IMF loan not necessary, if capital flight could be stopped: BNP

Staff Reporter :
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday said that if the siphoning off money abroad can be stopped, taking IMF’s loan was not necessary.
The BNP leader also termed the deal with India’s Adani group, as unnecessary for the country. “It was not necessary to take loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if the huge amount of money laundering can be stopped,” the BNP Secretary General said while addressing a press conference at the party chief’s Gulshan office.
He urged the government to be cautious enough about avoiding the people’s suffering while fulfilling the conditions of IMF by increasing different service charges.
“The people become vulnerable due to increasing prices of power, gas and daily essentials. The government should be aware enough while fulfilling the conditions of IMF for taking its loan,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BNP leader termed unnecessary and uneven the government’s power deal with the Indian Adani Group, and said that Bangladesh would be unable to reap benefits from the project.
“The government has signed a power contract with India’s Adani Group. Everyone at home and abroad is saying that this is an unnecessary and unfair deal,” the BNP leader said while talking to reporters after placing a wreath at BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s grave together with the leaders of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal’s newly announced full-fledged committee.
“If the deal is not revoked, Bangladesh would have to pay money, but it won’t get much benefit,” he said.
Mirza Fakhrul has allged that AL leaders are plundering huge public money and amassing wealth abroad through these kinds of deals and projects.
He said, that the Awami League government had no responsibility towards the people since it had usurped power using the state machinery.
“The most serious matter is that there is no parliament to hold the government accountable. There is a parliament that is not elected by people,” he said.
The government had been looting money in a planned way by taking various unnecessary projects one after another and building assets in different countries by siphoning off ill-gotten money abroad since it came to power 14 years,” Mirza Fakhrul said.
“Since the government has no responsibility towards the people, they’re indulging in festivity. They’re today (Tuesday) holding a festival in President Abdul Hamid’s area,” He said.
The BNP leader said that the government did not want to admit that there was an economic crisis and inflation had reached an extreme level in the country while the common people of the country are now unable to buy rice.
He said, “Amid such a situation, the government’s plan to stop the operation of OMS is a terrible move. They’ll sell rice and essentials through cards which can create another scope for them (AL leaders) to indulge in corruption.”
The BNP leader said, that there was no alternative to continuing the ongoing movement to overcome the current situation of the country and the government’s misrule.