Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today urged the home ministry officials to work for uprooting corruption, drug and militancy aimed at building Bangladesh as a peaceful nation in South Asia.
“Corruption, drug and militancy grasped the whole society like deadly diseases as the military dictators ruled the country for a long time,” she said while visiting the home ministry at Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka, reports BSS.
Actions should be taken against the drug producers, sellers and traders, the prime minister said, adding that militancy should be under control and the corruption must be rooted out.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and secretary of the ministry Mostafa Kamal Uddin also spoke on the occasion attended by ministry high officials and all heads of the departments and agencies under it.
Praising the role of law enforcers in containing militancy, the premier said every situation can be controlled carefully when mass people would remain involved there.
“Now the militancy is under our control, but we have to restrain it forever as it has posed a global threat,” she said.
Reiterating her government’s stance against corruption, the prime minister said corruption has grabbed the society as a disease which is obstructing the country’s progress to a larger extent.
“No government in the world increased the salary and other allowances of their staffs at a time to such an extent what we have done. At the same time the government has taken steps to provide them with better residential facilities,” she said.
“So we have to remain careful about corruption,” Sheikh Hasina said.
The prime minister said military dictators indulged them in corruption and created opportunities for others to be corrupted. Military rulers are also the promoter of bank defaulting practice in Bangladesh, she said.
Unfortunately the militants and terrorists also got upper hand from an elected government in the past, she said, mentioning the rise of Bangla bhai and other militant groups in different parts of the country during BNP-Jamaat regime.
Sheikh Hasina said her government has been making efforts to free the nation from those ‘sickness’ and is ready to do everything to eliminate those menaces from the society. A country can never prosper with those disorders, she said.
The prime minister said since her return home from exile life in 1981 she has been struggling for democracy and economic emancipation of the people.
Assuming office in 1996, her government was making constant efforts to reach the benefits of independence to the doorstep of the people, she said.
The premier said “taking office for the first time, I observed a gross negligence of the previous governments to the home ministry and other ministries and departments as well.
The negligence was overarching and the home ministry had even a lack of adequate manpower and infrastructural and training facilities, she said.
“Since then we are trying to strengthen the home ministry with taking steps for increasing the budget allocation,” she added.
Sheikh Hasina said the people, in charge of security of public life, must have to achieve people’s confidence which is possible to gain by providing expected services to the people. The government would look into the facilities of the service providing personnel, she said.
The prime minister said the home ministry is a big organization comprising many departments and law enforcing agencies. As to why, the government has divided the home ministry into two parts.
Sheikh Hasina said her government has taken a project to create employment opportunities for people languishing in jails for a longer period. Under the project, she said the jail inmates would be engaged in producing different handicraft items.
The jail inmates would also be allowed to sell those items to outside traders and families and prisoners would get dividend of the business, she said.
Appreciating the intelligence agencies for their excellent job, the prime minister said the detective personnel should be equipped with more sophisticated gadgets so that they can strengthen monitoring, locate and arrest criminals more quickly.
Pointing out the welfare activities taken for the law enforcing agencies and their families, the premier said her government first has taken steps for development of barracks, dormitories and residential quarters of the police officers in all districts and upazilas.
Steps were also taken to establish fire service and civil defense unit at every upazila level with adequate trained manpower.
The government has also taken steps for rehabilitation of the pirates of Sundarbans as rehabilitation and correction of a criminal is very important to encourage them to come to a better life, she said.
The prime minister said that those people who want to come back to normal life would be given all support.
She urged the home ministry officials to work for ensuring security of the public life.