Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad and leader of the opposition of the 10th parliament Raushan Ershad were not present at the swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet members at Bangabhaban today.

However, several JP MPs including Fakhrul Imam joined the oath-taking programme.

Jatiya Party Co-chairman GM Quader, who has been appointed deputy opposition leader in the 11th parliament, also did not attend the programme citing that he did not get the invitation card.

GM Quader said Ershad could not join the function at Bangabhaban as he is sick. “But I don't know why madam (Raushan) didn't go to the programme,” he added.

In a statement on January 4, Ershad announced that his party will be the main opposition in the 11th parliament while he will act as the Leader of the Opposition.

Jatiya Party which joined the election as the key partner of the Grand Alliance bagged 22 seats in the December 30 elections.

Bangladesh and India signed seven memorandum of understanding (MoUs) on cooperation in seven sectors during a virtual summit today.

The seven MoUs include framework agreement on high impact community development projects; cooperation in the field of agricultural, protocol on trans-boundary elephant conservation; supply of equipment and improvement of garbage/solid waste disposal ground in Barishal City Corporation; cooperation between Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Museum, Dhaka and museum in New Delhi; terms of reference of India-Bangladesh CEOs Forum; and framework understanding on cooperation in Hydrocarbon sector.

The virtual summit between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian PM Narendra Modi began around 11:30am.

Hasina and her counterpart Modi delivered their opening remarks.

The meeting will continue until 1:00pm today.

Following that, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen will hold a press conference at the State Guesthouse Padma in Dhaka at 2:30pm.

They launched a postal stamp marking the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and inaugurated Bangabandhu-Bapu Digital Museum, which highlights the lives and activities of the founders of Bangladesh and India.

The cabinet today approved the draft of a law that will pave the way for depositing the idle money to the public exchequer as Tk 2,12,100 crore remained unused till May this year.

The approval came from a regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the Secretariat here.

“The cabinet has approved the draft of the law for paving the way to help deposit the idle money to the public exchequer as the idle money is not now being invested for good purposes. The money has now been kept idle with various banks as FDR,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a news briefing at the Secretariat.

He went on saying that the money will be used to carry out development works.

According to the information updated till May 2019, as many as Taka 2,12,100 crore of 68 autonomous, semi-autonomous, government statuary authorities, public non-financial corporation and self-governed organisations are kept idle, he informed.

Shafiul added: “Among the top 25 organisations, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has idle money of Taka 21,580 crore followed by Petro Bangla Taka 18,208 crore, Power Development Board (PDP) Taka 13,454 crore, Chittagong Port 9,913 crore and Rajuk Taka 4,030 crore.”

In accordance with the proposed law, the idle money of the organisations will be brought to the state exchequer after excluding the expenses for running the organisations, money for implementing various projects with their own finance and an additional 25 percent of the money for running the organisations to face any emergency situation, he added.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reshuffled the cabinet to ensure quality work, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said today.

“The premier made the reshuffle to ensure good coordination, speed and quality of work,” he told journalists in a briefing at bridges division.

He was referring to reshuffle introduced to the cabinet yesterday, where power of two ministers were curtailed and two state ministers increased.

READ MORE: PM tweaks cabinet

“Reshuffling cabinet portfolios is a usual practice. Such changes are made in every country when necessary,” Quader added on the issue.

Quader, the general secretary of Awami League, back from Singapore after two months of treatment, also touched on the issue of BNP finally deciding to join the parliament.

“It is their internal issue, we won’t comment on it. But, Mr Fakhrul should have joined the parliament to deliver their (BNP) statement,” he said.

Also casting light on the recent issue of infighting inside Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of ruling Awami League, he said: “As I was abroad, I have no insight.”

He said, he will disclose further information after inquiring about the issue internally.