Authorities must protect journalists and others from this legal assault
Govt must reduce air pollution, bring order in transport sector
Focus on equipping existing health infrastructure properly
THE Tipaimukh controversy spurred a wave of protests that highlighted a kind of ineptness and indecision of the government for too long a period on a vital matter for our survival. It also focused the confusion that existed in our foreign policy objectives from the beginning, particularly after the SAARC was set up with a set of lofty ambitions much of which remained unfulfilled over the last decade and a half.
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THE prime minister's announcement to establish elevated and underground trains is a welcome move, if only to solve the city's ever-worsening traffic tangle. However, as she has put forward both the ideas of elevated expressway and the underground rail in the same breath, the question that now arises is which of the systems would get the first priority. For both the projects are ambitious and would involve astronomical costs. So, it would be first necessary to choose between them and then take steps for its implementation on priority basis.
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THE decision by the Election Commission to exempt 39 political parties from submitting their annual audit reports to it is extremely unfortunate. All these parties were expected to submit these reports by July 31 this year, an instruction they failed to follow through. The fact that the EC has simply acquiesced in the parties' refusal to come forward with the audit reports is a defeat for the body and, worse, will surely give the impression that it is ill-equipped to have its authority accepted or respected. If the EC has been defeated, conversely it can be said that the political parties have, by defying the instructions of the commission, won a victory which again does not advance the cause of democratic politics in the country.
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THE bomb attack on a parliament member last week was a cowardly act of violence. But what made it truly alarming was the choice of the target. Although a dozen others have been wounded in the blast, the man on whose life the attempt was made is the scion of a blood-soaked family, a citadel of our national politics.
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THE necessity of carrying out the much needed police reform on a priority basis has once again been highlighted by The Daily Star editorial of October 27. The military-backed caretaker government facilitated the passing of many reform-oriented ordinances during its two-year tenure but did not initiate any substantive measures towards the police reform. That is an unwelcome reality too live with despite the manifest urgency to reform and thus to modernise our police force.
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THE agricultural scientists of the country have made a major breakthrough in developing two other types of High Yielding Variety (HYV) rice, which are especially suited to fight famine-like situation called monga in some northern districts of the country. These varieties of rice called BR-11 dhan-33 and BINA dhan-7 mature in less than four months, 115 days to be exact, and thus can be harvested one month ahead of the customary aman crop of the HYV group, namely the BR-11, which the framers have been growing since long.
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THE JS standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry and the committee on the finance ministry met on Tuesday last to evolve ways and means to recover staggering amounts of defaulted bank loans-- a major area of concern for the decision makers. It is a good thing that the two committees met together for the first time in our parliamentary history to address a crucially important economic issue. Such meetings will no doubt consolidate the committee system-- introduced to oversee activities of the ministries -- and will also help achieve a degree of coordination between the committees, and with that perhaps between ministries.
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WHILE talking to reporters on October 22, the chairman of the standing committee on food and disaster management ministry (MOFDM), a ruling AL lawmaker, Muhammed Sayedul Hoque, said that the MOFDM had already undertaken steps to establish more 141 food godowns to increase food grain storage capacity of the government. Excepting one concrete silo of 50,000 tonnes with jetty facility at Mongla port, the rest of the food godowns would be established in the northern region, known as the granary of the country. With the completion of these godowns/silos, the government's food grain storage capacity will increase to 2.2 million tonnes from the existing capacity of 1.5 million tonnes. This is a good step towards achieving food security in the country.
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SMALL and medium enterprise (SME), as defined by the European Union (EU), comprises industries having less than 250 workers. In Bangladesh, SMEs are organisations with less than 60 workers and investment of up to Tk.10 million. There are about 6 million SMEs in Bangladesh. This is the single largest industrial sector of the Bangladesh economy.
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