The government presented its activities during its first 60 days in office, highlighting welfare, economic and institutional measures, while Prime Minister’s Office spokesperson Mahdi Amin accused the opposition of obstructing reform and development efforts instead of cooperating.
At a press conference organised by the Prime Minister’s Press Wing today to mark two months of the government in office, Mahdi Amin read out a written statement listing 60 steps under a 180-day action plan.
Blaming the opposition for trying to obstruct its work, Mahdi said that the government had expected cooperation over what he described as positive measures taken in a short span of time.
“But we saw that instead of doing that, they chose another path, including creating chaos in parliament, threatening movements on the streets, and spreading rumours and propaganda, which are obstacles to the country’s progress,” he said.
He said the government has already started implementing promises made in the election manifesto.
“You know, people had lost trust in the government and the state system. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has now brought back that trust and confidence among the people of the country,” Mahdi said.
“He has brought back a transparent and accountable system. He is implementing the promises made in the election manifesto, which is a unique achievement,” he added.
Among the measures highlighted at the briefing were direct cash support under the Family Card scheme, the launch of the Krishak Card programme, waiver of agricultural loans, fuel and commodity price controls.
The pilot phase of the Family Card programme has been completed, with 37,567 families receiving the cards so far. Each cardholder family is receiving Tk 2,500 a month.
The spokesperson said the Krishak Card programme, which offers 10 benefits and cash support, had also been launched, initially covering more than 22,000 marginal, small and medium farmers in 10 districts.
He added that loans of up to Tk 10,000, including interest, for about 12 lakh small and marginal farmers had been waived.
The PMO spokesperson also said the government settled 133 ordinances in the first session.
Of those, he said, 16 ordinances, including the Human Rights Commission Ordinance and Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance, would be reviewed and later placed before parliament as bills.
He said the government had taken up a programme to excavate and re-excavate 20,000 kilometres of rivers, canals and water bodies, with work already underway in 54 districts.
He said fuel oil prices had been kept under control despite the global energy crisis, while 35 megawatts of electricity had been added to the national grid through rooftop solar and net metering.
The government, he said, had set a target of producing 10,000MW of renewable energy by 2030.
Mahdi said controlling the prices of essentials remained one of the government’s priorities.
He also referred to monthly allowances for religious leaders.
In the health and education sectors, he said the government had announced plans to recruit 100,000 health workers, 80 percent of them women, to strengthen healthcare.
He also mentioned the planned introduction of an e-health card.
The adviser said the government had decided to scrap re-admission fees, double scholarship amounts, recruit teachers at different levels, including religious teachers, and make sports compulsory for students starting from the 4th.
Mahdi said plans had also been adopted to fill 468,220 vacant posts in government offices over six months, one year and five years.
The government was working to reopen closed factories, facilitate foreign investment, reopen the Malaysian labour market, and sign labour-related agreements with seven European countries, he added.
