondent

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) alleged that the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority produced a fake permission letter and cut a road at Lalbagh in the capital.

The DSCC seized road cutting tools, including two generators, a drill machine, two aluminum bowls, two shovels, a spade, a LED light, and five helmets, read a press release on Monday.

The DSCC said that they would take legal action if necessary, the release added.

According to DSCC officials, a DSCC team on Monday found that some WASA workers were cutting a road near Abdul Alim Playground at Lalbagh. The workers showed a permission letter when the DSCC team challenged the incident.

DSCC Executive Engineer Mithun Chandra Shill said that the permission letter was a forged document.

“Dhaka Wasa was digging the road without asking permission. Our officials went there, and digers showed them a letter that contained my signature. When my officials sent the letter to me, I found that they had forged my signature,” he said.

On 21 April, DWASA Executive Engineer (Maintenance) of Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant Syed Mostakim Hossain sought permission to dig the road for the installation of Electronic Pressure Reducing Valve (E-PRD) in the pipeline for water adjacent to Lalbagh Sports Ground and DSCC gave permission to dig the road by 24-30 April, the DSCC engineer added.

It is learnt that after getting the letter, they again applied for an extension of the timeline of the work from 29 April to 23 May, but the DSCC did not give approval, showing the reason for the potential public suffering during Eid-ul-Azha.

The DSCC official claimed that DWASA sought permission to dig the road at 4.60 metres in length and 2.70 metres in width, which in total is 12.42 square metres of road, but they dug 13.29 square metres.

Talking to the Daily Sun, DWASA Deputy Managing Director (Operation and Maintenance) A K M Shahid Uddin said on Monday night that he was not aware of the matter.

He said, “Just now, I have got the news from television but have yet to contact our executive engineer concerned. We can say what happened after contacting him. But there is no reason to forge documents. We sometimes cut roads on an emergency basis for leakage to save water waste.”

If anyone, including the contractor for the work, did that, they would have to face the music, the DWASA DMD said.