Dhaka:  The Cabinet on Monday gave its final approval the draft of the Ansar Battalion (amendment) Act with proposal for relaxing the rules and tenure to confirm of the service of the Ansar force in its weekly meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting at Bangladesh Secretariat, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said a member of the parapolice unit would now be confirmed in the job after six years of service, which until now required nine years.

After enactment of the law, he said, a person working as an embedded member in the Ansar for six years will be considered for confirmation of service.

The Cabinet also gave permission for cutting and removal of trees of the natural and generated forests under the Forest Department for implementation of the construction gas distribution pipeline from Sreepur to Joydevpur by the Titans Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited.

About 4,011 woody trees and 9,345 small trees would be fallen for construction of the three-kilometer gas pipeline.

Titas gas would have to plant double trees in the area to compensate the loss of felling trees in the area, the cabinet decided.

At the beginning, the cabinet adopted an obituary resolution expressing profound shock at the death of former ICT affairs minister and civil servant Mostafa Faruki Mohammad, the cabinet secretary said.