The government has made a preliminary list of at least two canals in every upazila to be dug up under a Tk 500-crore project, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia told the House yesterday during the PM's question-answer session.

"The Ministry of Water Resources has already formulated a project summary to this end and it's now under the government's active consideration," Khaleda said.

She said her government has emphasised digging the canals for irrigation, as river dredging is very much expensive. Once implemented, the project will also help get rid of waterlogging, she added.

Responding to BNP lawmaker Muhammad Giasuddin, the prime minister also said the government is going to enact fresh law to prevent encroachment of riverbanks.

Khaleda said the government is going to formulate national dredging policy guidelines to re-excavate rivers and canals in a planned way to ensure navigability of the rivers.

On canal-digging, the premier said, "Had the project launched by late president Ziaur Rahman not been stopped, we would not face the problems of irrigation and waterlogging.

"That is why we emphasise on continuity of our government for smooth implementation of development projects," she added.

If the continuity of the BNP government was maintained, the rivers and canals would not be silted, she added.

TWO MORE CADET COLLEGES
Khaleda yesterday also informed the House that two more cadet colleges will be set up -- one in Feni and the other in Joypurhat. "One of the two cadet colleges will be exclusively for girls," she said.

She also detailed the government programmes to increase women literacy rate that include programmes for free education and stipend for girls at secondary level.

"It has raised to 53 percent the enrolment of girl students at the secondary level," she said, adding that stipend programme for girls of higher secondary level, which started in January 2002, has upped their enrolment to 40 percent.