Opposition boycott continues: JS discusses supplementary budget, lauds proposed new budget

General discussions on supplementary budget 2008-2009 started at Jatiya Sangsad yesterday in the absence of the opposition lawmakers who are abstaining from the House demanding more seats in the front row.
In the one-sided discussion, the treasury bench members expressed mixed reactions on the rationale and purposeful utilisation of allocated money and overall performances of the caretaker government.
They were highly critical of the opposition’s boycott of parliament, which they said tantamounts to ignoring of people’s verdict and irresponsibility on their part.
On the other hand, opposition Chief Whip Zainal Abedin Faruk at a press briefing yesterday reiterated his parties stand to staying out of the House until their demand was not fulfilled.
Apart from seat demands he also raised some other demands, especially restoration of some facilities for the opposition leader including her security.
However, the House was lively following witty remarks, humour and drollery of the members and the chairs as well as with the presence of the Leader of the House Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,
They opined that the present parliament had to approve such a supplementary budget that was prepared by a caretaker government that was not elected by the people. Instead of arresting the economic plight of the people, that government was engaged in implementing various projects in haphazard ways that rather enhanced plight of the people following soaring prices of essentials.
While lauding enhanced allocations in agro-sector for providing subsidised fertilisers to the farmers, allocation of funds for construction of much awaited Padma Bridge and additional allocations for increasing allowances for needy freedom fighters, some members were very much critical for the failure of the caretaker administration to prove its supplementary budget as a pro-people one.
They said there was neither any correct approach nor any proper guideline in the supplementary budget that hampered national development as well as regional development. In unequivocal terms the participants branded “The Taka 1,200 crore One Hundred-Day Employment Generation Programme,” a total flop and mere misuse of public money.
In scathing criticism some members blamed the caretaker government for what they said its move to make the country politics free and create hindrances in the way to ‘rule of law.”
They said that the caretaker government despite making Taka 94,140 crore budget, failed to generate employment opportunities or utilise allocated money for which major portion of the ADP could not be implemented. They further said that the caretaker government also failed to achieve the target of revenue collections.
Nonetheless, the members very frequently departed from the supplementary budget to the proposed national budget of 2009-2010 fiscal which they termed was aimed at facing the impending challenges before the government to attain Digital Bangladesh by overcoming the global economic recession.
The participants to the general discussions categorically said that the proposed budget had been enunciated to successfully achieve the ‘Charter of Change’ that is the most vital commitment of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance to the nation.
While highlighting various positive aspects of the proposed budget, they also discarded various criticisms triggered so far by the opposition against the budget outside the JS. They said this budget was neither “highly ambitious’ nor ‘unrealisable’ but pure a budget attuned to the need of the hour.
The lawmakers in unequivocal terms observed that this budget was the first step of the present government towards its journey for reaching its visions enshrined in its electoral pledge to the people.
At the same time the participants recalled plundering of national resources indiscriminately by the BNP-Jamaat-led four party alliance government and its misdeeds and misrule and added that the caretaker administration as well as the present government have been still carrying out its legacies.
They also recalled the successes and achievements of the Sheikh-Hasina-led Awami League government of 1996-2001 and observed that the pro-people and welfare-oriented projects that were intercepted by the successive BNP-Jamaat alliance government for mere political vengeance would be revived in the greater interest of the nation.
In a unique move of political decency, all the participants expressed their high admiration to Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith who defying the burden of age, presented a very pragmatic, realistic and far-sighted budget that would generate a greater push to the national economy and pulsate the nation with new hopes and aspirations. They also paid highest appreciation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for giving prudent directives in enunciating this first budget of the new government.

Courtesy of The New Nation