A petition has been filed with the High Court seeking an investigation into allegations of embezzlement of Tk169 crore allocated for planting trees, despite a three-year project (2017-20) for pond and canal development across the country.
Arifur Rahman Bhuiyan from Narsingdi filed this petition on Thursday.
The petition names the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and other relevant parties as respondents.
On July 8, a national daily published a report that said under the three-year pond and canal development project, trees were supposed to be planted on the banks of canals after their excavation. However, despite the canals being excavated, the allocated Tk169 crore was withdrawn without planting any trees on the canal banks.
This information was highlighted in a recent detailed monitoring report by the Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry.
The report's observations mentioned that although the revised development project proposal (DPP) included provisions for planting trees on both sides of the canals, this was not observed on the ground.
According to IMED sources, the Local Government Engineering Department undertook a pond and canal development project across the country with an investment of Tk1,757 crore to increase the use of surface water.
A plan was made to plant trees along 1,700 kilometres of canal banks to prevent erosion.
Of the Tk663 crore allocated for canal development and tree planting, Tk169 crore was withdrawn by April, but no trees were planted along the canal banks after excavation
