Analysts again sounded the alarm on the government’s lack of will to arrest bad loans which, according to the International Monetary Fund, stood at Tk 240, 167 crore as of June.

Water flow of the Jamuna River has been rising steadily and is threatening homes and livelihoods of hundreds in Kalihati and Bhuapur upazilas of Tangail.

The ban on the activities of student-led political organisations on Buet campus, announced by the university administration on Friday, should be seen as a first step toward the wider institutional reforms that are needed to make the campus safe for students.

A recent ACC report has found the Public Works Department (PWD) entirely responsible for the financial anomalies at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project. Earlier, two probe committees formed by the ministry found anomalies involving Tk 36.4 crore in purchasing furniture and other household items for the officials of the plant in Pabna in the now well-known and much-talked-about pillow saga.

In the latest edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) unveiled on October 9, Bangladesh has slipped two places to 105th position.

For policymakers, parents, teachers and communities in general, the fact that investing in girl children is one of the major catalysts of development cannot be emphasised enough. We have enough proof of this in many benchmarks of a nation’s progress. Girls are outshining boys in the SSC, HSC and equivalent examinations. Girls have given exemplary performances in football and cricket despite social constraints and logistical limitations.

We welcome the PM’s announcement that she would direct the authorities to ensure that criminal activities in the universities are stopped.

When the Bangladesh Bank (BB) hands over the remittance award to a known loan defaulter and money launderer, we must take a moment to reflect on the irony of the matter! By failing to verify properly the nominated persons and institutions before announcing the awards, and then embarrassing the finance minister who handed over the prizes, BB’s management has illustrated a level of incompetence unheard of.

The killing of Abrar exposes a grim picture about the quality, more exactly the absence, of administrative control in the running of the university, particularly of the students’ halls. It would not be wrong to suggest that what we find in Buet is fairly representative of the state of affairs in most other public universities.

According to World Bank’s “Bangladesh Poverty Assessment Report” released on October 7, the influx of the Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar has raised local poverty level by approximately 52 percent, while the average daily wage in the area has dropped by about 24 percent between August 2017 and May 2018.

We are benumbed with shock at the brutal killing of a second-year Buet (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) student, Abrar Fahad, at the hands of Chhatra League members who had called him ostensibly for “questioning” regarding his possible involvement with Chhatra Shibir.

The arrest of Ismail Hossain Chowdhury Samrat—president of Jubo League Dhaka South unit, also a casino kingpin—on October 6, by Rapid Action Battalion, along with Enamul Haque Arman, vice president of the same unit of the ruling party’s youth wing, is commendable.

It is encouraging that the state minister for shipping has taken a strong position with regard to protecting our rivers from encroachment and pollution.

A picture in the front page of this paper, apart from speaking a thousand words, demonstrates the utter negligence of duty and indifference to the need to ensure public safety by the BIWTA and the local administration, as well as the gross disregard of the public for their own safety.

A news report published in The Daily Star about the visit of an eight-member team of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University (JKKNIU) to Europe to “inspect lifts” has brought to light the hidden talents of the university’s academics—that of being technical experts too.

We are dismayed by the poor state of affairs at the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College (SBMC) hospital in Barishal where, according to a report by The Daily Star, over 43 percent of posts for doctors are lying vacant, disrupting crucial medical services.

The case of Mother Textile warrants everyone’s attention. This company has had outstanding loans of Tk 1,168 crore since 1993 and accounts for 27 percent of Rupali Bank’s defaulted loans as of June, 2019.

We seldom give much thought to the people who are disabled or who die due to electrocution by live wire that are found dangling on roads.

Despite a raft of measures undertaken by the government, which include a 20 percent incentive on rice export and Tk 3,000 crore subsidy for farmers to buy agricultural tools, the price of paddy has remained low for the past three months.

That the HUJ(B) is reorganising is not a surprising news. The news was obtained from a recently captured senior leader of the banned militant organisation who had returned from abroad six months ago. The Counterterrorism Task Force deserve kudos for netting, what