A coalition of professionals from different sectors in Rajshahi on Saturday placed a 38-point demand to address pressing civic, infrastructural, environmental, and administrative issues in the city and surrounding regions.
They made the demand at a press conference organised by Rajshahi Sartho Raksha Committee, a local civic body, in Rajshahi city on Saturday.
Their demands include reducing the existing holding tax as it was imposed without holding any public hearing, reducing trade licence and vehicle registration fees, introducing systematic modern traffic signals at key city intersections, relocate hawkers and vendors from footpaths and roads to reduce congestion and ensure pedestrian safety, reopening dysfunctional silk and jute mills, and allocating adequate funding for the Rajshahi IT Village.
Their demands also include an end to bureaucratic delays in establishing agro-based industries, establishment of agricultural markets through farmer cooperatives, introducing Artificial Intelligence as a subject into both Rajshahi University and Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, and adequate life-saving medicines and accessibility at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and other public hospitals.
They also demanded upgrading the Bonpara to Sonamasjid highway to a four-lane highway, and re-excavation of rivers, canals, and water bodies affected by the Farakka Barrage.
Professor Enamul Haque, convener of Rajshahi Sartho Raksha Committee, said that despite being a major divisional city with a rich history of culture, education, and political activism, Rajshahi continued to suffer from neglect in terms of infrastructural development, access to essential services, and employment opportunities.
鈥楩or decades, the northern region鈥� including Rajshahi鈥� has lagged behind other parts of the country due to policy-level indifference, lack of investment, and absence of visionary planning,鈥� he said.
Enamul Haque said that they firmly believed that if these demands were genuinely addressed and met, they would lead to more balanced development across the country.