Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina distributed 18,566 more houses  among the homeless and landless families across the country under Ashrayan-2 project on Tuesday (June 11, 2024), five days before the Eid-ul Azha. She opened the distribution of the houses alongwith ownership documents through a videoconference from her official residence Ganabhaban, connecting to Kaliganj upazila of Lalmonirhat, Eidgaon upazila of Cox’s Bazar, and Char Fashion upazila of Bhola. Besides, the PM declared 70 more upazilas, including all upazilas of 26 districts, free from landlessness and homelessness people. With this declaration, the total number of landless and homeless-free districts has reached 58 and the number of landless and homeless-free Upazilas has gone up to 464 across the country. The houses were constructed under the government’s flagship housing programme, Ashrayan-2 Project, aiming to ensure housing for all. PM Hasina's Ashrayan project to set another milestone Tuesday On Tuesday, the prime minister distributed 1,282 houses in Lalmonirhat, 261 in Cox’s Bazar, and 1,234 in Bhola districts. Earlier, the prime minister distributed 63,999 houses in the first phase, 53,330 in the second phase, 59,133 in the third phase, and 39,365 in the fourth phase of the Ashrayan-2 Project across the country. Under the project, each landless and homeless family is provided with a semi-pucca house on two decimals of land, with ownership jointly granted to both husband and wife. Each house consists of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a toilet, and a veranda. The rehabilitation programme for homeless people was initially introduced by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1972. Following that PM Hasina initiated the Ashrayan project in 1997 to provide ownership of houses and lands to homeless and landless people. Since its inception, the Ashrayan project has rehabilitated a total of 771,301 families, benefiting an estimated 3,856,505 individuals. Across all programmes, 4,340,000 people from 867,904 families have been rehabilitated, including 2,910,265 people from 582,053 families under the Ashrayan Project. Read more: Ashrayan project: PM Hasina to provide free houses, lands to 18,566 families

Despite having enough stock, traders have increased the prices of all kinds of spices ahead of Eid-ul Azha as usual. Both wholesalers and retailers hiked the prices of ginger, garlic, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, cumin, turmeric and coriander and the low-income groups are bearing the brunt of this spike in prices. SM Nazer Hossain, vice-president, Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh (CAB) told UNB that  though there is enough stock of spices to meet the demand of Eid festival, the traders are increasing the prices of spices to make extra profit. In absence of proper monitoring by the authorities concerned, some unscrupulous traders increase the prices of different commodities as demand rises ahead of different festivals, Nazer said.  Also read: No shortage of spices in market ahead of Eid: Spice Traders Association Talking to UNB some traders said as the prices of almost all essential commodities have gone up and so prices of spices have also increased. Besides, the traders blamed the Russia-Ukraine war and depreciation of taka against US dollar. Md. Enayet Ullah, president of wholesale spice traders’ association, said that the prices of spices only were adjusted with exchange rate. Onion, an essential kitchen item, was selling at Tk 60 to 65 per kg on Saturday in the kitchen markets of the capital, which was sold at Tk 35 to 40 per kg a week ago.  Similarly garlic was selling at Tk 120 to 160 per kg against Tk 100 to 120 per kg and  ginger was selling at Tk100 to 160 per kg against Tk 80 to 120 a week ago. Besides, local turmeric was selling at Tk 230 to 260 per kg, cumin at Tk 450 per kg, chilli (dried) at Tk 380 to Tk400. Cardamom was selling at Tk 2,300 to 2400 per kg which was sold at Tk 2200 per kg a week ago, cinnamon was selling at Tk450 to 500 per kg, black pepper at Tk800 per kg, clove at Tk 1000 to 1200 per kg, cashew nuts at 850 to 1,200 per kg, nutmeg at Tk900 to 1000. Also read: Spice market heats up Contacted, officials of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), a government market monitoring body, have acknowledged that the prices of spices have gone up recently.

The elderlies and children will not be allowed to enter the cattle market ahead of Eid-ul Azha this year, according to guidelines provided by the government. The Press Information Department (PID) issued an official notice on Wednesday regarding government guidelines to contain the spread of coronavirus in cattle markets. According to these guidelines, market management should restrict or regulate the entrance of elderly people and children as they are more vulnerable to contagious disease. Also read: Countrywide digital cattle market launched, gets good response The markets should have separate entry and exit points alongside hand washing facilities, hand sanitisers and temperature measuring devices. According to the notice, the markets cannot be set up on main roads  or in places that create traffic congestion. Also read: Cattle markets open in Dhaka amid low arrival, high prices Mobile courts will take necessary legal actions against those not following the directives, warned the notice. The notice urged to promote trading of sacrificial animals  from the 241 digitals cattle markets (digital haats) set up across the nation.

When the country is celebrating Eid-ul Azha in a festive manner, flood victims in Kurigram are suffering greatly as rivers started to swell on Saturday.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment on Wednesday warned that action will be taken under the Labour Act if child labour is used in rawhide preserving and processing during the upcoming Eid-ul Azha.

Health experts have expressed apprehension that Covid-19 infection rate may take an upward trend sharply after the upcoming Eid-ul Azha as several crore people get directly engaged in the sacrificing over one crore animals in the country.