Deputy minister Dulu distributing relief money among his chosen voters, allege 2 MPs of the dist

Two lawmakers of Lalmonirhat district has raised allegation of corruption against the deputy minister for relief and disaster management Asadul Habib Dulu. The MPs accused him of misappropriating the relief goods.

bdnews24.com
Published : 1 Nov 2005, 12:00 PM
Updated : 1 Nov 2005, 12:00 PM
Gani Adam
BDNEWS Writer
Lalmonirhat, Nov 2 (BDNEWS) – Two lawmakers of Lalmonirhat district has raised allegation of corruption against the deputy minister for relief and disaster management Asadul Habib Dulu. The MPs accused him of misappropriating the relief goods.
The two legislators alleged that Dulu, also the lawmaker from the sadar constituency, grabbed 300 metric tons of rice of General Relief (GR) and sold it illegally without distributing even a handful of rice among the monga-affected poor. They alleged that the deputy minister is spending a portion of the money in purchasing saree and lungi as 'Eid gifts' for the selected 'poor' in his own constituency.
According to two memos (relief/6-2/2005/1261 and relief/6-2/2005/1263) of the deputy commissioner's office, Demand Order (DO) letters for releasing rice was issued from the office of the Sadar TNO in the names of the nine UP chairmen under the Sadar upazila and the municipality chairmen.
Then first memo was for 200 metric tons of rice while the other was for 100 metric tons.
Though the normal procedure says that the UP chairmen will distribute the GR, this time they could not. On the other hand, the TNO forced them to sign in the DO letters according to the directive of the deputy minister, said a UP chairman preferring anonymity.
Later, the entire quantity of rice, 300 tons, was sold to some Abul Mahajan for Tk. 48 lakhs. The deputy minister, who is also the president of district unit of the ruling BNP, purchased saree and lungi and started distributing among his voters from October 30.
Witnesses said they saw three trucks loaded with the 'Eid gifts' were brought to the circuit house premises, where the deputy minister was staying for several days.
He was scheduled to continue the gift distribution programme till November 3 in the nine unions and in the municipal area.
It was noticed in his tour programme that every where except the Mogolhat UP and the municipality areas the programmes were arranged by the concerned UP chairmen. In the two localities, the concerned BNP presidents and general secretaries would arrange the distribution programmes.
Motahar Hossain, Lawmaker of Lalmonirhat-1 (Hatibandha-Patgram), expressed his anguish against Dulu terming him as 'The Maharaja of Lalmonirhat.' He raised several graft charges against Dulu and told BDNEWS: Dulu also grabbed Tk 6 crore allocated as emergency aid for the disaster-hit people from the Tk 50 crore lump sum sanction of the government.
Another lawmaker of Lalmonirhat-2 (Aditmari-Kaliganj), Mujibur Rahman, also echoed Hossain when contacted over phone saying: Dulu embezzled the GR and is spending a little for the voters by giving them saree, lungi and clothes while he himself poecketed the lion's share of the money.
The deputy minister could not be contacted as his PS Saiful Islam excused for hectic schedule and suggested to contact later.
When contacted Jahangir Alam, the Sadar TNO accused for assisting the coruption, misbehaved with this reporter and was creating pressure for disclosing the name of the UP chairman, who provided information. At a stage he became excited and said: What can you do? Everything was done according to the directives of the minister.
He then cut off the line abruptly.
The deputy commissioner Fazlul Haque declined to comment in this regard. But he said, "I heard that the deputy minister was distributing saree and lungi from October 30."
"Write down my comment as-- goods like saree and lungi are not provided under the GR," he added.
Haque, however, said that the responsibilities for the comment by the TNO were his (TNO's) own.
BDNEWS/1254 hrs.

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