Locals besiege Samaj Seba office

Local people, including the union parishad chairman, besieged the government Samaj Seba office in Sadullapur upazila of the district yesterday, demanding removal of its official allegedly involved in different irregularities.

They confined the staff to the office for about three hours from 11:00am to press their demand.

Samaj Seba officer Delwer Hossain and his staff working in union level were allegedly involved in corrupt practices in distributing government allowances allocated for different beneficiaries, said locals, adding that many of the genuine elderly people and widows have been left out of the beneficiary lists.

Fazlul Kaiyum Huda, chairman of Bongram Union Parishad, said "A total of 103 men and women beneficiaries of the project died in the last two years, but Delwar and his stuff have tactfully withdrawn allowances against many of the deceased."

"They also issued fresh cards to able persons in exchange of bribe. This way, many of the genuine beneficiaries remained deprived from government help," he said.

Despite repeated attempts, this correspondent could not reach the officer for his comments in this regard as his cellphone remained switched off.