The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Tuesday accused the government of ruining the agricultural sector after laying the economy and was now plotting to take away people's right to franchise.
The party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a rally at the party's central office in Dhaka said that the government had claimed itself to be 'farmer-friendly ' but farmers had fallen prey to their plundering.
'They have ruined the farmers. Growers had to sell potato for Tk 2 a kilogram. There was a bumper outturn of rice but the looters of the ruling Awami League have taken it away.
They even withdrew all forms of subsidy in the
agricultural sector,' Fakhrul said at the rally held in protest at increase in prices of fertilizer and other agricultural equipment and inputs.
Fakhrul said that in its latest conspiracy, the ruling Awami League was out to hold the elections during its tenure in the government to protract its regime snatching away people's right to franchise by scrapping the caretaker government provision. 'People know it better how to thwart conspiracies. The BNP will come up with tougher programmes against such government moves,' he said.
The party's standing committee member MK Anwar said that the government kept none of its election-time pledges, including free distribution of fertiliser to farmers.
He criticized the government for not buying rice from growers at a reasonable price. 'You claim to be farmer-friendly but do not pay them the minimum production cost. You are buying rice from abroad for Tk 40 a kilogram but do not bother to pay same to local growers,' he said.
Anwar said that the government had plundered Tk 4,800 core through malpractice in fertiliser. 'When the BNP left office in 1996, fertiliser sold for Tk 4 a kilogram. The price has now increased to Tk 20 a kilogram,' he said.
He said that whenever anyone says anything about the economy, the finance minister replies with 'all rubbish, bogus.'
'These words are not decent. There much decent words and use them. Otherwise, people will throw you in the garbage,' he said.
BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, vice-chairmen Abdullah Al Noman, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, and Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, the party chief's adviser Shamsuzzman Dudu, joint secretaries general Amanullah Aman and M Shahjahan, organising secretary Fazlul Huq Milan and leaders of front organisations also spoke at the rally, presided over by the Dhaka city unit convener, Sadeque Hossain Khoka.
The BNP will form a human chain on June 22 in front of the National Press Club demanding that the party's city unit leader Chowdhury Alam should be traced.
The party will also go on demonstrations demonstration in front of the party's central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka on June 25.
Source : New Age
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