BNP attributes Covid disaster to govt’s overreliance on bureaucrats

BNP on Monday alleged that the government has failed to tackle the Covid situation in the country due to its "overdependence" on bureaucrats.

“The government has completely failed to contain the coronavirus infection and it has put people’s lives and livelihoods in jeopardy,” said party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Speaking at a virtual discussion, he also said their party has been calling upon the government since the beginning of the Covid outbreak to hold a national convention and form a national committee at all levels comprising all political parties, experts, social organizations and NGOs to tackle the situation with united efforts by involving people.

“It's unfortunate that this government didn’t pay heed to it. They’ve relied only on bureaucrats to create such a terrible coronavirus situation. It can be called a complete mess because of politicization, political meanness, and corruption,” the BNP leader observed.

The virtual program was arranged by the family members of BNP Chairperson’s late adviser Fazlur Rahman Patal, marking his fifth death anniversary. Patal, a former state minister for youth and sports, died at an Indian hospital on August 11, 2016, at the age of 65.

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Fakhrul said the country has probably been witnessing the worst Covid situation as the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus has spread all over the country, including the rural areas.

He said the government did not take proper steps to prevent the spread of the virus to rural areas from cities despite repeated warnings. “They took time to seal the border. That’s why, the Delta variant of the Covid pandemic spread all over the country.”

The BNP leader said the government is hardly concerned about people’s lives and livelihoods as its main focus is on creating scopes for ruling party leaders to plunder public money.

He also accused the government of mocking people by enforcing "unplanned" lockdowns and "unjustified restrictions," badly affecting normal public life.

The BNP leader also said the government has destroyed the economy delaying plans and actions to overcome the fallout of the pandemic. “They did nothing, except plundering public money. We clearly see that the GDP growth is decreasing gradually, but the government is lying about it. It wants to show an inflated GDP growth by force.”

He said the trade, imports and production are also declining alongside the GDP. “But they’re not paying any attention to it.”

Fakhrul also said around two crore people have fallen below the poverty line afresh while many others, including day-labourers, rickshaw- and van-pullers, farm labourers, hawkers, small shop workers and those involved in the informal sector, have become unemployed.

Later, the BNP secretary general inaugurated a makeshift healthcare centre set up at Bagatipara in Natore under the supervision of Patal’s wife Kamrunnahar Shirin and her children.