Day: May 2, 2024

Awami League (AL) General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said that the main goal of the ruling Awami League (AL) is to work for the welfare of the toiling people of the country. 'The goal of AL is to change the fate of farmers, workers and the toiling people,' he said in a statement sent to the media today, protesting the misleading and provocative statements of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Recalling BNP-Jamaat's tenure, the AL general secretary said that when the BNP-Jamaat evil forces were in power, the people of the country had to live in misery due to their misrule. 'Today, they talked about the rights of working people. But they never increased the wages of the workers while in power,' he added. Highlighting BNP-Jamaat's atrocities, he said this evil force shot dead laborers who were agitating for salary and bonus, killed farmers who were agitating for fertilizer and murdered ordinary people who were agitating for electricity. Thus, the B NP-Jamaat clique crushed Bangladesh by holding people hostage at gunpoint, he said. Obaidul Quader said that they made the life of working people miserable by shutting down different factories, including the Adamjee Jute Mills. On the other hand, Awami League has increased the salaries of garment workers as well as tea workers after coming to power, he said, adding that the living standard of all, including working people, has improved. Quader further said that Awami League always comes to power with people's vote. Awami League is not like a political party which came into being from the pocket of a military dictator, he said, adding that this party led the struggles for establishment of all rights, including democratic rights, of the people of this country, he said. In continuation of that, Awami League is working to establish people's voting rights and other rights, he added. He said that the 12th national election, held on January 7 last, was fairer than all the elections held in the country after 19 75. 'Awami League has come to power through elections by ensuring people's right to vote and is running the country with people's mandate,' he said. Obaidul Quader said that BNP had always taken away the voting rights of the people to grab the power. 'For this, they are afraid of elections and they don't want to participate in it,' he added. 'Once they excluded half a crore voters from the list to make smooth their way to grab power. They also created 1.23 crore fake voters,' he said. He said that issues like democracy and right to vote do not fit in the mouth of those who undertook different tactics to snatch the voting rights of the people. 'The main objective of BNP's politics is to seize power by any means,' he continued. They seized state power and used it illegally to make Bangladesh a dysfunctional state through corruption and looting, he said. Bangladesh had the stigma of being the champion of corruption for five times because of BNP, he said. Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha

The bodies of eight Bangladeshis, who died in a boat capsize in Tunisian coast, reached Dhaka today. A flight of Saudia Airlines carrying the eight bodies reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 12:30pm. The deceased are: Mamun Sheikh, Sajal Bairagi, Nayan Biswas, Rifat Sheikh, Sajib Kazi, Imrul Kayes Apon, Md Abdur Kaiser and Rasel Sheikh. All are residents of Madaripur and Gopalganj. On February 14, a boat carrying 53 individuals, including a sailor, capsized at 4.30am (local time) on its way to Europe, leaving nine passengers, including eight Bangladeshis and one Pakistan national, dead. Earlier, the vessel left the Libyan coast town of Zuwar at 11.30 pm (local time). A total of 44 passengers, including 27 Bangladeshis, were rescued. Other nationals on board included eight Pakistanis, five Syrians, three Egyptians, and the sailor. Shariful Hasan, associate director (Migration and Youth Platform) at BRAC, confirmed that 11 more Bangladeshis, who were also on the vessel, have already ret urned home. A case was filed with Airport Police Station on April 19 by Sunil Bairagi, father of deceased Sajal Bairagi. Police arrested two people in this connection. Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha

A Chattogram court today sentenced life term rigorous imprisonment to a drug trader for trading drugs in city's Karnafhuly Thana area in 2012. The Court of 4th Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge of Chattogram Shariful Islam Bhuiyan awarded the punishment to Ali Akbar alias Babul, son of Nurul Hoque who hailed from Hulain village under Patiya upazila of the district. The court also fined Taka 10,000 to the convict, in default; he will have to suffer more one year imprisonment. According to the prosecution story is in brief that acting on a tip-off, a team of Karnaphuli Thana police detained the drug trader Ali Akbar with 95 bottles of Phensidyle syrup from Shynnartek area under Karnaphuli Thana on August 26, 2012. A case filed with Karnaphuli Thana against the alleged drug trader on same day. Police submitted the charge sheet against the person before the court on September 17 in 2012 while the court framed charges against him on April 1, 2013. The court announced the verdict in absence of the convic ted person after examining a total of six prosecution witnesses out of 12. Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury today laid emphasis on preparing action plan to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) by 2030. "We all have to work together for overcoming different challenges to achieve SDGs . . . Bangladesh is stilling facing some challenges including early marriage, violence towards women and Child and Maternal mortality rate," she told a meeting of a project under Parliament Secretariat here, an official releases said. Chairman of Committee on Public Undertakings ASM Firoz, Senior Secretary of Parliament Secretariat KM Abdus Salam and Additional Secretary of SPCPD MA Kamal Billah, among others, were present at the meeting. Dr Shirin said the Jatiya Sangsad has been working with different development partners including UNFPA and UNDP to implement different project including Strengthening Parliament's Capacity in Population and Development (SPCPD). Members of Parliament, Whip Nazrul Islam Babu, Begum Meher Afroz Chumki, Aktaruzzaman, Nahim Razzak, Noor Uddin Chowdhury Naya n, Samil Uddin Ahmed Shimul, Ranjit Chandra Sarkar, AKM Mostafizur Rahman, Syeda Zakia Noor, Umm Kulsoom Smriti, Arma Dutta, Kohli Quddus, Sanjida Khanam, Draupadi Devi Agarwal and other parliamentarians, representatives of UNFPA and SPCPD project were present at the meeting. Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha

Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury today nominated a five-member panel of chairmen for the second session of 12th parliament. The panel members are M A Mannan, Asaduzzaman Noor, Shafiqul Islam Shimul, Golam Kibria Tipu and Fazilatun Nesa. The panel members will chair the JS session according to the seniority in absence of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha