Govt plans to construct ‘hate monument’ in city

Liberation Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haq said the government has taken a plan to construct a hate monument in the capital in order to express hate at the state level to the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators.

“The government is planning to construct a monument in the capital in order to express hate officially to the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators,” said the minister while opposition lawmaker Mujibul Haq Chunnu placed a starred question in the Jatiya Sangsad,” on Thursday.

Site selection work for the project is now going on, said the minister, replying to a supplementary question placed by Mujibul Haq instead of treasury bench lawmaker Selim Altaf Jordge.

The government also has a plan to increase the freedom fighters allowance in the next fiscal year, the minister said.

“We want to reach the liberation war spirit at grassroots level as people have given us the mandate on behalf of the liberation war spirit,” he added.

At present, a total of 1.82 lakh freedom fighters are getting the freedom fighter allowance. Earlier, more than 2 lakh freedom fighters received this allowance. Names of at least 20,000 fake freedom fighters have been deleted from the list.

Efforts will continue to identify fake freedom fighters, the minister said.

The government is planning to provide an identity card to the freedom fighters before March 26, the minister told the Jatiya Sangsad.

 As per the instructions of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we will publish the list of the freedom fighters within the next month, AKM Mozammel said.

‘Graves of all freedom fighters to be preserved’

The Minister also said that all graves of the freedom fighters will be preserved.

“The government has already approved a plan to preserve the graves of all freedom fighters,” the minister said while replying a question of the treasury bench member Mohammad Israfil Alam during the question and answer session in the House with Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah in the chair.

A project title “Preservation and Development (First Phase) of Shaheed (martyrs) and Beer Muktijoddha (valiant freedom fighters)” got ECNEC’s nod on October 30 last year, the minister said.

At an initial stage graves of some 20,000 freedom fighters will be preserved in the first phase and subsequently the rest under the project, he added.