Communi-cations minister Obaidul Quader called upon the Jamaat-e-Islami to withdraw its hartal considering the suffering of the people who left Dhaka to celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr with their near and dear ones in their villages. Jamaat called two-day strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday in protest against a High Court verdict that cancelled its registration as a political party.“I am having a great concern about returning of the city bound passengers due to the two-day hartal called by Jamaat. It would put pressure on the roads and transports, which may create heavy traffic tailbacks,” he told reporters at his secretariat office after opening offices on Sunday at the end of three-day Eid-ul-Fitr vacation.
He said, “I wouldn’t claim that the home bound passengers reached their villages 100 per cent free of hassles, but their sufferings were less in comparison of last year. I felt happy as minister that I have been able to provide relief to passengers from sufferings during the Eid vacation.”
“Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) has transported a total of 1.25 lakh passengers by 1,246 buses through 17 depots across the country,” Quader further said.
He said adequate manpower and equipments were ready to keep the movement of ferries smooth during Eid vacation, so there was no trouble in ferry operation.
The communications minister announced that he would be on the streets even in the last day of his office of the present government to provide relief to the people.
“We have only two and half months remaining for the end of tenure of our government. I hope and would try to reduce 2.5 per cent sufferings of the people by this period. The road conditions were better in comparison to the past years,” Quader claimed.
He further said that his ministry has implemented 99.5 per cent annual development projects for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
“We would be able to implement more works in the remaining two and half months. I don’t know about the position of implementation of ADP in other ministries,” the communications minister said.
-With The Independent input
