THE relocation of tannery units from Hazaribagh in Dhaka to the capital鈥檚 outskirts of Savar appears to have been little more than a relocation of pollution. The move was largely prompted by criticism of the unabated contamination of the River...
THE demand of health services entrepreneurs that they voiced at the Bangladesh Health Conclave 2025 in Dhaka on August 30 for the deregulation of the health sector in private hands is not only irrational but also ludicrous as it amounts to...
THE government has spent a total of Tk 181.29 million on road safety campaigns in six financial years. But, whilst the government has not so far conducted an assessment on how effective the campaigns have been in ensuring road safety, experts say...
CRIMES of enforced disappearance and custodial torture in secret detention centres that the law enforcement agencies committed under the deposed Awami League government continue to haunt families of the victims as their cry for justice...
AIR pollution continues to worsen while corrective measures remain fragmented and ineffective. Bangladesh faces a persistent health crisis as fine particulate matter increasingly erodes life expectancy. The latest Air Quality Life Index report shows that...
INDIA鈥橲 Border Security Force has once again promised to stop killing Bangladeshis by employing additional precautionary measures whilst Border Guard Bangladesh has renewed its call for an end to such violence in the frontiers. Dhaka has also...
THE government鈥檚 move to set prices of essential medicines and the cost of medical tests is welcome. The government on August 26 announced that a committee had been formed to set medicine prices. The setting of medicine prices and medical test...
A DECLINE in prices on the international market, as 抖阴精品 reported on August 28, has failed to leave hardly any impact on prices on the domestic market, making consumers bear the brunt that they stated facing since the Russia-Ukraine war. Prices went up...
THIS is worrying that incidents of sexual violence and rape are increasing. The Bangladesh Women鈥檚 Council reported a rise in gender-based violence in 2024, with the majority of the victims being girl children. There is an alarming surge in child marriage too. In 2024, about 20 cases of child marriage were reported whereas in the first six months of this year, the number is...
THE University of Dhaka authorities鈥� decision to deploy the army as a 鈥榮triking force鈥� during the Dhaka University Central Students鈥� Union elections, scheduled for September 9, is both humiliating and alarming. The announcement came at an exchange of views between the returning officers and the candidates for the positions of vice-president, general secretary and...
CYBER-BULLYING in campus politics has become an organised assault on democracy that universities can no longer afford to ignore. In the lead-up to the Dhaka University Central Students鈥� Union election on September 9 and the Jahangirnagar University Central Students鈥� Union election on September 11, female candidates face a torrent of online harassment designed to keep...
THE findings of a multidimensional survey that the finance ministry has funded to assess how families coped with issues of income, employment, expenditure, financial resilience and digital participation in one year since the 2024 uprising are worrying. The poverty rate increased to 27.93 per cent in May 2025, as the survey that research and policy advocacy organisation Power...
IN A bilateral meeting between Bangladesh and Pakistan on August 24, both countries agreed to boost trade and commerce and collaborate in regional and global forums but differed on the unresolved issues of 1971. The visiting Pakistani deputy prime minister expressed keen interest in enhancing ties with Bangladesh, which is visibly more pronounced since the ouster of...
THE government hosting a three-day stakeholders鈥� dialogue on the Rohingya situation in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, which began on August 25 with representatives from 40 countries, is welcome. Marking the eighth year since the influx of the Rohingyas into Bangladesh, the dialogue, organised as a preparatory event for a high-level conference in New York on September 30 on the...
THIS is deplorable that the authorities continue to turn a blind eye to accidents caused by open drains, manholes and potholes. Footpaths and even roads in all cities are dangerously dotted with open manholes and drains. Accidents in such places make the headlines from time to time and yet, the problem persists without an effective remedy. A photograph that...