Hasina warns ministers against being carefree, says they are under her watch

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has warned her new cabinet colleagues against not delivering in their job, saying she will keep an eye on them.

Amid discussions over veteran politicians getting ignored from the new council of ministers, she said they had not failed but she brought changes to train the younger leaders for the future.

The Awami League chief sat with the cabinet members and the party’s Central Working Committee at the Ganabhaban on Tuesday.

The new cabinet that was installed on Monday has 27 first-timers out of 47 members. Hasina also brought back four others from her 2009 cabinet but did not keep anyone from the allies.

Veterans like Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Matia Chowdhury, Hasanul Haq Inu and Rashed Khan Menon have been overlooked.

“I have one thing to tell those whom I have made ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers. You must keep in mind that you are not ministers because your predecessors failed. The ministers (in her previous cabinet) had achieved great success,” Hasina said.

“Now those who have got the charge must carry this success forward. Don’t spoil this achievement,” she said and added that the new ministers will be under surveillance at all times.

Explaining the changes in the cabinet, the prime minister said, “I wanted something new after having same ministers for 10 years. I have brought a new set to train so that they can learn something.”

She also said she tried to prioritise the areas from where there had been no minister after 1996, 2008 and 2014 elections.

She thanked the people for voting the Awami League.

“I was tense. There would have been no peace had the BNP-Jamaat alliance come to power. They would have started a genocide,” she said and asked the leaders of her party to keep an eye on their political rivals so that they cannot run misleading propaganda.

She reiterated that the BNP lost the election for “misleading its supporters by changing nominees”.

The people rejected the coalition of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami also for its “misrule” from 2001 to 2006, she added.