On the Prime Minister's instructions, 29 canals under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), including the Muslim Bazar canal, will be freed from encroachment, administrator Md Shafiqul Islam Khan has said.

He made the announcement on Monday, 29 June, while opening a tree-planting programme at the Mirpur-10 Adarsha High School ground.

The DNCC administrator said 17 years of accumulated waste had filled up every canal in Dhaka, and they had fallen into the hands of encroachers. Dhaka cannot be saved unless these canals are recovered, he said. To save city dwellers and develop the city, the canals must be freed. Whatever obstacles arise, the 29 canals under DNCC will be freed from encroachment with the people's help, he said.

The administrator also said that, in line with the Prime Minister's announcement, DNCC will plant five lakh trees, and the day's programme was launched as part of that.

Through journalists, he asked city residents to make rooftop gardens to keep Dhaka free of pollution and green. But they should make sure rooftop gardens do not worsen the dengue situation, he said, by throwing out water collected in every container or spot on the roof and keeping the gardens clean.

He urged residents not to throw rubbish everywhere but to help DNCC's cleaners, and asked everyone to come forward together to build the Prime Minister's "Clean Dhaka, Green Dhaka".

The administrator said the government of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is the people's government, elected by the people's votes. It is with the people and will remain so, and it will do what is good for them, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.