CCC Mayor defends proposed US tour after PM rejects plan

CHATTOGRAM, June 03: Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) Mayor Dr Shahadat Hossain has alleged that a "vested group" provided misleading information to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman about a proposed visit to the United States to study mosquito-control technology, leading to the rejection of the tour.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the mayor said the visit had been arranged to assess the feasibility of establishing a production facility in Bangladesh for biological mosquito larvicides.

"At a time when all preparations had been completed, a vested interest group confused Prime Minister Tarique Rahman by providing entirely false and misleading information about the visit," Shahadat wrote.

Seeking to clarify the purpose of the proposed tour, the mayor said Chattogram City Corporation used a biological larvicide produced by US-based Valent BioSciences from October 2025 to May this year and achieved positive results.

Based on that experience, the company proposed setting up a joint-venture production facility in Bangladesh, he said. According to Shahadat, the company invited a delegation led by him to visit its factories and research laboratories in Chicago and Florida to evaluate the project's feasibility, with all travel expenses to be borne by the company.