DCs for building ring road to tighten border security [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

DCs for building ring road to tighten border security

Local July 29, 2015

Several deputy commissioners at their annual conference in Dhaka proposed setting up ‘ring road’ along the border with India to strengthen security and check smuggling as a vast area along the frontiers in Chittagong Hill Tracts and the country’s north remained unprotected.
Deputy commissioners from Panchagarh and Cox’s Bazar made the recommendation at the business session with the home ministry at the secretariat.
They mentioned that India had already constructed ring road on their side from the Bangladesh border to tighten their overall security.
‘We will set up border outposts in phases to guard the border as around 700 kilometer of bordering areas are not yet covered by any BOPs. But in future, we will have to construct ring roads to strengthen border security,’ home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters after the session.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the three-day conference of the deputy commissioners at her Tejgaon office in the morning.
Some of the DCs in a closed-door meeting with the prime minister alleged that they could not discharge their responsibilities in some cases due to interference of the elected representatives.
Sheikh Hasina in her 21-point directives ordered the deputy commissioners to work in coordination with the public representatives for establishing good governance at the grassroots level.
Divisional commissioners from seven divisions and DCs from 64 districts are at
tending the conference with the cabinet secretary, Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, in the chair.
Several deputy commissioners praised the government’s achievements in various areas, including the economy, education and use of information communication technology.
The deputy commissioners underlined the need for framing rules under the Mobile Court Act of 2009 as the cabinet had already approved a draft bill to amend the law for restoring the executive magistrates’ powers to take cognizance of certain offences.
The DCs, who also function as district magistrates, also recommended increasing punishments under the Criminal Law (Industrial Area) Amendment Act, 1942 and the Public Gambling Act, 1867 and certain provisions of the Penal Code of 1860, said a deputy commissioner.
They complained to the finance minister, AMA Muhith, at a session on the internal resources division, that the tax and customs officials were not cooperating with the district administrators and the country was, therefore, losing revenue.
‘I have assured them that the customs and tax officials would be instructed to cooperate with the DCs. The DCs also assured us that they would help indentify more potential tax payers in their respective districts,’ Muhith told reporters.
At a working session on the education and primary education ministries, some deputy commissioners alleged that a numbers of teachers illegally help students to find out answers of multiple choice questions of public exams, while talking with education, and primary and mass education, ministers.
They also alleged there was corruption in teachers’ appointment at non government schools and shortage of teachers at government schools. They said some of the non government schools are charging exorbitant fees at their whim.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid said that some of the DCs had raised the issue that a number of teachers illegally help students to find out answers of multiple choice questions. ‘We have also noticed the matter. These teachers are the black sheep among teachers. We will take stern action against them,’ he said.
Manikganj DC alleged that some of the non government schools are charging fees at a high rate. The DC of Tangail district demanded fund for repair of multimedia projectors and laptops.
Meanwhile, the home minister said he had given instructions to activate law and order committees in different districts to be headed by the DCs.
The DCs, mainly responsible for implementation and supervision of government policies and programmes in the field, earlier placed a total of 253 recommendations to the Cabinet Division to be placed in the 22 business sessions with ministers and secretaries concerned.
The conference will conclude on Thursday.
Out of 464 decisions taken in the previous conference in July 2014, a total of 432 have already been implemented, according to the official statistics.