President Hamid urges transparency in govt activities

President Abdul Hamid on Sunday called for establishing transparency and accountable good governance in government activities to make democracy more effective.

"Democracy needs to be made more effective by ensuring proper participation of the people in all government activities," he said addressing the Parliament in the New Year's first session.

This was also the 16th session of the 11th parliament.

The president said that the government's expenditure has increased due to a huge increase in the government's development activities over the past one and a half decade.

He also urged to maintain caution in all matters related to projects to prevent misuse of government funds. 

"It is necessary to ensure 100% implementation of the project by adopting a time-bound action plan," he added.

According to the constitution, the president addressed the House in the first session of New Year highlighting programmes and achievements of the government.

The president's speech was approved earlier by the cabinet.

Mentioning people as the source of all power, the President urged the legislators to keep public interest over everything else.

Hamid called upon members of the treasury and opposition benches to play their due role in the House.

The president called for building a national conference on basic issues of democracy, rule of law and development.

He said the new generation should be gifted a safe, happy, beautiful and prosperous Bangladesh as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He said peace and stability are prevailing in the country due to the zero-tolerance policy of the government against terrorism and militancy.

He said that the government is trying to ensure that people from all communities of the country can practise their religion in harmony while religious festivals of all communities including Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians are celebrated peacefully in a solemn and festive atmosphere.

Hamid asked all to keep a watchful eye so that no conspiratorial group in the name of religion can destroy the country's stability.

"Let us work unitedly to build the golden Bengal of the Father of the Nation's dream by eradicating terrorism, drugs, corruption and militancy from the country while upholding the glorious freedom gained at the cost of millions of lives," the president said in his speech.

He also mentioned the government's success in tackling the global Covid-19 pandemic and its various development activities in different sectors including all modes of transportation, infrastructure, economy, education, agriculture, social safety-net, rural development and environment.

"The last two years have been marked by a global Covid-19 pandemic that has threatened the lives and livelihoods of the people. At that time, besides saving lives, keeping the socio-economic situation normal was one of the challenges of the government," he said.

The government adopted the 'Whole of Government Approach' to address this socio-economic crisis.

"More than seven crore people have already been vaccinated and most of the people of the country will be brought under vaccination soon, Inshaallah," Hamid said.

He said with the courageous, far-sighted leadership and inspiration of the prime minister, "We have been successfully tackling Corona and its impact so far."

He also said medical services were being provided to the infected at 156 Covid Dedicated Hospitals in addition to imposing various restrictions and persuasive actions for the prevention of corona.

151 RT-PCR laboratories were set up for corona testing and the budget has been increased by 13% as compared to the last fiscal year, he added.

Hamid said the trend of progress in the production of various crops has continued even in the corona situation due to government cooperation in agriculture development and agri-friendly policy.

He also said that food production has increased to 455.05 lakh metric tonnes, which was 326.09 lakh metric tonnes in 2009.

"Our agriculture is being transformed from 'livelihood' to 'commercial' agriculture. We have to build an 'export-oriented agriculture' economy by continuing this trend of agricultural development in the country," he added.

The president said that the government is always taking initiatives to keep the people of the country contented through various social security programmes including financial assistance to large as well as small and medium enterprises as corona increases the economic risk of the marginalised population as well as the private sector. 

He said 28 incentive packages provided by the government have benefited more than 6crore 74 lakh 63 thousand people and more than 1 lakh 17 thousand organizations in response to this crisis, he added.

However, Hamid said, the government needs to be cautious and to take necessary precautions so that the new variant Omicron does not spread in the country.

Earlier, the House sat at around 4:00pm with speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

The treasury and opposition bench MPs and Prime Minister and Leader of the House, Sheikh Hasina in the House, were present during his speech.