Build a graft-free Bangladesh

Speakers at a roundtable urged new cabinet members on Monday to prioritise rooting out corruption from Bangladesh, reports UNB.

They made the urge while speaking at a roundtable organised by Jago Bangla Foundation at the National Press Club in the city.

The 11th general election dispelled bad political practices from the country, the speakers said.

Bikalpa Dhara's Presidium Member Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said: "The people want to see the country imbued with the Liberation War's spirit. So, a corruption free country, boasting good governance, must be created. We hope promises made before the polls [by ruling Awami League] will be kept."

Eminent cultural personality Syed Hasan Imam said the government should prioritise developing villages, adding: "The education sector should be overhauled ... Corruption and drugs must be uprooted."

Sohel Haider Chowdhury, general secretary of Dhaka Union of Journalists, said the government's first task should be to make the country free of corruption.

Security Analyst Major General (rtd) AK Mohammed Ali Sikder said the country needed to increase local and foreign investments to make a new Bangladesh.

Prof Dr Abdul Mannan Choudhury, vice chancellor of World University of Bangladesh, retired Supreme Court judge Shamsuddin Chowdhury, and chief executive of Jago Bangla Foundation, among others, spoke at the programme.