Is the dignity of faith to be given in this way? Under the Disaster-Resistant Housing Project, Prime Minister’s Office Shelter Project-2 and the Ministry of Land’s Guchhgram Project, the government has taken great initiatives to build housing for the extremely poor across the country and that has also been implemented. The Prime Minister has so far provided houses to millions of landless families through the Asrayan project. This is undoubtedly a great initiative.
It was hoped that the shelter project would rehabilitate the landless, homeless, uprooted, helpless poor and poverty will be eradicated by creating income generating activities by enabling them to make a living through lending and training. But all over the country, all sorts of irregularities and corruption are being reported in the construction projects of the shelter project, construction materials, site selection and in some cases its distribution. According to various newspapers and media reports, the government’s shelter project has so far been accused of corruption in the construction of houses in at least 36 upazilas in 22 districts of the country.
Somewhere after building a house, it is crumbling, somewhere cracks have appeared again. Although the number of damaged houses may be small compared to the number of houses built, all these allegations have led to criticism in various quarters that the Prime Minister’s dream project, a non-political initiative whose main idea was never to be homeless.
The Shelter Project is a government development project under the Prime Minister’s Office, which provides housing for the homeless and displaced people. It is noteworthy that the project was kept free from politics, meaning that it was not the politicians but the government bureaucrats who were engaged in the implementation of the project.
Since this great initiative was the dream project of the Prime Minister, her hopes and aspirations for it were much higher. Although politicians were involved in the implementation of many important government projects, bureaucrats were relied upon in the shelter project. But have they been able to reflect that hope? When allegations of corruption are raised about this project, various criticisms are published in the media, one cannot help but be disappointed.
The ruling party trusted the government officials and bureaucrats instead of the elected representatives and gave the responsibility of the good initiative, while allegations of various irregularities and corruption raised the issue of their breach of trust. Many people have complained about the work of politicians in various government projects, but this is also true — there are also many honest, selfless and dedicated politicians. The question is, when bureaucrats and government officials were trusted to be free from politics, did they not despair instead of that hope?
After allegations of corruption in the shelter project, various investigation committees are being formed, but it should be kept in mind that when the kite flies away from the spinning wheel, there is no point in running after it. It is not clear what will happen now with the formation of various committees of inquiry. When a great initiative is questioned and criticized for the irregularities and corruption of the bureaucrats of the government, then we can understand how helpless the number one person of that state is and who she is dreaming of for the country and the people of the country.
Various initiatives, projects and activities of the government are criticized by various individuals, intellectuals, domestic and international forums. By the way, it should be mentioned that Bangabandhu once called Sirajul Alam Khan due to various criticisms of the government and said, come inside the government without talking outside! We understand how helpless, frustrated and sad the country’s chief executive is in the place of trust, confidence and fidelity, even though it is easy to criticize from the outside. We too are saddened by his grief, frustrated by his despair.
