Rashidul Hasan

When Rejaul Karim visited his dentist late February with problems in one of his teeth, the doctor, upon an x-ray, advised him to have the tooth extracted.

In the first 17 days of this month, the country’s two private airlines operated 552 domestic flights with 16,334 passengers, and the state-owned Biman operated just two carrying 24.

In contrast to their major contribution to the country’s economy, thousands of migrant workers living abroad have received little or no help from Bangladesh government to fight their financial hardship during the pandemic.

The “Air Transport (Montreal Convention 1999) Bill 2020” was placed in parliament yesterday, paving the way for the family of an air passenger to get some US $160,000 as compensation in case of death in airplane accident.

Private hajj agencies and Biman are set to incur a huge financial loss as the Saudi government has decided not to allow anyone from abroad to perform hajj this year amid fears over coronavirus pandemic.

The country may face an acceleration in the already growing number of Covid-19 cases if the government fails to ensure the maintenance of health guidelines in cattle markets across the country ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, public health experts warned.

National flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines resumed its international flights yesterday after around three months.

Amid talks of prioritising the health and farming sectors, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council yesterday approved giving lawmakers from rural areas Tk 20 crore each for infrastructure development in the next five years.

Noted personality Kamal Lohani, who tested positive for Covid-19, died at a city hospital yesterday morning.

Many people were seen waiting in a long queue at a Qatar Airways ticket counter in the city’s Tejgaon area yesterday, the first day of resumption of international flight operations to and from Dhaka after nearly three months.

Flight operations on the international routes, except China, will resume today on a limited scale after over three months’ suspension of flights to and from Bangladesh due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thousands of readymade garment workers in Gazipur have been passing days in uncertainty as over four dozen factories remain closed for more than two months in the coronavirus fallout.

Mohammed Nasim, a veteran Awami League leader and a frontline figure in almost all democratic movements in the country, died at a city hospital yesterday.

State Minister for Religious Affairs Sheikh Md Abdullah passed away last night at the Dhaka Central Military Hospital. He was 75.

The proposed budget for 2020-21 has frustrated the country’s aviation industry, with officials of different airlines pointing out that there was no mention of a bailout despite it being one of the hardest hit sectors for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most political parties were critical about the proposed budget in their initial reaction yesterday, terming it “as usual” and expressing doubts whether it would be possible to achieve the targets.

Japan has barred Biman from operating special chartered flights to repatriate stranded citizens to and from Japan after four Bangladeshi passengers on a recent repatriation flight tested positive for Covid-19 despite having documents certifying that they had tested negative and were safe to travel.

The government has planned to resume regular passenger flight operations on international routes on a limited scale from third week of June after over two-and-a-half-months of suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As many as 43 staffers and officials of parliament secretariat have been infected with Covid-19 so far while the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban goes into budget session on Wednesday.

In the wake of rising Covid-19 deaths and infections across the country, the government today starts enforcing containment zones on a pilot basis in some areas of four districts, including Dhaka.