140 sued in Sunamganj for graft in haors

A total of 140 people including government officials, local council representatives and contractors have been sued in Sunamganj for their negligence and irregularities in construction of embankments that collapsed causing the flash flood in haor regions earlier in April.

Sunamganj Lawyers Association filed the lawsuit yesterday with Sunamganj Special Tribunal, the plaintiff and general secretary of the association Abdul Haque, told The Daily Star.

Md Mujibur Rahman, district session judge of Sunamganj accepted the case (special case no 12/17) after hearing of the plaintiff, Abdul Haque said.

In the case, the first 78 accused are president and general secretaries of Project Implementation Committees (PIC), then 15 officials of Water Development Board including (WDB) Executive Engineer of WDB Sunamganj Afsar Uddin and Additional Chief Engineer of WDB Sylhet Abdul Hai.

The case also includes 46 contractors and the last accused of the case is Shah Kamal, secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, as he did not respond to the situation but neglected it.

Earlier on July 2, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a lawsuit with Sunamganj Model Police Station where the ACC sued 61 persons including WDB officials and contractors.

That day, WDB's Executive Engineer Afsar Uddin and a contractor Bachchu Mia was held over the graft in embankment of the haor region.

In that case, the ACC recommended awarding exemplary punishment to Ministry of Water Resources' secretary, director general of Water Development Board and 14 other officials for “utmost negligence”.

Triggered by torrential rainfall, flash floods struck the haor belt on April damaging half a million tonnes of Boro crops in the area, according to government estimation.

Three weeks after the flash flood around 900 metric tons (MT) of fish, several thousand ducks, frogs and leeches died because of the flood.

The situation of the region is still in distress though the government have not yet declared the zone as distressed area.