Cabinet Approves Proposal For Amendment of Anti-Corruption Act

The approval was given in the regular meeting of the cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the cabinet division has brought the amendment proposal in consultation with the home ministry and Anti-corruption Commission to exclude section 420 from the schedule of the ACC (Amendment) Act.

He said the section 420 was incorporated in the ACC Act during an amendment in 2013 at the recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee probably with a good intension. But in reality, the ground was different as far as execution of the law was concerned, he said.

After passing the law, he said, police deny dealing with the cases of cheating and forgery under section 420, advising suffers to go to ACC to get justice. Thousands of such cases are filed every day across the country and given the investigation, inquiry, lodging of FIR and trial of cases the ACC is different from normal procedure, it is difficult for ACC to deal with the great number of cases. It's causing backlogging of such cases and unnecessary delay in getting justice by sufferers, he added.

The cabinet secretary said according to the amendment, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) would only deal with the cases of alleged cheating or forgery if it's related to the government property and performing duties of the civil servants and bank staffs. Police would act for prosecution of other cases under section 420 of the penal code, the cabinet secretary said.

The cabinet also approved the draft of the National Nutrition Policy and gave nod to a draft of an agreement with Canada on air transport.

The goal of the nutrition policy has been underlined in line with the 'Vision 2021' of the present government with the objective of ensuring nutrition for all citizens particularly the mothers, adolescent female girls, children and marginalized people, cabinet secretary said.

The main focus of the policy would be mothers, adolescent female girls and children and it would be executed for control and prevention of malnutrition and expediting national development through improving the living standard of the people.

According to the policy, the national committee headed by prime minister would be named as "National Nutrition Coordination Council" instead of National Nutrition Council which would provide necessary guidelines for implementation of the policy, the cabinet secretary said.

The cabinet secretary said the air service agreement between Bangladesh and Canada would facilitate designated passengers and cargo airlines to operate flights between the two countries.

Under the agreement the two countries would be able to operate three passenger flights and three cargo flights to each other countries every week with facility to take at least 30 percent passengers and cargos from transit points.