Place alternative to CG system

Minister without portfolio Suranjit Sengupta yesterday urged the BNP and its alliance partners to propose an alternative model of caretaker government system in parliament.
The House will discuss the issue within constitutional limits as the government cannot exceed the bounds, he told at a commemorative meeting at Nizam Uddin Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity.
The government will even consider amending the constitution, if there is an alternative proposal to erstwhile caretaker model to hold a free and fair election, he added.
Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote organised the programme to pay tributes to late Awami League leader Bahauddin Chowdhury, a Language Movement hero and one of the organisers of 1971 Liberation War.
Suranjit, however, rejected outright any possibility of holding the next general elections under a caretaker government.
An elected government cannot coexist with an unelected government and the present government will not allow an undemocratic government to run the country again for two years like the last caretaker regime, he mentioned.
Though Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia recently made a nearly two-hour long speech in parliament, she did not raise the caretaker government issue. Instead, she brings up the matter outside parliament, complained Suranjit, also a member of AL advisory council.
Responding to criticism from BNP leaders about not granting bail to its 33 leaders in an arson case, he said BNP had enacted speedy trail act with provisions for not allowing bail after submission of charge sheet in a case.
Though AL protested the law at that time, the then government did not pay heed to its complaints, he maintained.
President of Workers Party Rashed Khan Menon said all the players of 1/11 are back in the field now.
Holding elections is necessary to move democracy forward in our country, he observed.
Vice-president of Sammilito Sangskritik Jote Golam Kuddus, central leader of Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote Farid Ali and politician Pankaj Bhattacharya addressed the meeting, among others, with noted actor ATM Shamsuzzaman in the chair.
Former railway minister Suranjit took a break from active politics after the last month's railwaygate scandal involving the seizure of Tk 70 lakh from the microbus of his assistant personal secretary.
As a departmental probe found him not involved in the incident, the minister recently declared his return to politics.