20 acres of grabbed land recovered
Poverty alleviation gets priority in Chittagong district
District administration recovered over 20 acres of land during its drive against encroachers in last 13 months that began on October 15 in 2008 at Anwara Singhara, Banshkhali Boiltali and Satkania Keranirhat.
Chittagong Chief Executive Officer Syeda Sarwar Jahan said this is the biggest recovery of land in the district against 5.85 acres in previous years.
Jahan said the administration is facing 75 cases in connection with land dispute and 26 cases over ferry ghats. They have also dispute with BIWTC over the ferry ghat that can be settled as per law, she added.
She said the move is a part of the initiatives for development of the district.
Of the 14,568 acres of land under Zila Parishad, Chittagong, 14,340 acres are under roads and roadside gutter as well as 228.03 acres to develop different public establishments like bungalows, quarters, union parishad offices, monuments, markets, religious and educational institutions, community centres, public latrines and passenger sheds. Some of the land is also under pond.
In the last five financial years since 2004 it implemented as many as 2620 small and medium scale projects with its own fund or under Annual Development Programme.
Zila Parishad, Chittagong is going on with 208 development projects, including 30 ADP funded ones under the current 2009-2010 fiscal year.
The ADP funded projects got an allocation of Tk 80 lakh in the first instalment while 178 self-financed projects involves Tk 2 crore 77.43 lakh, said the sources concerned.
The district administration also raised fund for self-financed projects from the income of its different establishments, ponds and ghats, they said.
It so far constructed 22 bungalows, three super markets, one public library, one auditorium in Laldighir Parr office building and 18 passenger sheds at different points in the district.
It leases out 22 ponds for fish farming and 32 ghats for ferry movement.
Of the ghats, seven at Sandwip and Sitakunda routes are first class ones, 17 second class and seven others third class.
It earned revenue of Tk 11.62 crore in 2008-2009 as against Tk 8.91 crore in 2007-2008.
It earned over Tk 4.93 crore in last five months of current fiscal year.
Jahan said to help improve life standard of the underprivileged people in rural areas under the district, they have also initiated some pragmatic steps alongside the regular development programmes.
Sources said under a project titled “Poverty Alleviation and Women Development Project” the administration has been conducting several vocational training courses on the Laldighi Parr building premises since January.
The three-month course includes sewing and cutting, block and boutique, boutique and design, solar power production, mushroom cultivation, garments accessories and vegetable cultivation.
It is also introducing such courses in the rural areas of Lohagara, Fatikchhari, Chandanaish and Satkania upazilas and off-shore upazila of Sandwip under the same project that aims at training up youths for self-employment and income-generating projects.
It would provide training on handicrafts, sewing and cutting, cattle and poultry farming and vegetable cultivations and give sewing machines free of cost to the distressed women in these five upazilas. Tk 10.26 lakh has been approved in this connection, said the sources.
A total of 106 unemployed women and youths received training at Zilla Parishad, Chittagong in the port city till September.
The administration will also introduce five other courses on food and nutrition, bee cultivation, biogas production, mobile repair and embroidery, they said.
Additional Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong Mohammad Saifullah, the controlling officer (CO) of 15 Zila Parishads, told The Daily Star on Saturday that the recent activities of Zila Parishad, Chittagong can be put up as an instance for other districts.
He underscored the need for solving the disputes over ferry ghats through inter-ministerial initiatives.
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