According to World Bank's estimates, the poverty rate in Bangladesh has decreased even in the midst of the corona period, said Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud.
During an exchange of views with journalists on current affairs at the secretariat on Monday afternoon, he quoted the report titled 'Bangladesh Development Update-Recovery and Resilience Amid Global Uncertainty' published by the World Bank on April 14, and said that the poverty rate in Bangladesh has decreased in the 2021 financial year due to economic recovery despite the Corona situation. It has stood at 11.9 percent which was 12.5 percent in fiscal year 2020.
Dr Hasan said, in fact, currently the extreme poverty rate in Bangladesh is 10.5 percent and the poverty rate is 20.5 percent. That is, due to the timely action of the government even in this corona epidemic and all the steps taken by the government to keep the economy strong, the per capita income of the people has increased as well as the poverty rate has decreased - this is not our statement, this is the statement of the World Bank.
According to the recently published IMF report, Bangladesh is now the 41st economy in the world in terms of GDP, and referring to the position of our economy in PPP, the minister said, 'The country is moving forward despite this corona epidemic, but Mirza Fakhrul Sahib says that poverty in the country is 42 percent. When Begum Khaleda Zia was in power, it was 42 percent. Mirza Fakhrul is still in Khaleda Zia's era.
Hashan Mahmud said, "When BNP was in power, the foreign currency reserve in Bangladesh was 3.5 billion dollars. Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has increased it to 48 billion. Due to the increase in the cost of goods, fuel, transportation in the world, some expenses have been taken from that reserve, now there is 40 billion dollars with which it is possible to meet the import expenses of 6 months. It is comforting for a country to have foreign exchange reserves equal to 3 months of import expenditure. At that place we have 6 months of reserves with which it is possible to meet 6 months of import expenses.
The information minister said, "Khaleda Zia made the country the champion of corruption five times in a row." He established tolls on all trades by erecting windmills. At that time there were two VATs - one was the government VAT and the other was the VAT of the Hawa Bhaban. Now as a responsible leader and general secretary of the opposition and as a former teacher of Dhaka College, it is not appropriate to give false statements. We will request him to read the World Bank and IMF reports, then he will surely come back from his false statement.
BNP Secretary General's comment on Narail incident - Communal incidents have happened during the Awami League period, Minister Hasan said in response, 'BNP is the main sponsor of communal evil in Bangladesh. They do politics with communal power. Various parties of their alliance openly say that they want to make Bangladesh into Afghanistan. BNP does politics on communalism, when election comes it gives communal slogans. If you vote for Awami League, this country will become India, Awami League is a party of Hindus or a party of religious minorities, these are called BNPE. BNP also nurtures and nurtures communal evils and attempts to create chaos in the country are carried out under their patronage.
Analyzing such incidents in the past, it can be seen that BNP was behind them, said Dr. laugh He said, "You must remember that after the elections in 2001, BNP tortured villages after villages and burnt houses for the crime of voting by boat." Starting from Kotalipara, Banaripara in Barisal, we had to open shelters and shelters for religious minorities in our party offices at various places. It is natural that Mirza Fakhrul Sahib, as the spokesperson of the main sponsoring party of religious evil, will try to spread confusion by saying such things.
Whenever such incidents happen, our government immediately takes strict action. Because our party is a non-sectarian party, we cherish non-sectarianism.'
After the incident in Narail, the father of the boy who posted the incident and five others have been arrested on charges of assault, and the process of arresting others is also underway, the Broadcasting Minister said, adding that those who fueled it will also be found out. So as strict action has been taken in the past, strict action has been taken in this case too and all the culprits will be brought to justice.
Hasan Mahmud said in response to a question about the election, "The election will be held in Bangladesh in the same way as in all democratic countries. India, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and countries in continental Europe mostly have parliamentary democracies. In all those countries, the government that has been running the country performs the duties during the elections. The same will happen in our country. There will be no benefit in dreaming with the slogan of caretaker government.”
