The lives of the residents of Chitmahal (enclaves) have changed for the better. Homes now have free power lines. Along with 32 education institutes, there is voter registration, new mosques, temples, improvement of roads and culverts which have had a noticeable impact on overall socio-economic condition.
On July 31, 2015, around twenty thousand people of the Chitmahals got citizenship of Bangladesh.
At an expenditure of Tk. 950 million, development of roads, construction of bridges and culverts were carried out through the Local Government Engineering Department, LGED.
Another Tk. 240 million project was implemented by the Water Development Board.
Power has been provided to six thousand families, five communities and two police camps were established, five primary schools, one university, one aleem madrasa and several high schools were established.
Under the department of social welfare, allowance was given to 1,284 senior citizens, 538 widows and 338 insolvent persons with disabilities.
A farmer from Chitmahal says: “in the past, we never got fertilizer or insecticide; now, we are getting all the facilities.”
Thanks to the new roads, we can now take our crops to the markets, he enthused.
LGED’s Panchagarh executive engineer, Md. Moniruzzaman, says: “LGED is carrying out a wide variety of development work worth around Tk. 95 crore.”
Engineer of Water Development Board, Md Mizanur Rahman, says: “in Chitmahal, we have carried out 1650 metres of river coast preservation and excavated 5 thousand metres of river at a cost of Tk. 24 crore 35 lakh 74 thousand.”
Panchagarh district administrator, Mohammad Zahirul Islam, said: “once the people of Chitmahal were deprived and did not have any respect. Now that’s changed.”
People here are also getting 3G mobile services, he added.