An acute teacher shortage in government educational institutions, from primary schools to colleges, is hampering education of more than 1.2 crore students, education officials and teachers’ leaders said. The institutions have about 29,200 positions of teacher vacant. Primary education directorate officials said that government primary schools have about 22,700 positions — including 6,700 for headteachers, 16,000 for assistant teachers — […]

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association has admitted that it failed to implement the recommendations proposed by its own inquiry committee following the collapse of the Spectrum Sweater Industries factory in 2005, New Age can reveal. ‘The BGMEA should have done what was said in the report earlier,’ admitted Md Shahidullah Azim, a BGMEA vice-president. ‘Rana Plaza was the […]

The Editors’ Council on Sunday expressed concern over the rise in duty on import of newsprint in the proposed national budget for 2013-14 fiscal and urged the prime minister and the finance minister to withdraw the proposed duty hike. A statement issued by the council president Golam Sarwar said that the crisis in the newspaper industry would deepen if the […]

The brother of a victim of the Tazreen fire, who had filed a case against the owner of the garment factory and 30 others in May, has alleged that he had gone into hiding for fear of life after being threatened by unknown persons. ‘Since I filed the case, unknown callers started threatening me with dire consequences …’ said Motikul […]

The High Court on Sunday expressed its disapproval over the authorities’ failure to initiate criminal prosecution against Tazreen Fashions owner for his culpability over the devastating factory fire in which 112 workers were killed and scores of others were injured on November 24, 2012. Annoyed over Tazreen owner and managing director Md Delwar Hossain roaming free, the court asked the […]

The engineer whose name was given as the person responsible for the design of the structural engineering plan which was submitted to the Savar municipality does not appear to be a real person, New Age can reveal. The structural design stated that it was prepared by Sajjad Hossain with Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh membership serial number of M 1006380. The […]

The labour and employment ministry has suspended seven officials after an investigation of the deadly Rana Plaza collapse, in which they were found guilty of negligence of duties, officials said on Sunday. The ministry also held a retried official responsible. ‘Now, we will launch departmental proceedings against the people identified and they will be punished if the allegations are proved,’ […]

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday set up a team to investigate alleged corruption of former Detective Branch deputy commissioner Mollah Nazrul Islam. The commission’s deputy director Nasim Anower will investigate the matter with the help of director Tawhidul Islam, commission official told reporters. Mollah Nazrul was on June 1 transferred to the protection and protocol division of the Dhaka Metropolitan […]

The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has called a nationwide dawn-to-dusk general strike for today in protest at wholesale arrests and torture of Jamaat leaders and activists. The party announced the general strike on Sunday hours after International Crimes Tribunal 2 had sentenced Jamaat leaders Hamidur Rahman Azad and Rafiqul Islam Khan to three months in prison and fined them Tk 3,000 each, […]

A judicial magistrate in Dhaka on Sunday allowed an engineer to be remanded in police custody for three days in a case filed with the collapse of the Rana Plaza that took place on April 24. The police arrested the site engineer, Md Sarowar Kamal, 55, at Fultala in Khulna on Saturday. After the arrest, the Criminal Investigation Department produced […]

Parliament on Sunday witnessed exchange of invective between the treasury and opposition benches on the first day of the discussion on the supplementary budget for the outgoing fiscal. Heated exchange took place after two women lawmakers of BNP – Syeda Ashifa Ashrafi Papiya and Rehana Aktar Ranu – launched into a tirade against the treasury bench members and whip ASM […]

The International Crimes Tribunal 2 on Sunday sentenced fugitive Jamaat leaders Hamiudur Rahman Azad and Rafiqul Islam Khan to simple imprisonment for three months on charge of contempt of court. The tribunal fined central executive council member Hamidur, also a lawmaker, and acting secretary general Fariqul with Tk 3,000 each. If they fail to pay the fine, they will need […]

Three crude bombs were hurled at the house of information minister Hasanul Haq Inu at Darus Salam in the capital’s Mirpur on Sunday afternoon. The minister’s personal staff and the police said that four unknown miscreants riding on two motorbikes hurled the bombs and went away. The minister’s personal assistant Sazzad Hossain said that Inu’s spouse Afroza Haq was at […]