Golam Rabbani, Gopalganj

District Awami League President Mahbub Ali Khan has built a box culvert worth Tk 24 lakh in his private farm with government money in Gopalganj.

Based on such allegations, the District Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has conducted a drive at the Project Implementation Department, Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). The ACC found the truth of the allegations in the drive.

The drive was conducted led by District ACC Deputy Director Mashiur Rahmanen on Tuesday at around 11 am.

In November last year, a news item titled 'Awami League leader built a culvert in his farm with government money' was published in the media. The District Anti-Corruption Commission took note of the news and conducted this drive today with the permission of the head office. In addition, a drive was also conducted on the allegation of illegal construction of a 420-meter asphalt road at former IGP Benazir's Savanna Eco Resort and Natural Park with government money. After the drive, Deputy Director of the District Anti-Corruption Commission Md. Mashiur Rahman said, "On the instructions of the head office, we are conducting a drive today regarding two complaints. The first is that the LGED office took the initiative to construct a asphalt road and a box culvert in Gobra Union of Sadar Upazila in 2019.

However, although the road was constructed there, the box culvert was constructed on the personal farm of District Awami League President Mahbub Ali Khan. If there is a government project, it is done for public welfare. According to the needs of the people. We went on site and saw that the culvert was built for Mahbub Saheb's farm. Today, we reviewed the documents and saw that a bill of a little more than 24 lakh taka has been paid for the culvert.

This entire money has been spent only on the personal farm of Mahbub Ali Khan. There is no interest of the people here." We found the truth of this matter, the second is that a 420-meter road has been built at the Savannah Eco Resort and Natural Park of former IGP Benazir in the Bairagitol area of Sadar for about 4.2 million taka. We also found the truth of this. They have constructed both these works with public money by influencing officials by using personal influence. This is a crime under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act.

We will submit a report to the head office. Legal action will be taken against them. When asked about this, the executive engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) said, the works were approved before I came here. I only passed the bill later. Those who were in charge before may have been influenced by those people.

I do not know anything about this. The people of Gopalganj are demanding a fair and impartial investigation into all the irregularities. Apart from this, they are demanding an investigation into many other corruption cases. For example, the cricket stadium, the excavation of the dead Madhumati river.