Meeting Held in Barishal on Waste Management, Road Safety, and Ensuring the Right to Information
A follow-up meeting on waste management, road safety, and ensuring the right to information was held in Barishal with the participation of conscious and responsible citizens, representatives of various political parties, students, and people from different professions.
The meeting, titled “Follow-up Meeting on Waste Management, Road Safety, and Right to Information,” took place on Monday morning (26 January) at Euro Convention Hall in the city. The event was organized by Lal Sabuj Society with the support of The Asia Foundation and funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
Earlier, Lal Sabuj Society had organized four town hall meetings to highlight these issues in Barishal and propose possible solutions. As a continuation of those initiatives, this follow-up meeting was held to review progress on the three key issues.
During the meeting, discussions focused on gaps in Barishal’s waste management system, necessary actions, and changes resulting from recent initiatives. Issues related to preventing road accidents, enforcing traffic laws, ensuring the safety of pedestrians and vehicle users, and measures to protect and implement the right to information were also discussed.
Participants included representatives from various government departments, political parties, waste management authorities, the traffic department, road and transport sector representatives, right to information officials, civil society members, teachers, youth organizations, political leaders, students, workers, and media professionals.
The panelists at the meeting were: Zia Uddin Sikder, Member Secretary of Barishal Metropolitan BNP; Professor Mahmud Hossain Dulal, Nayeb-e-Ameer of Barishal Metropolitan Jamaat; Sajjad Parvez, Assistant Director of the Department of Social Services; Md. Al Amin, Sub-Divisional Engineer (Roads Sub-Division, Barishal); Mahbub Alam, Assistant Director (Cleanliness Department), Barishal City Corporation; Md. Shakiluzzaman, Assistant Director, District Information Office; Mohsina Hossain, Assistant Professor, University of Barishal; and Jesmin Nahar, Senior Teacher, Government Sadar Girls’ School.
The initiative has already achieved several successes as a result of the previous town hall meetings. Based on recommendations from those meetings, concerned departments made commitments and undertook various initiatives. These include displaying duty charts of cleaning staff at key locations in the city to improve waste management services, publishing fair fare charts across the city to ensure road safety, and displaying citizen charters at the Department of Social Services to make access to information easier.
Speakers at the follow-up meeting praised Lal Sabuj Society’s initiative, stating that its role in ensuring road safety, effective waste management, and the right to information in Barishal is commendable. They noted that the town hall meetings helped bring various civic issues to light, generated important recommendations, and encouraged departments to take action based on those recommendations.
The panelists emphasized that citizens expect uninterrupted access to all essential services in their region. Waste management, road safety, and access to information are everyday needs of the people, and ensuring these services requires the combined efforts of both the administration and civil society.
The organizers stated that this meeting was held as a follow-up to the four previous town hall meetings. The discussion highlighted positive initiatives already taken by relevant departments to improve civic services, as well as ways to further enhance them. They expressed hope that this initiative would contribute to meaningful solutions to the civic problems faced by the residents of Barishal.