DHAKA,  – Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today urged all to stand by people from their respective positions amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

He came up with the call while exchanging views with officials of Cumilla Road Zone of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) through videoconferencing from his official residence here.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the only politics is now to stop this horrific spread of coronavirus and protect the country’s people from the invisible enemy.

He said protecting lives is more priority than livelihood and that is why everyone should follow health guidelines to remain safe from the virus.

The government is also considering the livelihoods of people and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is looking after the matter, Quader said.

Mentioning that this is not time for politics, he said but BNP is deliberately making falsehood against the government, so the government must respond to the lying of the party.

The AL general secretary said many BNP leaders have pharmaceutical companies and they have scopes to provide healthcare for people through these companies but they are not doing so.

“Like the AL leaders and workers, the BNP leaders also take programmes to help farmers cut their paddy,” he said.

But, Quader said, the BNP is only holding the politics of lying and propaganda and instigating the communal forces in the politics of terror and arson, which people do not expect.

About the mayhem of Hefazat-e-Islam, he said Hefazat dissolved its central committee. Dissolving its central committee is not enough but it must shun the politics of communalism and violence, he said.

About COVID-19 vaccines, Quader said the government is conducting its all-out efforts to collect the vaccines. “You should remember that vaccine is not the only solution. If you do not wear a mask, you will not get any good result,” he added.