Staff Correspondent

A four-day annual conference of Deputy Commissioners (DCs) will begin in the city tomorrow.

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the four-day conference at Shapla Hall of her office at 10:30 am tomorrow," Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain told a press conference at the Secretariat here today.

After the inaugural function, the DCs will take part in an open discussion with the premier at Karabi Hall at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), according to the programme schedule.

Subsequent working sessions of the conference will take place at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium from tomorrow.

A total of 30 sessions including 25 working sessions will be held at the conference while 356 proposals placed by the DCs will be discussed there.

The Road Transport and Highways Division has the highest number of 22 proposals this year.

Ministers and secretaries of different ministries and divisions will join the discussion and give necessary directives to the DCs.

The proposals have been made giving priority to issues including increasing public services, reducing public hassles, construction of roads and highways and bridges, expansion of tourism, amendments of rules and laws and protection of public interests.

The top agenda includes land management, improving law and order situation, strengthening local government institutions, disaster management and relief programme, creation of jobs at the local level and poverty alleviation programme implementation, social safety net programme implementation, use of information and communication technology and e-governance, improving the standard of education and its expansion, health and family welfare, conservation of environment and prevention of pollution, development of physical infrastructure and inspection and coordination of development programme implementation.

On the first day of the conference, seven sessions will take place including an inaugural session and open discussion and five working sessions.

On the second day on March 4, the DCs will call on Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury at JS Bhaban. A total of nine sessions will be held on that day.

On the third day March 5, seven sessions will be held.

On March 6, the DCs will call on Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan at Supreme Court Bhaban. A total of seven sessions will be held on that day.

The cabinet secretary said in the annual conference of 2023, a total of 212 short, medium and long-term decisions were taken and 130 of those have been implemented and disposed of while 82 others are being implemented.

The rate of implementation or disposal is 62 per cent, he added.

Mahbub Hossain said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year gave 25-point directives to the DCs including bringing fallow lands under cultivation, inspecting educational institutions in remote areas for the development of education, saving electricity, constructing houses for landless and homeless people, recovering khas land, expansion of sports, monitoring markets of essential commodities, holding yard meeting for prevention of drug abuse, eve-teasing, child marriage and on other social issues, taking initiative for creating employment opportunities and plantation of palm trees for reducing the impacts of lightning strikes.

As per the premier's directives, the deputy commissioners took multifaceted initiatives for bringing fallow lands of different government offices and common people under cultivation, he said.

The cabinet secretary said the DCs recovered 3,566 acres of Khas land, rehabilitated 2,60,878 homeless and landless families by providing houses to them so far, planted 13,37,817 palm trees, held 23,592-yard meetings for the prevention of drug abuse, eve-teasing and on other social issues, created 420 playgrounds and visited 7105 community clinics.