The 18th Bangladesh Business Awards

The Bangladesh Business Awards (BBA) is a ceremony that is jointly organised by The Daily Star and DHL every year to recognise the immense contributions of two companies and two individuals to the economy.
6 July 2019, 18:00 PM

Bangladesh Railway in the red constant

While this is not a breaking news for us, we are quite appalled by the levels of irregularities in the Bangladesh Railway (BR) as revealed by an Anti-Corruption Commission probe. It is ironical that a public service as crucial as our railway which is always in high demand, does not generate as much revenue as it should. In fact, the government incurs huge losses because the BR is steeped in all kinds of corruption. And this has been going on for years, depleting railway funds and resources and rendering BR unprofitable and inefficient.
5 July 2019, 18:00 PM

Alleged war crimes by Myanmar

Myanmar must be called to account for what it has been and is still doing to the Rohingyas. There are ample grounds for the
5 July 2019, 18:00 PM

40 percent of Dhaka’s water is contaminated

According to the result of a joint study on water quality of Dhaka Wasa by ICDDR,B, and BUET, four out of ten Wasa zones are contaminated.
4 July 2019, 18:00 PM

Ruling party’s unbridled students’ wing

It is an incontrovertible fact that most of the incidents of student clashes in the colleges and public universities in the last decade have been between BCL factions,
4 July 2019, 18:00 PM

What drives students to such violence?

Professor Mahmood, a professor of English at the University of Science and Technology of Chittagong (USTC), was dragged outside of the classroom on July 2 by some students where he was assaulted and one student tried to set him afire by pouring kerosene on him.
3 July 2019, 18:00 PM

Harassing a road safety campaigner

The Daily Star’s investigative report on the extortion case filed against Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, has brought to light some major anomalies which question the authenticity of the case.
3 July 2019, 18:00 PM

The latest national budget

The new budget, under the stewardship of a new finance minister, has been passed in parliament and it has both good and not-so-good sides.
2 July 2019, 18:00 PM

Implementing HC directives is now the challenge

We commend the High Court for declaring river grabbing and pollution criminal offences in a landmark judgment. As the full text of the HC verdict was released on July 1, we have come to know of the 17-point directive the HC has given in an attempt to save our rivers, most of which are now in a deplorable condition because of continuous grabbing by local influential people and pollution by indifferent and non-compliant industries.
2 July 2019, 18:00 PM

Government should prioritise road maintenance work

We are quite surprised to learn that the government has allocated only Tk 2,550 crore for the repair and maintenance of all roads and bridges across the country,
1 July 2019, 18:00 PM

The woes of female migrant workers

Despite the immense contribution of our migrant workers to the economy in the form of remittance, among other things, we have not done enough to ensure their welfare—more so when it comes to our female migrant workers.
1 July 2019, 18:00 PM

Main accused of Rifat’s murder yet to be arrested

In a previous editorial, we wrote that the criminals who viciously murdered Rifat Sharif in broad daylight and in front of his wife would not have done so, had they not believed for some reason that they could get away with it.
30 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Three years after Holey Artisan attack

It is three years to the day that the country suffered the worst terrorist attack since August 21, 2004. It was a tsunami of sorts that
30 June 2019, 18:00 PM

City roads clogged up by illegal parking

EXPERTS have suggested that relevant authorities need to coordinate their efforts to tackle the chaotic manner in which cars are parked on major and minor throughways in the city—causing unimaginable gridlock and hassle to pedestrians. Both urban and transport experts
29 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Is the NHRC fulfilling its mandate?

We are surprised to learn from a report in this daily that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has not been able to quite live up to its mandate, which is to protect the human rights of the people. Legal experts and rights activists believe that the Commission has
29 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Rickshaw pullers’ woes

They come handy to 60 percent of city dwellers of the capital by providing a relatively cheap mode of transport. Admittedly, they are the main cause of traffic gridlock in Dhaka and there is a huge gap in the official number of licensed rickshaws, a hundred thousand, and the actual estimated figure
28 June 2019, 18:00 PM

The grim underbelly of labour migration

REMITTANCE inflow is a major contributor to our economy, yet the plight of those whose backbreaking labour keeps the money
28 June 2019, 18:00 PM

How do authorities plan to reduce road accidents?

The report submitted by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to the High Court (HC) recently states that there are some 458,000 unfit vehicles on the road nationwide.
27 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Murder in broad daylight

We are horrified by the gruesome murder of Rifat Sharif, a 25-year-old man, in broad daylight in Barguna,
27 June 2019, 18:00 PM

Eliminating child labour still remains a big challenge

Eliminating child labour still remains a big challenge for Bangladesh as the country currently has 17 lakh children engaged in different forms of work, many of which are extremely hazardous. And without making implementable workplans, enforcing the relevant laws, revising the existing national policies as well as re-evaluating the list of hazardous work, ending child labour by 2025, which is an SDG goal, will not be possible. A recent roundtable by Prothom Alo has come up with these suggestions.
26 June 2019, 18:00 PM