Scanning at land ports must for imports, inbound people: PM

Neither any goods nor any individual will be allowed to enter Bangladesh from India through the land ports without scanning, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

The PM issued the directive at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday. The meeting discussed checking import duty evasion and boosting revenue collection, said Planning Minister MA Mannan.   

He said the PM issued the directive while approving an infrastructure development project at Hili, Buribari and Banglabandha land customs stations. 

"The National Revenue Board chairman promised the PM at the meeting to bring all land ports under scanning coverage," Shamsul Alam, state minister for planning, said while briefing journalists after the meeting. 

The state minister said the revenue budget will cover the set-up as the project does not have scanner installation.

Currently, people and luggage go through manual check-up at border customs stations. Revenue officials hope that digitised scanning will boost their revenue collection and help check border smuggling.            

At a cost of Tk80.61 crore and a three-year deadline, office and residential buildings, customs staff barracks and dormitory will be constructed under the land customs station project.   

Directives on four Dhaka rivers

Planning Minister MA Mannan said the PM had asked officials concerned about constructing a circular walkway connecting the banks of the rivers Buriganga, Turag, Sitalakhya and Balu.   

The PM also instructed the officials to construct river-centric infrastructure, including pillars marking the riverbanks, protecting the foreshore, walkways and jetties.    

"With pillars, the walkways will widen the existing routes on riverbanks and check erosion," said Md Mamun-Al-Rashid, member (secretary) at the Physical Infrastructure Division of the Planning Commission.

"The PM said 30-40 feet of the foreshores remain unused or have eroded due to mismanagement. This also affects navigability. If the pillars are set up and walkways are constructed, better land management can be ensured," he added.           

State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam said the PM had also asked the authorities to check river pollution.   

"Residential and industrial waste must be treated before it is dumped into the water bodies," the state minister quoted the PM as saying. 

Do not take housing rent from cleaning staff: PM

The Ecnec meeting approved a project for building 3,040 residential buildings for cleaning workers in 66 municipalities at a cost of Tk1,142 crore.

The planning minister said the PM had ordered that only maintenance fees and not apartment rent be taken from the workers. 

"The PM primarily wanted the apartments to be handed over without any rent. Later the meeting decided only to take the maintenance fees," said State Minister Shamsul Alam. 

The PM also instructed the officials to prioritise the offspring of the cleaning staff in worker recruitment.   

Shamsul Alam said the PM had also instructed that embankments in the coastal belt using modern technologies be built so that shrimp farmers could get saline water and the dams also remained intact at the time.

The eight projects involving a total of Tk7589.72 crore obtaining Ecnec approval on Tuesday include Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Novo Theatre in Rangpur, Accelerating and Strengthening Skills for Economic Transformation (ASSET) and regional pulse research centre.