Signature forgery: Dhaka South confiscates Wasa construction equipment
Following the incident, the DSCC filed a complaint against the engineer working for the contracting company appointed by Wasa
The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has seized construction equipment of Dhaka Wasa after its workers were found digging roads in the Lalbagh area of the capital using a permit with forged signature of the relevant corporation officer.
The seized equipment includes two generators, one drill machine, two aluminum bowls, two crowbars, one spade, one LED light and five helmets.
Following the incident, the DSCC filed a complaint against the engineer working for the contracting company appointed by Wasa.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Mahbubur Rahman, assistant engineer of Region-3, filed the complaint against Syed Abu Zafar, an engineer of contractor company System Engineering Ltd, with the Lalbagh Police Station on Monday night.
According to a Dhaka South press statement issued today (8 July), the Dhaka WASA authorities were granted permission to excavate a road near Shaheed Abdul Alim Sports Ground in Lalbagh. On 21 April, the city corporation issued a permit letter allowing Dhaka Wasa to dig the road between 24 and 30 April.
However, the press statement says that Dhaka Wasa did not begin excavation during this timeframe. On 29 April, they requested an extension for the excavation work until 23 May. But the relevant area's executive engineer denied the permission considering public sufferings during Eid-ul-Adha.
Following reports of unauthorised road excavation today, Dhaka South officials rushed to the site. They demanded to see the permission documents from the workers.
The workers presented a document claiming to be a permit signed by Mithun Chandra Shil, the regional executive engineer of Dhaka South Zone-3. However, upon closer scrutiny, Dhaka South officials discovered that the signature was forged and the date had been tampered with.
When the city corporation officials exposed the forged permit, Wasa workers and supervisors promptly left the scene.
Subsequently, the city corporation officials seized all equipment used in the excavation.
Mithun Chandra Shil, regional executive engineer of Zone-3, said, "The signature on the excavation permission document presented by Wasa was forged and the date was tampered."
He said legal action will be taken against those responsible.
AKM Shahid Uddin, deputy managing director of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), told The Business Standard, "We still don't know who did this. If anyone in Dhaka Wasa has done such a thing by forging signatures, then it is a cognizable crime. If any of our engineers have done this, we will take strict action against them."
