The cabinet yesterday approved in principle the draft of ‘The Law and Order Disruption (Speedy Trial) (Amendment) Act-2017’ increasing the punishment up to seven-year jail sentence for law and order disruption-related crimes.
The approval was given at the weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. According to the law, disruption to vehicular movement, blocking of roads, tender manipulation, issuing threats, extortion, mugging, terrorising people and vandalism of public properties will be treated as offences.
The cabinet also approved a proposal for ratifying the ‘Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities’. The Cabinet meeting also approved the draft of the agreement titled ‘Agreement between the Russian Federation and Bangladesh on cooperation concerning return of spent nuclear fuel from Rooppur nuclear power plant to the Russian Federation’.
Bangladesh has decided to provide a cash assistance of US $500,000 to support the victims of recent flood and landslides in Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared this cash donation yesterday, said a Foreign Ministry press release.
Bangladesh will continue to maintain a steady economic growth supported by solid agricultural activity and robust services, despite external and domestic challenges, according to a World Bank report.
The Indian government has eased the entry and exit restrictions for visitors from Bangladesh. ‘As per revised guidelines, entry or exit restrictions have been removed on visas issued to Bangladesh nationals from 24 International Airports and Integrated Check Posts at Haridaspur and Gede,’ the Indian High Commission to Bangladesh said in a statement yesterday.
Canada is providing CAD 20,000 through the Emergency Disaster Assistance Fund (EDAF) for the cyclone ‘Mora’ affected people of Bangladesh. The Danish government has allocated Tk 36 lakh to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for disaster relief of Rohingya settlements near Cox’s Bazar in the wake of the cyclone Mora.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the USA has expressed its readiness to help Bangladesh combat cyber crime and other crimes like money-laundering etc. Visiting FBI representatives James Price and David J Eaton expressed their readiness when they called on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) chairman Iqbal Mahmood in Dhaka yesterday.
Bangladesh is closely monitoring the evolving situation after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and a growing list of other countries have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar over its alleged support to terrorism which Qatar says baseless, a diplomat told a news agency yesterday.
The government has taken a labour market research programme to formulate a future plan for sending skilled manpower to 50 potential countries, says the Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam BSc. In reply to a query to the Parliament on Monday the minister said, the government has already increased the number of training centres to 70 from earlier 38 for creating skilled manpower for overseas employment.
Press Wing London, 06 June 2017