Local government elections could begin in phases across the country from September or October, after this year’s monsoon season, said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. There are plans to complete elections to union parishads, municipalities, upazilas, zila parishads and city corporations within the next year, he said. Union parishad elections could be held first, the minister said.
The minister made the remarks Tuesday, June 16, during the question-and-answer session in parliament in reply to a question from Mostafizur Rahman Babul, a member of parliament for the Jamalpur-3 seat. The session was tabled with Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed in the chair.
Mirza Fakhrul said the elections would be held in phases based on the availability of budget. Union parishad elections could be held first, followed by elections to other local government bodies in stages, he said. Elections to the country’s 13 city corporations, including the newly formed Bogura City Corporation, would also be completed within the same timeframe, he said.
Replying to a question from ruling party lawmaker Mohammad Shamim Kaiser, the minister said that 600,000 taka had already been allocated to each upazila parishad by the local government division to build an inspection room inside upazila parishads for members of parliament and senior officials in all upazilas of the country.
He said water was purified using the advanced chemical PAC, alum sulphate and chlorination, and tested in WASA’s own laboratory following World Health Organization guidelines to ensure water quality before being supplied to the network. Dhaka WASA collects 40 to 50 water samples daily from various parts of the metropolis and tests various parameters to ensure water quality, he said.
Replying to a question from Selima Rahman, a member of parliament for a reserved women’s seat, the minister, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said that in the Dhaka North City Corporation, household waste is collected by private individuals and firms and taken by van to secondary transfer stations. Work was under way to bring these private individuals and firms under contract with the city corporation for proper management, he said. Once the contract process is complete, the use of small covered vans to remove waste in an environmentally sound manner would be considered, he said.
Replying to a question from Nipun Roy Chowdhury, a member of parliament for a reserved women’s seat, the minister said a move had been taken to develop version 2 of the birth and death registration software. The new system would include an online payment system, he said. Through blockchain, any change of information in the new system would leave a log, making it easy to detect at which stage information was altered. To simplify birth and death registration services and reduce public suffering, registrars and registration assistants across the country were being given regular training, he said.
Replying to a question from Sheikh Md. Rezaul Islam, a member of parliament for the Naogaon-6 seat, State Minister for Youth and Sports Aminul Haque said awareness workshops were held in every district through the Department of Youth Development, under the youth and sports ministry, to make young people aware of mobile phone addiction, drug addiction and other social issues.
He said awareness campaigns were run through youth organizations registered by the Department of Youth Development to raise awareness among young men and women on mobile phone addiction, drug addiction and various social issues.
Replying to a question from Md. Abdullah, a member of parliament for the Munshiganj-1 seat, the state minister for youth and sports said the project document for a “project to raise training and public awareness through youth organizations in border districts to keep young people away from drug addiction” had been prepared by the Department of Youth Development. The project’s feasibility study had been completed, he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report