Bangladesh and India have initiated a move to hold regular conference of deputy commissioners and district magistrates of the districts along the border of the two countries respectively to discuss local problems and their solutions.
As part of the initiative, the Cabinet Division is set to organise an orientation programme today to brief DCs on the government policy.
Sources in the Cabinet Division said 32 DCs would participate in the programme. Secretaries of home, foreign, commerce, land, internal resources, Road Transport and Bridges Division as well as divisional commissioners were also requested to attend the programme.
“We are going to organise a daylong orientation programme to give the DCs an idea of the government policy and make the joint border conference successful,” Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said the governments of Bangladesh and India wanted to hold such conference on a regular basis. “From now, the conference will be held whenever it is necessary.”
Such conferences were not being held regularly for many years, he informed. “If conferences are held on a regular basis, many local problems could be resolved easily while the decisions made by both the countries could be implemented.”
Sources said deputy commissioners of border districts, including Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Netrakona, Meherpur, Sylhet, Jessore, Satkhira, Lalmonirhat, Habiganj and Sunamganj, would attend the orientation programme to be inaugurated by the cabinet secretary.
An official of the Home Ministry preferring anonymity said border conferences would help strengthen the relationship between the two countries and expedite the economic development. “It will also help bring down border killings,” he added.
Talking to this correspondent, Sylhet Deputy Commissioner Md Shahidul Islam said: “We will be briefed on how we can handle the conference.”
He hoped that various issues, including smuggling, border killing, drug and human trafficking, would come up at the conference for discussion.
A senior official working at the cabinet division said the officials from police, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and customs department would attend the joint border conference. Such conference would also be held with Myanmar, he added.
