The cabinet on Tuesday approved the draft of Voter List (second amendment) Act, 2013 with a provision of disqualifying the collaborators of 1971 Liberation War and the convicted war criminals to enrol their names as voters.
The penalty would be effective for the people who were convicted under the International Crimes Tribunal (amendment) Act, 2009 and the Collaborators Act, 1972.
The approval came at the cabinet’s weekly meeting held at the Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the names of the convicts under the two laws would be excluded from the existing voter list.
He said the cabinet also endorsed the draft of the National Identification Registration (amendment) Bill, 2013 keeping a provision for fine and imprisonment as well as providing national ID cards to all citizens below 18 years of age.
For violating secrecy, the proposed amendment kept the provision of maximum five years’ in jail or Tk50,000 as fine or both. The punishment is also the same for any official of the Election Commission.
Musharraf said if anyone applied to the commission for any information, “the EC may provide the data if it feels rational.”
The meeting also approved in principle the draft of National Trust for Rights and Protection of Persons with Neuro Developmental Disabilities Bill, 2013 in a bid to ensure the rights and welfare of autistic children.
Under the law, there will be an advisory council headed by the prime minister. Besides, there will be a trustee board comprising experts and stakeholders headed by an eminent person. The board will mainly look after the enforcement of the law and it can also provide registration to the organisations interested to work on autism.
