The main opposition Jatiya Party lawmaker Anisul Islam Mahmud on Tuesday (February 13, 2024) demanded the government of Bangladesh put an end to the loan default culture to save the country’s economy. “In this situation, we need to stop the culture of wilful loan default,” he said. Anisul Islam, a veteran parliamentarian and the deputy leader of the opposition, placed the demand in the House, taking the floor on a point of order. Citing a newspaper story, he said the banking sector's defaulted loans soared by over 20 percent to Tk 145,633 crore in 2023 as both governance and accountability continue to get looser. 98 percent of the country's demand for medicine is produced locally: Health Minister “Whenever this issue is being discussed, we are told that Bangladesh Bank and other banks are taking measures to reduce this (defaulted loans). But we never see that defaulted loans are declining, rather it is going higher,” he said. The Jatiya Party MP said the amount of defaulted loans was Tk 28,000 crore as of 2008. The number of defaulted loans has increased to Tk 1.45 lac crore since 2008 to as of today which is very alarming. He said there is a cash crisis and a dollar crisis in the banking sector. Some strong measures have been taken to tackle this situation. With Pahela Falgun-Valentine’s Day, the nation eyes a festive February 14 Anisul said Bangladesh Bank (BB) is telling that they want to reduce the amount of defaulted loans from existing nine percent to eight percent of total outstanding loans.   “But their (BB) track record says that they will not do so,” he continued. The opposition lawmaker requested the Finance Minister to give importance to stopping the loan default culture. “The issue of loan default culture has been discussed in parliament so many times. But nothing has happened,” he added. Govt okays project to provide freelancing training to youths in 48 districts

Dhaka, Feb 25 (UNB)- President Abdul Hamid on Saturday said common people are not responsible for even one percent of defaulted loans from banks while big businessmen and industrialists willfully take loans with an intention of not paying back.  "They take loans (with an intention) not to pay.  Of course, some bankers are also involved with it," he said at the sixth convocation of Jahangirnagar University. At present, the country’s banks and other lending institutions have more than Tk 1.34 lakh crore in defaulted loan, which is 9.36 percent of the total debt. This is the highest number of defaulted loans so far in the country. According to Bangladesh Bank, the total debt status of the banking sector at the end of September 2022 stood at Tk 14.36 lakh crore. Saying that students are the future of the country, Hamid said some will become politicians, some will become businessmen or industrialists, and some bureaucrats. "Remember that a country moves forward on the path of development and progress only with the coordinated efforts of politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats. Any failure to do so brings extreme danger to the country and the nation,” the President said. Read: Step up vigilance against militancy, drugs and terrorism: PM Hasina Referring to news reports of a SAARC country’s bankrupt economy, he said, “Syndicates of bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen have been blamed for this economic bankruptcy. The sinister nexus of this syndicate can spell danger for any country.” He, however, did not name the country. Calling every student to be educated with ethics, values, patriotism and nationalism in addition to institutional education, he said that a university is the main field of these educations. “But the sad thing is that in today's politics, power and money play a role as the controlling force in many cases. These evil shadows have spread widely in student politics,” he added. "Because of encroachment and extortion, student politics is now viewed negatively rather than respected like before. This is not good for our future generations," he said. Criticising the businessmen, Hamid said that by starting a business, they think how to become rich overnight leaving aside ethics. Hamid said that the same is equally applicable to the government employees. They are also worried about how to quickly own a car and house after having a job. "They forget that they are the employees of the republic and servants of the people. For their own small interests, they sometimes do not hesitate to undermine the big interests of the country and the nation,” he said. Saying that corruption is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the country’s development and progress, he said that everyone should be aware of corruption, and teachers should keep themselves free from corruption and nepotism. Hamid said that some vice-chancellors and teachers are busy with attaining their privileges and benefits by misusing law. Read: President for designing demand-based curriculum "Each university is governed by its own laws. But sadly, in most universities, a section that misuses law is too busy to obtain their privileges and benefits. They don't hesitate to use universities and students to retain power," he said.  He said that education cannot be compromised in any way and students can do politics, social service, cultural  activities after maintaining all academic activities. "It is unfortunate, but it is true that in most of the universities of the country, more time is being given to non-academic activities by compromising education. That is why the country's universities are not found in the first 1000 universities in the world ranking. The development of the country is not possible with only certificate-based education," he said. A total of 15,219 of the 31,716 eligible graduates from the 39th to the 47th batch of the university have registered under honours, master’s, M phil, PhD, MBA degrees and weekend courses. The university awarded 15 graduates with Asadul Kabir Gold Medal and Sharafuddin Gold Medal in the convocation for their outstanding academic results. The first convocation of Jahangirnagar University was held in 1997, the second in 2001, the third in 2006, the fourth in 2010 and the fifth convocation of the university was held on February 5, 2015  

A Pabna court on Sunday granted bail to 12 farmers who were arrested for defaulting loans taken from a government bank. Pabna Senior Judicial Magistrate Court-2 Shamsuzzaman passed the order after hearing a bail petition, said Advocate Saidur Rahman Sumon who stood for the accused accompanied by two other lawyers. Those who secured bail are: Nure Box, 45; Alam Promanik, 50; Mahatab Mandal, 45; Kitab Ali, 50; Hannan Miah, 30; Mohammad Majnu, 40; Mohammad Atiur Rahman, 50; Shamim Hossain, 45; Samad Promanik, 43; Mohammad Akram, 46; Abdul Goni Mondal, 50; and Rajob Ali, 40. Read: Defaming PM: HC grants bail to Rajbari Mahila Dal leader All the farmers are residents of Chhalimpur union under Ishwardi upazila of the district. According to the case statement, a group of farmers – 37 in total – took loans ranging from Tk 25,000 to 40,000 from a branch of Bangladesh Samabaya Bank Ltd in the district in 2016. Later, branch Manager Syed Moazammel Hoque Mahmud filed a case against the farmers for defaulting on loans in 2021. On November 23 this year, a Pabna court issued arrest warrants against the defaulting farmers. Police arrested 12 out of the 37 farmers on Friday. The rest remained absconding since the arrest warrant was issued. Read: HC grants conditional bail to 2 ex-NSU trustees The court asked the absconding farmers to surrender before the court in this connection, the lawyers added. The arrest warrants and the arrest of the farmers raised uproar on social media and surprised people in the country.

A 30-year-old man, who was allegedly tortured by a newly elected member of Chalbala union parishad over a loan default, died at Rangpur Medical College and Hospital Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Anwarul Islam, son of Majibur of Madanpur village in Aditmari upazila. Read: Woman beaten to death for demanding debt money in Lalmonirhat Golam Rasul, officer-in-charge of Kaliganj police station, said the member of ward 9 of Chalbala UP, Mozammel Haque, along with his brother and son, went to Anwarul's house on January 4 and asked him to repay the loan he took from them. Later, they allegedly abducted Anwarul, kept him confined to a room for three days and tortured him. The UP member also severed a finger of Anwarul, police said. Anwarul's family dialled 999 and police eventually rescued Anwarul from a thatched house, adjacent to the house of UP member Mozammel, on January 6. Later, he was taken to Kaliganj Upazila Hospital from where he was shifted to Rangpur Medical College and Hospital. Anwarul succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday evening. In the meantime, Anwarul’s family lodged a complaint at the Kaliganj police station, based on which an FIR was lodged against five people, including the UP member, by cops. Read: Farmer stabbed dead in Lalmonirhat Mosharraf Hossain Bhuttu, 30, brother of Mozammel, and his son, Sujon, 24, have also been made accused in the case. When contacted, UP member Mozammel denied the allegations against him.   However, police arrested Mozammel and his brother Bhuttu in this connection. “Efforts are on to arrest the other accused,” said the OC.