Md Ariful Haque Choudhury, Minister for Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, has said that implementing the canal-digging programme will improve irrigation in the country and raise crop production two to three times.

He said this after formally inaugurating re-excavation of the Katagang canal in the Anikeli Bara area of Giasnagar union, Moulvibazar Sadar upazila, on Monday (16 March) afternoon.

The minister said every person in the country had benefited from the canal-digging programme launched in the past by Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman. "We were able to produce twice as much food. From rabi crops onwards, it created employment in every sphere and gave people a separate source of income. That was deliberately stopped."

Asked about local farmers' demand for irrigation with water lifted from the Manu river, the minister said the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) has already taken up a project. He hoped work would begin soon and that people here would benefit.

Present were M Naser Rahman, MP for Moulvibazar-3; Deputy Commissioner Touhiduzzaman Pavel; Superintendent of Police Mohammad Billal Hossain; Zila Parishad administrator Md Mizanur Rahman; and BADC chief engineer Md Badrul Alam, among others.

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