Govt busy with Mujib Year events amid corona scare: BNP

Bangladesh’s main opposition political party on Wednesday accused government of concentrating to the programmes of Mujib Year while panic has gripped people over the detection of three coronavirus cases in the country.

“Though an appalling situation has been created across the country over the coronavirus, the government has been demonstrating its extreme indifference to it as they’re giving every attention to the celebrations of the Mujib Year and remain busy with that,” United News of Bangladesh quoted Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi as saying.

He came up with the allegation while speaking at a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.

The BNP leader alleged that some unscrupulous officials are selling coronavirus-free certificates at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport due to the lax monitoring by the government.

“There’s no effective system at the airport to identify if anyone enters the country with coronavirus. A group of dishonest officers are selling coronavirus-free certificates in exchange for money at the airport. It has already been published in the newspapers,” he said.

He said two people who returned home from Italy with the coronavirus could not be identified due to negligence of the airport officials.

The BNP leader said the duo was identified as the coronavirus patients as they themselves went to doctors for medical tests four days after returning home.

He said the country's borders and land ports remain unprotected while the airports do not have sufficient scanner machines though the government has been saying they are ready to prevent coronavirus.

Rizvi said most government hospitals in the country have no ICU bed, no ventilator machine and no medical masks required for the safety of doctors and nurses as the government has no effective preparation to tackle the coronavirus.

He also alleged that the government did not take any steps to ether increase the import of masks and sanitizers or raise local production to tackle the coronavirus situation causing the unusual hike in the prices of those necessary materials.

The BNP leader said though the government opened hotlines for coronavirus information, people cannot reach anyone by making repeated phone calls.

Rizvi said their party is going to distribute leaflets among people to make them aware of coronavirus and its preventive measures.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir will inaugurate the party’s awareness campaign by distributing leaflets in Nayapaltan area on Thursday.    

Kamruzzaman