The labour welfare centre at Amanatganj in the Barisal city has no function, with 10 officials and employees just whiling away their time.
Annually more than Tk 10 lakh is spent for the salaries and other expenditures of the centre.
During a spot visit to the center, Afzal Hosen, an office assistant, with other colleagues, was seen playing carom board.
They said no worker visited the center to get service in the last four years as the post of medical officer and two medical assistants remained vacant for four years.
The rest seven officials and staff just come to
the centre for gossiping after signing the attendance register and the only
activity of the centre is observable on May Day, they said.
One NR Holling Bery, a shipping agent, owned 1.04 acres of land at Amanatganj of the then Barisal district town and opened Coronation Baby Care and maternity center there on 33 decimal on September 27, 1937.
The labour welfare center was established by the Pakistan government in 1964 on 71 decimal of Holling Bery’s land to give medical and maternity help, entertainment service for workers in different sectors and members of their families.
After inauguration, it functioned for some years till liberation as some industries and an electricity generation plant of the city were situated near the centre.
After the liberation, the baby clinic and maternity centre on the premises of the welfare centre continued to be managed by the Red Crescent Society with one resident medical officer, 3 medical officers and two operation theatres, said Dr Abdur Rob, resident medical officer of the hospital.
On February 5, 2013 a fifty-bed four-storey ‘Holling Bery Syed Moazzem Red Crescent Hospital’ was constructed at a cost of Tk 7 core on 12 decimals of land there.
The extended part of the Barisal Kawnia police station was also set up on the premises of the labour welfare centre.
Zahirul Islam, population officer and in-charge of the centre, claimed
that as the surrounding areas had now become densely populated and residential and the targeted recipients of service left the area, so the center became idle.
Gradually, supply of medicine, medical and entertainment equipment and their maintenance stopped and hardly any people come to take service from the centre, Anisur Rahman, labour welfare organiser of the center, acknowledged.
Trade unionist Azad said the number of labourers and workers in the areas near the centre had increased many fold but nobody knew that there was a centre for their welfare and those who went there once became disappointed with the poor service, Azad added.
Even local people do not know when the centre opens and is closed and how they will get service from there.
Even in emergencies, they do not find the only doctor of the centre, said Syed Kajal, a power department official, residing near the centre.
-With New Age input
