The decision of banks to decrease interest rates to single digits may boost investment but the middle-income groups or small savers may be affected the most.

It is very disappointing to learn that the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has been facing an acute shortage of judges as no new judges have been appointed to the court for more than two years.

We are surprised by the recent developments ahead of the June 26 elections in Gazipur. The arrest of eight coordinators of the BNP Gazipur mayoral candidate by law enforcers only days before the elections does not bode well.

Thankfully, the flood situation in Sylhet region is showing signs of improvement. However, acute shortage of relief supplies and lack of safe drinking water have been worsening the plight of the affected. More than six lakh people have been affected by devastating flash floods in the region in the past week.

Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda has said “tough action” will be taken against those responsible if the June 26 election to Gazipur City Corporation is not held in a free and fair manner.

It was very encouraging to hear the PM endorse the Bangladesh women's cricket team, because so far the treatment meted out to the T-20 Women's Asia Cup Champions has been shabby at best.

The UNHCR statement that Rohingya refugees are in critical need of international protection warrants guarded optimism. We have said repeatedly in this column that any viable solution to this problem would require genuine and long-term international commitment.

ACCORDING to a report in this paper yesterday, a section of influential people, including some ruling party men, have been removing topsoil from vast areas of arable land along Chittagong-Cox's Bazar highway in Satkania forcefully and selling it to the local brick kilns. When the land owners protested, some of them were even attacked with sharp weapons. In many such incidents, the local police was reluctant to file any cases.

As many as 5,000 Bangladeshi workers are detained in foreign jails, as revealed in the parliament by the expatriate welfare minister. It's helpful that the government keeps track of them, but what concerns us the most is that there is no palpable action by the government to address the issue.

The tragedy of so many lives lost in road accidents during the Eid holidays every year appears to be never-ending. Last year, at least 41 people were killed on the roads right after Eid in a span of only four days.

For almost a week now, people in Sylhet have been passing through an uncertain time after the region has been hit yet again by flash floods. The reports coming in paint a bleak picture: scarcity of food and little access to potable water. The worst-hit areas have seen people marooned, living on puffed rice and unsafe water. Crops have been destroyed, and for hundreds of families, their Eid holiday has been a time of misery.

We are shocked and grief-stricken by the death of Shumon Zahid, the son of martyred intellectual Selina Parvin. He was precious to us for being part of a generation of men and women whose fathers or mothers gave up their lives for the sake of the country's freedom. And he was crucial for this nation as he was a war crimes witness who testified against war criminals Chowdhury Mueen Uddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan.

It is condemnable that solid waste from Savar Tannery Industrial Estate is seeping into Dhaleshwari river because a breach has developed in the embankment of the pond which is being used by the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in the estate as a temporary dumping station. Reportedly, after the tannery estate was set up in the area, the pollution levels in the Dhaleshwari have increased. A recent test by the DoE has found that the dissolved oxygen level has decreased and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) has increased in the river water, which is making it hard for the aquatic life to survive.

As the month of abstinence approaches its end, it is time for celebration and be thankful for everything that we have achieved or endured with dignity, both individually and as a nation. With Eid-ul-Fitr only a day or two away, it is also time for a spiritual stockpiling.

The proposal to increase the price of natural gas by Titas Gas is totally unreasonable since this will pose an extra burden on the already burdened ordinary consumers, many of whom do not even get regular supply of gas. Residents of many areas of the capital have to face gas crisis due to shortage in supply.

It is atrocious that 40 percent of the garment factories should have erred in paying their workers, some for as many as three months. And most of these do not belong to any of the two major garment or knitwear manufacturers' associations like the BGMEA or BKMEA. A few of them have left their workers high and dry before Eid by literally fleeing after locking up their factory gate without paying the workers their salaries and bonus.

Despite unprecedented mismanagement prevailing in the banking sector, the finance minister has, surprisingly, chosen to stay mum on the issue in parliament. Both ruling party and opposition lawmakers came down hard on the minister for his inaction in the face of such disturbing financial irregularities. Ultimately, it is honest taxpayers who are bearing the brunt of such disasters in the banking sector. Already, the government plans to inject Tk 2,000 crore

Every year the World Day Against Child Labour reminds us how far behind we still are when it comes to eradicating child labour. The Labour Act 2006 clearly states that the minimum age requirement for anyone being recruited for employment is 14, with some exceptions, and labelled a number of sectors as hazardous for children, yet as many as two million children work in perilous conditions.

In June 2007 a landslide in Chittagong left 127 dead—yet in the eleven years since then, the still-vulnerable community living at the foothills and who are still vulnerable have still not been rehabilitated.

Victory could not have been sweeter than this. Bangladesh's women's cricket team has more than made up for the disappointment brought by their male counterparts in the recent T20 series. Winning the Women's T20 Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur by defeating India, one of the strongest teams in the tournament, our sportswomen have proven their worth and finally been recognised for their resilience and talents. This is the first time that any of our cricket teams has won a grade-one level international competition.