The Cabinet on Monday cleared the draft of the Local Government (Pourasava) Amendment) Act, 2021, aiming to strictly follow the timeframe for holding the municipal polls regularly in every five years.

The approval came from the virtual Cabinet meeting held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The PM joined it from her official residence Ganobhaban. Other Cabinet members got connected with the meeting from the Bangladesh Secretariat.

While briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said sometimes it is seen some pourasava chairmen move the court seeking  stay order on holding the next elections at the end of their tenures.

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This is how, he mentioned, some chairmen prolong their stay in office for over five years -- even 15-16 years -- taking advantage of a clause in the existing law that stated that the present chairman will remain there till the next election is held.

“To stop this practice, the government has made this amendment in the 2009 law,” he said.

On completion of five years, the proposed law said, the government can appoint an administrator either from the government services who has administrative experience or any other eligible person.

“The appointed administrator will remain in the post for maximum six months, and the elections have to be held by this time,” the cabinet secretary said.

The meeting also decided to make the eligibility for enlistment of any new pourasava which has the minimum population of 2,000 per kilometer as it is now 1,500 per kilometre.

It also changed the name of pourasava member as pouro executive officer.

The meeting decided that the proposed law will include another clause mentioning that if any pourasava fails to pay salaries and other wages of its officers and employees for 12 months the government can abolish its status as a pourasava.

The Cabinet meeting also cleared the drafts of Essential Services Act, 2021 integrating Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1952 and The Essential Services (Second Ordinance), 1958.

After the passage of this proposed law, the Cabinet secretary said, the government will be able to declare any service essential when it will be necessary.

He said the services that will be included as essential are post, telecommunications, internet services, ICT, digital services, mobile financial services, digital financial services, power generation and distribution related services, railways, passenger and goods transportation through water, road and air ways.

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Anwarul Islam said the government can declare this essential status for maximum six months. After the declaration, no strike, shut-off and lay-off will be allowed in that service.

Any breach of this law will be a punishable offence and if any labourer does that he or she will be fined by Tk 25,000 to Tk 50,000 and six months’ imprisonment or by both. For the owner, the punishment is Tk 100,000 maximum or one year’s imprisonment or both.

For enforcing any illegal strike, the punishment will be expulsion from the job or six months’ imprisonment or Tk 25,000 fine or both.

If anyone instigates others for breaching the law that person will be fined Tk 50,000 or one year’s imprisonment or both.

The Cabinet also approved the draft of Chittagong Division Development Board Ordinance, 1976 (repeal) Act, 2021 which will abolish the existing law as per the directives of the court that said all laws enacted during the military regimes will be scrapped.

The cabinet secretary said the meeting also discussed the offers from some African countries, including South Sudan, to take agricultural land on lease and produce agricultural products.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the Foreign Ministry, Agriculture Ministry and Commerce Ministry to look after the matter quickly and explore the opportunities.

She also asked them to explore more markets for the country’s agricultural products, and mentioned that Scandinavian countries welcome Bangladesh’s vegetable.

The government has allotted two acres of land in Purbachal for the Agriculture Ministry to establish an international standard laboratory to test and provide certificates to the outgoing products of the country for expediting export.

The meeting also discussed the delay of resuming classes in universities of the country.

The Cabinet secretary said the Education Minister informed the meeting that resumption of classes in any universities depends on the decisions of their syndicates.

She also said there might be delay in resuming academic activities in the universities as their dormitories are in bad shape since those were under lock and key for more than one and a half years.

The minister said the government has already announced two public examinations and those will be held in due time if the present situation continues or improves further. “There’ll be no problem in holding examinations if there’s no sudden deterioration in the situation,” the cabinet secretary said.

The PM also asked the Health Ministry to explore the technical side to vaccine the under-18 people.

The Cabinet also gave its nod to ratify article 29 of the forceful labour related ILO convention 1930.

This ratification will ease the country’s export in European countries as they have tagged a condition to ratify it for sending products to their countries.