The cabinet Monday approved cutting down and removing some 498 'Sal' trees of the reserved forest from Joydevpur to Mawna for implementing the Joydevpur- Mymensingh road development project.
The decision of the cabinet came partly for relaxing the decision taken on December 30, 2010 that restricted the cutting down of trees from any reserved natural forest until December 31, 2015 to protect the environment and biodiversity of the country.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the 7th cabinet meeting of the present government held at Bangladesh Secretariat on the day.
"The cabinet approved cutting down and removing 498 'Sal' trees for implementing the Jodevpur-Mymensingh road development project by partly relaxing the decision for stopping cutting trees from the reserved natural forest," Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the media after the meeting.
He said following the change of alignment of four-lane Dhaka-Mymensingh highway based on soil tests cutting down the Sal trees has become necessary to implement the project.
He said the cabinet has also issued directives to plant the same number of trees elsewhere in the forest.
The cabinet was also apprised of the international recognition of Bangladesh for tackling money laundering and terror financing.
Mr Bhuiyan said money laundering and terror financing are a global concern now. Bangladesh had been blacklisted by 'Financial Actions Task Force (FATF)', the inter-governmental global body against money laundering and terror financing.
"Convinced by effective measures of the Bangladesh government - both in legal and institutional frameworks - for combating money laundering and terror financing, the FATF removed Bangladesh from its blacklist on February 13, 2013 following a proposal of the United States in its full-fledged session held in Paris, France," he said.
He said Bangladesh has taken measures to check money laundering that include formulation of National Strategy Paper, enactment of Money Laundering Prevention Act in 2012, amendment to the existing anti-terrorism law and enactment of an act on mutual cooperation to prevent crimes.
The government also formed a high-powered committee headed by the finance minister to coordinate the government activities in this connection.
He said the committee informed the Asia Pacific Group of FATF for Asia Pacific region ten times in three years about the measures taken by Bangladesh government on tackling money laundering.
