A ‘joke’ in the name of lockdown: Fakhrul
BNP yesterday described the nationwide lockdown announced by the government to contain coronavirus spread as a "joke", since it repeatedly failed to fully enforce such restrictions in recent times.
"The government has again announced a lockdown for seven days, which has now turned into a joke. It's now saying the lockdown will be enforced from Thursday instead of Monday. It's a joke," said party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
He said, "The lockdown has become completely ineffective due to the incompetence and irresponsibility of the government. Lockdown can never be fruitful without ensuring food for the poor and day-labourers and transferring cash to workers in the informal sector."
The BNP leader made the remarks while speaking at a press conference at BNP chairperson's Gulshan office on the outcomes of the party standing committee's virtual meeting held on Saturday.
Asked why he considers the lockdown to be a joke, Fakhrul said the government first announced a general holiday and then enforced a lockdown last year. "It was seen that many workers went back home with the holiday's announcement, and they came back again. They [govt] now announced a lockdown when there's a lockdown in place. Isn't it a joke?"
He said the government has shut inter-district transport services from the capital without any proper plan. "That's why many people are leaving Dhaka, and many others are returning here from different districts on foot, taking the seven-day lockdown as a holiday."
Stating that the people of Bangladesh are very witty, Fakhrul said they are joking about the strict lockdown, shutdown and other adjectives to manifest the severity of the restriction.
He said their party thinks it will not be possible to deal with the spread of the virus without active participation of people. "People will go out of their homes in search of work and out of hunger. In fact, the government has no well-planned programme for Covid-19."
The BNP leader said the Covid situation has gone out of control due to extreme mismanagement, corruption, incompetence in health sector, and failure to collect vaccines and motivate people to maintain health-safety rules.
He said their standing committee meeting voiced deep concerns over the alarming outbreak of the delta variant of coronavirus in the capital and bordering districts.
The BNP leader said government hospitals and healthcare institutions have been facing a crisis of emergency medical supplies and a severe shortage of life-saving medicines, as the pressure of patients has mounted.
"More alarming is that most emergency medical supplies in the Central Medical Store Depot are almost exhausted. There're also shortages of remdesivir injections and Covid testing kits, while ventilators, high-flow nasal cannulas, ICU beds, oxygen concentrators and oxygen cylinders are extremely inadequate," he said.
Fakhrul said district hospitals are in a sorry state, as many patients are dying there for lack of adequate oxygen supply and oxygen concentrators. "But the government has completely failed to take any concerted step to this end."
He said their standing committee meeting demanded the government take immediate and effective steps for ensuring proper treatment of Covid-infected people.
Taking a swipe at Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader for his comments about the bleak future of BNP, Fakhrul questioned as to why the ruling party leaders are so concerned about BNP. "I'd like to say that the future of Awami League is very dark, because of their misdeeds...The ruling party leaders won't find an escape route if people wake up."