Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has sought the cooperation of students to build a clean and green Bangladesh, calling upon them to play an active role in protecting the environment, ensuring cleanliness, and preventing dengue.
He also advised them to perform small good deeds to contribute to positive changes in the country.
The prime minister made the remarks at 4:30pm on Wednesday in front of the Prime Minister’s Office at National Parliament Building while meeting students from Sunnydale, an English-medium school in Dhaka.
The interaction took place during the break for Asr prayers while the Parliament session was in progress.
A total of 124 students accompanied by 14 teachers from Sunnydale visited Parliament to gain an understanding of its activities and observe the proceedings, as part of an initiative aimed at encouraging young people to build future leadership.
During the meeting, the prime minister inquired about the students’ studies, health, and other personal matters, while discussing what students should do regarding the environment, cleanliness, public health, and dealing with the dengue outbreak.
Highlighting government plans to safeguard the environment, Tarique informed the students of an initiative to plant 25 crore trees across the country and urged their participation.
He urged them to develop a habit of planting trees around their residences, educational institutions, and relatives’ homes, and suggested gifting trees to one another on birthdays or other special occasions to establish a tree-gifting culture.
Drawing on examples of clean environments abroad and sharing his experience of living in London, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman noted that citizens in those countries maintain their environment themselves.
Emphasising that change must begin at home, he said keeping individual homes and surroundings clean makes it possible to keep the entire nation clean.
He urged the students to help stop people from littering and to intervene if they see friends or relatives polluting the environment or dropping waste on the street.
Calling for advance vigilance against dengue, Tarique warned that the risk of infection remains higher during the three months following September.
He stressed the need for early preventive measures, instructing the students to keep their homes and surrounding areas clean and to ensure that water does not accumulate anywhere.
He added that participating in such small deeds would play a key role in bringing positive change to society and the country.
The students expressed great excitement at meeting the prime minister and pledged to respond to his call to bring positive change and build a clean and green Bangladesh.
