Govt's main challenge is to control price hike: Moeen

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Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed has said the main challenge for the caretaker government is to control the soaring prices of essentials and keep the market stable till the next Boro harvest, reports UNB.
"I consider this price-hike a disaster. The responsibility of our government is to keep their prices under control till the next Boro harvest," he told a conference of elected representatives of local government units at the National Parade Square Saturday afternoon.
Gen Moeen urged the local government representatives to motivate voters to judiciously use their votes to elect honest people through the next elections without selling their votes for money.
Appreciating the Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) anti-graft drive, he urged the ACC to remain alert against corrupts but make sure innocent people are not harassed.
He also urged the local government representatives to identify and eliminate corrupts from all tiers so that the people could do business properly and live in peace.
The army chief said peace has been prevailing in the country for the last one year and if the people, particularly the elected representatives of the local government, want more peace will prevail in the future.
"We had miserably failed to control law and order, corruption and other issues before Jan 11, 2007, but peace prevails for the last one year," he told the conference.
Recounting the political turmoil existed before Jan 11, Gen Moeen said, "You've witnessed how a man could trampled another man to death on Oct 28. The entire world witnessed it."
"For the last one year peace has been prevailing in the country, and you all have shown that we can live in peace and want peace as a nation."
The army chief who apparently criticised the past politics of hartal and corruption said the economic growth would have reached the double digits from 6.5 had there been no hartal and corruption.
Citing development in Singapore, he said when Singapore was born as an independent country it had nothing. But now Singapore has achieved a tremendous development registering GDP of 9.0 per cent due to good and efficient leadership.
"We have everything but we've failed to achieve that. If we could make united endeavours, our per capita income would go up to $1,000 from $480," he told the conference.
Gen Moeen said those, who participated in the liberation war and sacrificed their lives, had dreamt of a developed Bangladesh. "In the last 36 years how much successes we have achieved?" he questioned.
Terming the representatives of the local government as the main force of the government, he said, "If you could concentrate all your strength, there is no reason we will not be developed."
The army chief referred to allocations for development, alleging that 40 to 50 per cent of the allocations were used, while the rest were pocketed through corruption. "If we could stop corruption and utilise the entire money, any government at any time will achieve good development."
Referring to two back-to-back floods and cyclone 'Sidr', he said no government in the past had faced three natural disasters at a time. "But it has been possible to overcome the disasters due to your cooperation."
The general said if all the people and the local government representatives come forward, it would be possible to face any disaster in social and economic front in the future. "Only needful is to work together," he observed.
He said the army is actively cooperating in the preparation of voters list and already two crore voters were registered. "It would not have been possible if the elected representatives had not extend their cooperation."
Recalling the contributions of the armed forces to tackling floods and cyclones, Gen Moeen said the members of the armed forces are part and parcel of the people.