DEVELOPMENT OF DHAKA

It has almost become 37 years since we got our independence. Thirty seven years is a lot of time. We could have made this nation a prosperous one by this time if only we had strong visionary charismatic leaders. We lacked charismatic leadership. None of our leaders worked for the betterment of this nation. They were greedy, dishonest, rude and hungry for power. These so called politicians did nothing to improve the economy of the country. Rather, our country suffered a lot for their misguided rulings. The poor became poorer. Sufferings of ordinary citizens have risen to an alarming rate. The rate of unemployment is increasing day by day for which the crime rates increased dramatically. Moral and ethical values among the people are almost at its negative stage. Now all these are national issues, far bigger issues. If we only look at Dhaka, the capital city, nothing has developed. Dhaka has become a haven for miscreants, picketers, thieves, robbers and drug addicts. All these are happening due to increase in unemployment. The protector of Dhaka city, i.e. the Mayor has failed miserably to make this city into an ideal secured city. Of course, the blame should go to all the past mayors of Dhaka. None of the mayors had long term visions of making the capital city into an ideal modern city. Rather these mayors, backed up by their ruling parties, were involved in doing unplanned and short term projects. The citizens of Dhaka city are suffering from some major problems, which include: 1) traffic jams, 2) shortage of water supply, 3) lack of security 4) Unplanned construction of roads and buildings 5) Power failure. The citizens ask today what all our previous mayors did throughout all these years? Didn’t they ever see the sufferings of the Dhaka citizens? Were they intentionally ignorant about these facts? We know that every year sufficient amount of budget is allocated for the development of Dhaka city but the funds have never been properly utilized. If we only study the budget for the current fiscal year then what we see will startle anyone. Here’s a brief description of the budget:

1) For the development of Dhaka city, the budget of Tk, 1,401.88 crore was allocated. What sort of development did we see in Dhaka? Instead of solving traffic jams, water shortages, proper urban planning, reducing crimes, and supplying sufficient electricity what roles did our mayors play with the allocations of these money?

2) The salary expenditure of Dhaka City corporation workers were Tk. 97.50 crore. What kinds of facilities did the citizens of Dhaka get from Dhaka city corporation?

3) We are losing all kinds of playgrounds one by one. These are grabbed illegally by miscreants. But the fact is Tk 20 crore was allocated in the budget to maintain and develop playgrounds, but where did all the money go?

4) It is really comical that budget for the maintenance of gymnasium under Dhaka city corporation was Tk. 27 crore. We know all these gymnasiums are still in shambles so where did the money go? Could not this money be utilized for development of Dhaka?


5) Ironically only Tk 4.14 was allocated for the development of the environment projects.

6) Loans from foreign aides and government banks were Tk 619.43 crore. What happened to the development of Dhaka?