Close New Year celebrations before sunset, says PM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday asked her cabinet colleagues to remain alert against possible acts of sabotage in the backdrop of recent militant attacks in different places.
In an informal discussion on celebrations of December 31 night after the weekly cabinet meeting at the secretariat, she said different local and international quarters were making plots against the country.
The PM asked all concerned to close the New Year celebration programmes before the night falls considering security issues, a minister told New Age seeking anonymity.
‘Different quarters at home and abroad are now active to destabilise the country. So you all should remain alert in this situation,’ the minister quoted Sheikh Hasina as saying at the meeting.
Hasina picked up the issue of recent militant attacks as civil aviation and tourism minister Rashed Khan Menon informed the cabinet about the ministry’s New Year celebration programmes in Cox’s Bazar to promote tourism in Bangladesh.
The tourism ministry’s three-day mega beach carnival is scheduled to begin on December 31 in the country’s tourist hub of Cox’s Bazar.
The prime minister had earlier announced 2016 as the year of tourism for Bangladesh, officials said, adding that they will have to cancel firing crackers and some other cultural events to close the programme before the sunset.
Referring to an incident of sexual harassment during the Bangla New Year celebration on the Dhaka University campus, Hasina said the government had to shoulder all responsibilities if anything untoward happened anywhere.
Presiding over the weekly cabinet meeting, Hasina said all concerned must contact local police before organising any programmme in the open space to celebrate the New Year.
The cabinet endorsed signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of tourism between Bangladesh and Thailand, cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a press briefing after the meeting.
It also approved in principle the draft Bangladesh National Cadet Corps Bill, 2015 incorporating a provision for setting up a directorate to deal with the expanding activities of the BNCC.

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