Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday urged the people of the country to remain alert against the evil forces so they can’t grip Bangladesh again.
“The people of the country have to remain alert and cautious so that dark clutch (of evil force) must never again grip Bangladesh,” she said.
The prime minister said this while handing over the keys of 5000 government-built houses, ‘Bir Nibash’, to the underprivileged freedom fighters of the country. A total of 30,000 houses are being built across the country under the project.
Liberation War Affairs Ministry organised the programme at Osmani Memorial Auditorium with its minister AKM Mozammel Huq in the chair.
Hasina said that Bangladesh is advancing with an unstoppable speed and no one will be able to stop it.
“Bangladesh will be built with the spirit of the Liberation War. We will build Bangladesh as non-communal country imbued with the ideology of the Liberation War and that is our aim,” she said.
She said that under the leadership of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the people had sacrificed their blood to attain Independence in 1971.
“This is our country, and we have gained our Independence sacrificing our blood under the leadership of the Father of the Nation. We will build this country as the Golden Bangladesh of the Father of the Nation, Inshallah,” she said.
The prime minister said that her government will build a better living condition for the freedom fighters.
She said her government has been giving houses to disadvantaged freedom fighters and arranging for them means of livelihoods so they can lead a dignified life.
She said the construction of 17660 more houses for the freedom fighters are in various stages.
“I hope that the construction of 30,000 Bir Nibash will be completed by this year,” she said.
Describing briefly her government’s programmes for the overall development of Bangladesh in the past 14 years, Hasina said that Bangladesh has now become a developing nation from the least developed one. And it would be a developed, prosperous and Smart Bangladesh by 2041.
She said freedom fighters and their family members now get Tk 20,000 per head as monthly allowance. Besides, they get various festival bonuses including the one on Bangla New Year’s Day.
The PM said they have arranged treatment for the freedom fighters and their free transportation alongside giving special scholarship to their family inmates.
“For which the worthy sons of the soil nowadays can say they’re freedom fighters and their family members can say they’re coming from freedom fighters’ families keeping their heads high,” she said.
The PM said her Awami League government is not only honouring the freedom fighters of the country, but also the foreigners who fought for Bangladesh’s independence particularly the Indian military personnel and stood by the country during the War of Liberation in 1971.
Sheikh Hasina asked all concerned to find out the mass killing grounds, which are yet to be traced and preserve those for the people to know about the true history of independence and the sacrifices of the martyrs.
Over 20,000 graveyards of the freedom fighters have so far been preserved, she said.
“We have already built Liberation War memorials and museums in 360 places in 293 upazilas. We’re building a separate Liberation War Complex in each upazila of the country where there will be a museum and a memorial inscribed with the names of freedom fighters,” she said.
She said that it might not be possible to find out names of every freedom fighter of the localities.
“We’re preserving the places as the people from generation after generation can remember those for whom we have achieved the country’s independence,” she said.
The Prime Minister said they have also preserved two places from where the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave the historic 7th March speech and the place where the Pakistani occupation forces surrendered to the allied forces aimed at presenting the true history of the Liberation War before the people.
Liberation War Affairs Secretary Khaja Miah also spoke at the programme.
A documentary related to the project was screened at the programme.
The Tk 4,122-cr project – house construction for poor freedom fighters – was approved by the Ecnec on March 21 last year.
Under the project 30,000 ‘Bir Nibash’ (houses) for poor freedom fighters, Birangana (women freedom fighters), widows and children of martyred and late freedom fighters will be built for their socioeconomic uplift.
Named as Bir Nibas, the 635-square-foot-houses, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room and a kitchen will be built for poor freedom fighters on their family homesteads.
This project is an initiative of PM Hasina seeking to uplift the socio-economic status of poverty-stricken freedom fighters, widows and children of late heroic freedom fighters.
Construction of each house costs Tk14,10, 382, according to official sources. Deputy Commissioners of Narail, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Gazipur and Kishoreganj, on behalf of the Prime Minister handed over the keys in their respective areas.
