Residents of Satkhira district staged a citizens’ demonstration in front of the National Parliament on Manik Mia Avenue in Dhaka on Sunday morning, protesting what they called long-standing 'development disparities' and demanding fair rights.
The citizens’ demonstration, organized by the Satkhira Development Coordination Forum, began at 10:30am and was moderated by the forum’s president, Iqbal Masud.
Speakers included Engineer Abul Kashem, President of Zila Samity in Dhaka; Advocate Dr M A Jalil of Satkhira Zila Samity; Mostafa Bokuluzzaman Member Secretary and Afsar Ali Advisor of Satkhira Development Coordination Forum; Ahsan Habib Imroj, VP of Sergeant Zahurul Haq Hall along with representatives from different upazila associations, student leaders, and journalists.
More than 400 citizens of Satkhira also joined the demonstration.
Speakers said that despite being one of the most promising and economically important districts, Satkhira has been excluded from notable development projects for the past 17 years. They highlighted poor transport infrastructure, lack of safe drinking water, inadequate health and education services, and absence of sports, railway, and food processing facilities as major problems facing the district.
They urged the government to adopt and implement rural infrastructure projects for Satkhira, stressing the district’s contribution to national revenue and its significance as home to the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Under the slogan “No more discrimination, we the people of the district demand our equitable rights,” the rally placed a set of demands. These include railway connectivity, eco-tourism development around the Sundarbans, sustainable embankments, establishment of a University of Science and Technology, a Surveyors’ Institute, a full-fledged international land port, modern irrigation and agricultural storage facilities, a Nursing Institute, a cancer diagnosis and treatment center, and declaring Satkhira a Grade-1 district.
Other demands include upgrading Patkelghata to upazila status, constructing a modern bus terminal, long-term projects against river erosion and waterlogging, filling vacancies in the health sector, investment in the pottery industry, modern storage and processing plants for mango, shrimp, and fisheries, technology-based surveillance to combat border smuggling, and building an international-standard stadium in Satkhira.