Archive for January 26th, 2009
Monday, January 26th, 2009President Iajuddin Ahmed yesterday termed the new Jatiya Sangsad a "parliament for change" and said poverty alleviation, elimination of corruption and terrorism, trial of war criminals and establishment of good governance would be the main objectives of the newly elected government."No hurdle is insurmountable for a nation, which has achieved freedom through struggle and a prolonged war of independence," the president said in his speech in the inaugural session of the ninth parliament that began journey over two years later amid high expectations for changes.In the inaugural session, newly elected Speaker advocate Abdul Hamid, his immediate predecessor Jamiruddin Sircar and ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009The BNP-led opposition lawmakers yesterday walked out of the inaugural session of parliament and boycotted President Iajuddin Ahmed's address.They said they were not interested to hear a president who had “violated the constitution”.BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) also blasted the treasury for not “making good on its pledge to elect deputy speaker from the opposition”.After the break for Maghrib prayers, BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury rose from his seat, seeking the floor. But new Speaker Abdul Hamid declined to let him speak, saying that the president was going to address the legislature.Without a microphone, Salauddin said ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009The Election Commission (EC) Secretariat yesterday received around 100 complaints from losing upazila election candidates, alleging that ruling Awami League (AL) lawmakers and activists influenced voting, intimidated voters, stuffed ballot boxes, and beat up their polling agents.There was a similar complaint against BNP leaders and activists in relation to the election in a upazila.The EC is now investigating the complaints and figuring out legal actions to take if any of the allegations prove to be true.Meanwhile, the EC yesterday decided to collect video footages from different private television channels to find evidence that support the allegations."We are investigating ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009Advocate Abdul Hamid and Col (retd) Shawkat Ali were unanimously elected speaker and deputy speaker of the ninth parliament respectively in the inaugural session of the House yesterday.Sworn into the office for a second term, Hamid, also a veteran parliamentarian, urged all members of the House to work towards the country's economic development, 'staying above all political interests'."Let our aim be to free this country from poverty," Hamid, who is the 11th speaker of the national parliament, said in his inaugural speech.The newly elected speaker invited opposition lawmakers to hold the ruling party accountable with 'strong criticisms'.He also urged ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009Three probe committees that investigated the recent break-ins at Rail Bhaban in Dhaka and a railway office in Chittagong came up with three different conclusions.However, all the reports said no important files went missing.The probe committee formed by Bangladesh Railway yesterday filed its report saying "organised criminal gangs" took advantage of security guards' negligence in duty and committed the burglary at Rail Bhaban. The committee formed by the communication ministry said "criminals broke in to search for something valuable but illegal" and it was not a mere theft incident.The other probe committee investigating the Chittagong railway office break-in ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009The government yesterday brought major changes in the civil administration, promoting seven officers to the rank of secretary and making one secretary and two additional secretaries the officer-on-special-duty (OSD).The government also gave postings to a number of officers who were made OSD by the BNP-led four-party government and the immediate-past caretaker administration.The promoted secretaries are acting secretary to the establishment ministry ASM Ali Kabir, additional secretary to the education ministry Abu Taher Khandakar Md Ismail, acting secretary to the shipping ministry Abdus Sobhan Shikder, additional secretary to the Power Division Wahidunnabi Chowdhury, chairman of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation Qamrul Alam Rabbani, ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009Many unscrupulous traders capitalising on the current crisis of textbooks for secondary school students are marketing pirated books in substandard newsprints in a bid to make brisk business much to the chagrin of students and parents.These dishonest and unauthorised dealers are not only making a dent in the pockets of parents of students of classes VI to IX, they are also depriving the National Curriculum & Textbook Board (NCTB) of its royalty.Printers at Loharpool under Sutrapur Police Station and Babu Bazar under Kotwali Police Station are involved in bringing out such textbooks in low-graded papers.The wholesalers do not sell these ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009Despite obtaining country's citizenship, the Urdu-speaking Bihari are still being deprived of getting Bangladeshi passport as copy of the High Court (HC) verdict is yet to reach the home ministry even after eight months of the ruling.On May 18 last year the HC ruled that about three lakh Biharis living in the country are citizens of Bangladesh.After obtaining the citizenship, many Biharis have applied for getting passport. Though they have submitted the applications after following proper system, the passport offices have rejected the applications depriving their citizen rights, many Bihari alleged.Secretary for Home Affairs Md Abdul Karim told The ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009Immediate past Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar yesterday hoped that the new parliament would be the focal point of all activities and the symbol of people's expectation."Success of the parliament is the success of democracy and democratic government," Sircar said in his speech at the inaugural session of the ninth parliament that later elected advocate Abdul Hamid as new speaker.Sircar entered the House at 3:00pm to preside over the inaugural session in which main agenda was to elect the new speaker and deputy speaker.In his speech, Sircar, whose partisan role in the last parliament triggered controversies, also hoped that participation of new ...
(read more) Monday, January 26th, 2009The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is embarrassed to deal with the list of frozen bank account holders that include lawmakers and influential leaders of the ruling party.Finance ministry sources said the files on the bank accounts frozen during the tenure of the caretaker government might be sent to the prime minister for a decision.The frozen accounts would not be reactivated on a wholesale basis, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters at his office yesterday after a meeting with two trade bodies.He said decisions on the frozen accounts would be made through a process.The finance minister also ...
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