Two hundred and one citizens in a statement on Saturday called on all to save the Grameen Bank and demanded cancellation of the ‘motivated and illogical’ government decision of curtailing the authority of the bank’s board and vesting of authority in its chairman to appoint the managing director.
They called on the people to raise their voice against such moves of the government.
‘The world famous microcredit and poverty alleviation organisation Grameen Bank, which is the brainchild of country’s pride and lone Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is on the brink of destruction for the wrath of the government,’ read the statement.
It said the responsibility for managing the bank, owned by 84 lakh poor women, lies on the women directors elected by them, but the government has initiated extreme moves to strip the board’s authority and vest it in the government’s nominated person.
Already the cabinet has decided to amend the 1983 ordinance that created the bank, which would threaten its existence and nullify its authority to take decisions independently, the statement said.
‘Such moves would make room for corrupt policymakers of the government to play with the hard-earned savings of the poor women. The evil spree of politicisation and nepotism would also engulf it,’ it read.
Former Dhaka University vice-chancellors Emajuddin Ahmed, Maniruzzaman Miah, Anwarullah Chowdhury and SMA Faiz, former chief election commissioner Mohammad Abdur Rouf, former caretaker government adviser MA Majed, political scientist Talukder Maniruzzman, former secretaries to the government Asafuddawlah and ANH Akhtar Hossain, academics Mahbubullah, Abu Ahmed, AFM Yusuf Haider, Wakil Ahmed, Khandkar Mustahidur Rahman, Sadrul Amin and Tazmeri SA Islam, journalists Amanullah Kabir, Alamgir Mohiuddin, Reazuddin Ahmed, Ruhul Amin Gazi, Shaukat Mahmud and Rezwan Siddique were prominent among the signatories.
-With New Age input
