bangladesh
Sinopec, Halliburton launch spud drilling in onshore block-SS-04
China’s Sinopec and the US-based Halliburton started spud drilling Kanchan-1 Well under the country’s shallow water Block-SS-04 on Wednesday.
Engineers of the two companies launched the drilling job at a function at the site.
The block-SS-04 is located in Bengal Basin and covers an area of 7269 Sq. Km with water depth ranging from 0 to 100 meter.
Liberation war affairs minister meets Turkish civil society in Istanbul
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq has interacted with a group of Turkish civil society, academic and media personalities of Istanbul, where he highlighted the growing ties between the two countries.
The minister briefed them about the historical context of the 1971 Liberation War and the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign nation under the courageous and visionary leadership of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He also highlighted the phenomenal socio-economic developments of Bangladesh under the guidance and stewardship of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The Consulate General of Bangladesh in Istanbul organised the event.
Consul General Dr Mohammad Monirul Islam termed this particular visit a significant moment in Bangladesh-Turkey bilateral relations as it is taking place at a time when the people of Bangladesh are celebrating two historic occasions, the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the golden jubilee of independence.
He also outlined the contours of the Bangladesh-Turkey friendship, especially the recent developments in the political understanding and expansion of business and economic engagements between the two countries.
During his visit to the Bangladesh Consulate in Istanbul, the minister briefed the mission officials on the development plans and programmes of the government and thanked them for making relentless efforts to promote the image of Bangladesh in Turkey.
Bangladesh national sentenced in US for 'human smuggling'
A Bangladeshi man has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for his involvement in the "smuggling" of undocumented individuals from Mexico into the US.
According to court documents, between March 2017 and June 2019, Mohamad Milon Hossain, 41, a Bangladeshi national, formerly residing in Mexico's Tapachula, assisted human smugglers operating out of Bangladesh, South and Central America, and Mexico to bring numerous undocumented individuals to the US border in exchange for payment.
Read: Rab arrest three members of a human trafficking gang
Milon operated out of Tapachula where he maintained a hotel that housed the individuals on their way to the US, said the Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs Tuesday.
The Bangladesh national provided plane tickets and other assistance for the individuals to travel from Tapachula to Monterrey of Mexico, where co-conspirator Moktar Hossain assisted their illegal crossing into the US.
Read: Human trafficking ring busted in Natore, 2 held
"This human smuggling conspiracy operated on a global scale and endangered the lives of Bangladeshi migrants," said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A Polite Jr of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
"The Justice Department will continue working with our law enforcement partners here and abroad to bring human smugglers like Hossain to justice and to disrupt these criminal networks that unlawfully bring migrants from across the world into the US."
HC rejects Bashundhara MD’s anticipatory bail plea over Munia death case
The High Court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir in a case filed over rape and murder of college student Mosarat Jahan Munia.
However, the HC granted six weeks' anticipatory bail to Sabrina Sayem, the wife of Anvir in the same case.
The HC bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice KM Zahid Sarwar Kajol passed the order.
Lawyer Yusuf Hossain Humayun represented the accused petitioners during hearing on the matter.
Read: Munia rape and murder case: Bashundhara MD seeks anticipatory bail
On April 26, police recovered the body of the 21-year-old college student hanging from
A ceiling fan of her bedroom in a Gulshan flat.
On September 6, victim's elder sister Nusrat Jahan filed the case with Dhaka Women andChildren Repression Prevention Tribunal-8 against eight people including Anvir.
Read:Munia's death: Bashundhara MD among 8 sued over ‘rape, murder’
Chairman of Bashundhara Group Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam and six others were also made accused in the case on charge of abetting the crime.
Tribunal judge Mafroza Parveen reviewed the case filed before the court by Nusrat Jahan Tania, sister of Munia, and asked Police Bureau of Investigation to probe the case.
Institutional limitations, accountability deficiency key concerns in secondary-higher education: TIB
Institutional limitations, lack of transparency and accountability, and various legal deficiencies remain as the major challenges for ensuring good governance in the country’s secondary and higher education activities, according to a study conducted by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
To overcome the limitations, the TIB placed a 20-point recommendation including preparing and implementing plans in line with the National Education Policy 2010, enhancing teachers’ online teaching capacity, create integrated organogram directly under the revenue sector, bringing the dropout students back to the classrooms, and increasing the budgetary allocation for education sector as per the suggestion of Unesco, and removing the disparity in teacher-student ratio.
The report of the study titled “Secondary Education Programmes: Challenges for Good Governance and Ways Out” was disclosed at a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
Read: TIB: Private hospitals too expensive for Covid-19 treatment
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman spoke at the conference, while Taslima Akter Hena raised the report of the study conducted on the basis of the data collected from both primary and secondary sources from May 2019 to September 2021. The data was collected from 325 key informants concerned through interviews and 54 education institutions of 18 upazilas.
According to the findings, various strategies were set out in the National Education Policy 2010 to bring transparency, accountability and dynamism in education administration, but there is lack of effective initiative at the policy-making level to execute the strategies. Though work has been on the draft education law for the last 10 years, it could not be turned into law due to bureaucratic procrastination, the study shows.
In addition to the lack of initiatives to increase the financial benefits and social status of teachers and ensure effective accountability, initiatives have not been taken yet in accordance with the education policy to determine and implement the methods for evaluating students, as per the report.
Read: Third party’s involvement behind vaccine crisis: TIB
Though the Unesco recommends allocating six per cent of GDP or 20 per cent of the budget for the education sector, Bangladesh raised it to 10-12 per cent of the budget in the last 10 years, it said.
The allocations for the education sector in other South Asian countries are 3-6 per cent of the GDP, while it is only 2-3 per cent in Bangladesh.
According to the study findings, the secondary and higher education faces a number problems including lack of adequate facilities for teachers and staff, lack of manpower at the field-level administration which hamper supervision and inspection activities, procrastination in promotion of teachers, and lack of teachers’ capacity and training particularly about ICT, creating creative and digital contents, lack of transparency and accountability, political influence, irregularities and financial corruption.
SC directs lower court judges to give decisions publicly
The Supreme Court has asked the lower court judges to pass their verdicts and orders in public in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
The SC directive came in a notification signed by the Registrar Md Golam Rabbani of the High Court Division under the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Read: SC directive issued for court officials, employees during Eid holidays
In order to ensure transparency and accountability, the lower courts have been directed to announce important interim judgments and orders, including bail, in public court in presence of the lawyers and parties concerned, said the notification.
All the judges of the lower court were instructed to follow the directive mentioned in the notification as per the court’s decision.
V20 calls on IMF, developed countries to deliver on climate finance commitment
The V20 Group of Finance Ministers has concluded its senior officials meeting with a call on the International Monetary Fund and related international financial institutions to intervene with practical solutions for the delivery of the $100 billion per year pledged by developed countries under the Paris Climate Treaty.
Hosted by the Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh, the meeting held on Tuesday focused on financing initiatives of the V20 and on advocacy and partnerships efforts for countries most threatened by climate change.
As highlighted by the First V20 Climate Vulnerables’ Finance Summit and V20 Ministerial Dialogue VII, the world has arrived at ‘a point of no return’ and the most vulnerable suffer financial losses the most, the officials observed.
The V20 calls for a joint ‘Delivery Plan’ from the developed nations to concretely demonstrate how annual climate finance will be met over the 5-year period from 2020 to 2024, or $500 billion in total.
IMF and other financial institutions are urged to jointly assess gaps and failures in international finance and to propose practical solutions, taking into consideration debt sustainability.
Synergies between existing funds and streamlined direct access by countries must be prioritized.
Read: IMF keen to work closely for Bangladesh’s RMG sector’s development
A clear and concrete Delivery Plan for the UNFCCC-agreed US$100 billion per year for the period 2020 until 2025, with a total of US$500 billion can include the following:
Aggregate and individual public contributions from all developed nations per year, highlighting additionality to ODA (i.e., that climate finance is not just‘re-purposed’ ODA).
Public and private mobilizations to reach at least $500 billion in 50:50 balanced (adaptation-mitigation) flows for the period 2020-24; debt and grant proportions supported per developed country, showing a growing emphasis on grants especially for adaptation over time; growing emphasis of adaptation resources reaching developing nations particularly vulnerable to climate change; transparency on implementation through annual tracking conducted independently by the IMF and IMF to ascertain the most efficient composition of climate finance.
The new financing goal targets for 2025 can benefit from considering V20 Climate Finance Viewpoints which also underscores for an inclusive process, commensurate with ground truths.
In line with risk-information, the V20 and Insurance Development Forum further confirm steps forward in a partnership to be launched at COP to provide vulnerable country governments with an open-access risk modelling platform and the knowledge to utilize the best of global and local models and data.
Specifically the Global Risk Modelling Alliance is designed to enable V20 members to strengthen their physical climate risk management capabilities and create the trust and confidence necessary to attract investment in adaptation and risk financing solutions.
The V20 further look forward to reaching a way forward during the InsuResilience High Level Consultative Group meeting with G20+ members on smart premium subsidies and capitalization support and an improved climate and disaster risk financing and insurance architecture to highlight gaps in light of increasing frequency and intensity of climate-fueled disasters.
Efforts on key initiatives including the ‘climate prosperity’ program for the development and implementation of the strategic economic-climate-SDG investment and cooperation frameworks, commencing with Bangladesh’s ‘Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan’.
Read: IMF approves largest SDR allocation in history to boost global liquidity
Since its founding in 2015, the V20 continues working through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and national Financial Institutions (Fis) to develop an Accelerated Financing Mechanism: an innovative financing mechanism to bring down the cost of capital across the capital stack by directly unlocking at least $30 billion of private sector investments, through more systematic and optimized financial de-risking for resilient infrastructure and renewable energy.
A Sustainable Insurance Facility, provides climate-smart insurance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the vulnerable people that depend on them and aims to build local and regional insurance markets to help better absorb risk, develop resilient business models, and free up public and private resources for investment in the resilience and growth of the V20 economies and people.
Asia-Pacific implementation is already advancing, supported by the Asian Development Bank’s ACliFF. The facility is now hosted in the UN Environment FI Principles for Sustainable Insurance Initiative, and supported by the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative.
Formed in 2015, the V20 Group of Finance Ministers is a dedicated cooperation initiative of economies systematically vulnerable to climate change. It is currently chaired by Bangladesh.
The V20 membership stands at 48 economies including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Kiribati, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Senegal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Viet Nam and Yemen.
Khadem of a Dhanmandi mosque dies from electrocution
Atiqul Islam, the khadem of Eidgah Mosque at Dhanmandi-6 died from electrocution on Wednesday, police said.
Atiqul hailed from IItna upazila in Kishoreganj district.
Also read: 2 die from electrocution on waterlogged Dhaka road
The incident took place at around 11: 00 am when Atiqul was mowing the mosque’s field by an electric machine, said Abdul Jalil, a worker of the mosque.
Accidentally, Atiqul a live wire of the machine and fell down unconscious, Jalil added.
Also read: Father, son die from electrocution in B’baria
He was rushed Dhaka Medical College Hospital where the doctor on duty declared him dead.
Inspector Bachchu Mia, in -charge of the DMCH police Camp, said the body has been kept at the hospital’s morgue for autopsy.
DU admission tests at all divisional cities from Oct 1
Dhaka University (DU) will begin admission tests for the 2020-21 academic session at eight divisional cities including Dhaka from October 1.
The admission tests will be held in Dhaka and in seven public universities in the other divisional cities, aiming to save time and money of the admission seekers.
Vice-Chancellor Professor M Akhtaruzzaman made the announcement at a virtual press briefing.
"We have taken all the preparations to hold the admission tests smoothly. We will bring all the centres under strict surveillance to prevent any forgery this year," he said.
On average, 45 students will fight for a seat as a total of 3,24,030 admission seekers applied for 7,148 seats this year.
Of them, 1,17,956 seekers applied for 'Ka' unit (Science group) against 1,815 seats; 47,632 for 'Kha' unit (Humanities group) against 2,378 seats; 27,347 for 'Ga' unit (Commerce group) against 1,250 seats; 115,881 applied for 'Gha' unit (Combined group) against 1,570 seats and 15,496 for 'Cha' unit against 135 seats.
There are now 60,000 seats in 39 public universities across the country.
HC asks 2 lower court judges to explain further on Pori Moni’s multiple remands
The High Court on Wednesday asked for further explanation from two lower court judges by October 24 on why they remanded actress Pori Moni to police on multiple times in a narcotics case.
The HC bench of Justices Mustafa Zaman Islam and KM Zahid Sarwar passed the order as the court found the earlier explanations offered by the two judges unsatisfactory.
The court also fixed October 24 for next hearing in the case.
The two metropolitan magistrates in question are Debabrata Biswas and Atiqul Islam.
Besides, the HC asked the investigating officer of the case Kazi Golam Mostafa to submit his explanation in the case.
On September 2, the High Court asked the two lower court judges to explain why they had accepted the police prayer to remand actress Pori Moni for the second and the third time in the narcotics case.
Read: Pori Moni's remand: HC 'not satisfied' with explanation of lower court judges
The court had also summoned the investigating officer to appear before the bench on September 15 along with relevant documents to explain why he repeatedly sought remand for the actress.
The bench said it would also summon the metropolitan magistrates who had granted the prayers for taking Pori Moni in remand for second and third times, if their written explanation was not satisfactory.
Besides, the HC said there was potential for abuse of power in the remand of the actress.
Ain-o-Salish Kendra lawyer ZI Khan Panna told the HC during the hearing that its guidelines and directives were all thrown out of the window in the manner by which the actress was placed on remand in three phases.
Pori Moni was arrested on August 4 following a raid by Rab on her Banani residence. A case was filed against her under the Narcotics Control Act the following day.
Following the High Court's intervention, a Dhaka court finally granted bail to the actress on September 1 and she walked out of jail the following day.
Read: Pori Moni resumes work on her incomplete, upcoming characters
On August 22, Pori Moni was sent to jail after inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Kazi Golam Mostafa produced her in a court on the completion of a one-day remand, her third.
Judge Emrul Kayesh set September 13 for hearing her bail petition in the case. However, the actress subsequently moved the High Court, challenging the validity of the lower court's decision.
The HC on August 26 issued a rule, seeking explanation as to why a lower court order fixing September 13 for hearing the bail petition of Pori Moni in a case under the Narcotics Control Act should not be cancelled. It had also asked why the bail application would not be heard within two days.