The Road Transport and Bridges Minister's insistence that there would be no traffic congestion this year during the Eid rush if everyone simply complied with traffic rules fails to comfort us.

The miseries described by the abused women workers returning to Bangladesh from the host countries in the Middle East, mainly from Saudi Arabia, beggar imagination.

A photograph published in this newspaper's front page yesterday, of a hole on the surface of a footbridge, explains why the public would rather risk violating traffic rules than use footbridges.

We fully endorse the finance minister's statement regarding transforming Biman into a commercial undertaking.

A year has passed since the Chakma community of Longadu upazila had their houses vandalised and torched by settlers. We understand that some 200 houses were gutted making some 1,500 families homeless.

Analysis of this year's budget by experts and the media does not give the sense of optimism to ordinary citizens as expressed in the Finance Minister's budget address. This is because it has not addressed some of the major challenges that impede real economic growth and development.

We are appalled at the rough treatment and arrest of Imran H Sarkar, the Gonojagoron Mancha spokesperson, by plain-clothes law enforcement officials at a peaceful protest rally in Shahbagh on June 6.

The finance minister has placed the 47th annual budget in the House with a record outlay of over Tk 4,64,573 crore,

According to a report published in this daily yesterday, most of the rivers in the country's Tangail district remain dry half the year.

Bangladesh is yet to respond to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over exercise of its jurisdiction to investigate forced deportation of Rohingyas.

POLYTHENE is not biodegradable and is largely to blame for the filling up of canals and drainage systems in the city. Although Bangladesh banned its use nearly a decade ago, its widespread use continues in the absence of both recycling and a viable alternative to polythene as packing material. We generate around 1,700 tonnes of plastic waste daily and the import of plastic raw materials costs us Tk 2,000 crore annually.

We applaud the government for undertaking the “Secondary Education Development Programme”—the country's largest-ever education-related project—under the budget of next fiscal year. A mammoth sum of Tk 137,666 crore is to be allocated for the project and its core objective is to enhance quality of secondary education and boost skills development of students to arm them with the skill sets needed for the job market.

It has been eight years since 124 lives perished in a horrific fire in Nimtoli, Old Dhaka. The fire originated from a stove in a building, which had in its ground floor a store full of combustible chemicals. When the fire came into contact with the chemicals it spread all over eight residential buildings and 20 shops, burning people alive.

In a meeting this week between the BRTA and the road transport and bridges minister to stop the operation of unfit vehicles during the Eid rush, private bus operators made the illogical demand of increasing bus fares during this period by Tk 50.

Myanmar has expressed its willingness to take back all the 700,000 Rohingya refugees that are sheltered in Bangladesh since August 2017, at a dialogue forum in Singapore. In fact, Myanmar is bound by international law to take back its own people who have fled persecution in their own homeland.

The amount of red-tape standing in the way of starting a business in our country is seriously hurting the economy as it continues to detract much-needed foreign and domestic investment. As this newspaper reported yesterday, an investor needs up to a year to get approvals from 42 desks of different government offices to start a business.

It is an all too familiar scene: people literally waiting all night at Kamlapur station in the hope of buying a ticket for their trip home during Eid.

We appreciate the road transport and bridges minister's recent criticism of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and police authorities for their failure to reduce the number of unfit vehicles on the streets.

Bangladesh has ranked 73rd out of 100 countries in a newly published global cybersecurity index, according to a report by The Daily Star. The index gave Bangladesh a score of 25.97, a frustrating performance given the importance of cybersecurity in a world fast shifting toward digitalisation.

Save the Children released an index recently on progress made to ensure a favourable environment for children to grow.