CARE Bangladesh representatives meet with The Speaker as the delegation member of National Char Alliance

10 April, 2016
A National Char Alliance (NCA) meeting was held with the Honorable Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury at the Speaker’s Office to hand over the National Char Convention Publication and the 14 Point Declaration on 4 April, 2016. The meeting, arranged by the All Party Parliamentary Group on behalf of NCA, was attended by senior management of the NCA member organizations working for the development of chars.
CARE Bangladesh is one of the active and vibrant members of National Char Alliance since its inception and took a very significant role during National Char Convention which was held in June 2016. In order to materialize voice of the Char people, NCA decided to share the declaration of Char convention with the Policy makers and Part of this series discussion this important meeting was held with the Speaker of the Bangladesh National Parliament. On behalf of CARE Bangladesh Ms. Jamie Terzi, Country Director participated in the meeting and re-emphasize the importance of collective effort for the development of remote and vulnerable Char lands where CARE has been continued its effort since long period. Sekhar Bhattacharjee, Team Leader of JVC Project was also participated with Country Director.
Following the handover, the NCA members elaborately discussed on the problems affecting the char people and probable solutions in addressing them. The NCA members pointed out that for the sustainable development of char, a central government structural mechanism is necessary to oversee and coordinate all the disperse government and non-government development initiatives. The NCA members also pointed out that despite the allocation of 50 crore taka in the Finance Minister’s budget speech, the amount has remained unspent as no line ministry was given the specific allocation. The delegates also requested the Honorable Speaker to consider raise the char development issues in the next parliamentary session by giving ruling on a notice.
Honorable speaker paid patient hearing and provided very effective suggestion in order to address the raised issues by the NCA delegation.
Regarding allocation of Char the Speaker suggested that NCA consult with the Rural Development and Cooperative Division (RDCD) of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives in order to develop char relevant projects and submit to the Ministry of Finance in line with budget speech to see to its expenditure.

Char Development Department: The Speaker responded positively to the necessity of establishing specific government mechanism. Given the distinct condition and necessities of char, she suggested that the proposed char department might be a separate entity from DBHWD, as merging Haor and Char might not be a natural adjustment. She suggested NCA to consult with the Minister, Ministry of Water Resources.

Raising the Char Issues in the Next Parliamentary Session:
Dr.Chaudhury welcomed the NCA members’ suggestion of raising the char budget and the relevant issues on the next parliamentary session. One or more members of parliament can give a notice as private members bill, where the Honorable Speaker will respond positively.
At the end of the meeting NCA delegation expressed their gratitude to the honorable speaker for her patient hearing and effective suggestions for the way forward of the activities of National Char Alliance. Country Director of CARE Bangladesh Ms. Jamie also provided thanks to the speaker on behalf of NCA as well as from CARE Bangladesh.