Power outage, bank merger: 2 JP lawmakers slam the govt
Two Jatiya Party lawmakers Anisul Islam Mahmud and Mujibul Haque Chunnu criticised the government in parliament yesterday for load-sheddings, bank mergers, and frequent road crashes.
During an unscheduled discussion, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Anisul Islam Mahmud said, "Bangladesh Bank has identified 10 banks for forced mergers to meet the IMF conditions required to secure a loan."
"The liabilities of these banks stand at Tk 84,000 crore, of which Tk 54,000 crore are defaulted loans. The names of these banks have come up over the past 10 years."
Referring to Basic Bank as an example, he said, "These banks have not been functioning properly, but the Bangladesh Bank has not taken any major steps till now."
Anusul said steps were being taken for forced mergers now on account of the conditions placed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"If those responsible [for this poor condition of the banks] are not punished, the same things will happen in the future."
Earlier in the session, JP Secretary General Chunnu told the parliament that the people in the villages were facing major load-shedding issues.
"Villagers are out of power for around 12 hours a day."
He said, as per the government, the country's power generation capacity is presently 28,000 megawatts.
"So, where does all that electricity go?" he asked.
Chunnu said people in his constituency invited the state minister for power and energy to visit for a day to see for himself the load-shedding situation.
He extended the request to State Minister Nasrul Hamid and invited him to visit his constituency in the next few days.
He said that by staying in Dhaka, one cannot comprehend the gravity of the situation in villages due to load-shedding.
Referring to frequent road crashes in the country, Chunnu, also the opposition chief whip, said many cars are operating on the road without fitness certificates and valid driving licences.
He advised the minister concerned to take a strong stance in this regard.
"If old vehicles, unfit cars, auto-rickshaws, and easy bikes were not plying on the roads, people would not get killed like this."
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