Rice meant for poor misappropriated

But due to greedy behaviours of a section of ruling party men and lack of surveillance the generous food-aid programme is going in vein. It is said that people of well-off section have got fair price cards instead of poor people where some dealers are selling rice in black market with higher price and some dealers are measuring rice in buckets instead of using digital machines in several districts. In Habiganj, dealers are selling the allotted rice in the black market with higher price instead of distributing among the poor people, said our correspondent. After not getting the allotted rice from the dealers, Sopna Begum, a resident of Nabiganj upazila, filed a case against two dealers with district court on October 4. In her case statement, Sopna said, “Arobindo Roy, dealer of Timirpur village and Mojaheed Ahmed, dealer of Choto Alipur village, in the upazila, have sold the allotted rice in the black market instead of distributing the rice among the local poor people.” After the case filing, the Senior Judicial Magistrate Court of the district has ordered to officer-in charge of Nabiganj police station to investigate the matters. Our Netrokona correspondent reported, people of well-off section such as teachers, government employees, businessmen, local leaders have got fair price cards instead of poor people to avail the privilege. Beside this, card holders also have been getting rice less in weight. Md Raton Mia, assistant teacher of Beltali Government Primary School of Kalmakanda upazila, said: “I am government employee. I have found my name in the list but I did not apply for enlisting my name in the list.” He urged to authorities concerned to take necessary measurements against the people who put solvents name in the lists instead of needy people. When contacted, Dr Abdur Rahim, additional deputy commissioner of Netrokona district said: “We are hearing about the listing mismanagement and we are working on it.” Manikganj correspondent of the Dhaka tribune alleged that nearly 500 ultra poor families cannot withdraw their rice as dealer cannot release rice from the food store due to oppose of local Awami Leader. Locals said, a dealer of rice-aid programme cannot withdraw rice as Md Afsar Ali, general secretary of Manikganj Sadar upazila AL unit, has been resisting the dealer to take rice from the food store. Muhammad Shahadat Khondoker, upazila nirbahi officer of Sadar upazila, confirmed the incident. In Satkhira, people from upper class have got the cards where the poor were deprived from getting the cards, claimed our corrospondent. Monira Parveen, upazila nirbahi officer of Satkhira Sadar upazila, said: “We will take steps against the misdistribution of cards after a meeting with local union members and chairmen.” In Munshiganj, eight dealer centres in Gazaria upazila are measuring rice in buckets instead of using digital machines. They also have been distributing 25kg of rice to a person instead of 30kg, said the Dhaka Tribune correspondent. Locals alleged that the local representatives have practised nepotism when they made the distribution list. There have been complaints about poor families not getting rice even if they were enlisted due to lack of supervision in the ground level and less rice being sold. Golam Kabir, the upazila food regulator, said, “There is no field level monitoring, it is not true. Every dealer centre has a tag officer. There has been no complaint made against any irregularity. I don’t know anything about customers being given less rice or buckets being used to measure rice. If this is the case, necessary measures will be taken against the dealers. “There was no due rice returned in September,” added food regulator.