Cabinet may expand: Quader

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader Monday said that the number of cabinet members may increase after lawmakers from women's reserved seats of the National Parliament are elected.

He said, “Minsters will be appointed to some ministries such as the labour ministry and culture ministry (where ministers and state ministers have not been appointed yet) in due time.”

Quader revealed the information while talking to reports after a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Alexander Mantytskiy at the Secretariat in the capital on Monday.

The minister said, “The prime minister may appoint new ministers after lawmakers for the women’s reserved seats are elected. It is under her jurisdiction.”

“The prime minister has ordered to control the increasing price of daily essentials,” he said, adding that the market cannot be controlled overnight as a lot depends on the global situation.

In reply to a query over the current relationship with the United States, he said, “Bangladesh does not want enmity with the United States. Some machineries for the Rooppur Nuclear power plant have been brought following a different strategy to avoid enmity with the United States.”

Commenting on the overwhelming crowd in the metro rail, the minister said metro rail is not Bangladesh Railway. So, its number of coaches cannot be increased whenever you want. It is a technical matter. Nowhere in the world, metro rails have more than 5-6 coaches.

“However, considering the rapidly increasing number of passengers, plans are underway to decrease the time gap between the running of two rails, from every 10 minutes to every eight minutes,” Obaidul Quader added.