Editorial | The Daily Star

  • Another committee for road safety

    Incredulously, the very person whose plainly insensitive comments had enraged students and sparked off mass demonstration in demand of road safety last year, has now been made the head of a 15-member committee on road safety.

  • A disaster waiting to happen

    It is extremely worrying that chemical warehouses continue to operate in Old Dhaka, which means that we have failed to draw lessons from the Nimtoli fire in 2010 that killed 123 people.

  • Surrender of yaba dealers

    The government has been taking various measures to tackle the scourge of yaba in the country, some of which exceeded the bounds of legality.

  • No gas supply, no prior warnings

    It is reprehensible that some 6-7 lakh people in Dhaka had to suffer from complete or partial lack of gas supply without any warning whatsoever from the authorities.

  • It's time for Jamaat's mea culpa

    A top-ranking leader of Jamaat has tendered his resignation after a very long association with the party.

  • The beacons of light in our nation-building

    It is The Daily Star's privilege to honour two teachers, Satwajit Biswas and Taherul Islam, who have stood out as beacons of light in their dedicated service to education.

  • A close call for Suhrawardy Hospital

    On February 14, a massive fire broke out at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, one of the major public hospitals in the country, leaving hundreds of patients, with many critically ill, under the open sky in dire situations for hours before they were transferred to other government hospitals.

  • Minister's admission of failure is not enough

    Two consistent features of the Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader's public statements in recent years have been his admission of failure and his pledge to bring discipline in the transport sector, neither of which, unfortunately, has brought us any closer to the promised safety on our roads.

  • Ducsu election should set an example

    We are finally on the verge of witnessing an election of the Dhaka University's Ducsu (Dhaka University Central Students' Union), which would be the first democratic exercise of the iconic student body in nearly three decades.

  • Brick kilns are major polluters

    A five-year survey by the Department of Environment (DoE) on the quality of air in seven major cities has found that 50 percent of the

  • Can our war on drugs be won?

    Due to the law enforcement agencies' heightened vigilance on yaba trafficking, smugglers and peddlers are now going to great lengths to smuggle yaba across the country. As reported by this newspaper, traffickers are now using air routes.

  • State must protect minorities from zealots

    The attack on four houses of Ahmadiyya Muslims by supporters of three Islamist organisations in Ahmednagar village of Panchagarh Sadar upazila on February 12 reminds us, once again, that the scourge of communalism is very much present in our society.

  • His CBA status gave him undue privilege

    The story of a class III employee of Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) using an SUV he was not entitled to for 10 years, is quite surprising. It is hard to believe that such misuse of a government office car could go on for 10 long years without his supervisors knowing.

  • Untreated industrial effluents spell doom

    A recent study by Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) paints a gloomy picture of the state of water bodies in the country.

  • Spend on education, health and social welfare

    Despite Bangladesh's remarkable economic development gains, the country's performance in some socio-economic indicators is far from ideal. While we have had public investment in development projects, the same priority needs to be shown towards education, healthcare and social protection.

  • A public health threat of epic proportions

    In yet another report that depicts the sorry state of food quality in the country, it was learnt that raw cow milk contains unusually high levels of pesticide, antibiotic and bacteria, according to a study conducted by the National Food Safety Laboratory of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

  • Vitamin A plus capsules campaign

    Was it Vitamin A that made the infants sick?

    We are deeply concerned about the report of a 16-month-old boy dying and several hundred children falling sick in Jamalpur Upazila allegedly after taking Vitamin A capsules during the latest Vitamin A Plus Campaign.

  • Don't let drive against land grabbing become pointless

    We appreciate the recent drive undertaken by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) against illegal grabbing of land.

  • When policemen are the criminals

    An incident of two police officers allegedly abducting three youths for ransom, as this newspaper reported yesterday, is a matter of serious concern for the public who rely primarily on the police to protect them.

  • Grabbers eye the mighty Meghna

    As per the front-page lead news in this paper on February 9, a shipbuilding company has put up a makeshift enclosure on the Meghna River on its west bank at Char Betagi in Gazaria Upazila, without bothering to obtain either environmental clearance or necessary permission from the authorities.

  • Why is BRTC in such disarray?

    It is shocking that a sector as important as the public transport system should be in a state that the biggest carrier—BRTC (Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation) should be plagued by buses that have an abnormally short shelf life.

  • Children must be protected from sexual violence

    Children in this country have become increasingly vulnerable to sexual violence. According to The Daily Star reports, 29 of the 46 victims of rape in January were below 18 years and among the 29, 13 are aged between five and 12.

  • The Rohingya crisis persists

    It's been nearly two years since more than seven lakh Rohingya people have entered Bangladesh having fled violent crackdown in Myanmar. There's no viable solution in sight. As Myanmar continues to procrastinate when it comes to the repatriation, signs on the ground suggest a dismal prospect: the Rohingya crisis is deepening.

  • Why are thousands of local govt employees without pay?

    It is unthinkable that 35,000 employees of 260 municipalities nationwide have been working without pay for years! Of them, 6,000 staff members got no pay for last five years, 12,000 for two

  • master plan undertaken

    New river saving project a good idea

    Reportedly, the government is contemplating a plan to save the four rivers that serve Dhaka. It comes on the heels of the recent High Court order and its very comprehensive guideline for saving our rivers.

  • People losing lives on the roads

    The relentless deaths on city roads appear to have no effect on the authorities when it comes to ensuring safety.

  • Don't reward the defaulters

    Over the first nine months of 2018, banks waived interests worth Tk 422.14 crore on nonperforming loans (NPLs). This practice has been the norm over the past few years which has had no positive impact on getting habitual defaulters to pay back their loans.

  • PM's call to police

    The Prime Minister's call to the police while addressing the inauguration of the Police Week-2019 is timely. There is no denying that our police force lacks accountability and transparency.

  • Prioritise cancer prevention and treatment

    Although there is no official data regarding the number of cancer patients and the types of cancer most prevalent in this country, it is estimated that every year around 1.5 lakh people develop cancer in Bangladesh.

  • Succour for the rivers at last

    In yet another landmark judgment, the High Court has issued detailed orders to the government laying out various measures to reclaim and save our rivers.

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