A Correspondent:
Kurigram: State Minister for Water Resources Farhad Hossain Azad yesterday said that the technical committee has been working on the implementation of the Teesta Master Plan and its consultations are also being held with the experts from different countries.
“A pilot project under the master plan will be launched within a short time,” he made the remarks while talking to the journalists at Chilmari river port area yesterday.
Earlier, the state minister visited several river erosion-hit areas at Chilmari, Ulipur, Roumari and Raj-ibpur upazilas of the district.
Responding to questions about the Teesta project, Azad said, “The Teesta is a major project. It is not pos-sible to implement such a large project in a single day. Our government is only five months old. Give us some time. We will begin work on the Teesta Master Plan as a pilot project within a short time.”
Regarding the overall river erosion situation in Kurigram, the state minister said he had personally in-spected the erosion-hit areas across the district including the Chilmari river port.
He said two projects have already been undertaken to construct permanent embankments and prevent river erosion in the district. The government is reviewing the progress of the projects and taking steps to ensure their speedy implementation.
Assuring that there would be no political discrimination in measures to prevent river erosion, Azad said the government stands beside people affected by erosion.
“The government has taken necessary measures so that the people do not lose their homes, markets, mosques, temples or educational institutions to river erosion,” he said.
He further said, “Following the prime minister’s instructions, we are conducting field-level visits togeth-er with local members of parliament and relevant officials to determine how quickly the projects can be implemented.”
The minister said emergency work is currently underway in around 100 erosion-prone areas of Ku-rigram. He added that instructions would be issued to take prompt measures wherever further interven-tion is required.
After his program here, the state minister said he would travel to Gaibandha to inspect two ongoing pro-jects funded by the World Bank.
Among others, lawmakers from Kurigram-4 constituency Mostafizur Rahman, Kurigram-3 constituency Barrister Mahbub Salehi, reserved seat women lawmaker Suraiya Jerin Roni, Bangladesh Water Devel-opment Board Director General Md Ruhul Amin, Kurigram Deputy Commissioner Annapurna Debnath and Kurigram Water Development Board Executive Engineer Rakibul Hasan, accompanied the state minister.
Excepting those officials, Kurigram district BNP convener Mostafizur Rahman, its member secretary Sohel Hossain Kaikobad, senior joint convener Shafiqul Islam Babu, joint convener Prof. Habibur Rah-man Hasib, Convener of Chilmari upazila BNP freedom fighter Abdul Bari, its member secretary Assis-tant Prof. Abu Hanifa and joint convener Assistant Prof. Fazlul Haque, were also present at that time.
