TWO of the six public gas distributors claim system gains, noting that they have sold more gas than they have purchased. The other four public gas distributors are reported to have been plagued by high system losses. The gainers claim an advantage in...
THIS is unfortunate that the project for bus route rationalisation in Dhaka has so far not given a chance to see whether the outcome would bring any order on the road and how far it could smoothen public transport management. The initiative to...
THE government鈥檚 failure to prevent mob violence caused the death of three of a family in Cumilla. A woman and her son and daughter were beaten to death at Muradnagar on July 3 allegedly for their involvement in drug dealing. The police say...
THE road transport system continues to be plagued with an entrenched culture of lawlessness, weak regulation and consequent accidents. The latest Road Safety Foundation report says that 696 died and 1,867 became injured in 689 traffic accidents in June alone. This comes down to an average of 23 death a day. This also marks a 22.55 per cent increase in fatalities from...
A SIGNIFICANT number of borrowers with proven track records face financial distress as the strict, new loan classification rules and rescheduling policy have classified them as defaulters, limiting their access to capital. This is a cause for concern. More than a thousand borrowers, mostly in export-oriented sectors such as textiles, apparel and leather, keep struggling with...
INSENSITIVE and irresponsible reporting on sexual harassment and rape increasingly puts survivor鈥檚 privacy, safety and mental well-being at serious risk. While established media outlets generally try to follow basic ethical standards in reporting sexual violence such as respecting victims and safeguarding the identity, online platforms, social media-based pages and informal...
THE remark of the chief election commissioner, AMM Nasir Uddin, that the commission is making preparations for the national elections with two time frames in mind, February and April, appears confusing, especially after the meeting of the chief adviser to the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, with the acting chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Tarique Rahman...
WORKERS continuing to die or face brutality while trying to earn a living is symptomatic of a systemic failure to properly uphold labour rights. In the first half of 2025, at least 422 workers died in 373 workplace-related incidents, as the Safety and Rights Society says. Traffic accidents caused 267 of the death, with the transport sector alone accounting for 207 fatalities. Many of...
REFORMS in the civil service job reservations that students sought, which sparked off protests on July 1, 2024, flared into a mass uprising later that month and toppled the Awami League government on August 5 that year, have worryingly remained unresolved 11 months inside the installation of the interim government. This is unfortunate of the interim government, which...
The dismal prospect for reforms in areas such as governance, elections, administration and power structures, largely because of increasingly polarised positions of political parties, is disheartening. It is understandable that the political parties will not have similar stance on the issues, but drastically polarised stances of the parties disregard the hopes and aspirations that...
BANGLADESH has, as Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System data suggest, the highest rate of death by lightning strike in South Asia. Whilst more than 3.3 million lightning strikes happen in Bangladesh every year, the rate of death by strikes remains at 1.21 per 1,000 square kilometres, with India trailing by 0.86 and Nepal by 0.62. Records show that 270 people...
AN ACUTE shortage of anti-rabies vaccine in public hospitals, which include Infectious Diseases Hospital in Dhaka, has created a serious concern, laying bare health services failures. The hospital, which treats 400鈥�500 cases of animal bites a day, ran out of stock on June 27. Hundreds of patients reaching the hospital from outlying areas are turned away. The hospital has also...
The chaos that marks the road regime appears to have only worsened, with the public transport system, especially in Dhaka, further descending into disarray. The interim government, despite its efforts to address several pressing issues, seems to have paid inadequate attention to the growing anarchy on the road. Dhaka roads have, meanwhile, become increasingly...
MEMBERS of the commission of inquiry on enforced disappearances and the victims that the commission has interviewed facing intimidation, threat and other obstacles, as the second interim report submitted to the government suggests, is worrying and warrants an early government intervention. The report, partially made public on June 23, of the commission that the...
