BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed today ‍spoke at Jatiya Press Club. Photo: BSS

DHAKA, May 12, 2025 (BSS) - BNP Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed today stressed on giving importance on health sector in next budget saying if the health sector is developed, none needs to go to India for better treatment.

“Why should we spend so many foreign currencies going to India? If our country’s physicians and nurses could be provided with proper logistical support facilitating the patients to get proper treatment, none would need to go to India,” he said.
Rizvi was addressing a discussion arranged by Nurses Association of Bangladesh (NAB) marking the International Nurses Day at Jatiya Press Club here.

NAB president Jahanara Siddiqui chaired the event while BNP health affairs secretary Dr. Rafiqul Islam, Sammilita Peshajibi Parishad member secretary and Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) secretary general Kader Gani Chowdhury, BNP leaders Nilofar Chowdhury Moni, Helen Jerin Khan and  Abdus Sattar Patwari, among others, also spoke.

Rizvi urged the interim government to take all necessary initiatives to improve education, health and welfare sectors.

He said nurses face many discriminations not only in Bangladesh but also other countries in South Asia as even they do not have housing facilities.
“Nurses have to work in three shifts, but no accommodation has been arranged for them on the campuses. They need to pay for their house rent from their salary. We need good doctors, we also need nurses. So, nurses should provide with all necessary logistical support they need,” he said.

Rizvi said many mega projects including flyovers had been implemented, but this was not real progress as the county could not have any progress in terms of human resources.

“If half of the money looted and laundered abroad by fascist Awami League men had been spent on the health sector, the country would have progressed in the area.

During the Corona pandemic, massive irregularities took place in the health sector and Salman F Rahman, who is now serving in jail, was the mastermind of those irregularities, he said.