Need for national austerity
Mr. A.N.M. Nurul Haque, a columnist of The Daily Star in his article published on December 4, 2007 has very rightly advised the government to be serious about austerity to overcome the fallout of cyclones, floods and rising oil prices. It is not difficult to understand the gravity of the situation if we just have a close look at the devastation of the cyclone Sidr that has affected 69 lakh people of 16 lakh families, damaged crops of 4.62 lakh acres of farmland, killed 4.68 lakh cattle-heads, ravaged 12.08 lakh homesteads, razed 1355 educational institutions to the ground, destroyed 1654 bridges & culverts and 848 kilometers of road and ruined 800 dairy & 2000 poultry farms. In fact as days are passing, more destruction & damage is surfacing. About 30% of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, has been damaged. Though the total economic loss caused by cyclone Sidr is yet to be assessed, primary estimate reveals that it would be billions of dollars.
Donations and aids are coming from friendly states & international agencies in addition to the encouraging response from within the country. But the government will not be able to meet this challenge only by the donations & aids received and promised. So, Mr. Nurul Haque has urged the government to announce a national austerity programme to check all unnecessary spending in government offices. In this respect, I would like to urge this interim government to come forward to impose some austerity measures also for the general people of the country. A few of them may be:
-Two meatless and one no-fish days in a week.
-Strictly control the number of guests entertained in social functions & ban all sorts of lighting.
-One weekly day of private car-free roads when people will use public transports only.
-Impose a nominal surcharge (that will go to the Chief Adviser's relief fund) on all mobile phone calls.
National austerity can save the nation from a subsistence crisis that is looming in the horizon.
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