Chattogram UP chairman embezzled govt relief?
The chairman did not submit the master rule copy as evidence of distribution of the relief goods.
A union parishad chairman in Chattogram has allegedly embezzled the government relief allocated for the ultra-poor during the coronavirus crisis.
Eight members of Mirzapur Union Parishad in Hathazari upazila have submitted a written complaint against Nurul Absar, the alleged chairman, to the upazila nirbahi officer.
A copy of the complaint letter has also been sent to the Chattogram deputy commissioner.
The members alleged that the chairman personally made a list of impoverished people and the foreign returnees in quarantine and distributed relief to them beyond the members' knowledge, said Hathazari UNO Ruhul Amin.
The UNO also said the upazila administration provided the union parishad with relief in three steps: first, 500kg rice and Tk3,000 in cash; second, 533kg rice; and third, 50 sacks of food items, including rice, onion, potato, lentil etc.
But the chairman did not submit the master rule copy as evidence of distribution of the relief goods.
The Business Standard called the alleged chairman several times over the phone to seek his comment on the issue but he did not respond to the calls.
"As per the rules, the chairman has to distribute relief goods in each ward after contacting the members of the union parishad. But Nurul Absar did not do that," said Jalal Ahmed, the member of the ward-9 of the union.
