Misuse of industrial plots spotted at Rajshahi BSCIC
Abdul Malek was allocated a plot inside an industrial estate of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) in Rajshahi back in the 1970s. Since then, he has managed to lease an additional six plots totaling 18,000 square feet in the area to expand his food, textile, and dying units, the latter two of which deal with producing Rajshahi silk. It was not always smooth sailing for Malek though as his business began to crumble when the comparatively pricey Rajshahi silk started to lose out to cheaper alternatives in the 1980s. In order to survive, he handed over one of his plots to a fellow businessperson and closed his textile and dying factories while continuing with his food industry on a small scale. However, Malek's luck turned around when he happened to become general secretary of the BSCIC Industry Owners Association. He allegedly started misusing his authority to illegally sub-let industrial plots, at least one of which was used to establish a light enginee...