Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said that when any election comes, the BNP opens the complaint box. This is their traditional rule. “They won many local government elections. They made complains till the last moment before they won,” he said.
Dr Hasan Mahmud said these while talking to reporters after inspecting the development work of Port Connecting Road in Chattogram city on Saturday. He also visited Pahartali Horse Shore Lake.
He said that the BNP was alleging that the police were harassing their candidates’s agents and party leaders in the Chattogram City Corporation elections and the ruling party was trying to exert influence.
“The Election Commission is conducting the elections. The EC is trying to do their job very well in the eyes of the people. Like other city corporations and municipal elections in the country, the elections to the Chattogram City Corporation will also be free and fair. The elections will be held using EVM system,” he said.
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Mentioning that Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh Hasina is being praised all over the world, Dr Hasan Mahmud said, “Pakistan looked at us and sighed. The talk-show on Pakistani television discussed, 'Please give us a Sheikh Hasina, make our country Bangladesh.' And as discussed in various television talk shows in India, Bangladesh, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, is surpassing India in terms of GDP growth rate and per capita income.”
He said that while the country and the whole world is admired, one party in the country can never be praised. Every day, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other leaders of their party and some intellectuals cannot praise the government's development. “They have intelligence, but we don't understand why their intelligence disappears when we talk about government. I will have expectations in the new year that their eyes will not work blindly, they will see these things with open eyes.”
Information Minister said Chattogram is the second largest city in the country. The development of the country is associated with the development of this city. The development of Chattogram means the development of the whole country. That is why Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh Hasina has always attached importance to the development of Chattogram. A project is underway to reduce water logging in the port city at a cost of one billion dollars. Extensive allocation has been made for the development of roads in the city, he added.
Thanking CCC Administrator Khorshed Alam Sujan, the Information Minister said that he has made arrangements to complete the unfinished work in a short time by urging the contractors and taking various administrative measures. A few more roads, including the Port Connecting Road, are just a few examples.
He said there has been an outer ring road, some roads connecting with this outer ring road are needed. In addition to existing projects, the CDA has begun work on new projects to connect the Outer Ring Road with at least three roads to the main city. “Besides, the work of Karnafuli Bangabandhu Tunnel is progressing fast, we hope to be able to open the Karnafuli Tunnel next year. It is the first tunnel road through the bottom of a river in the subcontinent. There are no such tunnels in neighboring India, Pakistan or Nepal. These works are an expression of the importance that the Prime Minister gives to Chattogram,” he said.
Dr Hasan Mahmud said that work on the Bay Terminal in Chattogram has started and if it is built, it will actually be another new Chittagong port. It will be established as a much more powerful and much larger port than the present Chittagong port. Thus the picture of the whole country has changed in the last 12 years.
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CCC Administrator Khorshed Alam Sujan said that the people of the area have been in a lot of trouble for the last three years over the Chittagong Port Connecting Road. “We have fought a lot in the last six months, it is the lifeline of Chittagong, the means of direct communication of Bangladesh with the port of Chittagong. This is one of the priorities of the Prime Minister. The whole country was worried about it, now it is visible. You will not find any more broken roads in Chittagong city, broken roads have now become a part of history,” he said.