No deal hurting the country's interest: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the Awami League would never compromise with the country's interests while signing any deal with any country.

“We'll do everything maintaining the friendly relations... no harm will be done to our country,” she said.

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The PM was speaking at a programme at her office marking the distribution of allotment letters of plots of Police Officers Housing Society among 25 police officials.

Hasina is scheduled to fly to New Delhi tomorrow on a four-day official visit when some crucial deals would be signed between Bangladesh and India.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Tuesday said 33 memoranda of understanding or deals were likely to be inked during the PM's trip.

Some BNP leaders repeatedly alleged that the government was going to sign a deal with India ignoring the country's interests.

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters after the programme yesterday.

The premier said the government was realising its due rights from the neighbouring countries keeping the friendly relations with them intact.

Referring to Ganges water sharing treaty, Hasina said the BNP threatened that it would not accept the deal if it was signed only for two or five years. “But we had inked the deal for 30 years.”

On BNP leaders' remarks about her upcoming India visit, she said they didn't have the capability to do anything good for the country. “But when others would want to do something for the country, they would lay down conditions and won't do anything,” she added.

About the Indira-Mujib treaty, Hasina said a vested quarter had criticised it as a “slavery agreement”, but Bangladesh received more territory when enclaves were exchanged between the two countries under the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA).

She also came down hard on BNP founder Ziaur Rahman and former PM Khaleda Zia for not taking any initiative to implement the LBA.

The PM said her government settled the maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar through an international court and got its due share maintaining friendly relations with the neighbours.

Hasina highly praised the law enforcement agencies, including police and Rapid Action Battalion, for successfully handling social menaces like militancy and terrorism.

Even in developed countries, police could not apprehend criminals before they unleashed a terrorist activity, but Bangladesh's law enforcement agencies were successfully nabbing militants and terrorists beforehand, she said.

Mentioning that her two successive governments recruited 41,000 police members in the last eight years, the PM said the present government would hire 10,000 more.

She underscored the need for taking up housing projects for government employees at divisional and district levels.

Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque expressed gratitude to the PM for implementing their dream project and said the scheme became a reality only because of her cooperation.

Principal Secretary to the PM Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, PMO Secretary Suraiya Begum and senior police officials were present.