Cabinet endorses deal with Saudi Arabia on domestic workers recruitment
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday ordered the field-level police officials to speed up investigations into the cases relating to recent violence during the country-wide blockade and general strikes so that they could submit charge-sheets without delay.
She also asked the local administrations to make sure the joint forces comprised of police, Rapid Action Battalion and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel continued drives in the districts affected by vandalism and arson attacks in last three months.
‘We must ensure those involved in petrol bomb attacks and killing innocent people are brought to justice so that none dare to carry out such terrorist attacks in future. The joint operations should continue until the perpetrators are punished,’ the prime minister said while addressing a video conference with divisional commissioners of Khulna and Rajshahi and deputy commissioners of Satkhira, Narail, Jhenidah, Bogra, Sirajganj and Joypurhat.
She held the conference online after the weekly cabinet meeting at the secretariat.
Superintendents of police, district-level officials from various departments and local representatives also interacted with the prime minister during the conference moderated by cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan.
The deputy commissioner of Satkhira informed the prime minister that law and order in the bordering district, which had seen violence during the January 5 general election in 2014, was now under control due the drives by the joint forces.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia and Jamaat were behind the vandalism and arson attacks on transports that killed around 157 people during the nationwide nonstop blockade called by BNP-led opposition alliance on January 5.
She asked the deputy commissioners and other officials to expedite implementation of the government development programmes under their respective jurisdictions.
She thanked the administrators, police officials and local representatives for maintaining order during the blockade and strikes across the country.
The government in mid-January ordered joint operations in troublesome districts in the wake of firebomb attacks and killings in different areas, particularly in the country’s north, during the anti-government protests by BNP-Jamaat alliance.
Monday’s cabinet meeting gave the final approval to the draft Bangladesh Rural Development Bill–2015 as a similar law made through a military proclamation in 1986 was nullified by the High Court, the cabinet secretary said.
He said the cabinet also approved the agreement on domestic service workers recruitment along with a standard employment contract already singed between the governments of Bangladesh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to regulate recruiting agencies, control migration costs and hold the employers accountable.
Source: New Age
