We take note of two comments made by the president and the prime minister in their address marking the inauguration of Police Week-2018.

We have, once again, been assured by the education minister, of the government's all-out measures to prevent question leaks.

Here can be no question that we need a boost in our mass transport system considering the growing population of this city.

The news of the introduction of a specialised police unit, complete with software that can detect remarks and postings on social media that may be considered cybercrime, brings about mixed feelings.

The report by a news agency that the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, is turning into a 'sanctuary for poachers' is indeed terrifying. The forest is supposed to be a sanctuary for its vast flora and fauna.

The ruling party repeatedly gets permission to congregate and not the opposition. The state of democracy is quite clear.

The question that has to be asked is, what compels the central bank to remain silent on the issue?

A picture in the back page of this paper yesterday embarrassingly contrasts a story on the front page.

Two separate reports have been published recently about deaths at workplace. Indeed, the year 2017 has been a particularly deadly year for workers in Bangladesh.

On January 3, we reported that four workers were killed in a landslide in Jaflong while they were extracting stones from a quarry illegally. But, further developments on the story, reported on January 4, reveal far worse.

The fiasco over the ongoing fast-unto-death of teachers demanding inclusion in the government's Monthly Pay Order (MPO) scheme and how it came about despite there being a policy to execute the scheme, bespeaks a noble effort that's gone haywire thanks to neglect and systemic failure.

Three pictures in this paper yesterday depict the utter callousness with which we have degraded our natural resources because of greed and indifference.

Last year, the cost of living in Dhaka hit a four-year high. It rose by an alarming 8.44 percentage points from that of 2016.

We are alarmed to know that diphtheria, a highly contagious disease, has made a sudden comeback in Bangladesh.

Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, the government has started the free distribution of 35.42 crore copies of textbooks to more than 4.37 crore students nationwide.

We are dismayed to see the lack of efficient teachers leading to poor results for board examinations published on Saturday.

Much progress has been made towards economic development in the last year but sadly the same cannot be said about the state of human rights in the country.

We congratulate the Bangladeshi audience, all the law enforcement agencies and others but for whose cooperation this magnificent festival would not have taken place. Most of all, we congratulate Bengal Foundation, its leadership and all its team members for a superb job done.

2017 has been a year of great ups and downs. It has been a year where we have seen significant improvements in the economic sector in particular, as evident from our high GDP growth rate and per capita income, as well as the ICT sector, which is set to grow even faster in future.

The government's Economic Relations Division has found that slow implementation in several ministries has sat on the back burner several important projects.