DCs want opening of closed mills

Deputy Commissioners (DCs) proposed Wednesday that the government take initiative for reactivating the inoperative or closed mills in different districts for the country's economic uplift, officials said.  
Asked about the proposal of the field-level administrative officials, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu said the government is aware about the matter and will do what is needed and possible in this regard.
"We are aware about the matter. We will take initiative," he told the journalists after the third session of the second day's DC Conference 2015 at the Cabinet Division of Bangladesh Secretariat.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed as special guest at the meet directed the deputy commissioners to select one district, one product aiming to enrich country's export bucket, which is considered too small to match with Bangladesh's overseas market potential.  
He also called upon the DCs to strengthen market-monitoring drive as well as resisting unscrupulous traders mixing formalin with foodstuffs.
The commerce minister called upon the key field- level officials to help keep stable the prices of essential commodities on the market.
Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain in the sixth session of the meet directed the DCs to strengthen union parishad and upazila parishad activities.
He announced a government plan to bolster manpower of the union councils in the lowest tier of local government.   
"We are considering appointing one more person to each union parishad to help assist the huge workload being done by the secretaries of the parishads," he told his audience.
"We have directed the DCs to identify old and unused ponds and come up with a project so that we could re-excavate those to help keep the groundwater level stable as well as ensure safe drinking water for rural people," said Mr Mosharraf, who got the assignment to the local government in the latest cabinet reshuffle few days back.   
He said that the government will increase allocation for the three hill districts' development following the proposals coming from the three DCs from the hills.
The minister said there are 310,000 kilometres of rural roads. And only 106,000 kilometres are bitumen. The government will gradually rebuild the dilapidated roads.  
He directed the DCs to identify the water reservoirs or age-old ponds and send their project proposals to the government for re-excavation in order to ensure safe water and their economic use.  The DCs in the second session of the meeting with Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali proposed that the government take initiative so that problems prevailing in their respected areas could be resolved through discussion with the district magistrates (India).
"Their (DCs) proposal is good. We will consider it," the minister told the journalists after the meeting.
State ministers, secretaries of the ministries concerned and DCs were among others present.  
    talhabinhabib@yahoo.com