BNP senior leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain on Friday alleged that the country has been witnessing a fresh surge in Covid cases because of the government’s negligence to take proper preventive measures.

"Coronavirus has been spreading in the country for the fourth time. This is happening due to the negligence of the government,” he said.

Read: Govt apathy compounds flood victims’ miseries: BNP

Speaking at a milad-mahfil, the BNP leader said China was experiencing a new wave of virus transmission, which was a wake-up call for the Bangladesh government to take effective preventive measures. ”But it (govt) did nothing. It didn't pay any attention to it.”

Mosharraf, a BNP standing committee member, bemoaned that many people, including BNP leaders, are getting infected with the Coronavirus due to the government’s failure and carelessness.

Dhaka south city unit BNP arranged the programme on the ground floor of the party's Nayapaltan central office seeking divine blessing for the speedy recovery of ailing BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Khaleda has long been suffering from various diseases, including liver cirrhosis and blockages in her arteries while Fakhrul has recently been infected with Covid-19.

About the flood, Musharraf said while people are already going through serious ordeals in the affected areas, water levels in different rivers are increasing, causing a fresh worry. “It’s happening due to the onrush of water from upstream India where dams were constructed on the common rivers.”

He said India opened all the gates of barrages during heavy downpours in the rainy season, inundating many areas in Bangladesh.

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“When we don't need water, we are flooded and when we need it, the rivers of Bangladesh do not have normal flow due to those dams. Our rivers are turning into dead ones and our agriculture, our biodiversity is being utterly destroyed,” the BNP leader observed.

He said the government should have talked to India and asked it not to divert waters of different rivers to Bangladesh when it is experiencing severe floods. “But they can’t do this because of their knee-jerk foreign policy."

“The government is sacrificing the national interests just to hang onto power. This is not the government of the people which hardly cares about people. It only cares about its own interests,” Mosharraf said.

He urged people from all walks of life to get united to ensure the fall of the current regime and establish a pro-people government through a credible election under a non-party administration.