The government will take different strategies for the development of 87,230 villages with focus on creating employment opportunities in rural areas to materialise the ‘My Village My Town’ programme, reports UNB.
This will also help the government to attain its ‘Vision-2041’ and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
All will be taken as per the pledges of the government in the Election Manifesto-2018 to implement ‘My Village My Town’ programme for providing modern civic amenities in rural areas.
According to an official document, a total of 30 guidelines will be prepared under the programme which will deal with village communication, growth centres and market infrastructure, rural water supply, rural waste management, Upazila master plan, community space, capacity development of the local government institutions, and establishing computer villages, etc.
In addition, 36 feasibility studies will be conducted to address the challenges of implementing the ‘My Village, My Town’ action plan.
The government has also decided to develop 15 villages as ‘model village’ on pilot basis under this programme, the document said.
The present government has been implementing multifaceted programmes for the economic development of the country through the development of urban and rural infrastructures and communication and transport systems. In the last 13 years, the government implemented various development schemes in the rural areas including the construction of 69,002 km of paved roads, and 4,05,099 meters of new bridges, maintenance of 1,09,078 km of paved rural roads, construction of 1,767 Union Parishad Complex buildings, constructionexpansion of 354 Upazila Parishad Complex buildings.
Besides, 9,088 km of roads and footpaths, 4,107 km of drains, 15,041 m of bridges and culverts, 41 bus and truck terminals and 53 community centres have been constructed to improve the quality of life in rural areas.
The document said that for rural development in the next 2022-2023 fiscal year, different targets have been set.
These included constructing 5,000 km of new roads, maintaining 7,000 km of paved roads, constructing 1,900 metres of bridgesculverts, maintaining 5,500 of meters bridgesculverts, developing 140 growth centreshat bazars, constructingexpanding 60 upazilaunion complex buildings, constructing 130 cyclone shelters.
Country’s road network coverage will increase from 38.02 percent to 39.43 percent once the schemes are implemented.
Moreover, construction of 1760 km of roads and footpaths and 170 km of drains in urban areas has also been targeted, the document said.
It said that these infrastructures will create ample of employment opportunities both directly and indirectly and play an important role in alleviating rural poverty.
Along with rural infrastructure development, different activities are in progress such as poverty alleviation, self-employment generation, and livelihood development through cooperatives by organising farmers and other marginalised communities.
It includes providing training and loans, supervision, supply of equipment for agriculture, SME and cottage industries.
In addition to the rural development academies in Cumilla and Bogura, steps have been taken to set up two more rural development academies in Jamalpur and Rangpur.
To reduce poverty, improve living standards, and establish villages as development hubs in the poverty-stricken areas of the country, the Department of Rural Development and Cooperatives is implementing the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CVDP) Phase III (1st Amendment) project from January 2018 to December 2023. Under the project, 8,828 associations have been formed.
Training has been imparted to 3,58,682 beneficiaries in different categories.
In the running 2022-2023 fiscal and coming 2023-2024 fiscal, a target has been set to train a total of 2,03,944 people in different categories.
