Mayor to seek dos and don'ts from ministry, CDA

Our Correspondent
CHITTAGONG, Feb 17: The Chittagong City Corporation will seek advice to avoid possible overlapping problems due to canal digging, renovation and wastes removal from the city canals under the water-logging control schemes undertaken by the CCC and Chittagong Development Authority.
City mayor AJM Nasir Uddin said he will write letters to the Local Government Ministry and the CDA seeking necessary dos and don'ts as both the government agencies are working for the solution to the water-logging problem that bedevils the city every monsoon.
The mayor said this at the second task force meeting of different development and service providing agencies at the Chittagong City Corporation auditorium on Thursday evening.
The task force on destruction of illegal structures and eviction of the illegal grabbers of land on the banks of the canals in the city and regular monitoring formed by the Ministry of the Local Government comprises representatives of different bodies, including CCC, CDA and Chittagong WASA.
The mayor said the government has decided to ease the city's water-logging problem under a mega project of the CDA and there is no scope to go beyond that.
Nobody should create misunderstanding among the people about it, he added.
But, according to the decision at a meeting held in the ministry on January 15 this year, the CDA was supposed to inform the CCC and other Task Force members in 30 days about what tasks it will perform and where.
"It is unfortunate because the next rainy season is not far away," he said, adding the CDA will get the Tk56.00 billion project done under the overall supervision of the Bangladesh Army.
On the other hand, the Chittagong City Corporation has also started excavation and renovation of the canals and drains and waste removal from them and hills protection programme in the city.
So the people are talking about any possible overlapping of the water logging mitigation activities.
The projects simultaneously undertaken by both the CDA and CCC are also creating a kind of misunderstanding among the city dwellers, he said, adding that he will soon write to the LG Ministry and the CDA for ensuring smooth implementation of the projects for the sake of the public interest.
The city corporation started the canals' waste removal programme in the city on January 7 this year and has completed 30 per cent of the work at the cost of Tk 20 million as part of its prime responsibility.
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