Dhaka south city mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and its former mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon are at loggerheads raising allegation of corruption against each other.
Both Taposh and Sayeed Khokon are ruling Awami League leaders and were elected mayor as party candidates.
Taposh on Sunday said that former mayor of the city Mohammad Sayeed Khokon spoke like an insane person out of resentment.
Taposh came up with the comment when asked about the allegation against him raised by the former mayor at an event organised by the city corporation at Nagarbhaban to distribute licences to the non-motorised vehicles.
On Saturday, former mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon complained that incumbent mayor Taposh had transferred hundreds of crores of takas of the Dhaka South City Corporation to its Modhumoti Bank Limited account as the bank is owned by Taposh, a former lawmaker and lawyer by profession.
‘Taposh has lost his eligibility to hold his mayor post, Sayeed Khokon said at the protest rally in front of the Supreme Court in Dhaka.
However, Taposh did not respond when asked whether he had transferred DSCC funds to his own Modhumoti Bank.
When asked about the allegation, Taposh said, ‘I don’t think it is appropriate for anyone holding a responsible position to respond to the insanity of someone speaking out of anger,’ he said.
Replying to another question from journalists, the mayor said that all private banks of the country collect funds from all government agencies, following the Bangladesh Bank guidelines and the prevailing rules of the government and that is not corruption.
‘If anyone takes bribe, if anyone receives financial benefits by awarding a tender to a specific bidder, if anyone embezzles government money, or takes money using one’s position — that is corruption,’ the mayor explained.
He again pledged to continue the drive against corruption and drive against illegal structures built across the city, which he had started to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance in the corporation.
The allegations of corruption surfaced recently when the DSCC started an eviction drive against shops built at the city corporation markets in violation of the original design.
Shop owners of the DSCC markets whose establishments have recently been demolished by the corporation complained that they have been victimised although they gave a huge amount of money to the market authorities who promised to legalise these extensions.
Sayeed Khokon claimed that he had taken money legally from the traders for allocating shops as a DSCC board had endorsed the shops after modifying the original designs.
On December 29, Delwar Hossain, the president of the Phulbaria City Supermarket-2 Traders’ Association, filed a case with a Dhaka court against Sayeed Khokon and six others on the charge of embezzling Tk 35 crore by allocating shops.
The case statement said that Sayeed Khokhon and the other accused people took around Tk 35 crore from Delwar and 26 other businessmen between June 21, 2015 and September 29, 2019 for allocating the shops at Phulbaria market’s block-A.
Next day, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation to probe the case and directed the PBI to submit the report by January 31.
The six other accused are DSCC’s former chief revenue officer Yusuf Ali Sardar, former deputy assistant engineer Mazed and his assistants Kamrul Hasan and Helena Akhter, Atiqur Rahman and Walid.
On December 8, the DSCC started the eviction drive against illegal shops after it had identified nearly 3,500 shops in 21 markets, which were extended or built illegally and had been allocated to traders during the tenure of the immediate past mayor, Sayeed Khokon.
Mobile courts have already demolished several hundred shops at Sundarbans Market and Phulbaria Super Market.
Khokan said that the city corporation started the eviction drives without issuing any prior notices amid the COVID-19 outbreak that plunged millions into financial hardship.
‘I demand rehabilitation of the victim traders,’ he said.
Referring to an announcement of Taposh to start drives against corruption, Khokon said that Taposh should stop his own corruption before taking actions against junior officials of the DSCC.
‘Taposh is bragging about tackling corruption. It is not decent of a corrupt person to take steps against corruption,’ he said.
Taposh, however, said that he would continue the drives against corruption and illegal structures he had started ‘to bring accountability, transparency and good governance in the corporation.’
