BCC's activities being hampered in absence of mayor, fund crisis

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BARISAL, July 13 (UNB): Activities of the Barisal City Corporation (BCC) are being hampered seriously due to fund crisis and absence of mayor depriving the citizens of their basic amenities.
At present, day to day works of the BCC are running on credit basis and the budget of the current fiscal year is yet to be announced.
The post of BCC Mayor Majibor Rahman Sarwar fell vacant following his arrest on May 29, 2007 from his residence at Dhaka and investigation against him in a graft charge is going on.
Since then no one has yet been selected as mayor-in-charge and all financial activities of the BCC are stagnant due to the reason, sources said.
The situation worsened as about one-third of the 40, including 10 female reserved seat commissioners remained absconding since the declaration of state of emergency and others are also inactive in supervision of the daily works and meetings of the different sub committees are not being held since then, they added.
The sources said salaries of the staff members of the BCC remained unpaid for the last four months and in the meantime sanctioned fund worth Tk 120 million (12 core) has been returned as the post of mayor, only who has the financial power, was lying vacant.
Due to lack of emergency maintenance works, most of the city roads became risky for pedestrians and transports.
Specially the Sadar Road, Fazlul Huq Avenue, Bazar Road, Chawk Bazar, Katpotty, Kawnia Roads are in dilapidated condition.
The BCC at present has not a single bulb in stock to replace any of the streetlights. The lone lifting vehicle, used for replacing and maintenance of about three thousand streetlights, is out of order for the last six months.
Health and sanitation conditions of the city are now in deplorable state, as the workers employed for these works could not be paid for last four months due to paucity of fund.