Staff Reporter :
The cabinet has rejected outright for using other purposes of the 17 acres of land that left vacant after the shifting of Dhaka Central Jail to Keraniganj.
The Cabinet in the weekly meeting held at the Secretariat on Monday decided in principle not to use the land to establish any structure or use for other purposes with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
“As per previous decision, the government will establish a museum, park with walkways and a shopping complex on Nazimuddin Road as the Dhaka Central Jail has already been shifted to Keraniganj from the site,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told journalists after the Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat yesterday.
He said the place of abandoned Dhaka Central Jail has been enriched with country’s tradition and history as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman stayed there as prisoner in several times.
“Besides, four national leaders were brutally assassinated inside the jail,” the Cabinet Secretary said.
The cell ‘Dewani’ where Mujibur Rahman was detained during the Pakistan regime and the other where four national leaders were killed would be kept intact and a museum would be built to protect those sites.
Besides, the government wants to preserve the gallows in the jail to bear the history of the executions of the war criminals. The Bangabandhu Memorial Museum has already been established centering the cell ‘Dewani’ in the jail.
According to meeting sources, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wanted to know from the Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid about the development of construction of JnU halls.
In reply, the Education Minister informed the Prime Minister that as the university authorities have 25 acre lands in Keraniganj, male students’ dormitories would be constructed there.
“And the female students’ hall will be constructed on the main campus. A 20-story administrative building is also now under construction on the campus,” Nahid was quoted as saying.
The Prime Minister asked the Education Minister to formulate master plan in a bid to give the JnU a full-fledged public university shape with construction of all necessary buildings, including Teachers Student Centre (TSC).
“Do everything whatever you need for the JnU as per public university rules,” Sheikh Hasina was quoted as saying.
The cabinet also sent back the draft of the ‘Brick Manufacturing and Brick Kiln Establishment (Control) (Amendment) Bill, 2016’ terming it a premature proposal.
Aiming to make the existing law on brick more pragmatic and time-befitting, the Ministry of Environment placed the proposal to amend the existing Brick Manufacturing and Brick Kiln Establishment (Control) Act 2013 that came into effect in 2014.
The existing law, passed by Parliament in November 2013, is said to have some shortcomings such as the obligation to set up brick kilns in specific areas that are making the sector vulnerable.
Besides, the Cabinet adopted an obituary reference at the death of former lawmaker from Dinajpur and a key member of the country’s constitution formulation committee and Bangabandhu’s close political aide M Abdur Rahim.
Rahim, a key member of country’s constitution framing committee and an organiser of the War of Liberation, died of old-age complications at a hospital in the capital on Sunday at the age of 90.
The cabinet meeting was also apprised of the participation of the Industries Minister in the 4th Green Industry Conference under the theme: ‘Green Industry for Sustainable Cities’ held in South Korea on June 28-30, 2016 and the visit of the Information Minister to Singapore on May 30-31, 2016.
The participation of the Railways Minister in the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Akhaura-Agartala rail link project at Agartala rail station in India on July 31, 2016, and the visit of a Bangladesh delegation, led by the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister, to Jordan and Lebanon on August 5-13, 2016 was also apprised.
The participation of a Bangladesh team led by the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister in the ‘Ministerial Consultations’ and ‘Senior Officials’ meetings in Sri Lanka, organised by Colombo Process on August 24-25, 2016, was also apprised.
Ministers and State Ministers concerned attended the meeting, while secretaries concerned were present.
