Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud has said Bangladesh is now hunger-free and the poverty rate will be reduced to 10 per cent before the next parliament election.
“Bangabandhu’s daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared building a hunger- and poverty-free Bangladesh . . . the country will be poverty-free in phases,” he said.
The minister made the remarks in his address at a function at Rangunia Upazila Parishad auditorium in Chattogram district on Saturday, reports BSS.
The minister was distributing financial assistance among 261 insolvent people from the information minister’s fund. He also distributed multimedia projectors and sports items among different educational institutions.
Upazila Parishad Chairman and Awami League upazila unit president Khalilur Rahman Chowdhury, Assistant Commissioner (land) Purbita Chakma, Rangunia Municipality Mayor Md Shahjahan Sikder Upazila Vice Chairmen Md Shafiqul Islam and Monowara Begum, AL leaders Idris Ajgor, Sirazul Islam Chowdhury and Engineer Shamsul Alam Talukder, among others, addressed the programme as special guests while Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Masudur Rahman was in the chair.
Dr Hasan, also the publicity and publication secretary of ruling AL, said the poverty rate has reduced to 20 per cent from 41 per cent during the last 10-year tenure of the Awami League government.
He hoped that the poverty rate will come down to 10 per cent before the next general elections. Once a food deficit country, Bangladesh is now a food surplus country and it has decided to export food, he added.
The minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken initiatives to make Bangladesh beggar-free. In this regard, the government has already declared some upazilas as beggar-free, he added.
Dr Hasan said the government has distributed 80 tons of rice among the flood-affected people of Rangunia upazila.
The minister urged the AL leaders and activists to remain alert against those politicians who are only doing the politics of votes.
