Farmers stage demo to stop building brick field in cropland

Hundreds of farmers of village Baldhara in Manikganj staged demonstration on Saturday

demanding stop of building further brick kilns on their croplands.

They brought out a procession and held rally in protest at building brick kilns on their croplands.

The speakers at the rally said that the environment of Baldhara areas was being imbalanced due to making a large numbers of brick kilns on crop lands.

The production of crops was reduced in one third and the environment was being polluted, they said. The people especially children and elderly were becoming sick.

The speakers said that 14 brick field owners made 22 brick kilns within two square kilometre areas of the Baldhara union.

The farmers said that they would not give their paddy field for making the brick field.

'We will give life. But we will not give our paddy land', said Abdul Karim, owner of 2 bighas of land.

The farmers alleged that Abdul Jolil of village Ramkantapur had built two brick fields on

crop land at village Baldhara. He was grabbing neighbouring croplands to construct brick kiln, they said.

Member of Ward No. 4 of Baldhara Union Parishad, Mohammad Ibrahim, said that the environment was destroying for building brick kilns one after another.

Brick kiln owner Abdul Jolil said that he had certificate of environment directorate and license of BST.  'I am not constructing more brick kilns,' Jolil said.

The farmers lodged complaint to local administration. They also sent the copies to deferent ministries and environment directorate.

When contacted, deputy director of environment directorate in Manikganj, said that Abdul Jolil had two certificates for two brick kilns in the name of SOFUR-1 and SOFUR-2.

When contacted, deputy commissioner of Manikganj, Munshi Shahabuddin Ahmed, said that they would take action according to rules.

On the other side, farmers of village Solondi under Manikganj Sadar upazila are also protesting the planning of making a brickfield on their crop lands.

Source : New Age

Two killed in lightning strike in Gaibandha

Two people were killed and four others injured in separate lightning strikes at Ramnather Bhita and Ballamjhar villages in sadar upazila of Gaibandha Sunday noon.

The deceased were Babu Mia, 25, son of Ghani Master of Bhita village and Sharifa Aktar, 35, wife of Zahurul Islam of Ballamjhar.

Witnesses said thunderbolt struck Sharifa when she was working at the compound of her house leaving her instantly killed in the afternoon.

At the same time Babu was knocked down and instantly killed by thunderbolt when he was harvesting at a cropland near his village home.

Besides, four other people were injured in separate lightning strikes in different villages.

They are: Sada Rani, wife of Nurun Nabi and Jahanara Begum, 35, wife of Monohor Ali of Ballamjhar village, Ruly, 35, wife of Shahdat Hossain of Khamar Ballamjhar village and Rezaul, 25, son

of Bachcha Mia of Ramnather Bhita village.

The injured were admitted to Gaibandha Modern Hospital.

Source : New Age

No compromise regarding ensuring quality of higher education: UGC chairman

The University Grant Commission chairman Professor Dr AK Azad Chowdhury said a number of private universities were engaged in selling out certificates which must be closed.

'There is no compromise regarding ensuring quality of higher education,' he said on Saturday while addressing as the chief guest at the publication ceremony of two books of former vice-chancellor of the Chittagong University Professor Abdul Mannan.

Professor Dr Anupam Sen, VC of Premier University, presided over the publication ceremony of the books, Uchchha Shikkha O Prasonggik Bhabna and Protikriti: Ai Desh Ai Somoy, held at the Theater Institute, Chittagong.

Professor Anowarul Azim Arif, VC of Chittagong University, Professor Sikandar Khan, VC of East Delta University,  Professor Alamgir Mohammed Sirajuddin, former VC of CU, Professor Dr Moinul Islam, former president of Bangladesh Economics Association, veteran revolutionary Binod Bihari Chowdhury and journalist Abul Momen addressed the ceremony among others.

Professor AK Azad also said that they had taken measures to close a number of universities engaged in selling out certificates. These universities would be closed soon, he said.

He also said that the book Uchchha Shikkha O Prasonggik Bhabna by Professor Mannan was a proper contemporary document. The writer had placed the real scenario and his expectation to the politicians in both of his books.

'Professor Mannan has observed the society with a deep vision and praised what is acceptable apart from criticising the unacceptable aspects,' Azad said.

'I criticise different faults of the pro-liberation, democracy and secular forces constructively keeping in mind so that the opposite camp can not gain benefits from its,' he said.

The other speakers said Professor Mannan had been discharging his social responsibilities properly adding that the necessity of both his books would never be ended although he had focused on contemporarily issues.

Source : New Age

Contraband medicine worth Tk 10 lakh recovered

The Rapid Action Battalion recovered a large quantity of contra banned medicines from a thread selling shop at Kaliganj in Jhenaidah on Sunday.

The law enforcers arrested the owner of the shop, Saiful Islam, for his alleged involvement in the drug business.

The RAB sources said that acting on a tip-off, a contingent of RAB raided the thread selling shop owned by Saiful Islam at noon. They recovered a large quantity of drugs worth over Tk 10 lakh from the spot.

Major Sakhawat Hossain, camp commander of the RAB in Jhenaidah, could not inform the exact figure till Sunday afternoon as the recovery campaign was going on.

A case was filed under Special Power Act with local police, RAB official said.

Source : New Age

Rajshahi Survey Instt students go on demo

The students of Rajshahi Survey Institute on Sunday went on demonstration, blocked highway to push for their five-point demand inclusive of bringing the institute under education ministry.

Their others demands included treating survey engineer as a second class employee, immediate solution to residential, teacher and equipment crises.

Source : New Age

Dyeing factories fined for dumping untreated waste into Turag

A Department of Environment team on Sunday realised Tk 71.36 lakh in fine from two dyeing factories, one in the capital and the other in an area adjacent to it, for not using any effluent treatment plant and thus polluting the River Turag.

DoE director (monitoring and enforcement) Munir Chowdhury, accompanied by members of the Rapid Action Battalion-2, raided Landmark Fabrics Limited and Mark Terry Limited and found that the factories were discharging untreated liquid waste into the river.

The team tested the waste and found that the oxygen level in it was only 0.32, and .12 mg per litre

The water of Turag at the spots, where liquid waste was being dumped, was found to contain 0.52mg of oxygen per litre, a DoE release said.

The normal quantity of oxygen in water should range between 4.5mg and 4.8mg per litre.

The factories were ordered to stop releasing waste into the river immediately or their operations would be banned.

Source : New Age

BNP demands rationing for low-income groups

The opposition BNP on Sunday demanded reintroduction of food rationing for the labourers and low-income groups to enable them to cope with the unprecedented essential price escalation.

Speaking at a demonstration in the city BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that Awami League had forgotten its pre election pledge that if voted to power its first action would be to bring down essential prices.

He said that after Awami League returned to power rice, pulses, cooking oil, flour and other daily necessities are no more affordable to the common people.

The prices shot up ten times since the AL led government took power, he said.

He said that the low-income and working people were groaning under the burden of soaring prices.

Fakhrul criticised banning rickshaws from several city streets without providing alternative employment for the pullers.

He said, 'This is a government for the rich.'

He said, 'As this government does not care about the poor working people, it did not hesitate to ban rickshaws from so many city streets.'

Jatiyatabdi Rickshaw o Van Sramik Malik Samanway Parishad organised the human chain in front of the National Press Club in protest against police harassment of rickshaw pullers and banning rickshaws from several city streets.

BNP economic affairs secretary Abdus Salam, Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal executive president Abul Kasem Chowdhury, general secretary Zafrul Hasan and rickshaw van malik sramik samanway parishad president Nurul Islam Khan Nasim also addressed the demonstrators.

Source : New Age

Sheershanews editor arrested

Sheershanews.com editor Ekramul Huq was arrested from his Mogbazar house early Sunday.

A senior journalist of Sheershanews said Ekramul Huq was arrested on charge of extortion from one Giasuddin Talukdar.

Kalabagan thana police arrested him.

Ekramul Huq has been placed under two-day police remand for interrogation in connection with the extortion case.

The police produced him before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court, Dhaka, at 12:30pm seeking three-day remand for interrogation and the court granted the remand rejecting his bail petition.

In his remand plea Kalabagan thana sub-inspector Atiqur Rahman, who is also the investigation officer of the case prayed that the accused demanded Tk 20 lakh as extortion money from Giasuddin Talukder, the complainant of the case and owner of 'Balaka National, a business house.

Playing down the allegation, Ekramul Huq's counsel Sheikh Hemayet Hossain submitted that the case filed against his client was fabricated, false and baseless and lodged with ill motive as Ekramul Huq on several occasion published investigative reports in his media on corruption and irregularities by a section of business people.

After hearing metropolitan magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor passed the order rejecting the bail petition submitted by Sheikh Hemayet Hossain, who is also the president of Dhaka Ainjibi Samity.

Source : New Age

Load-shedding in Ramadan estimated at 500-700MW

The power distribution agencies will have to go for 500MW to 700MW load-shedding in Ramadan, said power secretary Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad on Sunday.

Coming out of a meeting on the power situation in Ramadan, he told reporters that the Power Division emphasised that electricity load management should focus on consumers' comfort in the month. Energy adviser Tawfique-e-Elahi Chowdhury attended the meeting.

Azad said the power distribution agencies were also instructed not to continue load-shedding of power in an area for more than half an hour at a stretch.

In reply to a query about the present power situation of the country, he claimed it was improving, compared to the situation prevailing in the previous year, as the overall electricity generation had increased.

'But, the use of air conditioners has been rising day by day, causing a significant increase in the demand for power,' he said.

Both the adviser and the secretary urged people to use fans instead of air conditioners, particularly in the mosques, so that the demand for electricity would not increase much in Ramadan.

Tawfique said the power distribution agencies were also instructed to motivate people to refrain from excessive use of light at markets, shops, community centres, mosques, etc.

Meeting sources said 179 out of the 1,663 mosques covered by the Dhaka Power Distribution Company used ACs.

Azad said 20 to 25 ACs consumed one megawatt of power.

The meeting, however, did not take any decision about whether shops and markets should be closed at 8:00pm or not as the labour and employment ministry was the proper authority to make a decision in this regard, said a Power Division official.

Azad also told the reporters that the power generation in the country would increase by around 300MW within a day or two.

He said two new power plants under the Power Development Board would start supplying power to the national grid, besides power generation would also increase in a few old plants after completion of their renovation.

Meeting sources said high officials would be at every power distribution substation and control room to monitor the power situation in Ramadan.

After the meeting, the Power Division and the PDB signed a deal with Baraka Patenga Power Limited for setting up a 50MW power plant at Patenga in Chittagong.

According to the deal, the state-run PDB will purchase power at 9.881 cents per unit (kilowatt-hour) or Tk 7.312 per unit ($1=Tk 74) for 15 years from the furnace oil-fired power plant.

The company will have to start supplying power to the national grid from October 30, 2012, otherwise it will have to count penalty per day for the delay.

Source : New Age

Moon sighting body meets today

The National Moon Sighting Committee will meet in the capital today to ascertain the commencement of the month of Ramadan.

Anyone having sighted the moon anywhere in the country has been requested to inform over telephone, fax or in any other way. Phone numbers are: 9559493, 9559643, 9555947, 9556407, 9558337 and fax: 02-9563397.

Source : New Age

Cop killed in road mishap

A police officer, Habibul Islam Habib, died at Rangpur Medical College Hospital Saturday night after being seriously injured in a road accident at Saidpur in Nilphamari, the police said.

Source : New Age

SEC to bring market manipulators to book

The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to take legal actions against some large investors for their involvement in market manipulation in January, said officials of the capital market watchdog.

'Based on the probe report and the directive of the finance ministry, we have conducted investigation into the roles of some big market players in the stocks debacle of January,' said SEC member Helal Uddin Nizami.

He said the commission had finalised its preparations for filing cases against a number of investors including

Sayed Sirajuddoula and his wife Rasheda Akter for bulk and serial trading of shares.

For example, in the statement of fact prepared for the case to be lodged against Sirajuddoula and Rasheda Akter, the equities market regulator has accused them of making artificial active trading of Peoples Leasing shares, which caused the price of the scrip to shoot up abnormally.

According to the SEC statement, they had pushed the price of Peoples Leasing shares up by trading 2,22,700 shares of the company between themselves from June 30 to November 4, 2010. After each of the Peoples Leasing shares had been split into 10, reducing its face value from Tk 100 to Tk 10, the two accused investors sold their holdings and booked a hefty profit.

The commission, in line with a recommendation made by the probe committee, is also set to take departmental actions against an SEC member of that time.

Helal Uddin said the commission sent an investigation report to the finance ministry against former SEC member Mansur Alam. 'We have sent an enquiry report to the finance ministry for taking action against Mansur Alam.'

The commission also formed a two-member committee to investigate into the allegations against SEC executive directors Anwarul Kabir Bhuiyan and ATM Tariquzzaman, he said.

Helal Uddin said, 'The commission finalised the terms of reference of the enquiry committee, which will start working soon.' 

The probe committee formed earlier, however, failed to specify any charge of being involved in the stock market scam against Tariquzzaman. 

After the relentless fall in share prices in December to January last, the government formed a high-powered probe committee, headed by Khondoker Ibrahim Khaled, to investigate into the market crash.

The three-member committee, after conducting a three-month investigation, submitted the report to the government with a number of case studies of market manipulation. The committee also placed a 25-point recommendation including conducting further enquiries about the people suspected to be involved in market manipulation, reconstructing the SEC, and terminating some of its officials including the sitting chairman Ziaul Haque Kahondker.

Finance minister AMA Muhith, while making the report public, said the government would take the recommendations into consideration and specified some term-by-term goals to bring back stability in the capital market. 

Source : New Age

BNP, 16 other parties seek time

Out of 38 registered political parties 17 including, BNP, were unable to hand in their audited financial statements for the last calendar year to the Election Commission by Sunday, the deadline.

According to an EC handout, 21 registered political parties, including ruling Awami League and opposition Jamaat-e-Islami gave their audited financial statements.

BNP and 10 other political parties—Jatiya Party (Manju), Bangladesh Jatiya Party,  Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Islami Oikya Jote,Ganatantri Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, Bangladesh Muslim League and Islamic Front Bangladesh—sought more time for handing in their statements.

BNP and some of the parties sought two more months for handing in their statements.

The Election Commission said it was yet to take a decision whether it would extend the deadline.

In 2008, the EC introduced the requirement for the registered political parties to give their audited financial statements to ensure their financial transparency.

The parties were given seven months, beginning January, to comply with the provision.

However, neither the Election Commission nor the political parties disclosed to the media the contents of audited financial statements.

A two-member ruling Awami League team led by deputy office secretary Mrinal Kanti Das submitted party's audited financial statement to the Election Commission on Sunday.

A three-member opposition BNP team led by the party's assistant office secretary Abdul Latif Jony handed in a letter to the Election Commission seeking two more months for giving the report.

Asked why BNP sought more time for handing in its financial statement, Jony said, 'The Election Commission wrote to us at the beginning of July seeking the financial statement.'

'Obviously, we could not prepare the statement in such short time,' he said.   

Asked by waiting reporters, Mrinal Kanti declined to disclose the contents of the financial statement of the ruling party.

He said the financial statement, Awami League submitted following the Representation of People Order, 'is now the property of the Election Commission.'

 Mrinal said the commission would now decide whether it would make the report public.

The Election Commission secretary Muhammad Sadique told reporters that the EC would take a decision whether or not to extend the deadline requested by political parties.

Asked whether the commission had any mechanism to crosscheck the audited financial statements, he said the veracity of the reports would be looked into, though the commission did not have enough manpower for the task.

He said the commission would crosscheck the reports once it got the manpower.     

The parties which have submitted the reports are AL, Jatiya Party (Ershad), Jamaat, Liberal Democratic Party, Krishak Sramik Janata League, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Awami Party, Zaker Party, Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, National People's Party, Jamiaate Ulama-e-Islam Bangladesh, Gana Forum, Progressive Democratic Party, Bangladesh National Awami Party-Bangladesh NAP, Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Bangladesh Islami Front, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party, Revolutionary Workers' Party of Bangladesh and Khelafat Majlish.   

Seven political parties which neither submitted their financial statements nor sought time for  doing it included,  Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal, Workers' Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu), Gana Front, Oikyabaddha Nagarik Andolan and Bangladesh Kalyan Party.  

Section 9 (b) of the Political Party Registration Rules requires every registered political party to give financial statement for the immediate past calendar year audited by a registered chartered accounting firm to the EC by July 31.

The RPO stipulates cancellation of registration of political parties for failure to comply with the provision for three consecutive years.

On July 4, the EC wrote to the registered political parties to remind them about the deadline.

Source : New Age