BNP slates govt's 'silence'
The main opposition BNP yesterday bitterly criticised the government for “maintaining silence” on India's plans to go ahead with the construction of the Tipaimukh dam on the Barak river in its northeastern Manipur state.
The Manipur state government signed an agreement to set up a joint venture company to implement the Tipaimukh project but the Bangladesh government could not protest due to its “submissive foreign policy”, said BNP leaders.
“The government failed to take any steps against the Tipaimukh dam's construction. BNP called hartal in Sylhet protesting the Indian initiative,” said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Singh, during his recent Bangladesh visit, discussed the issue with Khaleda Zia and assured that India would conduct a joint survey with Bangladesh before finalising the decision to construct the dam, he said.
Alamgir was speaking at a press briefing at BNP central office in the city's Nayapaltan after holding a meeting on the final preparations on the upcoming road march towards Khulna.
He said people from 10 districts would join the road march, starting from the capital on November 26 and going through Dashuria of Pabna.
“The road march is being organised demanding restoration of the caretaker government system and to protest the government's weak stand on the Tipaimukh dam, move to give transit facilities to India without resolving the maritime boundary issues and border killings,” he said.
Replying to a query, Alamgir said they sent a letter to Election Commission (EC) protesting its plan to use electronic voting machine (EVM) and requesting it to deploy the army in the Comilla City Corporation (CCC) election.
The EC must refrain from using EVM in the CCC election. “If any candidate boycotts the election, the EC will have to take responsibility for it.”
BNP boycotted the Narayanganj City Corporation polls held on October 30 protesting EC's “failure” to deploy the army and decision to use EVM.
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