Three new divisions soon: Hasina

The country is going to get three more divisions -- Mymensingh, Faridpur and Comilla. This will be done to accelerate overall development in those areas, the government claims.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, also the prime minister, said this at a meeting of the AL Central Working Committee (ALCWC), highest decision-making body of the party, at the Gono Bhaban yesterday, meeting insiders told The Daily Star.

Faridpur division will comprise five districts -- Faridpur, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Rajbari and Shariatpur.

Sherpur, Jamalpur, Netrakona, Mymensingh and Kishoreganj districts will form the Mymensingh division, and Comilla division will have Comilla, Chandpur, Brahmanbaria, Laxmipur and Noakhali districts in it, according to meeting sources.

Mymensingh has already got the cabinet's approval to become the eighth administrative division of the country.

At the ALCWC meeting, Hasina said that the 20th triennial central council of the party would be held in December, and asked AL leaders to hold councils to the 14 remaining district units by October and form full-fledged committees in 15 days where councils had already been held, sources said.

The AL held its last central council on December 29, 2012 and elected Sheikh Hasina and Syed Ashraful Islam the president and the general secretary of the party. Their tenures at the party's helm will expire on December 28 this year.

Meeting insiders said Hasina expressed her annoyance over some AL leaders' recent criticisms of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal for its alleged controversial role surrounding the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

Reminding the leaders that the JSD was now an ally of the AL, she asked her party colleagues to "exercise restraint while speaking".

Hasina also told the meeting that the party would construct a new building with its own funds for its headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue.