Bandarban deserves special budgetary allocation

A special budgetary allocation should be made for Bandarban, the most poverty stricken area of the country, which is lagging behind in all development indexes including health, education, nutrition, water, sanitation, and poverty, experts said yesterday.

Though two districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Khagrachhari and Bandarban, show improvement in health and education, many indigenous children are still deprived of education due to the problem of communication, they said.

The experts were addressing a workshop on "National Budget 2014-15: Perspective Chittagong Hill Tracts" in Unnayan Samunnay auditorium of the capital. 

The observation and recommendation were made in a concept paper jointly authored by budget analyst Dr Mahfuz Kabir, gender expert Dr Pratima Paal Majumder, former secretary ASM Nasir Uddin, and two others.

Presenting the paper, Dr Mahfuz identified drinking water and sanitation as the two main problems in the CHT region and said an organisation had been working on the problem of potable water, but none was taking care of the sanitation issue.

The experts also demanded special allocations in the budget for the local government agencies of CHT and recommended opening of branches of private banks in the region.

It seems the private banks think they would not profit from branches in CHT, they said in the paper, adding that banking facilities would create opportunities  for the indigenous people.

Unnayan Samunnay organised the workshop with support from Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility project of UNDP.