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Online office: Pvt employees more active than govt officials
Although employees at different private institutions are continuing to work from home during the ongoing government-declared general holidays, most government employees are enjoying the holidays without attending offices online.
Experts say implementation of virtual offices for government officials is also possible.
Nazrul Islam Khan, former national project director of the Access to Information Programme of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), said all government officials can work online from home if the authorities want that to happen.
“Now it’s very much possible to keep offices, including ministries, operational thanks to internet facilities. Important meetings can be arranged using Zoom and Google. Besides, letters and other files can be transferred easily through e-filing system. But these are not happening now,” he said.
Earlier, all ministries were instructed by the PMO to use e-filing system to turn Bangladesh into a digital country. But the instruction was not fully implemented. Now a number of ministries are using the technology on trial basis.
As the number of coronavirus cases in the country is growing and the global situation worsening, the government on March 23 declared general holidays from March 26 and later extended that to April 25.
Coronavirus: Police go tough on errant Dhaka residents
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has intensified efforts to make sure people stay indoors and do not venture out of their homes without emergency reasons to limit the transmission of highly infectious coronavirus.
More men than women dying in Bangladesh from coronavirus; experts wonder why!
Though coronavirus pays no attention to borders, race and nationality, its infection and mortality data suggest this virus is deadlier for men than women all over the world, including Bangladesh.
COVID-19: No ventilator in Faridpur hospitals
When the number of coronavirus cases is surging in the country at an alarming rate every day, Faridpur Medical College and Hospital (FMCH) authorities have found its all 16 ventilators at its 16-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) inoperative, depicting a grim picture of poor preparedness to tackle the virus.
Coronavirus: Transport workers unable to bear shutdown impacts
The national shutdown, enforced as part of efforts to slow down the spread of Covid-19, has led to widespread unemployment and frustration among transport workers in Bangladesh.
Do Dr Moyeen’s kids know dad died in frontline battle?
It has been three days since Dr Moyeen Uddin, an assistant professor at the Medicine department of Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital (SOMCH), died at a hospital in Dhaka. But his children are still unaware that their father has died in a battle on the frontline to save the lives of coronavirus patients.
COVID-19: Satkhira dairy farmers forced to dump huge milk every day
Hundreds of dairy farmers in Satkhira are counting huge losses as they have to dump over 50,000 liters of milk every day for lack of demand at every level amid the virtual lockdown in the country after the coronavirus breakout.
As the dairy farmers have no alternative source of income, particularly after this pandemic, farm owners in the district are even failing to arrange feed for their cattle.
President of Tala Milk Production Samity Dibas Chandra Ghosh said around 1,000 dairy farms in the district, including 400 at Jiala Nalta village and 50 farms in Athari village in Tala upazila, produce over 50,000 liters of milk every day.
“All the dairy farmers in the district will turn paupers if this situation continues…the milk dumping must be stopped as soon as possible for their survival,” he said.
Focus both on saving lives, livelihoods: Experts to govt
As the country’s economy has come to a standstill due to the ongoing public holiday aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, experts have urged the government to look both at saving lives and livelihoods as millions of people have lost their jobs.
Left in the lurch by shutdown, sex workers seek govt help for survival
Even in the oldest profession in the world, they have seen nothing like it. Sex workers over the world have historically battled stigmatisation, outright bans or criminalisation, false accusations of spreading disease, and a general lack of respect from other sections of society.
Coronavirus: Power Division braces for huge loss as electricity use falls
The Power Division fears a huge financial loss due to the impact of coronavirus pandemic as it may impede the growth in electricity demand.
It fears the current gap between demand and supply may rise further, leading to an increase in surplus in electricity generation.
“We’re sensing a huge financial loss as the fallout of coronavirus pandemic in multiple ways in power sector,” Nasrul Hamid, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, told UNB.
He said the amount of financial loss was unclear yet.