State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Mashiur Rahman Ranga on Saturday urged Union Parishad chairmen to play a pro-active role in supplementing the government’s efforts for materializing Vision 2021.
“Your role (UP chairmen) is very important to make Bangladesh a middle-income country. Without cooperation and efforts of UP chairman, we would not be able to achieve middle-income status of the country,” he told a seminar at the Jatiya Press Club here.
The Hunger Free World, the Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum(BUPF) and Patashay 2021 Forum are jointly organized the seminar titled “Union-based planning is essential for materializing Vision 2021.”
Chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai film actor Ilias Kanchan, organizing secretary of Patashay 2021 Forum Mashuk Shahi, Country Director of Hunger Free World Ataur Rahman Miton, among others, addressed the seminar with President of BUPF Mahbubur Rahman Tulu in the chair.
Acting President of Patashay 2021 Forum SM Azad presented the keynote paper at the seminar. Over 100 UP chairmen also attended the seminar.
Ranga said Bangladesh has made a considerable progress in different indicators of development as the government has implemented various time-befitting and effective programmes.
He said, “Sanitation coverage has been expanded significantly across the country as our open defecation rate is only three percent. Open defecation trend of other south Asian countries including India and Pakistan is very high compared to Bangladesh”.
The state minister said the government has taken various steps to strengthen local government bodies to expedite development process in rural areas of the country.
In his keynote paper, SM Azad said the government should formulate Union-based five-year plan to eliminate poverty from the country through revitalizing rural economy.
