Editorial | The Daily Star

  • Shootouts are not the answer

    We are extremely concerned at the rising death toll in shootouts by law enforcers in countrywide anti-narcotic drives. In the last nine days alone, at least 33 alleged drug peddlers have been killed in “gunfights” according to our reports. The details around these gunfights are hazy at best, and there are contradictory accounts by police and family members and neighbours of the deceased, who have made claims of plainclothes men picking up the accused.

  • Writing off loans a bad practice

    TK 48,192 crore has been written off as irrecoverable loans by state-owned and private banks as of December last year. This state of affairs has come in the backdrop of a failure of banks to effectively pursue legal battles in the effort to recover bad loans. According to central bank regulations, banks are required to file lawsuits in the loan default court, Artha Rin Adalat.

  • Implement HC order

    It seems that Dhaka lacks a basic traffic management system. In the past, we have seen motorcyclists using footpaths during gridlocks ignoring traffic rules.

  • Six years lost in jail

    A report published by this newspaper on Monday told the story of how one Azaher Ali Raza, acquitted six years ago, was still stuck in Dinajpur jail, due to a procedural lapse in the communication of his release order.

  • Evicting Rohingyas from no man's land

    Myanmar's blatant deceit towards Rohingya repatriation took a fresh turn when its Border Guard Police (BGP) started announcing to the estimated 5,800 Rohingyas stuck in the no man's land in Bandarban area to move somewhere else.

  • Impeding traffic on roads and highways

    It seems that blocking of the nation's highways and the capital's busy roads has become normal for any party ventilating its grievances.

  • Living on Tk 85 a day!

    It is unthinkable how a worker can survive with a wage as low as Tk 85 a day these days. As ridiculous as this might seem,

  • Reducing Dhaka's waterlogging

    Waterlogging has become a ritualistic affair in Dhaka. It is unfathomable how a city of over 16 million people still does not have a working storm drainage system.

  • Nazim Uddin

    Speeding buses take another life

    A recent spate of reckless driving by racing buses has cost the life of Nazim Uddin, a senior executive of the advertisement department of English daily Dhaka Tribune. Nazim, whose wife had given birth to their second child only five days ago, got his motorcycle knocked down on Mayor Hanif flyover by a bus from behind and then run over.

  • Sorry state of pasteurised milk!

    A recent study conducted by ICDDR,B in 18 upazilas of Bogra, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Dinajpur, Joypurhat, Rangpur and Sirajganj on the prevalence of bacteria in milk has found evidence of high level of bacteria, which make 77 percent of all pasteurised milk unsafe for human consumption.

  • Repatriation in limbo

    That the repatriation of Rohingya refugees has been immobilised is as depressing as unsurprising. The sincerity of Myanmar's authorities

  • In pursuit of moral attainment

    The holy month of Ramadan begins today, and it's important to remember what makes this month so special and what we can learn from

  • Harassment at land offices

    A recent hearing organised by the Anti-Corruption Commission on the harassment people faced when visiting land offices for tax and mutation issues brought out a plethora of complaints that ranged from non-cooperation to the issue of graft. We have written on this issue many times.

  • KCC elections

    The much-anticipated Khulna City Corporation mayoral election has been held and we congratulate the new mayor on his victory. However, considering some of the reports regarding rigging, booth capture, and voter intimidation on the polling day, we wish the EC would have handled the matter more efficiently.

  • Hold Israel to account

    We condemn strongly Israel for its brutal killing of 58 unarmed Palestinians. More than two thousand others have been wounded, and the casualty is mounting. They were protesting in Gaza against shifting the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively recognising the annexation of the holy city by Israel.

  • Heed UNHRC's call

    Notwithstanding the laudatory comments by the UN Human Rights Council on the improvement of labour rights and several other sectors, its call upon the Bangladesh to thoroughly investigate all incidents of abductions, enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings, merits immediate attention of the government.

  • Prices hike yet again

    For the second time this month, prices of essential food items have shot up—the first hike came just before the Shab-e-Barat, and now again ahead of the month of Ramadan.

  • Public suffering on Ctg-Dhaka highway

    The public suffering caused by the 110km-long tailback on Chittagong-Dhaka highway, which continued on to its fifth consecutive day as of Sunday, beggars description.

  • Save the trees

    We are astonished that the ministry of environment and forest has itself initiated a proposal to cut down more than 3,000 trees in two reserve forests of the country. The purpose is to build a stadium in Chandpur union of Gazipur and a Petroleum Corporation project in Maheshkhali of Cox's Bazar district.

  • Recognising the role of mothers

    On Mother's Day, which was observed yesterday, it is important to remember that we must reinforce our commitment to all women, especially those who are mothers, in our society. Mothers always have a defining role in our lives and what we become is largely because of their contribution in terms of the love and care they have bestowed on us and the values they have tried to inculcate.

  • Is police overstepping?

    The news that the police has detained more than a hundred opposition activists in the run-up to the upcoming Khulna city elections is surprising.

  • Exemplary act by teachers

    It is not every day we come across a story where a student's education is put back on track by his teachers who convinced his parents that the boy had a bright future and he should continue his studies.

  • A leap into space-age technology

    Notwithstanding the technical glitch that has postponed the event by one day, the launch of the Bangabandhu 1 satellite, from Florida, is a momentous occasion jumpstarting our leap in advanced technology and into space-age technology.

  • Preventing deaths caused by lightning

    The number of deaths caused by lightning strikes continues to increase at an alarming pace. According to a leading Bengali daily, lightning claimed 112 lives in the last 10 days, with 23 killed just on Wednesday. Lightning strikes have become one of the deadliest natural calamities in our country, with hundreds of lives lost each year.

  • Grim findings of education survey

    Education as we know it today, especially at the primary and secondary levels, summons up images of all the wrong kinds: question paper leaks, cheating in exams, coaching business, emphasis on rote learning, etc. A new survey published on Wednesday provided a statistical explanation of the fault lines of our education by collating responses by students, teachers and parents on matters of ethics and values.

  • Bangladesh Bank flouts own rules

    It defies rationale that the central bank would relax its own rules of business to allow for four state-owned banks and one government financial institution to inject Tk 715 cores into the troubled Farmers Bank. BB's investigations into the bank found that its top brass is complicit in the financial meltdown that involved the former chairman and ex-chairman of the executive committee. Yet, we find that instead of ordering structural changes in the way the bank is managed, the central bank is more interested in replenishing the bank's fortunes.

  • Dismal state of luggage handling at HSIA

    Clearing luggage at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is notoriously slow and it can take hours for passengers to get their luggage.

  • Recruitment of qualified teachers crucial

    We are worried to learn that 109 educational institutions in the country have had zero pass rates in this year's SSC exams.

  • No gazette notification on quota yet

    In the absence of any move by the government on issuing a gazette notification on abolishing the quota system for civil servant recruitment, demonstrators have called for fresh protests by forming human chain in colleges and universities nationwide at 11 a.m. today.

  • Tackling the menace of sexual harassment

    It is extremely concerning that the guideline issued by the Supreme Court for addressing sexual harassment at educational institutions and workplaces remains unimplemented even after almost a decade. This means that universities and organisations have failed to fulfil their obligation to form committees responsible for investigating sexual harassment complaints and taking appropriate action.

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