Jatiya Party (JP) will divide the country into eight provinces and reintroduce upazila court system with full-fledged upazila system to bring administration to the doorstep of the rural people if they are voted to power, said former president and JP Chairman Hussain Mohammad Ershad yesterday.
Demanding upazila election before the national polls, he said free, fair and credible elections are very much possible under the emergency as August 4 city corporations and municipal elections are good examples that emergency allowing election campaign is not a barrier to hold elections.
Ershad was speaking at JP's central extended meeting at the auditorium of Diploma Engineers' Institute in the city.
“Decentralisation of state power and administration is the precondition of developing villages in Bangladesh,” he said, adding that, “Our economy is mostly agro-based as over 80 percent of total population live in villages.”
He urged the presidents, secretaries and conveners of district and upazila JP committees present in the meeting to work together to put JP in power saying that earlier Awami League (AL) and BNP snatched their victories by hatching conspiracy, but in this changed situation there is hope for JP.
Full-fledged upazila system can help the nation achieve food autarky as the upazila authorities can closely monitor the employees engaged to assist the farmers to bring croplands under cultivation of multi crops, he added.
The JP president also said he took initiatives to form a grand alliance with AL-led alliance to resist January 22 farcical election to save the nation and the grand alliance has not been dissolved yet.
“JP may continue its role as a component of the grand alliance just as part of its election strategy,” he said affirming that JP is strong enough to give candidates in all seats in upcoming election and in most seats JP candidates will win.
He also said to check deforestation, people will use natural gas for cooking and industries must be run with electricity, which would be produced with coal instead of gas. He underscored the need for installing nuclear power plant in the country.
Criticising the role of the caretaker government (CG), Ershad said the main task of CG is to hold credible election, not to request any political party to take part in election.
“The nation cannot go back to the state of anarchy prevailing before 1/11 if a political party does not contest in the upcoming general election in a bid to push back the nation,” he said.
JP Acting President Anisul Islam Mahmud, General Secretary Ruhul Amin Howlader and Presidium Members Rawshan Ara, Kazi Zafar Ahmed and GM Quader also spoke at the meeting attended by over 1200 JP leaders and activists.