AL men snatch bids in Barguna, Magura
Ruling Awami League (AL) activists went on rampage, foiling tender proceedings in Patharghata municipality under Barguna district on Sunday, while they snatched tender documents from the Public Works Department (PWD) office in Magura town yesterday.
Men allegedly led by the secretary of Patharghata municipality unit of AL snatched the box containing tender documents of the municipal development work, ransacked the municipal office and injured three councillors on Sunday, reports our Barisal correspondent.
Patharghata municipality authorities called tender for Tk 85 lakh development work in 16 groups on November 20 last year, municipality sources said, adding that 577 forms were sold and a good portion of them were dropped by December 20, the last date of submission.
Due to heavy rush of the tender participants, the municipal authorities arranged open lottery of the tenders at about 2:00pm on Monday.
But Mosharraf Hossain Sohrab, secretary of municipality unit of AL, demanded that the work under groups 1, 2 and 3 be given to him without any lottery.
As municipality Mayor Mallik Md Ayub, councillors, and other contractors opposed the demand, the men of AL and its associate organisations Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jubo League attacked their 'opponents', snatched the tender box, and looted furniture of the venue and the municipality office in presence of police, said witnesses, municipality officials and law enforcers.
The attackers allegedly led by Sohrab also physically assaulted councillors Abdul Malek, Abdul Karim and Mozammel Huq Polu.
Admitting the incident, municipality Mayor Mallik Md Ayub Hossain said, "As a large number of tenders were dropped, we arranged the open lottery as per rule and procedure under Public Procurement Act to check corruption and maintain transparency. An emergency meeting of the municipality authorities and its tender committees has been called on Monday evening to decide about the legal procedure and action regarding the matter."
Mosharraf Hossain Sohrab denied any incident of attack by his men and said, "The mayor earlier assured us to distribute the work on the basis of the negotiations among the tender participants and accordingly, we collected their signature of no-objection. But the mayor arranged lottery to distribute the works among his selected people and engaged in an altercation with us over the issue."
Our Magura Correspondent adds: Ruling party men allegedly led by a former BCL leader snatched tender documents from the box kept at the office of the PWD executive engineer in the district town yesterday.
"Shortly after I and another contractor on behalf of 'Galaxy Associates' dropped tender papers of the Tk 50 lakh bid for construction of the office building of Criminal Investigation Department at around 11:00am, some armed youths led by former BCL leader Meer Suman took away the tender documents from the box in presence of police," contractor Rashedul Islam Rakhu told the local journalists.
When contacted, Meer Suman, also secretary of Magura district unit of Sheikh Russel Shishu Kishore Sangsad, refuted the allegation.
"Contractor Rakhu and his elder brother Makbul Hossain Makul, general secretary of the district unit of Sramik League, also a councillor of Magura municipality, had been controlling the tender process of PWD for several years. This time also, they were illegally trying to capture the Tk 50 lakh bid for construction of the CID office. As I protested the matter, the syndicate led by Rakhu and Makbul created chaos at the office and blamed me," Suman claimed.
When contacted, Magura PWD Executive Engineer Sarwar Ahmed admitted the snatching of tender papers and said, "I was not at the office when the incident took place. We have decided for a re-tender for the work."
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