Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque said newspapers have published “baseless” and “untrue” news which has no basis at all, and they should be more careful.
“No top print and electronic media has spread such baseless and untrue news. However, some of the leading newspapers did publish the news, which was earlier published in smaller newspapers, without checking its veracity,” Razzaque, also the Awami League presidium member said.
The minister made the remarks at a virtual meeting to review the progress of implementation of the annual Annual Development Program (ADP) from the Agriculture Ministry's office at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Thursday morning, reads a press release.
The remarks came following news articles published on several media sites on October 24, which the minister claims was misquoted and misrepresented.
Based on media reports, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque urged the people to gradually adjust their food habits and eat more nutritious foods and fruits, reducing rice intake.
‘Govt committed to ensure nutritious food’
Abdur Razzaque at the meeting said the present government is committed to ensuring nutritious food for all.
"There is no food crisis in the country and we are self-sufficient in food grains. Now our big challenge is to ensure nutritious food for all and the government is working sincerely in this regard. We want to ensure nutritious foods, including milk, fish, meat, egg and fruits, for all," BSS quoted him as saying.
He said according to the election manifesto of the present government, one of the goals is to ensure nutritious food for all people.
He urged the youth to work hard so that they could tackle all the upcoming challenges in the country.
Also Read - Eat less rice, minister tells people
It was mentioned at the meeting that the number of projects under implementation of the Ministry of Agriculture in the current fiscal year 2021-22 is 70 and the total allocation is Tk2,958 crore.
The implementation progress has stood at 10.77% till September 2021, while, at the same time, the national average progress has been 8.26%.
Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Md Mesbahul Islam presided over the meeting where senior officials of the ministry and project directors were in attendance.