Archive for January 20th, 2009
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009The Truth and Accountability Commission (Tac) has allegedly allowed many graft suspects to be spared prosecution by surrendering wealth way less than what they were found to have 'amassed illegally'.Despite wide discrepancies between findings of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) probe into assets of those accused of graft and the confessional statements made for clemency, the truth commission did not ask for ACC's views, said sources involved in the anti-graft drive.Of those listed by ACC as corruption suspects, 270 sought exemption from prosecution in return for voluntary disclosure and surrender of their ill-gotten wealth.Of their statements to Tac, only one's tallies ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009The government will launch a fresh investigation of terrorist activities including major grenade and bomb attacks perpetrated during the BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance government's regime, in an effort to identify the masterminds and their national and international links.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday instructed the home ministry to take immediate steps in that direction, so the government may try the masterminds and stamp out terrorism from the country, sources in the government said.Presiding over a cabinet meeting in Bangladesh Secretariat yesterday, Hasina, also the Awami League (AL) president, directed the minister and state minister for home affairs to submit a complete report ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Employees of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL), formerly Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), misappropriated about Tk 52.55 crore between 2000-01 and 2007-08.A taskforce of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) launched a probe at two BTTB revenue offices and found that the employees indulged in rampant graft by allocating money in supply and service sectors unnecessarily, making fake bills and illegal transport fares.ACC Director General (Admin) Col Hanif Iqbal revealed the ACC findings at a press briefing at the ACC headquarters yesterday. He said the ACC investigation team worked in BTCL Revenu-1 and Revenue-2 offices from where revenue collection is organised ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009A group of unknown criminals broke into Railway Bhaban in the capital Sunday night and ransacked 56 rooms while another group took documents from the Eastern Zone Office of Bangladesh Railway in Chittagong.Government officials and different law enforcement and intelligence agency personnel suspect that the criminals went into the offices to steal important documents.Echoing their views, Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain said, "Certain staffs of these buildings might have committed the crime in association with outsiders."He said, "The criminals might have done this to damage the image of the government as well as to prove that law and order situation ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Bangladesh Chhatra League's (BCL) failure in forming new committees of its district and university units have led to a series of intra-BCL clashes in several educational institutions across the country, BCL sources saidThe tenure of all the 87 BCL organisational district committees including the central one expired a long ago, said the sources.Disputes over leadership in the BCL units have emerged in absence of new committees. This led to over 20 incidents of intra-BCL clashes in several universities and other educational institutions across the country in the last 15 days.In an attempt to facilitate young leadership, Awami League President Sheikh ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009The Election Commission (EC) has decided in principle to bring changes in the political party registration system to prevent parties in name only from enjoying the status of registered parties permanently if they perform poorly in national elections.The decision came in the wake of very poor performance of at least 25 out of 39 registered political parties in the December 29 parliamentary polls, EC sources said.Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda has already directed some officials to work on it, and the commission discussed the issue at a meeting.“We are thinking about the matter. We will have to do ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Around 78 percent contestants in the election to 64 upazila parishads either do not pay income tax or did not provide their tax information to the returning officers and half the contestants are or were accused in criminal cases.Contestants' submission of income tax information to the returning officer is mandatory.Analysing information submitted by 1,083 candidates in three upazila parishad posts of the upazilas, Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik (Shujan--Citizens for Good Governance) in a report yesterday revealed that out of the 444 chairman candidates only 147 (33.10 percent) provided information about their tax-paying status and of them only 71 actually pay income ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Fahmi Golondaz Babel, a chairman aspirant from Gafargaon upazila in Mymensingh, was expelled from Awami League (AL) for refusing to quit the race following 'directive of party President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.'Like Babel, many grassroots-level leaders were axed from AL as part of the party high command's actions against the dissident leaders contesting the upazila polls, ignoring party decisions.Mymensingh district AL unit president Principal Matiur Rahman and Captain (retd) Giasuddin Ahmed on January 17 in a letter to Babel asked him to lend support to Alal Ahmed as the AL-backed candidate for the upazila polls.The letter, a copy of ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator Renata Lok Dessallien yesterday said the UN is ready to assist Bangladesh in trying war criminals."But we are yet to get any official proposal from the government," she said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat after a meeting with the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shafique Ahmed.Replying to questions from reporters, Renata said different countries formed war crimes tribunal to try war criminals and Bangladesh can also talk to the experts and seek assistance from the UN.Reneta, however, said she thinks the present government would take initiatives to try the war criminals as ...
(read more) Tuesday, January 20th, 2009Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will work with foreign countries to detect and recover the money siphoned off and assets made abroad illegally."We are determined to detect the illegal money stored abroad and assets made outside the country...We will work with foreign countries and make necessary arrangements both bilaterally and multilaterally to detect and recover those," a high official of the ACC told The Daily Star yesterday.Meanwhile, the British High Commission in Dhaka in a statement sent to The Daily Star yesterday said the UK government would continue its support to the ACC to recover the 'stolen assets'.Responding to The Daily Star ...
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