Rashidul Hasan

At least 10 people, not needed for the job, are going to Seattle to bring two new Boeing 787-9s to Dhaka spending taxpayers’ money.

About 28,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia are still facing uncertainty over returning home within the December 31 amnesty deadline due to the high price of air tickets and a shortage of flights, said sources at the expatriates’ welfare ministry.

Around 30,000 undocumented Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia are seriously worried about returning home within the December 31 amnesty deadline as the prices of Kuala Lumpur-Dhaka air tickets have shot up due to a high demand, said sources at the expatriate welfare and civil aviation ministries.

The top authorities of Biman Bangladesh Airlines had clearly instructed its officials to realise an additional charge for handling each kilogram of incoming and outgoing cargo carried by non-scheduled freighters.

Last month, Monir Hossain, a garment factory owner, missed a deadline for exporting T-shirts to his UK buyer through the seaways.

A parliamentary watchdog yesterday asked the foreign ministry to prepare a specific work plan to stop torture and sexual harassment of female expatriate workers, saying that even a single such incident was not acceptable.

Tension is growing between the trustee board formed by late Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad and his former wife Bidisha Sidiqque over the custody of their son Eric Ershad.

Twenty-eight out of 32 pilot cadets had failed the tests but Biman recruited them anyway.

The Public Works Department has served termination notices to GK Shamim’s construction firm GKB & Company Pvt Limited in a move to cancel the contracts signed with the company for implementing 15 large government projects.

He is an academician who teaches English literature at a private university in the capital.

The estimated cost of constructing a third terminal at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has been increased by 40 percent. It is now a Tk-20,598 crore project.

The BNP is likely to participate in the Dhaka city polls, to be held in January next year. However, many leftist parties are yet to decide on contesting the elections.

A parliamentary body yesterday summoned the Anti-Corruption Commission chairman and ACC investigators concerned to explain as to why the anti-graft body did not take action against former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu for his alleged involvement in plundering around Tk 4,500 crore of the state-owned bank.

A parliamentary watchdog yesterday raised questions over the commerce ministry’s delay in importing onions to face the ongoing crisis, while another minister separately admitted the government’s “failure” in this regard.

Biman has finally got rid of the last of its two leased Boeing 777-200ER airplanes that have been causing the national flag carrier to incur huge losses for several years.

Workers Party suffered a blow as its former general secretary and current politburo member Bimol Biswas resigned from the left-leaning organisation, alleging that it was being run in an undemocratic manner.

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) Managing Director Taqsem A Khan yesterday came under fire by a parliamentary body for his failure in providing safe drinking water to citizens, dealing with the waterlogging problem and allegations of widespread corruption against DWASA officials.

Rohingya settlements have severely damaged biodiversity and over 8,000 acres of reserved forest in Cox’s Bazar. The damage is equivalent to a loss of over Tk 2,420 crore, said a report of the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry.

A total of 110 female migrant workers returned empty-handed from Saudi Arabia on August 26. Around 38 of them were forced to return after facing physical and sexual torture, while 48 came back home as they were not paid their salaries on a regular basis.

The government yesterday imposed a travel ban on President of Jubo League’s Dhaka South unit Ismail Hossain Samrat, meaning he can no longer leave the country.