One and a half years into power, the government looks to lose much of its shine with fewer people seeing the country moving in the right direction. Also, fewer people are satisfied with the government.
The number of dissatisfied people has also increased sharply who take a dimmer view of the economy.
These indications became clear when a The Daily Star Nielsen opinion poll conducted at the end of the government's one and a half years in power was compared with two previous polls conducted when the government completed its first 199 days and then again after one year.
The recent poll after the one and a half years in power was conducted among 3,000 respondents in 44 districts across the country. The survey was done in early August.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's rating also dipped during the 18 months although she still enjoys a good chunk of support.
On the other hand, Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia's rating improved during the time although she still lags far behind Hasina in terms of respondents satisfied with her role.
According to the comparison of the three surveys, less people now think the government had well managed the issue of price inflation than they thought 18 months ago.
But more think the issue was poorly managed.
When the government came to power, a small fraction of people (only 6 percent) identified power and gas supply as the issue that needs the government's greatest attention. Today, that number has quadrupled, showing that people are frustrated with the power situation.
At the same time, a much lower number of fewer people think the government had taken enough initiatives to resolve the power crisis, and more people think no initiatives had been taken.
The survey reveals that more people now consider the judiciary as politically biased that they did when the government came to power. Concurrently, fewer people think judiciary as independent.
The government also fared poorly on two more vital issues corruption and the role of the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC). The number of people who think corruption has increased has increased quite drastically while the number of those who think it has decreased has shrunk slightly. Also, the number of people who took a negative view of the ACC has doubled in the last 18 months.
The survey also revealed that more people now hold the opinion that the opposition should attend parliament without any pre-condition. The percentage of the respondents who think like this is quite high at 81 percent.
The BNP seems to have recovered slightly its image in the last one and a half years. A less number of people take a negative view of the opposition and a larger portion take a positive view.
Respondents were asked which party they would vote for if elections are held right now. It appeared that AL would win such an election by a big margin. However, a large number of respondents (25 percent) did not respond. This large segment might be the swing voters who could still tilt the result of an election.
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed said fate of the former military ruler and Jatiya Party Chairman, HM Ershad, hinges on the decision of Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament).
"After getting the copy of High Court verdict regarding the cancellation of Seventh Amendment, the House will decide about any punishment against former autocratic ruler Ershad," the minister said while talking to newsmen at his Bangladesh Secretariat office in the capital on Sunday.
Asked whether any punishment is possible under the existing laws of the country, Shafique Ahmed said, "If there is any direction in the Constitution to include any provision for resisting any illegal occupants of the state power, it will not be possible to try the autocratic ruler."
The Law Minister interpreted differences between the Fifth and Seventh Amendments of the Constitution saying, "The Constitution of the country was distorted in many ways. Meanwhile, the autocratic regime of Ershad was legalized by the Seventh Amendment."
"Both the activities were illegal and those should be punishable offenses," he added. Replying to a query Barrister Shafique said the Constitution Review Committee can take the issue of Seventh Amendment under their special consideration but it depends on the wishes of the committee earlier formed to amend the Constitution.
Here it is mentioned the HC on August 25 passed a verdict on Seventh Amendment saying it illegal.
Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad held an exclusive meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday to discuss his fate after the High Court last week nullified his military rule.
In its August 26 watershed judgement, the HC also suggested that Ershad be prosecuted and punished in the light of a Supreme Court ruling declaring Ziaur Rahman's military regime illegal. The HC also placed the matter to the parliament and the government for taking action against Ershad.
"So far we have known sir [Ershad] went to know from the prime minister about what may happen to his fate," one of the close aides to Ershad told The Daily Star. He said after the High Court verdict, the JP chairman has become frustrated, and was seeking an appointment with the premier to know whether any legal action might be taken against him.
Prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told The Daily Star that Ershad and Sheikh Hasina had a one-to-one meeting for 30 minutes from 12:30pm.
-Daily Star
The government has finally endorsed the first 'Public Private Partnership' project after more than a year of its introduction. The cabinet committee for economic affairs at a meeting on Sunday approved, in principle, that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib International Airport would be built under the public private partnership, popularly known as PPP.
The idea, meant to boost investment in a crumbling infrastructure, was put forth by finance minister AMA Muhith during his budget speech for the last fiscal. It, however, took almost a year for the government to finalise the guidelines of the scheme as it was published in a gazette notification on Aug 1.
"As per the guidelines, any project needs a prior nod from the cabinet committee for economic affairs to be implemented under PPP," cabinet division's joint secretary Nazrul Kabir told the media after the meeting.
The initial cost of the project has been estimated at Tk 500 billion, he added.
The estimated cost of the project, so far the biggest in the country, also includes expenses for constructing an elevated expressway between Dhaka and the airport and a monorail. Civil aviation ministry officials said that the airport will be built on about 6,000 acres. The civil aviation initially selected three sites — two in Madhupur of Tangail and one in Mymensingh's Trishal.
The airport is set to start operations with two runways with enough space for a third one.
Earlier on Monday (Aug 23), civil aviation secretary Shafique Alam Mehedi told the media that the airport will be constructed on a BOT (Build Operate Transfer) basis and that the government will only provide the land. "The construction is expected to be completed by 2013," he added.
Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, launched in 1980 in the capital's Kurmitola area, is a single-runway airport on 1737 acres, but according to a master plan, it was supposed to have another runway.
Many unapproved houses have been built around the airport standing in the way of building another runway. There is also considerable risk of running airport operations because of installations around the airport. The government knocked down 12 structures in 2005.
Officials close to the authorities also said that hundreds of buildings of Uttara and Nikunja will be enlisted as 'risky' if authorities initiate building a second runway at Shahjalal airport.
There are now three international and five domestic airports in the country. In addition to that, there are seven STAL (short take-off and landing) ports.
Source: bdnews
The dead body of an Eden College student was found "hanging from a fan" at her in law's house.
Ashulia Police Station officer-in-charge Sirazul Islam said the body of Salma Akter Santa, 22, was recovered from her in-law's house at Savar's Jamgora in Ashulia on Saturday at around 5pm.
Shata's family - who live in the same neighborhood - has claimed that her in-law's family hung her from a ceiling fan after murdering her.
Shanta's mother Shahnaz Parvin said her daughter was a student of English (Honours 2nd year).
She told bdnews24.com that Shanta's marriage with Farid Alam who lives in Saudi Arabia was held last month, and since then, her husband has been demanding a dowry of Tk 2 lakhs.
She said her brother Chan Mia informed her on Saturday that Shanta was ill. "We went to Shanta's in-law house but found the residence empty, doors and windows closed," she added.
"With help of neighbouring people, we broke the door and found Shanta dangling from the fan," she said.
Sirazul Islam said the body had been sent to Dhaka Medical College for autopsy.
A case has been filed with Ashulia Police Station over the death.
-bdnews
Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Science University (CVASU) unit on Sunday enforced an indefinite strike on the campus protesting the authorities' decisions to expel and punish nine of their party men.
The university authorities on Saturday expelled five BCL activists for lifetime and punished four other students for assaulting and misbehaving with some teachers and staffs of the university.
No classes were held at the university and administrative activities came to a halt on Sunday as the BCL men locked the administrative building and two academic building to enforce the strike, reports our staff correspondent in Chittagong.
They also physically assaulted a university employee, Jewel Billal, when he went to open the locks at about 10:30am, said Khalilur Rahman, assistant public relation officer of the CVASU.
Additional forces of police and Rapid Action Battalion have been deployed on the university campus to avoid any untoward situation.
The students expelled for lifetime were BCL CVASU unit convener Dr Komol Kanti Mazumder, BCL joint convener Dr Md Abdul Momin, Dr Subrata Dey, Dr Md Shahadat Hossain and Dr Abu Hasan Lavlu.
CVASU second year student Amit Kumar Das was expelled for two years while Sabuj Kanti Nath was expelled for one year and was fined Tk five thousand.
Contacted, Second officer of Khulshi Police Station Inam Ahmed said the law enforcers rushed to the campus at about 8:00am and no untoward incident was taken place till 12noon.
-Daily Star
Harry Potter star Emma Watson was in Bangladesh last month on an unannounced five-day trip in the second week of July to see the living conditions of the workers who make apparels for the consumers in the west.
She visited the city’s slums where many of the apparel workers live. She also had been to a village in Rajshahi to see the homes of weavers and taught school children there. The 20-year old British actress felt sorry seeing their living condition in the city slums.
She felt that the wages of the workers, who stitch apparels for the consumers in the western developed countries needs to be trebled so that they could afford an acceptable living standard. A video footage on Emma’s visits to the workers’ slums, the waving units in Rajshahi and to a roadside school, has been uploaded in You Tube. New Age spoke to a leader, praised by Emma for demanding better wages for the apparel workers. But Amirul Haque Amin, the secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Federation, did not know that she was the famous Harry Potter star, brought to his office by Bangladeshi fair trade activists.
She praised us for our movement for better wages and facilities for the apparel workers,’ Amin told New Age. ‘The workers here, who make apparels for western consumers, needs to be better paid and have better facilities,’ Emma told them.
Emma’s visit was sponsored by UK-based fair trade fashion organisation People Tree. People Tree sources apparels from Bangladeshi fair trade companies who use organic cotton threads, natural dyes and pay maximum wages to the workers. Emma stitched apparels and wove fabrics to have a first hand experience in the manufacturing process at a factory, which exports to People Tree. She dyed natural yarns and fabrics, swam in a river and took a walk along the river barefoot.
Emma is brand promoter for People Tree, which favours payment of maximum wages to workers abroad so that they could afford a decent living.
Chief of a Bangladeshi company which supplies handloom fabrics to People Tree told New Age that Emma was delighted to see weavers and craftspeople living comfortably in a Rajshahi village as they work for fair trade companies. But she was unhappy to see the living conditions in the city slums of the apparel workers, who had had to leave their villages expecting a better life. ‘Even though the cost of living is much less in Bangladesh, less than $6 a week in wage is appalling, especially considering the hours that they work,’ Emma said, in an interview, posted in her website.
The workers seem to work around the clock and still do not have enough money to buy food to feed their families, or live any kind of life at all, she said. ‘I really do hope that they achieve their goal [demand for increased minimum wages] of $18 a week. If they can, it would be life changing for them,’ Emma said.
About the living condition of the apparel workers in the slums, Emma told UK journalists that there are no facilities there [in slums] to speak of. She said, ‘In the building we visited, I saw one shower, one cleaning place and one hole in the floor which was the toilet. This was for the whole floor. That floor had maybe eight or nine rooms coming off it, and each room housed a whole family, that is 32 people to one toilet.’
On her way to Rajshahi, she stopped by a school to teach a math class and, after the lesson, she gave the students presents.
