No bar to implementing wage board once case is disposed

Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Wednesday said there will be no barrier to implementing the wage board for journalists once a case related to the wage board is disposed.

“I think the barrier in implementing the wage board will be removed if the case related to the wage board is vacated,” Hasan said.

The minister said this at a discussion organized by Dhaka Union of Journalists at the National Press Club in the capital.

Regarding the amendment to the Press Council Act, Hasan Mahmud, also joint secretary of the ruling Awami League, said members of the Press Council are journalists and the proposal for the amendment of the Council Act is placed by the Press Council.

In the amendment, the Press Council will be empowered to impose fine upto highest Tk5 lakh to the journalists who will violate rules and regulations, he said.

He further said the amendment increases the power of the Press Council to impose fines, though press councils of England and India have power to fine more than Tk 5 lakh.

The minister said that the concerned ministry didn’t file the case. The newspaper owners, journalists and representatives of journalist organizations will have to take care of it, he added.

Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) President Omar Faruque, Journalists Welfare Trust Managing Director Subhash Chanda Badal, JPC President Farida Yesmin, BFUJ former President Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul and former Secretary General Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, among others, addressed the discussion.

BNP comes in field with plan of creating chaos

Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Thursday said the BNP has come into the field making a plan of creating chaos across the country.

“BNP has arranged different programmes with a plan of creating anarchy across the country. For this, they (BNP) are carrying out attacks on police and innocent pedestrians and vandalising properties of people,” he said.

The minister added that the BNP has started to create a new version of instability that the party unleashed in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in the country.

Hasan said this while talking to reporters at the meeting room of his ministry at the Secretariat in the capital, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.

He said, “I’ve talked with Narayanganj police. The BNP held the rally by blocking a road without taking permission from police or district administration or City Corporation. Police requested them (BNP) to hold the rally in front of their party office. But, they didn’t pay heed to the police and blocked the road and threw stones and bricks at the police.”

Even, the minister said, the BNP men vandalised the police box. Later, police fired teargas in self-defence, said Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary.

He said the person who died there is a nephew of union parishad chairman and AL union unit general secretary. His full identity is under investigation, he added.

He said BNP does politics of killing people. They have killed innocent people through patrol bombs and arson attacks from 2013 to 2015, he added.

The minister said such types of killings to materialise political ambitions, which BNP did, never happened across the globe in the last three to four decades. The BNP wants more dead bodies through creating anarchy across the country, he added.

About fuel price, Hasan said the price of fuel has increased in the global market again. But the premier has decreased the fuel price considering the sufferings of common people, he said, adding the bus fare has also decreased. But, he said, BNP leaders are criticising the decision.