Coming down heavily on BNP for tearing off copies of national budget in front of parliament, Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said it is their (BNP) new form of audacious behaviour.
“BNP is such a political party which killed people hurling petrol bombs. This is normal for them (BNP) to tear off copies of the budget,” he told newsmen on Thursday at a press briefing at his office at secretariat here.
Hasan said the tearing off copies of the national budget manifested a new form of their (BNP) arrogance which they do every time.
The information minister said BNP didn’t praise any national budget in the last 11 years. “But, the proposed budget for fiscal 2020-21 would be implemented defying their criticisms. And, the Awami League government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been implementing budgets in the last 11 years proving the critics’ observations wrong,” he added.
He said they didn’t appreciate the budgets in the last 11 years. Every time, they (BNP) termed the budget as ambitious and not implementable, he added.
But, he said, about 97 to 98 percent of the budgets were implemented in the last 11 years. “Though their criticisms were proved bogus, they followed the same path of criticism,” said Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary.
The minister said the country has been moving forward. “Poverty has declined. Per capita income has increased about three and a half times. The size of GDP has increased about four times. Bangladesh is now a food surplus country. It (Bangladesh) graduated to a middle-income country from the lower-income one. And this is a reality. But they (BNP) never accepted the budgets,” he added.
He said BNP told that the budget discussion was held for one day only. “But the fact remains discussions were held in the entire budget session. They (BNP) didn’t take part in the budget session and even they didn’t notice the discussions. For this, they gave wrong speeches,” he added.
Hasan said it is not possible to run parliament in this situation (Covid-19). “And no country in the world does this. On the other hand, the coronavirus is now almost at its peak. About 4000 people are being affected by the virus and about 40 people die every day,” he added.
In this situation, it is not possible to run parliament every day, he said, adding that they (BNP) are giving such untrue and irrelevant speeches despite knowing the reality.
Replying to another query about the human trafficking issue in Kuwait, the information minister said, in an investigation, it has been uncovered that high-level Kuwati officials and politicians were involved.
“And it was not possible to do such act without their cooperation. So, they are also responsible. I think that the matter won’t affect our labour market,” he added.
Replying to another query about the criticism on imposing fees on Coronavirus test, Hasan said the health ministry has fixed the fee. “I talked with the health minister personally for reconsidering the issue. We discussed the matter about enabling poor people to do the test at free of cost,” he added.
Earlier, the information minister addressed the inaugural function of the Covid-19 field hospital of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in Soltgola area of Chattogram through video conference.
Hasan said there is no alternative to concerted efforts for combating the global epidemic. He thanked the BGMEA for taking such an initiative.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi inaugurated the 50-bed field hospital.
BGMEA President Rubana Haque, First Vice President Mohammad Abdus Salam and board members took part in the video conference.
Hasan said in the beginning there were many limitations to provide treatment to the Coronavirus infected people in Chattogram. “But, now we have worked out a solution by overcoming the limitations,” he added.
