UNB, Dhaka :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday stressed the need for undertaking a master plan in each upazila to ensure planned urbanisation and thus render better services to people.
“My directives are already there to render much better services to people through ensuring arable lands, schools, colleges in the upazilas alongside industries, mills and factories,” she said.
The Prime Minister was addressing the officials of the LGRD Ministry during her visit to the ministry at the Bangladesh Secretariat here yesterday morning.
She also focused on strengthening the local government institutions through decentralisation and directed the local government bodies to take necessary steps to boost their income to provide people with better amenities.
“We believe local government bodies need to be strengthened …the more the local government bodies will be strengthened, the more the people will get improved services,” Hasina said.
The Prime Minister also said the government has a plan to delegate health, education, law and order, infrastructure development and
social safety and other development programmes to local government bodies gradually.
She directed the authorities concerned to ensure transparency and accountability in the activities of local government institutions. “The country’s face, including that of rural areas, will get changed with whatever allocations we’re making if those are spent properly.”
The Prime Minister stressed coordination in each development work as well as integrated plan before taking any step, saying Bangladesh is geographically a small country, but its population is huge, and it is a though task to render services to people. “We’ll have to accomplish that difficult task.”
Noting that the LGRD Ministry usually gets higher allocations in the national budget, Sheikh Hasina she said the local government institutions like upazilas, pourashavas and union parishads will have to take steps to raise their own income to render better services to people.
Citing her government’ election manifesto of 2014, the Prime Minister also pledged for planned urbanisation and increasing civic amenities across the country. “Arsenic-free safe water for all and sanitation in every house would be ensured,” she said.
Hasina said, the government also has a commitment to link village, union and upazila headquarters with the road network. The Prime Minister said, the local government division will have to work with more integrity to execute these commitments of the government.
She mentioned that the local government organisations have an important role in alleviating poverty and establishing good governance in the country.
“I hope the elected representatives and government servants would perform this responsibility together and ensure happiness, peace and prosperity of people.”
The Prime Minister mentioned that the government as per its capability is allocating money to local government bodies. “But this allocation is not enough for running the service progarmmes,” she said.
In the last five years, she said, some 25,479 kilometres of roads were constructed and maintenance work of 38,448 km was done. Besides, 1,43,751 meter bridge and culvert were constructed and maintenance work of 63,386 meter bridge and culvert was completed during the period, she said.
