AL sees bad days ahead

The ruling Awami League apprehends economic crisis in the country due to the ongoing Middle-East uprising, rise in food prices and looming energy crisis.
The recent tsunami in Japan has also made the government nervous, as the biggest bilateral donor and development partner of the country would not be in a position to fund several major infrastructure projects soon.
The party leaders and ministers believe that it is high time the government figured out new strategies to steer the country out of the hard time.
“Instability in manpower market with declining flow of remittance, price hike of commodities, share market situation, return of over 33,000 workers from Libya, deterioration of law and order in district level, slow pace of development activities combined with power, gas and water crises have worried us,” said AL presidium member Obaidul Quader.
“The party will have to pay heavily in the next general elections if we fail to address the problems. Already more than two years in office have passed and a tough time is waiting ahead,” he added.
Citing that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is sincerely trying to deal with the problems, he said a coordinator to supervise the implementation of her and the government's directives needs to be there.
PM's Adviser Gowher Rizvi hopes that the development activities funded by Japan would not be affected.
Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, minister for expatriate welfare and labour and manpower, has recently said the government is concerned about the employment of the Libya returnees. They would be given priority in overseas recruitment and provided with loans from expatriate welfare bank.
Earlier Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said employment opportunities would be created for those returned from the troubled Libya.
Mahabubul Alam Hanif, AL joint general secretary, said the government would be able to partially resolve the power crisis within this year by adding 2,000MW of electricity to the national grid.
On price-hike of essentials, he said the government would try its best to keep the prices within the commoners' reach by supplying more rice through open market sale (OMS) and ration cards. It is also trying to maintain law and order in the country.
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury, also a member of AL presidium, gave assurance that the government is not sitting idle and that it is addressing one problem after another. She also focused on the government's success in bringing back Bangladeshi workers from Libya.