Jamaat chief says his party will oppose any move to weaken parliament or delay promised constitutional reforms

Speakers tell discussion

Despite receiving the highest-ever budgetary allocation in the country’s history, the health sector’s success will ultimately depend on how effectively the funds are utilised, health experts and economists said yesterday.

Nepal started exporting 40 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh last night, and this will continue until November 15.

At least five people were arrested and a police officer was withdrawn from duty over rape allegations in four districts in the last two days, according to reports from our correspondents.

Weeks after the 100-bed Narsingdi District Hospital was approved for 150 additional beds, the district has now been granted a public medical college.

State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Bobby Hajjaj yesterday told the parliament that two decades of neglect have left Bangladesh’s education system in such a dire state that the country’s higher secondary level (HSC) is often compared to grade-six in Singapore.

The authorities of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have finalised a draft act to rename the force as the People’s Protection Forces (PPF) and establish an independent complaint management body to strengthen accountability amid longstanding criticism over human rights violations.

Four more children have died showing symptoms consistent with measles in the last 24 hours until 8:00am yesterday, raising Bangladesh’s combined tally of confirmed and suspected measles-related deaths to 652.

The gas subsidy has more than trebled this fiscal year, along with subsidies for electricity and fertiliser, due to costly purchases from the international spot market as a result of the Iran war.

The Local Government Division has formed two committees to identify and demarcate the boundaries of all canals under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) to expedite canal recovery and restoration efforts.

Bangladesh Bank last night dissolved the entire board of directors of Islami Bank, including newly appointed chairman Md Khurshid Alam, after protests, controversy, and liquidity stress at the bank.

Econo-mist Prof Abul Barkat was shown arrested yesterday in a fresh murder case linked to the July uprising.

The test operational process of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant has been temporarily halted after a technical fault was discovered following fuel loading at Unit-1 of the country’s first nuclear facility.

A woman was raped on Friday after a perpetrator cut through the tin wall  and entered her house in Noakhali’s Companiganj upazila.

The government plans to convert all primary schools into single-shift institutions within five years to improve learning outcomes and ensure adequate classroom time, State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Bobby Hajjaj said yesterday.

Heated exchanges erupted twice in the parliament yesterday -- first over Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed’s statement on an expelled Islami Chhatra Shibir leader facing a rape case, and later over remarks by treasury bench MP Manirul Haque Chowdhury over women MPs’ attire.

The government will need an additional one-time allocation of Tk 3,150 crore to clear nearly 44,000 pending applications for benefits from the Teachers’ Welfare Trust and Retirement Board, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon told parliament yesterday.

Dhaka-14 Jamaat-e-Islami MP Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem voiced dissatisfaction in the parliament yesterday, demanding an explanation as to why his motion on “illegal push-ins and border killings by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF)” was withheld from discussion despite being scheduled.

LGRD Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said media houses have become “representatives of business houses.”