No more roads in haor but elevated ones: Cabinet

The cabinet on Monday made a clear instruction that no road except elevated ones can be constructed in the haor region to ensure the water flow.

The instruction came from the regular cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in Dhaka, reports UNB.

About Astagram-Mithamain Haor all-weather road, the meeting also asked the authorities concerned to assess whether the road causes any adverse effect regarding the water stagnation in the hoar, said Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam while briefing reporters after the meeting.

The cabinet also asked to conduct a survey if the water stagnation problem would go in case of construction of a 150-200 metre bridge in the hoar road maintaining a logical distance like in every half a kilometre, he said.

In the meeting, it was informed that flash floods have so far damaged the crops on 5,000 hectares of land in the haor region. Crops are cultivated in a total of 2,70,000 hectares of haor-land in the country, said the cabinet secretary.

Noting that the harvesting of paddy might be completed by April 30, he said it is expected that no crop would be damaged anymore there if there is no rain in the next 8-10 days.

89pc cabinet decisions implemented

Some 89 per cent decisions taken by the Cabinet from January 2019 to March 2022, have been implemented, while the implementation of remaining 11 per cent decisions is underway, reports BSS.

The cabinet took a total of 748 decisions during the period. Of them, 666 have already been implemented and the implementation of 82 others is underway, according to a report placed at the Cabinet meeting held on Monday.

“The implementation rate of the cabinet’s decisions since January 2019 is 89.04 per cent,” said Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam.

Some 252 decisions (97.67pc) out of 258 decisions taken by the Cabinet in 2019 were implemented, while 237 ones (94.42pc) out of 251 decisions taken in 2020 were executed, 141 ones (78.33pc) out of 180 decisions taken in 2021 were implemented and 36 ones (61.02pc) out of 59 decisions taken in 2022 (till March) were executed.