MP locks Roumari UZ offices as officials skip meet
Bribery by UNO alleged
Locals brought out a procession at Roumari upazila headquarters yesterday afternoon demanding immediately transfer of the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) for his alleged bribery.
Earlier on Wednesday, lawmaker from Kurigram-4 (Chilmari, Raumari and Rajibpur) constituency Md Zakir Hossen locked offices of seven officers as they were absent in a meeting called by the upazila Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) officer following the lawmaker's instruction.
The offices of the UNO, woman affairs officer, BRDB officer, upazila engineering officer, upazila forest officer, upazila cooperatives officer and upazila primary education officer were kept under lock and key from 3:00pm to 4:30pm on the day.
Lawmaker Zakir Hossen told this correspondent, “As I received complaints of taking bribe for preparing beneficiaries' list for the 11th batch of 'Job opportunity programme for ultra-people of the northern region' under the BRDB a few days ago, I requested the BRDB officer to call a meeting at 10:00am on Wednesday where all the upazila officers should be present.”
“But I found them absent and waited for them till 3:00pm on the day. I also tried to contact them by mobile phone but some officers kept their cell phones closed. So, I locked their offices so that they can open their rooms after meeting with me. At about 4:00pm the officers opened their rooms after meeting with me,” he said.
While trying to contact with the officers of the locked offices, this correspondent also found their cell phones closed.
Roumari UNO AKM Shawkat Alam Majumdar told this correspondent yesterday, “Today my office is going on as usual but I have heard the lawmaker is making a showdown with his associates in the upazila town. I am not involved with any bribery”.
“Nobody had informed me about the meeting on Wednesday when I joined a scheduled meeting as chief guest at the information centre of Datbhanga union under the upazila and earth lifting programme in the union,” he said.
“After arriving at my office I saw it locked. I informed the deputy commissioner of the matter and tried to open the office with the help of police. At that time, the MP misbehaved with me. Later the office was opened following the MP's order at 4:30pm,” he added.
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