Arecent survey conducted by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) found that three out of four new passport seekers had to pay speed money to get clearances. These include police verification and attestation of documents.

This daily in its report has pointed out the normal choke points on our major highways, which are the main reasons for traffic snarl-ups. Now, floods and rains have aggravated the situation of the roads pushing up the average travel hours.

While we commiserate with the kins of the killed and the wounded, there are two aspects that we would like to flag here. First, the attempt on the life of Sheikh Hasina and the AL leadership, and secondly, the attempt to kill the case by a deliberately flawed investigation to hide the facts.

As for the government, it should set up a building regulatory body immediately with the power to enforce the Code as well as the authority to punish errant builders/contractors. There is also need to reform the labour law where the status of the construction workers should be specified.

What we would like to know then is, what action did the hospital authorities take in this regard? And if the answer is none, then, why not? And what about the government authorities, those responsible for maintaining the city and the safety of its inhabitants?

Unlike its many other Western counterparts, the Spanish authorities didn't unleash any massive crackdown in the aftermath of these attacks that could target the wider Muslim community in general, because that's exactly what those fanatics would want to see.

What was supposed to be a priority project to save 29 upazilas of Sylhet from flash floods has turned out to be a classic case of mismanagement for Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).

The BGMEA has proposed formation of a local agency that will operate along the same lines as Accord and Alliance which will run under an ombudsman chosen by the Prime Minister's Office.

Through the length and breadth of Dhaka city, the conditions of roads both major and minor are in a state of disrepair.

We have seen these issues are symptomatic of these bodies across the country. Such unplanned and shoddy work, causing huge wastage of public money, are being done with impunity.

In the developed countries, significant resources are used to monitor terror suspects, and surely we can spend more resources than we do now on surveillance which will prove worthwhile in the long run.

In a disastrous move, the Water Development Board (WDB) gave directions to repair breeches on the embankment of Shib river in Ghasigram area under Mohonpur upazila of Rajshahi.

Two of the countries of the subcontinent—Pakistan and India—celebrated their Independence Day on the 14th and 15th August respectively. Seventy years ago in August the region saw the end of the colonial rule and division of the land creating two countries

Time is running out for some 15,000 hajj pilgrims who are yet to receive their visas. Although the religious ministry has given a 48-hour ultimatum (that runs out today) to 16 agencies to complete the visa related procedures to send 3,000 pilgrims by August 26, we need to ask some hard questions regarding bungling of this year's hajj.

We would like to congratulate our law enforcement agencies on a job well done. Yesterday's raid on a militant hideout in Panthapath is yet another reminder of the lurking threat of militancy in the country as well as the critical role of good intelligence in tackling it.

The first signs of the devastation of floods in the north have started to emerge. At least 17 people died in three days, while large parts of at least 14 districts were submerged by floodwater.

Today is a day that would be written in infamy in the annals of our history. We are happy that the killers of Bangabandhu have been tried but many are still evading punishment.

In spite of Tk 25 lakh being stolen using around 40 cloned cards in February last year, identity theft by miscreants, exploiting weaknesses in credit and debit card security systems, ATMs, point-of-sales (POS) and banks, is continuing alarmingly in the country.

It has been seven years since the High Court in a landmark judgement banned corporal punishment in education institutions in Bangladesh.

In yet another blow to the Sundarbans, the government has decided to approve all industrial structures currently operating in the Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) of the mangrove forest, essentially legalising more than 150 illegal structures.