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Our expatriate workers
Over six million expatriate workers of our country contribute a whopping amount of around nine billion US dollar 'annually to the national exchequer. This amount constitutes the second highest foreign exchange earnings over any other sectoral export trade. Balance of payment, development expenditure, consumer-spending and the like are greatly stoked by this precious earnings. These workers are our unsung heroes.
But that is not the end of the whole episode. There is a flip side of it which is not very pleasant to hear and tell. Most of these workers belong to unskilled and n o n -professional category. Overwhelming majority of them are employed in middle eastern region and lesser number in Malaysia and South Korea.
They are engaged in ’dirt)', dangerous & demeaning" manual work in stringent working environment far away from their homeland
and loved ones.
Although in our eastern value no work is considered demeaning yet it does not bode well for a self-respecting nation.
Now is the time to change course and reshape our policy-direction to extricate the nation from abysmal ignominy and ensure life with all its fruition to each of our fellow citizens.
Although it appears a tall order but is certainly not impossible.
I humbly propose the government structure and launch a mega self-employment credit programme tailored to suit the needs of every working man and woman all over rural Bangladesh.
The proposed credit shall be collateral free, production based, exceptionally easy but closely supervised and extended through all rural branches of both nationalised and private commercial banks with a must-do commitment. The fund involved here should be adequately bolstered by Bangladesh bank's refinance programme.
This apart, for existing
overseas workers the government may float a fully subscribed and wholly owned banking institution exclusively meant for overseas workers along with a merchant bank as its subsidiary.
The bank should be run by a board comprised of committed and visionary leaders and manned by a team of high skilled professionals.
The merchant banking arm of the bank shall make calculated investment decision and manage the whole investment portfolio on behalf and as attorney of a willing workerinvestor.
Meanwhile every single expatriate worker has to be informed to his overseas address in simple Bangla language without any technical jargon of the services the bank is ready to offer.
The above schemes, I firmly believe, will not only help create enormous employment opportunities but also unprecedented commercial activities throughout otherwise sleepy rural Bangladesh. S.A. Samad
General Manager (Retd.) Janata Bank
Dhaka
Town planning
Finding "Build a separate functional capital" written by Shahnoor Wahid in The Dally Star (10 Nov), I started reading this article with happiness, thinking someone is there to think about the city planning. But after reading a while I became very sad as he wrote, "the great politicians, the great engineers, the great town planners, the mayor, who came and went like sea tides couldn't see it coming. They were so busy making money that they had no time or urge to look ahead and plan ahead." Sir, reading that I would love to ask when and who ask town planners to take care of the city? Who gives permission to a town planner to talk? Where is the place of town planner in the government hierarchy? Urban Planners are not the government officials. We are nowhere, Sir. Nobody knows about us. Nobody knows what we do.
After my graduation, I tried to have at least a job where I could practice planning. After a while I got a job, that's true but that provides me the opportunity to exercise only on a planning tool, GIS (Geographic Information System). Day by day I am forgetting what I have learned from my four-year graduation. Like me, many students graduated from Urban and Rural/Regional planning and are doing jobs like banking, marketing, socio-economic research, and in different NGO's etc. My point is few of us get the opportunity to exercise planning, get the opportunity to exercise what we read, what we learn. So, how can we retain the designation of Planner? If 1 really want to practise urban planning, I have to go abroad and serve their country.
Planner Riazuddin Kawsar Dhaka
DST
Much is being written on the subject in most dailies as well as your "To The Editor" page. Unfortunately, the ideas put forward in your daily on 25th. October by a writer are somewhat divorced from realities.
He states, and I quote “Most countries near the equator don't deviate from the Standard Time.” However, Bangladesh is in the Temperate Zone, at most it may be called a semi-temperate country. TheTYopic of Capricorn passes over Narayanganj and except for some less populated districts in the South, most of Bangladesh lies in the temperate zone!
Given this real geographical fact we can rightfully deviate from Standard Time! Secondly, asking other countries is not the way out. Since within the same latitude as Bangladesh; the time is a function of longitude and since time is a function of longitude related to the accepted time based on GMT;
this cannot be a realistic solu tion. It will only lead to further confusion, rather than pro vidc any solution!
In my considered opinion. Daylight Saving lime (DST) Is appropriate in Bangladesh in winter, when day* are short, to enable us to maximise the utilisation of whatever day light hours are available. In summer we can advance the clock by a further hour to utilise the longer daylight hours available. This can possibly save one hour of electricity, all of which comes from scarce natural gas and imported liquid fuel. After all, for a poor country, any saving is better than no saving.
SA. Mansoor Dhaka
Facts and figures
At last we have some real facts and figures on traffic jams tn Dhaka from authoritative and reliable sources. The DS of 23 Oct contains a report on the workshop held by JiCA/BUET (page 2) “City Traffic Worsening", and another article on Page 11 entitled “Road Safety and Traffic Congestion by Md Rezaul Karim of Transparency InL This letter therefore contains the information divulged therein as they make interesting reading and are eye-openers.
1 .Dhakabashis make approx 23 million trips every day 40% by rickshaws, 33% by buses, mini-buses and the like, 18% walk, the remaining 9% by CNG, hl-cycle, motorcycle, and PRIVATE MOTOR VEHICLES.
2. Fifteen thousand busowners operate 15,000 buses of all sizes in chaotic condition. Of Dhaka's 2,500 kins roads, only 250 kms are fit for public transport.
3. Forty-eight thousand motor vehicles are added every year of which only 3% are buses while 89% are private cars, occupying 97% of road surface (while carrying about 1-2% passengers), but nobody talks about this.
4. Road accidents in 2007 caused 3,749 deaths (and maybe ten times that in injuries), costing as much as Tk 2,400 crores to the nation.
5. Expressions used in the articles are that traffic congestion receives “no political commitment, are not scientifically designed, poorly managed and undisciplined, no accountability or integrity of operators, controllers and associations. Too many controllers BRTA. DMR DTCB. RHD, DCC, BTC1, MOE.WASA etc making hay while the city is held hostage.
1 am glad that the above information matches very closely with some of the facts I have been advocating in the previous 52 letters on the subject over the last 2.5 years. Another significant remark made in the BUET/JICA workshop was that “each traffic component in the proposed STP be developed in an integrated manner so one does not foil the other". Mr Rezaul
Karim's article is remarkable in the sense that while analysing Dhaka's traffic congestion, he did not use the word 'rickshaw' even once!! Is it possible even to think about Dhaka's traffic without rickshaws for at least the next 10-15 years before the proposed 'mass transit systems' materialize or alternate systems evolve.
Sikander Ahmed
Niketon, Gulshan-1, Dhaka
Ambitious projects
It is great that our government is planning to construct elevated railways, orbital waterways and circular motorways to make life easier for our people (DS, 29 Oct). These ambitious projects will cost us billions which this government doesn't have at its disposal. However, making the ACC more effective, separating the judiciary, freeing our varsities from corrupt politics, giving our police force the necessary freedom to do their job honestly, etc., will benefit the whole country (not only Dhaka) and they wouldn't cost us a huge amount of cash either.
So, why is this government promising us so many expensive projects while those easy and inexpensive ones have been gathering dusts for decades? Are these projects really being drawn up for our benefit? I am not convinced. Azad Miah
Oldham
UK
More CNG scooters needed
I wholeheartedly support this letter (31.10.09). As an expatriate spending a considerable time every year in Dhaka I find looking for taxis whose drivers want to go where 1 want is a time consuming affair and often impossible. Baby taxi is a solution if it is readily available, the driver runs on meter without a grumpy face, and even happily plies short distances now covered by rickshaws. The minimum fare for baby taxis should be fixed in this light to encourage then move even short distances so that rickshaws can be slowly phased out, and car imports restricted. Refusal to ply short distances should be reported for heavy fines on baby-taxi owners. At one time Dhaka was only a city of rickshaws, some buses and horse drawn carriages.
Allowing import of baby taxis without any restriction, and fixing its minimum fare at a reasonable level will solve the problem of finding a transport for the middle class in greater Dhaka as it is now and phasing out rickshaws will alleviate congestion on the roads with faster moving vehicles.
Engineer Shafi Ahmed London, UK
Our MPs
Our members of parliament demand the following material benefits from the government who run the country in
the name of the people for the welfare of the people. MPs demand the following perks from their voters who have very kindly' voted them to power, otherwise the MPs would not have been seen or heard.
1) A house or apartment to dwell. 2. An office to conduct business. 3. A duty-free car oY SUV or jeep. 4. A Rajuk plot. 5. Improper exercise of power!
Recently they are clamouring for duty free cars.
The first two demands are justified. But the third one is i indecent. The fifth one is a deplprable painful sad reality'.
In the parliaments of sixties and in early seventies which were adorned with MPs like Dr. Alim Al Razi, Mizan Choudhury, all the four national leaders et al and not tospeakofBangabandhu, the MPs were not accorded the above benefits or 'bribes'. Duty free car privilege was introduced by HM Ershad. This privilege was highly abused in the last BNP-Jamaat led Sangsad'.
In our opinion, the provision of duty free import of motor vehicle should be abolished. once and for all. Many positive and people-friendly moves by the last caretaker government like financing of election expenditures by government, black and white posters, curtailing election expenditures should be retained, encouraged and implemented.
We would like to see people of dignity and honour as MPs. Dr.SNMamoon
On e-mail
Parking ticket
1 would like to bring to your attention the issue of parking tickets. Recently on a weekend, Friday at 7:00pm I went to Gulshan 2 and parked behind a building in front of Lavender Shopping Mall. I have been going there for a long time and have never been charged for parking. However, this Friday two people came up to me with a pink slip and tried to charge meTk 10/- for parking there. 1 had a look at the slip and it had no registration number of DCC on it. nor was there any ID cards on those people. They told me the name of their company. According to the ticket collector they had been given this job outsourced from DCC several months ago. I queried about their registration number but they had no answer and told me to contact their boss.
Again when 1 went to park in front of Coopers, in Gulshan 2, another person from the same company came up to me and wanted to charge me Tk 10/-for parking.
Now 1 am not averse to paying parking charges, however there are no facilities for parking, nothing for the extra Tk 10/-. On (op of that, how am 1 to know that this is not a swindling of some kind. And moreover, all over the world parking is free on weekends after 6:00 or 7:00pm, at least it Is so In some places in London.
I would request The Daily Star to investigate this matter and bring it to the publics attention. We do not know if the DCC really gave such a job to this company.
Ziaul Haque On e-mail
Driving school
The present elected government came to power in January'09. It has the responsibility to do its job for the betterment of people. Training on technical trade is one of the ways to help the poor youth that would lead to employ-meW Opportunity arid gdfier-ate income for them, hie number of poor people would be reduced as a result of technical education. A driver earns more than a general labourer. It is necessary to impart training in a technical trade like driving. Setting up and operating a driving school is not a costly business.
The issue deserves a closer look.
Mohammad Tahamid Ashraf Central Bashabo, Dhaka
Do not forget
I would like to remind all that we have been gifted with two most precious things by none other than Bangabandhu and his worthy daughter Sheikh Hasina.
Bangabandhu gifted us with an identity' and no one can deny his contribution in achieving an independent Bangladesh. Many a people have been benefited with the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation. Now we have a good number of generals, both retired and serving. This would have been a far cry for the us had it still been East Pakistan. Bangladeshis simply would not have been eligible to become four star generals competing with their West Pakistani counterparts. Then we have so many millionaires, may be even billionaires. This would have been almost impossible had it been East Pakistan, as trade and commerce were in the hands of the West Pakistanis.
The credit for all this success and achievements goes indisputably to Bangabandhu. It can very well be said that had Bangabandhu been not born. Bangladesh would never have emerged as an independent country.
Now our Honourable Prime Minister, daughter of Bangabandhu. presented us with yet another precious gift, she has taken the entire nation ahead by an hour. Who else could have done this?
We may have different opinions, but let us be honest with ourselves and give due recognition to our leaders for their contribution towards (he nation. The Lord Almighty does not like ungrateful peo pie. •
Saleh Mohammad Ayub Kalabagan Dhaka