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AL to hold pending dist councils

The Dhanmondi office of Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday denied The Daily Star reporter access to cover the meeting between the party's general secretary and organising and joint secretaries. The guard could not mention the reason for the restriction. He just said it is the order of AL Office Secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap. The Daily Star is running this report with information collected from secondarysources.

Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee
The ruling Awami League has decided to hold its long-due conferences of grassroots units, which have not happened since the party assumed power in 2009.
In the first phase, the party would hold councils for Khulna and Rajshahi city units and Cox's Bazar, Thakurgaon, Kishoreganj, Barguna, Patuakhali district units within June.
The AL would hold councils to another 10 districts in the second phase after August, sources in the meeting said.
The decision was made in a meeting of General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam with the party's joint general secretaries and organising secretaries at AL president's Dhanmondi office, sources said.
They said the Awami League has already sent a letter to Thakurgaon district unit leaders asking them to take initiatives for holding the council on May 31. Similar letters would be sent today to the other six districts.
The Awami League held two central councils since 2009. But it was able to hold councils to only 11 out 73 organisational districts during that time.
At the meeting, Ashraf asked organising secretaries to take measures so that tried and tested leaders are elected in the district level, sources said. He said members of the Chittagong (North) committee was actually hand-picked by a central leader.
Bir Bahadur, organising secretary for Chittagong division AL and state minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, termed Lakshmipur a land of terror. "I myself do not dare to visit there; How am I going to hold the council in the district?" the state minister was quoted by a leader who was present at the meeting.
During the last meeting of Awami League Central Working Committee, highest policy-making body of the party, Sheikh Hasina asked Ashraf to take initiatives for holding the councils at the grassroots.
Before leaving for Japan Sunday night, Hasina at the airport reminded Ashraf to hold meetings with organising secretaries and finalise the date for the councils, sources said.
Three joint general secretaries and seven organising secretaries were present at the meeting yesterday. No formal briefing was held afterwards.