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

BCL activists stop SMC principal, vice-principal from attending office

Activists of the Sir Salimullah Medical College unit Chhatra League, the ruling Awami League's associate body of students, have reportedly not been allowing the college principal and the newly appointed vice-principal to enter the offices for a few days.

The activist went on strike and laid siege to the principal's office demanding withdrawal of the transfer order for the college's former vice-principal.

The health ministry issued the order for the transfer of Samiul Islam, who was vice-principal, on May 4 and appointed Mahbub Hossain to replace Samiul. The principal, MA Azahar, told New Age on Friday that he had informed the ministry of the matter. 'I did not enter my office on Thursday after a 10-day leave. I have to take leave on security grounds.'

He said that he had done his administrative chores sitting in the room of the hospital's director.

Mahbub Hossain, the newly appointed vice-principal, said that he had joined the college but could not perform his duties. He also could not visit his patients in the orthopedic ward of the hospital, he said.

'I have to take leave for 20 days on security grounds,' Mahbub said.

He alleged that some Chhatra League activists, led by Samiul Islam, threatened his life. 'They said if I join office, they will kill me.'

Brushing aside the allegation, Samiul said, 'No responsible government worker can give such a threat.'

He alleged that Mahbub was an associate professor in current charge. 'A person appointed in current charge cannot be appointed vice-principal. Mahbub Hossain submitted false documents to the ministry and got the appointment.'

Samiul said 'According to the appointment notice, the order came into effect on May 15. But the ministry cancelled the order on May 12.'

Source: New Age