Online Voices

Mayhem in Munshiganj
Cop killed, 100 others injured as over 30,000 people stage violent protest against airport in Arial Beel (February 1, 2011)
An airport should not be a priority of Bangladesh when people are hard-pressed with so many problems. Government should pay attention to supply food, produce energy, improve law and order situation and bring down the prices of essentials. I think another serious problem is the population. If the airport is built, the land for farming and for people's livelihood will be reduced.
Anonymous
Hasina administration needs to address the issue of skyrocket of food price, nagging electricity crisis, gas crunch and ensure the security of public life. At this juncture, do we need ambitious project that will cost TK-50,000 crore or so? To inscribe Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's name in a plaque of airport at the cost of panorama of cultivated land, beel, pond, aquatic and avian sanctuary only exposed the government's parochial interest.
If any political party try to instigate the protesters they should know violence only beget bloodbath, loss of life and uncertainty in public life.
Nasirullah Mridha
Dear Honorable Prime Minister,
We have so many productive sectors other than only the (proposed) airport to invest in. We can't purchase our basic food items due to high price. Please pay attention to poor people.
Mohammad Hafiz-ur-Rashid Khan
It has been reported that PM may decide to build the airport somewhere else. We vehemently oppose the construction of another airport by using any land, because we do not need any more airports. The PM should abandon the idea of constructing any more airports in Bangladesh.
Anonymous
It is not necessary to build a new airport in Bangladesh. Government must modernise the existing International Airport in Dhaka and upgrade all services within the airport. This will save public exchequer.
Mohammad Rahman
Bangladesh already has 3 international and 18 domestic airports, we don't need anymore airport and waste money. Dhaka and Sylhet has international flight facilities, Chittagong airport can also operate international flight like emirates, gulf air, etc.
People need food, clothes, house, gas electricity, water. 18 airports are more than enough for a 56000 square mile country.
Sham
It is fully unnecessary to build up a new airport in our country. The sanctioned amount for the new airport may be used to reduce food crisis for our citizens by importing rice.
Md. Amzad Hossain
If Bangladesh can spare 50000 crore of Taka for airport construction which is not necessary now, it should transfer this money to the fund meant for poverty alleviation. People will be served better in this way.
Anonymous
1. Bangladesh needs a standard airport but officials still don't know how to manage existing ones.
2. current one could be updated in a cost effective way.
Dr. Karim
The general mass has no interest in this new airport. The govt. should not try to force the people to accept it.
Shahriar Kabir
No airport at the cost of people's livelihood! There is always pressure of population and they have to be fed. Everyday the land available for farming is taken away by building new houses, both in the cities and in the rural areas, and erosion. People need food and not airports.
Anonymous
Planning to build a second Airport around Dhaka is ridiculous, when the existing one is almost idle all day, sometimes it gives a deserted look. We need more roads, flyovers, etc. GOB must seriously think and not waste the country's meager resources.
Stanford Pereira
This is outrageous!
Seems, Arial Beel is turning into the Govt's Nandigram (West Bengal)! Let's all be driven by common sense, logic and not whim!
Rover
Bluntly put, Bangladesh does not need another airport. Please expand the existing one and make it more efficient. Arial Beel and other natural habitats need protection and preservation!
Dev Saha
We all know that a lot of people are going to suffer! Yes the poor will be given a few pence and told to move on!! A few ruling MP and their family will become stinking rich!! This beel produces a lot of food for lakhs of people! It also sucks all the flood water out of towns and cities near to it! Where will the flood water go? When you build a airport on this water body?
Humyun khan