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Changes a must

Thousands gather on Cox's Bazar beach with pledge for changes

DWAIPAYAN BARUA, from Cox's Bazar
The usual summer-time calm of the world's longest beach was broken yesterday with the vibrant gathering of thousands of youths pledging to make the country a developed Bangladesh.
With the Bay of Bengal in front, they pledged to materialise die vision of a prosperous Bangladesh for which the heroic sons of the soil laid down their lives in crucial times like 1952, 1971 and 1990.
The month-long campaign "Bodie Jao Bodie Dao" (change yourself, change the society) of Bangla daily Prothom Alo came to an end on the Cox's Bazar beach yesterday with a unique exhibition of around 2,500 banners held end to end. stretching six kilometres, and containing around 2 lakh pledges of people across the country.
Prothom Alo and its Bandhusabha (Prothom Alo friends' club) organised the one-and-a-half-hour-long exhibition that began around 3:30pm.
Following (he national anthem at 4:30pm, a short programme was held where former chief adviser to a caretaker government Justice Muhammad 1 labibur Rahman spoke.
"We have been trying to change the society and the country' over the last 50 years. But we have failed to meet expectations of people in the last 38 years. I came here to welcome and congratulate those who have promised to meet the expectations,” he said.
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Justice Habibur hoped that with such a response from the young generation, the nation would be able to materialise its dreams, "Lots of people made many pledges during the campaign and we have to respect what other people pledged, ” he added.
Welcoming people at the programme Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman said, "We worked for the last 10 years with the slogan 'Prothom Alo is with what is good' but now we haw changed this and our new slogan is 'Change yourself, change the society-’ since we believe that nothing can be > changed unless we change ourselves."
Scientist and author Prof Mohammad Zafar Iqbal administered the oath for change at the programme. They pledged to solve problems in family, society, educational institutions and in their respective areas to build a developed country.
Over 10,000 people, mostly students from different parts of the country, took part in the exhibition of banners containing pledges collected from people of the country since May21.
Members of the Bandhusabha and other participants started arriving at the beach city early yesterday morning. People of different walks of life including renowned writers, artists and celebrities joined the programme.
Among the people who participated in the programme were educationist Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, writer Syed k Shamsul Haque, poet Nirmalendu Gun. cartoonist Rafiqunnabi, writer Anisul Haque, businessman and TV personality Annisul Haque, Kutub Uddin, Aziz Khan, noted columnist Syed Abul Maksud, Channel i Managing Director Faridur Reza Sagar. Sanaullah Lavlu of ABC Radio, writer Emdadul Haque Milon, Dr Shamonto Lal Sen. former adviser to the caretaker gov-ernment Rashed K Chowdhury. The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam. cultural personality Nasiruddin Ahmed Bachchu. civil society member Prof Badiul Alam Majumder. TV celebrity Hanif Sankei, actors Abul Hayat, Afzal Hossain, Ilias Kanchan, Bipasha Hayat, singers Kanak Chanpa, Sarnina Chowdhury, Fahmida Nabi, Shafin Ahmed, Mahmuduzzaman Babu, SI Tutul, Asif, Dhaka University teacher Asif Nazrul, barrister Tanjib-ul Alam, and model Nobel.
Fatema Tabassum, a class-VI student of Baitush Sharaf Jabbaria Academy of Cox's Bazar, came with 300 students of her institute holding a banner. She said she believes that some changes will come through this campaign.
* Sabuj Pal. a class-IX student of Kurushkul High School, echoed the same views.
Visitors who went to the beach were seen looking at the pledges with interest Many of them also took part in the exhibition by holding the bannersup.
A number of the pledges drew a lot of attention of visitors. One of those was, "I will try to persuade all to switch off gas stoves immediately after using them" written by Limon of Kushtia. Rickshaw-puller Joinal of Gaibandha wrote, "I will not charge passengers high fare". Another person wrote, "I will try’ to reach my office on time and stop using the office
telephone for personal purpose."
l^alking to Ilie Daily Star Nirmalendu Gun hoped that die campaign would have a positive impact on the young and fresh who always try to do something different.
Ilias Kanchon said, "Efforts of many have gone in vain but we have to keep faith in the future generation who will have a lot of things to do for country."
Abdus Salam, who went to the beach with his family from Dhaka, termed the initiative a unique one and said the young generation should take a more active role in the social movement this way.
Different private television channels including Channel i, ATN Bangla. ntv ABC Radio telecasted the programme live.