Overall flood situation in the country deteriorated further as water levels at all major rivers rose inundating more fresh areas, marooning thousands of people and disrupting road communications in different areas. Flooding took a devastating form in at least six of 20 flood-affected districts where poor disaster response left people stranded at home or under the open sky in incessant rains for almost a week.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in a bulletin said that 15 rivers were flowing above their danger levels at 26 points across the country. The rivers Brahmaputra, Jamuna and Padma would continue to rise, and flooding in Kurigram, Jamalpur, Gaibandha, Bogura and Sirajganj was expected to get worse, the FFWC said, as Dhaka Courier went to press this week.

Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) yesterday issued an order to freeze the accounts of nine former directors and two officials of troubled Peoples Leasing and Financial Services (PLFS) over their alleged involvement in driving the non-bank financial institution into the ground. The intelligence unit has taken the move in line with an order given by the High Court to start the liquidation process of the scam-hit PLFS.

As part of the liquidation process, the central bank, on behalf of the government, will take over ownership of the PLFS. It is the first case of a bank or non-bank financial institution getting liquidated in the country. The central bank has said it will act in line with the decision of the High Court to liquidate the non-bank financial institution so that depositors can get back their fund within the shortest possible time.

Two probe committees, formed by the Housing and Public Works Ministry, have found anomalies of Tk 36.4 crore in purchasing furniture and other household items for officials and other employees of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna.

The bodies have also recommended punishment for 50 officials, including Engineer Masudur Alam, the then project director of Green City Housing Project under the power plant, over the irregularities. The committees also suggested returning 36.4 crore to the government funds. Masudur has been made a reserve officer at the Public Works Department (PWD) for his alleged involvement in the irregularities. The committees handed over a probe report to the attorney general's office for submitting it to the High Court.

The High Court directed former Chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha (Rajuk) Eng KM Harun and its two existing officials to surrender before a lower court in six weeks in a corruption case filed for forging a design for the construction of FR Tower. The two Rajuk officials are Aurangzeb Siddique Nannu and Md Nazrul Islam. The court, however, granted six-week anticipatory bail to the former Rajuk chairman in this case.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Gulshan Police Station on October 7 last year against the trio on charge of committing corruption and forgery in the design plan for FR Tower at Banani. On March 27 this year, A deadly fire broke out at FR Tower, killing 25 people and injuring 73 others.