A tree fair organised in Gosairhat, Shariatpur, under the banner of the forest department and the upazila administration has been shut down. The forest department still says the fair was not theirs, while the upazila administration says it decided to close the fair after irregularities were observed.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Ahmed Sabbir Sajjad confirmed the matter around noon on Monday (8 July).

Inquiries found that the 15-day fair was organised from 1 to 15 July on the central Shaheed Minar grounds of the upazila parishad in Gosairhat, under the banner of the forest department and the upazila administration. Of the 39 stalls at the fair, only one sold saplings.

Although the banner named the forest department as an organiser, the department denied it, while the upazila administration claimed the fair was the forest department's. After the matter drew discussion and criticism, the upazila administration decided to close the fair, and it was shut on Sunday. The stallholders removed their stalls from Monday morning.

District Forest Officer Md Salah Uddin told Jago News that the upazila administration had put the department's name on the banner by mistake. After it was written about, the banner was corrected. "That fair has nothing to do with us," he said.

Asked about it, UNO Ahmed Sabbir Sajjad said: "We gave permission for the fair after deciding at the parishad on the use of our space. Later, when some irregularities were observed, we shut the fair down. Since it has been shut, I do not want to say anything more about it."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.