Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) mayor-elect AHM Khairuzzaman Liton said when in office, he would investigate the widespread allegations of corruption by former RCC mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu, now behind the bars, and take action against his predecessor's massive politically-motivated recruitment of RCC employees.
He said he has planned steps to free RCC from corruption, nepotism and politicisation and make it a development-oriented organisation with people's participation.
"I am grateful to the people for electing me. I want to set a good example. But I am a human being, not an angel. If you see me somewhere surrounded by bad people, who appear to be my friends, or are party-men or even my relatives, please alert me as they can detach me from the people," said Liton choking in emotion at a press conference held in the city yesterday.
"If anyone using my name wants to bribe, extort money or attempts to obtain a job or any kind of privileges, just have that person arrested or inform me and you will
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see me acting promptly," he said.
Replying to questions on corruption in RCC, Liton said, T will investigate previous anomalies and take tough actions if any corruption is found."
A huge number of staff in RCC were employed "quite unnecessarily and just on political consideration or in exchange of bribes in the last 17 years.
"The excess RCC staffs have never been of any use apart from making political processions and meetings a success. I will prepare a list of such staffs and decide on actions against them. I do not mean to seize someone's source of daily bread but I have no right to carry an unnecessary load that cost people money."
"After taking oath, I will be the mayor of all citizens. Every citizen will have the right to speak to me directly. I will fix two days in a week to talk to the people with my prime emphasis on development," he said.
Briefing newsmen about his development plan, Liton said, he would ensure people's participation in development works for transparency and he would identify development schemes to be taken up by talking with the people and involving them in their implementation.
Liton said he had already identified around 12 wards out of the 30 in RCC as least developed wards.
Liton reiterated his pledge to create more employment scope. "I will look for local resources first and then persuade investors to set up industries in Rajshahi.
"Primarily, I will set up an industrial zone on around 200 bighas of land belonging to the RCC and distribute those on lease to interested industrialists with the condition of employing locals," he said.