Hasina says she has list of Mujib Barsha house ‘vandals’

Sheikh Hasina has said she has a list of people who “vandalised” the houses given to the poor as a gift on the Mujib Barsha, the celebrations of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary.

The “vandals” used hammers and shovels and spread photos of the damaged homes to media afterwards, the prime minister said at the ruling Awami League’s Central Working Committee meeting in Dhaka on Thursday.

“The saddest thing is some people of our country are of so despicable character…,” she said, alleging some people vandalised nearly 300 homes in Gopalganj’s Kotalipara Upazila out of 150,000 under the Ashrayan Project.

“All of them are now on our list made from an inquiry conducted in the area,” Hasina said.

“It’s hard to believe that people can hammer those houses we're building to ensure that everyone has an address.”

The prime minister is presenting 885,622 homeless and landless families with the homes and land as part of the government initiative to mark the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation.

But some of the houses built for the homeless and the landless partially collapsed or developed cracks in many places due to alleged irregularities in the construction – a scandal that has left the officials red-faced.

Five officials were made Officers on Special Duty, or OSD, a move seen as punishment in Bangladesh’s administration. The Prime Minister’s Office formed committees to investigate the damaged homes. 

Recently, a man reportedly vandalised the home he got because he did not like it in Gopalganj. Questions were raised over how the man, a financially sound one, was allotted the house. 

Hasina said three to four houses out of 600 were damaged due to heavy rains while the government found corruption allegations in nine places of the project.  

Otherwise, she said, everyone involved in the project worked sincerely. “Even businesses provided bricks for the project at a reduced price. Everyone supported it.”