Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday (Monday) told her Cabinet colleagues that the World Bank (WB) tried to drag her name and those of her family members into the alleged Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) scandal, but failed to prove the allegation, a minister told this correspondent, quoting the Premier.
He was speaking to the correspondent after a Cabinet meeting, held at the Secretariat.
The allegation was false and that is why the WB failed to provide documentary evidence to Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice in Canada. The court had asked the WB to submit relevant documents, the minister further quoted the PM as having said.
On March 9, 2014, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) found “no proof of corruption or conspiracy” in the mega project, and dropped the names of all suspects from its final report.
During the Cabinet meeting, state minister for labour, Mujibul Haque Chunnu, requested Sheikh Hasina to hold a Cabinet meeting at the site of the PMB project. The Prime Minister rejected the proposal. It was at this stage that she disclosed the WB’s allegations of corruption against her and her family members.
Civil aviation minister, Rashed Khan Menon, raised the issue of security at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. The Prime Minister instructed the home minister to take steps, and see to it that no companion or follower of a VIP is allowed to enter the airport. The PM asked the home minister to arrest any person who tries to enter the airport without business, even if he or she is a party member.
Sheikh Hasina also asked her Cabinet colleagues to personally look after development projects of their respective ministries and divisions to implement these in time. “If you do not implement the development projects in time, the country will not develop,” she told her colleagues.
At the meeting, the issue involving Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus also cropped up. A minister informed the Cabinet that the finance minister had asked Yunus to stay on with the bank as emeritus adviser of the institution. However, he declined the offer and went to court.
The Prime Minister advised newspapers and television channels to publish or air more reports about the atrocities of Pakistani military personnel and their collaborators at the time of the country’s independence struggle in 1971.  Pakistan recently denied that its armed forces had committed war crimes during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.  Following which, the government strongly criticised Islamabad’s comments on the war crimes trial and execution of convicted war criminals.
The Cabinet approved the drafts of "The Gazipur Metropolitan Police Law, 2015" and "The Rangpur Metropolitan Police Law, 2015" to provide more security to the people of the newly-constituted Gazipur and Rangpur city corporations. After the meeting, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, Bijoy Bhattacharya, told reporters that the draft laws have been framed in the light of the Metropolitan Police Acts of other cities.
The Cabinet was apprised of the civil aviation and tourism minister's visit to the US from July 10 to 17, Vietnam  March 16 to 21 and Cambodia February 4 to 6.
The Cabinet was informed about the participation of a Bangladesh delegation in the Second Bangladesh-UK e-Commerce Fair, held in London on November 13 and 14.