SEVERAL villages came to be submerged in Feni after several days of heavy rainfall and the onrush of water from the upstream that breached river embankments at night on June 19. Embankments have breached along the River Muhuri at Phulgazi and...
A STUDY by the Environment and Social Development Organisation, supported by the European Environmental Bureau and BAN Toxics, reveals widespread contamination of popular skin-whitening creams in Bangladesh with mercury. The investigation...
PRELIMINARY findings of the Citizen Perception Survey 2025, which the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics made public on June 19, suggest that only 27.24 per cent of the citizens feel free to express their political opinions about government activities. And...
THE deplorable condition of the Hazaribagh canal, running through several wards in Dhaka鈥檚 south, is a distressing but unsurprising manifestation of deteriorating urban ecology. A once-functional waterway has been reduced to a choked, festering canal of solid waste. The canal, which connects the Kalunagar sluice gate to the River Buriganga, has not been properly cleaned...
THE national consensus commission on the fourth day of its second-round dialogue on June 18 dealt with the process of presidential elections, which came to be adjourned as the 30 political parties that attended the dialogue could not have a consensus. The reforms commission has proposed an electoral college of 505 votes from the proposed national assembly...
THE prolonged delay in resolving the crisis that has gripped the Dhaka South City Corporation and disrupted public services is unacceptable. While the government is largely responsible for the crisis with its differentiated response to court verdicts, Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Ishraque Hossain, declared the DSCC mayor by a controversial Election Commission tribunal...
RESEARCH allocation in the budget of the University of Dhaka has always been a poor show of the authorities as it has happened, too, in the budget for the 2025鈥�2026 financial year. The university鈥檚 syndicate on June 16 approved the 2026 budget with Tk 215.7 million set aside for research, which accounts for 2.08 per cent of the total outlay of about Tk 10.35 billion. The...
FIVE incidents rape that took place in four days since June 13 in Rajbari, Habiganj, Gazipur and Munshiganj lay bare the pervasive threat that girls and young women face. Two schoolgirls were abducted and raped at Pangsha in Rajpari in the morning on June 15. One of the accused was arrested. Two cases were filed. The driver of a bus and his assistant raped a young...
INTERNATIONAL Crimes Tribunal 1 has ordered the publication of notices in two national newspapers asking the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan to appear in the tribunal in seven days. The three-member tribunal has passed the order in a case filed against Hasina and Asaduzzman, who the prosecutor said could...
The government should consider the demand of the aspiring teachers for non-government educational institutes very carefully because it involves the quality of our teaching standards. In two separate protests in the capital on June 15, people interested in becoming a teacher for non-governmental secondary and higher secondary schools but who failed to meet either the...
THE true extent of the vulnerability of the banking sector, weighed down by a massive volume of non-performing loans, has increasingly come to light following the ouster of the Awami League government. While the previous administration reported that non-performing loans accounted for about 10 per cent of total outstanding loans, recent data from the...
INDIA鈥橲 Border Security Force pushing people into Bangladesh not only furthers Delhi鈥檚 unneighbourly conduct but also appears a deliberate policy decision. This blatantly contravenes international laws, bilateral agreements and established border management norms. Since May 7, Indian guards have pushed at least 1,511 individuals into Bangladesh. While the majority...
THE judicial system remains rampantly infested with irregularities, bribery and harassment despite a call of the chief justice for ensuring judicial accountability and rooting out corruption. Accounts of lawyers, as 抖阴精品 reported on June 15, suggest that every stage of case procedures, from filing petitions to obtaining signed orders, is mired in such problems. The chief...
PUBLIC transport remains unsafe and the government has so far kept the sector off its reform platter. The Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh reports that at least 614 people died and 1,196 became injured in 597 road accidents in May. April was equally deadly, with the death of at least 583 people and injuries to 1,202 in 567 accidents. The highest 33.5 per cent of...
THE problem of confidence that earlier surfaced between the government and political parties centring on the time frame for the next general elections appears to have been resolved for the time being at a meeting between the chief adviser to the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, and Tarique Rahman, the acting chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, in...