Azad, Lakshmipur Correspondent: A public rally was held demanding the implementation of a Tk 3,100-crore embankment project to protect the banks of the Meghna River in Ramgati and Kamalnagar upazilas of Lakshmipur. The rally took place on Sunday (16 November) from evening till night at the field of Kadir Panditerhat School in the upazila.
The event was presided over by Maulana Gias Uddin, district president of the National Imam Association. The chief guest was BNP leader ABM Ashraf Uddin, former Member of Parliament for Lakshmipur-4 and the party’s assistant secretary for industry and commerce.
The rally was moderated by local resident Saeed Md. Anwar Hossain. Special guests included district Jamaat-e-Islami secretary A.R. Hafiz Ullah, Kamalnagar Upazila JSD president Abdul Motaleb, among others.
Jamaat leader Hafiz Ullah said, “If those who became MPs since 1973 had taken effective measures, so many areas of Ramgati and Kamalnagar would not have disappeared into the river. There were MPs, ministers, even a deputy leader of the opposition here—but what did they give the nation? The former MP (Bikalpa Dhara Secretary General Major (Retd.) Abdul Mannan) pocketed percentages from the Tk 3,100-crore embankment project.”
BNP leader and MP candidate Ashraf Uddin said, “There is no point discussing how the Tk 3,100-crore project was wasted. I want to tell the executive engineer—whatever business was done, for God’s sake, don’t turn it into a business again. Some tenders and re-tenders have taken place—complete those works properly.”
Lakshmipur Water Development Board Executive Engineer Nahid Uz Zaman Khan told journalists that the project timeline has been extended by one year and implementation work is ongoing. The embankment project will become fully visible by next June.
In 2021, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), chaired by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, approved the nearly Tk 3,100-crore project to build a 31-kilometer riverbank protection embankment in Ramgati and Kamalnagar upazilas. Following this, former State Minister for Water Resources Colonel (Retd.) Zahid Farooq inaugurated the work on 9 January 2022 in the Meghna area of Saheberhat Union in Kamalnagar. The project deadline was extended several times. After 5 August 2024, some contractors reportedly abandoned their work and fled. The works left incomplete by those contractors were re-tendered.
