Fertiliser dealer licence obtained with a warehouse signboard hung by a hotel basin in Shahjadpur, questions raised

In Shahjadpur, Sirajganj, Akram Hossain, president of the Rupbati Union Krishak Dal, has obtained a fertiliser dealer licence after hanging a fertiliser warehouse signboard in front of the basin of a food hotel.

Under the rules for appointing fertiliser dealers, an applicant must have a warehouse ready. Whether that condition was met in Akram Hossain's case has now been questioned, and doubts have also arisen over how effectively the agriculture office's inquiry verified the warehouse's actual condition.

A visit to the spot found the fertiliser warehouse signboard hung in front of the basin of Akram Hossain's food hotel at the Baghabari Dakshinpara Bazar bus stand in Shahjadpur upazila. There is no warehouse fit for storing fertiliser prepared there.

Hotel employees and local people said the spot in front of the hotel basin itself had been shown as the warehouse.

Hotel manager Zubayer Hossain said it is a fertiliser warehouse: for now it is a hotel, and in future it will become a fertiliser warehouse.

Akram Hossain, who received the dealer licence, said the warehouse signboard was hung inside the hotel at the time of applying for the licence. Once a fertiliser allocation is received, the hotel will be converted into a warehouse, he said.

Asked whether there had been any problem during the inquiry over the signboard by the basin, he said there had been no problem, and that he had said at the time that the hotel would be turned into a warehouse if he got the licence.

Before appointing fertiliser dealers, the agriculture office forms an inquiry committee to verify applicants' documents and warehouses on the ground. Although a ready warehouse is mandatory, questions have been raised over how the spot with a signboard by the hotel basin was treated as a warehouse.

Shahjadpur Upazila Agriculture Officer Abdullah Al Mamun said a committee had carried out on-the-spot inquiries into fertiliser dealer applicants' documents and warehouses. Akram Hossain, owner of Shishir Enterprise, has two warehouses, he said, with another warehouse across the road opposite the hotel. The spot where the signboard was hung in front of the hotel basin would also become a warehouse one day, the officer said he had been told.

Although the rules allow an applicant to give information for one warehouse in the licence application, the agriculture office has spoken of Akram Hossain having two warehouses. Questions have also been raised over whether this is an attempt to cover up the taking of the licence by hanging a warehouse signboard in front of a hotel basin.

Shahjadpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Nusrat Jahan said there had been no complaint about the matter. She had learned of it just now, and they would inquire into it, she said.