Nat’l mourning defied at Khulna WASA office
Khulna Bureau :
A three-day national mourning has been declared on the death of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia. Wednesday was a general holiday along with mourning.
When the whole country was in mourning, a group of officials and employees led by Khulna WASA DMD (Finance and Administration) Jhumur Bala went to work.
Not only the office, but the national and black flags were not hoisted in front of the WASA building since morning. Not even any official wore a black badge.
On Wednesday, media workers found out about it and entered inside and found officials busy with official work.
When asked why they were working on such a special day, DMD Jhumur Bala said, “What’s the matter with a government holiday? Is anyone’s food service closed?” After that, other media workers started coming forward.
At one point, Ekattor Television reporter Raju Howlader entered the WASA building. Then the security personnel stopped him and tried to destroy his camera by keeping him in a room. He was treated rudely and verbally.
At one point, they detained journalist Raju Howlader for an hour. On receiving the news, other media workers went to the spot and rescued him.
The media workers have demanded appropriate punishment through an investigation of the office management, pointing the thumbs up to the executive order, and punishment for those involved in the incident of detaining the mass media worker.
Various sources in WASA have confirmed that Khulna WASA recently issued a notification for the recruitment of manpower.
The matter of giving priority to the candidates of their choice in that recruitment was kept secret, and on the orders of the MD, a few officials including Jhumur Bala worked on the general holiday to complete the work.
At the same time, 35 packets of food were brought for them from a prestigious hotel. Which was a big feast in the middle of work.
On Wednesday, it was seen that the national flag was not lowered on the day of mourning.
The black flag was not hoisted either. Even no condolence message was drawn for Khaleda Zia’s death. No one, including Jhumur Bala, wore a black badge on their chest.
When the media personnel took up position in front of the WASA office, Jhumur Bala quickly left the office in a private car with black glass. When they tried to talk to him, the car sped away.
When Khulna WASA Managing Director Mohammad Kamruzzaman was contacted on his mobile phone several times about these issues, he immediately told a journalist that there was nothing wrong with someone working extra hours on a holiday.
When asked why it was being done on a special day, he hung up. After that, when about 20 journalists called, he did not answer the phone.
Advocate Babul Hawlader, Member Secretary of Khulna Civil Society, said that there is a suspicion that they are also doing their own division under the guise of doing official work on general holidays. This is not right and unacceptable.
It is worth noting that the discussed DMD Jhumur Bala was the ENO of Uzirpur, Barisal during the previous fascist government. There are various allegations against his brother Sanjib Bala, including sand mining. He worked in the Bagerhat District Council.
When the ministry asked about the kind of damage suffered by the Bagerhat District Council after the mass uprising of students on August 5, 2024, he mentioned the minor damage as Tk 20 lakh. The ACC later investigated this. After that, he was transferred to Khulna WASA.
After being transferred to Khulna WASA, he formed a syndicate to make Awami Gharana Executive Engineer Md. Rezaul Islam the PD of WASA Phase-2 project.
Former WASA Secretary Prashant Kumar, former leader of the anti-discrimination student movement and current WASA board member Ibrahim Khalil were among them.
Ibrahim Khalil contacted the ministry and on the first working day of joining the new MD, he brought Nusrat Tabassum, the former central leader of the anti-discrimination student movement, to Khulna WASA to hand over the manpower files for the appointment of PD.
Within two hours, the ministry appointed the much-discussed Awami Gharana executive engineer Md. Rezaul Islam to perform routine duties. It has been alleged that a huge amount of money was transacted here. As a result, questions have arisen about the implementation of this project worth Tk 22598 crore.