Bangladesh minister visits Chamrail gram panchayat to study infrastructure

A delegation from Bangladesh led by the country’s Rural Development minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain visited Chamrail gram panchayat at Bally-Jagachha in Howrah that had come first among 1,000 villages in implementing a World Bank funded project for development of basic infrastructure in the village.

The purpose of the visit of the team from Bangladesh is to know in a better way that how development of a village takes place through the three tier panchayat system. Hossain had discussion with senior officials of the state Panchayat and Rural Development department. Representatives from the gram panchayat and district authorities were also present and they explained how they had executed the task to improve the basic infrastructure like availability of safe drinking water, setting up of solar panels and ensuring toilets in each house.

The gram panchayat members explained that how they had first planned the entire project and implemented one after another utilising the World Bank fund. Even after implementing the World Bank aided project, the gram panchayat continued working to keep developing the infrastructure of the village. The continuing effort to keep bringing development in the village had brought the best village award of Howrah Zilla Parishad in 2015-16 to Chamrail gram panchayat.

The delegation went to Kerala and visited Bengal on its way back to Bangladesh. Hossain explained how gram sabha works in Bangladesh. He said that National Highways are of around 21,000 km while village roads are around 321,000 km in Bangladesh. He claimed that there had never been any trouble to get land to construct roads in their country.

Appreciating the involvement of women in panchayat system here, he said that so many women are not involved in the panchayat system in Bangladesh and there is a need and scope to improve the situation.

Hossain said that he would meet the state Panchayat and Rural Development minister Subrata Mukherjee on Monday. He said that he would discuss with Mukherjee about the functioning of his department that ensures development in the rural parts of the state.

He would also urge the minister about his interest in knowledge sharing programme.