The government has allocated 500kg of rice among 696 Puja pavilions in Bogra to assist the Hindu community in celebrating Durga Puja.
But the Puja organizers are having a hard time getting the allotted rice.
Some unscrupulous officials are handing the organizers cash instead of rice and at other places the amount of rice is way below than 500kg.
The syndicate has already made some Tk20 lakh this way of which Dulal Chandra, Nandigram unit president of Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Committee, alone has extorted at least 45 mandaps (pavilions).
He took some Tk1.8 lakh from the mandaps, according to sources. Dulal is also the president of upazila unit Juba Dal.
Golam Kibria, District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer (DRRO) in Bogra, said that the puja organizers were supposed to get 500kg rice each under Gratuitous Relief (GR).
He said that many organizers received Tk16,000 instead of the rice. The amount of money paid is satisfactory, said the officials.
Seeking anonymity, an official of the district Food Controllers Office said that the actual price of the GR rice to each mandap should be around Tk38,000 to Tk40,000.
Nirmalendu Roy Nirmal, general secretary of Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad in Bogra, said most committees received Tk16,000 to Tk19,000 instead of the rice.
Sources said Dulal Chandra sold the rice he extorted from the mandap organizers to syndicates and gave only Tk16,000 to the organizers. This created anger among the locals.
However, Dulal Chandra took out his anger on journalists alleging that they were only writing on anomalies in Puja observance and were not reporting on the dilapidated roads in Bogra. He also alleged that the reporters were doing so in a bid to extort some officials and claimed that there has been no irregularity in rice allocation and distribution.
Nandigram Upazila Nirbahi Officer Humayun Kabir told this reporter that he did not receive any written complaint over the matter yet.