Scrutiny of Freedom Fighters Certificates
Review appeals by aggrieved freedom fighters piling up
New committtee to decide on fate of pleas
RAFIQUL ISLAM AZAD
The Jatiya Muktijoddha Council (Jamuka) has been receiving thousands of appeals from aggrieved people whose applications were not granted by the committees for scrutiny of freedom fighters across the country even before the completion of the scrutiny process, according to sources.
The Jamuka office has opened a cell at its Kakrail office in the city to receive the appeals. The aggrieved people were yesterday found thronging the cell to submit their appeals.
The new nine-member national committee of Jamuka will decide as to how it would deal with the growing number of appeals, said Jamuka sources.
Were daily receiving appeals from people whose applications were not granted during the scrutiny, said a desk official of the council. Jamuka had received 25,577 appeals till Wednesday, and the number may exceed 26,000 with new applications submitted by yesterday, he added.
Md Akash Miah, 65, hailing from Manoharpur in Narsingdi, told this correspondent that he had applied for a review of his application since the scrutiny committee did not grant it. I was trained in India during the War of Liberation in 1971. Three books have mentioned my name in the context of our freedom struggle. But my name was dropped in the gazette and thats why the scrutiny committee did not grant my application, he said.
Akash alleged that he has been moving around from door to door for the last 27 years to be included in the list of freedom fighters, but without any luck. This time, I have placed my appeal before the Jamuka with the hope that my case would be reviewed positively, he said.
Talking to The Independent, Jamuka acting director general Md Ahsan Habib said the new Jamuka committee in its meeting would decide on the fate of these appeals.
Asked whether new committees would be formed to review the appeals, Habib said that Jamuka would decide on the matter after receiving all the appeals.
He also said that 116 among 470 scrutiny committees have remained suspended due to legal issues. Weve received reports from 334 scrutiny committees, while 30 committees are yet to submit their reports. Of them, only 40 committees have submitted detailed information as per the requirement of Jamuka, he added.
The last meeting of Jamuka was held on July 13, with its chief AKM Mozammel Haque, who is also the Liberation War affairs minister, in the chair.
Meanwhile, Fariduddin Bhuiyan of Anti Corruption Commisison has been appointed as the new director general of Jamuka and he may join the office next week, according to Jamuka sources.
The scrutiny of freedom fighters had begun on January 21, after about 150,000 applicants for fresh enlistment and around 25,000 gazetted freedom fighters were accused of using fake documents. The council failed to disclose the scrutiny results by March 26, the date it had earlier set for the publication of the results.
The government facilities for freedom fighters, including monthly allowances, two Eid bonuses, and job and admission quotas in educational institutions, lure many people to try and get a freedom fighters certificate, although the names of many of them did not appear either in Mukti Barta (Green) or Mukti Barta (Red) lists.
The number of freedom fighters has increased in each list that has been prepared after the countrys independence in 1971. According to the latest list, there are about 215,000 freedom fighters in the country.
A total of 470 committees459 at the upazila level, eight at the city level and three in the hill districtshad started the scrutiny of gazetted freedom fighters and new applicants online and manually.
