JP MPs slam govt over power cuts, accidents, bank merger
Two Jatiya Party lawmakers Anisul Islam Mahmud and Mujibul Haque Chunnu today criticised the government in parliament for countrywide loadshedding, frequent road accidents, and bank merger.
Participating in an unscheduled discussion, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Anisul Islam Mahmud said Bangladesh Bank has identified 10 banks for merger to meet IMF conditions to secure loan.
The liability of these banks stands 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, he said.
Mentioning the name of Basic Bank as an example, he said, these banks are not working properly. But Bangladesh Bank did not take any major steps till now.
"You are taking action now when the IMF raised this matter. If those responsible are not punished, the same things will happen in the future," Anisul said.
He said instead of merging weak banks with good ones, it is necessary to see whether it is possible to merge all the weak banks and make a new bank.
JP Secretary General Chunnu earlier told the parliament that the people are facing many problems. Right now, the public has to deal with two major issues -- power failure and load shedding.
Villagers have to face load shedding for around 12 hours a day.
The government said the capacity of power generation in the country is 28,000 megawatts at present, he said. "So, where does all that electricity go?"
He said people in his constituency has invited the state minister for power and energy to come and visit there for a day to see for himself whether there is any load shedding.
In this regard, Chunnu requested State Minister Nasrul Hamid to visit his area in the next two to four days.
He said one cannot realise the grave situation in villages due to load shedding by staying in Dhaka.
Referring to the continuous road accidents in the country, Chunnu, also the Opposition chief whip, said many cars run without fitness and valid driving licence.
He advised the concerned minister to take a strong stance on this matter.
He said 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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