Cabinet okays draft or forming separate police forces in Gazipur, Rangpur

The Cabinet on Monday approved the proposed drafts for constituting separate laws for formation metropolitan police in Gazipur and Rangpur districts.

The approval was given in the weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Prime Minister Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Cabinet Secretary M Shafiul Alam told reporters the cabinet has given final approval to the drafts of "Gazipur Metropolitan Police Act, 2017" and 'Rangpur Metropolitan Police act, 2017" for forming metropolitan police forces in the two cities.

"Formation of the two metropolitan police forces becomes necessary following the establishment of Gazipur and Rangpur City Corporations," Shafiul Alam said.

These two laws have been formulated in the light of other existing metropolitan police acts of the country, he added.

About the punishment under the draft laws, Shafiul said, according to the draft law, police officials are empowered to impose fine in most of the cases for violation of the acts, said a BSS report.

A police officer-in-charge could arrest a person for committing a criminal offence before him or issue a notice at the home of a person for any offense.

Any person to be found guilty of eve teasing at public places and showing indecent body languages or touching a woman would have to face one year jail or fine of minimum Tk 5000 and maximum Tk 10,000 or both, the draft proposed.

In this case, concerned judicial magistrate will impose the punishment and Chief Judicial Magistrate Court would accomplish the task until the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court is established in the two districts.

The cabinet also approved a proposal for ratification of an agreement signed between Bangladesh and Bhutan for avoiding double taxation and tax evasion.