Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged party leaders and workers to make proper preparations for the upcoming national elections and said that the upcoming elections will be a challenge due to multifaceted conspiracies.
She said this during an exchange of views with leaders of Awami League and its affiliated organizations at Ganobhaban on Monday (June 5).
Sheikh Hasina said that whenever there is some improvement in the living standards of the people of the country, there are some sycophants in Bangladesh, who speak against Bangladesh and tell lies everywhere.
The Prime Minister said that some people create a wrong impression about Bangladesh in front of foreigners to get international grants.
She said, those who do not believe in the independence of Bangladesh, committed genocide and other crimes including looting, rape and repression during the liberation war and now their generation is relentlessly spreading propaganda against Bangladesh.
Referring to BNP's practice of vote rigging, the Prime Minister said, they have a record of vote rigging and stealing democracy. However, we are now hearing the cry of democracy from them.
She said, now we have to listen to the slogan of democracy from the party formed by the military dictator. It is their habit to steal votes. So what will the people of Bangladesh learn from the thieves?
Awami League president urged the leaders and activists to work to strengthen the party and said that our party is strong enough. To make the team stronger, we have to take that step.
Highlighting the development of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said that this development was possible because her party was in power for 14 consecutive years after the 2008 general elections and maintained a stable democratic environment in the country.
Mentioning that Bangladesh has become a developing country, she said, "We wanted to change Bangladesh." Today we have successfully made the change.
She said, our biggest achievement is reduction of poverty rate in rural areas. Poverty rate is higher in Dhaka city but lower in rural areas. No one could have thought of this in the past.
The Prime Minister said her government has kept its promise to provide electricity to every home, but Bangladesh is facing problems due to the rise in global commodity prices, transport costs, gas, fuel and coal prices after the Ukraine war.
She said interest rates on foreign loans have been increased, which has put pressure on the country's foreign exchange reserves. However, she pointed out that there is still enough reserve stock to collect food for five months.
She called upon all to plant crops everywhere in the country without leaving any land uncultivated to meet the local needs as well as increase agricultural production for export.
She said that food prices have increased all over the world and also in Bangladesh. In fact people are suffering due to increase in commodity prices. However, products are available (in the market) and there is no shortage of anything, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said that the yield of rice and other crops has been good in Bangladesh this year as well.
The Prime Minister said that her government recently recorded the largest national budget of Tk. 761 thousand 785 crore. She said that no one could have given such a big budget in the past and the most important thing is that the government has been able to give such a big budget in these difficult times.
She said the budget has increased both the number of beneficiaries and the amount of allowance under various social security programs.
She said the government has also arranged a card system so that the low-income people can purchase some essential commodities including rice, pulses and edible oil at subsidized prices to ease their suffering.