Cabinet clears draft of Shishu Academy Act

The Cabinet on Monday gave final approval to the draft of “Bangladesh Shishu Academy Act, 2018” and “Motor Cycle Shilpa Unnayan Neetimala, 2018”, reports BSS.

The approval was given in the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Md. Shafiul Alam said the Shishu Academy has been functioning under an ordinance promulgated by the military government in 1976. The new law seeks to make the ordinance a law as per directives of the Supreme Court.

The draft law provides for formation of a 19-member management board and upgrading the post of the director of the academy to Director General, he said.

As per the law, the government would appoint a distinguished person with the background of children’s litterateur or Swadhina Padak or Ekushey Padak winning academic person to the post of the chairman of the academy.

Shafiul Alam said the Motor Cycle Shilpa Unnayan Neetimala was aimed at promoting the local motor cycle industries and export of motor cycle to the international market. The policy has a target to increase production of local motor cycle to five lakh by 2021 and 10 lakh by 2027.

The policy also has a target to enhance the contribution of motor cycle industries to GDP to 2.5 percent from 0.5 percent at present. The policy would also contribute to increasing the direct and indirect job opportunities to 10 lakh by 2027 from five lakh at present.

The cabinet constituted a four-member cabinet committee headed by LGRD and cooperatives minister for further scrutiny of the draft on Bangladesh Prokoshal Gobeshona Council Act, 2018. Other members of the committee are information minister, science and technology minister and housing and public works minister.

The committee would submit the report to the government for further improvement of the act, the cabinet secretary said.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Cabinet adopted an obituary resolution in memory of freedom fighter and writer Rama Chowdhry, who epitomized herself as a symbol and sacrifice and struggle during the War of Liberation and thereafter.

A post graduate in Bengali literature from Dhaka University, Rama Chowdhury refused to leave the country with her husband during the War of Liberation. On May 13, 1971, Pakistani army men burnt down their house and raped and tortured her.

She had to live in the open sky with three kids and often went hungry. Her two little boys, who fell sick due to living in bushes or in the open, died soon after the war.

After independence Rama Chowdhury walked barefooted as she would not step with footwear on the soil where her two sons and hundreds of thousands of Liberation War martyrs were laid to eternal rest.

Rama Chowdhury walked on the streets of Chittagong selling her own books for eking after independence. She wrote 18 books, including Ekattorer Janani, where she gave details of her memory of the nine-month war.

Her other books include Ek Hazar Ek Din Japoner Padya, Bhab-Boichitre Rabindranath, Agun Ranga Agun Jhora and Ashru Veja Ekti Din.