PM calls for casting vote for boat to build Sonar Bangla

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THAKURGAON, Mar 29, 2018 (BSS) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged the countrymen to cast vote for Awami League in upcoming elections recalling the party’s historic role and sacrifices in realizing Bengali rights, nation building, independence and for continuity of the current development spree.

“Cast your vote for our ‘boat’, we will give you a Sonar Bangla,” she said while addressing a huge public meeting at Thakurgaon Govt. High School Ground here today.

Sheikh Hasina decades ago the Bengalis earned its language rights as the people voted for the party, which in subsequent years spearheaded the nation building campaign and eventually the “boat led us towards the independence” in 1971.

“Bangladesh is now on the road of development as people gave their vote for ‘boat’ in 2009 and 2014,” she told the rally organized by the district unit of Awami League (AL). The premier said continuation of the incumbent government was very crucial for continued development works, Sheikh Hasina said.

“Actually, boat gave everything to mankind . . . the ‘kisti’ (boat) of Prophet Nuh (A) saved the mankind and animal kingdom,” she said.

AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali, presidium member Ramesh Chandra Sen, advisory council member Satish C. Roy, joint general secretaries Mahbubul Alam Hanif and Jahangir Kabir Nanak, central leaders Khaled Mahmud Chowdhury, BM Mozammel Haque and Nurul Islam Sujan addressed the meeting, among others. The party’s Thakurgaon district unit president Dabirul Islam, MP chaired the meeting, conducted by general secretary Adul Mazid Apel.

Sheikh Hasina said once Bangladesh was exposed to extreme poverty while her party took various programmes for poverty alleviation and to bring the vulnerable people under 142 types of safety net programmes.

She said some 67 lakh elderly people and widows now get allowance.

Sheikh Hasina promised to improve Thakurgaon’s road, air and railway communications and take particular steps to introduce an intercity train service to link it with the capital.

The premier reminded the residents of the northwestern district that the past BNP government shutdown the Syedpur and Rajshahi airports in the region while her government reestablished the facilities after elected to power in 2009.

“BNP destroyed not only the Biman (airlines), they destroyed the whole country . . . they don’t know how to create, they know how to destroy (and again) BNP doesn’t know how to give something to people, but know how to plunder public property,” she added.

On the other hand, she said, the country witnessed a massive development of multimodal communication infrastructures as Awami League was elected to power in 1996 and 2009 when her government also resolved the acute power crisis.

The premier said only in three and half years after the independence Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman turned Bangladesh into a least developed country but was killed while spearheading the campaign to bring smiles on the face of millions.

The killers of Bangabandhu usurped power in collaboration with the anti- liberation force, thwarting country’s peace and progress, she said. Sheikh Hasina thanked the voters of Thakurgaon for giving vote in favour of Awami League candidates in 2008 and 2014 elections.

She recalled that that BNP tried to upset the polls in 2014 attacking polling centers in Thakurgaon when an honest presiding officer Zobaidur Rahman was killed.

“As many as 3,036 innocent people were injured in the arson attack of BNP in 2013, 2014 and 2015 across the country and out of them about 500 died . . . 500 vehicles including railway wagons were set on fire,” the premier said.

“But people of Thakurgaon cast their votes for Awami League defying all obstructions,” she said.