Dhaka: The Cabinet on Monday approved in principle the draft of the ‘Sylhet Medical University Bill, 2018’ to set up a medical university in Sylhet Division.

The approval was given at the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Prime Minister’s Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

After the meeting, Secretary of the Cabinet Division (Coordination & Reforms) N M Ziaul Alam said the proposed university will be a full-fledged medical one and it will be established as part of the government’s plan to set up medical university in each division in phases, reports the UNB.

According to the proposed law, he said, all the medical and dental colleges and nursing institutes in Sylhet Division will get affiliated with Sylhet Medical University.

The meeting also approved a proposal of the Election Commission for declaring March 01 as the National Voter Day and inclusion of the day in the ‘Kha’ serial of the circular of the Cabinet Division in this regard to observe the day every year.

Besides, the cabinet endorsed a proposal to allow Petrobangla for cutting 902 trees in the reserve forest at Moheshkhali Upazila in Cox’s Bazar district.

Petrobangla will construct a road on 11.618 acres of land there for its gas exploration purpose.

The permission to cut the trees has been given on condition of planting trees five times higher than the existing trees after its gas exploration and nurturing the planted trees for five years.

At the beginning of the meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled the cover of ‘Bangladesh Code’ on laws of the country.

The 42-volume book contains all the laws formulated from 1799 to 30th June 2014.