Govt, non-govt synergy a must

Government and non-government agencies must work together to produce a synergy in improving the lives of six million people living in Bangladesh's isolated, deprived and backward char (river shoal) regions, speakers told a daylong convention yesterday.

"Separate meetings should be arranged with members of parliament who have chars in their constituencies to find out the projects and their progress," Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told the 1st National Char Convention 2015's inaugural session.

Themed "Let there be light", it was organised by over 80 national and international non-government organisations (NGO) in the capital's Krishibid Institution Bangladesh.

Fourteen study-based papers were presented at six technical sessions attended by over 1,000 people, 60 percent of whom came from char areas.

The convention's national committee Chairperson Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled asked NGOs to come up with char-specific programmes in agriculture, health and education sectors so that this year's Tk 50 crore budgetary allocation does not remain unutilised like last year.

He assured helping link NGOs and related ministries to utilise the allocation.

Khondokar also demanded reserving 10 percent of foreign jobs for char people, saying they should be provided job-specific training, not sent to general technical schools.

Presenting a paper "Are land rights utterly an illusion for landless Char dwellers?" at a session "Access to and Control over Resources",  Hemayet Uddin, project manager, Land Rights Programme of SpeedTrust, showed how land grabbers deprived char people, often in connivance with local administrations.

A survey conducted by SpeedTrust in 2009 in 10 chars of Baufal and Dashmina upazilas of Patuakhali and reviewed in 2014 showed that the local administration has little idea about the location and size of government (khas) land.

The process of identifying genuine landless people and providing them land is difficult and long. Only 39 percent of the char dwellers have papers for their lands, the report showed.

Parliament member AKM Zahangir Hossain called for a char development authority to prepare and implement a comprehensive development plan for each individual char. 

Khushi Kabir, coordinator, Nijera Kori, questioned why farming land was being allocated to non-productive sectors like housing.

Chairing the session, Shaheen Anam, executive director, Manusher Jonno Foundation, said, "There are laws but those are not being implemented."