Dhaka, May 19 (bdnews24.com)—A parliamentary watchdog has recommended the Awami League government dig canals, a programme popularised by its archrival BNP's founder Ziaur Rahman in the late 1970s, to stop flooding and better manage water resources.
The parliamentary standing committee on planning ministry at a meeting on Tuesday also suggested a stop to construction of structures on arable land.
The panel asked the land ministry to frame a law banning indiscriminate construction of buildings on cultivable land.
"We have recommended for digging of canals across the country to stop flooding and better manage waters in the coming rainy season," committee chairman Oli Ahmad, one of the founders of the BNP who had defected at the fag end of the 2100-2006 BNP-led government, told bdnews24.com.
Ahmad, a freedom fighter and close associate of military ruler General Zia, resigned from the BNP and formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), an opposition party with one seat in parliament.
After the assassination of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Zia took to digging canal to get popular with the people—an idea never nurtured by the Awami League.
Ahmad explained that digging would increase the water-retention capacity of canals. It meant huge waters could be stored for use in the dry season in addition to addressing mild floods.
"The Local Government Engineering Department should dig canals immediately," he said.
The chairman said at present 3000 acres of cultivable land was being used for non-agricultural purposes.
"If this trend goes uninterrupted, there will be no cultivable land in 20 years."
"So, the committee has recommended a stop to the rapid construction of buildings," he said.
"We have asked the land ministry to frame a law prohibiting unregulated construction of buildings across the country."
The committee members planning minister A K Khondker, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Azizul Haq Chowdhury, Nawab Abbas Ali Khan and A N M Shamsul Alam attended the meeting.
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