Alleging corruption and arbitrariness in the name of internet services, reformist internet traders have given 48 hours to the current EC of ISPAB to resign. On Sunday, a letter signed by 25 members was sent to the president of the organization, Imdadul Haque, on behalf of internet service providers. The letter mentions seven specific allegations.
At the top of this is the issue of playing the role of a political attendant to the EC committee without considering the opinion of the members in shutting down the internet service during the student-crowd protests. According to the complaints, ISPAB’s reputation has been defamed by taking part in disseminating lies and misleading information in the media in tune with the decision imposed by the former ICT and Telecom Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak to shut down the internet on July 18 across the country.
The rest of the allegations include extortion in the name of CSTF, corruption in FTTX project, financial irregularities in the name of Digital Bangladesh Fair, dirty politics ignoring the interests of thana and Upazila ISPs, purchase of office floor at the cost of Tk 14 crore without holding EGM and ignoring purchase committee and above all forming the executive committee through a farcical election imposing the influence of the government party leader and the then whip Nazrul Islam Babu.
It is reported that the ISPAB president was asked to come to the office over phone for handing over the complaint letter directly to him, but as he did not come, the letter of ultimatum was handed over to office in-charge Mr. Bijoy in the afternoon.
On behalf of the reformists, Azharul Haque Chowdhury of ADN Telecom said, ‘We have sent a letter to the ISPAB office this afternoon. Accordingly, they will have time to reply to the letter till 5 pm on Tuesday. If no response is received within this period, legal action will be taken against them.
Expressing no confidence on the current committee of ISPAB formed by the previous dictatorial fascist pro-Awami leaders, on behalf of the general ISP providers those who signed the ultimatum are: Saiful Islam Siddique of ICCC Communications Limited, Mahtabur Rahman of Takion, Moinuddin Ahmed of Red Data, Riyad Mohammad of Bijoy Online, Riyazul Karim of Access Telecom, ZX Online’s SM Zulfikar Haider, One Sky Communication’s Rashedur Rahman Raja, Banglanet Technology’s Zobair Ahmed Hossain, IT Base’s Mir Mosharraf Hossain’s, Netcafe’s Qazi Md Mahbub, Dhaka Tech IT’s Ashraf Uddin, Wide Communication’s Anwar Ahmed, Grameen Cyber Net’s Deba Brata Saha, Rajesh Basu of Stargate Communication, AM Kamal Uddin Ahmed Saleem of BCL Online Services, Mazharul Islam of IP Communication, Golam Kibria of Bhuiyan Telecom, Kazi Zillur Rahman of Patriot Technology, Shah Iqbal of C Cell, Kazi Zoheb of SSTN Technology, Internet Factory’s Noor Huda Talukder, Md Zakaria of IOL, Sean Gonzales of Chittagong Data Communication, Md Shariful Islam of Brick Systems, Md Noor Nabi of Server Net, Md Suzanur Rahman of Karsan Net, Md Khabirul Islam of Awan Online and others.
