Special Correspondent :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asked the field-level administration to keep vigilance in the market, take stern action against illegal hoarders of commodities, and ensure a smooth supply of essential items to consumers during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.
At the same time, the PM also instructed the Deputy Commissioners (DC), who joined the DC Conference-2024 started on Sunday in Dhaka, to ensure that the people don’t need to suffer to get services, monitoring the public projects taken by the government, ensuring protection and use of cultivable land properly, conserving the memories of the War of Liberation, and ensuring use of building codes duly during construction buildings across the country.
The instructions were given in the session of the conference allocated for the Prime Minister so that the DCs could interact directly with their problems and suggestions after the inaugural session of the conference.
The session was held at the Karabi Hall of the PM’s office.
The four-day Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) Conference-2024 started on Sunday with the inaugural session in the Shapla Hall at the PM’s office in Dhaka. The divisional commissioners of all divisions and deputy commissioners of all districts joined the conference, which will conclude on Wednesday.
After the inaugural session, all other working sessions will be held at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium.
In her instruction, the PM said that the DCs must work to ensure saving electricity, protecting the climate, creating skilled manpower, combating food adulteration, and enhancing food grain stock.
The PM said, “During Ramadan, some businesses are there that always want to make extra profit by hoarding the essentials and raising their prices. We must pay special attention to it. It is now one of our immediate duties.”
“In the supply chain, problems are created or attempts are made to create artificial crises of commodities.
Some hoarders would rather let goods rot than supply them to the market. It is imperative to take stringent legal measures in addressing this matter,” she said.
The PM asked the field administration to pay special attention so that the essential goods could reach the common people smoothly during the upcoming Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims.
She said that though the inflation rate is still within 10 percent in Bangladesh, it is nonetheless a problem.
She directed the officials to intensify monitoring of the market situation and ensure that consumers are not subjected to any form of harassment.
This year, some 350 proposals have been put forth by the DCs and divisional commissioners for the DC.
The conference is a platform for top field-level administration officials.
A total of 30 sessions, including 25 working sessions, will be held during the conference, while 356 proposals placed by the DCs will be discussed there.
The proposals have been made, prioritising issues including enhancing public services and reducing public hassles, construction of roads, highways, and bridges, expansion of tourism, amendments to rules, and laws and protection of public interests.
The top agenda items include land management, improving the law and order situation, and strengthening local government institutions, disaster management and relief programs, the c creation of jobs at the local level, poverty alleviation programmeme implementation, social safety net programmeme implementation, use of information and communication technology and e-governance, improving the standard of education and its expansion, health and family welfare, conservation of the environment, and prevention of pollution, development of physical infrastructure and inspection and coordination of the development programme implementation.
In the 2023 annual conference, a total of 212 short-, medium-, and long-term decisions were taken and
130 of those have been implemented and disposed of, while 82 others are being implemented.
The rate of implementation or disposal is 62 percent.
