Big changes to budget from next fiscal year

Tribune Report

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the next fiscal year budget will come across a big change as the government has to implement big transformational projects with the help of foreign loans.
“There will be a big change to the national budget from the next fiscal year. Now our budget is nearly Tk3 lakh crore, but we expect that the size of the budget will be Tk4.40 lakh crore to Tk4.50 lakh crore in 2018-2019 fiscal year,” Muhith hinted in his speech at the Parliament.
The finance minister held out the government plan to develop district levels as all 64 districts would be transformed into separate states.
“To achieve this mega development, process is underway to build 1 crore 45 lakh skilled manpower.”
Muhith said to bring about the country’s development, district headquarters have to be developed.
He suggested strengthening district and local government institutions and warned lawmakers about barriers that might be faced with to achieve the target.
The district and local government institutions would act responsibly and truly turn into peoples’ institutions, he added.
“It would be a big challenge for the politicians. So we all have to be very alert of it.”
Alongside the general budget, the government will place a special budget for transformational projects like Padma Bridge, Rooppur Project, Maheshkhali Engergy Centre and Matarbari Power Centre, he continued.
The minister said the government is now mulling two big projects. One is a 4-lane highway from Jamuna to Padma, a project involving $5 billion and another dredging project from Jamuna to the Bay of Bengal worth $2 billion-$3 billion.
Muhith added that it would not be possible to implement the projects only with the help of interest-free loans.
“We have to take loans for those projects. We have to be more careful on foreign loans to implement those projects. Remittance is the key to our economy.”  He suggested that the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will start within one year.
“We have already taken the decision. No one will face gas problem any more.”
All will get gas connection, but not for household, he said.
There will be no crisis in the world gas market within the next 50 years, the minister hoped.
“We can supply gas uninterrupted once our LNG plan is prepared.”
“We have taken an umbrella project titled “Skills for Human beings” for development of human resources. Our skill of project implementation has improved a lot, but yet to be appropriate.” he said.
The government is determined to eradicate poverty from the country within the tenure of the government, he vowed.

Preity Zinta to tie the knot?

B-town has recently been buzzing with the rumours of actress Preity Zinta’s marriage to Gene Goodenough, who holds a top position at a hydroelectric power company named NLine. It is rumoured that the actress met Gene on one of her trips to USA, while visiting her brother.
When confronted, Preity denied and termed the rumour to be “media manufactured.” However, a close source of the actress seems to have spilled the beans about the marriage, reports DNA.
As the report suggests, Preity and Gene are set to tie the knot sometime in April, in an intimate church wedding in Los Angeles, where the couple will entertain only close friends and relatives. It further asserted that they will hold a grand Rajput wedding in Mumbai for friends from within and outside the film-industry, with no less than three events; the sangeet, mehendi and the wedding ceremony.
The source also said that the actress wishes to get her wedding dress designed by either Manish Malhotra or Surily Goel.
If the report turns out to be true, it would mean that Bollywood awaits a wedding one cannot miss.

Bombs, explosives found at Ansarullah Bangla Team den

Arifur Rahman Rabbi

Law enforcement agencies have busted a den of banned radical Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team in the capital's Mohammadpur area and discovered large cache of bombs and explosives.
The discovery was made by a drive of DB police and DMP's newly formed Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, also known as CT, early Saturday.
Confirming the recovery CT Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam said his unit and DB police arrested alleged Ansarullah Bangla Team members Kamal alias Shahin and Shah Alam alias Salauddin from Badda around 10pm Friday.
On information extracted from Salauddin, they raided a flat on the top floor of a five-storey building in Nabodoy Housing area at midnight and found the bombs and explosives. Salauddin and two others had rented the flat one and half months ago to use it as their den.
The team also raided another den of ABT at Ashkona of Dakkhin Khan on Friday midnight. Jihadi books, sharp weapons, bullets and magazines from the spot.
The team started the drive again in Mohammadpur den on Saturday morning and the drive was going on as of 5:30pm.
"We will continue the drive as huge cache of bombs have been found at three rooms of the flat," Monirul said.

He added that the bombs were found at the false ceiling of the rooms.
In the morning, they along with a bomb disposal team started disposing bombs following evacuating the whole building. Meanwhile, gas and electricity connection of the house were disconnected as well, said the CT chief.
CT Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam termed the bombs very powerful with the capacity to demolish a building.
Monirul said the Badda den was Ansarullah Bangla Team's headquarters and Mohammadpur den was their bomb making factory.
"We have collected samples from the two dens that will be sent for DNA sampling to identify the criminals," he added.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of DB's bomb disposal unit Sanowar Hossain said the explosives recovered from the ABT den weigh about 10 to 15 kilograms.
He said the law enforcers recovered six hand grenades and two saucepan bombs and several bombs inside tennis balls.
"Of the explosives, some 3 to 4 kilograms were so powerful that if those were blasted within 30 to 40 yards, about 100 to 150 people could have been killed," Sanowar added.
In response to a query whether the bombs have similarity with those found at Hussaini Dalan attack, he said only two to three bombs were similar to those bombs.
He said: "ABT had used machete to attack people but it is first time they are making bombs."
During a briefing, Monirul Islam said police were raiding different areas of the capital along with the two detained members of ABT.
Replying to a query whether the ABT men has plan to carry out subversive acts, Monirul said: "We are interrogating them. Details will be known after the interrogation."
He also informed that the law enforcers earlier recovered two to three categories of bombs but this time they found five categories of bombs at the ABT den.
Besides, the team detained 11 persons with illegal VoIP equipment from the opposite flat of the ABT den during the drive on Friday night.