<i>Police occupy UP office in Dumuria for 7 years</i>
Chairman and members of Rangpur Union Parishad under Dumuria upazila of Khulna district have been carrying out their activities outside the UP office for the last seven years as police have set up a camp there. Photo: STAR
Twelve of the 13 rooms of Rangpur Union Parishad in Dumuria upazila of Khulna district are still used by police since setting up of a camp in two buildings of the UP office on July 19 in 2003. As the chairman and 13 other people including members and employees of the union parishad, have remained without any office room for the last seven years, activities of the union parishad are now being done in the houses of chairman and members, sometimes in tea stalls and other available places. Due to the situation, over 20,000 people of Rangpur union have been suffering a lot as they often fail to get the chairman and members in times of need. Rangpur UP Chairman Shoumitra Biswas and members Chitta Ranjan Joarder and Kalipada Biswas told this correspondent that on several occasions during the last two years they appealed to higher authorities of the police department to shift the camp but to no effect. "The police department set up the camp on the two UP buildings in the name of containing criminal activities. They set up the camp on condition of using the buildings only for two months. But now they are reluctant to shift the camp," said Dumuria upazila chairman Gazi Abdul Hadi. People will go on movement to free the UP buildings if the camp is not shifted by this month, said UP Chairman Shoumitra Biswas. The camp manned by 60 policemen is 20 kilometres away from Dumuria upazila Sadar. When asked, Khulna Police Superintendent Tanvir Haider Chowdhury said he would look into the matter and talk to the authorities on the issue.
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