The government has approved the creation of a social fund for the people living around coal-fired power plants to be built in the country.
Bangladesh looks to produce 30,000 megawatts of power by 2020 and 40,000 megawatts by 2030 and half of it will be coal-based power plants.
The approval came Monday at a cabinet meeting after a proposal from the Power Division.
The cabinet gave its approval to the proposal on 'Fund for Social Development of the Project Area of Coal-based Power Plants and Operation Policy, 2015'.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting at Bangladesh Secretariat.
"The Power Division proposed for creating the fund with a tariff of three paisa on consumption of per unit of electricity," cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting.
He said that committees will be formed with the local people for operation of the fund.
The council of ministers also approved the 'Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Act, 2015'. It will be an updated version of the previous law- 'Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Act, 1976'.
The draft law has proposed to increase the number of full-time directors to seven from the existing five.
"The cabinet asked the corporation to create posts of professional accountants for development of the financial management of the organisation," Mr Bhuiyan said.
He, however, said that the cabinet has rejected a proposal for forming energy and mineral resources ministry and shifting the head office of Petrobangla from Dhaka to Chittagong.
It also approved the draft the 'Civil Servant (Married with Foreign National) Act-2015' which is a new updated Bangla version of the 'Civil Servant (Married with Foreign National) Act-1976'.
The ordinance and amendment brought to the law in 2008 and 2009 were incorporated in the new version.
The 'Civil Servant (Married with Foreign National) Act' was enacted first in 1976 paving the way for civil servants except diplomats to marry foreign nationals with the permission from the President.
The law was further amended through an ordinance in 2008 giving the same permission for diplomats. The ordinance was passed as a law in the parliament in 2009.
The cabinet approved the draft 'Battalion Ansar (Amendment) Act, 2015' that proposed to incorporate the provision of 'Force Retirement' in the 'Battalion Ansar Act, 1995' for any offense of the members of the battalion.
The cabinet gave directives to the ministry of home affairs to incorporate the provision of punishment with main law for mutiny in the force.
It also asked the ministry to follow the new law of the Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) and reducing the existing time-limit of making permanent the service of an Embodied Ansar as a Battalion Ansar from nine years to six years.
All the drafts of the laws were placed in the cabinet meeting in Bangla following the directive of the apex court of the country and subsequent decision of the cabinet, the cabinet secretary said.
The cabinet also discussed the law and order situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It asked to gear up the joint forces operations in the region following the recovery of bombs and explosives in Chittagong last month, a member of the cabinet preferring anonymity told the FE.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com
