Jessore LGED under police guard

Police have been deployed on the office compound as some of the contractors threatened the Executive Engineer and some other officials after reconstruction of three roads were stopped on orders from higher authorities because of low quality work and use of substandard materials, sources said.

Reconstruction of the three roads involve an expenditure of Tk 4.5 crore, funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government of Japan.

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Work on two more road projects involving Tk 1.5 crore may also be stopped soon for the same reasons.

LGED (Local Government Engineering Department) sources here said the authorities were earlier 'compelled' to give work for reconstruction of the roads involving Tk 6 crore to some contractors belonging to a ruling party.

Of these, work on three projects started. These are Monirampur Bankra Baganchra Benapole road, Baghar Para Jessore Narail Dhalgram Shalikha Bazar Road and Baganchra Kaiba Goira road.

Firms owned by three ruling local party leaders were doing the work involving Tk 1 crore 88 lakh, Tk 1 crore 87 lakh and Tk 93 lakh respectively.

The local LGED authorities stopped their work on March 13 as per instruction of the consultant of the funding organisations.

The consultants alleged that the contractors were using inferior quality sand and old bricks while thickness of carpeting layer and standard of compression were also not satisfactory. Compression was given by one-tonne rollers instead of 10-tonne ones.

When the matter was brought to the notice of LGED Additional Chief Engineer (Maintenance), the contractors were given letters to stop their work as per order of the higher authorities.

The same group of contractors were also doing reconstruction work of Dhalgram Bashundia road involving Tk 84 lakh and Bashudia RHD Bashundia GC Square road at a cost of Tk 43 lakh, allegedly violating terms and conditions of the schedule. Repair of the two roads may also be stopped because of the alleged irregularities, the sources said.

As the repair of three roads were stopped, the contractors threatened the Executive Engineer and hurled abuse at Bagharpara and Monirampur upazila LGE engineers at their offices.

When contacted, Executive Engineer Mir Illias Morshed admitted that he was threatened by some of the contractors. "They became annoyed when they were asked to stop work for use of inferior quality materials", he said.

Police have been deployed at the LGED office for protection, he said.

On the other hand, one of the contractors seeking anonymity alleged that some high officials of LGED had demanded big amounts of bribe. As their demands were not fulfilled, they stopped the work, he claimed.