Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the present government wants to ensure a better life for the people through decentralising power and strengthening the rural economy.
Hasina said the proposed 2009-2010 budget has mainly focused on the betterment of farmers, labourers and all of the mass people. “The budget will expedite development of the mass people,” she hoped.
She made the remarks while inaugurating a three-month 'Tree Plantation Programme 1416' on the premises of her official residence Jamuna yesterday.
The Prime Minister planted three saplings - Tamal, Litchi and Kurchi (Holarrhena Pubesence) on the Jamuna premises to inaugurate the countrywide afforestation campaign.
Bangladesh Krishak League, an associate organisation of the ruling Awami League, will operate the plantation programme.
Acting president of the Krishak League MA Odud and General Secretary Motahar Hossain Mullah presented the prime minister with crests.
The prime minister, as a token, handed over one sapling to the representative of every division and asked them to spread the tree-plantation movement across the country.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman initiated the plantation movement in 1973 on the first day of the Bangla month Ashar.
Referring to the previous AL government-sponsored 'One Home, One Farm' project, the prime minister said the present government wants to turn every home into one production centre of daily foods like vegetables and fish.
“We can build a prosperous country through flourishing the small and cottage industries, and every home of the country can be turned into a production unit,” she said.
She focused on the high quality of local fruits, vegetables and meats, and said food-processing industries can be established and the processed foods exported to foreign markets after meeting the local demand.
Describing the importance of trees in protecting the country from natural calamities like storms and tidal surge, the prime minister urged all to plant trees across the coastal areas and on the banks of the rivers.
Trees need to be planted on the embankments to create a forest net around the coastal belt, she said.
The prime minister said Awami League always attaches the highest importance to agriculture, as this is the backbone of Bangladesh's economy.
She said Bangladesh for the first time was turned into a food-sufficient country during the last Awami League government, “But, unfortunately, the subsequent BNP-government had again made Bangladesh a food deficit country.”
“But, inshallah we will again make Bangladesh a food-sufficient country,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, urged the party leaders and workers to stand by the people who voted the party to power.
“By brining us in power, countrymen have reposed a great duty on us to serve the nation. And my party colleagues can play a vital role in implementing our election pledges,” she said.