Officials face instant dismissal over disrupted civic services: State Minister

He made the remarks while addressing a national workshop as the chief guest at the Kamrul Islam Siddique Auditorium of the LGED Bhaban in Agargaon on Wednesday (November 11). The workshop was presided over by Senior Secretary of the Local Government Division Md Shahidul Hasan.

Highlighting key challenges in urban governance, Mir Shahe Alam noted that while waste management is a primary municipal responsibility, most municipalities lack designated landfills. Dumping waste in open spaces undermines urban master plans and threatens public health, he said, instructing authorities to swiftly construct modern landfills equipped with manholes and boundary walls to facilitate the conversion of waste into electricity and organic fertilizer using modern technology.

Expressing strong dissatisfaction over the absence of a significant number of officials at the workshop, the State Minister noted that despite substantial government expenditure to organize the event, 17 administrators and 19 municipal executive officers out of 61 municipalities failed to attend. He stated that such negligence from responsible officials undermines the core objectives of the seminar, though he commended the strong turnout of engineers as a positive sign.

Addressing discrepancies in urban planning, Mir Shahe Alam remarked that political interference in the past caused severe irregularities in the selection of municipalities for master plans, depriving many eligible and important towns. He stressed that district-level and Category-'A' municipalities should have been prioritized from the outset.

The State Minister noted that development projects worth Tk 1.20 lakh crore are currently being implemented nationwide through the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to upgrade infrastructure. 

Alongside road construction, he directed officials to prioritize building children's parks and graveyards, ensuring safe drinking water supply, preserving canals and water bodies, and conducting large-scale tree plantation drives.

Issuing a zero-tolerance warning against administrative harassment in birth and death registration and other civic services, the State Minister revealed that allegations had surfaced regarding certain municipalities deliberately suspending online services or engaging in corruption to extract illicit benefits from citizens.

He asserted that such practices will not be tolerated under any circumstances, adding that punitive action will also be taken against municipalities leaving funds allocated for solar panels unutilized.

Highlighting the government's social safety net programs, he announced that "Family Cards" will be distributed to female heads of 40 million households over the next four years to ensure women's economic empowerment, with 4.1 million women set to receive benefits this year under a Tk 13,000 crore allocation.

To boost youth employment, he urged incorporating third-language training—such as Arabic, Malay, Korean, or Japanese—alongside English into skill development programs. He also noted government initiatives to bring heads of over 350,000 religious institutions under state honorariums and allocate Tk 30 lakh per union for renovating places of worship.

-SA