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Govt asked to make Sangsad effective

Ashraful tells roundtable govt sincere to fulfil people's desire; opposition to be judged by performance, not where it sits

Staff Correspondent
The government should take steps to make parliament effective, increase quality of education, establish rule of law and prevent corruption to fulfil its pledge to build a "digital Bangladesh", speakers said at a roundtable yesterday.
They also demanded actions for rooting out terrorism and vandalism, restraining bureaucracy, developing agriculture and culture, decentralising the administration and strengthening the local government system.
The daily Prothom Alo organised the roundtable styled "Expectations to the New Government" at its conference room yesterday.
In response to the speakers' demands, Awami league (AL) spokesman and Local
Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said the government is sincere to work hard to fulfil the peoples' desires and change Bangladesh.
He said the government will prioritise establishment of the rule of law and justice, strengthening of the local government system and improvement of the sectors of education, agriculture, energy, health, culture and environment.
Syed Ashraf said he has no objection if all 29 lawmakers of the BNP sit in the first row in parliament. "The opposition will be judged by its performance, not where it sits in parliament."
He said good gbvernance and the big change will not come until war criminals, the killers of Bangabandhu, the four national leaders and SASM Kibria and the culprits of the August 21 grenade attacks are tried.
Ashraf conveyed the government's willingness to continue the anti-corruption campaign by strengthening the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). If one or two persons are aggrieved at the actions of the ACC, they can fight against it in the court, he said.
He added that the government is trying to bring the prices of essentials within the purchasing capacity of the people.
BNP lawmaker AKM Hafizur Rahman, former caretaker government adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury, Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik (Shujan) General Secretary Badiul Alam Majumder, Prof Syed Manzurul Islam, Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Prof Tofail Ahmed. Prof Mahbub Hossain, Prof Nurul Islam, Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman and Joint Editor Abdul Qaiyum Chowdhury. Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) President Abdul Hafiz Chowdhury, among others, spoke at the event.
Hafizur Rahman said the BNP is sincere to extend coop-
eration to the government in recasting the ACC, facing the challenges in coming days and making parliament effective. The government will have to play the key role in this regard and the ruling party has to tolerate criticisms of the opposition and should not push the opposition to the streets, he said.
Badiul Alam Majumder said the government has to take up a programme to effectively decentralise the admin-istration in order to strengthen the local government system for economical development of the country.
Rasheda K Chowdhury said special initiative has to be taken to materialise the AL's election manifesto to ensure the primary education for all by 2011 and remove illiteracy by 2017.
"Special initiatives also have to be taken to admit indigenous and poor students to schools Appointments of teachers will have to be transparent," she said, adding that the main obstacle to achieving the goal in the education sector is the lack of necessary statistics.
She stressed the need for registration of all kinds of educational institutions including the K a w m i madrasas as registration of
kindergartens has been started.
Prof Manzurul Islam said introducing the Kudrat-E-Khuda education policy will fundamentally develop the standard of education.
He said there is a necessity of student politics in the country’ but that will have to base on ideologies and be nonpartisan.
Teachers' salaries and facilities should also have to be increased but their politics should be discouraged to enhance the standard of education, he added.
Prof Zafar Iqbal said allocations should be increased for research work at universities.
If poor students in the rural areas arc provided with sufficient books, they will be encouraged in studying and this will also reduce discrimination between the students of rural and urban areas, he said.
Matiur Rahman said a meeting should be held soon between other AL and BNP leaders--if not between their chicfs--in order to make parliament effective. All problems including that of seating arrangement can be solved in parliament as there has not been any development between the two whips, he said.