BNP places 7-point proposal to make lockdown effective

Alleging that government has failed to make the ongoing lockdown fruitful, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has placed a seven-point proposal to make the nation-wide lockdown effective to curb the coronavirus infection.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came up with the proposals in a virtual press briefing on Saturday (April 24).

The proposals are:

1.    At this stage, every poor day labourer, professional and low-income person who suffer the most due to the lockdown should be given Tk 15,000 one-time cash immediately for a period of 3 months through special allocation from the state special fund. This allocation will have to be renewed considering the situation in future.
2.    Each of the workers working in the informal sector of the country will have to pay a one-time cash payment of Tk 15,000 for a period of 3 months through a special allocation from the state special fund. In this case also, the allocation will have to be renewed if it is necessary in future.
3.    Considering the number of newly impoverished people (the current rate of poverty), the entire poor population should be brought under the protection assistance package.
4.    Considering the experience of the last year and the socio-economic and political situation of the country, a list of beneficiaries should be prepared impartially, so that the real miserable ones are not deprived of this humanitarian incentives due to political differences.
5.    Special incentive funds will have to be allocated from the state revenue fund for the affected SMEs, institutional and non-institutional industries and agriculture. It is necessary to ensure that this loan is given to every affected industrialist without considering the political ideology.
6.    Affected expatriates need to be assured of loan incentives from the state exchequer.
7.    The incentive package containing the specific proposals presented by the BNP in April 2020 needs to be properly evaluated and implemented expeditiously.