Civic forums for nat’l policy on protecting locals’ rights

There should be a national policy to uphold the rights of local people of any mega-project site while implementing the projects, said leaders of civic forums at a seminar on Saturday.

They made the call at a seminar titled ‘Safeguarding peoples’ rights in development projects: disclosure and reality’ at Dhaka’s Reporters’ Unity’s in the capital.

The Centre for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD), Diakonia and Reality of Aid jointly organised the seminar.

“The rights of the local people must be protected and there should be a clear national policy in this regard,” said Md Shamsuddoha, chief executive of CPRD, who chaired the event.

If the local people of project site are not guaranteed a sustainable life and livelihood, the urban-rural discrimination will keep increasing and it will go against the National Development Policy, he said.

“The level of expected service from a project depends on implementation of the project according to the plan, its management and maintenance and operations. If there remains no opportunity for the project beneficiaries to participate in the implementation and monitoring stage, the projects won’t succeed,” Shamsiddoha added.

“Unfortunately, participation of the stakeholders in the ‘Sustainable Water Supply Project’ and ‘Dhaka-Sylhet Road Expansion Project’ was not appreciable. Also, no focus on the environmental impact of the projects or any alternatives to compensate the impact was noticed either,” he said.

Al Imran, research and Advocacy Officer of CPRD, gave a presentation on Sustainable Water Supply Project and Dhaka-Sylhet Road Expansion Project narrating the lack of local people’s engagement in the implementation and monitoring of the two projects.

Aminur Rasul, executive director of Unnoya Dhara Trust, said, “Rivers and water bodies are the life line of Bangladesh, and the civic forums always stand against grabbing and contaminating water bodies. This research shows the ‘Sustainable Water Supply Project’ and ‘Dhaka-Sylhet Road Expansion Project’ do not consider the conservation of the water bodies.”

Mihir Biswas, joint secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan, said that the projects will not bring benefit to all if equal development is not ensured. He also said development projects should be taken very carefully in Bangladesh assessing the climate impacts. Mohammad Shahjahan , director of Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), said, the civic forums are not against the development. “We too want the development activities but they should not become a threat to our future,” he added.