Govt firm to hold polls by Dec 2008

Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed has called on expatriate Bangladeshis to work jointly with the government to make a prosperous, democratic Bangladesh.
The chief adviser gave the call while addressing a reception accorded to him by the Bangladeshi community in New York and the North Americas at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel New York on Friday.
Fakhruddin said main objective of the caretaker government (CG) is to hand over power to an elected people's representative government through holding free, fair and acceptable election.
He told the Bangladeshi community that his government is determined to offer a fair election to the nation by December 2008 and the Election Commission is busy to that end as per their roadmap.
The chief adviser said election is not the only way to make democracy sustainable, and so, the government is carrying out institutional reforms to make democracy durable.
About reforms of the Election Commission (EC), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Public Service Commission (PSC) and separation of the judiciary, he said all the institutional reforms are aimed at strengthening democracy, so governments that would come in the future would always remain pro-people.
Appreciating the contributions of expatriates towards socio-economic development at home, he urged them to give new ideas and plans to the government on how further it can contribute to national development process.
Fakhruddin said good governance is one of the major pillars of present caretaker administration and mentioned that they have already got results of good governance in a number of sectors.
Citing examples, he said power supply has been increased through proper maintenance without installing any new power plant.
He, however, said the government has taken some mid-term plans to increase power supply and hoped that they would be able to increase production of power by 1,200 MW by next year.
He also mentioned the improvements in operation and services in Chittagong seaport.
He also mentioned a number of steps, which yielded positive outputs, like model police station and plan for client service charter in public utility-providing organisations for smooth and timely service.
Responding to some demands of the expatriates, he said the government would actively consider those.
The expatriate appreciated the government's performance and assured all-out cooperation to enable the government implement its mission.
Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Bangladesh Ambassador to USA Humayun Kabir, convener of Bangladesh Community Nargis Ahmed and member secretary Habibur Rahman also spoke at the reception.
Bangladeshi expatriates of various professions from North America and Canada attended the reception.
Cabinet Secretary Ali Imam Majumder, CA's Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim, Bangladesh Permanent Representative to UN Ismat Jahan and Mayor of Hamtrak of Michigan Shabuddin Sumin were present.