Bangladesh Judicial Service Assoc
Bangladesh Judicial Service Association (BJSA) on Wednesday thanked President M Abdul Hamid and the government and expressed gratitude for reappointing Abu Saleh Sk Md Zahirul Haque as the law, justice and parliamentary affairs secretary. The government, with the approval of the president, reappointed Haque as the law secretary on August 7 on a two-year contract under the condition of cancellation of his leave preparatory to retirement (LPR). A BJSA statement signed by its president SM Kuddus Zaman and joint secretary general-1 Bikas Kumar Saha, also congratulated Haque on his reappointment. The statement said that no member of the BJSA was aggrieved by the reappointment of Abu Saleh Sk Md Zahirul Haque as the law secretary.
Access to Information Programme
The government on Wednesday launched a new fund to support technological development for using surface water in irrigation instead of using underground water.
The Access to Information (A2I) Programme of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) along with Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) and Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) launched the Taka-1.25 crore programme. “The size of the fund will be increased on demand,” Kabir Bin Anwar, National Project Director (NPD), A2I Programme and Director General of the PMO, said while launching the fund at the Prime Minister’s Office.
The A2I has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the BADC and BMDA to innovate technology on how to use surface water efficiently for irrigation. The challenge fund will support innovation of technologies for surface water irrigation in five certain areas including chars, drought-prone, saline-affected, hilly and haor areas. The A2I has set September 30 deadline for submitting the individual proposal on surface water irrigation technology. Each of the selected proposals will be implemented with an amount of Taka 25 lakh.Kabir said the layer of underground water is receding by 5 meters every year while excessive use of ground water during the IRRI-Boro season is increasing the risk of desertification in the northern region of the country. “The country’s 78.0 percent underground water is being used for irrigating 71 lakh hectares of land out of total arable land of 85 lakh hectares,” the A2I DG said, pointing out that the excessive use of groundwater is risking the agro-ecology of the entire arable land.
