Administrative building of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and Mayor M Manjur Alam, inset.

M Manjur Alam will complete one year of his tenure on July 17 as mayor of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC).
Manjur who took oath as mayor on July 18 last year, has been serving the city corporation for 17 years as commissioner and acting mayor.
He surprised the city dwellers defeating his one time political mentor three-time elected mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
Manjur could not take his development work up to the expectation of the city dwellers that he declared in his 56-point election manifesto.
The city people think that waterlogging was one of the major causes of debacle for Mohiuddin in the last city corporation polls where Manjur is yet to show any positive result.
CCC officials refused to provide any information about one-year of its performance to journalists, saying that the higher authority strictly prohibited them to divulge any information in this regard. On condition of anonymity one official said the mayor has prohibited them to give any information to press.
He said a project of Tk 48 crore for Raja Khali Khal and Moheskhali Khal would be completed within next month, including a road on the bank of the canals. The CCC also built nine bridges, one old home at Pahartali and three colleges during this time, he added.
Manjur in his election manifesto told that he divided the development into three terms -- short, mid and long term -- which was totally ignored last year.
Manjur said he is satisfied with his work of last one year compared to the five years as he did not get any complaint from any part of the society. He said one year is nothing but CCC has done many things during this period.
He said the city corporation is implementing different projects of Tk 100 crore, but did not elaborate.
Mayor promised to give priority to waterlogging keeping it in short-term scheme. Many areas of the city remains waterlogged during rain in the early July. About the alleviation of waterlogging, he said they have been dredging the city canals. He said problems of waterlogging would end when the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) finishes its dredging at the entrance of Chaktai canal.
Like the waterlogging problem, no remarkable initiative is seen in health and education sector during the last one year, city experts said.
The CCC gained big success in health and education sector during Mohiuddin's tenure, they said, adding that these two sectors have also been neglected. The CCC has also failed to free the city from mosquito menace during the period, they said.
When asked about the one-year performance of the city corporation, Mohiuddin refused to comment about it saying that the people will evaluate it. He said he gives advice to the present mayor when he (mayor) needs which will continue in future also.
Mohiuddin said the city corporation needs a city government for its development. “I tried to establish the city government to ensure the proper development of port city but could not,” he said. He said a section of politicians and experts opposed his idea saying that it will establish dominance of CCC, which was totally wrong as the city government is a tested formula for development.
He also did not make any comment about the present condition of CCC's income generating sectors. But, he talked about the performance of income generating sectors during his tenure. He said his aim was not to impose the load of taxes on the city dwellers rather insisted on the corporation's income.
City planner Engineer Ali Ashraf said the city corporation could not solve any of the major problems like waterlogging and traffic jam in the city. It has established some colleges and increased beautification of the city during the World Cup Cricket in last one year which was not the principal job of corporation.