A Correspondent:
Rangpur: State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alam, MP has said that martyr Abu Sayeed is a national asset and the cradle of the fall of the fascist Hasina regime.
“Rangpur is the district of heroic sons. The entire nation takes pride in this district. Martyr Abu Sayeed is not merely a figure and part of history, but he is a symbol of inspiration and source of strength,” he said.
He made the remarks to local journalists yesterday after visiting the grave of Abu Sayeed, the first martyr of the 2024 July mass uprising, and exchanging pleasantries with his family members in village Babanpur under Pirganj upazila of Rangpur.
The State Minister announced that Tk 1.0 crore would be allocated on behalf of Prime Minister Tarique Rah-man for constructing a new house for martyr Abu Sayeed’s family, arranging accommodation for his parents and beautifying his graveyard.
He said, “To ensure that the memory of martyr Abu Sayeed extends beyond the boundaries of his own vil-lage, the Rangpur District Stadium will be renamed ‘Shaheed Abu Sayed Stadium’ in his honor.”
He said that the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, is working to bring the long-neglected northern region into the mainstream of development.
He affirmed that Rangpur and the entire northern region would be transformed.
Regarding government initiatives, State Minister Mir Shahe Alam noted that a certain political party had once dismissed the “Family Card” scheme, saying, “Keep your family card.
Yet, yesterday, members of that very party ask in Parliament when the Prime Minister will provide family cards to their respective upazilas in their parliamentary constituencies.
Over the next four years, family cards will be distributed in phases to female heads of 40 million households across the country.
Agriculture cards will be issued to 21 million farmers over the next four years. The distribution involves four stages: cards will be issued first to landless farmers, followed by marginal, medium-scale and then large-scale farmers. He further remarked that a particular political party speaks constantly about religion. During elec-tions, they enticed voters with promises of paradise. Yet, they gave no thought to the welfare of Imams and Muezzins and other religious leaders, he said.
“Our Prime Minister, Tarique Rahman, will bring Imams and Muezzins serving 350,000 mosques, Purohits, and other religious leaders and caretakers of religious places of worship under an allowance scheme within the next four years,” he said.
Regarding the long march by the 11-party alliance, the State Minister remarked that vast quantities of fuel were consumed during the event, even while citing an oil and gas crisis.
Addressing the opposition, Mir Shahe Alam stated that if they have well-considered opinions on resolving the issues, they should present them in the National Parliament.
He further commented that various programmes organized by the opposition outside parliament were at-tempts to destabilize the country.
He said, “The government does not deny that there were issues regarding oil and gas during the early days of the current administration. Like the rest of the world, Bangladesh faced difficulties due to various factors, in-cluding the war in the Middle East.”
The Prime Minister addressed the nation in Parliament regarding this, expressing regret and apologizing for the temporary difficulties.
Oil prices were raised to align with global rates. Had the price not been increased, the fuel would have been smuggled into India. That is why the price was hiked. Even now, the price has not reached parity with India.
The State Minister said, “The electricity crisis is a legacy issue. We need time to resolve it.”
He alleged that attempts were being made to discredit the people’s government by artificially creating a ferti-lizer shortage in certain constituencies represented by the opposition.
Asserting that there is no actual shortage of fertilizer in the country, he said, “Those elected by selling ‘tickets to heaven’ have orchestrated this artificial crisis in specific districts using their own party activists to stir up trou-ble.”
He said, “I want to inform the nation through you (journalists) that the districts where this artificial fertilizer crisis has been created are Kurigram, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Chapainawabganj, Kushtia, Bagerhat, Meherpur, and Narail.
Member of Parliament (Reserved Women’s Seat) Rezeka Sultana Fency, Rangpur City Corporation Adminis-trator Mahfuz Un Nabi Don, Zila Parishad Administrator Md Saiful Islam, Deputy Commissioner Israt Jahan, martyr Abu Sayed’s father Md Mokbul Hossain and mother Monwara Begum, high officials, local BNP lead-ers and activists were present.
