The government has decided to cut 3.3% of allocation for the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives in the proposed budget for fiscal 2024-25 than the allocation in the outgoing fiscal.
The ministry’s allocation in the upcoming fiscal will be Tk46,552 crore, which was Tk48,137 crore in the outgoing year.
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali placed a Tk7,96,900 crore proposed budget for FY25 at the national parliament Thursday.
Under this ministry, the local government division which deals with city corporations, municipalities, upazila and zilla Parisahd, LGED and DPHE faced a significant budget cut, with allocation of Tk38,808 crore in the new budget, down by Tk3,893 crore than that in the outgoing fiscal year.
The finance minister in his budget speech said the government under a medium-term action plan (from FY25 to FY27), has taken an extensive plan for the construction and development of rural infrastructures.
He stated that the government has set out a plan for constructing 16,160 kilometers of new roads, building 69,000 meters of bridges/culverts, maintaining 27,100 kilometers of paved roads and 56 13,000 meters of bridges/culverts, developing 415 growth centres/markets, constructing and expanding 184 upazila complex buildings, and constructing 160 cyclone shelters, and many other development works.
“For the urban areas, the plan includes construction of 497 kilometres of roads and sidewalks and 282 kilometers of drains. To manage waste efficiently in 12 city corporations and 329 municipalities across the country, steps have been taken to adopt modern waste management technologies used in developed countries. These technologies aim to produce electricity, fuel, and organic fertilizer by incinerating waste in an environment-friendly manner,” he further added.