The Cabinet on Monday approved in principle the draft of the ‘Battalion Ansar (Amendment) Bill, 2015’ keeping the provisions of forced retirement and other punishment for the members of Bangladesh Ansar to make the existing law more time-befitting one. The approval on the proposed law was given at the regular weekly 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 also made two important observations to incorporate in the proposed law to make the law a complete one. The observations are incorporating a provision of punishment for mutiny, if occurs, in the force and suggested fixing the punishment in consistent with the similar provision of the BGB Act. It also suggested reduction of the probationary period of nine years to six years to make the services for embodied Ansar members permanent.
The Cabinet also gave the final approval subject to vetting of the Law Ministry to the draft of the ‘Public Servants (Marriage with Foreign Nationals) Bill, 2015’.
The Cabinet Secretary said the existing law of 2009 was originally promulgated in 1976 through a martial law ordinance and later amended in 2008 during the caretaker government through another ordinance. He said as the original law was in English and the proposed one has been drafted in Bangla in line with the earlier Cabinet decision of making all laws in the mother tongue.
Musharraf Hossain said the Cabinet members also okayed in principle the draft of the ‘Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Bill, 2015 with some amendments as well as drafting it in Bangla as per a previous Cabinet decision.
The proposed amendments are raising the number of full-time directors of the corporation to seven from the existing five and raising the authorised capital to TK 5 crore from TK 1 crore. Ministers and state ministers and secretaries concerned were also present at the meeting.
