This year so far has been a particularly good one for farmers in the haor region of Sylhet as there have been no flash floods this season. As we already know, flash floods in the past two years had devastating consequences for people living in haor areas. But a year later, one thing still stands out. Construction of embankments, it seems, is far from being completed and anomalies are apparently rife, as per a report published in this paper on Tuesday.

We fail to understand precisely why 65 out of 176 government primary schools of Rangpur's Badarganj upazila have no headmasters. The schools in question have been in operation without headmasters for a decade or more.

We understand that Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and the World Bank are looking into the option to make traffic management possible using a combination of digital and manual options. The current traffic light system which was first introduced in 2004 to ease movement of traffic failed to bring positive results as vehicular numbers have mushroomed exponentially over the last decade.

The world overserved Autism Awareness Day 2018 on April 2. Official statistics say there are about 44,000 autistic children across the country. However, because of the social stigma which still surrounds the condition despite increased awareness, it is possible that the number is actually much greater.

The staggering statistics collected by Ain O Shalish Kendra (ASK) of the number of women and girls raped is a cruel reminder of how little has changed when it comes to the incidence of sexual violence in this country.

A photo published in this newspaper last Monday is a perfect example of how good initiatives, when conduced without proper planning or implementation, end up achieving nothing. In order to prevent bikers from using the pavements recently built by the DNCC, which include a special lane dedicated for the visually impaired, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has set up concrete pillars on them on both sides of Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue.

The makeshift Rohingya camps in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar are at grave risk of being wiped out by landslide and are vulnerable to being ravaged in case of a nor'wester or cyclone as monsoon approaches.

In a move that can at best be described as preposterous, the Bangladesh Association of Bankers (BAB) has asked the government to help stop negative publicity in media that can undermine public's confidence in the banking sector. The fact of the matter is that a bank is not undermined by media reports; it is really undermined by bad governance leading to gross mismanagement by the bank itself including the directors. Media reports only when mismanagement occurs, and at this stage it is our duty to do so.

We are happy that Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has finally started destroying dockyards that were set up illegally on the bank of Buriganga River.

While the Internet has become an indispensable part of our lives as a communications medium, an online survey carried out by UNICEF has unearthed some disturbing news.

We are appalled by the level of violence and chaos associated with the local government polls on Thursday in various polling centres of the country. The pictures published in various papers, of men brandishing guns in Chittagong during clashes between supporters of two rival ward councillor candidates, leave little to the imagination regarding the toxic atmosphere created in the polling areas.

That the public often encounters harassment in government offices to obtain utility services is hardly a new phenomenon, but rarely do details come out in public. A recent public hearing by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) at Chittagong Power Development Board (PDB) headquarters was such a rare occasion for people to speak out.

According to the latest Labour Force Survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), employment in the industrial sector for the current fiscal added a mere 300,000 people over the last seven years (an average of 42,857 jobs per year).

We are shocked by the news that at least six workers involved in shipbreaking and recycling were killed in the first three months of 2018, the latest as recently as Wednesday morning.

The rape and murder of 16-year-old Beauty Akter has left us at a loss for words. The blood-curdling story behind the tragic incident should make all of us feel ashamed of the society we live in.

In the aftermath of the worst aircraft disaster in our aviation history that cost 50 lives including 27 Bangladeshis, fingers have been pointed at the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) by several former pilots and aviation experts. Recently, at a discussion organised by a private university, views were exchanged frankly on the issue of aviation safety.

It is disheartening to note that Pallabi slum dwellers, who had their houses and nearly all other belongings burnt by a fire that broke out in the slum on March 12, have received little to no financial help from the authorities to get back on their feet. Though slum fires in our country seem to have become a common occurrence, and there have been at least two other incidents of fire breaking out in slums this year already,

That a Jubo League activist can be hacked to death in broad daylight, and that too inside a school, makes us squirm about how fickle life is for the rest of us. From what has been reported in this paper, we understand that the victim belonged to a faction of the Jubo League and was holding a meeting at the head teacher's room when members of a rival faction attacked with deadly intent. Apparently, the deceased once belonged to the faction that

A high powered delegation representing the EU and 10 other countries have expressed their concern over several sections of the proposed Digital Security Act (DSA)-2018 in a meeting with the law minister.

In January, we welcomed the High Court decision to heed the protests and put a stop for six months to the felling of century-old trees on Jessore Road, many as old as a hundred or two hundred years, in order to widen the highway.