Rangpur City

Rangpur (Bengali: রংপুর) is one of the major cities in Bangladesh and Rangpur Division. Rangpur was declared a district headquarters on 16 December 1769, and established as a municipality in 1869, making it one of the oldest municipalities in Bangladesh.^[4][1] The municipal office building was erected in 1892 under the precedence Raja Janaki Ballav, Sen. Chairman of the municipality. During the period of 1890, "Shyama sundari khal" was excavated for improvement of the town. The Municipality is located in the north western part of Bangladesh.^[1] A Recently established public university of Bangladesh named "Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur" is situated in the southern part of the city. Previously, Rangpur was the headquarters of Greater Rangpur district. Later the Greater Rangpur district was broken down into the Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat andGaibandha districts. In the great Rangpur region, little economic development took place until the 90s, mainly because of the yearly flooding the region used to see before the making of the Teesta Barrage. Coal is found near this district. There is a large military cantonment in the town.

Golden Tower, Rangpur, Bangladesh

Maiden Rangpur city polls today

Sharfuddin Jhantu-Abdur Rauf Manik-Mostafizar Rahman
Sharfuddin Jhantu-Abdur Rauf Manik-Mostafizar Rahman
People of the newly established northern-most city in Rangpur are going to the maiden polls today to elect their first city father and his deputies who would have an onerous task of developing the half-urban, half-rural area to the status of a metropolis.

All preparations and tight security measures have been taken for peaceful voting, official sources said.

A public holiday has been announced in the polling area for Thursday.

A total of 3 57,742 people will cast their votes to elect their city’s father, 33 general councillors and 11 reserved (women) councillors.

Twelve candidates are contesting for the mayoral post, while 327 are vying to become councillors in 33 wards and 91 are running for the reserved posts.

Locals said a hard contest will take place among three mayoral candidates – Awami League leader Sharfuddin Ahmed Jhantu, former Jatiya Party (Ershad) leaders AKM Abdur Rauf Manik and Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa.

The JP of former president HM Ershad initially provided its support to former lawmaker Moshiur Rahman Ranga. But the decision triggered an intra-party rift, which led to the withdrawal of his candidature.

Later, Ershad expelled Manik, former mayor of Rangpur municipality, and Mostafa, former chairman of Rangpur Sadar upazila, from the party and decided not to back any candidate for the mayoral post.

The ruling Awami League didn’t back any candidate in the election unlikely the maiden polls in the Narayanganj and Comilla City Corporations.

The main BNP and its key ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, didn’t provide their support to any candidate.

Voters can collect their voter serial numbers and names of polling stations through SMS, SM Asaduzzaman Arzu, Director (Public Relations) of the Election Commission told daily sun.

Law enforcers have been deployed in the polling centres to ensure tight security, though the RCC will remain in the purview of hartal.

Some 51 mobile courts led by 45 executive magistrates and six judicial magistrates will remain alert to curb electoral violence.

The electronic voting machines (EVM) are being used in five polling stations on experimental basis.

rangpur-map 2