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Last modified on Tuesday, 22 December 2020 04:37

LGRD minister at seminar on urban development: Rural areas to be transformed into planned urban spaces to house rising urban population Featured

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LGRD minister at seminar on urban development: Rural areas to be transformed into planned urban spaces to house rising urban population

The minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives, Md Tajul Islam, stressed that the urbanisation in Bangladesh should essentially follow the direction our prime minister has given to transform the rural areas into urban spaces. “If we cannot accommodate people migrating into the urban areas we must transform the rural areas into pre-planned urban ones,” he said.

The LGRD minister made these observations in his chief guest’s speech today on Thursday (3 December) at an online seminar on housing and livelihood development of the urban poor communities.

The minister further emphasised that only putting the rising urban population into high-rises will not provide sustainable solutions until the communication is eased, and other problems related to logistics and utilities are taken care of. Therefore, urban resilience is an absolute necessity.

The seminar titled “Pro-poor, climate and disaster resilient urban development: Challenges and opportunities” was organised by BRAC Urban Development Programme (UDP) and attended by 20 city and municipality mayors from around the country.

Asif Saleh, executive director, BRAC, Professor Dr Akhter Mahmud, president, Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), and Dr Imran Matin, executive director, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University, also addressed the seminar, among others. Dr Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus, Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER), BRAC University, moderated the event. BIP, C3ER and BIGD also assisted in organising the seminar.

Professor Ainun Nishat appreciated the municipalities and city corporations of the country for their intent work on their development plans while drawing on own resources to address the growing challenges. He further said, “Empowerment of local government institutions, deliverable activities and social accountability are imperative for pro-poor, climate-resilient and sustainable urban development.”

DNCC mayor Atiqul Islam observed that many problems of the urban poor can be addressed through sustainable slum management in Dhaka city. While he asked for BRAC’s assistance in proper slum management in his jurisdiction, they mayor also stressed the importance of community members’ active involvement in monitoring the quality of service delivery of the city corporation staff.

Satkhira municipality mayor Md Tazkin Ahmed said trained and skilled manpower is essential for a municipality to do quality service delivery to its residents.

BRAC executive director Asif Saleh observed that for creating a robust and sustainable urban area empowerment and resource planning capacities of the local government bodies are two vital issues. “It’s important that the local authorities have been given the power to take actions in solving the local issues. Still there are issues of providing the mayors with planned budgets and required authority to approve action plans that need to be addressed. Though the condition of the capital city has improved from before as its mayors have more authorities now, it must also take place in all the other cities,” he further said.

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