CIVIL AVIATION BILL Death penalty proposed [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

CIVIL AVIATION BILL Death penalty proposed

Local February 14, 2017

The cabinet on Monday endorsed the draft of the Civil Aviation Bill 2017 incorporating death penalty as the maximum punishment for creating any obstructions to air navigation.
The civil aviation ministry placed the draft in the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by prime minister Sheikh Hasina at the Cabinet Division.
The cabinet hailed Hasina for her stand against the World Bank allegations of ‘corruption conspiracy’ that ultimately led to the
cancellation of its fund for the Padma bridge project, cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a press conference after the meeting.
The prime minister alleged that Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was behind the conspiracy to stop the World Bank fund for the mega project in a bid to malign her government, said a minister.
Hasina told the cabinet that a quarter was active to link her family members to the allegations of corruption conspiracy in the bridge construction project, but failed to prove it as a Canadian court on Friday cleared the government of the allegations.
Quoting the prime minister, the cabinet secretary said that the World Bank had finally failed to prove the allegations.
‘It was a challenge for the World Bank to prove its allegations of corruption that tainted the country’s image. But it has failed to do so,’ the cabinet secretary said.
A court in Canada on Friday acquitted former executive Kevin Wallace of SNC Lavalin and his subordinates Ramesh Shah and Zulfiquar Ali Bhuiyan, two Bangladeshi-Canadian citizens, of bribing officials in order to secure a construction contract of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project in Bangladesh.
The World Bank was a primary lender in relation to the project. In 2012 the WB finally cancelled its $1.2 billion credit programme to the bridge project citing ‘conspiracy of corruption’ in the tender.
The cabinet secretary said that the cabinet gave final approval to the draft civil aviation bill to replace the Civil Aviation Order 1960.
Provision for capital punishment for obstructing any air navigation was incorporated during the vetting of the bill by the law ministry keeping with the International Civil Aviation Organisation standard, Shafiul said replying to a question.
The cabinet had approved the draft bill initially in February 2016 with some observations and sent it to the law ministry for vetting.
A flight of the state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the prime minister had to make an emergency landing at Ashgabat International Airport in Turkmenistan on her way to Budapest on November 27 following low oil pressure to its engine.
Asked whether the incident was taken into consideration while incorporating the death penalty in the proposed law, Shafiul replied in the negative.
The existing law has become out-dated due to the expansion of the civil aviation sector in the modern world and it is now necessary to update the law to ensure minimum safety standard in the aviation sector, officials said.
The cabinet also approved the ‘Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Bill 2017 to replace a similar law enacted in 1974 and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Bill 2017 to replace the law of 1973.
It endorsed in principle the Khulna Development Authority Bill 2017 and also approved the Textiles Policy 2017 to promote the apparel sector, the cabinet secretary mentioned.