AB Razzak back from Laxmipur

Forest check stations across the country have allegedly turned into dens for corruption for a long time.

A section of foest guard and foresters and Range Officers are transferred to the lucrative check stations of the Forest Department with hefty gratuities and by joining all the attractive stations, unnecessary harassment and extortion started in the name of checking the truck carrying goods under various pretexts.

If money is not given according to their demands, the harassment of various techniques fikirs starts and forest people have to pay thousands of taka at check stations of the Forest Department even after having a TP permit to solve unnecessary road problems.

Specially the check stations on the Chittagong-Dhaka road are very careless. In the name of regular checking of the Lakshipur-Raipur-Ramganj-Chatkhil regional highway by the forest employees, several complaints have been received against Ramganj Upazila Forest Officer Mizanur Rahman.

According to a public complaint submitted to the Chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) , Saiful Islam collects Tk 500 to 700 from trucks and trolleys carrying 23 to 25 trees every day in front of Padma Bazar area at the instructions of Ramganj Upazila Forest Officer.

There is extreme anger among the sawmill owners and wood traders of Raipur and Ramganj on the collection of this levy. Under the Ramganj Upazila range, there are about 15- km of government forest land along the road.

There are about 40 to 50 sawmills and 12 wood traders around it. The complaint also mentioned that the forest officer extorted 3 and 8 thousand taka from the work of wood traders Monir and Jasim for the last three months by threatening and intimidating them for not obtaining a license.

One month ago, this forest officer allegedly collected Tk 20 thousand from a sawmill owner of Katakhali area. Collected Tk 10,000 from Selim, the sawmill owner of Dighirpar area.

When asked about the illegal levy of the forest official, a truck driver Abdur Rahman said that every day the traders have to pay Tk 500 to an employee of the forest department in the Padma Bazar area while going from Raipur to Ramganj city to Chatkhil and Hajiganj with trees. If you don't want to pay, you are threatened with a lawsuit. Regarding the matter, it was seen on the ground that a 4th class employee named Saiful Islam was stopping the vehicle and taking money.

When asked about the reason for taking the money, he said that he has been sitting on the side of the road from morning to evening on the orders of Forest Officer Mizanur Rahman for the past 3 months and has been collecting subscriptions ranging from Tk 50 to Tk 500. When asked about illegal extortion,

lMizanur Rahman said that I did not ask any employee to collect extortion. I kept Saiful on guard to catch tree smugglers. In this regard, Lakshipur District Forest Officer Shaheen Alam said that it is not known whether there is any check post in front of Padma Bazar.

When asked about the illegal extortion of forest officials on the road, Noakhali Divisional Forest Officer Abu Yusuf said that action will be taken if the matter is found to be true.