74pc of the dev budget received by six dists including Dhaka

Staff Reporter :
Urban planners have emphasized for creating a policy of decentralization to ensure sustainable and planned urbanization across the country, as the 74 per cent of the total development budget being spent only in six districts including Dhaka.
Considering the present reality, they suggested the appropriate authority to make a way for balanced investment instead of Dhaka-centric investments.
Experts said this during a virtual urban dialogue on the occasion of ‘World Urban Planning Day’ organized by the Institute for Planning and Development (IPD) on Tuesday.
In the dialogue titled ‘Balanced and Sustainable Urbanization of Bangladesh in Decentralization of Development: Prospects and Actions’, IPD Executive Director Professor Adil Muhammad Khan said that the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives could play an important role in planned urbanization.
In the fiscal year 2021-22, about 74 per cent of the total development budget of these two ministry’s allocation was in six districts including Dhaka, Chittagong and Gazipur, while the allocation in 25 districts was only 5.85 per cent, he said.
He stressed for not making such discrimination in the development budget.
“Dhaka-centricity is constantly increasing in the urbanization of Bangladesh. On the other hand, the urbanization of district, upazila and municipal areas along with other divisional cities is haphazard and unplanned, which has upset our development potential. In this context, it is necessary to define the necessary strategies and actions to ensure sustainable urban planning of our urban areas to accelerate the decentralization of development,” Professor Adil Muhammad Khan said.
Akhtar Mahmood, Advisor of IPD and Professor of Urban and Regional Planning Department of Jahangirnagar University, said that the earth has the capacity to hold a maximum of 900 to 1000 crore people.
Some 100 crore populations have been increased in the last 11 years and on November 15, the total population of the world will stand at 800 crore, he said.
He emphasized for planned urbanization to serve the needs of the population which is close to the maximum capacity of the world.
According to him, people move from villages to cities mainly for three reasons-employment, better health care and education.
He called for the creation of employment in other cities rather than Dhaka by establishing of better citizen services which would help to reduce the pressure on Dhaka-centric population.
Professor Mohammad Rashedul Hasan of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology said that about 30 per cent of the total population of the country now lives in five cities across the country. Of them, 58 per cent of the populations are living in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna, he added.
Pointing out that there is no alternative but to decentralization in such a situation, he said adding if two crore people are concentrated only in Dhaka, then naturally the pressure on Dhaka city will be increased and the livability of the city will decrease.
According to him, decentralization is possible through balanced investment across the country.