Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today heavily castigated the criticism over the reserve, saying her government would not sit idle with the reserve money rather to use it for the people’s welfare.

“It would not be proper to sit idle with the reserve money. We have to utilize it for people’s welfare... We have to reduce the suffering of the people,” she said.

The Prime Minister said this while administering oath to the newly elected 59 district councils’ chairmen at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital on Monday.

A total of 623 members of the district council also took oath at the program.

The Prime Minister asked the local government representatives to take prompt measures to make their localities self-reliant in food production by ensuring ever inch of land to be brought under cultivation.

She also asked them to clean their localities as the Dengue patients are increasing across the country.

The Premier too called for making people aware about Dengue.

She said her government is working to make local government bodies as pro-people.

“You have a great responsibility here. You have to think about what kind of difficulties there are in the area, what welfare work can be done for the people, what work can be done for development,” she said.

The Prime Minister said, “we have a multi-party democracy here, there are many parties. Some are selected from the party or some separately. But remember one thing, when you are elected, your responsibility is for everyone.”

Pointing out her own example, Sheikh Hasina said she didn’t see who voted for her in terms of development and from which the voters came since she was elected as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

“I have taken measures for overall development, we have taken measures so that every person gets the touch of development,” she said.

The Prime Minister said that we have taken projects worth about Tk 3,000 crore under the revenue sector and Tk 540 crore under ADP in the 2021-22 fiscal year in 61 Zilla Parishads.

The Prime Minister said that her government has implemented Gram (Village) Adalat (Court) activation (2nd phase) in 1,080 unions of 135 upazilas in 27 districts to facilitate access to justice for the poor so that people can get justice. “I have made a legal aid committee with a separate fund and done as much infrastructure development as possible,” she added.

Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operative (LGRD) Minister Md. Tajul Islam recited the oath to the members of the elected and reserved seats of Zilla Parishad

Minister of Local Government Rural Development and Cooperatives. Tajul Islam recited the oath to the members of the elected and reserved seats of Zilla Parishad. Local Government Division Secretary Muhammad Ibrahim presided over the event.