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After a long wait, the process of upgrading the nearly 150-year-old Bogura Municipality to a City Corporation has finally been finalized.
It has been learned that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will officially inaugurate the City Corporation in Bogura on Monday (April 20). This information has been confirmed by Ujjal Hossain, Protocol Officer-1 to the Prime Minister.
Earlier, in 2006, during the tenure of then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, the area of Bogura Municipality was expanded to 69.56 square kilometers by incorporating 48 surrounding mouzas, and a gazette notification was published in this regard. Concurrently, the number of municipal wards was increased from 12 to 21.
At that time, despite plans to upgrade the municipality to a city corporation in the future through expansion, it could not be implemented due to various complexities. Later, even during the Awami League government’s tenure, this demand was raised multiple times by the residents of Bogura but was not actualized.
After the interim government took office, the then Deputy Commissioner of Bogura, Hosna Afroza, proposed the formation of the City Corporation. Subsequently, a public notice was issued, opinions from local residents were collected, objections were resolved, and a final report was submitted after completing these processes.
Later, on October 20 of last year, Abul Khair Mohammad Hafizullah Khan, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government, while inspecting various activities of the municipality, announced that the City Corporation would be declared before Victory Day in December 2025. However, that too did not happen subsequently.
Earlier, a notice signed by Imtiaz Morshed, Senior Assistant Secretary of the Cabinet Division, revealed that a meeting of the pre-NICAR (National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganization) Secretary Committee was held on Sunday to approve eight development proposals. These proposals included the upgradation of Bogura Municipality to a City Corporation and the declaration of Mokamtala Port in Shibganj Upazila of Bogura as a new Upazila. At this meeting, the upgradation of Bogura to a City Corporation was approved.