State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat on Wednesday emphasized on building a partnership between the government and the citizens to make joint efforts to resolve the civic problems in the cities.
“The government will perform its duty. But citizens should play their roles form their sense of responsibility . . . if citizens perform their responsibilities spontaneously, then a partnership between the government and citizens can be built, which would help resolve the civic problems easily,” he said.
The state minister said this while talking to reporters after visiting a weeklong waste exhibition in frontof the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Office in the city’s Gulshan-2 area on Wednesday afternoon.
DNCC organized the exhibition with the wastes recovered from different drains and canals under its jurisdiction to create awareness among the city dweller and encourage them not to throw wastes here and there.
Arafat said Dhaka city often witnesses water-logging even from light raining, but visiting these areas, it was found that drainages of that areas were filled with different types bottles, chips packets and other wastes while canals are filled with big-size wastes like mattresses, sofas, refrigerators and water purifiers.
Putting emphasize on creating public awareness so the city dwellers don’t throw wastes here and there, he said it is impossible for the city corporation alone to keep the city clean if the dwellers continuously make it dirty without maintaining the rules.
Appreciating the DNCC authority for organizing such an exhibition, the state minister said it is an excellent initiative to create public awareness about cleanliness.
The involvement of school and college students with this exhibition will create awareness about the cleanliness among themselves too, which would help them to make the people aware, he added.
Not only DNCC and the government, but the Awami League (AL) itself as a political party is also involved in carrying out such awareness campaign.
DNCC Mayor Md Atiqul Islam and AL Office Secretary and Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Barrister Biplab Barua were present on the occasion, among others.
About recovering big-size wastes from canals in the DNCC area, the mayor said, “At first our mindset should be changed that articles like sofa, mattress and bottles cannot be thrown in canals or drains”.
Sometimes different types of trolls centering water-logging on city roads are noticed, but none thinks about the causes behind the water-logging, he said and urged the city dwellers to throw their wastes in the designated spots in the city corporation area.
“To keep our city clean, its dwellers must come forward,” Atiqul said, adding, if the social awareness campaign fails to create awareness to stop throwing garbage here and there, the DNCC authorities will enforce administrative actions like fining the people responsible for littering wastes here and there.
About dengue prevention campaign, the mayor said to create awareness among the city dwellers about dengue prevention, every ward councilor is being given Taka 50,000 per month to carry out social campaigns, including holding views exchange meetings, rallies, meeting at schools and mosques in their respective areas.
Besides, the councilors will buy different types of wastes at different rates from the city dwellers, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Biplab Barua said it is impossible for the city corporation alone to resolve all civic problems rather the citizens have their responsibilities in this regard.
“Today’s exhibition proved that we ourselves are hindering the way of getting our expected services from the city corporation,” he said, adding, as worthy citizens, all should be aware and perform their own duties to resolve the civic problems.
