Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur on Tuesday said Bangladesh has made a revolutionary transformation in its payment system and projected that its mobile financial service transactions will surpass Tk 25 lakh crore by 2025.
Speaking at a programme titled Revolution of Payment System: Beginning of a New Era, organised by the Payment System Department (PSD) of Bangladesh Bank at a city hotel on Tuesday, Dr Mansur emphasised the rapid growth of digital transactions.
Currently, he said, mobile financial services facilitate transactions amounting to Tk 17.5 lakh crore annually. This figure is expected to exceed Tk 25 lakh crore this year, which is more than three times the size of the national budget.
The government has commenced the demarcation of 18, 565 acres of Madhupur Sal forest in Tangail.
The Forest Department, local administration and local organisations jointly started the work as per the directives of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
For the first time in the country history, the official boundary of a forested region is being systematically delineated.
The demarcation process has begun at the border points of Beribaid Mouja in Madhupur upazila and Kamalapur Mouja in Mymensingh.
A total of 15 moujas, including Arankhola, Beribaid, Chunia, Gachabari, Idilpur and others, will have their forest boundaries precisely defined.
The absence of a clearly marked boundary has led to rampant encroachment, with settlements emerging and large tracts of forestland being converted into pineapple, banana, and papaya plantations.
Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman on Tuesday urged all not to disrupt the trial process of 2009 Pilkhana massacre case, saying that it was entirely carried out by members of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).
“It is crucial to remember that this barbaric act was not committed by any army personnel. It was entirely carried out by members of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). Full stop... there is no if or but here,” said the army chief at an event at Raowa Club in the capital.
“If you bring in ifs and buts, the judicial process that has been going on for 16 to 17 years, the justice served to those convicted, will be disrupted. We must be absolutely clear about this. Those who have been punished deserved it,” he added.
Regarding the potential involvement of political leaders or external forces in the incident, the army chief said that a commission was formed to investigate the matter.
Chief Adviser Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam has said the main reason Elon Musk Starlink is invited and being launched in Bangladesh is to stop the business of online shutdown forever.
“The Sheikh Hasina dictatorship shut down internet on scores of occasions during her 16 years rule," he wrote on a post in his verified Facebook account today.
Internet shutdown is a favourite tool of the dictators and autocrats to crack down protests or suppress any major opposition agitations, Alam said.
But in the process, he said, hundreds of thousands of free lancers were affected.