Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said, 'BNP is provoking the rise in commodity prices. The BNP leaders are talking like idiots even though they know that commodity prices have gone up all over the world due to Covid-19 pandemic and war.’
The minister was responding to a question from reporters after inaugurating an exhibition of photographs of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's visit to Japan in 1973 organized by the Japanese Embassy at the Liberation War Museum in Agargaon on Thursday afternoon.
Dr Hasan Mahmud said, ‘Covid-19 pandemic and wars in Europe have pushed up commodity prices around the world. Food prices are currently the highest in Europe in the last 13 years. Even though America is far away, prices have gone up there and also in India and Pakistan. Compared to Europe, commodity prices in Bangladesh have not increased that much, the prices of some import-dependent products have gone up. Mr Mirza Fakhrul knows these things, knowingly they speak like blind.'
The Information and Broadcasting Minister said that when some unscrupulous traders get a chance, they try to increase the price of goods and the government is taking action against it. At the same time, the government has taken steps to increase the coverage of TCB so that low-income people can buy products at lower prices.
"Mirza Fakhrul on the other hand is encouraging the traders in their households to increase the price of goods. They have taken this work as a team and some traders are also being given provocation from across the sea to increase the price of goods by stocking up on them. The government will take strict action against them.”
Earlier, at the inaugural meeting of the exhibition of photographs based on Bangabandhu's visit to Japan in 1973, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said Bangabandhu, the father of the nation, saw Japan as a unique example of rapid development after the devastation of World War II. He wanted Bangladesh to become a developed country like Japan in a short time. But many of his dreams did not come true as he was brutally murdered just short after independence. Mentioning that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is realizing those dreams, the Minister said, "It is a matter of pleasure that Japan is with us as a faithful friend. We firmly believe that Japan will be by our side in the future as well.”
In his special guest speech, Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki addressed the gathering in Bengali and said that Japan's historical relations with Bangladesh are becoming friendlier day by day and new horizons of cooperation are being unveiled.
Liberation War Museum Trustee Mofidul Haque gave a welcome address at the meeting. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Japan, the Ambassador of Japan presented a memento to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Later, the Minister toured the exhibition with the guests.
