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Published : 10 Jun 2019, 10:06 AM
The ministry has asked the capital’s development authority to explain why it awarded a private university the plot by changing the category of the land flouting High Court instructions.
Rajuk has denied the allegation of violating rules while the university also claims it received the plot in line with the rules.
Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat is the chairman of the university’s board of trustees, Suchinta Foundation chairman Mohammad A Arafat is the chief adviser to the board and former Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman works as an honorary adviser.
Launched in 2016, the university is operating on a 16-storey building on Banani Road No. 11. Its website mentions Plot No. 60, Sector 9, Purbachal, as the permanent address.
A bdnews24.com investigation has found that Rajuk allotted about 171 kathas (about 2.82 acres) of land on Dec 2 last year. The plot is mentioned as ‘secondary school’ in Purbachal’s main plan.
Sarafat applied for changing the category of the plot on Dec 4 last year. On Dec 24, a proposal was placed in a Rajuk meeting to change the plot category from ‘secondary school’ to ‘college/university’. Two days later, Rajuk approved the proposal.
The housing and public works ministry sent a letter to the Rajuk chairman on Feb 25 after noticing that the issue of changing the category of the plot was included in a set of High Court instructions on Purbachal.
Deputy Secretary Shayamoli Nabi said in the letter that the plot for a high school as mentioned in the masterplan was allotted to a private university “by violating the rules”.
The letter noted that the High Court instructed Rajuk not to modify the category of Purbachal plots mentioned in the masterplan.
The High Court approved the fifth amendment to the plan, which allowed inclusion of only a proposed 142-storey tower, but cancelled all other changes, according to the letter.
The court apparently refused Rajuk’s petition for the fifth amendment to the Purbachal plan in the order issued on Dec 17 last year, but Rajuk went ahead with the proposal to change the type of the plot afterwards.
No Rajuk officials responded to questions on how they changed the category of the plot even after the High Court instructed otherwise.
Rajuk member Abul Kalam Azad, who signed the work letter submitted to the board meeting to change the type of the plot, refused to comment when the bdnews24.com correspondent met him in his office on Mar 4.
“Why are you so interested about the Canadian University? Is it a national issue? There are many other things to write news about,” he said.
Abdur Rahman, whose term as Rajuk chairman ended recently, declined to comment on the issue.
Incumbent Chairman Sultan Ahmed told bdnews24.com on May 2 that he knew nothing about it.
MINISTRY UNHAPPY
Rajuk responded to the housing and public works ministry’s letter on Mar 12, but the ministry was not satisfied with the reply.
Rajuk Secretary Sushanta Chakma said in the reply that “no change was brought” to the category of the plot.
In line with the fourth modification, the plot’s category was ‘secondary school’ while Rajuk allotted the plot to the university under the “same category – educational institution”, according to Chakma’s reply.
Housing and Public Works Secretary Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker told bdnews24.com that the ministry was not satisfied with Rajuk’s reply.
“We are not satisfied. We have made another file to check it further. It will go to the minister. We will check it further if he approves,” Khandaker said.
‘TRANSPARENT MATTER’
As the correspondent continued speaking to Rajuk officials about the plot, Sarafat himself called bdnews24.com and claimed there were “no irregularities” in the plot allocation.
“What do you have that you want to know about such a transparent thing?” he asked.
The university received the plot through lottery when it applied for it after the notice for applications was published in 2015, according to Sarafat.
Sarafat also claimed the type of the plot was not modified, though documents suggest the university sought to change the category of the plot.
He said Rajuk gave them the plot to match the University Grants Commission requirement of minimum three acres of land.
“But the Rajuk considers schools, colleges and universities in the same category – educational institutions,” he said.
Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat
An official at the housing and public works ministry has dubbed the allocation of land to a private university after acquiring it from people as “unlawful”.
The university has paid Rajuk a total of Tk 256.74 million for the plot, or Tk 1.5 million per katha.
Real estate agents say large plots near the “300-foot road” are priced at a minimum of Tk 6 million per katha, which means the university’s plot should be worth over Tk 1.02 billion.
The plot is situated in the now-extinct Alampur village under Rupganj in Narayanganj.
Al Amin Dewan, who is residing in a plot there, said he heard about playgrounds, kindergartens, mosques and some other social structures to be set up on the plot.
“Plots are allotted for primary schools, universities, secondary schools in the masterplan, but they allotted a plot for a secondary school to a private university.”
“It’s unlawful!”
[Additional reporting by Supreme Court Correspondent Mehedi Hasan Pias]
