PM orders stern action against any criminals

FE Report | Published: December 23, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed on Monday the government officials concerned to take stern action against the persons involved with criminal activities.
"I call upon you (officials) to go hard against all criminals irrespective of their political or social identity in order to keep the law and order situation normal and to go ahead with development," she directed officials of Barguna and Lalmonirhat district development coordination committees and divisional commissioners and local public representatives at a video conference.
Cabinet Secretary Muhammed Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan conducted the video conference after weekly cabinet meeting as part of the Prime Minister's plan to communicate with the grassroots level officials and local body representatives to bring dynamism into administrative and development activities.
The PM presided over the meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
"I don't want to know who is criminal and which party he/she belongs to. You must arrest them, if they are involved in offensive activities," the PM directed the officials.
"We want a peaceful situation to expedite pace of the country's development. Action must be taken against each and every criminal. We don't want recurrence of criminal activities that we witnessed before the January 5, 2014 election," she said.
She said that her government was giving priority to quick development of the country aiming to reduce poverty by 10 per cent during its current tenure.
The PM said the government wanted to make every family self reliant through implementing the 'one house one farm' programme.
She asked district officials to make lists of homeless people and make arrangements to build home with funds from the Grihayan Programme.
She said that the county was now self-reliant economically to a large extent. The term 'monga' was not heard now in the country's northern parts where it was a common phenomenon during a particular period of a year a few years ago.
"Every people of those areas are now employed. Economic condition in all areas of the country, particularly the northern districts which once were neglected and poverty-ridden, has improved. We heard no news of 'Monga' in Rangpur during our previous five-year tenure," she said.
The PM said there were some people who used to become followers or stalwarts of the ruling party. They seemed to belong to the government party permanently. "They join the party… and commit misdeeds and after that they shift the responsibility to us (the government). And due to this reason we have to be cautious," she said.  
She directed the officials to quickly implement projects for meeting the basic needs of the people and overall economic development of the country.
The PM told the officials of Barguna that the communications of the district improved remarkably during the period of Awami League government from 1996-2001.
She said the government had taken an initiative for improving the communication system through constructing roads and culverts, which helped improve overall socio-economic development of the area.
She said her government had identified the problems of every district, upazila and union, and chalked out development programmes. She added that her video conferences with two far-flung districts were the manifestation of meeting the pledge of building a Digital Bangladesh.
She said Lalmonirhat once upon a time was a poverty-stricken district. Now the situation improved there. However, special attention should be given to the extremely poor areas-Gaibandha, Nilphamari and Kurigram.
 She said that Lalmonirhat would be of great importance when transit with India, Nepal and Bhutan would come into effect.
Local upazila chairman of Patgram thanked the prime minister for coming to a settlement with India to allow movement of the people of two border enclaves-Dahagram and Angorpota-24 hours a day.
Sheikh Hasina said the government had started sending blankets for cold-stricken people of the northern district. She asked the officials to give importance to the people above 60 years and disabled persons while distributing winter clothes.
The PM said her government had declared Rangpur a divisional administrative unit and allocated funds for its development. So it's time to build the division under a master plan, she said asking for taking a long term plan to build a beautiful Rangpur City.
After the cabinet meeting the cabinet secretary Muhammed Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the newsmen that the cabinet had asked the Finance Ministry to resubmit the report on the country's economic development and macro economic indicators during the last tenure of the government with more information. He said the cabinet also passed a condolence motion about the death of scientist Maqsudul Alam, who had sequenced DNA of the traditional variety of jute.
He died at the Queens Hospital in Hawaii early on Sunday (Bangladesh time) after suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. He was 60.  
Dr Alam and his team became globally famous for discovering the genome sequence of 'Tosha' jute-the Jute Plant Draft Genome - in June, 2010. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina broke the news in the Parliament on Jun 16 that year.
Their triumph continued as they sequenced the DNA make-up of a fungus, Macrophomina Phaseolina, which reduces yield of more than 500 species of crops including jute, soybean, cotton, tobacco, maize and sunflower.
The cabinet was also apprised of the economic development during the previous tenure of the government and the PM's participation in the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit held in Nepal in November last.   
    talhabinhabib@yahoo.com