S A Shofiee, Sylhet:
The Sylhet Development Authority Act 2023 was passed by the National Parliament on October 26, 2023, with the aim of building a planned and modern Sylhet city. However, until now, the activities of the Sylhet Development Authority were limited to the law. After more than two years of the passage of the law, an initiative has been taken to activate the activities of the Sylhet Development Authority. An Executive Director of the Development Authority has been appointed for that purpose. The Executive Director has been Md. Sadi Ur Rahim Jadid, a well-known officer of field administration. Jadid joined the new responsibility on Wednesday after his appointment. Md. Sadi Ur Rahim Jadid, a resident of Bishwanath Upazila of Sylhet district, was last working as the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong. However, he came into wide discussion while serving as the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Bishwambharpur in Sunamganj. After assuming the charge of UNO, Jadid’s initiatives turned the backward Bishwambharpur Upazila into a tourist attraction. Before that, he was working as the Assistant Commissioner (Land) of Kulaura Upazila of Moulvibazar. In 2019, he was elected the Best Assistant Commissioner (Land) of Moulvibazar District. Confirming the information about joining as the Executive Director of Sylhet Development Authority, Md. Sadi Ur Rahim Jadid said, this authority has been formed with the aim of developing Sylhet city in a planned manner. It was notified a few days ago. Now the work of preparing the rules is underway.
He said, this authority had not been functioning for a long time. Now I have been appointed with the aim of starting the activities. Stating that the activities of Sylhet Development Authority will initially be carried out in the Sylhet office of the Public Works Department, he said that a separate office will be taken next and manpower will be appointed. In the meantime, an additional secretary has been given additional responsibility as the chairman for this organization. He said that an application will be submitted to the Deputy Commissioner for the office’s own land and the activities will be started in a continuous manner.
Jadid, an officer of the 33rd BCS, joined the government service in 2014.
It is known that the then government took the initiative to form the Sylhet Development Authority in 2022. For this purpose, on August 22, 2022, the then cabinet gave in-principle approval to the draft of the Sylhet Development Authority Act 2022. In continuation of this, the ‘Sylhet Development Authority Act 2023’ was passed by the National Parliament on October 26, 2023. The act was published in the form of a gazette on November 23 of the same year. Although the activities of the Sylhet Development Authority were supposed to start after the publication of the gazette, there has been no progress as expected so far. The Sylhet City Authority was formed by combining the Sylhet City Corporation area and its surrounding areas with the aim of well-planned development, maintaining the balance of the geo-natural environment, ecology, and infrastructure facilities in the tourist area to form a sustainable, attractive and tourism-friendly city.
The city residents say that Sylhet city and its surrounding areas are developing unplanned. There is no alternative to building a planned city to make this city livable. It is very necessary to start the activities of the Sylhet Development Authority quickly to prevent unplanned building construction and build a livable city.
If the activities of the Sylhet Development Authority start, Sylhet city and its surrounding areas will be developed in a planned manner. As a result, urban experts say that the future generation will get a modern and livable city.
