If the price of goods is deliberately increased intentionally on the pretext of Coronavirus or any war, the government will take strict action against the dishonest traders, said Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud.
The minister was speaking as the chief guest at a discussion on International Women's Day-2022 organized by them at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon. President of the National Press Club Farida Yasmin presided over the meeting while senior journalist Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Editor of the daily Manabjamin Mahbuba Chowdhury, acting general secretary of the press club Mainul Alam and president of the Women Journalists Center Nasimun Ara Haque Minu addressed the meeting.
The Information and Broadcasting Minister said, ‘Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been talking about commodity prices for the last few days. Coronavirus pandemic and the recent war have pushed up commodity prices around the world. In our country, the government is working to control the price of goods and at the same time will take strict action against the unscrupulous traders who increase the price of goods by taking advantage of any calamity. Because it is not the job of an honest trader to raise the price of a product by taking advantage of a disaster. '
"If someone gives stale rice to someone these days, there is a possibility of throwing that rice in his face," said the minister. He then stated that now a day in Bangladesh, no one goes without food. In the evenings or in the afternoons, in the alleys of Dhaka or other cities, or in the villages, the cry for rice is not heard anymore. Because we do not have the problem of famine anymore. In other words, there are no people in Bangladesh without food. '
Dr Hasan Mahmud said "All the people in Bangladesh are better than before. When Mirza Fakhrul was in power, people then were protesting for fertilizer, they were shot, farmers were shot, people died without food. Only those who were in power have developed. Today, the destiny of every human being has improved.”
Dr Hassan said, "When we formed the government in 2009, the per capita income of the people of the country was 600 dollar and now it is around 2,600 dollar." In other words, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the per capita income of the people in the country has increased four and a half times in the last 13 years and the purchasing power of low income people has tripled. 13 years ago a worker could buy three to four kg of coarse rice by working all day, now a worker can buy 12 to 20 kg of rice by working all day. That means he can buy three to four times more rice than before. So I will tell Mirza Fakhrul that without spreading this kind of confusion, he should free his politics from being stuck between the health of Begum Khaleda Zia and the punishment of Tariq Zia. '
On the occasion of the World Women's Day 2022, the Information and Broadcasting Minister said that the way in which women have been empowered in the last 13 years in Bangladesh is truly an example for developing countries. No one thought before that the president or general secretary of the national press club would be a woman. In addition to newspapers, many women are now working on television, radio and online. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina thinks that women's progress is necessary for the progress of the country. That is why the country is getting the benefits of women's development and progress under her leadership. The way Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is working for the empowerment of women, if the previous heads of government had worked in the same way, the women of Bangladesh could have gone further.
Mahfuza Khanam, the first woman vice-president of Dhaka University Students' Association-Daksu, was conferred special honors at a function conducted by Ayub Bhuiyan, a member of the managing committee of the Press Club.
