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140-658: The Padma Multipurpose Bridge ( Bengali : পদ্মা বহুমুখী সেতু , romanized : Pôdma Bôhumukhī Shetu ), commonly known as the Padma Bridge ( Bengali : পদ্মা সেতু , romanized : Pôdda Setu ), is a two-level road-rail bridge across the Padma River , the main distributary of the Ganges in Bangladesh . It connects Louhajang Upazila of Munshiganj and Zazira Upazila of Shariatpur and
280-693: A captain in the Pakistan Army . After marriage, she changed her name to Khaleda Zia, by taking her husband's first name as her surname. She reportedly enrolled in Surendranath College in Dinajpur, but moved to West Pakistan to stay with her husband in 1965. Her husband was deployed as an army officer during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 . In March 1969, the couple shifted back to East Pakistan. Due to Rahman's posting in
420-467: A 100-day programme to fulfill most of her election pledges to the nation. During this term, the share of domestic resources in economic development efforts grew. Bangladesh began to attract a higher level of international investment for development of the country's infrastructure, energy resources and businesses, including from the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. Restoration of law and order
560-725: A backdrop of political bickering, protests and polarisation that threatened the economy. Officially on 26 December 2006, all political parties joined the planned 22 January 2007 elections. The Awami League pulled out at the last minute, and in January, the military intervened to back the caretaker government for a longer interim period. It held power until holding general elections in December 2008. Talks in China related to trade and prospective Chinese investment in Bangladesh, particularly
700-500: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
840-537: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
980-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
1120-552: A feasibility report for the construction of the Dhaka–Faridpur road to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). As part of the construction of the road, they suggested building a bridge over the Padma river. After the liberation of Bangladesh , Sheikh Mujibur Rahman , the first president of Bangladesh , announced the construction of a bridge over the river Padma, but due to his death , the project was not implemented. On 18 September 1998,
1260-406: A few weeks after February 1996 and third term was from October 2001 to October 2006. She is particularly remembered for her role in making education accessible and introducing some key economic reforms. A neutral caretaker government in Bangladesh oversaw elections on 27 February 1991 following eight years of Ershad presidency. BNP won 140 seats – 11 short of simple majority. Zia was sworn in as
1400-512: A full day hartal on 27 September 1984. The protests continued in 1985 as well and as a result, in March of the same year, Ershad-led government tightened the grip of martial law and put Begum Khaleda Zia under house arrest. To divert the political pressure, Lt. General Ershad declared a date for a fresh election in 1986. Initially, the two major opposition alliances, '7 party alliance' led by BNP and '15 party alliance' led by Awami League discussed
1540-553: A half-day strike on 10 November of the same year only to be put under house arrest again. On 24 January 1987, when Sheikh Hasina joined the parliament session with other Awami League leaders, Khaleda Zia was on the street demanding the dissolution of the parliament. She called for a mass rally in Dhaka which turned violent and top leaders of BNP were arrested. After that, a series of strikes were organized by 7 party alliance led by Khaleda Zia from February to July 1987. On 22 October of
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#17327720145451680-483: A landslide victory in the 6th Jatiya Sangshad . Other major parties demanded a neutral caretaker government to be appointed to oversee the elections. The short-lived parliament hastily introduced the caretaker government by passing the 13th amendment to the constitution. The parliament was dissolved to pave the way for parliamentary elections within 90 days. In the 12 June 1996 elections , BNP lost to Sheikh Hasina's Awami League . Winning 116 seats, BNP emerged as
1820-692: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
1960-409: A major story praising her achievements. Her government worked to educate young girls (nearly 70% of Bangladeshi women were illiterate) and distribute food to the poor (half of Bangladesh's 135 million people lived below the poverty line). Her government promoted strong GDP growth (5%) based on economic reforms and support of an entrepreneurial culture. When Zia became prime minister for the third time,
2100-682: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
2240-630: A member of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – the party, which was founded by Rahman. She took charge of the vice-chairman position in March 1983. In March 1982, the then chief of Bangladesh Army, Hussain Muhammad Ershad forced Bangladesh's BNP President Justice Abdus Sattar to resign and become the Chief Martial Law Administrator (CMLA) of the country. This marked the beginning of a nine-year-long military dictatorship in Bangladesh. Begum Khaleda Zia, from
2380-460: A movement against Ershad. On 30 September 1983, Begum Khaleda Zia led the first major public rally in front of the party office and was hailed by the party workers. On 28 November 1983, she took part in the "gherao movement" (encircling) of the Secretariat building at Dhaka along with the alliance leaders, which was quelled by Ershad's ruthless police force and she was put under house arrest on
2520-621: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Khaleda Zia Begum Khaleda Zia (born August–September 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician, who served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Bangladesh and second female prime minister in
2660-704: A plan to build the Padma Multipurpose Bridge. The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) invited the pre-qualification tender for the project in April 2010. Construction of the bridge was expected to commence by early 2011 and be ready for major completion in 2013 (and complete all sections by late 2015). After allegations of corruption by some people associated with the project's preparation, the World Bank withdrew its commitment and other donors followed. The government of Bangladesh then decided to fund
2800-747: A project worth Tk. 3,843.50 crore was proposed for the construction of a bridge over the Padma River on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga-Khulna Highway with the aim of establishing direct communication between the capital and the south and southwest of the country. At 5 km long and 18.10 m wide, this bridge is considered to be the longest possible bridge in the country. Construction was proposed to begin in July 1999 and be completed in June 2004. The proposed amount of Taka 2,893.50 crore
2940-576: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
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#17327720145453080-408: A small part of Shibchar Upazila of Madaripur , linking the less developed southwest of the country to the northern and eastern regions. The bridge was inaugurated on the morning of 25 June 2022 by the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina . The bridge is considered to be the most challenging construction project in the history of Bangladesh . The steel truss bridge carries a four-lane highway on
3220-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
3360-581: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
3500-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
3640-500: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
3780-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
3920-512: Is also informally prohibited from making political moves, as doing so would result in re-imprisonment. In September 2022, the 6-month period suspension of her sentence was granted for the sixth consecutive time. She remained in Dhaka Central Jail from 2018 to 2020 and later conditionally freed for medical treatment until 5 August 2024, after a mass uprising resulted in incumbent prime minister Hasina fleeing to India and
4060-572: Is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in
4200-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
4340-707: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
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4480-721: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
4620-409: Is estimated to give US$ 500M boost to commercial vehicle market of Bangladesh within 5 years of bridge opening. Lives are also expected to be saved as critical patients of southwestern regions will be able to travel to Dhaka faster avoiding hassles associated with travel by ferries for better treatment facilities. Padma Bridge is forecast to help increase progressively the number of tourists each year in
4760-495: Is greatly admired by the people of a country where politics is generally an unabashed pursuit of power and personal aggrandizement. From the moment Khaleda was installed as the leader of the BNP, she has publicly remained opposed to participation in any election held while Ershad was in power. Her popularity soared after she boycotted the polls in 1986. Later in that year, on the eve of 1986 Bangladeshi presidential election , Khaleda Zia
4900-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
5040-434: Is particularly significant as one of the four criteria required before the international donor agrees to a negotiated settlement is "Whether an accused party has admitted culpability". Some assumed that SNC Lavalin had done so. However, the corruption allegations were thrown out in a Canadian Court on a technicality as initial cause shown before wire tapping suspects was not deemed good enough. Hence, all evidence gathered from
5180-490: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
5320-405: Is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It
5460-567: Is the Construction Phase. Phase 1 commenced on 29 January 2009. A dedicated project office was set up in Dhaka in March 2009. The detailed design of the main bridge was carried out in AECOM's Hong Kong office. All work carried out by the design team was carried out within the framework of AECOM's Quality Management System (QMS) which is independently accredited to AS/NZS ISO 9001. The QMS is designed to control all project work undertaken by
5600-686: Is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali
5740-509: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
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5880-615: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
6020-764: The Bangladesh President issuing a release order of Zia. Khaleda Khanam "Putul" was born in 1945 in Jalpaiguri in the then undivided Dinajpur District in Bengal Presidency , British India (now in Jalpaiguri District , India) but her ancestral home is in Fulgazi , Feni She was the third of five children of tea-businessman father Iskandar Ali Majumder, who was from Fulgazi, Feni District and mother Taiyaba Majumder , who
6160-474: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
6300-477: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1993. A new export processing zone was established near Dhaka in 1993 to attract foreign investors. The First Khaleda Zia government, to address popular demand, passed a law to allow the mayors of city corporations to be elected directly by the voters. Before that, the elected ward councilors of each ward of the city corporation used to elect the mayor of
6440-579: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
6580-723: The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
6720-595: The Muslim world , after Benazir Bhutto . She is the widow of one of the former President of Bangladesh , Ziaur Rahman . She is the chairperson and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since 1984, which was founded by her husband in 1978. Born in a Muslim family in Jalpaiguri , Khaleda came to national attention as the First Lady of Bangladesh after her husband Rahman became
6860-524: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
7000-607: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
7140-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
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#17327720145457280-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
7420-464: The 'Demand Day' and 14 February as 'Protest Day'. Country-wide rallies were organized on those days and activists of the movement died on the streets fighting the ruthless police force loyal to President Ershad. The 7-party alliance held a countrywide 'Mass Resistance Day' on 9 July 1984, In support of their demand for the immediate withdrawal of Martial Law, the opposition forces called the countrywide gherao and demonstrations from 16 to 20 September and
7560-623: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
7700-460: The 17th of May, the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges issued a notification fixing different toll rates for different transports. The construction cost of the Padma bridge is Tk. 30,193.39 crore. It was estimated that by 2022, the bridge would carry 21,300 vehicles per day in 23 districts of Bangladesh, which would increase to 41,600 by 2025. It will take 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 years to recover
7840-465: The 1980s, Zia's chief rival has been Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina. Since 1991, they have been the only two serving as the prime minister of Bangladesh. Following the end of her government's term in 2006, the scheduled January 2007 elections were delayed due to political violence and in-fighting, resulting in a bloodless military takeover of the caretaker government. During its interim rule, it charged Zia and her two sons with corruption. Bangladesh
7980-652: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
8120-593: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
8260-456: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
8400-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
8540-511: The GDP growth rate of Bangladesh remained above 6 percent. The Bangladesh per capita national income rose to 482 dollars. Foreign exchange reserve of Bangladesh had crossed 3 billion dollars from the previous 1 billion dollars. The foreign direct investments of Bangladesh had risen to 2.5 billion dollars. The industrial sector of the GDP had exceeded 17 percent at the end of Zia's office. On 29 October 2006, Zia's term in office ended. In accordance with
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#17327720145458680-503: The Padma Multipurpose Bridge is being delivered by a team of international and national consultants headed by AECOM . The team comprises AECOM, SMEC International , Northwest Hydraulic Consultants and ACE Consultants, with additional assistance from Aas-Jakobsen and HR Wallingford . The project comprises two phases. Phase 1 includes the Design Phase leading through procurement action to the award of construction contracts. Phase 2
8820-591: The SSC examination and the rate was 30.11% for female. In 1995, thanks to her policies, 73.2% students passed the SSC examination and among the female students, 71.58% passed. Some of the major economic reforms marked the First Khaleda Zia government, that included the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT), formulation of Bank Company Act in 1991 and Financial Institutions Act in 1993, and the establishment of privatization board in 1993. Besides, Bangladesh signed
8960-455: The army, the family then moved to Chittagong . Zia's first son, Tarique Rahman (b. 1967), got involved into politics and went on to become the acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party . Her second son, Arafat Rahman "Koko" (b. 1969), died of a cardiac arrest in 2015. Zia's sister, Khurshid Jahan (1939–2006) served as the Minister of Women and Children Affairs during 2001–2006. Her younger brother, Sayeed Iskander (1953–2012),
9100-420: The authorities opened it to the public at 6 am. According to an official from the Bangladesh Bridge Authority, Tk. 82,19,000 toll was collected between 6 am to 2 pm. On 1 July 2022, the government earned record Tk 3,16,00,000 in revenue through toll from 26,394 vehicles that crossed the Padma Bridge, the sixth day after opening of the bridge to traffic. From the beginning, the Padma Multipurpose Bridge negotiation
9240-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
9380-442: The bridge department reveals that on average, more than 15,000 vehicles cross the bridge on a daily basis. To ensure convenient trip to other destinations by crossing the Padma Bridge, the Government of Bangladesh has initiated numerous projects, including the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Elevated Expressway , aimed at enhancing road connectivity. It was reported by Daily Purbadesh in 1971 that a team of survey experts from Japan submitted
9520-626: The bridge is expected to indirectly generate more employment and more revenues. The bridge will connect Dhaka with Kolkata in a faster way. At least 2 hours in journey time will be saved. Southern part of Bangladesh will be connected with Dhaka in a shorter time. Once the bridge is operational, another Kolkata-Dhaka International train via Mawa, Goalando, Faridpur, Kushthia, Poradaho, Darshana & Gede may be introduced. Tourist spots of Southwestern Bangladesh like Kuakata , Sundarbans and major destinations like Barisal , Faridpur , Gopalganj , Patuakhali , Khulna , etc. are now easily reachable from
9660-407: The bridge was installed on 10 December 2020 at 12:02 PM. The last road slab was installed on the span that linked pillars 12 and 13 of the Padma bridge on 24 August 2021 at 10:12 AM. The bridge was officially inaugurated by the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina , on 25 June 2022. An elaborate ceremony was conducted for the opening of Padma Bridge, signifying the national significance of
9800-413: The bridge will help lessen the impact of sea level rise in the region, a World Bank report says. According to the CPD distinguished fellow, the size of GDP would increase by 1.23% with the opening of the Padma Bridge. The south-western districts will add another 2% to the GDP through inauguration of factories and increased tourism alongside estimated 2-4% increase in wage and 6-12% increase in population. It
9940-432: The bridge, a programme which included a keynote speech from the Prime Minister was overseen. A commemorative ৳100 note was released featuring an image of the Bridge. Celebrations were held concurrently in the diplomatic missions of Bangladesh located around the world. On the 28th of April 2022, the Bridges Division proposed a toll rate for the Padma Bridge and sent it to the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina , for approval. On
10080-539: The bridge. The Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina unveiled a plaque at the Mawa point commemorating the construction of the bridge followed by special prayers. After the inauguration, Hasina paid the first toll of the bridge, ৳750 and ৳16,400 for the rest of her fleet. The motorcade stopped while on the bridge and watched an aerobatics display conducted by the Bangladesh Air Force . Upon concluding the journey across
10220-766: The capital city, Dhaka . Its single rail line is run as part of the Dhaka–Jessore line and run at a speed of 120km/h, like the rest of the Mawa-Bhanga section. Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali
10360-717: The city. Zia's administration abolished the Upazila system in November 1991. It formed the Local Government Structure Review Commission, which recommended a two-tier system of local government, district and union councils. Also the Thana Development and Coordination Committee was formed to coordinate development activities at the thana level. When the opposition boycotted the 15 February 1996 election , Zia's party BNP had
10500-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
10640-503: The constitution, a caretaker government would manage in the 90-day interim before general elections. On the eve of the last day, rioting broke out on the streets of central Dhaka due to uncertainty over, who would become Chief Advisor (head of the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh ). Under the constitution, the immediate past Chief Justice was to be appointed. But, Chief Justice Khondokar Mahmud Hasan (K M Hasan) declined
10780-516: The construction of the Padma Bridge in July 2019. Later on 9 July 2019, the bridge construction authority sent a notification to the media stating that the incident was rumoured and baseless. Researchers advised the bridge authorities to spread all the details of the construction of the bridge among the people. Population density and wages in the southern districts (zilas) connected by the Padma Bridge to Dhaka city will increase significantly, and
10920-478: The construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge. A construction firm, China Major Bridge Engineering Company Ltd, was selected to construct the long aspired bridge on the river Padma. Following the withdrawal of pledged funds by the World Bank , the project was ultimately funded directly by the Bangladesh government, with expenditures derived primarily from the central government budget. The detailed design of
11060-708: The country's first female prime minister on 20 March 1991 with the support of a majority of the deputies in parliament. The acting president Shahabuddin Ahmed granted Zia nearly all of the powers that were vested in the president at the time, effectively returning Bangladesh to a parliamentary system. With a unanimous vote, the parliament passed the 12th amendment to the constitution in August 1991, formally ending 16 years of presidential rule. When Begum Khaleda Zia took charge in 1991, Bangladeshi children received about two years of education on average, and for every three boys, there
11200-507: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
11340-492: The country. By 1990, Chatra Dal took control of 270 out of 321 student unions of the country, riding on the popularity of Khaleda Zia. They also won all the posts of Dhaka University Central Students' Union in 1990. The new committee of DUCSU led by Amanullah Aman declared fresh programmes to overthrow Ershad in line with BNP's programmes. On 10 October 1990, in a violent turn of events Chatra Dal leader Naziruddin Jehad died on
11480-399: The design at regular intervals. In addition, an independent checking engineer, Flint & Neill , was engaged to review the design criteria, specification and drawings produced by the design team to ensure the design meets the project requirements and to undertake an independent check of the detailed design of the main bridge and river training works. A key feature of the detailed design was
11620-604: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
11760-700: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
11900-553: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
12040-514: The election only to lose to the Jatiya Party of Ershad. Begum Khaleda Zia's uncompromising attitude and her defiance to the military dictatorship made an image of an "Uncompromising leader" in the eyes of people. Gowher Rizvi in his analysis wrote: The ability to stand up against governmental oppression, to boycott elections, to refuse offices of profit, or to suffer imprisonment are considered evidence of personal sacrifices something which
12180-409: The election under Ershad, resulting in the split between the 15 party alliance, On the other hand, Begum Khaleda Zia uncompromisingly declared the election illegal and urged people to resist the election. The government of Ershad put her under house arrest on the eve of the election while Awami League , Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami , Communist Party of Bangladesh and other smaller parties took part in
12320-505: The emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as
12460-493: The ferry will save Tk. 3,600 crore. According to the agreement, the bridge authority will have to pay Tk. 36,000 crore in the next 35 years. According to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority, most of the money collected from the toll will be used to repay the loan and the rest will be used to maintain the bridge. On 26 June 2022, a total of about 15,200 vehicles crossed the bridge in the first eight hours after
12600-472: The fight against extremism . Indian officials announced they had come to agreement with her to pursue a common geopolitical doctrine in the greater region to discourage terrorists. Former Bangladesh Bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed became the Chief Adviser to the interim caretaker government on 12 January 2007. In March, Zia's eldest son, Tarique Rahman, was arrested for corruption. Enforcing
12740-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
12880-543: The first day of Ershad's rule, protested the military dictatorship and had a very uncompromising stance. She became the Senior Vice-President of BNP by May 1983. Under her active leadership, BNP started discussing the possibilities of a unified movement with six other parties on 12 August 1983 and formed a ' 7 party alliance ' by the first week of September 1983. BNP, led by Khaleda Zia also reached an action-based agreement with other political parties to launch
13020-670: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
13160-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
13300-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
13440-417: The inauguration of the bridge, economic activity in the southwestern regions are expected to be significantly boosted with several big companies already starting their productions there. 17 economic zones are planned at different places in the southwestern region. Since its inauguration, the Padma Multipurpose Bridge has generated approximately Tk. 800 crore through toll collection in one year. Data analysis from
13580-531: The integration of Bangladesh counterparts into the design team, which allowed the successful training of a significant number of Bangladesh personnel in all aspects of the project and the subsequent transfer of the high level of technology involved in this large, complex project. As of May 2021, more than 95% of the construction (all the main steel frame spans were set on the piers) of the 6.15-kilometre-long two-tier Padma Multipurpose Bridge had been completed. The China Major Bridge Engineering Corporation (MBEC), which
13720-660: The investigation. As recommended by the panel, the ACC filed a case implicating former Bridges Division secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and six other high-ranking government officials. However, the same Canadian court acquitted three executives of charges that SNC-Lavalin Group Inc staff had planned to bribe Bangladesh officials in the bridge project, on the same technicality mentioned earlier. Rumours spread on social media platforms like Facebook that human heads would be required in
13860-580: The issue of financing Padma Bridge . At the beginning of 2012, the World Bank , a major prospective financier, had withdrawn, accusing government ministers of graft. The BNP announced that the Chinese funding for a second Padma Bridge was confirmed during her visit. Zia's India visit was considered notable as BNP had been considered to have been anti-India compared to its rival Awami League. At her meeting with Prime Minister Singh, Zia said her party wanted to work with India for mutual benefit, including
14000-494: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
14140-547: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
14280-560: The largest opposition party in the country's parliamentary history. The BNP formed a four-party alliance on 6 January 1999 to increase its chances to return to power in the next general elections. These included its former political foe the Jatiya Party , founded by President Ershad after he led a military government, and the Islamic parties of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and the Islami Oikya Jot . It encouraged protests against
14420-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
14560-605: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
14700-517: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
14840-551: The position. President Iajuddin Ahmed , as provided for in the constitution, assumed power as Chief Advisor on 29 October 2006. He tried to arrange elections and bring all political parties to the table during months of violence; 40 people were killed and hundreds injured in the first month after the government's resignation in November 2006. Mukhlesur Rahman Chowdhury , the presidential advisor, met with Zia and Sheikh Hasina, and other political parties to try to resolve issues and schedule elections. Negotiations continued against
14980-431: The possibilities of participating in the election forming a greater election alliance to catch Ershad off the guard. But Awami League refused to form any election alliance and Sheikh Hasina in a public rally declared anyone who would join the election under Ershad would be a 'national traitors', on 19 March 1986. However, Sheikh Hasina's Awami League , along with Communist Party of Bangladesh and six other parties, joined
15120-417: The president in 1977. After Rahman's assassination in 1981, Khaleda joined politics and came to lead the BNP. After a military coup in 1982, led by former army chief Lieutenant general Hussain Muhammad Ershad , She helped lead the movement for democracy until the fall of Ershad in 1990. She became the prime minister following the victory of BNP in the 1991 general election . She also served briefly in
15260-433: The project itself. China proposed building the bridge on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis by investing $ 2 billion or 70 percent of the project cost. Four companies—China Major Bridge Engineering Company, Daelim-L&T JV and Samsung C&T Corporation—purchased the tender papers. However, only the Chinese company submitted their financial proposal on 24 April 2014. On 17 June 2014, important progress had been made in
15400-463: The proposed loan for constructing the bridge and imposed conditions for the continuation of loan talks with the government. In accordance with one of these conditions Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain had to resign, as he was alleged to have been involved in the corruption. SNC-Lavalin accepted a negotiated resolution agreement where the company and its affiliates were barred from taking part in bidding for World Bank contracts for 10 years. This
15540-499: The ruling Awami League. Many residents strongly criticized Zia and BNP for allying with Jamaat-e-Islami, which had opposed the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. The four-party alliance participated in the 1 October 2001 general elections, winning two-thirds of the seats in parliament and 46% of the vote (compared to the principal opposition party's 40%). Zia was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She worked on
15680-560: The same day. Due to the deteriorating health conditions, Justice Abdus Sattar resigned from the position of BNP chief on 13 January 1984 and was replaced by Begum Khaleda Zia who was then the Senior Vice President of the party. In May 1984, she was elected as the chairperson of the party in a council by the councilors. After assuming the position of party chief, Khaleda Zia spearheaded the movement against Ershad. In 1984, along with other parties, she declared 6 February as
15820-461: The short-lived government in 1996, when other parties had boycotted the first election because of election fraud accusations. In the next round of general elections of 1996 , the Awami League under Sheikh Hasina came to power. Her party came to power again in 2001. She has been elected to five separate parliamentary constituencies in the general elections of 1991, 1996 and 2001 . Since
15960-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
16100-412: The southwestern districts, including a twofold during the inaugurating year alone. Accordingly, the existing hotels in the region are forecast to earn higher profits. According to Draft PaperWork, new hotel, motel and rest-house businesses too had been coming to them for business consultancy, licensing and other documentation services for opening their tourism and hospitality businesses in the region. Hence,
16240-412: The street of Dhaka that paved the way for a greater alliance between all the opposition forces. After two-month-long protests, the BNP led by Khaleda Zia, along with other political parties, compelled Ershad to offer his resignation on 4 December 1990. Begum Khaleda Zia served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for three times. Her first term was from March 1991 to February 1996, second term lasted for
16380-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
16520-463: The suppression of political activity under the state of emergency, from 9 April, the government barred politicians from visiting Zia's residence. Her other son, Arafat Rahman (Coco), was arrested for corruption on 16 April. On 17 April, The Daily Star reported that Zia had agreed to go into exile with Arafat. Her family said, the Saudi Arabian government reportedly declined to allow her into
16660-469: The team. A project-specific design management plan was established at the outset of the project. In March 2009, the government of Bangladesh requested AECOM to accelerate the design to complete construction by the end of 2013. This necessitated the mobilization of additional personnel within the design team. Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) established an internationally recognized panel of experts comprising five national and five international experts to review
16800-654: The third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to
16940-478: The toll from all of them. According to Jugantar , citing the World Bank, the revenue from the Padma Bridge in the next 31 years will be 18.5 billion dollars, which is 5.5 times the construction cost. In addition, social progress will add 25 billion dollars to the economy. The land that has been protected through river governance on both sides is worth about Tk. 1,400 crore. The bridge will save Tk. 2,400 crore on electricity, gas and internet lines. The non-operation of
17080-430: The upper level and a single track railway on the lower level. The bridge consists of 41 sections, each 150.12 m (492.5 ft) long and 22 metres (72 ft) wide, with a total length of 6.15 km (3.82 mi). It is the longest bridge over the river Padma ( Padma ), and by extension, Bangladesh . Being the longest bridge by both span and total length, and featuring the deepest pile depth of any bridge in
17220-491: The verdict for abusing power as the prime minister while disbursing a fund in favor of newly formed Zia Orphanage Trust. Referring to the international and domestic legal experts, the U.S. State Department in its 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices opined that "Lack of evidence to support the conviction" suggests the case was a political ploy to remove her from the electoral process. Amnesty International raised concerns that her "fair trial rights are not respected". Zia
17360-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
17500-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
17640-401: The wire tap was discarded. As the case heavily relied on the wire tap evidences, the prosecution decided not to pursuit the case further. In 2017, former ICC prosecutor Luis Gabriel Moreno Ocampo came to Dhaka to monitor the progress of the alleged Padma Multipurpose Bridge corruption investigation. The World Bank sent a panel of three, headed by Ocampo, to review the steps taken by the ACC in
17780-458: The world at 127 m (417 ft). The construction of this bridge was deemed to be especially challenging due to specific constraints with the width and depth of the Padma river. The bridge is expected to boost the GDP of Bangladesh by up to 1.23 percent. 13 districts, of a total 21, will be connected by the bridge to other regions of the country which have an above average poverty rate. Following
17920-449: The year, Khaleda Zia's BNP in collaboration with Sheikh Hasina's Awami League declared "Dhaka Seize" programme on 10 November to overthrow Ershad. As a countermeasure, Ershad's government rounded up thousands of political leaders and activists, but on the day of seizing there were complete chaos on the streets and dozens died. The government of Ershad put Khaleda Zia under house arrest after detaining her from Purbani Hotel , from where she
18060-486: Was also a politician who served as a Jatiya Sangsad member from the Feni-1 constituency during 2001–2006. Her second brother, Shamim Iskandar, is a retired flight engineer of Bangladesh Biman . Her second sister is Selina Islam. On 30 May 1981, Khaleda Zia's husband, the-then President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated . After his death, on 2 January 1982, she got involved into politics by first becoming
18200-605: Was an achievement during the period. Zia promoted neighbourly relations in her foreign policy. In her "look-east policy", she worked to bolster regional cooperation in South Asia and adherence to the UN Charter of Human Rights. She negotiated settlement of international disputes, and renounced the use of force in international relations. Bangladesh began to participate in United Nations international peacekeeping efforts. In 2006, Forbes magazine featured her administration in
18340-403: Was appointed for the main bridge, is carrying out the work. The bridge has a total of 42 pillars. Each has six piles beneath. Steel spans were placed on the pillars. The bridge has a total of 41 spans. Work on the Padma Multipurpose Bridge is broadly divided into five parts—the main bridge, river training, two link roads and infrastructure (service area) construction. China's Sinohydro Corporation
18480-450: Was appointed for the river training works while Bangladesh's Abdul Monem Limited was given the contract for the two link roads and infrastructure construction. In October 2017, more than one and a half years after the main construction work began, the first span was installed between pillars 37 and 38, indicating timely progress on the project. On 27 November 2020, construction of all 42 pillars had been completed. The final (41st) span of
18620-407: Was coordinating the movement. On 11 December 1987, Khaleda was set free but she immediately held a press conference and claimed that, she was "prepared to die" to depose the dictator. After the eventful 1987, two following years went relatively calm with sporadic violence. A fresh wave of movements started when BNP's student wing Chatra Dal started winning most of the student union elections across
18760-565: Was facing a total 36 cases against her including the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption Case and Zia Charitable Trust corruption case. On 27 November 2024, Zia was acquitted in these graft cases. Zia was transferred to a hospital for medical treatment in April 2019. In March 2020, she was released for six months on humanitarian grounds with the conditions that she would stay at her home in Gulshan, Dhaka and not travel abroad. She
18900-546: Was from Chandbari (now in Uttar Dinajpur District ). According to her father, after the partition of India in 1947 , they migrated to Dinajpur town (now in Bangladesh). Khaleda describes herself as "self-educated" and there are no records of her graduating from high school; Initially, she attended Dinajpur Missionary School and later Dinajpur Girls' School . In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman , then
19040-404: Was from foreign sources and Taka 750 crore from local sources. The foundation stone for the Padma Bridge was laid by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 4 July 2001. However, the BNP under the leadership of Khaleda Zia returned to power following the 2001 general election and decided to discontinue the project. In the 2006-2007 Annual Development Program, the then Government of Bangladesh adopted
19180-512: Was involved in controversy and conspiracy. The World Bank stated that they found "credible evidence corroborated by a variety of sources which points to a high-level corruption conspiracy among Bangladeshi government officials, SNC-Lavalin executives, and private individuals in connection with the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project." As a result of the alleged corruption, the World Bank initially refused to sanction
19320-459: Was one girl studying in the same classroom. Begum Khaleda Zia promoted education and vocational training very aggressively. Her government made primary education free and mandatory for all. Education was made free for girls until the 10th grade. To fund the implementation of new reforms and policies, in 1994, the education budget was increased by 60%, the highest allocation amongst the formal budget sectors. In 1990, only 31.73% students passed in
19460-406: Was put under house arrest once again. Khaleda Zia was put under house arrest multiple times from 1986 to 1990 by Ershad's military government. On 13 October 1986, she was put under house arrest right before the 1986 Bangladeshi presidential election and was released only after the election. She took the lead on her release and initiated a fresh movement with a view to deposing Ershad. She called
19600-512: Was the most corrupt country in the world according to Corruption Perceptions Index during her second tenure from 2001 to 2006. In its list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World , Forbes magazine ranked Zia at number 14 in 2004, number 29 in 2005, and number 33 in 2006. Zia was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison for the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case and Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in 2018. A local court handed her
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