Where has the money gone?

The Dhaka city corporation budget 2006-7, totalled a whopping 846.23 crore, according to the Dhaka city corporation accounts.
The money was allocated to be spent on such projects like road building, better sanitation, cleaning river pollution, social housing and other social projects.

Yet in 2008, Dhaka is plagued with a whole host of problems, from unemployment, gridlocked roads, exponential crime figures, and floods as result of poor storm surge protection, over-crowded slums and an acute shortage of electricity.

The city with a puplation of over eight million inhabitants, has a reputation of having one of the most polluted rivers in Bangladesh due to residents freely able to discharge household rubbish and human feces into the local Buriganga river. Dhaka also suffers as a result of chronic shortage of safe drinking and bathing water, forcing the lower income families to resort to the polluted waters of the Dhaka Burigana River.

Ironically, Bangladesh is a country of many rivers and is often overwhelmed with more water than the rivers can possibly cope with.

In the recent rainy season, local farmers have been hit by floods which could have easily been averted with reinforced river banks.
Ahiq Ahmed, a local farmer who relies solely on his crops for a living, expressed his dissatisfaction with the authorities, saying that he lost all faith Bangladesh government and the authorities.
Mr Ahmed will need to find an alternative income source to support his already poor family. And with the rising inflation, he would be hard pressed to afford even the basic minimum.

According to the DCC expenditure report for 2006-7, the mayors’ office has spent a total of 527. 47 crore on development and infrastructure and is set to spend another 1098.91 in 2008.
However the sad fact remains that the city of Dhaka remains as it was in 2002.

In an interview on the 07th June 2008, the current mayor of Dhaka, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, a member of the BNP who was duly elected to be the mayor of Dhaka by his party, said he was not in power or position to do enough for the city, despite being given monumental budgets every year since he took office from April 25, 2002.

The mayors biography, which can be found on the DCC website states that he is a man with many concerns, visiting other countries for inspiration relating to infrastructure. And under the section "Mayors accomplishments" is reads simply "Welcome to Mayor's Accomplishment"