Staff Correspondent

The interim government, for the first time, is set to hold its council of advisers’ meeting outside Dhaka, apparently to get closer to the cross-section of the people in the poverty-stricken northern districts and to determine the local development agenda on an urgent basis.

The next weekly meeting of the council of advisers, scheduled to be held on Saturday (February 2) morning at Rangpur Circuit House, is likely to discuss the local problems including poverty, supply of agricultural inputs, price-hike of food-grains and unemployment, according to sources in the Cabinet Division.

‘It was decided earlier to hold the cabinet meeting outside Dhaka so that the advisers could see for themselves the actual problems that the local people are facing, both in terms of economy and governance, and come up with some pragmatic decisions.

The first venue for such a meeting has been fixed in Rangpur,’ the chief adviser’s press secretary, Syed Fahim Munaim, said on Wednesday. He said the government wanted to extend itself to the doorsteps of the people at the grass-roots level.

The advisers will talk to the common people and visit the administrative machinery at the local level, which will help to provide a basis for the decisions they will take and expedite their activities.

Moreover, the common people will feel inspired by the visits as well, the press secretary added. Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, who will chair the meeting, is also expected to address public gatherings at Mithapukur on Saturday afternoon and at Gangachara on Sunday morning in Rangpur.

He will distribute food-grains under the ongoing Vulnerable Group Feeding programme to the hard-core poor. He will be staying at the Rangpur Circuit House on Saturday night. The advisers will start leaving Dhaka (Thursday) to visit the northern districts, some parts of which face Monga (a famine-like situation) in September- November, and see for themselves the situation there.

They have been asked to come up with their experiences in the meeting so that the government can work out effective development programmes for the ultra-poor people in the northern districts that include Rangpur, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Kuri-gram, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat and Natore. All the advisers, special assistants to the chief adviser and the cabinet secretary,

along with the five secretaries concerned, are expected to attend the meeting in Rangpur. When asked about preparations for the cabinet meeting, deputy commissioner of Rangpur Khandoker Atiar Rohman said that the local administration had taken extensive measures.

‘We all are now very busy here preparing for the cabinet meeting in Rangpur,’ he added.