February 10, 2004

THE DIGGING SAGA CONTINUES

If you have experience of living in Dhaka, then you know how common it is to see the newly paved road being dug out to install some utility lines. These dug out roads then wait for an indefinite period until the next round of repair adding much to the misery of city dwellers. After many sufferings and hue and cry the much awaited repair happens. Then again some other utility service provider is ready to dig out. It is really painful to see so much waste of resources in a poor country like Bangladesh.

The Daily Star tries to find out in this article why this indiscriminate digging prevails :

Some Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) engineers blamed foreign donors for such indiscriminate road digging. In many cases, donors, who sponsors new development projects suddenly release funds and ask service providers to complete the tasks in a stipulated time. In their view: "No matter how much co-ordination we maintain with one another, with the receipt of funds for work organisations concerned become desperate to obtain our permission to dig."

After carrying out recent expensive repairs, which were expected to last long, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is now going to allow service providers to dig up about 13,643 square metres of the newly repaired road surface.

Who said donors care about our infrastructure development? They are keen to install their own techologies and hardwares which this poor country will maintain by some other donated fund.

And the Bangladeshi Authorities are dishonest enough in endorsing such donor sponsored projects for their own benefits rather than thinking about the implications and the total mission of development.

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