No one felled the trees!

No one is now taking responsibility for the 25 big trees felled on the premises of Uttara Gonobhaban in Natore.

The Public Works Department has recently floated a tender and gave a work order to cut branches of dead trees to a bidder for only Tk 18,400.

Although the tender was for cutting branches of dead trees, the contractor of PWD has felled 25 trees.

Shohel Faysal, the contractor, claimed that he has not felled the old trees which are lying on the Uttara Gonobhaban premises now.

"I have cut down branches of dead trees and removed them from the Uttara Gonobhaban premises recently. I do not know who felled the trees which are now kept inside Uttara Gonobhaban," Shohel Faysal said, adding that he has sent a letter to the DC about this matter.

Ziaur Rahman, sub-divisional engineer (SDE) of Natore PWD said, all the trees were cut down by the contractor and his men. No PWD officials and employees have cut down any branches of the trees.

"The contractor Shohel Faysal felled the trees and now he is lying," Ziaur Rahman added.

ABM Abdullah, forest officer of Natore Sadar upazila said, he visited the Uttara Gonobhaban premises along with the DC and other officials and found that additional trees and branches were felled.

The PWD did also not take any approval from the district administration before floating the tender.

"Some trees were not in the list of valuation and were felled illegally," ABM Abdullah said. "I valuated 230 cubic feet of dead branches of different trees [for the tender quotation] but I found 582.30 CFT logs and timber in the Uttara Gonobhaban now. But the contractor has already removed a large number of wood and logs."

"Ziaur Rahman has sent me a letter to valuate some dead trees that have already been felled illegally," ABM Abdullah added. The trees being asked to be included now were not part of the original tender.

Ziaur said the contractor also felled two old mango trees without any tender quotation but he claims that those trees had fallen in a storm and they have sent a letter to the forest division for providing a valuation of those trees. They are yet to get the valuation or permission.

The district administration has formed a five member probe committee, headed by Additional District Magistrate of Natore Razzaqul Islam. The other members are Khairul Islam, additional superintendent of police of Natore, Sharmin Akter Banu, UNO of Natore Sadar upazila, Anondo Mondal, Nejarat Deputy Collector of Natore and also a member secretary of Uttora Gonobhaban management committee and Jalal Uddin, president of Natore Press Club.

Razzaqul Islam, chief of the probe committee, said they were investigating the matter giving it the highest importance and will submit the probe report within three working days.

"We are preparing a case and are hopeful of submitting [the report] tonight against the culprits," Razzaqul said.