Control prices of essentials: BNP to govt

BNP standing committee has demanded the government lower the prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG considering public sufferings, reports UNB.

At a virtual meeting on Monday night, the BNP policymaking body also urged the government to take effective steps promptly to lower the prices of daily essentials, including rice, pulses, edible oil and salt.

The meeting elaborately discussed the overall impact of the LPG and diesel and kerosene price hike on the lives of the people as a whole and on the economy, said a press release signed by BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Wednesday.

"The number of the poor will increase and public sufferings will deepen further due to the price hike of fuel oil and LPG as the incomes of many have declined while many others lost their jobs during the corona period," Fakhrul said.

He said the BNP policymakers decided that BNP and its associate bodies will observe programmes in protest against the fuel price.

Fakhrul said the meeting expressed deep concern over the findings of a survey that the number of the new poor in the country stands at around 32.4 million.

A survey jointly conducted by Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) and Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) revealed that 7.9 million people were added to the previous 24.5 million new poor following the second wave of the coronavirus.

Fakhrul said their standing committee thinks such a situation has been created in the country due to indifference, incompetence and wrong policies of the government.

"Unplanned restrictions to contain corona have contributed to raising the number of poor. The situation is further compounded for not announcing financial incentives for low-income people and the informal sector, depriving due wages of workers in the mills and factories and not providing marginalised people with food and financial assistance," the BNP policymakers observed.

The BNP standing committee meeting also voiced concern over the recent killing of two Bangladeshis by Indian Border Security force (BSF) members along Dona border in Sylhet's Kanaighat upazila.

The meeting deplored that the killing of Bangladeshi nationals along the border by BSF troops has become a regular affair. "This is undoubtedly an extreme violation of human rights. Such heinous killings don't take place on a regular basis along any other border of the world," Fakhrul said.

He said their meeting thinks BSF keeps on killing Bangladeshis due to the government's 'knee-jerk' foreign policy. "The meeting strongly condemned and protested the killings and demanded immediate effective steps by the authorities concerned of India and Bangladesh to stop such inhumane killings."

BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Jamiruddin Sircar, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Selima Rahman and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku joined the virtual meeting chaired by party acting chairman Tarique Rahman.