State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit has said that no affected family will be deprived of relief and rehabilitation assistance, and that the government has stood by the flood-hit people of Cox’s Bazar from the outset. He said additional relief and cash assistance had been allocated to provide affected families with the help they needed. He made the remarks while speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning after distributing relief among flood-affected people in the Jhilwanja union of Cox’s Bazar Sadar. The information was given in a press release.
The state minister said that at a coordination meeting held on Monday at the deputy commissioner’s office — with the district administration, upazila administration, the local member of parliament and officials of various government departments — the flood situation of recent days, relief operations and rehabilitation plans had been reviewed. He said the meeting had decided to accept the additional requirements of the relevant upazila administrations and to provide further additional allocations to each upazila to help all affected families.
He said that under the directives of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, the government’s goal was not merely to distribute relief but to quickly restore the normal lives of affected people — through help repairing damaged homes, rebuilding roads, bridges and culverts and educational and religious institutions, and swiftly collecting information on losses to crops, fisheries and livestock to carry out the necessary rehabilitation. On the deaths in landslides, he said living at the foot of hills was extremely risky, and the government had planned to rehabilitate those living in risky areas by providing land and housing elsewhere. He said the government was taking a firm stance against illegal hill-cutting and encroachment and would not allow even powerful quarters to engage in such activities.
The state minister said relief distribution and rehabilitation were being made more effective through the coordinated efforts of the army, navy, air force, BGB, coast guard, public representatives and private support organisations, under the leadership of the district and upazila administrations. Responding to a question about repairing sluice gates and embankments, he said the matter had already been discussed with the state minister for water resources, and expressed hope that within the next one to two weeks a visit would be made to Cox’s Bazar to inspect the damaged sluice gates and embankments and take necessary steps. Among those present at the relief distribution were Cox’s Bazar-3 MP Lutfur Rahman Kajol, Chattogram Range Additional DIG Md Nazimul Haque, Cox’s Bazar Deputy Commissioner Md A Mannan and Superintendent of Police ANM Sajedur Rahman.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report