Former adviser to the caretaker government and Brac chairperson Hossain Zillur Rahman today said Bangladesh should be freed from bureaucracy and run the state to realise the dreams of the people. "Those who will manage the state in the future, including the present interim government, need to be guided to bring a major change in the style of running the country," he said in a press conference held today. Dr Rahman, noted economist, social thinker and founder-chairman of the think tank Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), said this while interacting with local reporters in the event organised by the PPRC at Brac Learning Center in the city. He briefed journalists on the two-day (Oct 4 to Oct 5) Shaheed Abu Sayeed Health Camp organised by the PPRC at Jafarpara Kamil (MA) Madrasa in Babonpur village, birthplace of Shaheed Abu Sayeed, in Pirganj upazila of the district. He also discussed various other issues in the press conference. Earlier, Dr Rahman inaugurated the health camp by cutt ing a ribbon in a ceremony on Friday as the chief guest. Sayeed's father Mokbul Hossain, among others, addressed the occasion. A number of medical teams with the country's best specialist doctors from Dhaka, Chattogram and Rangpur provided medical treatments and medicines to around 1,800 marginal people of the area and conducted surgeries in the health camp. Dr Rahman visited the village and offered Fateha at the grave of Shaheed Abu Sayeed on August 24 last when he committed to organise the health camp to provide quality health services to local people on request of Sayeed's father Mokbul Hossain. He said, "Through the self-sacrifice of young people including Shaheed Abu Sayeed, the desire of what kind of Bangladesh we want has been expressed." The governance style became bureaucratic and out of touch with ground realities. The problem is with bureaucracy. "Now that is the big question whether I will be more satisfied with the allocation in a hospital or try to know whether the general public has been served," he said, and called upon everyone at all levels to be held accountable. At the same time, the interim government should also have a sense of accountability. "For this, initiatives should be taken at the social level and at the state level as well. After the political change, we all need to take an active part in the dream of taking over Bangladesh, he said. Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman said, "What I heard in Dhaka should be reflected on the field level. I think it is very important that discussions in Dhaka should be based on the reality of the field." He said the gap between the center and the field needs to be reduced, especially those who are in the ground reality and working on the ground for the government should listen. "Otherwise, the great aspirations of reform may be restricted in the confines of bureaucratic red-tapes and bureaucracy. Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha
