Cabinet Approves Vehicular Movement Proposal Between Bangladesh, India, Nepal And Bhutan

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

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hussain Bhuiyan briefed reporters after the meeting.

He said the ratification was needed as part of completing the formalities of effectiveness of the deal by the respective governments in their own process.

The cabinet secretary said the agreement would come into effect after its ratification by other governments of the countries concerned.

Earlier on June 8, the cabinet approved the draft of the deal aimed at improving the connectivity between four counties of the region -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal.

Later, the agreement was signed on June 15 this year at a meeting of the road transport ministers of the four countries held in Bhutanese capital of Thimpu.

The cabinet secretary said a trilateral agreement and proposal will have to be signed to make the deal effective and officials concerned of the four countries will sit in Dhaka on September 8-9 to finalise the trilateral deal and proposal.

He said a car rally involving the four countries will be held in October this year. The rally will start from Bhubaneswar of India and end in Kolkata via Chittagong and Dhaka, he said.

The cabinet also gave final approval to the draft of "The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) Law, 2015" proposed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.

The cabinet secretary said the BPC has been running under the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Ordinance, 1976 promulgated during the martial law regime.

As per earlier decision of the cabinet, the draft of the law was placed after making necessary amendment, he said adding that the draft was also translated into Bangla according to the directives of the country's Supreme Court that had given instructions to do it in necessary cases.

The cabinet secretary added that the proposal of the law was earlier approved by the cabinet in principle in last March with some observations and subject to vetting of the Law Ministry.

Under the proposed draft law, he said, the BPC would be run by a nine-member board of directors headed by its full-time chairman to be appointed by the government.

Of the eight-member board of directors, three full-time members--one from the Energy Division, one from the Power Division and another from the Finance Division- each equivalent to a joint secretary would be appointed by the government, while appointment of other members would remain open.

The cabinet also endorsed in principle the draft of "The Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARSO) (Amendment) Law, 2015" to make the existing law more effective and time-befitting.

According to the amended draft law, the SPARSO would be run under a five-member board of directors headed by a full-time chairman appointed by the government.

Besides, two more members to be appointed by the government would be selected from the SPARSO itself equivalent to a chief scientific officers, while appointment of two other members will remain open.

The cabinet also approved two proposals for "The Headquarters Agreement Between the Government of Bangladesh and South Asian Regional Standards Organization-SARSO", and "The Headquarters Agreement between the government of Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation-BIMSTEC".

Bhuiyan said such agreements are necessary in establishing secretariats of any regional or international bodies like SARSO and BIMSTEC in Bangladesh.

Under the two deals, the cabinet secretary said, the organizations concerned would get diplomatic privileges and immunities which would enable them to work more effectively.

He termed establishing of the secretariats of the two international and important organizations like BIMSTEC and SARSO as big diplomatic success of the government.

The cabinet was also apprised of visit of Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu to Belarus from July 22 to 24 in 2015.

However, the cabinet returned back the draft of "The Vested Property Retuned (Amendment) Law, 2015" for further examining of the law by the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Land.

Bhuiyan said that the cabinet thinks that there is a necessity of further examining the law, especially its legal implications. He said the draft law was placed at today's cabinet meeting for its approval in principle. It's a practice that after approval of the draft law, it is sent to the Law Ministry for vetting.

But the cabinet directed the Land Ministry to take opinions of the Law Ministry earlier so that no faults exist in the law.

The Law Ministry will examine and review all sections of the proposed law and the Land Ministry will further place the law in the cabinet if it is necessary.

The cabinet secretary said the amendment to the law has been brought for implementation of the law smoothly and making it easy.

Review will have to be made whether there is a necessity of amendment to the law for its execution smoothly and making it easy or it's possible in existing law.

If amendment to the draft law is needed, Bhuiyan said, the Law Ministry will examine its every section and sub-section and then it will be brought to the cabinet.

Source: BSS