Nation this week
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court directed Dhaka South City Corporation to maintain status quo on the eviction proceedings at Mirinzilla Harijan Colony at Aga Sadek Lane in Dhaka till further order. A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan passed the order following a petition filed by three Supreme Court lawyers Manoj Kumar Bhowmik, Uppal Biswas and Ainunnahar Siddiqua.
The apex court order has been verbally communicated to the Executive Magistrate Md Moniruzzaman, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a leading rights organisation, said in a press release. Following a writ petition filed by the three SC lawyers, the HC on June 13 issued a one-month status quo on the eviction proceedings at the colony and ordered the DSCC to arrange accommodation for the affected residents. However the DSCC on July 9 issued a fresh order to its chief executive officer and the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police for conducting an eviction.
Students and job seekers protesting the reinstatement of the quota system in government jobs refused to let a court order end their movement, disrupting normal life in many parts of the country by enforcing what they called a "Bangla Blockade". Reminiscent of the movement that forced the government to abandon the quota system in 2018, students have been moved to revive the movement against quotas in light of a High Court ruling last month, that declared the 2018 cancellation process illegal and restored the 30% quota for freedom fighters' families.
Large groups of students from universities and colleges blocked major intersections in the city, blocked highways, railways across the country, as a part of their programme on at least two days this week. On Wednesday (July 10) the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court issued a status quo of four weeks on the subject matter and the High Court judgement. The protesters in response declared further programmes for the following day.
Bangladesh's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 6.12 percent in the third quarter (January-March) of the fiscal year 2023-24, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The latest data shows a notable improvement from previous quarters, with GDP growth recorded at 6.01 percent in the first quarter (July-September) and 3.78 percent in the second quarter (October-December) of the same fiscal year. GDP growth in the third quarter of FY 2022-23 was just 2.30 percent.
In the third quarter of FY 2023-24, all major sectors - industry, services, and agriculture - experienced significant growth. The industrial sector saw the highest increase at 7.03 percent. Approximately Tk 8,63,200 crore were added to the GDP at constant prices during the January-March period.
The number of Bangladeshi students in the United States has increased by more than 300 percent over the past decade, according to the US embassy in Dhaka. The embassy in a statement said there were 3,314 Bangladeshi students in the US in 2011-2012. This number grew to 13,563 in the 2022-2023. The number of Bangladeshi undergraduate students increased by over 50% to approximately 2,500 students, while nearly 10,000 graduate students make Bangladesh the seventh largest source of graduate students in the US, it said.
Last year, a record number of 13,563 Bangladeshi students studied in the US, making Bangladesh the 13th highest-sending country of international students to the North American country. "This represents a 28% increase from the previous year, one of the highest worldwide," said Stephen Ibelli, US embassy's Public Affairs Counselor at a pre-departure orientation organised by EducationUSA team of the US embassy at the EMK Center in the city for 120 Bangladeshi students, who will be commencing their studies in the upcoming Fall 2024 semester.
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