Govt appoints AL leader Khorshed as CCC administrator
The government appointed ruling Awami League Chattogram Mohanagar vice-president Khorshed Alam Sujon as the administrator of the Chittagong City Corporation after the Election Commission decided not to hold the mayoral polls in the city during the COVID-19 crisis.
Local government, rural development and co-operatives minister Muhammad Tajul Islam made the announcement at a press conference at his office at the secretariat in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The government took the decision just a day before the expiry of the five-year tenure of the incumbent Chattogram City Corporation mayor AJM Nasir Uddin.
On March 21, the Election Commission had suspended the elections to Chattogram City Corporation scheduled for March 29 over the coronavirus spread fear.
Before the suspension, the candidates began the campaign after the allocation of symbols for Chittagong City Corporation elections.
Among the six mayoral candidates, Awami League candidate Md Rezaul Karim Chowdhury got ‘boat’, Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate Shahadat Hossain ‘sheaf of paddy’, Bangladesh Islamic Front’s M A Matin ‘candle’, National Peoples Party’s Abul Manjur ‘mango’, Islamic Font Bangladesh’s Wahed Murad ‘chair’, Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s Jannatul Islam ‘hand fan’.
The EC had also allocated symbols among the 217 councillor candidates on March 9.
On July 21, EC secretary M Alamgir told reporters that the commission decided to not to hold any local government elections, including Chittagong City mayoral polls, during the coronavirus and flood crises.
On April 28 of 2015, Nasir was elected as the CCC mayor. Then on August 6 of 2015, Nasir took the charge of CCC.
Nasir said that whoever took the charge he would help that person, New Age Staff Correspondent in Chattogram reported.
The outgoing mayor said that for the last five years he served the CCC and tried his best to turn Chattogram into a clean and green city.
The new administrator Khorshed is going to assume office for 180 days on Thursday following the end of mayor Nasir’s tenure and he will fulfil his duties until a new mayor is elected.
Khorshed told New Age, ‘I didn’t do any lobbying for this post. For the last 50 years, I have been active in politics and sacrificed the most for the party. As the prime minister is confident…from my end I will try not to break the trust.’
He said that he did not get the official letter yet and added that the tenure of mayor Nasir would be over on Wednesday, so on Thursday he would take charge of the CCC.
Khorshed said that he would try his best to make Chattogram a liveable city.
The main problem of Chattogram is uneven roads and traffic congestion and I will try to focus on that, said Khorshed.
He had performed duties as the general secretary of Chhatra League at Chattogram Intermediate College, general secretary and later president of the BCL at Chittagong University.
After completing his graduation from the sociology department of Chittagong University he took admission to Dhaka University to study library science.
In 1986, he was elected president of National Chhatra League. He led different movements that led to the fall of general Ershad.
The 62 year-old Khorshed was the aspirant candidate of Awami League for the mayoral post of the CCC election but did not get the nomination.
He was very active in mobilising the masses in favour of different issues related to easing public suffering amid the corona crisis.
Khorshed demanded exemplary punishment of the hospital owners as due to the non-cooperation of the owners of private hospitals and clinics of Chattogram many patients died in want of ICUs and some were refused admission.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
