Information Minister and Awami League joint general secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud said the way the BNP’s protest means 200 people out of 2cr people in Dhaka. This shows how much of a movement they could actually carry out.
He was responding to a question from reporters on the announcement of the BNP's movement after Eid at the meeting room of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting at the Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon.
President of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists Omar Farooq, General Secretary Deep Azad and General Secretary of Dhaka Union of Journalists Akhtar Hossain were present as special guests in the presidency of Managing Director of Kalyan Trust Subhash Chanda Badal. Chief Information Officer Mohammad Shahenur Mia, Joint Secretary of the Ministry Mohammad Mahfuzul Haque, DUJ Vice President Manik Lal Ghosh, Welfare Trust member Sebika Rani and others attended the function.
The minister said, "We want the BNP to point out the mistakes of the government. It is our desire that their movement is not limited to the punishment of Tarique Rahman and the health of Khaleda Zia. They will talk about the issues of the people, if there is any mistake of the government, they will point it out, and that is what we want.”
For this we have to wait and see if the BNP can actually make a movement. The way they are protesting with 200 people out of 2cr people in Dhaka shows how much of a movement BNP can actually carry out, he added.
Regarding the BNP's statement on the New Market incident, the minister said, "The police have the information that the local BNP leaders made the incident worse. However, action will be taken against anyone involved in the incident, regardless of party or opinion.”
In response to a question about the circulation of daily newspapers, he said that the circulation of English newspapers has been updated and brought closer to reality.
We will do that very soon in the case of Bangla newspapers too. Many magazines that do not actually publish properly have been shown to have huge publicity numbers, and we are correcting these inconsistencies.
"We have decided that we will not give any government supplement to those who have not implemented the eighth wage board and we are also thinking about what action will be taken in the future for those who will not implement the ninth wage board," he said.
Earlier, in a speech as the chief guest at the distribution of journalist assistance cheques, the minister said that the welfare trust was formed with the interest of the Prime Minister and today it has become a place of trust for journalists.
“The Journalist Welfare Trust is being run very smoothly and transparently. Journalist leaders are involved in the management of the trust, which is helping to select the beneficiaries.
Not only this, the education assistance policy for the children of indigent journalists has also been finalised under the trust,” he said.
It may be mentioned that since the formation of Journalist Welfare Trust in 2014, a total of Tk 22.79cr has been given to 8,156 journalists and their families.
Earlier, under the Journalist Assistance Policy from 2012 till the formation of the trust, 623 journalists and their families have been given assistance of Tk 380,000. Besides, from the 10 crore taka of the Prime Minister's corona aid, about 6cr taka has already been given to the journalists all over the country at a time, 10 thousand taka each.