Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku said Bangladesh is standing amid devastation and warned that heavy borrowing could eventually make it difficult to pay government officials’ salaries. He made the remarks on Friday, 14 August, at an exchange meeting with Sirajganj municipality officers and employees in the municipality hallroom. He said the situation could become harder without proper planning.

The minister said development is not possible without sound planning. He said the government had presented a budget designed to avoid placing excessive tax pressure on people, but added that ordinary citizens and the administration must work together to implement it. District Commissioner Aminul Islam, municipality administrator Shahadat Hossain, and Sirajganj district BNP general secretary Saidur Rahman Bacchu were among those present.

Earlier, Tuku distributed six vehicles, including a drum truck, for the city’s cleanliness operations and climbed onto a truck himself. He said he did not do so for display, but out of excitement recalled from seeing a road-cleaning vehicle decades earlier. He said everyone must maintain municipal vehicles because the people are the government’s parents. He also inaugurated RCC drain and road construction in Dhanbandhi Dobapara of municipal ward 10.