Social media: herald of new revolutions

IMAGINE that you've captured a video or took a picture of an incident of repression by members of security force or anyone else. You upload it on YouTube or Facebook and post the link on Twitter. If the video or the picture is worth watching, your friends or followers would 'like' it, comment on it and share it with their friends. The process of sharing would go on network after network. What could happen? Your uploaded local or personal content could become truly global within a few days.

This is what happened when the Egyptian police beat and killed Khaled Mohamed Saeed. After the death of this young businessman in June 2010, a Facebook group titled 'We Are All Khaled Saeed' was created. Gradually, this group became one important platform to criticise the repression of the Egyptian government. Subsequently, it managed to gather 400000 members. The group called for a protest on 25 January and we all know what happened next. Later, it was revealed that Wael Ghonim, the Middle East and North African marketing manager at Google, had created the group. Another important contribution to the social media platform came from the April 6 movement led by Aasma Mahfouz.

These types of incidents were not seen before. They clearly indicate a new force in politics—the social media. Yes, the use of propaganda during war and peace is not new. We saw waves of information war between socialist and capitalist blocks during the cold war. It is still happening in the media to serve particular national or group interest. In this regard, the power of the Jewish lobby often comes to discussion.

But, what is different here is the message coming from the bottom. You can control a media house but you cannot control hundreds of thousands of minds meeting and sharing on Facebook or Twitter. The scenes and words from the protest events are being spread all over the world within seconds even before being the reported of any TV channel.

One Egyptian activist tweeted during the protests, 'We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world.' A video clip uploaded on YouTube, shot from the balcony of a flat in Cairo, showed protesters out in the streets and a man standing in front of a water cannon, daring it to move. Such dramatic scenes transmitted all over the world through social media attracted the attention of the global community.

According to Al Jazeera, 'New media, from WikiLeaks to Facebook, Twitter to YouTube, is persistently challenging the traditional flow of information, and cyber disobedience is exposing powerful governments. Websites are now being treated like hostile territories; whistleblowers and leakers as terrorists, and hackers as insurgents.' An analysis at DAWN regarding the protesters writes, 'In fact they are fighting their war with phones, not guns. WikiLeaks, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook replace firearms and missiles. Viral spreads across the world are winning sympathies of the people and the governments for the revolutionists. 'Techno-realism' has become an affordable and effective tool as measures of the dictatorial regimes to suppress communication via web meets failure.'

We should not forget one thing. These social media outlets are not catalysts for revolution; they are just means or tools. People have real grievances due to unemployment, government repression, lack of social services, etc. Social media have become an excellent non-violent weapon to fight to attain the demands.

The internet in general and the social media in particular have become a force against governments, especially where freedom to expression is not permitted. Even the preacher of the freedom of expression, the US government, was exposed bare in front of the world through WikiLeaks. Governments do not sit idle either. During protests, all Facebook accounts in Tunisia were hacked and in Egypt the internet was shut down in most parts of the country. Apprehensive of the danger of this new weapon, Chinese, Iranian and other many governments practice harsh control over the internet.

The Chinese government hired a group called '50 Cent Party' for writing pro-government comments in blogs and online forums. The Russian government is trying to hire bloggers. US state department has a Digital Outreach Team which is responsible for spreading US propaganda and fighting anti-US sentiments. It mainly works in the Arabic, Persian and Urdu blogosphere. Recently, the US military signed a contract with California-based company Ntrepid to develop a software which would allow manipulating conversations in social media sites.

Recent incidents brought to focus the issue of 'Internet Kill Switch.' If it is technologically possible for governments to shut down the internet single-handedly, the democratic pro-poor appeal of the new media will be scaled down. Governments may switch off the whole internet system in the name of cyber security. It may be a very important future electoral and legislative issue.

Let's finish with a bitter fact. According to a new survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, one in five American divorces involves the social networking site Facebook. A UK law firm last year showed that 20 per cent of its divorce petitioners blamed Facebook flings. Reverend Cedric Millier in a New Jersey church urged the people to close Facebook accounts as it helps create illegal relations. Later he was forced to take leave of absence when it was revealed that he himself had been involved with non-Facebook illegal sexual relationships. The social media has left impact on many parts of our life. It has created a virtual world where old school friends from different hemispheres may engage in gossiping. There is much debate regarding its social and psychological outcome on users. Like many other things in our life, social media is a tool which may bring peace or problem; it is the human consciousness which will ultimately choose from the diversity of options.

Source: New Age

What is happening at National University?

A SERIES of articles published in a Bengali daily on the irregularities of the National University of Bangladesh must have taken many by surprise. The university was established in 1992 to ease the burden of public universities and run smoothly the functions of education in the tertiary level in university colleges. But with the passage of time, heaps of problems seem to have grasped the university. No effective measures have been taken so far though the situation is getting worse day by day.

Session jam has paralysed the university, just as traffic jam paralyses the lives of the Dhaka city dwellers and hijacks valuable time, leaving negative effect on national life. A lack of inter-departmental coordination stands as a significant reason behind the session jam. The university now experiences a three-year gridlock. Students are to spend seven years to complete four-year courses. The university does not monitor how the classes are going on, whether the quality is up to the point or not or whether students can come out of the student life after a certain period of time. The university was given the responsibility to smoothly arrange for exams, grading papers and publishing the results on time. After two decades, it seems the situation stands at the same place as before. It takes one year to publish the results of master's examination. It is one of the main causes of session jam, along with other causes.

The university administration appears to be corrupt from head to toe. There is no sincerity, honesty and financial accountability. Political recruitment of officials and staff, instead of a transparent process of employing officers, teachers and employees can be attributed to it. Administrative officials who received appointment on the basis of political affiliations do not seem to have any accountability, honesty and sincerity to the development of the university. They apparently remain busy making their fortune by fair means or foul. They do not seem to bother about rules and regulations of the university, nor about the higher administration because of their political linkage. Many officials reportedly don't even attend the office regularly, contributing to growing pile of works. After coming to office, many only spend time in the canteens, arranging political matters.

The Bengali daily also mentions that the teachers' salary come from the directorate of secondary and higher education; that the Public Service Commission selects the cadres; that teacher transfer and promotion are looked after by the education ministry itself. Non-government teachers are employed by the National University. A lack of coordination among these bodies contributes to increasing the problem of the university.

In the face allegations of serious irregularities, a fact-finding committee was formed to identify the problems and suggest some measures to address the problematic issues. According to the newspaper report, the committee found that printing question papers in the government press takes a long time which contributes to session jam. The press remains busy with printing orders from various government departments and agencies. Examinations cannot be held timely due the delay. Still no pragmatic step has been devised to address this issue. The university has a fund of Tk 260 crore of its own. So, the university should establish a printing press of its own immediately.

The National University administration has decided to establish six regional offices in six divisions to facilitate the activities of the university. It is argued that the students need not go to Gazipur for the small problems. But many say that it will not lessen the problems rather increase them manifold and corruption will increase as well. In 1999, two regional centres were established at Chittagong and Rajshahi, but they did not show any efficiency. Moreover, the university incurred loss of fifteen lakh taka for it. Who can guarantee that the same will not happen to the new regional offices?

When I talked to the teachers, some more alarming facts came out. Mark allocation in honours courses for the session 2010-11 has not been done yet. No sample question on writing, even after college test examination, has been sent to colleges. This is for the English course. The same may be the case for other subjects. Apparently, holding HSC and degree examinations in colleges hamper the normal classes of honours students. They hardly get due attention because of these examinations. Some new or innovative measures need to be developed but the authorities hardly pay attention to it. Teachers complain that they don't have training to deal with honours students and run academic administration. Many teachers are not suitable to teach in the honours level as they are actually teachers of the intermediate level and degree pass course.

 In many colleges, students cannot use seminar rooms, even though they regularly pay fees. Colleges are not buying new books and the university does not take any step regarding the issue. As students cannot read books, newspapers and journals in the seminar rooms, they loiter and use their free time fruitlessly. No monitoring system has been developed in the NU, though there are teachers and officials at the Gazipur campus who can do it.

The attendance of students in the first year is nearly 60 per cent, which comes down to ten and even five per cent with the passing of years. Most of the students remain busy with tuition, business, running coaching centres and investing in the share market, leaving studies as soon as they get admission in the honours level. It is easier for them to memorise some notes and attend the examinations. They aim to get a degree which gives them a certificate, not education in the real sense of the term. The authorities don't have any headache about bringing the students back to the class. Teachers suggest that the university must compel the colleges to send the attendance sheets of the honours students, duly signed by the departmental heads and principal, every three to four months. The university authorities must ask for a definite percentage of attendance in the class to be allowed to participate in the examination. If it is done, students will give importance to participating in the class.

Teachers complain that no research at all is being conducted in the National University. There is no option for sending faculty members outside the country for higher education. Research is the life of a university. A university is ranked on the basis of the quality and quantity of research work. This university seems to be standing a hundred mile apart from the notion of research. In examinations and viva-voce, lobbying gets priority. Syllabuses are changed again and again but the university teachers are hardly invited in the process.

In the ranking of universities, no university of Bangladesh or SAARC countries occupy front positions. But the number of students at the university far outnumbers many universities of the world. It has ten lakh students in more than two thousand colleges. Can we afford to allow these irregularities to continue in the largest university run by public money? Should we play ducks and drakes with the life and education of ten lakh students? In no way do they deserve to face such negligence from the authorities concerned. At any rate, this big national educational institution must be made a real centre of teaching and learning, conducting research and producing quality students so that they can face the world without being the burden of the country already plagued by unemployment.

Source: New Age

The politics of hunger

SPOTLIGHTING China as an example, BBC News reports that '[t]he Food and Agriculture Organisation's food price index is at its highest level since being created in 1990.' 'As food prices rise,' the story adds, 'so does poverty.' In just the first few months of this year, some Asian markets have witnessed as much as a 10 per cent increase in local food prices, a shift that could potentially plunge almost 65 million people into poverty, according to some estimates.

Though observers and commentators are quick to importune governments to act, making all the usual allegations of 'market failure,' the worldwide food problem is a consequence of state intervention.

As law professor Siva Vaidhyanathan observed (regarding intellectual property laws), 'Content industries have an interest in creating artificial scarcity by whatever legal and technological means they have at their disposal.' And the same is true of commodity providers whose interest it is to ensure that the nutrition we need to survive comes through them.

If a few giant, state-subsidised and -protected farms, wholesalers and retailers can unilaterally command supply, they can demand in payment whatever capricious price they determine. This propensity—ever more cartelised industry with ever fewer 'competitors'—is endemic to state capitalism, but it is alien to genuine free markets.

Free markets divide and moderate market power by denying special protection and privilege and opening competition to a wide assortment of both entrants and methods. Only where potential threats to corporate monopolisation are precluded by force of law—through, among other impediments, 'safety' and 'consumer protection' standards—can today's 'captains of industry' ascend to market dominance.

It is too often assumed that the behemoth conglomerates populating the landscape of corporate capitalism wince at regulations supposedly aimed at health and safety. These rules, however, routinely function to outlaw the farm stand down the street, the small, local producer who can't afford to jump through the arbitrary and unjustified hoops put up by the political class.

Powerful elites lobby for and welcome new laws that further constrain consumers' options, preventing you from 'taking your business elsewhere.' Today, the price we pay for food is quite detached from the actual costs of producing it. Where the natural pressures of a legitimately free market would push prices downward to reflect a product's true value, state capitalism's restrictions on competition allow big business to squeeze out monopoly profits.

In still another departure from real market discipline, taxpayer subsidised transportation means that most people get their food from hundreds or thousands of miles, rather than hundreds or thousands of yards, away. When the price of oil rises, then, so too does the price of food. With so few alternatives to the mass-produced garbage of state-fortified big agribusiness, there's no real reason to give the powerless consumer anything like a good product at a good price. So much for 'consumer protection.'

In places like China and Southeast Asia, governments have dealt away to rich companies land that was cultivated by farmers for thousands of years, land that fed their families and their community. The state and its favourites have no justifiable claim to these lands under any well-founded standard of property, but the ethic of the state has never amounted to much more than might makes right.

The rising costs and shortages of food, a growing crisis all around the world, are a creation of the state, a phenomenon that exists completely apart from anything that could, with a straight face, be called 'market forces.' Market anarchists would remove the constraints and coercion from food production and allow voluntary exchange to feed the world.

Rather than pining after some utopian paradise, market anarchists argue that, without state-created scarcities for rich rent-seekers, people around the world be able to provide good food for their families with a fraction of their labour today. We can look to elite members of the political class to 'fix' a problem that they created, or we can allow cooperation and genuine free trade on a human scale to fulfil people's needs.

We've seen the way that political solutions work. Now it's time for society to get out from under the stranglehold of the state.

Source: New Age

Govt’s immediate intervention sought to save rivers

Green and right activists on Friday demanded immediate government intervention to save the country's rivers, saying that a syndicate was trying to grab the rivers and the water resources.

They urged the government not to hand over the water resources to the businessmen and ensure people's right to water bodies.

They made the call at a human chain organised by rights organisation Citizens' Solidarity in front of the National Press Club in the capital.

Citizens' Solidarity general secretary Sharifuzzaman Sharif presided over the programme which was addressed by Save the Environment Movement chairman Abu Naser Khan,  Citizens' Rights Movement secretary general Tusher Rehman, PEACE secretary general Ifma Hossain, former director general of Water Development Board M Inamul Haque, Nirapad Development Foundation chairman Ibnul Syed Rana, Protect and Progress Foundation general secretary Jibanananda Jayanta and former student leader of Rajshahi University Raquibe Hasan Munna.

Abu Naser Khan alleged that the discussion over saving the rivers was not effected as no initiative by the government was seen over the previous years because of a number of river grabbers within the government.

He urged the government to free the river from the grabbers and ensure their natural flow.

Jibanananda Jayanta said the people who grabbed the state mechanism since the independence were really engaged in grabbing the rivers.

He demanded that the government should give exemplary punishment to the grabbers and their patrons among the government.

Sharifuzzaman Sharif said the country had almost fifteen hundred rivers in the eleventh century while the number came down to about 250 and later it came to only 158 due to grabbing and other reasons.

He also said almost 17 rivers of the country including Narsundar, Bibiana, Palang, Mukteshwari, Marichap, Baral, Hisna were dead while  eight others including Karatowa, Ichhamati, Kaliganga, Kumar, Chitra, Vadra, Sumeshwari and Nabaganga are almost dying.

The activists pointed out the importance of the rivers and said the survival of human civilisation would be impossible if all the rivers died.

They suggested a cleaner production in every factory, ban on throwing hospital, household and other wastes and oil into rivers, freeing the river from the grabbers and demarking them and river-water-friendly policy to be followed by the government organisations including Water Development Board, city corporation, town development organisations, WASA, BIWTA and other water and river related ministries.

Source: New Age

Corruption eats into Rajshahi University Press

Allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds in the Rajshahi University Press have recently surfaced, with the press staff coming up with complaints against its management.

An official of the university press, seeking anonymity, informed that recently a single colour offset printing and plate making machine was bought for Tk 14 lakh but submitted the bill to the accounts department, showing the price at Tk 40 lakh.

The source said that the university actually needed a double demy press machine for which the press management had issued tender notices, but it bought this machine made in 1986.

According to the same source, a used envelope cutting machine was also bought spending Tk 30 lakh but a Tk 95 lakh-bill was submitted.

RU vice-chancellor, after receiving complaints from some of the press staff early April, asked the university vigilance team to look into the matter, said Jalaluddin, vigilance team-member and professor of RU social work department.

The RU vigilance team, led by its registrar M Abdur Rahman, usually monitors and investigates the complaints relating to the financial irregularities of the institution.

Jalaluddin told New Age that the team had checked and found both machines inoperative.

They had suggested that experts should be brought from Dhaka to check their condition, he said.

'Since we are not familiar with the machines, we cannot say for sure how good or bad their condition is,' he added.

Shamsuddin Ahmed, administrative officer of the RU press, refused to comment on the complaints of irregularities in procuring the machines and said they would soon bring the experts to check the machines.

RU pro-vice chancellor Mohammad Nurullah told New Age that a probe body would be formed to further investigate the matter.

'We shall take decision after we get the findings of that body,' he added.

Source: New Age

DCC dismantles illegal hoardings

The Dhaka City Corporation on Thursday night conducted a drive to remove illegal hoardings at different spots of the city. 

The DCC's chief waste management officer, Bipan Kumar Saha, on Friday confirmed that six hoardings were removed from different spots of the corporation's zones 4, 5 and 6.

The corporation's executive magistrate Khalil Ahmed said they would continue to conduct drives against illegal and dangerous hoardings Thursday nights in the city.

The magistrate said, in this drive, they targeted Aziz Groups' hoarding on Radhuni Gura Mashla at Shapla Chattar, Lizan Mehedi's two hoardings at Khejurbagan and the Dainik Bangla crossing, Seven Horses Cement's hoarding besides at Paribagh, Unipoll's two hoardings at Farmgate foot over bridge and beside Nilkhet police station, Sumona Gani Trade Centre's hoarding at the Hotel Shonargaon crossing, and Rahimafroz company's hoarding at Fakirapool crossing.

'We targeted the hoardings, especially, for three reasons — they have no proper permission, stand over high-voltage electric wire and are prone to break down on people during storm,' Khalil Ahmed added.

The sources also said the removal work of the hoarding of Seven Horses Cement at Paribagh was left half-done and the hoardings at Farmgate footbridge and Fakirapool crossing could not be carried due to time constraint.

They would be removed in the next drive, they added.

The magistrate said about 70 workers and officials of the corporation and two police platoons took part in the drive.

He also confirmed that the drive was conducted from 10:30pm on Thursday to 4:00am on Friday.

Khalil Ahmed said the corporation had not disclosed which hoardings were to be removed. 

According to a DCC statistics, currently, the city has about 3,000 hoardings.

The Section 5 of the DCC outdoor advertising policy says that no advertising board can be installed, on a wall or the roof of any building or on a DCC-owned land or structure, without prior permission of the corporation.

Source: New Age

Mothers’ festival begins in Barisal city

The two-day Mothers' Festival 2011 began at Planet World Children Park in the Barisal city on Friday with a call to make the city women-friendly.

Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Elementary Learning for Child Development Project, ministry of women and children affairs and the non-governmental organisation, AGAMI, jointly organised the programme in collaboration with the Barisal City Corporation.

Bangladesh Shishu Academy director, Falguni Hamid, inaugurated the festival.

More than four hundred mothers from different walks of life were accorded reception in the festival and were entertained with cultural functions.

Discussions on different issues related with motherhood were held on the occasion.

Barisal mayor, Shawkat Hossain Hiron, attended the programme as chief guest and announced to make the city women-friendly, stalking-free and respecting for the mothers. He said womanhood reaches on the highest stage by achieving motherhood.

'Only good mother can present good citizens. So mothers should be given highest respect with proper attention in all aspects of their lives,' the BCC Mayor said.

Source: New Age

Computer training for VDP women held in Sylhet

A six-week basic computer training course for the female members of the Village Defence Party ended in Sylhet on Friday.


The concluding session of the programme, held at the organisation training centre at Akhalia, was attended by Bangladesh Ansar and VDP Sylhet range director Kazi Shakhawat Hossain as chief guest.
Sylhet divisional instructor of the organisation Biplob Chandra Saha moderated the programme addressed, among others, by the district commander Abdul Awal, Jaintapur upazila unit officer Mansurul Alam and Dakkhin Surma upazila unit trainer Emi Begum.
Three trainees were awarded crests for their outstanding performances.
Source: New Age

Auto-rickshaw drivers for revision of govt-fixed fares

The CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers formed a human chain in front of the Chittagong Press Club Friday morning, demanding Tk 35 as fare for the first two kilometres and Tk 8 for the next each kilometre.

The Chittagong City Auto-rickshaw Workers' Welfare Association organised the human chain in the Chittagong city at around 11:00am. The human chain was followed by a brief rally.

With the association president Abdul Motaleb in the chair, the rally was addressed, among others, by general secretary Harun-ur-Rashid, Harun Haoladar, Shah Alam Haoladar and Shamshul Islam.

The speakers said it was in no way possible for them to operate auto-rickshaws in the government-fixed fare as they would have to return home at night almost empty-handed after depositing Tk 600 to the owners and spending Tk 220 for gas and Tk 130 as other expenditure.

The government has fixed Tk 25 as the fare for the first two kilometres and Tk 7.50 for each of the following kilometre while the waiting charge was fixed Tk 1.20 for per minute in the backdrop of increase in CNG price.

Source: New Age

Women leaders want Eden College as univ named after Pritilata

Women leader on Friday demanded that the Eden Girls' College should be given autonomy and be upgraded to a fully-fledged university named after Pritilata Waddedar.

They said this at a discussion organised by Samajtantrik Mahila Forum marking the birth centenary of Pritalata, an anti-British revolutionary from Bengal, at the Teacher-Student Centre in Dhaka University. Pritilata's birth anniversary fell on May 5.

The organisation put fourth their four-point demands in programme. The demands include upgrade of the college into a university named after Pritilata, installation of a statue of Pritilata in front of the college, and the naming of the road stretch from Azimpur to Nilkhet after Pritalata.

The discussion was presided over by the organisation's Dhaka division president Sultana Akhter Rubi.

Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal leader Bazlur Rashid Firoz, Jahangirnagar University teacher Nasim Akhter Hossain, and Samajtantrik Mahila Forum's general secretary Syeda Parvin Akhter spoke.

Source: New Age

Persona Adams Men’s Spa outlet launched

Persona Adams, a leading beauty care saloon for the males, launched its 4th outlet 'Persona Adams: Exclusive Men's Spa Saloon' at Banani on Friday after Uttara, Gulshan and Dhanmondi in the capital.

Most special feature of the mission would be Mens' Spa.

Renowned magician Jewel Aich inaugurated the venture while beauty expert and managing director of Persona Kaniz Almas Khan, executive director Mostofa Tanveer and other celebrities were present.

Source: New Age

Drive against errant transport operators continues

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police continued for the second consecutive day on Friday the drive against CNG-run auto-rickshaws and public transports charging fares more than the rates fixed by the government.

The revised fare chart came into effect on Thursday.

DMP sources said that on the second day of the drive, traffic sergeants checked at every traffic signal in the city if transport operators were charging extra fares violating the revised fare chart.

According to the police control room, DMP filed 414 cases against CNG-run auto-rickshaws on the first day of the drive on Thursday for demanding extra fares from passengers.

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, which carried out drive on Wednesday and Thursday against charging extra fares, did not conduct its drive on Friday.

'We will resume the drive from Sunday till the situation becomes normal,' said the authority's executive magistrate Mohammad Tofael Islam.

On Monday the government raised bus fare by 35 paisa a kilometre in the cities of Dhaka and Chittagong and fixed the minimum fare at Tk 7, following its decision to increase the fuel price.

On long routes, it raised bus fare to Tk 1.15 a kilometre from 94-96 paisa.

The government raised CNG-run auto-rickshaw fare to Tk 7.50 a kilometre from Tk 7. The minimum fare remained unchanged at Tk 25.

Waiting charge for the auto-rickshaws was increased to Tk 1.30 a minute from Tk 1.25.

Source: New Age

IDB to sign two deals on Padma Bridge May 24

The Islamic Development Bank president, Ahmad Mohamed Ali, will arrive in Dhaka on Monday morning to witness the signing of an agreement with the Bangladesh government under which the IDB will provide $140 million for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project.

On Tuesday morning, Mohamed Ali will meet the finance minister, AMA Muhith, at his secretariat office. Later, both the finance minister and the IDB president will witness the signing of two loan agreements including the one for the Padma Bridge.

The IDB will provide $140 million to finance the construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge with the approach roads and toll plaza.

The government will sign another agreement with the IDB for $14.84 million to finance the water supply and sanitation project in cyclone-prone coastal areas.

Soon after his arrival on Monday, the IDB president will fly to Sidr-affected Sharankhola upazila in Bagerhat to lay the foundation stone of a school-cum cyclone shelter to be implemented under the IDB's grant of $ 30 million. Mohamed Ali will also visit some successful agro-input programme beneficiaries.

Of the $130 million IDB grant, $110 million will be spent for constructing some 440 cyclone shelters-cum- primary schools in the cyclone-prone coastal districts. Another $20 million will be spent for the rehabilitation of agriculture and fisheries in the Sidr-hit areas.

An anonymous philanthropist donated the $130 million to the IDB in January 2008 for the rehabilitation of the cyclone-affected people, ERD sources said.

The IDB Board of Executive approved the amount in October last year.

The Jeddah-based bank will spend the money donated by the philanthropist under the 'Fael Khair' programme in the Sidr-affected districts.

The catastrophic cyclone Sidr, which ravaged the country's coastal area on November 15 in 2007, killed thousands of people and rendered millions homeless.

Of the estimated cost of $2.97 billion for the country's longest 6.15 km Padma Bridge project, the government has already signed a $1.12 billion credit agreement with the World Bank on April 28 and another $415 million credit agreement with Japan International Cooperation Agency on May 18.

The Padma Bridge will connect the south-western region with the rest of the country.

IDB was the first among the co-financiers (Abu Dhabi Fund, ADB, JICA and World Bank) of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge to approve financing for this mega-project that will help to boost the economy of Bangladesh and improve road connectivity in the region.

After passing a busy schedule over two days,  Mohamed Ali will leave here for Dubai on Tuesday.

Source: New Age

Minister should resign over transport sector anarchy: rally

Rights activists on Friday said that communications minister Syed Abul Hossain should resign for his failure to control anarchy in charging fares from passengers by transport owners.

At a rally organised by Citizens' Rights Movement in front of National Press Club in the capital, they also demanded steps to stop further conversion of vehicles other than public transports to CNG-run vehicles and revitalise Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.

Presided over by Citizens' Rights Movement secretary general Tusher Rehman, the rally was addressed by Citizens' Solidarity general secretary Sharifuzzaman Sharif, PEACE secretary general Ifma Hossain, former director general of Water Development Board M Inamul Haque, Nirapad Development Foundation chairman Ibnul Syed Rana, Unnayan Dhara Trust member-secretary Aminur Rasul Babul and Communist Party of Bangladesh leader Ruhin Hossain Prince.

Referring to the communications minister's statement that route permits would be cancelled if any transport company raised fares before the new fare chart was gazetted, Tusher Rehman said, the minister should resign as the transport owners had ignored his warning and hiked fares at whim.

'The minister's silence over the issue is encouraging the transport owners,' he added.

Ruhin Hossain Prince described the fare hike 'inhuman' and said, 'Transport fares were already exorbitant before the new chart was announced. So the fresh fare hike cannot be acceptable to the low-income people.' 

Journalist Shuvo Kibria said only four per cent of the compressed natural gas produced in the country was being used by the public transport sector and demanded that steps should be taken for increased use of CNG in public transports to check fare hike.

He said that no more vehicles other than public transports should be allowed to run on CNG.

'The government cannot look after the interest of a few businessmen forgetting about 7.5million citizens who have been hit hard by the decision to increase transport fares,' he said and warned that the people would give a befitting reply in the next election.

They termed the BRTA an ineffective organisation and called for its reform in order to revitalise the public transport sector.

The speakers said the prices of food and other essential commodities had increased 20 per cent over the last two years and the fuel price and transport fare hikes would cause a fresh spate of price increase in the market.

They sought the prime minister's intervention to stop the anarchy in the public transport sector to ease the sufferings of the low-income people.

Source: New Age

World Metrology Day observed

Educationalists and experts on Friday urged the local industries to strictly maintain the standard and balance of chemicals in all their products for ensuring safe public health.

They made their recommendations at a discussion organized by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution at its auditorium to observe the eighth World Metrological Day.

Like more than 80 countries of the world, the day was observed across the country with the theme of 'Chemical measurements for our life, our future'.

Mohammad Fakhrul Islam, head of the department of glass and ceramic engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, who presented the keynote paper said when chemicals are used over a certain limit they become harmful for the human body.

Nowadays, harmful chemicals are being used as preservative to improve the shelf life of products, he alleged, adding that formalin was being used to preserve fish and carbide and growth hormone were used in fruit for their ripening and preservation.

He also alleged that most textile industries and tanneries dump harmful wastes in river water, causing the water to be contaminated.

Fakhrul suggested the government to enforce the rule in all industries to have effluent treatment plants and enforce laws on the producers and importers to test products before marketing.

The industries minister, Dilip Barua, called upon the local industrial producers, BSTI and the concerned people to ensure product standard, to use of international standard measurements and to reduce cost of products to a logical point.

He said that the government had taken steps to establish a Chemical Metrology Laboratory so that the country-made products could get international recognition easily in terms of weight and measurements of chemicals used in the products.

Chaired by BSTI director general AK Fazlul Ahad, the meeting was also addressed by industries ministry additional secretary ABM Khurshid Alam, International Commission on Illumination president Franz Hengstberger and BSTI director (Metrology) Md Khademul Islam.

The Khulna office of BSTI also arranged a discussion meting at its office at Khalishpur area in Khulna city on Friday afternoon to mark the day.

Source: New Age

Chuknagar Genocide Day observed

Speakers at a discussion meeting on Friday noon at Chuknagar College playground under Dumuria Upazila in Khulna in observance of 'Chuknagar Genocide Day' demanded for declaring May 20 as the national genocide day.

On May 20, 1971, during the liberation war, one of the biggest genocides took place in broad daylight at Chuknagar bazaar and in adjacent areas.

The local people of the area have been observing the day under the banner of 'Chuknagar Ganohotya '71 Smriti Sangrakhon Parishad' to pay tributes to the martyrs who became victims of the then Pakistani military and their collaborators.

The discussion meeting, chaired by the committee convenor, Prof ABM Shafiqul Islam, was also addressed by state minister for labour and employment Begum Monnujan Sufian, Awami League lawmaker Sohrab Ali Sana, Khulna district Awami League president Sheikh Harunur Rashid, Dumuria Upazila Parishad chairman Gazi Abdul Hadi and Khulna district Muktijodhdha Sangsad commander Mahabubur Rahman.

The speakers also demanded for developing the infrastructure of Chuknagar Genocide Memorial Complex by filling up the ditches by the side of the memorial and to complete the linking road from the memorial to the point that touches Khulna-Satkhira highway.

Freedom fightersof the area were given a reception on the occasion.

Earlier, the committee leaders laid wreaths at Chuknagar Genocide Memorial Complex at Chuknagar village under Dumuria Upazila to pay homage to the genocide victims.

A Sector Commander of the liberation war Major (retired) Rafiqul Islam, in his book 'Muktir Sopan Tole' published in 2002, said about 10 thousand people were killed here on the day.

Dr Muntasir Mamun edited book 'Chuknagarer Gonohotya '71 (Genocide at Chuknagar in 1971) mentioned Chuknagar genocide as the biggest genocide in the country during the liberation war.

Source: New Age

PCP celebrates 22nd founding anniv

Hill students' organisation Brihattara Parbatya Chattagram Pahari Chhatra Parishad marked its 22nd founding anniversary by bringing out process and holding a rally on Friday.

Sultana Sarwat Ara Zaman, widow of the late sector commander Quazi Nooruzzaman, inaugurated the programme at Aparajeya Bangla in Dhaka University in the morning.

The Ganatantrik Juba Forum vice-president, Shanti Dev Chakma, the United People's Democratic Front's central committee member Ujjwal Smriti Chakma, Bangladesh Lekhok Shibir's general secretary Hasibur Rahman, the Hill Women's Federation vice-president, Nirupa Chakma, Khashi Students' Union president Bimal Khashi, among others, addressed the rally.

Speakers at the rally demanded constitutional recognition of all ethnic minorities of the country.

The ethnic minority leaders alleged that the ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalists Party were working as agents of the imperialist America.

They regretted that the government was not sincere about establishing peace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and was not removing army camps from the area.

The government was violating human rights by killing people in 'crossfire,' they said.

The leaders urged the students to bolster movements against all kinds of violence against ethnic minorities.

After the rally, they brought out a procession.

Source: New Age

Train derails in Thakurgaon

Rail communications on Thakurgaon-Panchagarh route was suspended as a diesel-laden wagon of a train derailed near Thakurgaon road rail station early Friday.

Railway sources said the diesel-laden wagon of BTO special train veered off the track at about 2:30am when it was coming to Thakurgaon station from Parbatipur.

Thakurgaon station master Shawkat Ali said the accident occurred as loco master Mojahar Ali did not halt the train timely as he fell asleep.

Source: New Age

Misplaced Turag pillars to be removed

Wrongly placed pillars on the banks of the River Turag for its demarcation will be removed, says the junior minister for land.

'The shipping ministry installed the pillars in accordance with the CS [Cadastral Survey] and SA [State Acquisition] maps. So there is a chance that their position won't match the flow of the rivers,' Mostafizur Rahman told the reporters on Friday after visiting the pillars in Gazipur.

'So we've decided to remove the misplaced pillars…They'll be installed as per the directives issued by the High Court,' he said.

On April 12, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority under the shipping ministry had started installation of pillars on the banks of the Turag, Buriganga, Sitalakkhya and Balu rivers to protect them.

The demarcation of the Turag was postponed on April 26 amid repeated objections by environmentalists, who claimed that installing pillars without considering the river's embankments and main course is a violation of the High Court directives.

The same day the national taskforce on the matter formed an 11-member committee, led by Mostafizur, to be clear about the High Court directives.

Source: New Age

BNP receives all facilities from JS without joining sessions: Obaidul Quader

Awami League presidium member and chairman of parliamentary standing committee on information ministry Obaidul Quader has criticised the opposition BNP lawmakers as they are not attending the parliament sessions despite enjoying all facilities.

'You are elected by voters, enjoying all facilities including foreign visits as members of the parliament but not attending the sessions,' he said speaking at a dialogue on the upcoming budget at Public Library Auditorium in Dhaka on Friday.

Dialogue Aid Foundation, a non-government organisation, arranged the discussion on the role of the government in formulating a pro-people budget.

Chairman of parliamentary standing committee on land ministry AKM Mozammel Huq, former information secretary Syed Margub Morshed and vice-chancellor of Gazipur Agricultural University Abdul Mannan Akand, among others, spoke at the function.

Obaidul Quader said the BNP had become busy with the caretaker government issue two and a half years ahead ignoring the people's agenda at the moment.

Referring to the price hike of oil and gas, the AL leader said the present mayhem in the transport sector would have not been created if there was a coordinated decision in this regard earlier.

Source: New Age

Lakhs of Yaba tablets enter country everyday from Myanmar: intel

Despite close vigilance of the Border Guard Bangladesh and other law enforcing agencies, several lakhs of stimulating Yaba tablets are entering the country everyday from Myanmar.

Intelligence sources told the news agency that some powerful international criminal and financial networks were controlling drugs supply-chain within Bangladesh.

Yaba is a combination of methamphetamine (a powerful and addictive stimulant) and caffeine.

Yaba tablets typically are consumed orally. Users place the Yaba tablet on aluminium foil and heat it from below. As the tablet melts, vapours rise and is inhaled.

People who use Yaba face the same risks as users of other forms of methamphetamine: rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, and damages small blood vessels in the brain that can lead to stroke.

Chronic use of the drug can result in inflammation of the heart lining. Overdoses can cause hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), convulsions, and death. Yaba addicts also may have episodes of violent behaviour, paranoia, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia.

Yaba are coming to Teknaf of Cox's Bazaar from Myanmar through the River Naf mainly by small boats, fishing boats, cattle carrying trawlers and small cargo ships. The drugs traffickers have been using a 14-kilometre-long route between Teknaf and Shahpuri Dweep.

Sabrang union, located in the southern part of Teknaf upazila, near Maungdaw township of Arakan state in Myanmar, is one of the main points used by the traffickers.

The sources said nearly 100 drug paddlers were involved in supplying Yaba tablets across the country especially capital Dhaka from Teknaf.

Each dealer supply 10,000 to 20,000 Yaba tablets in each consignment, said an intelligence officer, adding that each drug dealer sends five to six consignments every months depending on demands.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint team comprising members of RAB-1 and department of Narcotics Control raided a Chinese restaurant in Uttara and arrested drug dealer Abdus Sakur Mahmud, 44, at about 7:00pm on Thursday.

The law enforcers searched the bag kept on his lap and found around 18,000 pieces of Yaba tablets.

This was the second biggest Yaba recovery by RAB in terms of quantity as earlier the elite force recovered around 1.20 lakh pieces Yaba tablets from Gulshan in 2007 and arrested a manufacturer.

Source: New Age

18,000 Yaba tablets seized, one held

The Rapid Action Battalion on Thursday evening arrested man suspected of trading in drug substances at Uttara in the capital in possession of about 18,000 pieces of Yaba tablets.

A joint team of the battalion and the narcotics control department raided a Chinese restaurant and arrested Abdus Sakur Mahmud, 44, about 7:00pm, battalion officials said at a press conference at the RAB headquarters.

The battalion personnel searched the bag he was holding and found the Yaba tablets, a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine, inside it.

This was the second largest haul of Yaba tablets by the battalion after the 2007 incident in which the battalion seized 1.2 lakh Yaba tablets at Gulshan in the capital and arrested a man involved in the manufacturing of the tablets.

The battalion's legal and media wing director Commander M Shohail at the briefing said that the arrested had given them important information on Yaba trade.

The battalion said that Mahmud had admitted that he had traded in Yaba for a long time and he would bring four to five consignments of Yaba tablets in Dhaka from Teknaf every month.

According to a report of RAB intelligent wing, at least 1,373 people have so far been arrested by the battalion over trading in Yaba.

A process was under way to file a case in this connection, the battalion said.

Source: New Age

WP, JSD to accept nothing short of 1972 constitution

The Workers Party of Bangladesh and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal are planning to wage a joint movement along with other like-minded political parties for restoration of the constitution as it was adopted in 1972.

The WP and JSD, partners of the Awami League-led alliance, expressed dissatisfaction over the proposed amendment of the constitution of 1972 and called for restoration of the constitution without any changes in its four fundamental principles – democracy, socialism, secularism and nationalism.

Leaders of the two parties on Thursday held a meeting at the JSD central office.  The meeting protested at the move by the parliamentary special committee on constitution amendment to change the charter keeping Islam as the state religion.

The leaders also censured the government for its failure to control prices of essentials and low and order and condemned human rights violations by the Rapid Action Battalion and stock market manipulation.

Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, general secretary Anisur Rahman Mollik, politburo members Fazle Hossain Badsha, Quamrul Ahsan, JSD president Hasanul Haq Inu, general secretary Sharif Nurul Ambia, central leaders Shirin Akhter and Mohammad Khaled attended the meeting.

Anisur Rahman Mollik told New Age on Friday that the Workers Party would not accept amendments to the constitution if the charter was not restored as it was in 1972.

'We are also dissatisfied with the performance of the alliance which had pledged to implement the 23-point charter… The government is far from implementing the charter', he said.

JSD leader Shirin Akhter said, 'Islam as the state religion and secularism cannot stay together in the constitution.'

Source: New Age

BNP won’t accept Khairul as next chief adviser, says Mosharraf

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, on Friday reiterated that his party would not take part in elections if the immediate-past chief justice, ABM Khairul Haque, was made the chief adviser to the next caretaker government.

Mosharraf, also a former minister, also said the BNP would not accept if the caretaker government system was revoked through a constitutional amendment.

The BNP leader was addressing a human chain programme in front of the National Press Club organised in protest at the 'threats' to opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque.

Mosharraf alleged that conspiracies were on to hold the next general elections under a partisan government by cancelling the caretaker government system and said the opposition would not accept retired chief justice ABM Khairul Haque as head of the next caretaker government.

He also alleged that the Awami League-led coalition government had failed to ease the people's sufferings in the last two and a half years.

'Prices of commodities have gone out of the people's buying capacity. There is no law and order and human rights are grossly violated,' he said.

Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal, the BNP's volunteers' front, brought out a procession from in front of the party central office at Naya Paltan in protest against the government's 'move' to implicate Tarique Rahman in the August 21 grenade attack case and the 10-truck arms haul case.

Addressing a pre-procession rally, the opposition chief whip, Zainul Abdin Farroque, said the BNP would return to parliament if its demand for mid-term polls was accepted.

On the constitution review, Farroque said the BNP would not accept any changes to the charter without their consent.

Farroque warned that the AL-led government would be unseated if it dropped Bismillah from the constitution and restored secularism.

Source: New Age

BNP’s demand for mid-term polls political stunt: Razzaque

The food and disaster management minister, Abdur Razzaque, has come down heavily on the BNP for demanding mid-term elections, saying it is 'merely a political stunt' of the main opposition to misguide the people.

'They should think that the mid-term election is not a 'puppet show' and it is an unrealistic demand as the government was voted to power by the people for governing the country for five years,' he said while talking to the local journalists at Netrakona Circuit House on Friday.

Instead of joining parliament, he said, the BNP is demanding mid-term general elections outside of the Jatiya Sangsad and misinterpreting the matters relating to the constitutional amendments and appointment of the Supreme Court judges.

Razzaque accused the BNP of hatching conspiracies and trying to raise different non-issues to hinder the government's development activities. 'They are resorting to various machinations to destabilise the government finding no agenda to launch movement,' he said.

The minister refrained from commenting on the war crimes trial, and said the whole process was being conducted as per the International Crimes Act.

Source: New Age

Artificial leg for Limon under process

A Jhalakathi court has transferred the arms case filed against Limon, the 16-year old college student whose leg had to be amputated after being shot by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), to a tribunal.

Limon is now undergoing treatment at National Institute for Traumatolgy Orthopaedic (Nitor) Hospital in Dhaka.

His lawyer Nashimul Hasan said that the arms case against Limon was transferred to the Special Tribunal-1 from the Magistrate's Court on Thursday by order of a senior judicial magistrate, Nusrat Jahan. The next date fixed for hearing the case at that tribunal is June 9.

He said the court granted the appeal he made on behalf of Limon seeking to allow his appearance in the court through his advocate as he is now admitted at NITOR for treatment.

Tofazzal Hossain, father of Limon, said that AHM Noman Khan, executive director of Center for Disability in Development (CDD), a non-government organization, visited Limon at the hospital recently.

A team of CCD brought Limon to Savar center of CCD last week for a check-up before making an artificial leg for him free of cost and then returned him back to hospital.

The artificial leg would be prepared within next week and then Limon would have to spend a few days at CCD rehabilitation center for training to use that artificial limb, father of Limon said.

Till writing this report no action against the accused was taken in connection with an attempt-to-murder case filed on April 26 by  Limon's mother, Henoara Begum. The case against six RAB-8 men and six unidentified people was registered by police following a court order.

On other hand, Barisal additional divisional commissioner Mohammad Shawkat Akbar, the investigator assigned by the home ministry to investigate the case of Limon, completed recording statements of witnesses on May 16, but yet not submitted report.

Shawkat Akbar said over 17 people including mother of Limon were interviewed in three rounds at the place of occurrence in Saturia village on May 8, at Rajapur Dakbunglow on May 12 and at Jhalakathi Circuit House on May 16. The interviews were conducted as per a home ministry list.

Akbar denied giving any details, but said he believed that these interviews were enough and hoped to submit the report soon.

The case of Limon drew widespread criticism around the country while the media and the people allege violation of human rights by the elite crime busters. RAB director general Mokhlesur Rahman on April 11 had said Limon might be an innocent victim.

State minister for home affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku on April 12 said, 'Investigation is being done with special focus on five issues – role of the RAB team of the area concerned and that of RAB headquarters, use of arms, High Court order and the cases filed after the incident.'

The prime minister's defense advisor retired major general Tarique Ahmed Siddique on May 19 said he was '100 percent sure' Limon Hossain was not a target of Rapid Action Battalion's (RAB) shooting.

'When RAB went to capture criminal Morshed Jamaddar, (Limon) was trying to run away. That is when shots were fired by RAB which hit him in the leg,' he told the media on Thursday.

A RAB team reportedly shot Limon, who used to work in a brick kiln to bear his educational expenses, in the leg after taking him to a place adjacent to his house at Jamaddarhat in Rajapur Upazila of Jhalakathi on March 23, less than a fortnight before his Higher Secondary Certificate examinations were to begin.

Limon's left leg was amputated from the thigh on March 27 at Dhaka NITOR as the tissues were totally damaged due to excessive bleeding caused by delay in treatment after the shooting.

RAB on the same day filed two cases against the teenager under the arms act and another for obstructing government duty, making attempts to murder and injuring RAB personnel.

Police submitted charge sheet in the case under arms act last week claiming that Limon was a member of 'Mizan-Morshed' gang. Charges were brought against him under the Juvenile Crimes Act on April 24.

Limon secured bail in the latter case on May 2 on a bond of Tk 10,000, but on the next day he was sent to Jhalakathi jail in connection with the charge sheeted arms case.

Maimed HSC examinee Limon Hossain was transferred to Barisal SBMCH prison cell on May 4 and was been released from there on a Tk 20,000 bond on May 9, four days after he secured six-month ad-interim bail in the arms case from the High Court on May 5.

Source: New Age

NBR to be modernised: chairman

The government has taken up a plan to modernise the National Board of Revenue outlining its operational modalities for the next five years.

'There'll be an outline in the next budget with a holistic and integrated approach to modernise NBR,' said the National Board of Revenue chairman, Nasir Uddin Ahmed, on Friday.

He was speaking at the installation ceremony of the new executive committee of BCS (Customs and VAT) Association at a city hotel.

'What NBR wants to achieve in the next five years will be described in the outline,' Ahmed said.

'All the areas, including policy decisions, human resource development and simplification of administration will be included in the outline,' he said adding, 'Development partners also expressed their interest in the project.'

The finance minister, AMA Muhith, said the government would keep 'transaction records' from the next fiscal year.

'Transaction records will be the essential part of the reform programme as the tax office is facing a problem in collecting VAT,' he said.

The minister said awareness building was a major problem in introducing new VAT laws.

'We want to pass VAT laws this year but full application of the laws will become from next year or later,' he said.

Muhith said the government had a plan to spend more on social safety net programme in the coming days.

The commerce minister, Faruk Khan, said tax officials were important 'but it's also true that people do not like them'.

'On one hand, they are collecting tax which helps the country grow but on the other they harass people during the tax collection,' he said.

New president of the Customs Association Mohammad Feroz Shah Alam said initiatives had been taken to modernise VAT system and tax management to increase tax-GDP ratio.

New secretary general of the association Shahidul Islam said the government paid about Tk 3 billion in foreign currency to PSI companies but it could be done by the NBR.

Source: New Age

Increase in LPG price causes pressure on consumers

The liquid petroleum gas prices continue to hike in the Barisal region causing tremendous pressure on the limited income of the middle and low income groups.
The retail price of a LPG cylinder increased Tk 50-60 in last 10 days.


With this in past six months retail LPG prices hiked Tk190-200 per cylinder.
The dealers in the Barisal city said the LPG cylinder producers raised the prices for nine times in last one year.
Referring to the manufacturers, the dealers had put down the price hike to the shortage of supply coupled with the increase in the production and transportation costs.
During visits to the markets, this correspondent found that all the private LPG companies, which cover over 95 per cent supply in the Barisal division, had increased their prices.
Bashundhara and Klinhit raised the price of its 12.5 kilogram cylinder from Tk 1180 to Tk 1260, Total Gas from Tk 1180 to Tk 1290 and the privately owned Jamuna from Tk 1260 to Tk 1315 in last ten days.
Pankaj Gupta, a LPG retailer, said the total monthly demand in the division was nearly one lakh cylinders but the supply had never exceeded 60 thousand.
Usually dealers retailed a cylinder adding Tk 100, which included transportation and other expenses and the profit, to the price at which they bought it from the companies, several dealers in the city said.
Pankaj also said that they had to give bribe to a section of staff at both the public and private companies to procure the cylinders which contributed to the price hike.
Barisal deputy commissioner, ASM Arifur Rahman, in a meeting with the LPG manufacturers and retailers, said the government had decided that a cylinder could be sold at prices 10-15 per cent higher than the factory prices.
Ranjit Dutta, Barisal district coordinator of Consumers Association of Bangladesh, observed that the urban middle class and the food shops had to buy it at whatever price it was sold.
'Presently there's no easy alternative for them,' he said adding that the government must take immediate and stern measures to control this unbearable situation.
Source: New Age

Human chain formed demanding right of fishermen to wetland

Rights activists formed a human chain in Jessore town on Friday demanding rights of fishermen to country's all wetland and jalmahal.

Representatives of 250 organisations from 40 districts took part in the two-hour human chain from 10:00am, which was organised by Water Resources Management, a non government organisation.

Later, they held a news briefing at Jessore Press Club where the speakers said that poor fishermen earned their livelihood from wetland and jalmahal which water bodies were leased out to fishermen for a 10-year period under different projects, but the term of the lease was running out.

Now they were worried about whether they would again get the lease, they said.

They demanded stoppage of dumping of industrial wastages into rivers and canal for saving country's fish resources.

They alleged that amount of oxygen was decreasing in open water bodies because of rotting jute there during the jute season, which made it unfit for fish farming.

Source: New Age

Memorial meeting on Swami Aksharananda held

A memorial meeting on Swami Aksharananda, late principal of Dhaka Ramakrishna Math and Mission, was held at National Press Club in the capital on Friday.

Vivekananda Shikkha O Sangskriti Parishad organised the memorial meeting for Swami Akhsharananda who died on April 18 last.

Paying rich tributes to Swami Akhsharananda, speakers at the memorial meeting said he would remain as one of the light house of humanity in the country to establish interfaith among different religious people.

Professor Nurul Islam, chairperson of the Department of World Religion and Culture of Dhaka University, Professor Syed Anwar Hossain, also the editor of the Daily Sun, Dhaka University teachers Professor Aminul Islam, Professor Qazi Nurul Islam, Professor ANM Roise Uddin, Professor Ajoy Kumar Das, Professor Paresh Chandra Mondol, Professor Anisuzzaman, Professor Sukomol Barua, principal of Notre Dame College Benjamin de Costa, took part in the discussion.

Assistant secretary of Dhaka Ramkrishna Math and Mission Swami Sthiratmanandaji, Swami Gnyanprakashanandaji, Dr Chandranath Poddar, general secretary of Bangladesh Buddha Kristi Prachar Sangha Promode Barua and leaders of the Parishad Karuna Kishore Chakraborty, Nirmal Chaterjee and Akhil C. Bhoumik, spoke among others, on the occasion.

The speakers recalled the contribution of the late monk to the society particularly his relief services in remote areas in the country during natural disasters and making the Dhaka Ramkrishna Math and Mission as center for education, vocational training and healthcare services.

Source: New Age

8 officials of Pabna women directorate sued for fund misappropriation

Eight officials of Women Directorate in Pabna were sued on Thursday in charge of embezzling Tk 1.93 lakh of government fund.

The Anti Corruption Commission filed four separate cases with Pabna sadar police station against nine persons including the eight officials of the Pabna Women Directorate.

The accused are Abdul Alim, office assistant of the directorate, the employees Rima Khatun, Farida Begum, Hira Khatun, Farida Khatun and Parul Akter, former district woman directorate officers Nurunnahar Begum and Kaniz Rassul. Another accused is Abdur Razzak, caretaker of Pubali Bank, Maligasa branch, Pabna.

According to the ACC, the accused embezzled Tk 1,93,900 of government's fund allotted for women development from 2004

to 2008.

Getting the complain, the ACC had found the officials guilty and filed the cases against them, said Abdul Goffar, former deputy director of the ACC, Pabna, who is now DD of Dinajpur ACC.

He filed the cases with Pabna police station on Thursday morning under the Anti Corruption Act 5 (2).

Source: New Age

Poor prisoners in long queue to appeal against conviction

Jail appeals involving nearly 3,000 convicts, some of whose convictions go back 20 years and who are too poor to engage lawyers, remain pending with the High Court.

Individuals convicted of offences by district or metropolitan courts have a right to appeal to the High Court against the conviction.

The convicts who are too poor to engage their own lawyers, however, can appeal to the High Court through the jail superintendent against the conviction.

According to a court official, the 'jail appeal' cases have piled up over 20 years and among them, there are 28 cases that were filed 20 years ago in 1991.

In total, there are 2,903 pending jail appeals, 515 of which were filed more than 10 years ago.

It is not unusual for convicts to have completed their sentences whilst their jail appeal remains pending.

According to a court official, Abdul Hossain Sheikh and his brother Abu Sayeed Sheikh, both sentenced to seven years in prison on June 28, 2001 by an assistant judge in Khulna in a robbery case, filed separate jail appeals through the Khulna central jail authorities on January 26, 2002.

Although the appeals of the two brothers were admitted for hearing on August 25, 2002 with a direction to the trial court concerned to submit its records to the High Court, they could not be heard as the record were not submitted, the official said.

According to the rules, the High Court can dispose of a jail appeal after hearing the state attorney and a lawyer, if any engaged by the state or any legal aid organisation to defend the convict.

If no lawyer is engaged by the state or any organisation, the High Court bench concerned can dispose of a jail appeal after hearing the state attorney only, former High Court judges, who had dealt with the jail appeals, told

New Age on Friday. In that case, the judges of the bench make necessary queries to the state attorney to defend the convict and make a final decision based on the queries and documents of the case, they added.

According to former judges and incumbent court officials, a good number of jail appeals

had been disposed of between 1998 and 2002 when there were either several benches or specific week days for the disposal of such cases.

According to court officials, there is now no specific bench to deal with the jail appeals and the chief justice refers such cases to the High Court judges for their disposal.

In most of the cases, the judges hear the jail appeals in their chambers in the court instead of an open court hearing.

The former judges said that the constitution of separate benches could expedite the disposal of the jail appeals.

In recent practices, the government engages lawyers to defend the convicts in jail appeals by the government-funded National Legal Aid Organisation which was set up in 2000 under the Legal Aid Act 2000.

The organisation's director Syed Aminul Islam said that there were 36 lawyers on the organisation's jail appeal panel.

Supreme Court lawyer Momtazuddin Ahmed Mehedi, the co-coordinator of the panel, told New Age, 'These panel lawyers have little interest in moving move the jail appeals as payment is very low.'

Each lawyer gets only Tk 2,500 after disposing of a jail appeal and the organisation took one or two months to pay the bill after submission, he said.

'Panel lawyers have to face various difficulties in dealing with the appeals as they do not earn sufficient money in the cases to pay off the court officials necessary to expedite process,' Mehedi added.

Aminul, however,

said that there was a proposal currently with

the finance ministry to increase the lawyer's fee to Tk 4,000.

He also said that many jail appeals remained pending as the cases were not ready for hearing because of the negligence of court officials.

Court officials, however, said that they were often not able to prepare the papers for a hearing as the lower courts did not send them the records because in the meantime co-convict/s in the same case had engaged a private lawyer and the records were already sent to another bench.

The Supreme Court Bar Association secretary, M Bodruddoza Badal, said, 'We can provide free legal assistance to convicts by engaging our members if the chief justice or the Supreme Court registrar requests the association to move the jail appeals now pending for years.'

In the last 10 years, the National Legal Aid Organisation has been able to get 1,068 individual jail appeals disposed of although it has no figures for how many of these were successful. 'About a half of them are successful,' said its director.

One unsuccessful case involved Ful Miah, who was sentenced to seven years in prison by a special tribunal in Sunamganj in September 2007 on charges of possessing 15 bottles of the drug Phensedyl (codeine) syrup. Four years after filing his appeal through the jail authorities, his conviction was upheld by the High Court.

Aminul told New Age that the National Legal

Aid Organisation is planning to set up an office at the Supreme Court to increase awareness of the organisation's activities regarding providing legal assistance.

'Because of lack of publicity in the provision of free legal aid, the organisation's activities had not attracted many lawyers,' the director added.

Apart from the government-run legal aid organisation, there are some other leading non-governmental organisations such as the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Ain o Salish Kendra, and Madaripur Legal Aid Organisation providing free legal aid.

The organisations, however, deal with very few jail appeal cases.

The NLAO director said that the government had allocated Tk 1 crore in favour of the organisation in the outgoing financial year and that in 2010, it had spent Tk 61.57 lakh on providing legal aid at the district and Supreme Court level.

Source: New Age

Petroleum training institute almost inert

The Bangladesh Petroleum Institute, a training institution responsible for developing national capacity in petroleum exploration and related activities, has become almost inert because of its poor management and lack of skilled manpower and facilities.

Apart from the position of the director general, 15 of the 17 key technical posts, including that of the training director, research director, principal scientific officers and senior scientific officers, are unfilled.

There is one scientific officer employed at the institute although there are eight posts available.

The institute was set up in 1981, under a project funded by the United Nations Development Programme and UNDP and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), to develop skilled professionals in the energy ministry agencies responsible for petroleum exploration, extraction, transmission and distribution.

Many had hoped that the institute would provide an answer to the country's increased dependence on foreign companies which has come about for lack of skilled professionals in the state-run agencies in the energy sector.

The project came to an end in 1996 at which point the government decided to build the institute into a state-of-the-art training institute capable of doing research and development, data management and providing higher diploma education for the oil, gas and mineral sector.

Since the time, staff have left the institute without any new recruitment taking place.

Former and present BPI officials told New Age that lack of manpower and absence of any laboratories or any digital data management system have made the institution ineffective for many years.

From once having organised 25 training sessions, seminars and workshops every year, it now only organises 5 or 6 a year, they said.

The BPI director general, Manabenra Bhowmik, an administration cadre officer,

told New Age that the institution 'has taken initiatives' to increase its manpower, but declined to give any further detail.

Aminur Rahman, senior assistant secretary in the energy ministry with responsibility for supervising the institution, said that he could not comment on what was going on about the institution as he said it was his 'additional responsibility.'

Former high officials blamed the institution's failures to it being led by bureaucrats rather than professionals.

Rois Siddique, a former director general of the institute, told New Age that only professionals can understand the requirements of a training institution like the Bangladesh Petroleum Institute.

He also said that the top two posts were used simply to 'compensate bureaucrats' whose former positions within the ministry had been given to other bureaucrats promoted by the government.

He also said that bureaucrats liked to get the two top posts in the institute as they get extra allowance, an opportunity for corruption and the chance to remain in the capital.

Two topmost posts of the institute are both held by officials of the administration cadre who get 30 per cent extra benefits on top of their salary.

Manabenra defended the status quo telling New Age that it was necessary to appoint bureaucrats to the top posts of the institute as they were managerial ones and were designed for a joint secretary or an additional secretary.

Until recently, the institute had only one senior bureaucratic post of director general — equivalent to a joint secretary or additional secretary.

However, in 2009, the energy division converted the BPI's secretary post to that of director making it the equivalent to the rank of deputy secretary.

To allow this to happen, the energy division constituted the new post giving it responsibility for administration and training.

This post is also currently empty.

Source: New Age

4 sites chosen for mining city in Dinajpur

A subcommittee of the convening committee to conduct a feasibility study and select a site to develop a mining city has selected four potential areas in Dinajpur, an official of the deputy commissioner's office of Dinajpur said.

He said that the subcommittee on site selection has primarily selected four upazilas of the district. Three of the upazilas are Parbatipur, Nawabganj and Birampur. He could not recall the name of the fourth when he was asked about it.

'The convening committee will chose one out of the four options after the feasibility study,' he said.

An energy division official told New Age that the subcommittee had decided develop the mining city in Dinajpur considering the locations of the Barapukuria coal mine, Madhyapara hard rock mine and Phulbari, Dighipara and Khalashpir coal deposits.

Asked about the development of the feasibility study and the site selection, the committee head, Jamal Uddin Ahmed, told New Age that the committee was examining statistics collected from some areas in the district.

'As we have no experience of developing mining cities, we are studying similar experiences of other countries,' he said.

He, however, said that the committee was giving priority to implementing the government's compensation package that included the rehabilitation issue of the people affected by the Barapukuria coal mine.

The government earlier set up the convening committee, headed by the Dinajpur deputy commissioner, to conduct the feasibility study and select the site for the mining city.

The convening committee later at a meeting instituted the sub-committee for the site selection.

The government is working to develop the mining city for uniform development of the coal mines and rehabilitation of the local people affected.

Asked about the definition of the mining city, Jamal said that it was yet to be decided. 'We are looking into options for developing it as a mine-centric economic zone or just a town under the municipality management,' he added.

Tawfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury, energy adviser to the prime minister, at an inter-ministerial meeting held in the energy division on April 28 instructed to co-opt heads of local schools, colleges and madrassahs, and union council chairmen into the convening committee.

High officials of land, energy and home ministries, including state minister for land, Mostafizur Rahman Fizar, Petrobangla chairman Hossain Mansur, Rangpur divisional commissioner and Dinajpur deputy commissioner attended the meeting on land acquisition and the implementation of the compensation package for the Barapukuria coal mine project. The state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, Enamul Huq, presided over the meeting.

Source: New Age

BNP likely to skip opening day’s sitting

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party is unlikely to attend the opening day's sitting of the next session of the ninth parliament, but may join the house any day after placement of the national budget for the 2011-12 fiscal.

Parliament goes into session tomorrow.

Several BNP lawmakers talking to New Age hinted the party would not join the

opening day's sitting of the session, but sources in the party high command said the opposition might join the session after the national budget was placed.

'Till date, no decision has been made on joining parliament session. Furthermore, what is the point of joining parliament where we cannot speak of nationally important issues,' BNP standing committee member MK Anwar told New Age.   

'The government has made parliament ineffective as it is taking decisions from the court on issues which should be made in the house,' he alleged.   

Opposition chip whip Zainul Abdin Farroque said they were not going back to parliament at the start of the session.

'There is no reason to join parliament,' he told New Age. 'Moreover, we do not know why this session has been summoned. Is it a budget session or a session to amend the constitution?'

He, however, said the BNP parliamentary party would disclose its stand on joining the next session at a press conference on Sunday.  

When contacted, BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed, also a lawmaker, said a decision would be taken after the party chairperson returns home on May 29.

BNP walked out of the last session of parliament on its concluding day on March 28. The main opposition party returned after boycotting sittings for 74 consecutive days since June last year.

It will be the ninth session of the current parliament that went into its inaugural session on January 25, 2009.

The president, Zillur Rahman, on May 5 summoned the 9th session of the 9th parliament at 4:00pm on May 22, according to an official handout.

The chief whip of parliament, Abdus Shahid, said it would be the budget session.

As there is an obligation for beginning the next session by the 22nd of this month, the speaker, Abdul Hamid, and the leader of the house, Sheikh Hasina, also the prime minister, decided to continue the session for placing the national budget for 2011-12 fiscal year, said Abdus Shahid.

The eighth session of the ninth parliament ended on March 24. According to Article 72 of the constitution, the gap between two sessions shall not exceed 60 days.

The finance minister, AMA Muhith, is likely to place the budget in the house on June 9.

The parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendment may place its report along with a draft bill for bringing changes to the constitution in the next parliament session.

Source: New Age

Panel invites BNP on caretaker alternative

The co-chairman of the special parliamentary committee has urged the opposition to help them find an acceptable alternative to the caretaker government system.

'Since the Supreme Court has rejected the provision of the caretaker government through repealing the 13th amendment, the nation can now think of an alternative model,' Suranjit Sengupta said on Friday.

Speaking to reporters at his residence in the city, the Awami League advisory council member said: 'Parliament can decide on the issue if the BNP joins and assists.

'But if they don't, parliament will settle the issue as it did in the case of previous 14 amendments.'

The BNP neither joined the talks with the panel nor  give the name of a member to sit on the committee formed on July 21 last year with 15 members to change the constitution.

It is instead warning the government that they would not accept an unilateral amendment.

Suranjit also said they could not prepare recommendations as copies of the full verdicts on seventh and 13th amendments had not reached them.

The Supreme Court on May 10 rescinded the 13th Amendment, repealing the caretaker government provision. But it said the next two general elections could be held under unelected rulers. It also said parliament might bring necessary amendments.

Suranjit was 'frustrated' with the BNP for not joining his panel for a special session. 'The opposition has been ceaselessly uncooperative over the constitution amendment. They could have spoken in parliament.'

A report comprising the recommendations of the committee will be placed in the session, beginning on Sunday, he added.

Suranjit said a bill with provisions to further empower the standing committees and making it mandatory for public servants to appear before them upon summons would be tabled in the upcoming session.

Quoting the law minister, Shafique Ahmed, he said the draft bill was prepared after holding meetings with the heads of all parliamentary watchdogs.

A provision of the bill states that punitive measures could be taken against any government official for ignoring summons.

Source: New Age

West Bengal gets first woman chief minister

Firebrand Indian politician Mamata Banerjee was sworn in on Friday as first women chief minister of India's West Bengal state after she ended 34 years of communist rule with an historic election victory last week.

Banerjee, 56, took the oath of office after voters in the impoverished eastern state turfed out the world's longest-serving democratically-elected Marxist government.

Before leaving her modest one-storey home for the ceremony, Banerjee, wearing a plain blue-bordered white

cotton sari, thanked the cheering crowd for their support.

'I will work day and night,' Banerjee, who heads the regional Trinamool Congress, told jubilant fans.

Thousands of people lined the streets shouting, 'We are with you didi' as she arrived at the sprawling governor's residence in the state capital Kolkata.

Banerjee, who casts herself as a champion of the poor, rode a wave of popular discontent to defeat the communists over their economic management, which left industry in decline and the state neck-deep in debt.

A key ally of the national ruling Congress party, she is the first woman to become the chief minister of West Bengal, a state of 90 million people.

Mamata had sent a personal invitation to the immediate-past chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee , who was present in the swearing in ceremony. Union home minister P Chidambaram, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and defence minister A K Antony were  present among about 3,200 guests.

After the swearing-in, conducted in Bengali, she walked to the historic state government headquarters, known as the Writers' Building, surrounded by a sea of people.

Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and allies grabbed 226 of the legislature's 294 seats, leaving just 62 for the Marxists, effectively consigning them to the political wilderness.

Banerjee, known for her mercurial nature, resigned from her job as national railways minister late on Thursday to take up her new responsibilities.

The populist leader, whose party holds the balance of power in the federal parliament, is now expected to play a more prominent role on the national stage and could be a roadblock in the Congress government's economic reform plans.

Source: New Age

Two killed, 10 go missing in trawler capsize

A passenger trawler has sunk in the River Meghna near Araihajar in Narayanganj, leaving two dead and at least 10 missing.

It sank on Friday afternoon near Bishnandi union of Araihajar after a collision with a sand-carrying bulkhead.

The police said the trawler was heading towards Bishnandi Ghat from Comilla with 30-35 passengers.

Around 6:30pm, the police recovered the bodies of a child and a woman from the river.

Local people joined the rescue operation. Fire service divers have been called to the spot.

Source: New Age

Zia didn’t join BKSAL: Hafiz

Bangladesh Nationalist Party vice-chairman M Hafizuddin Ahmed on Friday strongly protested at the remark of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Ziaur Rahman that he had joined the BKSAL.

Hafizuddin termed the remark 'unwarranted' and 'false.' 'Such untrue statements are unwarranted from a politician of Sheikh Hasina's stature.' 

Hafizuddin, also a retired army major who was personal secretary to Ziaur Rahman at the time when the one-party BKSAL rule

was introduced, lodged his protest at the remark by calling a press conference at his house at Banani.

Hasina at a programme in Geneva on May 17 claimed that Ziaur Rahman had joined the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League by filling in the form of the party.

'A form was sent to Ziaur Rahman in 1974, when he was the deputy chief of the army

staff, for joining the BKSAL by filling in the form but Ziaur Rahman trashed the form,' Hafizuddin said. 

He alleged the Awami League does not show respect to freedom fighters and that is why it could make such filthy remarks about Ziaur Rahman.

Referring to another statement of Hasina that Khaleda Zia was 'travelling abroad with her ill-gotten money,' Hafizuddin said, 'No businessmen could file a case against Khaleda during the immediate-past emergency government alleging that she was bribed.'

The BNP leader alleged that the government was making such statements only to hide its failures.

'The people are reeling under price spiral and law and order is deteriorating while the economy is on the verge destruction. So there is no option but to hold mid-term polls to rid the countrymen of the misrule of this government,' he said.

Source: New Age

Experts call for vaccination to check anthrax spread

Health experts put emphasis on vaccinating all the cattle in the pre-monsoon season to check the spread of anthrax in the country.

Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, told New Age on Thursday, 'The vaccination of cattle should be completed before monsoon to check the spread of anthrax in the country.'

He said that vaccination may not be 100 per cent effective, but there is no alternative to it.

Generally anthrax spreads in the monsoon season, he added.

Three people were clinically detected with anthrax infection by the doctors of the upazila health department in Shathia upazila of Pabna district last Friday. They were infected by the meat of a diseased goat at Chinanari village of Sathia upazila.

Experts said drought may cause livestock to forage much closer to the ground and heavy rain rains increases the concentration of spores in standing water.

Nazrul Islam, former vice-chancellor of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, said that anthrax can form dormant spores that live in the soil and can survive in harsh conditions for decades or even centuries.

Anthrax commonly infects wild and domesticated herbivorous mammals or cattle which ingest or inhale the spores while grazing, he said.

'Generally in monsoon, new grass grows in the anthrax-infected area where the spores already existed and the cattle get infected after eating the fresh grass,' Islam said. 'An infected cow dies in a very short period.'

'There is no alternative to mass vaccination to check the spread of anthrax,' he pointed out.

Experts said that generally it takes 21 days to immunize the cattle after vaccination. The vaccine is effective for one year only, they added.

M Aminur Rahman, a director of the livestock department, claimed that they had completed the vaccination programme by March and April this year.

'The vaccination programme was conducted in Pabna on a priority basis. All the cattle have been vaccinated,' he claimed. 'The programme also covered some cattle outside the district.'

Mushtak Hossain, senior scientific officer of the IEDCR, said that the cattle infected recently were vaccinated only a week before. 'It takes time to grow immunity and this goat (the one in Sathia) was slaughtered and eaten before the required period was completed.'

The World Health Organisation has said that it is dangerous to eat cattle or goats which have been vaccinated less than 21 days before.

The anthrax spores which have been administered into the cattle's body through the vaccine remain alive for 21 days, so they can be a source of infection if the cattle are eaten before three weeks have elapsed.

Anthrax broke out in many places in August last year, according to the IEDCR, and a total of 607 people were infected in 18 upazilas.

Health experts emphasised the need for regular vaccination of the cattle along with proper monitoring and surveillance to prevent further outbreaks of anthrax in the country.

They also urged the government to investigate and find out the real cause of the recent outbreak.

Source: New Age

No steps taken to implement CHT treaty: Santu

Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity president Jotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, also known as Santu Larma, said that the Awami League-led government had not taken any steps to implement the CHT peace treaty in last two and a half years.

Addressing Pahari Chhatra Parishad's 16th central council at Rangamati town on Friday, he also said that the government seemed unwilling to take any action against the 'anti-peace treaty' organisation United People's Democratic Front (UPDF).

The acting president of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Haidar Akbar Khan Rano, Gana Forum presidium member Pankaj Bhattacharya, PCJSS leader KS Mong, former PCP president Udayan Tripura, Bangladesh Chhatra Union general secretary SM Shuvo, Chhatra Moitree general secratary Tanvir Rosmot and journalist Firoz Zaman Chowdhury spoke at the programme.

Haidar Akbar Khan Rano called for constitutional recognition of the ethnic minority communities. He wanted to know why the government was delaying full implementation of the CHT peace treaty.

Pankaj Bhattacharya called upon the government to withdraw army camps from the three hill districts. He also demanded that `Operation Uttaran' should be completely stopped.

PCP central president Bablu Chakma chaired the opening session which was followed by a procession in the town.

Source: New Age

BSF stops Godagary farmers from harvesting boro

Bangladeshi farmers in the border area in Godagary in Rajshahi were being obstructed by Indian Border Security Force to reap ripe Boro paddy from a patch of 200 acres of land on which the Indians staked their claim.

Local sources said farmers from Kharchaka village near the border had gone to cut the paddy from the land on 12 May, but BSF allegedly stopped them and asked them to go back, claiming the land belonged to India.    

The personnel of the Border Guard of Bangladesh and policemen from Godagary thana, on receiving the information, went to the scene and brought the farmers back.

Yasin Ali, a local farmer, told New Age that the BSF did not forbid them when they had sowed Boro rice on the fields near the frontier three months ago.

But this time BSF said that they had encroached onto Indian territory and stopped them from going to the fields, he said.

Yasin,however, said that the farmers have already reaped Boro paddy from about 100 acres, but were stopped from harvesting on the remaining 100 acres.

Farmers said that if they could not reap the Boro paddy they would suffer as many of them had taken loans from local Non-Government Organisations with high rate of interest.

Akter Hossain, a school teacher in the locality, said on Friday that most farmers who had planted Boro are marginal people. They would face serious problems if they cannot reap the paddy from the fields.

Rahman Ali, another farmer, said that they cultivated Boro at that field for last five or six years as the BSF did not create any obstacle in their work. But this time BSF are obstructing them to reap the ripe paddy.     

Some farmers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told New Age that they had contacted with the BGB men of Kharchaka camp and police of Godagary, but they (lawmen) refused to do anything about it.   

Saidur Rahman, a senior farmer, said that they used to sow paddy at one of the shoals of river Padama in the Bangladeshi territory for last five or six years without any obstruction from the BSF. 

But this year BSF has set up some temporary cottages to guard the paddy field and threatened that they would open fire if the Bangladeshi farmers went to the field. 

Officer-in-charge of Godagary police station, Zakirul Islam, told New Age, 'We have nothing to do as the Bangladeshi farmers have sowed paddy on the Indian territory.' 

Subedar Solaiman Ali, company commander of BGB at Kharchaka, said that they had sent a letter to BSF on 14 May, seeking a flag meeting to discuss the issue. But the BSF did not show any response.

Source: New Age