Environmental activists criticised the government for not comprehensively marking environmental protection issues in the proposed national budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year at a press conference yesterday.
Organised by Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), the conference titled “How much environment friendly the proposed budget 2015-16 is?” was held at Dhaka Reporter’s Unity.
Government has proposed to allocate Tk1,020 crore for the Ministry of Environment and Forest, which is higher by Tk84 crore compared to the previous budget.
However, the salaries of the ministry officials will also be raised by 20%-30% which brings back the scenerio to square one. It indicates that there is nothing new in the budget centring the Ministry of Environment and Forest, remarked the participants.
Abdul Matin, general secretary of Bapa, urged the government to consider environment conservation as the centre point of the country’s development measures to make it sustainable.
Moreover, the proposed budget does not reflect anything on Bangladesh’s role in the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to be held in December this year in Paris, France.
Bangladesh will participate in the COP as one of the most vulnerable countries in terms of climate change issues, said Matin said in his written speech.
“The budget should blend both development and environmental issues in order to bring a significant change,” Bapa Vice-President Syed Abul Maksud said.
He sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s attention in order to terminate irresponsible people from the ministry.
“We have observed that the current activities of the ministry are quite lifeless. This can bring hazards in future,” he added.
The press conference was attended by agronomist Dr Shahidul Islam and Bapa Joint Secretary Mihir Biswas, among others.