United News of Bangladesh

BNP lawmaker Md Manirul Haque Chowdhury on Sunday alleged in Parliament that a stadium listed as “Cumilla South Mini Stadium” exists only on paper and cannot be found on the ground. Raising the issue during a discussion on notices related to urgent public matters, he sought the Prime Minister’s intervention to “locate and recover” the project. The MP from Cumilla-6 said the initiative had been taken to establish a stadium following the creation of Cumilla Sadar South upazila in 2004. “Later, I came to know the stadium had been abandoned and funds were misappropriated,” he told the House. Claiming discrepancies in official records, Manirul Haque said they did not find any stadium with that name in Cumilla despite repeated searches. “The government says the stadium exists. But no such facility could be found anywhere in the district,” he said, alleging negligence in land records, misappropriation of sports equipment and looting of allocated funds. The MP further claimed that documents related to land acquisition and allocation in the name of Cumilla Sadar South upazila had gone missing. “This is a matter of my honour. I have long been associated with sports. Where is this stadium? It must be recovered,” he said. At this stage, the lawmaker’s microphone was switched off.