The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said on Friday that the government had increased gas prices amid soaring living costs because it hardly cared about people’s suffering.
While distributing warm clothes and food to street children and poor women on Friday morning at the party’s central office in Naya Paltan, Nazrul said, ‘People need to get by with their little earnings. The increase in gas prices would raise commodity prices and increase people's suffering.
He said that it was nothing but a lack of accountability to people, as the government did not care about people’s welfare, according to a BNP press release.
To resolve the country's current situation, there is no alternative to bringing down the government, he said, urging everyone to unite for change.
The programme was organised by the Ziaur Rahman Foundation to mark the 87th anniversary of the birth of the party founder and late president Ziaur Rahman.
'We noticed that the gas price was raised two days ago. They claim that household gas prices were not raised, but industrial ones were,' he said, adding that the industry would raise product prices, putting the poor at risk.
He also lamented ‘the highest number of poor children of all eras’ during the present government.
‘The country is passing through a critical time today. An unelected government is not accountable to its citizens. The country is now in the hands of those who have been systematically ignoring the people’s interests, rendering the people of the country destitute,’ said Nazrul.
He went on to say that in recent years, several thousand people became millionaires as a result of unjust, looting of stock markets and banks, while several crore people became poorer.
'Those who became poor had their children also become poor. So, the number of poor children is now at the highest level among all eras,’ he said.
The government, in an executive order on Wednesday, increased retail piped gas prices in four consumer categories by up to 179 per cent with effect from February 1.
Four other consumer categories—household, fertiliser, the tea industry, and compressed natural gas—did not see any change in their rates.
The hike of gas prices came five days after the government on January 12, also in an executive order, increased the average retail electricity price by 5 per cent and the demand charge for electricity for almost all types of consumers by up to 42 per cent.
