Disaster management law demanded

A citizens' solidarity group on Saturday demanded a new law and its due enforcement for disaster management through proper utilization of resources for saving affected people and sustainable development.

Speaking at a seminar, teachers, journalists and rights activists underlined the need for a new disaster management law to save lives and proper utilisation of resources for relief.

The seminar was jointly hosted by two NGOs - Nagarik Sanghati, Emergency Capacity Building and Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood at the CIRDAP auditorium in the city.

Bangladesh, facing high disaster risks, needed a disaster management

law to ensure transparency, accountability and

best utilization of resources for relief

and rehabilitation to save the dignity of the affected people, the participants said.

They said that the government should create a fund of its own and involve the local government for disaster management.

For better disaster management re4sults, they called for the inclusion separate chapters on disaster management systems in school textbooks for the students of different classes.

The said that in the absence of the law, mismanagement, irregularities and corruption in handling disasters more often results in disastrous consequences leading to lingering sufferings of the affected people.

They said that mismanagement and infrastructural weakness keep a large part of the population of Bangladesh vulnerable to natural disasters with little hope of getting relief or rehabilitation.

They said that natural disasters were pushing more people below the poverty line.

Former vice chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology MM Shafiullah asked for a stronger government role in during and after natural disasters for the rehabilitation of the affected.

Chaired by Nagarik Sanghati president SM Atiqur Rahman, the session was addressed by CSRL member secretary Ziaul Haque Mukta,

BFUJ president Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Oxfam GB country director Gareth Price Jones, Islamic Relief country director in charge

Javed Ameer, Dhaka University geography teacher AQM Mahbub and Nagarik Sanghati general secretary Sharifuzzaman Sharif.

Source : New Age

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