Bangladesh cabinet approved October 18 as Sheikh Russel Day

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‘Sheikh Russel Day’ will be observed on October 18 each year as the Cabinet meeting approved a proposal on it.

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam, after the weekly Cabinet meeting, said in a media briefing that the meeting also approved the proposal of listing it in “Ka kramic” (A Grade) to observe the day nationally on October 18.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting held at the Cabinet Division’s meeting room in the Secretariat, joining virtually from her
official residence Ganabhaban.

The cabinet secretary said the ICT Division placed the proposal of observing ‘Sheikh Russel Day’, saying that they introduced the second phase of ‘Sheikh Russel Digital Lab’ project.

Under the project, ‘Sheikh Russel Digital Lab’ to be installed at 5,000 educational institutions across the country. A total of 300 educational
institutions will be turned into “School of Future” in line with the project.

In the meeting, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs also said that they have been observing ‘Sheikh Russel Day’ on October 18 since the last 10/12 years.

Both the ICT Division and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs made a proposal to list it as A Grade to create a huge impact among the children of the country, said the cabinet secretary.

‘Sheikh Russel Day’ would be observed to mark the birthday of the youngest son of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The Cabinet also gave the final approval to the draft of Bangladesh Supreme Court Judges (Remuneration and Privileges) Act, 2021 in order to replace the existing ordinance of 1978.

A provision of cook allowance for the judges was incorporated in the draft law while the sumptuary allowance for the judges– the Chief justice, judges of the Appellate Division and the High Court– was increased, Anwarul Islam added.

Another bill, the draft of Bangladesh Supreme Court Judges (Travelling Allowance) Act, 2021 was cleared by the meeting in a bid to replace an ordinance of 1976.

“Only some minor changes were brought in the proposed law as allowances were increased slightly to make these time-befitting,” said the cabinet secretary.

The Cabinet gave the final nod to the draft of Bangladesh Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act, 2021 with a provision of allowing the
government to form an ad-hoc committee for maximum one-year tenure to arrange the Bar Council election in an unusual situation.

Sheikh Hasina directs to vaccinate industrial workers, families

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the authorities concerned to take a separate program to bring the industrial workers and their family members under the Covid-19 vaccination coverage as soon as possible.

She also ordered to consider for reducing the existing two-month duration between two doses of inoculation.

The premier made these directives at the weekly cabinet meeting held at the Secretariat. She chaired the meeting joining virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.

Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam briefed the newsmen at the Secretariat about the outcome of the meeting.

“A special discussion was held over the industrial workers (in the meeting) . . .  Since Bangladesh would get six crore more doses of vaccine from Sinopharm as per an agreement signed by the Health Ministry, the prime minister gave an instruction to vaccinate the workers quickly,” said the Cabinet Secretary.

Mentioning that the Prime Minister would herself oversee the matter, Anwarul Islam said, “She (the premier) has given instruction to vaccinate not only the workers but also their family members.”

He said the Prime Minister also directed the relevant authorities to consider the matter whether it would be possible to shorten the existing two-month duration between two doses of inoculation on the basis of recommendation of the national technical advisory committee on Covid-19.

Replying to a query regarding the recent untoward situation in Barishal, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said all parties — field administration, law enforcement agencies and public representatives — were asked to interact regularly to avoid miscommunication and untoward incidents, which recently took place in Barishal.

Mentioning that embarrassing incidents mostly happen due to miscommunication, he said, “This is why, an instruction was given to all of the field level, including administration, law enforcement agencies and public representatives to interact among them regularly.”

He continued saying, miscommunication and untoward incidents occurred due to lack of proper interaction.

The cabinet secretary said the leaders of Bangladesh Administrative Service Association (BASA) admitted that they made a mistake by using inappropriate words in their statements over the issue.

He said they sat in a meeting on Sunday where secretaries and officials differed with the statement issued by BASA and opined that such type of language should not have been used in the statement.

Anwarul Islam said, “Those who were from BASA also agreed with it (the opinion) and said it was actually a mistake.”

Stating that they don’t actually know the exact reason behind the Barishal incident, he said all parties — local administration, mayor, commissioner and law enforcement agency — were asked to sit together to solve the problem by finding out the reason behind this embarrassing incident.

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