TURA: Sitting Balachanda MDC in the GHADC, Sofiur Rahman, has been accused by forest department personnel of the council of attempting to interfere and prevent teams from discharging their duties during a raid against illegal sawmills in the plains belt region of West Garo Hills on Wednesday morning.
The incident reportedly took place when the GHADC forest department carried out a series of raids and they were prevented from discharging their duties at Phersakandi village near New Bhaitbari under Phulbari PS even though the forest party had conducted the raid jointly with the police from Phulbari and Rajabala Police Stations.
“We dismantled one of the illegal saw mills and we in the process of confiscating the machines and logs present. Howeve,r while we were doing so, the Balachanda MDC came to the place with a huge group of villagers who were all vociferous and threatening. They refused to allow us to do our work,” informed GHADC forest department personnel who took part in the raids.
The MDC reportedly demanded to know from where they got permission to conduct the raid and despite documents being shown of their authorization, he refused to allow them to proceed any further threatening to take action against all those who participated in the raids.
With the angry mob swelling in their numbers the GHADC raiding parties had to withdraw from the village without any further action. Presence of a police force helped the forest teams to retreat safely, it was revealed.
The incident has been alerted to the CFO of the GHADC Forest with action sought against the MDC for disrupting the raids
It is worth mentioning that the accused MDC Sofiur Rahman happens to be the vice chairman of state forest in the present government. He was earlier the chairman of forests in the GHADC before his removal owing to pressure from local student and social organizations.
Meanwhile, the accused MDC has denied the allegations levelled against him.
“This are all baseless allegations levelled against me. I never interfered with any such raid,” clarified Rahman.
