Staff Reporter :
The government plans to downsize the Dhaka Division further in a bid to reach increased service to the people’s doorstep.
“Dhaka Division has already been spilt into two divisions — Dhaka and Mymensingh. Now we are planning to downsize the Dhaka Division further to increase civic facilities,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a meeting relating to planning on the newly established Mymensingh Division at her office on Wednesday.
She said the common people would get more services with the downsizing of the Dhaka Division further alongside expansion of the administration.
“Administrative decentralization is a must to reach service to 16 crore people’s doorstep. As Dhaka remained as the biggest division earlier with its 17 districts, it had been difficult to oversee all administrative work at a time,” she said.
“With the decentralization of power, it would be easier to render more services to common people, especially in the fields of administration, health, education,” Prime Minister said. She said that Dhaka was a big division earlier with 17 districts. It is now being trimmed down with the creation of Mymensingh division.
She added after downsizing the Dhaka Division further, the grassroots people would be benefited with enjoying more services. “As people always rush to Dhaka for everything, we can’t assure them of providing all sorts of service,” Sheikh Hasina said, asking to take prudent plan.
The common people would get more services with the splitting of the division alongside the expansion of the administration, she said. The Prime Minister reiterated her government’s commitment to strengthen further the local government system and said that it is very much essential to decentralize power.
She also directed city planners to keep spaces for adequate water bodies and reservoirs for new townships.
“The planners must keep in mind the issues of water logging and healthy environment while sketching their plan,” she said.
BSS adds: Sheikh Hasina said that with construction and development of necessary divisional infrastructures, the people of greater Mymensingh would have easier access to services more comfortably. With the establishment of Mymensingh division, she said, a modern and beautiful city would be established on the other bank of the River Brahmaputra.
Referring to her decisions of constructing new office buildings and other establishments in the newly formed divisions like Rangpur and Sylhet, Sheikh Hasina said such decisions were proved appropriate.
In continuation of this, she said, directives were issued by now to set up all establishments and offices in more open and wide areas on the other side of the river Brahmaputra in the newly-constituted Mymensingh Division.
She said such steps would betaken to help develop better facilities for the people to receive services, while a new “eye catching modern township would also be developed there in a faster pace”. The premier also renewed her vow to turn Bangladesh into a developed and prosperous ‘Sonar Bangla’ as dreamt by Bangabandhu.
Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, Religious Affairs Minister Principal Matiur Rahman and State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam were present at the meeting.
