We are shocked to learn that one year after the devastating fire in Chawkbazar killed 71 people, none of the victims’ families have yet received any compensation from the government. The only money they received so far was Tk 20,000 to meet the burial expenses of their loved ones.

As we commemorate Ekushey with honour, respect and genuine love for our mother tongue, this is also the perfect time to reflect on our responsibility to promote and preserve the Bangla language.

We demand immediate and impartial investigation into the death of a woman in police custody, only a few hours after she was picked up by the Detective Branch of police in Gazipur on February 18.

It is bad enough that we have only 11.2 percent forest area left in the country (according to a 2016 report by ADB), which is much less than what is required for a proper ecological balance.

According to data from the Police Headquarters, 6,321 rape cases were filed with police stations in 2019, a 19 percent increase from the 5,123 cases that were lodged in 2018.

As the monthlong Ekushey Boi Mela on the hallowed grounds of Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan enters its third week, we are left with a mixed feeling.

We are alarmed by the report of a businessman being picked up from his home in Dhaka allegedly by two police officers in the

Banned three-wheelers with two-stroke engines continue to ply the streets of Dhaka, as seen in a photograph published by this newspaper yesterday.

It is a blatant display of utter neglect. When many hospitals in the country lack rudimentary lifesaving devices, that a hospital in the country would allow costly equipment in its inventory to fall into disrepair and eventually become obsolete before being put to use, is shocking.

Plastic pollution in our rivers has reached such an alarming level that it has now become difficult for the authorities to even dredge the rivers because of these non-biodegradable wastes.

At a day-long discussion in the city on Saturday, political analysts, former bureaucrats and good governance campaigners were all in agreement that the country’s democratic system would collapse without a free and fair polls system.

While we commend the government as well as many non-government organisations for their efforts towards ensuring the rights of people with disabilities, we must also admit that they still have to face many impediments in their day-to-day life.

We are deeply concerned at the death of a patient at a drug rehabilitation centre in Savar. His family alleges that he was tortured to death at the rehab, hours after the 30-year-old was admitted there.

It is most unfortunate that despite the enactment of the Road Transport Act 2018, the 17-point directive given by the Prime Minister’s Office, and the several “traffic weeks” observed by the police, the government could neither bring discipline on our roads nor could they ensure that road crash victims get justice.

We are heartened by the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) request to the cabinet secretary to give directives to district deputy commissioners (DCCs) to save rivers from encroachers by taking legal action against them.

We are delighted to be able to honour the extraordinary contributions of two farmers at the 29th Anniversary programme of The Daily Star on Wednesday.

According to a report that is the first to assess the global cost of air pollution, in 2018 air pollution cost the world an estimated USD 2.9 trillion.

In the early hours of February 11, a fishing trawler carrying over 135 Rohingya refugees—mostly women and children—from different camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf in Cox’s Bazaar, capsized in the Bay of Bengal.

On the 29th anniversary of The Daily Star, we express our heartfelt gratitude to our readers who have been our inspiration in the long and arduous struggle for a free press in the country.

Although incidences of hill cutting are now a common phenomenon, the way a contractor has gone about, in a very methodical and clandestine manner, to raze an area of nearly 100,000 square metres of hills to serve its own purpose, has added a new dimension to the issue.