PM for undertaking dev projects without hurting nature

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed all ministries not to undertake or implement any development project that harms the environment.

Chairing a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) held at the NEC conference room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on Tuesday, the premier directed the authorities concerned to implement development schemes maintaining ecological balance and in a speedy manner avoiding unnecessary revision.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said the premier while giving approval to a Tk2,580 crore Coastal Town Climate Tolerance Project said that this project should be implemented carefully without disturbing the natural balance as the coastal belt is usually a climate-sensitive area.

Turning to the issue of boosting agricultural productivity in the wake of the global situation, the prime minister stressed not only boosting agricultural production but also ensuring the production of quality food grains and nutrition-enriched crops, Mannan said.

She also asked the concerned ministries to pay attention to stockpiling food grains in godowns as well as pursuing higher technology in the preservation of those as the Netherlands has better technical know-how in this regard.

Touching upon the inflation situation, Mannan said the overall inflation trend is now downward while the wage index is also on the uptrend which is a good sign.

He said the country is likely to witness a good harvest of Aman crops this time which is definitely good news for all.

Quoting data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the planning minister informed that vegetable production has increased six times over the years while the production of various nutrition-enriched food grains and fruits has started to impact the inflation trend.

Riding on the good supply side, Mannan noted that the general point-to-point inflation would come down further in November and thus continue to fall in December, January and February next year.

The prime minister has expressed her satisfaction with the current inflationary situation, he said.

Regarding the time overrun of development projects, the planning minister said the project duration has to be revised due to various reasons and land acquisition is a formidable one among those. Sometimes projects have to be modified due to the contractor's unjustified demands.

Many projects had been revised due to the Covid situation, the Ukraine-Russia war, inflation, and price hike of construction materials, he said.

The planning minister said the premier stressed avoiding revision of projects' duration and completing the ongoing projects in a speedy manner within the stipulated time frame.

In response to a question, Planning Division Secretary Md Mamun-Al-Rashid, who was also present at the news briefing, said the Planning Commission is working to stop the trend of revising the duration and cost of projects. 

The duration of projects has to be extended due to a lack of proper feasibility study, he said, adding that a committee is preparing a guideline in this regard. 

There are no good institutions in the country to conduct feasibility studies and the committee will come up with a framework on how to conduct the feasibility study properly, Secretary Md Mamun said.