A legendary architect of rural development
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Shahiduzzaman Khan
DEATH laid its icy hand on Mr Quamrul Islam Siddique on September 1, 2008, a legendary architect and promoter of country's rural development. He died at a time when the nation needed a man of quality leadership like him. Nevertheless, with his solemn demise, the country lost a versatile and gifted leader who wanted country's development to start from the grass root level.
Popularly known as QI Siddique, Quamrul founded the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to its present status from a simple and negligible works programme wing of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD & Cooperatives). When QI Siddique was working as a civil engineer in Khulna Municipality, he was picked up to head works programme wing of the ministry in Dhaka. At that time, works programme wing had its offices in several buildings in Lalmatia in the city. The wing was later named as Local Government Engineering Bureau (LGEB). Under Mr. Siddique's leadership, LGEB quickly spread its wings across the country. Several rural development infrastructure projects were taken up and implemented. The primary objective of the LGEB was to build rural roads type-B, bridge, culverts and growth centres (rural markets) and connecting roads. After successful implementation of some projects, development partners were increasing showing their interest to channel their fund to LGEB.
I met Mr QI Siddique first at the Faridpur LGEB Executive Engineer's office in a fine winter morning. Mr friend Shahidul Hassan (then executive engineer, now retired chief engineer of LGED) introduced me to the visiting Chief Adviser of LGED. Mr Siddique quickly said: 'oh, you are a journalist. Can you help me bring out a newsletter of our organisation?' As I replied in the affirmative, he told me to see him at his Dhaka office. So my part-time association with the LGEB began with a sombre note. I began work from the second issue of the newsletter as a shadow editor, which continued for several years. During this period, I saw this man emerging from a narrow working base to reach the height of professional excellence by dint of his outstanding merit, sincerity and dedication. His office time began at 8.0 in the morning and ended at 11pm in the night. All senior officials and some junior colleagues had to stay in the office until his departure. He listened to everybody's complaints and opinions about the work activities of LGED. Members of Parliament (MPs), Pourashava chairmen regularly visited his office to get their works done. Nobody left disheartened. Genuine demands for building roads, bridges and culverts were met in quick succession. Rural network of roads, bridges and growth centres helped country's economy to flourish remarkably. The LGEB was upgraded to a department and renamed as LGED in a short period of time.
Engineer Siddique gave topmost importance to building rural markets (growth centres) and the connecting roads to the markets. Learning lessons from a research study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, USA, he thought if the farmers could find a safe place to sell their merchandise and if transportation of the commodities to the urban areas could be ensured by building a network of connecting roads, then rural economy is bound to prosper. Once these rural markets were established and connecting roads were built, village people then got a new lease of life It was another success story of Engineer Siddique.
Mr Siddique also directed all his field-level engineers to introduce biogas technology in some of the designated villages to generate electricity for the village people. Using cow dung and human excreta, this technology requires a negligible amount of money to generate power. Very soon, it became popular in the rural areas. Today, biogas technology is being widely used in many parts of the country. Engineer Siddique's quest for introducing renewable energy continued for long.
Witnessing QI Siddiqui's success in developing infrastructure throughout the country, the donors wanted the LGED to take up projects that remained outside the jurisdiction of the department. Primary school repair and maintenance project of the education ministry, small water resources projects of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) were vested with the LGED with the approval of the council of ministers. Later, work of a city flyover, some long bridges and highways was also transferred to LGED by the government witnessing its remarkable success. Today, the LGED has its presence felt in vital sectors like agriculture, forestry, environment, land and water resources and irrigation etc.
On return from China visit, he introduced rubber dam technology in Chittagong to conserve water in the dry season. Inflated rubber was used to store as much water as it could for the lean season use. These dams brought about a radical change in agricultural cultivation of the areas where they were installed. I was amazed to see the functioning of such a newly innovated technology while on a visit to Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.
Engineer Siddique introduced geographic information system (GIS) technology in LGED headquarters in early nineties with a view to facilitate development of nationwide spatial database for rural infrastructure and to enhance institutional capability for planning and monitoring of rural development programmes in Bangladesh. As a first step for acquisition of spatial data, GIS Unit completed digitisation of Upazila/Thana Base Map for the whole country. The procurement of a nationwide coverage of SPOT Satellite imagery in 1989 gave options for tackling a most challenging exercise in LGED -- the preparation Thana Base Map for the whole country. In addition, LGED GIS unit developed municipal databases for 32 out of 60 secondary towns in the country and, in doing that -- the potentials of remote sensing technology have been exploited substantially -- particularly in urban growth mapping.
Mr QI Siddique loved his organisation -- LGED -- so much that he never wanted to part with it. He built multi-storied LGED Bhaban in Agargaon and planted trees surrounding the building. When he was transferred on promotion to become a full secretary to the government, he was even reluctant to leave LGED. But of late he quit LGED leaving his heart reverberating for his dear organisation. From time to time the government used his negotiating skill to test and sent him abroad for negotiating foreign aid contracts. Indeed, Bangladesh lacked quality leadership with negotiating capabilities. Mr. Siddique successfully negotiated quite a number of big contracts with his outstanding skills and earned commendation from both the government and the development partners.
When he was the chairman of the Privatisation Commission, once he called me over telephone: 'Shahid, can you come down to my office please?' Privatisation Commission was not far off from our FE office that time. As I landed his office, Mr Siddique stated to me the painful decision of the government to close down the Adamjee Jute Mills (AGM), the biggest jute mills of the world. As the government was incurring huge losses and there was no prospective buyer, the decision to close it for good was really a major challenge. But he explained to me how he is thinking to transform the mill areas into an industrial park. During his tenure, Privatisation Board was upgraded to a commission and the post of chairman enjoyed the rank and status of a deputy minister.
He told me the detailed plans about how the looms and properties of AGM would be sold to the intending buyers and how the overseas investors would find the zone a safe haven to invest their money for setting up various mills and factories. He wanted media help for propagating these ideas so that the general people did not rue the closure of AGM. I wrote a story on AGM closure and future strategy in the FE, which attracted immediate attention of the readers and analysts. Today, Adamjee Export Processing Zone (EPZ) is thriving brightly on the ruins of the AGM and the zone is humming with the activities of both local and foreign investors. Mr QI Siddique's farsightedness has been amply demonstrated in this incident.
An avid lover of birds and animals, his residence at Dhanmondi was virtually a sanctuary of various species of birds and animals. His habit was to read newspapers and magazines in the morning. When he found reports of irregularities and corruption in the media, he always used to direct instant investigation against the concerned persons. If the reports were found genuine, he took immediate actions against the persons concerned. At home, when he found time, he used to see the video footage of various ongoing projects in the rural Bangladesh. Video footage covered infrastructure works and their implementation and how such works were impacting upon socio-economic activities of the hapless poor people. He basically monitored the inter-actions of the target group people and tried to chalk out future strategies based on his findings. This is a very hard work. Still he found pleasure in doing such work that is aimed at eliminating poverty from village life. By reading newspapers and inter-acting with grass-root people, he tried to evolve new course of action in his endeavour to give new lease of life to rural people.
Mr. QI Siddiqui was seen by many as a fine gentleman, a noted expert in the field of engineering, a charismatic orator and communicator, and an effective result-seeker and maker in pertinent areas of his life long activities. He held the post of the president of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh for some time. In addition, he was associated with a number of international organisations. He was recipients of various national and international awards for his good work.
After he retired from the government service, he was appointed executive director of Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Board (DTCB) on contractual basis. On completion of the one-year contract, it was renewed for another year. He thought his service in the DTBS was very challenging and he professionally enjoyed his work. The major challenge that he faced was how to give DTCB a shape of a professional body to plan and co-ordinate the traffic and transport system of greater metropolitan Dhaka.
From the very beginning the DTCB lacked professional staff. Nothing was done to recruit people like transport planner, transport modeller and land use planner, which all are vital positions. Most people were on deputation from Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and it became impossible to run the DTCB with those unprofessional workers. Most of the officials were simply dumped from other organisations and some of them came as timeserver as it was thought that DTCB was a temporary organisation. After few months they went back or were transferred. As such, he could not contribute significantly to this organisation and he left disappointed.
When he was the chairman of the Power Development Board, Quamrul Islam Siddique told a roundtable discussion: "For extracting coal, the underground mining method (in Barapukuria) did not give us good experience." I reckon that his opinion was based on the fact that there were accidents in the Barapukuria coalmine, the temperature in the tunnels did not allow the labourers to work efficiently. Ensuring proper ventilation and mine safety is technically very complex and costly, and there are the problems of flash flows of water, the proven threat of methane and carbon monoxide gas emissions, and spontaneous firing of coal. Underground mining, ultimately, does not have the benefit of not displacing the people and structures above the mine or not saving the agricultural land, since the extraction of coal from the coal bed produces voids beneath the soil.
At the fag end of his life, he became associated with the Global Water Partnership, a world forum of formulating strategies for water-related issues. He was made president of Bangladesh Water Partnership. At a seminar organised by the Centre for Strategic and Peace Studies, I heard Mr. Siddique as saying that building storage facilities in Nepal along with framing an effective regional model of flood management would be helpful in resolving water disputes in South Asia.
He blamed the then government, as it did not make any serious effort to build a Ganges barrage. Referring to water disputes between Bangladesh and India, Bangladesh Water Partnership chief said India, which is a leader of this region, has to understand the implications of climate change and should act accordingly.
Those who have seen him participating in numerous television talk shows must admit that his knowledge and perception about wide ranging issues were very strong and versatile. He represented Bangladesh in many world fora. Just before his death, he was scheduled to attend a seminar organised by the Global Water Partnership in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. On his way he died when he was on transit in New Jersey, USA. May Allah rest his soul in peace!
The views expressed in this article are of author's own and not necessarily of any organisation. The writer can by reached at
szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com
DEATH laid its icy hand on Mr Quamrul Islam Siddique on September 1, 2008, a legendary architect and promoter of country's rural development. He died at a time when the nation needed a man of quality leadership like him. Nevertheless, with his solemn demise, the country lost a versatile and gifted leader who wanted country's development to start from the grass root level.
Popularly known as QI Siddique, Quamrul founded the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to its present status from a simple and negligible works programme wing of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD & Cooperatives). When QI Siddique was working as a civil engineer in Khulna Municipality, he was picked up to head works programme wing of the ministry in Dhaka. At that time, works programme wing had its offices in several buildings in Lalmatia in the city. The wing was later named as Local Government Engineering Bureau (LGEB). Under Mr. Siddique's leadership, LGEB quickly spread its wings across the country. Several rural development infrastructure projects were taken up and implemented. The primary objective of the LGEB was to build rural roads type-B, bridge, culverts and growth centres (rural markets) and connecting roads. After successful implementation of some projects, development partners were increasing showing their interest to channel their fund to LGEB.
I met Mr QI Siddique first at the Faridpur LGEB Executive Engineer's office in a fine winter morning. Mr friend Shahidul Hassan (then executive engineer, now retired chief engineer of LGED) introduced me to the visiting Chief Adviser of LGED. Mr Siddique quickly said: 'oh, you are a journalist. Can you help me bring out a newsletter of our organisation?' As I replied in the affirmative, he told me to see him at his Dhaka office. So my part-time association with the LGEB began with a sombre note. I began work from the second issue of the newsletter as a shadow editor, which continued for several years. During this period, I saw this man emerging from a narrow working base to reach the height of professional excellence by dint of his outstanding merit, sincerity and dedication. His office time began at 8.0 in the morning and ended at 11pm in the night. All senior officials and some junior colleagues had to stay in the office until his departure. He listened to everybody's complaints and opinions about the work activities of LGED. Members of Parliament (MPs), Pourashava chairmen regularly visited his office to get their works done. Nobody left disheartened. Genuine demands for building roads, bridges and culverts were met in quick succession. Rural network of roads, bridges and growth centres helped country's economy to flourish remarkably. The LGEB was upgraded to a department and renamed as LGED in a short period of time.
Engineer Siddique gave topmost importance to building rural markets (growth centres) and the connecting roads to the markets. Learning lessons from a research study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, USA, he thought if the farmers could find a safe place to sell their merchandise and if transportation of the commodities to the urban areas could be ensured by building a network of connecting roads, then rural economy is bound to prosper. Once these rural markets were established and connecting roads were built, village people then got a new lease of life It was another success story of Engineer Siddique.
Mr Siddique also directed all his field-level engineers to introduce biogas technology in some of the designated villages to generate electricity for the village people. Using cow dung and human excreta, this technology requires a negligible amount of money to generate power. Very soon, it became popular in the rural areas. Today, biogas technology is being widely used in many parts of the country. Engineer Siddique's quest for introducing renewable energy continued for long.
Witnessing QI Siddiqui's success in developing infrastructure throughout the country, the donors wanted the LGED to take up projects that remained outside the jurisdiction of the department. Primary school repair and maintenance project of the education ministry, small water resources projects of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) were vested with the LGED with the approval of the council of ministers. Later, work of a city flyover, some long bridges and highways was also transferred to LGED by the government witnessing its remarkable success. Today, the LGED has its presence felt in vital sectors like agriculture, forestry, environment, land and water resources and irrigation etc.
On return from China visit, he introduced rubber dam technology in Chittagong to conserve water in the dry season. Inflated rubber was used to store as much water as it could for the lean season use. These dams brought about a radical change in agricultural cultivation of the areas where they were installed. I was amazed to see the functioning of such a newly innovated technology while on a visit to Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.
Engineer Siddique introduced geographic information system (GIS) technology in LGED headquarters in early nineties with a view to facilitate development of nationwide spatial database for rural infrastructure and to enhance institutional capability for planning and monitoring of rural development programmes in Bangladesh. As a first step for acquisition of spatial data, GIS Unit completed digitisation of Upazila/Thana Base Map for the whole country. The procurement of a nationwide coverage of SPOT Satellite imagery in 1989 gave options for tackling a most challenging exercise in LGED -- the preparation Thana Base Map for the whole country. In addition, LGED GIS unit developed municipal databases for 32 out of 60 secondary towns in the country and, in doing that -- the potentials of remote sensing technology have been exploited substantially -- particularly in urban growth mapping.
Mr QI Siddique loved his organisation -- LGED -- so much that he never wanted to part with it. He built multi-storied LGED Bhaban in Agargaon and planted trees surrounding the building. When he was transferred on promotion to become a full secretary to the government, he was even reluctant to leave LGED. But of late he quit LGED leaving his heart reverberating for his dear organisation. From time to time the government used his negotiating skill to test and sent him abroad for negotiating foreign aid contracts. Indeed, Bangladesh lacked quality leadership with negotiating capabilities. Mr. Siddique successfully negotiated quite a number of big contracts with his outstanding skills and earned commendation from both the government and the development partners.
When he was the chairman of the Privatisation Commission, once he called me over telephone: 'Shahid, can you come down to my office please?' Privatisation Commission was not far off from our FE office that time. As I landed his office, Mr Siddique stated to me the painful decision of the government to close down the Adamjee Jute Mills (AGM), the biggest jute mills of the world. As the government was incurring huge losses and there was no prospective buyer, the decision to close it for good was really a major challenge. But he explained to me how he is thinking to transform the mill areas into an industrial park. During his tenure, Privatisation Board was upgraded to a commission and the post of chairman enjoyed the rank and status of a deputy minister.
He told me the detailed plans about how the looms and properties of AGM would be sold to the intending buyers and how the overseas investors would find the zone a safe haven to invest their money for setting up various mills and factories. He wanted media help for propagating these ideas so that the general people did not rue the closure of AGM. I wrote a story on AGM closure and future strategy in the FE, which attracted immediate attention of the readers and analysts. Today, Adamjee Export Processing Zone (EPZ) is thriving brightly on the ruins of the AGM and the zone is humming with the activities of both local and foreign investors. Mr QI Siddique's farsightedness has been amply demonstrated in this incident.
An avid lover of birds and animals, his residence at Dhanmondi was virtually a sanctuary of various species of birds and animals. His habit was to read newspapers and magazines in the morning. When he found reports of irregularities and corruption in the media, he always used to direct instant investigation against the concerned persons. If the reports were found genuine, he took immediate actions against the persons concerned. At home, when he found time, he used to see the video footage of various ongoing projects in the rural Bangladesh. Video footage covered infrastructure works and their implementation and how such works were impacting upon socio-economic activities of the hapless poor people. He basically monitored the inter-actions of the target group people and tried to chalk out future strategies based on his findings. This is a very hard work. Still he found pleasure in doing such work that is aimed at eliminating poverty from village life. By reading newspapers and inter-acting with grass-root people, he tried to evolve new course of action in his endeavour to give new lease of life to rural people.
Mr. QI Siddiqui was seen by many as a fine gentleman, a noted expert in the field of engineering, a charismatic orator and communicator, and an effective result-seeker and maker in pertinent areas of his life long activities. He held the post of the president of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh for some time. In addition, he was associated with a number of international organisations. He was recipients of various national and international awards for his good work.
After he retired from the government service, he was appointed executive director of Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Board (DTCB) on contractual basis. On completion of the one-year contract, it was renewed for another year. He thought his service in the DTBS was very challenging and he professionally enjoyed his work. The major challenge that he faced was how to give DTCB a shape of a professional body to plan and co-ordinate the traffic and transport system of greater metropolitan Dhaka.
From the very beginning the DTCB lacked professional staff. Nothing was done to recruit people like transport planner, transport modeller and land use planner, which all are vital positions. Most people were on deputation from Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and it became impossible to run the DTCB with those unprofessional workers. Most of the officials were simply dumped from other organisations and some of them came as timeserver as it was thought that DTCB was a temporary organisation. After few months they went back or were transferred. As such, he could not contribute significantly to this organisation and he left disappointed.
When he was the chairman of the Power Development Board, Quamrul Islam Siddique told a roundtable discussion: "For extracting coal, the underground mining method (in Barapukuria) did not give us good experience." I reckon that his opinion was based on the fact that there were accidents in the Barapukuria coalmine, the temperature in the tunnels did not allow the labourers to work efficiently. Ensuring proper ventilation and mine safety is technically very complex and costly, and there are the problems of flash flows of water, the proven threat of methane and carbon monoxide gas emissions, and spontaneous firing of coal. Underground mining, ultimately, does not have the benefit of not displacing the people and structures above the mine or not saving the agricultural land, since the extraction of coal from the coal bed produces voids beneath the soil.
At the fag end of his life, he became associated with the Global Water Partnership, a world forum of formulating strategies for water-related issues. He was made president of Bangladesh Water Partnership. At a seminar organised by the Centre for Strategic and Peace Studies, I heard Mr. Siddique as saying that building storage facilities in Nepal along with framing an effective regional model of flood management would be helpful in resolving water disputes in South Asia.
He blamed the then government, as it did not make any serious effort to build a Ganges barrage. Referring to water disputes between Bangladesh and India, Bangladesh Water Partnership chief said India, which is a leader of this region, has to understand the implications of climate change and should act accordingly.
Those who have seen him participating in numerous television talk shows must admit that his knowledge and perception about wide ranging issues were very strong and versatile. He represented Bangladesh in many world fora. Just before his death, he was scheduled to attend a seminar organised by the Global Water Partnership in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. On his way he died when he was on transit in New Jersey, USA. May Allah rest his soul in peace!
The views expressed in this article are of author's own and not necessarily of any organisation. The writer can by reached at
szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com