He said this while speaking as chief guest at a shadow parliament debate competition on dengue prevention organized by Debate for Democracy at the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (FDC) on Friday (October 16).

Abdus Salam said that alongside government initiatives, the public must also be aware to reduce the prevalence of dengue. If people are not aware, dengue cannot be prevented by government initiatives alone. He also remarked that dengue has now become a national crisis.

The DSCC administrator said a proposal will be made to the Prime Minister to distribute money collected from fines for dengue prevention among the families of poor people who died from the disease. At the time, he criticized the opposition party for not having visible programs to prevent dengue.

Mentioning hawkers and auto-rickshaws among the main problems of Dhaka city, Abdus Salam said discussions are ongoing with both sides, but no solution has been reached yet. He expressed hope that the problems can be solved if the government and opposition party take initiatives jointly.