The Cabinet on Sunday gave final approval to the draft of Village Court (Amendment) Act, 2024 enhancing the authority of village courts to impose fines up to Tk3 lakh, raising the amount from Tk75,000.
The approval came from a weekly Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the PMO.
Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain briefed reporters on the meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
The secretary said the government gave the final approval to the draft last year. There is an obligation to get approval from the new cabinet as it was not tabled in the last parliament, he said, adding that now the current Cabinet has given the final approval.
He said the government is set to enhance the authority of village courts, enabling them to raise fines from Tk75,000 to Tk3 lakh.
He said a village court comprises five members, including the union parishad chairman. In some cases, the court cannot function if any member remains absent. In this situation, the absent member gets seven days to be present in the meeting. If the member cannot be present, then the chairman has the power to give one additional vote, he said.
The cabinet secretary said complication is being created if the person representing one party of a case dies. From now on, the successor of the deceased can be the party in the case concerned, he said.
Mahbub Hossain said the Cabinet also gave final approval to the Local Government (City Corporation) (Amendment) Act 2024.
From now on, he said, the government will do the work of drainage management instead of the city corporation. City corporation mayors and councillors will now enjoy one-month leave instead of three months, he added.
Under the amended law, Mahbub said, there is a provision for holding city corporation polls within 90 days or three months before the end of the tenure; earlier it was 180 days.
He said, per the new act, the tenure of a city corporation will be five years and the new mayors and councillors will take oath within 15 days after the election.
He said the power of forming a standing committee of the city corporation has been enhanced. Now 21 committees can be formed instead of the existing 14.
He said there would be no post of secretary in the corporation and the secretary would be recognized as the chief executive officer.
The cabinet secretary said a proposal for exempting the agriculture ministry from the responsibility of forming a separate policy for processing agri products has been approved in the cabinet.
Replying to a query, he said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given directives to all concerned to be more active in getting GI recognition certificates for local products.
