Mahbubur Rahman Khan

Small and medium poultry farmers, who have been struggling to recover from last year’s Covid-induced economic shock, are facing fresh troubles due to the ongoing lockdown.

The rising prices of daily essentials, driven by travel restrictions, are making it difficult for the middle and low income people to make ends meet.

Last year’s prolonged shutdown had left Ainal Haque with no option but to give up driving inter-city buses and take up driving a three-wheeler to survive the economic shock.

The soaring prices of daily essentials, including chicken, edible oil, onion and vegetables, have added to the woes of the people living on a fixed income.

Investigators have so far been able to trace the whereabouts of Tk 1,150 crore out of about Tk 2,500 crore misappropriated allegedly by PK Halder and his accomplices from International Leasing and Financial Services Limited (ILFSL).

First of all, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is a statutory body tasked with combating, preventing and controlling corruption and also promoting the best practices in professional conduct.

The five-year tenure of the Anti-Corruption Commission is about to end and a new one is to take charge this month but the fate of the probes into 56 cases filed in connection with the BASIC Bank loan scam remains uncertain.

Proshanta Kumar Halder alias PK Halder had played tricks on four non-bank financial institutions in such a way that no one could suspect anything before around Tk 10,000 crore were siphoned from those.

PK Halder used forged national identity cards to borrow Tk 450 crore from three financial institutions (NBFIs) and laundered the money, according to Anti-Corruption Commission findings.

With fake documents, a close accomplice of Proshanta Kumar Halder, known as PK Halder, alone managed to get loans of about Tk 3,520 crore from three non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) between 2015 and 2019.

On the very first day of this year, the Anti-Corruption Commission declared that it will hunt down those who had amassed wealth illegally through casino businesses.

It was Tk 12.27 crore illegal wealth mentioned in a graft case filed against online casino “kingpin” Selim Prodhan.

In a bid to save the country’s rivers from erosion, the government has taken an initiative of limiting the amount of sand extraction. However, the initiative seems to have stumbled at the very beginning.

Over a year ago, a wave of protests swept Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University (BSMRSTU) in Gopalganj with the students taking to the streets over allegations of corruption and abuse of power against their vice-chancellor.

Whenever the issue of relief misappropriation arises, the finger is usually pointed toward public representatives. In many cases, they are found to be involved in relief misappropriation.

As an executing authority managing the vast water resources of the riverine country, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) has been handicapped ever since the government curtailed its autonomy.

With the high price of potatoes continuing to hurt household budgets across the board, farmers’ pockets also bear the brunt as they have to buy seed potatoes at a higher rate.

Powertech International, a supplier of power plant equipment itself prepared required specification for motors and quoted twelve times higher rate for the Shikalbaha Power Plant, yet the procurement department of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) awarded the tender to them, the Anti-Corruption Commission has found.

More than a year after a crackdown was launched on casinos, the ACC has yet to complete the investigations in any of the 22 cases filed against ruling party men, among others, over the illegal business.

Wholesalers have expressed concerns that the price of potatoes may not come down anytime soon as they are under pressure from a section of hoarders, who recently bought potato stocks at cold storages, to sell the vegetable at a price higher than the government-fixed wholesale rate of Tk 30 a kg.