Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the shipping minister to recover the embankments of the Buriganga River from the occupants and complete the construction of the walkways across the river immediately to reduce hazards for the people.
The instructions were given in the cabinet meeting held at secretariat’s cabinet conference room on Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
She expressed her dissatisfaction as the ministry failed to execute her previous order which was given during her previous government’s tenure in this regard, a minister attended the cabinet meeting told the Dhaka Tribune.
A taskforce was formed led by Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan during the previous government’s tenure.
The taskforce had held several meetings with the members of the committee and taken several decisions like dredging the rivers to increase navigation, recovering the river embankments and assets from the occupants and eliminating river water contamination.
The works of recovering the river banks from the occupants and identifying the river area were also started. But, it was not finished due to flexibility of the minister and members of the committee.
Expressing her discontent in this regard, the premier came up with the call due to failure of the minister to recover all the assets and embankment of the rivers from the occupants.
She ordered the minister to finish the work shortly and complete constructing walkways across the embankment of the Buriganga which would reduce public sufferings for traffic jam.
The initiative of the taskforce for dredging some rivers to increase navigability and starting circular waterway across the Dhaka City also failed to get a result.
Though an initiative of shipping and environment ministry to eliminate the Buriganga water contamination was taken, it was also stuck after removal of some wastage from the river.
The prime minister came up with the order due to minister’s failure, the minister said.
Earlier on February 3, Hasina asked the shipping minister to complete the dredging work of the rivers and khals shortly to restore its navigability.
Seeking anonymity, a minister attended that meeting told the Dhaka Tribune the prime minister wanted to know about the progress of capital dredging project under shipping ministry. The project was also taken according to the will of the premier during her previous tenure.
While Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan raised the issue of fund crisis for doing the work in time, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the government has already provided adequate funds for completing the dredging work.
He suggested the shipping minister to complete the work within November to April as this period is known as dry season and funds would be available for the work after budgetary allocation in July, begging of the fiscal year.
Some senior ministers of the cabinet including Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Matia Chowdhury, Mohammad Nasim took part in the discussion.
The minister urged to start the dredging works during the summer and dry season. It will be more effective if the works could be completed during the dry season as more of the silts might be removed at that period.
They also urged the minister to protect the river banks along with the dredging works.
The prime minister asked the shipping minister to complete the work shortly. She also suggested him to use the TK20bn fund of Chittagong port authority, if there is any crisis of fund due to delay of fund releasing from the finance ministry.
