& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

PM urges Opposition at grand rally in city

Join talks with open mind

By Staff Correspondent
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia has called upon the Opposition parties to Join the proposed dialogue, return to the Jatlya Sangsad and work unitedly to consolidate democracy for expediting development.
"If you are sincere and have respect for democracy then let's resolve all problems through discussions." the ruling BNP chairperson told a mammoth public meeting attended by lakhs of people at the Manik Mia Avenue in the capital yesterday afternoon.
■We want to sit for a dialogue with an open mind ... No fruitful talks can be held by putting preconditions." Begum Zia said.
Reiterating her call to the lx>ycottl ng Opposition to rejoin
the JS'proceedings, the Prime Minister said. "We want to discuss in the House our Bill to strengthen the Election Commission and also the one brought by the Opposition on the caretaker government."
However. Begum Zia repeated her views that the Opposition demand for elections under a caretaker administration was unconstitutional and termed it "a non-issue" for which, she alleged, the Opposition parties were creating anarchy in the country.
In this regard, she said the Opposition demand for polls under an unelected administration replacing an elected government was contrary to the I2th Amendment of the Constitution.
In an oblique reference to
Awami League (AL) chief Sheikh Hasina. Begum Zia said, "You are totally wrong if you expect to establish democracy and weaken the democratic government by Joining hands with the fallen autocrats.
"The present democratically-elected government will definitely complete its five-year tenure and the next gen era! elections will be held on schedule." the Prime Minister announced amid thunderous applause and clappings.
Repeating that all elections-held under the BNP government were free and fair. Begum Zia said the Opposition candidates for the mayoral polls would not have won in Dhaka and Chittagong if the ruling party had rigged the polls. "Such an instance cannot
be cited during the rule of other parties." she said.
In her more than half-an-hour extempore speech, the Prime Minister bitterly criticised the AL’s alliance with the Jatlya Party UP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami and the three parties’ agitation programmes like hartals and sieges. She also highlighted her government's successes in the last three and a half years and spoke of the misrule of the AL and JP regimes.
Chaired by City BNP chief and Food Minister Mir Shaw-kat All. the meeting was also addressed by the BNP Secretary General and LGRD Minister. Abdus Salam Talukder, Chief Whip of Parliament Khandakar Delwar Hossain.
Home Minister Abdul Matin Choudhury. Commerce Minister Shamsul Islam. Science and Technology State Minister Prof Abdul Mannan. Fisheries and Livestock Minister Ab-‘dullah Al-Noman. Stale Minister for Cultural Affairs Prof Jahanara Begum, former Dhaka mayor Mirza Abbas MP. Sala-huddin Ahmed MP, Barkatullah Bhulu MP. Amanullah Aman MP and others.
Hundreds of buses and trucks ferried people from Outside the capital to enable them to attend the rally, organised as a show of strength in the face of current Opposition agitation.
Besides, tens of thousands of people in processions carrying banners, placards, portraits of Ziaur Rahman and Begum Zia and chanting progovernment slogans converged from all directions at the meeting venue to listen to the Prime Minister, who spoke with confidence in her voice.
The sprawling Manik Mia Avenue virtually turned into a human sea with the participation of multitudes of people from different parts of the city and Its adjoining areas.
The huge assembly also disrupted the city’s traffic system with processions of vast numbers of people including women turning bhaka into a city of processions amidst slogans. cheers and clappings.
In'a spontaneous expression of Jubilation thousands of people. splintered in groups, brought out sporadic processions in the city expressing their support to the leadership of Begum Zia and different socio-economic development programmes of her government.
Without quite naming the main opposition AL: Begum Zia alleged that the party has been non-cooperating with her
democratic government, nay conspiring to bury the hard-earned democracy by joining forces with the autocratic party', meaning the JP.
"They (meaning the AL leaders) are now nowhere. That's why. they are trying to survive with the help of two other parties — both rejected by the people." she remarked.
The Prime Minister advised the opposition parties to act in accordance with the will of the people and. shun destructive activities like hartals that only multiplied public suffering and hindered national development.
Speaking against hartals, the ruling party chief asked the opposition parties to hold agitation programmes like rallies as many, time as they wished but asked them not lo sponsor any programme that hampers production and development.
She said her party also once observed hartals but those were aimed at toppling autocracy and restoring democracy, not against any democratically elected government.
"What we need now is to increase production, not. stop it by calling hartals."
Replying to the Opposition contention that observing hartals was their democratic right, the Prime Minister said, confining people to their homes and closing down shops and businesses could never be a democratic act. "People also have the democratic right to defy hartals."
Reacting .to the Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina's claim that her current struggle was for establishing the people’s rights to food and franchise, Begum Zia claimed both rights were guaranteed by her government. She added that the people's rights could not be established by those who Joined the ousted autocrats to
topple a people's government.
She also blasted the opposition parties that were charging her government with ineptness. misrule and failures and asked them to cite their definition of failure.
"As In the past, the BNP is ■ now also working for enhanc-x ing production and meeting the people's basic needs of education. medicare, food.. shelter and clothing."
About her government's successes, she said in the last three and a half years, it had built thousands of kilometres of roads, bridges, culverts, •schools, hospitals and ensured electricity in the rural areas.
She also cited the waiving oft’ of agricultural loans and land taxes amounting -lo Tk 2.500 crore, providing free-schooling for girl students up to Class Ten. introducing Food-for-Education and stipends for girl students, allocation of Tk 11.000 crore in the development sector in Ihe current budget, taking up the Jamuna and second Buriganga bridges and meeting 36 per c.ent of the development budget from local resources.
The government, the Prime Minister said, had implemented the National Pay Commission and Wage Commission awards and had made easier the cumbersome pension process.
"But the Opposition cannot appreciate these development steps." she remarked.
The opposition parties that failed to do any good for the people during their regimes had now become Jealous of the wave of development taking place under the BNP rule, she said, adding that is why they were trying to block development by resorting lo anarchy.
"Bui the people are with us and they will resist any attempt to disrupt national development." she claimed.