New Chittagong Mayor Nasir inherits Tk 2.5 billion city corporation loan

AJM Nasir Uddin has inherited a Tk 2.5 billion loan after taking charge of Chittagong City Corporation Mayor’s office.

He says he will move the prime minister for settling the loan.

The Awami League leader won the Apr 28 city polls by a huge margin.

He took charge from acting mayor Mohammad Hossain three months after the election.

According to a documentary shown recently, the city corporation had a loan of over Tk 2.36 billion until July 16.

Mayor Nasir said about Tk 150 million had been added to the loan since then.

“The prime minister has given a special allocation of Tk 500 million. I’ll inform her of the loan and request her to pull us out of this situation,” he said.

“I hope she will help us and everyone’s loan will be paid.”

He blamed himself for being unaware of the situation.

Waterlogging

One of Nasir’s key electoral pledges was to rid the city of waterlogging. On Sunday, much of the city was submerged due to several days of incessant rain.

He said he had directed the cleaning department to solve the problem he ‘inherited’.

“They are working with limited resources and [thanks to that,] water level is receding quickly. Bahaddarhat is not getting waterlogged like before,” he said when asked how he was planning to tackle the problem.

The mayor said solving the waterlogging problem was a challenge.

“We’ll target several areas each year to solve the problem,” he said. “All government institutions will be involved in modernising the sewerage and drainage systems.”

He retorted that those who did not know the ‘real situation’ believed waterlogging to be the ‘main problem’.

Nasir said he would speak with the Chittagong port chairman to hasten the construction of a sluice gate as well as dredging of Karnaphuli River.

He promised to do everything to build Chittagong into a ‘world-class megacity’.

According to him, the main problem lied in the ‘lack of administrative discipline’.

“I believe restoring administrative discipline is the key issue here,” he said. “We won’t be able to serve the people if this state of affairs continues.”

“We have to achieve competency before undertaking plans that we can implement or at least take them to a satisfactory stage in five years.”