THE High Court yet again on October 30 asked the authorities concerned to enforce a nine-point directive it had given earlier to contain air pollution in Dhaka. The court in February 2020 gave the directive asking the government to shut down brick...
THE road map to implement 48 constitution-related reform proposals contained in the July national charter 2025, which the national consensus commission submitted to the interim government on October 28, appears to have stripped the very essence of 鈥榗onsensus鈥� as it disregards all notes of dissent expressed by different political parties and imposes the...
AFTER five decades of growth driven by export-orientated manufacturing, remittances and public investment, the economic model shows signs of rising inequality, persistent unemployment and sluggish private investment. Economists, business leaders and policymakers at the Economic Reform Summit 2025 in Dhaka on October 27 unanimously emphasised structural overhaul...
AMENDMENTS to some provisions of and the addition of some other provisions to the legislation that governs the Anti-Corruption Commission are welcome in that they promise an improvement, which may further empower the agency in its fight against corruption. The council of advisers, in principle, approved the draft of the Anti-Corruption Commission...
YET another avoidable death shows the danger that lurks over the heads of Dhaka residents. On October 26, a pedestrian was killed when a 100-kilogram metro rail bearing pad fell off the viaduct at Farmgate. Two others were injured. Metro services ground to a halt, passengers stranded, while the city held its collective breath. This disaster is not an anomaly. A year ago...
A FUNCTIONAL independence of the judiciary should mean a judiciary independent of the legislative and the executive branch in all aspects. But this has not happened all these years. The independence of the judiciary was officially effected on November 1, 2007 from the executive and the legislative based on a 12-point directive that the Appellate Division issued on...
A report of the Road Safety Foundation has exposed an alarming reality. At least 314 areas across Bangladesh have become accident-prone zones where thousands of people are maimed or killed every year. The study has identified 21 鈥榟igh-risk鈥� areas, including parts of Dhaka, Gazipur, Tangail, Chattogram and Mymensingh, where road deaths are disproportionately high...
A DECLINE or stagnation in the number of students in general education and an increase in the number of students in madrassah education, beginning from the secondary to the tertiary level, in the past few years brings to the fore a couple of issues to think over for managers of national education. Official figures show that the number of students in general education from...
RAMPANT food adulteration is a grave and persistent public health threat, with unsafe food turning what sustains life into a slow and silent agent of disease and death. Recent laboratory tests by the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority show how deeply the problem has penetrated the food chain. Of the 15 bread samples tested, 11 contained potassium bromate, a banned...
THIS is unfortunate that food losses post harvest and food waste at consumption account for a third of all the food produced in Bangladesh, as a recent World Bank report says, when insufficient food security forces 12 per cent of the poor to skip meals and about 9 per cent of the poor to pass a day without food, as a recent Power and Participation Research Centre...
THIS is alarming that the central library of Jagannath University, a space envisioned for research, intellectual growth and academic inquiry, has now turned into a breeding ground for seekers of public jobs. What should have been a sanctuary for...
