Any farmer will face imprisonment and financial penalty if found guilty of not abiding by any directive of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC).
This provision was included on Monday in the proposed draft of 'Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) Bill 2018 '.
The draft was placed in a regular Cabinet meeting held at the secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Cabinet Secretary Md Shafiul Alam, while briefing reporters, said a 16- member Board of Directors will be formed which will sit in a meeting after every three months under the proposed law.
He also stated, "If anyone (farmers) defies any notice issued by BADC he or she will be fined with Tk 10,000".
Besides, if any property of BADC is damaged, the responsible people will have to suffer six months' jail or will have to pay a fine of Tk 10,000; or both.
According to local agencies, he said the same punishment is applicable to anyone who grabs land owned by BADC.
The Cabinet also approved the draft of the Bangladesh Press Institute Bill 2018 bringing the activities of the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) under the ambit of law.
The PIB will provide training to working journalists and public relations officers of different government agencies under the proposed law.
Shaiful Alam said a 16-member Board of Directors will be formed for running the activities of the institute and it will honour the journalists for their contributions, he said.
The proposed law has defined the term 'journalist' under which all (who work on fulltime basis) editors, feature writers, assistant-editors, correspondents, reporters, copy writers, cartoonists, photographers or persons nominated by the government through gazette notifications will be considered as journalists, he said.
The cabinet secretary also said a request was sent from the Cabinet Division to Road Transport and Highways Division to consider separate lanes for VIP and emergency vehicles as it is being practiced in many other countries.