A rule has been issued against the Relief Secretary for contempt of court after he allegedly abused his authority and power by transferring and suspending a Project Implementation Officer (PIO), and for failing to comply with a court order.

According to sources, under the TR/Kabita project for the fiscal year 2024–25, the allocated funds were advanced from the UNO office to the respective project chairmen as per government circulars. Later, while inspecting whether work had begun at the field level, the PIO discovered that the work had already been completed earlier by another department.

When asked, the project chairmen admitted that no actual work had been done. In written explanations, they stated that due to the “manipulation” of the UNO (Upazila Nirbahi Officer), 20% of the reserved allocation under the Upazila Parishad’s TR fund had been used for tube-well projects — a task that actually falls under the Department of Public Health Engineering. The UNO allegedly used the names of project chairmen only nominally to show that the projects had been implemented.

To cover up his wrongdoing, the UNO initiated steps to transfer the PIO — who had joined only three months earlier — and eventually succeeded in having him both transferred and temporarily suspended through the intervention of Relief Secretary Mostafizur Rahman and Deputy Secretary Jahangir Alam.

When the PIO challenged the decision in court, the court stayed the transfer and suspension orders. Although the court order provided justice to the PIO, the Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief allegedly disregarded the order to protect the UNO, keeping the transfer and suspension in effect.

As a result, the court has issued a rule against Relief Secretary Mostafizur Rahman and Deputy Secretary Jahangir Alam on charges of Contempt of Court.