Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today reiterated her firm resolve to develop the country following the ideals of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"Our aim is to develop the country following the ideals of the Father of the Nation that he left behind for us," she said while addressing a discussion marking the 97th birthday of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the National Children's Day.

Awami League organised the programme at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre with its presidium member and deputy leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury in the chair.

The prime minister said the government wants to establish Bangladesh as a peaceful country. "For that reason, there's no place for terrorism and militancy in the country," she said.

She said no one now hears gunshots in the educational institutions as the government takes stern action whenever any unpleasant incident happens. "We're taking tough actions against the culprits and continue to do so. We never consider who commits the incident," she said.

Noting that the dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was to provide better life to the people of Bangladesh, the Awami League chief said the government has taken steps to ensure minimum shelter for the country's each person.

"The government has collected information from all over the country and found that some 2.8 lakh people are now homeless. I've directed the authorities concerned to provide shelter to these people in the next three years. We'll give them home… no one will remain homeless," she added.

She also mentioned that the government will fulfill the desire of the father of the nation to give a peaceful and beautiful life to all.

Briefly describing various measurers taken by the government to eradicate poverty from the country, the Prime Minister said the word 'Monga' which was very much familiar before 2009 is now vanished from the country. "Our aim is to eradicate poverty, not nurture the poverty," she said.

AL leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Matia Chowdhury, Syed Ashraful Islam, Sahara Khatun, Satis Chandra Roy, Mahbubul-Alam Hanif, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Qamrul Islam and Samyabadi Dal leader Dilip Barua also spoke at the programme.