Mayor demands adequate fund from central govt

Without adequate budgetary allocation from the central government for implementing projects of excavating new canals, the port city's waterlogging problem cannot be mitigated through initiatives of the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) alone, CCC Mayor M Manjur Alam said yesterday.
“The budgetary allocation that we get from the government and inner sources of the city corporation are being spent in regular excavation, maintenance and renovation of the existing drains and canals, and it is insufficient for implementing projects for excavating new canals, which is needed for reducing waterlogging in the city,” he said.
He also said proper implementation of the Drainage Master Plan formulated by the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) was also a must to alleviate the existing crisis.  
He made the remarks before the media at the CCC auditorium in the city after declaring CCC's proposed budget of Tk 1,195.9 crore for the fiscal year of 2014-2015.
Under its annual development programme, CCC has submitted a proposal of a project of Tk 295 crore to the central government for excavating a new canal from Bahaddarhat Baraipara to the Karnaphuli river to lessen the waterlogging in the city's low-lying areas like Bakalia, Chawkbazar, Bayezid, Muradpur and Bahaddarhat, said the mayor.
Urging the government to implement the new project to excavate a new canal, he said it was not possible for CCC to lessen the crisis without the government's help and coordinated efforts from CDA.
Earlier, the mayor placed the proposed budget of CCC along with the revised budget of Tk 498.35 crore for the current fiscal year 2013-14.
In the proposed budget, CCC set a revenue target of Tk 567.41 crore from its own sources while remaining Tk 628.5 crore from relief, development aid and other sources of revenue.
According to the revised budget, CCC spent a total of Tk 8.81 crore for constructing 16.82km drainage system and Tk 8.65 crore for constructing and excavating 0.058km canal.