Lalmonirhat Correspondent

At a press conference held at the office of the 'Notun Banglar Sangbad' newspaper at Alorupa Morse in Lalmonirhat on Saturday afternoon, allegations of widespread irregularities, nepotism and recruitment business worth crores of taka were raised against former deputy superintendent of Al-Nahyan Children's Home Md. A. Hakim. Md. Russell Haque read out a written statement at the press conference.

The written statement alleged that during the previous government's tenure, Md. A. Hakim, a Chhatra League cadre and former general secretary of Bogra Azizul Haque College, joined Al-Nahyan Primary School as a part-time teacher in 2018 without any legal recruitment process on the direct instructions of the then Social Welfare Minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed with a salary of only 8,000 taka. Shortly after this, on June 7, 2020, he was given a permanent appointment as a deputy supervisor completely illegally and under the influence of the minister without any recruitment notification.

Later, A.H. Hakim was transferred to Dhaka Mirpur Shishu Parivar through lobbying. It is alleged that in May this year, he concealed the real identities of 5 members of his family, used different addresses and abused his power to get his wife Sumi Begum appointed as an assistant teacher at Dhaka Mirpur Al-Nahian High School.

The press conference also informed that A.H. Hakim formed a powerful syndicate along with Abdur Rashid, a retired security guard of Mirpur Shishu Parivar, and Amal Krishna Pal (retired), a low-level assistant. The syndicate misled the authorities and appointed about 25 employees to various positions in Trust Banani, Mirpur and Lalmonirhat Shishu Parivar on May 14. There have been serious allegations that they have been extorted Tk 10 to 15 lakh from each of them and engaged in recruitment business worth crores of taka.

Some of the notable appointees are: 1. Md. A. Hakim, Syndicate Head, Sumi Begum (wife of Ah Hakim) – Assistant Teacher, Mirpur, Manjila Khatun (Hakim's elder sister-in-law) – mother of a child, Lalmonirhat, Rasheda Begum (A.S. Hakim's cousin), Assistant Teacher, Lalmonirhat, Chamina (A.H. Hakim's cousin), Assistant Teacher, Lalmonirhat, Kulchum Begum, Mother of children, Lalmonirhat, Md. Obaidul Haque, Office Assistant, Al-Nahyan Primary School, Lalmonirhat, Shafiqul (brother-in-law of Trust's Peon Moslem Uddin) – Assistant Teacher, Lalmonirhat. Kuddusur Rahman – Assistant Teacher, Lalmonirhat, Firoz Mollah's son (name unknown), employee of Mirpur Shishu Parivar and
Sharif and Rubel, Assistant Teachers, Mirpur, Dhaka, along with 10-15 other unidentified people.

At the press conference, Russell Haque mentioned that there are currently only 35 resident students at Al-Nahyan Primary School of Lalmonirhat Shishu Parivar. Against that small number of students, 4 new teachers have been appointed. Which was claimed to be completely unreasonable at the press conference. How were those 25-30 new employees appointed without any kind of recruitment notice, written or oral test? This has created intense anger in the public mind.

Through the journalists present, the attention of the concerned higher authorities has been drawn to a proper investigation into the huge recruitment corruption and exemplary legal action against those involved. On the other hand, the victim has filed a written complaint with the Minister of Social Welfare, the Secretary of the Ministry of Social Welfare, and the Lalmonirhat District Commissioner, detailing the incident.