Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence Ministry on Tuesday endorsed for passage two bills on Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (SPARSO), after scrutiny.
“The (standing) committee today finalized reports on two bills — Navy (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (Amendment) Bill, 2016 – after scrutiny,” said a parliamentary secretariat statement issued after 18th meeting of the committee at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
Chairman of the committee Subid Ali Bhuiyan chaired the meeting, joined by its members Muhammad Faruk Khan, M Mahbubur Rahman and Hosne Ara Begum while concerned civil and armed forces officials were present.
Officials familiar with the bills said the proposed amendment to the navy bill suggested integration of three related ordinances — The Navy (amendment) Ordinance-1976, Navy (amendment) Ordinance-1977 and Navy (amendment) Ordinance-1986.
The bill on SPARSO proposed expansion of its governing board with increased number of members.
The parliamentary secretariat statement said the today’s meeting also scrutinized the foreign allowance policy for the defence personnel involved in UN peacekeeping missions and suggested entire amount of the “Troops Cost” to be distributed among the members of the Bangladeshi blue helmet contingents in UN missions.
Currently the members of the Bangladeshi UN contingents get 90 percent of the amount while the authority takes away the remaining 10 percent.
The committee reiterated its earlier suggestion asking optimum use of scarce land by the defense installations through opting for development of high rise structures instead of horizontal expansion.
It said also suggested construction of an air base in Sylhet and taking proper care of the runways across the country to face natural calamities.
