TURA: Balachanda MDC, Sofiur Rahman, has been accused by forest department personnel of the GHADC 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.
The incident reportedly took place when the GHADC forest department went on a series of raids and 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.
“We dismantled one of the illegal saw mills. While in the process of confiscating the machines and logs present, the Balachanda MDC came with a 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 authorisation, he refused to allow them to proceed any further threatening to take action against all those who participated.
With the angry mob swelling in their numbers the GHADC raiding parties had to withdraw from the village without any further action.
It was revealed that presence of a police force helped the forest teams to retreat safely.
The incident has been alerted to the CFO of the GHADC Forest with action sought against the MDC for disrupting the raids.
It is maybe mentioned 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 organisations.
Meanwhile, the accused MDC has denied the allegations levelled against him.
“These are all baseless allegations levelled against me. I never interfered in any such raid,” clarified Rahman.
