Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Monday said the Cabinet of the new government may be enlarged after electing members for the womens reserved seats in parliament.
"The Cabinet may be enlarged soon. In some areas, such as the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs (where no ministers or state ministers have been appointed yet), a minister will be appointed at some point. I believe that new ministers might be appointed once the womens reserved seats are filled, a decision that falls under the Prime Ministers authority," Quader, also Road Transport and Bridges Minister, said while replying to a question from a journalist at his Secretariat office on the day.
Following the January 7 election, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed her fourth consecutive Cabinet on January 11. This Cabinet has 37 members including 25 ministers and 11 state ministers.
Regarding the directives of the Prime Minister, the Minister said, "She had asked us to work more to reduce price of essentials instead of talking much. But, its not possible to control the market price over night. It depends on many things including the international market. But, we are working round the clock sincerely to keep the price within the purchase capacity of the people."
Regarding the demand of inclusion of additional coaches considering the high demand making boarding difficult during peak hours and holidays in Dhaka Metrorail, Obaidul Quader said, "No additional coaches will be added to the metro rail. However, the interval time between two trains will be reduced."
The trains of Metrorail, each with six coaches, operate now from 8:00am to 8:30pm, every 10 to 12 minutes.
He said, "Metrorail is not like Bangladesh Railway, where coaches can be added anytime. No country in the world has more than five coaches for the Metrorail. We already have six coaches in service in Dhaka."
"Metro rail is a technological stuff. We cannot change or add anything we want. I am surprised that some newspaper editorials have written that more coaches should be added to Metrorail. There is no scope to increase it further. A plan is being made to reduce the interval time by two minutes," he assured.
On January 24, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) Company Secretary Mohammad Abdur Rauf said, "We are thinking of adding more coaches. In the system we have, we can add two more coaches to each Metrorail. Besides, new coaches will be considered if needed."
Regarding BNPs demands and programmes of leaflet distribution as part of movement, mentioning BNP as still a major political party, the Awami League General Secretary said, "The programmes are being given as they don have any work now. Actually, they are now inactive. It is stuck in the shackles of wrong politics."
In response to a query about the death of 13 BNP leaders and activists in jail, Quader said, "Where did they die? How did they die? In which prison or custody did they die? Throwing stones in the dark is not a good idea."
Earlier, the Russian Federation Ambassador to Dhaka Alexander V. Mantytskiy met the Minister at his Secretariat office.
In the meeting, they discussed issues of development in the energy, agriculture, roads and bridges sectors.
