Editorial | The Daily Star

  • Recrudescence of dengue

    It’s ludicrous that those in charge of making sure this country remains liveable need to be nudged into action for the most routine affairs, such as ensuring cleanliness and protecting residents from public health hazards.

  • Accord railway the importance it deserves

    The accident in Moulvibazar’s Kulaura upazila on June 23, in which four people lost their lives and over a hundred others were injured, points incontrovertibly to the abject lack of maintenance and oversight of the railway tracks and rolling stock across the country.

  • BSTI cannot avoid its responsibility

    The High Court’s comments on Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution’s (BSTI) statement about unlicensed dairy farms and companies seem very logical, given that the organisation has been trying to shirk its responsibilities.

  • Gaping inequality

    Among the myriad challenges lying ahead of the Bangladesh government, tackling rising inequality in society is one of them.

  • Paediatric cancer treatment in a shambles

    A report in this daily gives us startling revelations of the state of paediatric treatment in this country. Although childhood cancer is on the rise, the facilities available to treat it are very scarce and often too expensive for most people.

  • Monopolising loan defaults

    The finance minister’s revelation in parliament that half of all the defaulted bank loans in Bangladesh was held by 0.17 percent of borrowers, is simply astonishing. Total bad loans now stand at a whopping Tk 1 lakh crore and the number of total defaulters at 1.7 lakh.

  • Unsafe school buildings in Chattogram

    We have time and again cautioned against the perennial danger of unsafe classrooms for schoolchildren—a blight on the face of Bangladesh’s much-vaunted primary education system. The latest proof that the authorities are not taking heed of this danger surfaced

  • Facta, non verba

    The public has been so accustomed to hearing empty assurances from government servants and political leaders that the common man feels easily disposed to dismiss any new pledge out of hand, because as sure as not, in most cases such words in the past had

  • Make playgrounds available for kids

    PLAYGROUNDS and open spaces serve, quite literally, as a city’s lungs that give its residents a breathing space and its younger population an opportunity to grow in a healthy way. City-planners and architects at an event recently underscored this message before

  • Farmers need more financial support

    We are in concurrence with leading agricultural economists who have suggested at a seminar that a special fund be formed for farmers so that they receive price support during the harvesting period. The crisis of farmers remaining in debt and poverty, because they

  • Can Dhaka really be congestion-free?

    We welcome, albeit with a pinch of salt, the formation of a special committee led by Dhaka South City Corporation mayor to remove illegal vehicles from the streets and free footpaths from grabbers,

  • Knocked down buildings reoccupied!

    It is a peculiar situation obtaining with regard to the pulled-down structures constructed illegally alongside the rivers and water bodies belonging to the government.

  • Maternal deaths from preventable conditions unacceptable

    That 13 percent of all deaths of females aged between 15 and 49 occur due to childbirth-related complications, as found in a recent study, is shocking.

  • HC’s directives on expired drugs

    The High Court has rightly expressed concerns about the lack of oversight that emboldens pharmacies to sell expired drugs to unsuspecting patients.

  • Will tax on road transport operators not hike the fares?

    It is often an uncomfortable necessity for governments to raise taxes in order to reduce the budget deficit and raise revenue to fund its innumerable functions and projects.

  • Tigers’ extraordinary victory

    Thank you Tigers for presenting us with a most outstanding victory on June 17 against West Indies—something that the country had not witnessed since Bangladesh qualified for international cricket.

  • ‘Development’ shouldn’t trump environment

    We are not in the least bit surprised that the World Heritage Centre of Unesco has declared the Sundarbans to be a “World Heritage in Danger”.

  • Formulate the guidelines immediately

    We appreciate the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry’s decision to formulate a guideline to control the movement of slow-moving vehicles on our roads and highways.

  • Canals continue to be destroyed

    It is the same story over and over again. Canals—that were once used for water transport and irrigation of farmland—are being encroached upon rendering them useless and causing unnecessary suffering to the local people.

  • Border between friends shouldn’t be this deadly

    At a director general-level border conference, the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) director general termed the killings along the Bangladesh-India border as unfortunate deaths.

  • Another hardship on migrant workers in Malaysia

    We are dismayed to learn about the proposal that will allow Malaysian employers to deduct 20 percent of migrant workers’ salaries to prevent them from fleeing workplaces. The disturbing news came to light when two rights bodies submitted a petition to the Malaysian human resources

  • Expired drugs in pharmacies ‘not unusual’!

    The comment of the president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Industries would have been passed off as a pun were it not for the fact that it has to do with the health of the public. He wants us not to be worried that there are time-expired medicines in the pharmacies

  • When hospital wards become death traps

    When parts of the ceiling of a paediatric ward falls on child patients and their attendants, it cannot be dismissed as an accident.

  • New budget fails to address old concerns

    The proposed budget for fiscal 2019-20 did not throw up any big surprises, but that itself is perhaps somewhat of a surprise.

  • Myanmar reneging on its promise

    While briefing foreign diplomats in Dhaka on Tuesday, the foreign minister lamented the mendacious position of Myanmar regarding the Rohingya issue, particularly its position on the repatriation of Rohingyas.

  • No big surprise in new budget

    There is no big change in the new budget, but it has promised many new reforms and development initiatives.

  • A cancer hospital sitting idle for 12 years!

    While care facilities for the large number of cancer patients in the country are severely inadequate, Rajshahi Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, the lone cancer care facility in Rajshahi division, is sitting idle with no cancer patients to avail treatment.

  • Budget should include cash subsidies to rice farmers

    It has been a disheartening realisation that farmers of our country, despite their back-breaking work in the fields to grow paddy that provides

  • Is it really that hard to make our roads safe?

    Words are not enough to describe our frustrations at the anarchy that is going on in our transport sector which leads to dangerous road

  • Another ominous sign for the banking sector

    Defaulted loans soared to the highest ever in the country’s history, totalling Tk 110,874 crore as of this March after another Tk 16,962 crore—also a new record—was added to the tally in the first quarter of this calendar year. Defaulted loans now account for 11.87 percent of total outstanding loans, up from 10.30 percent last December, which itself was alarming enough.

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