DHAKA THIS WEEK

Mahbub Husain Khan

While reading in the newspapers that the assailants in the grenade attack on Anwar Choudhury are being charge-sheeted I was pondering about terrorism. Terrorism has a singular goal. Quite simply, the goal of terrorism is to create terror and fear. Fear undermines faith in the establishment. It weakens the enemy from within, causing unrest in the masses. Terrorism is not an expression of rage.
   And amidst all the stories of corruption and financial terrorism, the poor of Dhaka city are getting poorer and more miserable. 40 per cent of the population of Dhaka city are poor and much needs to be done for them as they are creating an imbalance in the society. These people don't have enough food or any permanent places to live in properly. The Vice Chancellor of BUET said this while presiding over a seminar on 'Alleviation of Urban Poverty through Good Governance' at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) on Tuesday, 5th June. Department of Urban and Regional Planning of' BUET and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly organised the seminar. LGRD Advisor attended the programme as chief guest while UNDP Country Director and chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) Professor Dr were special guests. Convenor of the seminar and Head of Department of Urban and Regional Planning of' BUET, presented the keynote paper. In his speech, the BUET Vice Chancellor called upon the authorities concerned to explore potential labour markets for the employment of' the poor and stressed the need for allowing the poor to be part of the country's poverty alleviation programmes.
   The speakers in the seminar demanded that good governance based on the principles of transparency and accountability be ensured to improve the lifestyle of the urban poor across the country. LGRD Adviser said that, around 38 million people are living in urban areas of' Bangladesh and about 50 per cent of them are poor working in formal and informal urban economies. He said most of the urban poor are living in slums and squatter settlements where they lack in adequate water supply and sanitation. The present democratic, demographic, socio-economic and strategic considerations have made it imperative for the government to make all efforts to reduce urban poverty, he added.
   The poor in our country, while none could doubt their degradation and misery, were once largely invisible. The good society cannot accept, intellectually the justification, more precisely the contrivance, that defends this inequality. The latter is one of the most assiduously cultivated exercises in economic thought. The attack on inequality begins with a better break for those at the bottom. Along with a safety net our society must also protect the working income of its least favoured members, particularly in the cities like Dhaka.
   We look forward to the CG in helping to solve the crisis of urban poverty in Dhaka and other cities by providing housing, suitable employment and other facilities such as adequate power and water supply, and access to education for the children of the poor.
   CMC: The recommendations of the seminar should be implemented with due diligence with the power crisis still very much with us. The Caretaker Government on Sunday (3rd June) decided to revive the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) formed last year to tackle the then power crisis across the country, as nagging outages seriously affected daily life and economic activities. A meeting of the top officials of PDB and chiefs of different departments in the power sector, including DESA, DESCO and REB, at the Power Ministry took the decision in view of the emergency now reigning in the power sector. The Power and Energy Adviser Tapan Chowdhury presided over the meeting, where our armed forces have offered their help for smooth running of the power plants in the country. The chief of the special task force on power and energy, Major General Abdul Wadud was present at the meeting. As has been decided in this important meeting, the CMC, comprising mid-level officials of different power utilities like PDB, DESA, REB, DESCO and PGCB, has resumed functioning from yesterday (Monday, 4th June) to solve the crisis and deal with the problems with immediate effect.
   The CMC will monitor the power-supply situation and work together in a coordinated manner to tackle the power crisis so that load could be distributed rationally across the country, to the benefit of industrial, commercial and domestic users. Official sources said the meeting was convened in view of the crisis situation arising out of the fall in power generation following sudden breakdown of different power plants. The country's power generation hurtled down to about 3,000 megawatts this month from last month's 3,500 MW as a number of generation units at Ghorasal and Ashuganj stations shut down. The advisor asked the CMC closely monitor the generation units and take instant measures to repair the faults shortly after their shut-down. The taskforce chief offered help of the armed forces for smooth and optimal operation of the power plants. The advisor also asked the PDB officials to take special initiative to pursue the captive power producers to sell their electricity to the government to feed the power hungry national grid after the meeting the Power Advisor told reporters that Annual Development Programme (ADP) about TK. 3600-crore allocation would be spent on installation of new power plants and maintenance of old ones.
   The power crisis, as we have mentioned in this column on many occasion is affecting the day-to-day social life and economic livelihood of the people and is acting as a hindrance to the economic development of the country. In the past - since 1972- the armed forces have conic to the aid of the public agencies and the civil administration to tide over crises due to cyclones, tidal bores, floods and famine conditions. We now look forward to the armed forces and the public power agencies to work together for monitoring power generation, transmission and distribution, and also the maintenance of power generation units for optimum supply of power. The neglect and corruption of past political regimes have led to the crisis in the power sector that the public are now suffering from. This cannot be condoned and we feel that the latest decision by the CG to revive the CMC and seek for help from the armed forces should go a long way towards solving the current power crisis.
   The Caretaker Government has started the process of reforming the PSC, thus making all recruitments for the civil service and public agencies transparent, accountable and based on merit. As a first step they had appointed the eminent and honest bureaucrat Dr. Saadat Hussain as Chairman of the PSC. Now the CC on Wednesday (30 May) requested the Public Service Commission (PSC) to cancel the problematic viva voce of the 27th BCS examination, to end the long-standing fracas over the recruitment test In its steps to resolve the crisis, the government has decided to hold viva-voce examinations again for the candidates in the written examinations within the shortest possible time. An unscheduled meeting of the council of advisers with chief adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair approved a proposal for the PSC to cancel the viva-voce and arrange a fresh one for the candidates who had passed the written test. The meeting took the decision after reviewing newspaper reports and various allegations about the 27th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) Examination, in order to "restore confidence in public mind and establish transparency" in the recruiting process for government jobs.
   Both public and private organisations worldwide are subject to a measure of critical scrutiny and comment. The public agency is regularly condemned as a "bureaucracy" the word having a markedly negative overtone; faithful, intelligent and essential civil servants are often denigrated as "bureaucrats." The terms are also used, if not as aggressively, to characterise the less-than-effective administrative apparatus of the large corporate enterprise. The good society must recognise and contend with what has become a bureaucratic syndrome in both the public and private sectors. In our public sector, till the resignation of the BNP-- Alliance government, recruitment, promotions and other rewards have been totally manipulated politically and with pecuniary inducements.
   As we have written in this column, on several occasions before, political manipulation by the parties in power and dishonesty in marking written and viva examinations have totally destroyed the image of the PSC and also that of the personnel joining government agencies by succeeding in the examination conducted by the PSC. We look forward to the CG and the Chairman of PSC for quickly devising a package of reforms and putting in place the reforms as soon as possible. This will restore the image of the PSC making merit -based recruitment of public appointments.

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Holiday Desk

Since the inception in 2003, Government-led Social Investment Programme Project (SIPP) has transformed lives of about 2 million people living in the 1000 project villages in Jamalpur and Gaibandha districts. Supported by the World Bank, SIPP adopted Community Driven Development (CDD) approach that has uncovered the potential of the rural poor in Bangladesh.
   The pilot project demonstrated the benefits of community level planning. It also generated positive community responses due to increased community participation in each stage of planning and implementation. There is a potential for future role of these community level institutions in improving local level governance and livelihoods of the most vulnerable households, who are currently outside the reach of most developmental interventions. Given these benefits, the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and the World Bank negotiated an additional financing in the amount of US$8 million in March, 2007, which has been approved by the Bank Board on May 24, 2007.
   For the first time in Bangladesh, poor people have been entrusted with resources to decide and implement their own development priorities in their own communities. The results have been tremendous including - Implementation of 1300 community-managed infrastructure projects- ranging from rural roads, to schools, to tubewells. - with better quality and lower costs;
   20,000 poorest individuals received occupational skills training and capital to start small income generating activities; and Quality of life and awareness of about 2 million population were improved.
   Small savings and production groups- named Jibikayan Groups (JGs)- consisting of the very poor and most vulnerable (such as households without any land and source of income, unemployed and vulnerable youth, etc.), have been formed. The poor have welcomed this new approach of "self-help" and collective strength, and are enthusiastic about planning and managing of livelihood activities that focus on the most vulnerable members and poorest households. In less than six months time, about 14,000 groups have been formed in two districts of Jamalpur and Gaibandha. These groups would be provided assistance to improve their livelihood through technical assistance and information about markets and products. They would also benefit from skills development training and initial capital. Thus far, a total of Taka 2 million savings have been mobilized by 14000 Jibikayan Groups.

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