Mohammad Ruhul Amin, the former upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Hathazari in Chattogram who drew attention after receiving a "censure" instead of an award for planting trees on his own initiative, has been cleared of the allegation brought against him.

On Thursday (11 July) the Ministry of Public Administration issued a notification relieving Mohammad Ruhul Amin of the penalty on the allegation of "misconduct".

The notification said that notification No. 134 of the Ministry of Public Administration, dated 3 April 2024, was cancelled and he was relieved of liability for the allegation.

Mohammad Ruhul Amin is now serving as secretary (acting) of the Bangladesh Tea Board in Chattogram.

In 2019 and 2020, Mohammad Ruhul Amin, then UNO of Hathazari upazila, and his wife planted 30,000 trees at their own expense beside various schools and roads, which was praised across the country at the time. In 2021 the couple were nominated for the National Award for Tree Planting-2020, but they were later dropped and the award was given to the Hathazari Upazila Parishad instead. Yet the upazila parishad had not planted the trees, had not even applied for the award, and had no connection with the planting at all.

In this situation, on 28 May 2022, Ruhul Amin wrote a detailed letter about the award to the secretary of the environment ministry. The matter of "one person plants trees, another gets the award" was reported at the time by Jago News and other media across the country. Nearly two years later, on 3 April, the Ministry of Public Administration censured Mohammad Ruhul Amin, then UNO of Hathazari. The punishment of an officer praised for tree planting with a "censure" instead of an award caused a stir across the country and sparked wide discussion in the media and on social media.

Later, on 6 May, Ruhul Amin applied for a review of the penalty imposed in the departmental case, giving due reasons. His application was considered, and he was cleared of the allegation because he had planted the trees in the public interest.

Earlier, on 3 April, the Ministry of Public Administration had censured Mohammad Ruhul Amin on the allegation of "misconduct" under rule 3(b) of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 2018. To appeal against the penalty, Mohammad Ruhul Amin applied to the ministry for the case's investigation report and copies of the witness statements. But in a letter on 22 April the ministry told him it was not possible to supply them. He then applied to the President for a review of the penalty without that material, using his own evidence.

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