Abide by court verdict

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has again urged Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia to vacate the Dhaka Cantonment house abiding by the High Court verdict.
She said when the army officers are suffering from accommodation crisis, it is possible to provide housing facilities to at least 200-250 army officers on the land of the house now "occupied by" Khaleda Zia.
The opposition leader and her party are defying the High Court verdict to save her “illegal house”, she said at an opinion-exchange meeting with local lawmakers and Awami League leaders at the conference room of Tahirpur upazila complex yesterday afternoon.
The meeting was arranged on the sidelines of a public rally held on the occasion of distributing agricultural inputs among the farmers of the district.
Khaleda Zia is enjoying 168 kathas of land at the cantonment and in city's Gulshan area with a swimming pool, Hasina said.
“Government rules were been violated in giving Khaleda the two houses,” she added.
The premier said instead of working for the people, BNP is making all out efforts to protect Khaleda's house and to save her two sons and its former ministers from the charge of corruption.
The opposition leader and her party men are dishing out “falsehood” to confuse people, she said.
She also said that not only at the cantonment and Gulshan, “Khaleda Zia has lands” in city's Dakkhin Khan and in Savar area. “This family had confused the people making out a story of broken briefcase.”
The BNP-Jamaat forces are diverting people's attention saying that the government has failed to contain the price hike of essentials and maintain law and order situation, Hasina said.
“But everybody knows that just after assuming power, we've been able to bring the prices of essentials within the commoners reach. The law and order situation is also very good,” she added.
Hasina asked his party leaders to make lists of landless and distressed people as the government has allocated money to rehabilitate them.
She said the opposition party is telling that the government is doing nothing to increase power generation.
“But the people know that we've been able to add remarkable additional power to the national grid and projects are being implemented to set up 30 new power plants. Three power plants have already been set up,” she mentioned.
Besides, the government has decided to set up 10 more power plants at the earliest possible, she said.
The PM also said that if the last BNP-Jamaat government had worked for power generation, the present power crisis would not exist.
“During the BNP-Jamaat rule, Bangladesh was known to the world as a country of militancy and corruption. It is the Awami League government who has freed the nation from the stigma of militancy and corruption,” she said.
On local government, she asked the upazila chairmen and lawmakers to work hand in hand for people's development.
The PM stressed that every Upazila Awami League unit must have its own office and the leaders concerned must sit in it regularly.
She also mentioned the government's plans to give internet connection up to union level and start housing schemes at union, upazila and district level.
About the economic poverty of the people in haor areas, Hasina said if the natural resources of the haor areas are utilised properly, poor people would not face any difficulty.
“It is very unfortunate that despite availability of huge fish resource and even mineral resources, poor people in haor areas are suffering from poverty,” she said.
She assured of taking proper steps for infrastructural development of the haor areas.
“Adequate number of roads must be constructed here, the waterways here must be given back its natural conditions,” she said.
She underscored the need for setting up more schools in the haor areas.
Hasina asked her party leaders to inform people about various development projects of the government. “Party's organisational activities must also be strengthened further,” she said.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and Awami League Advisory Council member Suranjit Sengupta MP were, among others, present.