Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Friday assured the people that there will be no shortage of essential commodities during the upcoming Holy Month of Ramadan.
“There will be no shortage of anything (essential commodities) in Ramadan. All arrangements have already been made. There will be no problem,” she said.
The prime minister made the assurance while briefing newspersons about her recent visit to Germany where she attended the Munich Security Conference, 2024 and held bilateral meetings with several global leaders.
About the essential commodities during Ramadan, Sheikh Hasina said there is an arrangement to import sufficient amounts of goods like gram, dates, sugar and other items as well. “So, there will be no problem with this as we have made arrangements for those much earlier.”
The prime minister went to Munich on 15 February and returned home on 19 February.
Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Deputy Leader of the House Begum Matia Chowdhury, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud and Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury, among others, were present on the dais.
PM’s speechwriter M Nazrul Islam moderated the event.
In response to a question regarding price hike and conspiracy to overthrow the government and famine, the prime minister said that there was a big conspiracy to prevent the election.
She said that the conspiracy was also to dissociate the government from the people by increasing the prices of goods.
As the vested quarters understood that they couldn’t prevent the election, the conspirators had hatched this before the election, added the prime minister.
In this connection, she also mentioned the incidents including arson terrorism were perpetrated on 28 October last year, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
“The plot was to oust the government. . . You all know who they are. I don’t want to name anyone. I don’t even need to say. But the plot still exists,” said Sheikh Hasina.
Regarding the manipulation in increasing the price of daily goods, she mentioned the price hike of eggs through hiding those.
She added, “Don’t you think those who want to overthrow the government have some tricks too?”
She also mentioned the situation of onion crisis, saying that suddenly the shortage of huge quantities of onions appeared. Later the stored onion were rotten and required to be thrown into the water.
“What should be done to these people? You tell me. They should be beaten by a mob,” she said.
The prime minister stated that she herself produces crops in Ganabhaban, while people in her village home and constituency started following the example.
She urged the people across the country to use their fallow lands for agriculture as well.
No worry about election, no question
The prime minister said that there was no discussion about Bangladesh’s election during the meeting with global leaders on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference in Germany.
In replying to a query, Sheikh Hasina, who became prime minister for the fourth time in a row, said that there was no talk with them about the election.
“They have no worry, no comment, no question about the election,” she said, adding, “There was no talk about the election, most of the talk was bilateral.”
The prime minister said, “We have state-level relations with European countries. Besides, we have an advantage because of personal relations. No one spoke about the election. They themselves knew that I would win the election.”
She continued, “Those who don’t want (to see me in power again) they speak up about it.”
Sheikh Hasina said that the thought that the election of the countries, which took 10-12 days to announce the election results, is free and fair and in Bangladesh, the results came within 24-48 hours of election, is not free and fair. “We don’t have any medicine for this disease. I believe that our strength is our people.”
Sheikh Hasina said, “We have a good friendship with European countries. France will provide us US$ 1 billion for climate change.”
