AL lawmaker walks out of JS body meet

"The ministry officials did not respond to my queries about the project on reaching out to schoolchildren. They even did not inform the meeting about the expenditure on the project," AL lawmaker Shahjahan Khan, also a member of the committee, told reporters at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

He also smelt corruption in the project by ministry officials.

According to a meeting source, in reply to AL lawmaker's query, director of the project said he did not have the actual expenditure figure with regard to the entire project.

Dismissing the AL lawmaker's allegation, Committee Chairman and BNP lawmaker Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu said the project was not on the meeting agenda. "So, the ministry officials were not equipped with necessary information about the project," he said.

State Minister for Forest and Environment Zafrul Islam Chowdhury, who attended the meeting as the representative of the prime minister, said the AL lawmaker's walkout was unreasonable.

Presenting a report at the meeting, the ministry officials said that 30,000 teachers will be appointed under the Primary Education Development Project-2 and the process of recruiting 14,000 teachers is underway.