Give warm clothes to cold-hit poor people: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the authorities concerned to immediately reach blankets and other warm clothes to the cold-hit distressed people across the country. She gave the directive while receiving blankets donated by Standard Bank to her Relief and Welfare Fund at her official residence Ganabhaban on Saturday evening. Chairman of Standard Bank and FBCCI President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed handed over 20,000 pieces of blankets to the PM’s Relief for the cold-stricken people. Receiving the blankets, the Prime Minister thanked the bank authorities for their noble gesture and called upon the affluent sections of society to stand beside the poor and cold-affected people. Hasina said people living in villages and hill tracts are being badly affected by severe cold although its intensity is somewhat less in towns. The poor and the distressed people are ultimately benefited if the well-off people donate to the Prime Minister’s Relief and Welfare Fund, she said. PM’s Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhury and Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Mahbubul Hoque Shakil were, among others, present, according to a news agency.