Staff Reporter:
The parliamentary standing committee on the Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry yesterday recommended taking projects to ensure safe drinking water in arsenic-affected areas and obtaining three-year warranty deposits from contractors to improve the quality and durability of rural roads.
The recommendations came at the first meeting of the committee, held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with its chairman A.K.M. Selim Reza Habib, MP, in the chair.
The committee also recommended strengthening supervision of road construction, intensifying cleanliness drives to control Aedes mosquitoes and prevent dengue, introducing online attendance systems at the upazila level and investigating alleged irregularities and corruption in unnecessary projects undertaken during the previous government.
At the meeting, the committee stressed ensuring transparency, accountability and quality in development activities under the ministry and its subordinate departments and agencies, said a press release of parliament secretariat.
It recommended identifying arsenic-contaminated areas across the country and taking projects and effective measures to ensure access to safe drinking water for affected communities.
In line with the prime minister’s directives, the committee recommended collecting security deposits from contractors as a three-year warranty for rural road construction to ensure the quality, durability, transparency and accountability of the work.
It also emphasized strengthening supervision of construction activities by ensuring that the relevant officials properly perform their duties.
To prevent dengue and control Aedes mosquitoes, the committee recommended taking necessary measures to increase public awareness and supervise cleanliness drives in their respective areas through Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs).
Committee members and LGRD Minister Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, State Minister Mir Shahe Alam, along with Mohammad Akteruzzaman, Alhaj Jasim Uddin Ahmed, Sheikh Farid Ahmed, Selina Sultana, A.T.M. Azharul Islam and Md Rafiqul Islam Khan, attended the meeting.
Secretaries of the ministry, additional secretaries, joint secretaries, heads of different departments and agencies, and relevant officials of the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad Secretariat were also present.
