Finalise nat'l cooperatives policy, PM tells ministry
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at a function at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city yesterday.Photo: PID
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the ministry concerned to finalise a national cooperatives policy on an urgent basis to infuse dynamism into cooperatives activities. She gave the directive while inaugurating the 39th National Cooperative Day at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city. LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry Advocate Rahmat Ali and State Minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak also spoke at the function with Rural Development and Cooperatives Secretary Md Golam Quddus in the chair. Hasina said the government will do whatever is necessary to spread the cooperatives movement across the country to ensure socio-economic and cultural emancipation of the people. She said her government is implementing Comprehensive Village Development Programme (CVDP), under which each village has to be turned into a centre point of development bringing it under a cooperative. Listing various programmes undertaken by her previous government for the homeless and poor people, she said it (government) had initiated “Ashrayan and “Ekti Bari, Ekti Khamar” (One Farm in One Homestead) with the aim to build a self-reliant Bangladesh. She regretted that the past BNP-Jamaat alliance government suspended these projects. “We have resumed the projects again,” she added. She said some 50,000 homeless people were rehabilitated in 1997 while the government has a plan to rehabilitate another 50,000 homeless people under the Ashrayan Projects by 2014. Besides, she said her previous government had handed over ownership of eight cotton mills among the workers and employees through cooperatives. Like the previous tenure, she said her present government has handed over ownership of Chittagong National Cotton Mills on cooperative basis. Hasina said a project has been launched for the Garo community living in Mymensingh, Tangail, Netrakona, and Sherpur. She said the programme would be expanded across the country. She said her government has taken steps for water management to prevent misuse of water used for irrigation purpose. Initiatives have also been taken to produce solar power-driven pumps to reduce use of electricity, she added. Besides, five projects were included in the ADP this year for cooperative based bazar management to ensure fair prices of commodities to facilitate their marketing. Hasina said an ICT development project has been included in the ADP this year with the objective of making cooperative activities dynamic and transparent. She said her present government is appointing 800 people to various field level posts of the department of cooperatives to further increase dynamism in cooperative activities. She called upon all to supplement the government efforts to build a poverty-free Digital Bangladesh. Later, the prime minister handed over a cheque for Tk 20,000 to each family of beneficiaries in seven divisions across the country.
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