Free nation of criminalisation

Political change is a must to eradicate criminalisation from the country's socio-economic and political sector, said noted economist Prof Dr Abul Barakat yesterday.
He demanded a congenial atmosphere that will ensure people's participation in politics with patriotism and profound human behaviour to get rid of the nation of all sorts of criminalisation.
Prof Barakat, also chairman of Janata Bank, made these remarks at the 43rd Annual Seminar of Bangladesh Itihas Parishad.
The Parishad organised the programme with the slogan "Bangladesh in four decades" at Teachers Students Centre on the Dhaka University (DU) campus.
This economist also said the gap between the rich and the poor should be minimized or removed by attaching the poor to all sorts of development programmes.
"A total of 14.90 crore impoverished people in the country have been struggling to get their rights against the 10 crore powerful people," he said.
All the governments, in the name of development of the mass people, only took initiatives for development of the rich and the powerful sector of the society, he added.
Prof Abu Ahmed of Department of Economics of DU said, despite 40 years of liberation, the nation is yet to achieve its expectation to fulfill the basic needs of the people, especially in the field of food security, health care and education.
He urged the bureaucracy to be more practical while making policies in a bid to reduce economic crisis in the country.
Historian and national Prof Dr AF Salahuddin Ahmed inaugurated the programme that was chaired by Bangladesh Itihas Parishad President Prof Habiba Khatun.