An army housing scheme(AHS) estimated to involve 13,000 bighas (about 4,333 acres, approximately at 3 bighas per acre) without Rajuk's and Works Ministry's involvement speaks not only of the naivety of army seniors dealing with the scheme but also of the subconscious mindset that any army's scheme will get implemented regardless. Otherwise how could a scheme of such dimension, providing for 27,000 plots, even be conceived without a thorough planning and thinking about its feasibility, not only in terms of finding such a huge chunk of land but also in terms of public reaction to such a move. Reportedly this scheme to be funded by personal savings of the members of the armed forces, was approved by the Prime Minister's Office, following which a limited company was formed with the Quarter Master General as the chair and a Brigadier General as Managing Director. So far 1,400 bighas have been purchased, with the target of getting 13,000 bighas in total.
It has been clarified by the MD of the project that AHS was not an official undertaking of the army. It has also been stated that a limited company has been formed for this purpose. As a consequence several questions arise. First and foremost, what is the status of the project? Is the army as an institution involved in it? If yes, then on what basis, under what law or what army norm? From what has been so far made public it appears to be a private project of serving army officers. If so, can serving officers have private projects? Can a limited company be set up with serving officers as office bearers? Why were army personnel in the local land registration office monitoring who is selling land to whom and then allegedly blocking the registration of sales that were made between parties other than to this project.
There are two ways of looking at it. Naivety, or blatant use of army's name and prestige. That officers would want to have their own houses after retirement is a perfectly legitimate aspiration. But using the structure of the army, facilities of the armed forces, its clout and prestige is in no way different than any bureaucrat, office holding politician or any office bearer of government abusing the power of that office for private or group interest. It is worse because generally armed forces remain outside the focus of the mass media and public scrutiny.
We think the whole legal basis of this project needs to be made public. How the land has so far been bought should be made transparent. Question also arises as to whether the PMO did its due diligence before approving the project? Why did the PMO not take advice from the works ministry and Rajuk which are the two relevant government bodies to handle such a scheme.
Army for its own sake must become fully transparent about this incident. If it wants to maintain its public image and respect it must give the public full detail about it. Let us never forget that openness is the best guarantee for building trust and respect.
We have noticed with distress that the issue is being politicised. Within hours of the event, without waiting for any investigation, the AL leader Hanif declared that BNP was behind it. Not to be left behind, the BNP secretary general Dilwar Hossain said this was done to destroy the army. We condemn both these instances and appeal that armed forces should not be dragged into our acrimonious party politics.