Hasina pledges massive child dev schemes

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Awami League (AL) president Sheikh Hasina promised to members of Child Parliament Friday to take up massive child development programmes, if voted to power, an aide said, reports bdnews24.com.
Ensuring disadvantaged children's education and livelihood, adopting effective measures to curb child-labour and providing free education to graduation level for all will also be her on government's must-dos, Hasina said.
Hasina's deputy information secretary Mahbubul Haque Shakil quoted the former prime minister as making the promises to a group of NGO representatives at Sudha Sadan in the morning.
Led by Sulata Selim Nishi, speaker-elect of the Child Parliament, a group of delegates met her at 11:30 am and handed the Child Parliament's written resolutions recorded at its sixth session to her during the hour-long meeting.
"We are a politically conscious group, but we don't intend to be a party in any political activities. Sheikh Hasina endorses our motto," Child Parliament speaker Nargis Akter Ronnie later said to journalists.
"She said children cannot be involved in politics. She assured us that she would tell all AL supporters across the country not to involve children in any activities related to the upcoming election," said Ronnie.
Shakil told journalists that the AL chief said she was opposed to the practice of keeping children standing along the roads on different occasions for greeting important personalities and VIPs including the president, ministers and ambassadors.
"Such practices will be totally shunned, once the AL assumes office", she said.
The AL president also said that a corner of the national assembly will be kept reserved for use by the children observers when the parliament will be in session.
AL spokesperson Syed Ashraful Islam and Child Parliament deputy speaker Ahsan Habib were present.