The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Speakers at a memorial meeting in the city yesterday demanded establishment of separate Ministry for Disaster Management and implementation of the proposed coordinated coastal development policy for disaster risk reduction and protection of 3.5 crore coastal people in the country.

The 29th April Smriti Parishad and Equity and Justice Working Group (EJWG) jointly organised the memorial meeting for the dead in the cyclonic disaster on April 29, at the National Press Club.

Eminent environment expert Dr Ansarul Karim presided over the meeting, while Awami League leader Abdur Razzak, former state minister AKM Zahangir Hossain, environment expert Dr Hasan Mahmud and Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mia, among others, addressed it.

The speakers said the Government has yet to take any initiative to implement the policy, though three years have passed after the policy was proposed.

According to the proposed policy, sufficient structures including roads, dams and mangrove forest to protect the coastal area and shelter centres were to be made, but these policies are stalled and only to paper, they added.

They added, shrimp cultivation led deforestation in the coastal areas that made the areas more vulnerable.

Abdur Razzak said our country was being affected due to the Global Development Policy and climate change, so the Government would have to face the disasters using our own resources and policies.

Dr Hasan Mahmud urged the further development of the system of disaster warning system and reaching the proper information in due time to save the lives of the disaster threatened people.

He also urged the government for not taking the projects like housing and other development projects, which cause deforestation and hill destruction.