The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Sunday came down heavily on the leader of the opposition for giving ultimatum to the government one after another and said few days ago people had observed her motive of such provocation.
‘The BNP gives all ultimatums with ill motive as the party and its leader do not like to see people live in peace and they don’t believe in people’s power,’ she told a huge public meeting organised by Awami League’s Jaipurhat district unit at Circuit House ground in Jaipurhat in the afternoon.
‘I’m ready to make sacrifice like my father to establish the rights of people . . . I’m not greedy for power, my aim is to establish a Sonar Bangla as dreamt by the Father of the Nation and millions of martyrs of independence,’ she said.
The prime minister said BNP leaders had forgotten that they made the country a terrorists’ haven. Sons of the leader of the opposition were found guilty in the US federal court, bringing an embarrassment for the whole nation, she said.
She asserted that none would be allowed to play with the voting rights of people in future. ‘People are the owners of their voting power and none will be able to snatch their power,’ she added. Criticising the BNP leader for her demand for restoration of the caretaker government system, the prime minister said, ‘Once they could not even realise what is a caretaker government. But now, they’re shedding crocodile tears on the issue’.
President of the unit Shamsul Alam Dudu presided over the meeting. Party advisory council member Abdul Jalil, former minister Mohammad Nasim, joint secretary Mahbul Ul Alam Hanif, Abdullah Abu Sayeed Swapan, Shahin Monwara Haque, MP, spoke, among others, on the occasion. Minister for fisheries and animal resources Abdul Latif Biswas, state minister for liberation war affairs ABM Tajul Islam, state minister for science and technology Yeafez Osman, state minister for law Quamrul Islam, state minister for youth and sports Ahad Ali Sarkar, Fazley Rabbi, MP, Abdul Mannan, MP, and Khaled Mahmud Chowdhury, MP, were present.
Hasina, also the president of the Awami League, said her government was working for socio-economic development of the people. ‘People get something when they vote for boat (election symbol of the Awami League),’ she said.
During the Awami League tenure in 1996-2001, she said the government chalked up a plan to fulfil the basic demands of people. But, the next BNP-Jamaat government halted many programmes depriving people of getting access to food, shelter, health and education.
‘In the past, the Awami League was always beside people, and in future, we will also remain beside them,’ she said adding that in the last three years the government spent most of its time and resources to recover the loss and damage caused by misrule of BNP-Jamaat alliance and global economic recession.
She said her government worked with highest sincerity which helped keep our economy stable and expand our social safety net in the last three years. The next two years would be the period of development, she added.
The prime minister said her government had taken all measures to enhance the purchasing power of people and keep the prices of essentials within their buying capacity. Reserve of foreign exchange has been raised to $10 billion in last three years from $6 billion, she said.
Referring to her party’s defeat in all constituencies in Jaipurhat in the last general election, the prime minister said, ‘Despite that we have undertaken massive development programme for the district’.
Five food warehouses were constructed in Jaipurhat in the last three years and six more are now under construction, she said.
During BNP-Jamaat regime, Hasina said Jaipurhat was the sanctuary of militants. But, now people of the district can live in peace as the militants were uprooted by our government’.
The prime minister urged the leader of the opposition to refrain from its movement aimed to save the war criminals. ‘When the countrymen are united for their trial, the leader of the opposition is waging movement for their protection,’ she regretted.
Earlier, the prime minister laid the foundation stones of Youth Training Centre, Muktijoddha Complex and Vocational Training Centre in Jaipurhat.
