Relocation 133,000 Rohingyas by March 31

FT ONLINE

The government is working on relocating as many as 133,000 members of the Rohingya families by March 31 to safer places to protect them from the wrath of natural calamity during the monsoon.

"We are to shift 25,000 Rohingya families to safer zones as monsoon is approaching with cyclone, landslides and other natural calamities as usual during the monsoon," Secretary of Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief Md Shah Kamal told newsmen on Monday.

He said the government along with other international aid providing organizations is constructing temporary shades, latrines and other necessary facilities at safer places, where the Rohingyas would be relocated. The south-eastern Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh witnessed surges of forcibly displaced Myanmar people, who were pushed into Bangladesh when the Myanmar military launched a barbaric crackdown with supports of majority Buddhist monks in the Rakhine state.

The secretary said the government would introduce a community radio on Rohingya language in Cox's Bazar area for easy communication of information at the Rohingya shelter camps being constructed there.

"There are 17 community radios working in the areas to communicate information through the local language among the inhabitants of the areas," Shah Kamal said.

He said the government has constructed roads and set up power lampposts in the areas for easy movement of aid and other people.

Officials said the government constructed shelter camps for the Rohingyas on 3,000 acres of land beside the Kutupalang frontier camp to accommodate the Rohingyas. The government earlier had allocated 2,000 acres of land, now increased to 3000 acres, for proper accommodation of the increased number of Rohingyas.

Some 150,000 sheds were constructed in the area to accommodate the Rohingyas. In addition to this, the government constructed 9 kilometers long electricity lines in the extension areas of the Rohingya camps. Moreover, 52,500 additional latrines were constructed in the camp areas.