Tag Archives: government

MNA National Desk: The government has extended the general holidays until May 5 in a bid to tackle the worsening coronavirus situation in the country. The Public Administration Ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard on Thursday. It said various emergency services will be out of the purview of the holiday, UNB reported. On March 23, the government declared general holidays from March 26 to April 4, aiming to prevent the transmission of coronavirus. Later, the holidays were extended four times until April 25 -– first from April 5 to April 9, then from April 10 to April 14, ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government has a plan to allow the reopening of some export-oriented industries on a limited scale if the guidelines on health and safety are properly maintained and protective measures taken for their workers. “It’s true the month of Ramadan is approaching. We can’t keep everything (industries) shut. We’ll have to reopen some areas gradually,” she said while exchanging views with the local administration of Gazipur district through a videoconference from Ganabhaban, reports UNB. The Prime Minister talked to the government officials and public representatives of eight districts –-four under Dhaka division ...

MNA National Desk: The government shut down all passenger train services, except freight trains, from Tuesday to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh. Railway Minister Nurul Islam made the announcement in a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, report bdnews24.com and UNB. Meanwhile, according to UNB, Bangladesh Railway Director General Shamsuzzaman, “The services will remain closed until further notice,” he said, adding that intercity train services will be shut down gradually. Bangladesh government on Monday declared general holidays from March 26 to April 4, aiming to prevent its transmission. Besides, the armed forces will remain in the field in the ...

MNA Editorial Desk: All government and private offices and courts will be closed from March 26 to April 4 to contain the spread of coronavirus, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam announced on Monday. The shutdown will not affect emergency services. Hospitals will be open Public transport will operate on a limited scale during the closure. Already 33 people were affected from COVID-19 virus and 5 people were declared dead. Amid this urgent pandemic scenario which has led many countries of the world to impose lockdown, the Bangladesh government has taken this decision. People all around Bangladesh is under the panic ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The government has allocated Tk 500 million for health services to prevent the spread of coronavirus after the detection of the first cases in Bangladesh. The finance ministry informed the Directorate General of Health Services about the allocation on Wednesday in response to the directorate’s request for Tk 1 billion. The money from the fund set aside for unexpected expenditure management in the revised budget of 2019-20 will be used to launch or extend coronavirus-related health services. Most of the fund, over Tk 455 million, is for purchase of equipment. The rest will be used to raise ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday said the government will keep those who will return to Bangladesh under observation before China lifts the ongoing 14-day restriction to avoid any risk. “We’re not delaying. We’re fully ready to bring them (Bangladesh citizens) back once China allows,” he told reporters adding that the government does not want to see the transmission of coronavirus in other places. The Foreign Minister said the Chinese government remains very strict in following the 14-day quarantine period and did not even accept the proposals of Japan and the USA to take back ...

MNA Business Desk: The government has launched a $10.0 million fund for 650 firms in four sectors to be distributed over three years with the help of the World Bank. Commerce Secretary Md Jafar Uddin inaugurated the Export Readiness Fund at the Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka on Sunday, reports bdnews24.com. The fund aims to directly assist firms in the four sectors – leather and leather goods, footwear, plastics, and light-engineering. The government will distribute the fund in three categories, starting from a maximum of $5,000 to 400 companies each. As many as 200 other firms will get up to $40,000 ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The government today termed as ‘blatant lies’ complaints made by Bangladeshi national Priya Saha to US President Donald Trump claiming that minority communities in the country are exposed to persecution. “Government of Bangladesh Strongly protests against all the blatant lies told by Ms Priya Saha to President Trump and condemns her remarks in the strongest possible terms,” a foreign ministry press release said in Dhaka. Condemning her remarks in strongest language the foreign ministry release said there was an ulterior motive behind Priya Saha’s absolutely false and concocted stories aimed at maligning Bangladesh. The release said that ...

MNA National Desk: Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has placed a budget of over Tk 5.23 trillion (Tk 5,23,190 crore), which is 18.1 per cent of GDP, for fiscal year 2019-20 in parliament. He placed the budget, up by Tk 590 billion from the revised one of the outgoing fiscal, at 3:00pm on Thursday. Of the budget, Tk 3.78 trillion (Tk 3,77,810 crore) is expected to come from the National Revenue Board (NBR), non-NBR and non-tax revenue. The target for gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been set at 8.2 per cent, and the average inflation target at 5.5 per ...

MNA International Desk: Hong Kong police fired tear gas and high-pressure water hoses against protesters who had massed outside government headquarters Wednesday in opposition to a proposed extradition bill that has become a lightning rod for concerns over greater Chinese control and erosion of civil liberties in the semi-autonomous territory. The afternoon violence marked a major escalation in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s biggest political crisis in years. It came after protesters earlier in the day forced the delay of a legislative debate over the bill, which would allow criminal suspects in Hong Kong to be sent for trial in mainland ...

MNA International Desk: Indian Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition questioning Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship. NDTV reports, The petition filed by two Delhi residents wanted the Supreme Court to direct the government to decide whether Rahul Gandhi was a British citizen and whether he should be allowed to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi and Wayanad, and then “fill a seat” in parliament. The petitioners – Jai Bhagwan Goyal and Chander Prakash Tyagi – had said that in a form along with the annual data of a UK-based company in 2005-06, it was allegedly mentioned that Rahul ...

MNA International Desk: US congressional negotiators on Monday reached a tentative deal to try to avert another partial government shutdown on Saturday, but congressional aides said it did not contain the $5.7 billion President Donald Trump wants for a border wall. “We reached an agreement in principle” on funding border security programs through Sept 30, Republican Senator Richard Shelby told reporters. “Our staffs are going to be working feverishly to put all the particulars together,” Shelby said. Neither he nor three other senior lawmakers flanking him provided any details of the tentative pact. But it was far from clear if ...

MNA National Desk: The Bangladesh government is working to ensure equal rights for every citizen regardless of religion, race and ethnicity, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said. She was speaking at a scholarship ceremony organised by the Prime Minister’s Office, which runs a project offering assistance to small ethnic groups living in flat lands. Five-hundred students whose higher education is supported by the project were awarded stipends during the ceremony on Thursday. “Everyone in this country will enjoy equal rights regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity or caste. This is our goal and we will meet our goal,” said Hasina. ...

MNA National Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked the new cabinet to work with sincerity and honesty to fulfil the expectations of people who have voted Awami League to power again with a huge mandate. “The cabinet will work with sincerity and honesty, every work has to be performed with sincerity…this has to be kept in mind,” she said in her introductory speech at the maiden cabinet meeting of her newly formed government at the Prime Minister Office (PMO) in Dhaka city on Monday morning. The prime minister said there are responsibilities and duties of the government towards the ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The ruling Awami League (AL) led alliance has secured a landslide victory in the 11th parliamentary elections held across the country on Sunday. They are going to form the government for the consecutive third term under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Unofficial results show that Awami League led alliance secured 289 seats with Awami League itself winning 266 seats while its main opponent Jatiyo Oikyo Front which includes BNP and Jamaat leaders winning only 7 seats out of 299 constituencies, according to a private Television. Through this result Sheikh Hasina and her government successfully retained people’s ...

MNA Education Desk: The government has nationalized 13 more secondary schools of the country. The Education Ministry’s Secondary and Higher Education Department issued a notification to this effect. Government is nationalizing a secondary school and a college in the upazilas that do not have government secondary schools and colleges, the notification also said. Rangamati Naniarchar Model High School and Barkal Model High School, Khagrachari Guimara Model High School, TA Faruk School and College of Bagerhat and Kaunia Mofazzal Hossain Model High School of Rangpur have been nationalized. Keshabpur Pilot Model Secondary School in Jessore, Sanghati Pilot Model Secondary School in ...

MNA Editorial Desk: Former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha said that he resigned in the face of intimidation and threats and was ‘exiled’ by the government. Justice Sinha made the claim in his book titled “A Broken Dream: Rule of Law, Human Rights and Democracy” which is available on Amazon. “I had the opportunity and honour to observe this transformation and the hindrances as a participant of the Bangladeshi judiciary since 1974 — rising from a practitioner at a lower court in the north-eastern district of Sylhet to the highest judicial position of the country, the Chief Justice of the ...

MNA International Desk: The US federal government shut down at midnight Friday as senators continued to scramble to reach a deal to fund the government. This is the first modern government shutdown with Congress and the White House controlled by the same party, and it comes on the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s White House however immediately blamed Democrats for the shutdown. “Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement moments before midnight. “We will ...

MNA Editorial Desk: In a truly democratic society, it is important to ensure a government that follows the will of the people rather than forcing them to follow it and democracy as a concept was in most simple words explained by former US president Abraham Lincoln as “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. Hence, democracy is not a government by some of the people and requires participation of all people; though in most cases, that is not possible but attempts should be there for full participation. We tend to put the responsibility of an election ...

MNA Editorial Desk: The government has identified some mega projects as fast track projects and directed the authorities concerned to implement them with highest priority. Over the past 40 years since independence, Bangladesh has increased its real per capita income more than 130 percent, cut poverty by sixth percent, and is well set to achieve sustainable development goals. In recognition of long term development, the government under t6he leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina adopted the Vision 2021. The vision 2021 and the associated Perspective Plan 2010-2021 have set solid development targets for Bangladesh by the end of 2021. Bangladesh ...

MNA National Desk: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday said it will now place a proposal for an election-time supportive government and urge the Prime Minister to take steps for engaging in talks over the issue, reported news agency. Speaking at press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also said they are not going to approach the President to take initiatives for dialogue on the election-time government as he has already ‘committee misdeeds’ over the formation of the Election Commission (EC). ‘Now people are talking about supportive government as they strongly feel that ...

MNA Business Desk: The government would form the Probashi Kalyan (Expatriates’ Welfare) Board soon as a draft law has already been made to set up a statutory organization for providing welfare services for migrant workers and their family members, reported news agency. The draft Probashi Kalyan Board Act-2017 has put on the expatriate welfare and overseas employment ministry’s website for opinion. Additional secretary to the ministry Azharul Haq said that the concerned ministry will sit on 12 January next on the draft law after taking opinion. According to the draft law, a 15-member body of the board will be formed ...

MNA Feature Desk: Every year, Bangladeshi Hajjis face a lot of difficulty in performing their religious duties and Strong steps are required to discard difficulty of Bangladeshi Hajjis. While many might argue that taking care of so many people is complicated and arduous task, many of our neighboring countries are broadly displaying their capability of tending to the needs of Hajjis of their nationality. I was privileged to attend a meeting, an annual Hajj meeting – attended by the Minister of Religious Affairs of Bangladesh and other nations. The main agenda of this meeting is to bring to light, the ...

MNA National Desk: The government of Bangladesh has declared 11 September as a holiday to extend the Eid-ul-Azha holidays and made a four-day vacation for the public servants. The public administration ministry ensured this on Monday, also stating that government employees will have to be present at office on 24 September to recover this holiday. Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated on 13 September as the moon for the Arabic month of Zil-Hajj was not sighted on Friday. However, Eid-ul-Azha also called the “Sacrifice Feast” or “Bakr-Eid”, is the second of two Muslim holidays celebrated worldwide each year, and considered the holier ...

MNA Business Desk: Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Finance Minister, remarked that the government has strongly decided against giving any new household natural gas connections and will stick to that decision. There is no point of spending present gas for cooking. He also stated that the use of natural gas for household tasks is an absolute waste of the valuable resource. The minister made the statement during a seminar arranged on the occasion of “National Energy Security Day 2016” by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division at Petro Center in Dhaka. Stating Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as an alternative fuel for ...

MNA Technology Desk: The government of Bangladesh is going to launch a mobile phone app titled ‘joy’ to provide immediate support to women and children. Women and children will able to send message pursuing support at any emergency situation by pressing emergency button of the app. Pressing the emergency button the victims will capable to forward a message for help to national helpline centre (10921), police control room, nearest police station and three FnF (friend and family) numbers. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to reveal the application ‘joy’ at the 86th birth anniversary of Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib on ...

MNA National Desk: Bangladesh government has ordered to close all Peace Schools those are operating without any approval across the country. An education ministry statement released on Tuesday said that it has advised the home ministry to take instant actions to close all Peace Schools. The ministry also ordered the Dhaka Education Board to stop approval of the Peace International School at the capital’s Lalmatia. The government does not have any exact info on how many schools are being functioned with the word ‘Peace’ in their names. The education board claimed that they only approved temporarily an English medium school ...