“There is no doubt that during the last 10 years of the Awami League government, Bangladesh has seen constant economic development and witnessed a period of stability, something that was absent in the early years of this century,” a Bangladesh government official told ET on condition of anonymity. Over the years the temple lost a lot of its property to land grabbing, but recently, under Hasina's directions the government mediated an agreement to hand over the land to the temple authorities at a discounted price of 10 crore taka and decided to increase the corpus of funds of the Hindu Kalian Trust to 100 crore taka from 21crore taka. The next parliamentary polls in Bangladesh are due in December.
The minority Hindu community in Bangladesh has been a staunch supporter of the ruling Awami League since the formation of the party. In the process, she fulfilled a six-decade old demand to help restore to its old glory the temple after which Dhaka is named. She visited Bangladesh’s biggest temple, Dhakeshwari Temple, on Monday and announced gifting of adjacent land, valued at nearly 50 crore taka (Rs 43 crore), to the temple authorities. NEW DELHI: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gifted about one and a half bigha land to a temple in Dhaka on the occasion of Durga Puja this week, reinforcing her image as a champion of minority rights in the country where Islam is the state religion.