Councillors to go on strike
Splitting Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) into Dhaka north and Dhaka south will worsen the sufferings of its dwellers, said speakers at a discussion yesterday.
The people of Dhaka city should go to court and simultaneously wage a tougher movement against the decision to split it and save the city, they said at the discussion held at Jatiya Press Club.
Dhaka City Corporation Councillors' Oikkya Parishad organised the discussion where civil society members also expressed their views.
The convener of the parishad, councillor Kazi Abul Bashar, announced that the parishad would launch a ward-based campaign from today and would go for a token hunger strike at the Central Shaheed Minar in the first week of December to stop the move.
A bill was placed in parliament yesterday to approve the split.
This is a totally peculiar proposal which will create various kinds of problems for the city and increase the sufferings of its residents, said Dr Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to a caretaker government.
Akbar Ali Khan said the Awami League in its election manifesto did not mention the split. Neither did the government form any commission before taking the decision, something which should have been done.
Urging people to take proper steps against the move, the former adviser said this move would increase the expenditure of the city corporation, the burden of which will eventually fall on the shoulders of its dwellers.
He suggested that the councillors undertake a signature campaign against the move as the government would not dare to go for a referendum on the issue.
Noted filmmaker Chashi Nazrul Islam said the government was going to divide DCC as it knew that it would not win in a single ward of DCC if the election were held today.
Prof Asif Nazrul said urged the councillors, loyal to both the Awami League and BNP, to raise a united move against the decision.
He said the split would not only increase the sufferings of the dwellers of Dhaka city but also cause problems for the people of the country as a whole.
Justice Abdur Rouf said the government needed to split the LGRD ministry instead of DCC to strengthen the activities of the corporation.
Councillor Munshi Bazlul Basid Anzu moderated the discussion. Councillors Shamim Parvez, Momotaz Begum and Meherunnisa, among others, addressed the event.
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