News brief for the 19th of September 2018
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the construction of 130-km Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline between Shiliguri in West Bengal and Parbatipur in Dinajpur. They opened the work on the oil pipeline through a video-conferencing. Sheikh Hasina attended the video conference from her official residence Ganobhaban while Narendra Modi from his office in New Delhi. The two leaders also inaugurated the construction of the third and fourth dual gauge rail lines of Dhaka-Tongi and Tongi-Joydevpur sections of Bangladesh Railway.
The ECNEC has approved a project for the purchase of 1.5 lakh electronic voting machines in three phases. The approval came at ECNEC meeting presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Planning Commission in Dhaka yesterday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka for London on Friday en route to New York on a six-day official visit to the United States to attend the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The PM will address the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly at the UN Headquarters on September 27 and have a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the same day.
Bangladesh has posted the highest-ever 7.86 per cent GDP growth in 2017-18 financial year, well surpassing the estimated growth of 7.65 per cent. The per capita income increased to US$ 1,751 in 2017- 18 from US$ 1,610 in the previous fiscal, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Planning Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal disclosed this to the media after the ECNEC meeting yesterday.
Dhaka and Moscow have signed a protocol to bring amendments to an agreement signed by both sides on the development of Rooppur nuclear power plant. On the sideline of the 62nd General Conference of International Atomic Energy Agency being held in Vienna, Bangladesh and Russia signed the protocol on September 17. Minister for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman and Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom signed the Protocol on Monday.
Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzel Hossain Chowdhury Maya has said, river erosion-victims of Noria Upazila will get support under the VGF programme till December 31. The Minister said this while visiting the erosion-affected people yesterday. 5000 bundles of corrugated iron sheets and Taka 1.20 crore would be given for building their dormitories, Taka 50 lakh for mitigating emergency needs and 10,000 packets of dry foods were sanctioned for some 5000 river erosion-affected people of the area, he added.
A speedy trial tribunal has fixed October 10 to deliver its verdict in two cases filed over the August 21 grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital in 2004. The Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 yesterday fixed the date.
Bangladesh’s first geostationary communication satellite Bangabandhu-1 would be handed over by the French manufacturing company Thales Alenia Space to Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited to get the final operational authority this month. BCSCL Chairman Dr Shahjahan Mahmood said this to the media yesterday.
Families living in the Rohingya camps yesterday received the first 2,500 stoves and LPG cylinders that are part of a United Nation's project to protect the environment and build resilience for people living in Cox’s Bazar.
Press Wing
