At the time of BNP, people would die without food, and now everyone can eat to their full stomach, said Agriculture Minister and Awami League presidium member Dr Abdur Razzaque. He said, every year in North Bengal during BNP's tenure, after monsoon, most of the people did not have food in their homes, there was famine, people died without eating. On the other hand, the Awami League government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has eliminated this famine in northern region forever. In the last 13 years, not a single person suffered without food. Today everyone can eat rice to their heart's content.
The minister said these things while addressing the triennial conference of Dhamrai Upazila Awami League at Dhamrai Hardinge Government High School grounds on Wednesday morning.
Mentioning that BNP used to travel around the world with bags of food, the minister said that there was an extreme shortage of food in the country during BNP's tenure. They ruled the country with the mentality of begging. They used to travel around the world with bags to beg. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power for the first time in 1996 and made the country self-sufficient in food in 5 years. Where there was a shortage of 40 lakh tonnes of food during BNP, But, prime minister created a surplus of 2.6 lakh tonnes of food. BNP came to power in 2001-06 and turned the country into a beggar's country again in 05 years.
He said that later in 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came back to power by reducing the price of fertilizers, providing fertilizer at subsidized rates, providing development assistance to agriculture, providing agricultural machinery at subsidized rates, providing agricultural incentives, and by adopting and implementing various farmer-friendly policies, the country became self-sufficient in food again.
