Political pressure disrupting development, says State Minister Mannan

State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan has admitted that political pressure blocks the sectors from getting required funds for Bangladesh’s development.

The junior minister of the ministry charged with making the budget told a programme at the Dhaka University on Tuesday that the government ‘bowing under pressure’.
 
“The government announces budgets of hundreds of billions of taka every year, but cannot allocate properly money to every sector. Because the government has to compromise in many cases following political pressure,” the former bureaucrat said.
 
“A balanced distribution is needed for national development. But there is no balanced distribution and justice in the country. 
 
“The government cannot allocate money a sector needs,” he said.
 
Mannan also called for bringing accountability to every work and expense to help the government give out money for the sectors with priority.
 
“Proper plan is needed for the development of a country. We’ll have to understand the main problem. The development will get pace if we act following a plan on a priority basis by identifying the basic problems,” he said.
 
The state minister was speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural session of the 3rd Urban Dialogue 2015 organised by Urban NGO Forum and the Dhaka University’s Department of Disaster Science and Management at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban.
 
He emphasised a proper work plan to ease problems the urban citizens faced.
 
He also stressed the need for training to tackle natural disasters, admitting that the country did not have much resources to cope with disasters.