Dhaka, Jan. 31 -- Eminent economist and Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Fahmida Khatun, stated on Thursday that immediate actions are essential to provide relief to the public. She also emphasised that reforms must address the country's long-standing issues.

"Talk of state reform had raised our expectations and aspirations, but it was disconnected from reality.

Immediate steps are necessary to ease the public's hardships, and reforms need to tackle the accumulated issues," she remarked during a discussion on "Dialogue for Democratic Reconstruction: The Issue of Constitutional Institutions," held at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies in Eskaton Garden, the capital.

Khatun criticis...