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The interim government will not formulate the July Proclamation but will facilitate the process for creating a consensus among political parties and stakeholders on the draft prepared by the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, the student platform that led the July Revolution, said Adviser Mauhfuj Alam on Thursday.
Addressing a press briefing organised by the Chief Adviser’s Press Wing, he said that there was a consensus on the context part of the proclamation among stakeholders, but there were differences of opinion on the part containing future objectives.
“So we will start a dialogue next week with political parties and stakeholders so that a consensus can be reached,” he said, adding that the announcement of the proclamation, scheduled for January 15, might be delayed by a couple of days.
He also said that the roles of all the parties, groups and individuals would be incorporated into the proclamation.
Responding to another question, he said that the government wants to hold local government elections, as it felt that local government institutions like the city corporations could not deliver services properly under the leadership of the government-appointed administrations.
When asked whether the police and ansar forces are now prepared to handle law and order during the local government elections, the adviser said that the government was preparing for elections, but it did not mean that the elections would be held after three months.
“The role of the police, who unleashed brutality on people during the movement, is well-known. But we have initiated the process to reform police, and several recommendations are on the table,” he said, noting that both the police and ansar forces would be reformed.
Responding to a question, Mr Alam, who was also a key leader of the July movement, said that the timeline of the general elections hinged on the areas of reform, and these areas would be determined by political parties and stakeholders.
He also announced that the government would take stern action against those involved in attacks on mazars, sufi shrines and spiritual music programmes.
“Since the interim government assumed power, there have been some incidents, and we are sorry for that. But from now on, anyone who commits such acts will be spared,” the adviser said.
Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to the chief adviser, told the briefing that the CA had asked the authorities concerned to take quick steps to ease the traffic congestion in Dhaka city and to address the water logging problems in Chittagong city.
He added that all students would get their printed textbooks by February.
He mentioned that the PDF version of all textbooks had been made available from January 1 so that anybody could read the textbooks, he said.
He added that since 2010, textbook distribution in the country had not been completed by January.