SPECIALMohiuddin still bats for city govt

Mitoon Chowdhury
bdnews24.com correspondent

Chittagong, June 17 (bdnews24.com) ? Former Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) mayor A B M Mohiuddin Chowdhury does not see any alternative to the city government for development of the port city.

"There is no alternative to implementation of city government idea for development of Chittagong city," he said while talking to bdnews24.com on Thursday.

Mentioning that the system is there in many countries, Mohiuddin said: "We are to depend on the central government for budget [due to non-existence of the system in Bangladesh]."

Sometimes the financial year ends even before approval of project proposals by the government, he said recalling his 17 years' experience as CCC mayor.

Mohiuddin, who tried to convince the government to introduce the city government system during his tenures, believes the expected level of development of the city is not attained because of non-fulfilment of the idea and non-implementation of the corporation's income generating projects properly.

"I wanted to make the CCC self-sufficient with my own initiatives by introducing different income generating projects," he said.

He said he wants to cooperate with incumbent mayor M Manzur Alam in development of the city.

Ruling Awami League's Chittagong city unit president Mohiuddin, who served the CCC as mayor for three terms, was defeated by his once associate and pro-BNP Manzur in the polls on June 17 last year.

Mohiuddin said he advises the mayor on the affairs of the corporation whenever he meets him.

"When we meet each other on any occasion, he [Manzur] he seeks my advices on different affairs of the corporation. I want to extend all sorts of assistance to him for development of the city."

The ex-mayor alleged that some councillors were trying to misguide the Manzur in different issues including the development programmes.

He declined to evaluate the activities of Manzur. "The people elected him to mayor. Not it's time for him to do his job. The people will evaluate his works."

He, however, said the mayor is unsuccessful in running the income generating projects properly. "And probably it's the reason behind the increase in the holding tax."

Mohiuddin claimed that the initiatives taken during his tenures were successful as the profit from the income-generating projects was spent in different sectors, including education and health.

Disapproving of the recent move to increase the holding tax, he said: "Development is quietly impossible being dependant on tax in a poor country."

He alleged that the tax re-evaluation officers of the corporation were extorting bribes from house owners scaring them of imposing additional tax.

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