Although residents of Raipura municipality in Lakshmipur pay taxes every year, they have been suffering a lot because the municipal authority has not carried out a single development effort in the last five years.
Local sources said although Tk21 crores had been allocated from the Local Government Engineering Department in the last three years, some officials in collaboration with local Awami League leaders had embezzled all of it. A portion of the road in front of the municipality office is lying in a run-down state, the sources said.
Sources said that stretch of road had been renovated six months before at a cost of Tk1.50 lakh.
Mobarak Hossain, a resident of the municipality, told the Dhaka Tribune that if a person entered the area, he would find garbage everywhere.
Since the establishment of Raipur as a municipality in 1994, residents of the area have expected that the authorities would try to improve the place, but the municipal authorities failed to fulfill the expectations of citizens, he said.
People in the municipality were enduring a severe water crisis because the water supply system was impaired by frequent load shedding, he added.
Dakatia Gung lake which, adds to the beauty of the municipality, has been almost entirely occupied illegally by local people with clout. No steps have taken to recover the illegally occupied portions of the lake.
During a recent visit to Raipura Bazar, which is the commercial hub of the municipality, the Dhaka Tribune found that numerous rainwater-filled potholes obstructed the entrance to the market.
Basher Uddin, a trader of the market, said, “We often see people fall into the potholes and get injured.”
He said traders of the market along with market committee members requested the municipality authority to fix the road, but they did not pay heed to their appeal.
Student of Raipura Merchants Academy, Pilot Girls School and LM Pilot Model High School suffer every day because of the dilapidated state of the road.
During the rainy season students have to wade through the water on the way to school because low-lying areas of the road are submerged because of the poor drainage system, local people said.
Residents of Denayetpur, Kanchanpur and Debipur, Purbolach and Keroa villages become marooned after heavy downpours because the municipal drainage system does not work properly.
Farmers cannot transport their agri-produce to district headquarters as well as different parts of the country as the Lakshmipur-Chandpur road is in a run-down state.
Rahela Khatun, a resident of Debipur, said people were vulnerable to crimes such as purse-snatching because there were no street lights on the lamp posts.
When contacted, Municipal Mayor, ABM Zilani, told the Dhaka Tribune that they could not do development work because of a lack of funds.
