Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Highlights of Sunday’s newspapers:
The Financial Express:
— The stakeholders will sit again today (Sunday) to fine-tune the proposed package for rejuvenating the country’s stock market and facilitating the affected investors to recover their losses as far as possible, sources said.
— The poor condition of the roads and highways of the country is unlikely to be improved next year largely because of a “complicated” process at work for collecting fund and spending it for road repair and maintenance works during the ongoing dry season.
— Bangladesh and India Home Secretary level meeting began in New Delhi Saturday, discussing a host of issues including easing of Indian visa regime for Bangladeshi travelers, reports UNB.
The Daily Star:
— School teacher Mohammad Aminul Islam is out on the streets looking for a house.
His landlord has served him a notice: either pay an extra TK 2,000 a month or vacate the house. For this nondescript two-room house in Khilgaon residential area in the capital, Aminul has been paying a monthly rent of Tk 10,000 inclusive of utility bills since January when the rent was hiked by Tk 2,000.
— Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on three occasions in the last 21 months promised not to take any steps regarding Tipaimukh dam that would harm Bangladesh, but the commitment appears to have been breached.
— Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said there is no liquidity crisis in the country now. She also criticised those who are raising voices about the country’s electricity crisis.
“We’re working to remove the crisis. We have so far been able to add some 2,400 MW of power in the last 34 months. It’s very easy to write about electricity crisis sitting in air-conditioned rooms.
The New Age:
— The government is planning austerity measures to rein in public expenditure amid severe liquidity crisis, finance ministry officials said. It has already listed more than a dozen areas where it could enforce the measures to address excessive borrowings that have already threatened discipline in the financial sector, they said.
— The Bangladesh authorities are in touch with the Indian government about the signing of a joint investment agreement on construction of Tipaimukh Dam and a hydroelectric project on the Barak River in Indian north-eastern state of Manipur.
— The government is yet to identify the capital market ‘game-planners’, although it is working on various measures for stabilising the market, said Unnayan Onneshan, an independent think-tank.
BBN/SSR/AD-20Npv11-10:50 am (BST)
