RANGPUR, May 11, 2015 (BSS) - Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury today said the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has made much advancement in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

"The present government has launched union level digital information service centres to take the ICT sector ahead and reaching government services easily at the people's doorsteps at lowest costs to accelerate national development," she said.

The common people have been making progress faster getting government services form the union digital centres and an old mother is becoming able to talk to her expatriate son through videoconferencing from these digital centres, she said.

The Speaker said while addressing the launching ceremony of 20 MVA-capacity Power Sub-stations Pirganj-1 and Pirganj-2 (Bhendabari) and switching new power connections for 15,300 families of 113 villages under 15 unions of Pirganj upazila as the chief guest.

President of Pirganj upazila Awami League (AL) Motaharul Haque Bablu presided over the function arranged at Bhendabari Degree College ground in the upazila and thousands of people attended on the occasion.

Chairman of Rural Electrification Board (REB) Brigadier General Moin Uddin and Deputy Commissioner Farid Ahammad attended the ceremony, moderated by General Secretary of Pirganj AL Advocate Tanzibul Islam Shamim, as the special guests.

General Manager of Rangpur Polli Bidyut Samity-1 (Shothibari) Dewan Tofazzal Hossain, Director of its Board of Directors Anisur Rahman Rokan, Vice-chairman of Pirganj upazila Monayem Sarker Manu, district Chhatra League President Mehedi Hassan Ronny, President of Bhendabari union AL Abdul Halim Sarker and Principal of Bhendabari Degree College Jahangir Alam addressed.

The Speaker said the government has put maximum importance on female education and has been providing sub-stipends to the female students for higher education and providing news books to the students at the very beginning of the year.

"Besides, the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken massive steps and various projects for turning our mothers and sisters into skilled workforces to make them self-reliant and accelerate national uplift," she said.

Citing media reports, she said the next national budget might be over Taka 2.50 lakh crore to meet the people's growing demand for development in the next budget session of the Parliament that probably begins from June 4 next.

The Speaker said that every house in the country would get electricity by 2018 and the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working towards the directions as we always fulfill the pledges what we make.

"This is first time in the country that the highest number 15,300 families got electricity at a time in Pirganj upazila," she said and also narrated various more development programmes being taken for speeding up development of Pirganj.