BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday alleged that people are getting worried over the deteriorating flood situation in the country due to the government’s ‘negligence and inaction’ in dealing with the natural calamity, UNB reports.

“The government has miserably failed in dealing with coronavirus. The situation has gone out of control due to its extreme indifference, negligence and corruption. Similarly, the government’s silence and inaction on the flood issue is scaring people,” he said.

Speaking at a virtual press conference from his Uttara residence, the BNP leader said, “We condemn such negligence, indifference and inaction of an unelected government. We demand the government take immediate steps for ensuring necessary relief materials for the flood victims.”

He also called upon the country’s people and BNP leaders and activists to stand by the flood-hit people by extending their helping hands.

Fakhrul said their party has formed a national committee, headed by its standing committee member Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, to stand beside the flood victims.

He said the committee will initiate its relief activities very soon.

The BNP leader said a minister said the government is not worried about the floods. “But people are crying for relief in the disaster-hit areas. The fact is that the plight of the flood victims and their helplessness, the sufferings of helpless children and elderly people who have taken position on the roads or embankments and the starvation of people under the open sky do not bother the government.”

He said the ruling party men become happy whenever flood and other disaster hit the country as it creates fresh opportunities for them to indulge in corruption since they have no accountability to people.

Fakhrul said 34 districts in the country have already been affected by the flood with the onrush of water from upstream as India has opened the gates of all the dams and barrages of the common rivers. “Even, some districts have been affected by floods two or three times in a month, and people’s houses and croplands have been washed by floodwater.”

He said the government could not sign any deal with India over a decade for ensuring the fair share of water of common rivers, including Teesta, due to its the ‘knee-jerk’ foreign policy. “People living in the vicinities of rivers in Bangladesh are being affected by floods almost every year. The India-Bangladesh Joint River Commission has become almost inactive.”

He said the country’s people still do not know how much relief materials the government have so far been distributed among the flood victims.

Fakhrul said though the government has sent some relief items in some areas like Kurigram and Lalmonirhat, people are saying they did not get the relief. “We saw in the past how ruling party men plundered relief materials.