Sheikh Hasina’s agriculture friendly policies make country food-surplus one: lawmakers

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SANGSAD BHABAN, Feb 16, 2020 (BSS) – The lawmakers today taking part in the discussion on the thanksgiving motion on President’s January 9 address to the House said Bangladesh has already become a food-surplus country due to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s agriculture friendly policies.

The government is working to implement the Vision-2021, achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and finally transform the country into a developed nation by 2041, they said.

Awami League lawmakers AB Tajul Islam, Dr Dipu Moni, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, Md Nurul Amin, Salma Choudhury, Md Emad Uddin Pramanik, Choto Monir and Kazim Uddin Ahmed, Jatiya Party lawmakers Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the parliament GM Quader and Anisul Islam Mahmud and Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Md Zahidur Rahman took part in the discussion with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

Taking part in the discussion, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni highlighted the government’s success in the education sector and said the government wants to improve the quality of education at all levels from pre-primary to higher education to an international level.

Noting that the government is working to implement the education policy, she said formulation of an integrated education law is at the final stage and it will be placed before the cabinet soon.

“We are working to formulate a guideline determining the minimum qualifications for the teacher recruitment in the universities,” Dipu Moni added.

She went on saying that the initiative of taking uniform admission test has been taken aiming at reducing sufferings of the admission seekers.

Referring to different research-friendly initiatives of the government, the education minister said the government is going to set up more research and innovation labs and increase the research allocation.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, taking part in the discussion, said the government is considering bringing the whole country under the pilot scheme of procuring paddy directly from the farmers through a mobile app from the upcoming Boro season to end the activates of the middlemen.

“We have already procured paddy through a mobile app in 16 upazilas across the country in the current Aman season under a pilot scheme. We are now working to procure the paddy through the mobile app across the country by launching one pilot scheme at each of the reaming 48 districts from the upcoming Boro season,” he said.

Noting that the main task of the Food Ministry is to implement the Food Safety Act-2013, Sadhan said the government has set up 71 food courts, including 64 in 64 districts and seven in six metropolitan areas, having one public prosecutor at each court to ensure safe food for the country’s people.

Projecting the government’s success in ensuring the food security, he said due to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s pragmatic measures, around 50 lakh people are now getting rice at Taka 10 per kilogram through Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) and Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) cards.

“We are going to distribute nutrient fortified rice at 100 upazilas across the country through Women and Children Affairs Ministry marking the ‘Mujib Year’ on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” he added.

Deputy Leader of the Opposition GM Quader, taking part in the discussion, highlighted the unemployment problem in the country and urged the government to take effective measures to resolve the unemployment problem.

He called for reforming the country’s education sector to make it employment oriented one.

Projecting different data on road accident, drug abuse and increasing trend of the country’s population, Quader emphasized on taking effective measures to reduce road accident and control the drug abuse and population.

The lawmakers thanked the President for his time-befitting speech, saying that President Abdul Hamid in his 163-page speech has projected the government’s success in all sectors in the last 11 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and outlined the government’s future plans for transforming the country into a developed and prosperous one by 2041.

Highlighting the President’s speech on the celebration of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the lawmakers said celebration of Bangabandhu’s birth centenary will remain as a milestone in the country’s history.

The lawmakers congratulated the Bangladesh Under-19 Cricket Team for clinching the ICC Under-19 World Cup trophy recently for the first time ever in the history of the country’s sports in any format.

Earlier, the lawmakers paid rich tributes to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for his sacrifice and contribution to establish an independent Bangladesh.

They also paid rich tributes to the national four leaders and martyrs of the 1975 carnage and the Language Movement.