Cabinet okays law to control baby foods

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft law increasing the penalty for its violation in an effort to control and regulate production, marketing and publicity of baby foods substitute to breastfeeding.
Publicity or advertisement of substitute baby foods will not be allowed so that it never seems that substitute foods are better than breastfeeding, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting at the Secretariat.
He said permission must be taken beforehand to publicise baby foods.
The proposed law has increased the fine to Tk 5 lakh from existing Tk 5,000 and the jail term to a maximum of three years from two years for any violation, he said.
The law will apply both on companies and individuals, Bhuiyan said, and if any individual or company breached the law, its license would be cancelled.
The secretary said the proposed law, "Breastfeeding Substitute Baby Food (Marketing Control) Act, 2013", was an effort to increase awareness about breastfeeding among people.
The cabinet also endorsed the draft of "Rural Roads and Bridge Maintenance Policy" for repairing, maintenance and renovation of the rural roads, bridges and culverts across the country.
Under the proposed policy, important roads will be maintained by the Local Government and Engineering Department and the minor ones by the zila, upazila and union parishads.
The cabinet expressed satisfaction over the rate of implementation of its decisions taken during the last four years of the present government. The implementation rate is 92.6 percent while it was only 76 percent during the same period of the previous BNP-Jamaat government.
The cabinet approved a proposal to observe April 28 as "National Legal Assistance Day".
Another draft law was approved at the cabinet meeting--the Public Servants (Retirement) (Amendment) Act 2013 to raise the retirement age of the freedom fighter public servants to 60 years from existing 59 years.
The cabinet adopted a condolence motion at the death of National Professor Nurul Islam. Expressing deep shock, the cabinet members prayed for the eternal peace of the departed soul. Prof Nurul Islam, who was a personal doctor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, died on January 24 at the age of 85.
It also recalled the contributions of the professor in the formulation of the National Drug Policy, spreading of private medical education, anti-tobacco campaign, establishment of ICDDR,B, Dental Research Council and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.