Govt signals people-centric priorities but faces tough trade-offs
Govt must urgently review all dubious cases linked to July uprising
Govt must take action against politically linked forest grabbers
Bangladesh is a poor country with a substantial number of people living below the poverty line. Though the per capita income has increased to some extent within the last few years, the number of poor people has not come down. This is due to the unequal distribution of income among the richer and poorer sections of the population. It has always been a challenge for the government to reduce poverty, and recently the government has formulated a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper or PRSP to combat the problem....
A new dimension to child mortality has come to light -- thanks to a UNICEF-sponsored health and injury survey conducted in Bangladesh by the government and the alliance for safe children. We are shell-shocked to learn that 30,000 infants die every year from injuries and accidents and that 13,000 were permanently disabled among 10 lakh children who were injured in 2002. More than two years have passed since the benchmark year, almost invariably, albeit unquantifiably, adding to those dreadful statistics....
Even one month on, the seismic waves sent out by Mr K.S. Sudarshan's vitriolic attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party's leadership refuse to die down. The RSSsarasanghachalaklaunched a broadside against both Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani....
Mayor Mohiuddin has won a landslide victory for a third consecutive term as city father of Chittagong. He has increased his margin of victory from 17,000 in his second bidding in 2000 to a whopping 90,000 plus for his third consecutive term, which shows that he has actually gained in popularity, belying the trend of incumbency disadvantage in the Bangladeshi electoral culture....
On February 28, the Bush administration issued its annual report titled
"Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" that contains the human rights record of 196 countries, including an assessment of Bangladesh's human rights record....
It is no exaggeration that there was a sigh of relief at the peaceful completion of CCC election, which, by all accounts, was conducted freely and fairly barring some stray incidents. This has caused many pessimistic and gloomy speculations on its prospects to come to naught....
Life is full of anomalies and after a while these become not-so-noticeable part of everyone's life. These once-obvious anachronisms, at least some, are still irksome for many....
Two years ago, the Government of Bangladesh enacted The Gram Sarkar Act, 2003. The legislation called for a 15-member non-elected body in each Union Parishad (UP) ward, chaired by the elected member of the respective ward. The women members elected in reserved seats were to serve as advisors to each of the three Gram Sarkars (GS) in their constituencies. The UNO was empowered to nominate the members of the GS other than the chairperson, unless there was a consensus in the meeting where at least 10 percent of the voters of the ward were present to decide on the panel of nominees....
Two years ago, the Government of Bangladesh enacted The Gram Sarkar Act, 2003. The legislation called for a 15-member non-elected body in each Union Parishad (UP) ward, chaired by the elected member of the respective ward. The women members elected in reserved seats were to serve as advisors to each of the three Gram Sarkars (GS) in their constituencies. The UNO was empowered to nominate the members of the GS other than the chairperson, unless there was a consensus in the meeting where at least 10 percent of the voters of the ward were present to decide on the panel of nominees....
In this country, we have had a strong and proud tradition of professional bodies such as teachers, engineers, doctors, etc placing the fundamentals of their profession above everything else. This is as it should be. Our professional classes have steadily developed and gained expertise and experience in their respective fields, and their growing professionalism has played a crucial role in our development as a nation. When it comes to one's professional development, there is no space for politics or partisanship, and for many years this is how things were....
