BNP urges government to form national unity committee

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday urged the government to form a national committee immediately to tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation.

Talking to reporters at his Uttara residence in the capital, he said that BNP, in this situation, blamed the government not to merely criticise, but to help them.

He said that the prime minister could have taken the initiative of engaging political parties and civil society members to fight the virus.

‘Not that she needs to hold meeting with all of them sitting at a place. It can be done through video conference. Then, everyone would think that ‘we are one’, ‘we are united’,’ he said.

Terming the matter a ‘question of existence’, he said that the government should have thought how they could use the opposition parties, government employees to create favourable environment.

He said that most of the people of the country live on hand to mouth and they are jobless for past few days, so, providing them food is now a big challenge.

‘The country will face a huge catastrophe like 1974, if effective measures are not taken immediately for these people,’ he cautioned.

He said that the government had done a mistake by allowing public transports for two days after the announcement of public holidays.

‘Due to the lapse, all the people from Dhaka had spread across the country,’ he said, fearing spread of coronavirus as people in thousands went out of Dhaka by bus, trains and launches. (Source: New Age)