The government has found irregularities in the construction of homes meant for landless people under the Ashrayan Project and the authority concerned is now collecting evidence pertaining to the use of substandard materials and locating the projects in inappropriate sites.
Flouting the original designs and selecting unqualified beneficiaries are also among the irregularities detected during the implementation of the project at 36 upazilas in 22 districts, project officials said on Tuesday.
On an average, 50 families were rehabilitated in 121 sites in eight divisions under the project in 2019-20, they said, adding that many upazilas had more than one site.
Ashrayan project director Mahbub Hossain said that an internal investigation was launched following recent reports on irregularities reported in the print and electronic media.
The Prime Minister’s Office, which supervises the project, are also considering information on irregularities available on social media, he said.
The Ministry of Public Administration has, meanwhile, made five civil servants officers on special duty recently apparently because of their connection to the irregularities.
The ODS officers are Md Shafiqul Islam, Liakat Ali Sheikh, Rubayet Hayat, Asaduzzaman and Sheikh Mejbaj-ul-Saberin who served in the field administration at upazila level.
Ashrayan project aimed at alleviating poverty of the landless and homeless people through providing shelters and human resource development activities has been implemented under the PMO since 1997.
The current phase called Ashrayan-2 Project has been implemented since 2010 at a cost of Tk 4,826.16 crore.
It will end in June 2022, according to the project annual report 2019-20.
New Age Munshiganj correspondent on Monday reported that a part of a newly-built house handed over to a homeless family in observance of the Mujib Year under the Ashrayan Project collapsed at Gazaria in Munshiganj on July 2.
Six other houses of the project are also in vulnerable condition at the same site located at village Bara Raypara under Baluakandi union in Gazaria, about 30 kilometres from capital Dhaka.
The Sharishabari upazila administration in Bangladesh’s northern district of Jamalpur decided to relocate 21 houses last month under the same project as those were built in low-lying areas of Chhaitani Beel.
Mahbub Hossain said that the current investigation would continue with the aim of identifying other people involved in irregularities.
Ahmad Kaikaus, principal secretary to Prime Minister’s Office, told a local television on Tuesday that they would show zero tolerance towards people involved in irregularities while implementing the prime minister prescribed project.
If necessary, actions will be taken against the DCs also, he said.
Project officials said roughly one lakh homes had already been built out of a projected 1.18 lakh.
