The proposed National Urbanisation Policy remains shelved for more than a decade due to government's attaching less importance to it and an inter-ministerial tug of war, officials said.
Bangladesh Urban Forum (BUF), a public private partnership- based national platform placed the proposed draft policy before the Cabinet in 2010 aiming to bring urbanisation under a guideline for decentralisation and removing existing problems in the cities and town.
Mostafa Quaium Khan, National Policy Adviser, BUF said despite growing unplanned urbanisation and hazardous situation in the cities and towns the government has shown no importance to its approval.
He said: "There is a suggestion by some officials to bring some changes in the policy as the proposed one may reduce their power but I do not think so. Once approved, it will not hamper ministries' power."
According to sources, a tug of war between Local Government and Engineering Division (LGED) and Urban Development Directorate (UDD) is another cause of the delay in approval by the cabinet as they are in a debate over the proposed urban policy's area of coverage.
Currently as both the UDD and LGED are responsible for development of cities and towns they want some changes in the proposed policy to control their own respective areas of coverage.
The draft policy was prepared in order to bring urbanisation under a particular guideline instead of the current unplanned development.
Professor Golam Rahman, President, Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) said during preparation of the draft all the stakeholders and ministries concerned were involved and it was done as per their suggestions and comments.
He said currently a section of the officials is not agreeing with some points and they are not advancing with the draft policy.
He said in absence of a particular policy Bangladesh's urbanisation is growing without guideline and there are no specific definitions of small, medium and large cities and towns in the country now.
The BIP president said: "We must have a particular guideline on urbanisation, decentralisation and development of a town or city where safety measures along with all civic amenities would be available for all the citizens of the country."
The BUF adviser said within 2015 Bangladesh would be the second Singapore where cent per cent people will live in the towns.
He said Bangladesh's urbanisation is growing like Singapore as more than 30 per cent of the total population in Bangladesh currently live in large, small and medium cities including the capital Dhaka.
Mr Khan said as urbanisation is developing rapidly it is imperative to frame a policy to bring everything under control. Otherwise there would be a disaster in health, education, culture and overall economic activities in the cities and towns, he added.
He said in the draft policy they have placed 23 issues that would help the government decentralise powers, create job opportunities for the rural people who throng the capital and design a policy that would ensure the infrastructure safety.
A source in the government's ministry of public works said there is a debate over the urbanisation policy as it is not clear which areas it would cover.
He said it is a matter of coordination among different ministries that a policy should not deprive any people of the country coming to the capital or other cities for jobs, education and many others.
He said urbanisation is helping the economy to grow as people come to towns and cities for better opportunities and open new offshore horizon for business and economic activities.
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