Microcredit is a mirage, says UK study

A British government-funded international study says there is no credible evidence that microcredit has helped cut poverty and empowers women.

The 'systematic review' dismissed well-known studies done so far claiming positive impacts on women.

The report says 'unreliable impact estimates' based on 'weak methodologies' and 'inadequate data' have contributed to the creation of perception that micro-funding worked.

It also blames the myth of micro-credit on 'anecdotes' and 'inspiring stories' propagated by the powerful micro-credit industry.

The damning report, Evidence of the impact of microfinance: a systematic review was supported by the UK's overseas development arm DFID.

The news agency has obtained the full report, dated August 2011.

'Despite the apparent success and popularity of microfinance, no clear evidence yet exists that microfinance programmes have positive impacts,' said the report, co-authored by Maren Duvendack, Richard Palmer-Jones, James G Copestake, Lee Hooper, Yoon Loke and Nitya Rao.

This report seemingly pours cold water on the rigorous microcredit campaign especially in the West and lends further credence to the contention that is fast gaining ground that microfinance fails to pull the hard-core poor out of poverty.

Late last year, Danish director Tom Heinemann in an investigative TV documentary 'Caught in Micro debt', which was aired on Norwegian television, questioned microcredit operations.

It uncovered documents revealing nearly $100 million in aid funds to Grameen Bank were transferred out of Grameen Bank to a private entity, Grameen Kalyan, set up by Muhammad Yunus, without the knowledge of the donor Norway's NORAD.

The DfID review said the concept of microcredit was 'first introduced in Bangladesh by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus'.

'Professor Yunus started Grameen Bank more than 30 years ago with the aim of reducing poverty by providing small loans to the country's rural poor (Yunus 1999).'

The Department for International Development, is the UK government ministry that manages Britain's international aid and works to get rid of extreme poverty.

'There have been four major reviews examining impacts of microfinance (Sebstad and Chen, 1996; Gaile and Foster 1996, Goldberg 2005, Odell 2010, see also Orso 2011).

'These reviews concluded that, while anecdotes and other inspiring stories (such as Todd 1996) purported to show that microfinance can make a real difference in the lives of those served, rigorous quantitative evidence on the nature, magnitude and balance of microfinance impact is still scarce and inconclusive (Armendáriz de Aghion and Morduch 2005, 2010).

The review continued: 'Overall, it is widely acknowledged that no well-known study robustly shows any strong impacts of microfinance (Armendáriz de Aghion and Morduch 2005, p199-230).'

Bangladesh's top microcredit operators include Association for Social Advancement, Grameen Bank, Brac, which together wield enormous power in the country socio-political life.

Critics put the stunning loan recovery rate of nearly 98 per cent down to the harassment of villagers from the debt collectors. Some argue that people can quickly sink into a cycle of debt, with many lenders charging exorbitant rates of interest.

In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, numerous reports of suicides amongst loan takers have spread around the world, calling into question the benefits from microcredit.

'Because of the growth of the microfinance industry and the attention the sector has received from policy makers, donors and private investors in recent years, existing microfinance impact evaluations need to be re-investigated.

'The robustness of claims that microfinance successfully alleviates poverty and empowers women must be scrutinised more carefully.'

The study found 'no robust evidence of positive impacts on women's status, or girl's enrolments'.

'Our report shows that almost all impact evaluations of microfinance suffer from weak methodologies and inadequate data (as already argued by Adams and von Pischke 1992), thus the reliability of impact estimates are adversely affected.

'This can lead to misconceptions about the actual effects of a microfinance programme, thereby diverting attention from the search for perhaps more pro-poor interventions.

'Therefore, it is of interest to the development community to engage with evaluation techniques and to understand their limitations, so that more reliable evidence of impact can be provided in order to lead to better outcomes for the poor,' the study concluded.

Source : New Age

Govt to ensure economic emancipation: PM

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said the aim of her government is to ensure the economic emancipation of people as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave the independence in 1971.

'Now our aim is to attain economic emancipation,' she told a discussion meeting on August 15 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

The Bangladesh Awami League organised the discussion with the deputy leader of the house, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, in the chair.

Hasina said she knew in the present global economic turmoil, many big countries were facing trouble to maintain their economic growth. 'But we're maintaining moderate growth... this is a good progress for the country,' she said.

She said her government was providing subsidy on fuel, electricity and food grains so that the people of the country can live a better life. 'We are providing subsidy to ensure that the prices of essentials remain under the commoners' reach.'

In this connection, Hasina said her government was continuing OMS and fair price cards and such other measures to ensure food for the poor.

'We're trying hard to ensure a good, peaceful environment so that all can have an enjoyable Eid, and I seek cooperation from you all,' she said.

Talking about various conspiracies, she said people should remain alert so that no vested quarter could snatch their rights.

'Conspiracies are going on so that people lose their confidence in the Awami League, but I have the trust on the people because we've come to power to serve them,' she told the meeting.

The prime minister criticised the birthday celebrations of the opposition leader on August 15 saying, 'This is not her real birthday.  All of a sudden in 1996, Khelada started celebrating her birthday on August 15. This is just to hurt the sentiment of Bangabandhu's followers.'

'Aren't you encouraging the killers by this celebration?' she asked Khaleda.

She also said the opposition leader took away the money that came for the Zia Orphanage. 'How the country could be benefited when such a person was in power,' she questioned.

Regarding the 15th amendment to the constitution, she said the chance of grabbing state power had been sealed with this amendment.

She also said Ziaur Rahman had grabbed power illegally in 1975 after killing Mujib and rewarded the killers in many ways.

She also said, 'It's Zia who patronised the killers and Razakars in the country and the Khaleda promoted them.'

'Can you imagine that Khaleda Zia had made the Bangabandhu self-confessed killers members of parliament and one of them the opposition leader after the votes-less Feb 1996 polls?'

AL leader Suranjit Sengupta, agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, AL general secretary and LGRD minister Syed Ashraful Islam, former home minister Mohammad Nasim, DU VC AAMS Arefin Siddique, Workers Party chief Rashed Khan Menon, JSD chief Hasanul Huq Inu, industries minister Dilip Barua, AL leader MA Aziz and Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, among others, among others spoke at the meeting.

Earlier, a one-minute silence was observed to show respect to Mujib and others killed in the August 15 massacre.

Source : New Age

Driver Jamil put on 3-day remand

Driver Jamil Hossain was taken on a three-day police remand on Tuesday for interrogation in connection with the Manikganj road mishap that killed noted filmmaker Tareque Masud and ATN News CEO Mishuk Munier.

The police produced him before Senior Judicial Magistrate Court at 3:00pm seeking a ten-day remand for him, but the court granted the three-day remand turning down his bail petition.

Judge Mohammad Iqbal Hossain passed the order.

Jamil was arrested from his sister's house at Gangni upazila in Meherpur on Monday.

Later, he was sent to Manikganj DB office for interrogation and produced before the court Tuesday after primary interrogation.

Five people, including filmmaker Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munier died when a Chuadanga-bound bus collided with their microbus on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway at Ghior upazila in Manikganj on Saturday.

Source : New Age

Storm damages 25 houses, shops

A severe storm lashed through two villages of Saturia upazila in Manikaganj on Tuesday, leaving at least 25 houses and shops damaged.

Local sources said the storm hit Bhua and Delua villages at about 7:00am, leaving 21 houses and four shops damaged.

Source : New Age

BNP MP Hafiz Ibrahim sued in graft case

The Anti-Corruption Commission Tuesday sued former BNP lawmaker Hafiz Ibrahim along with his wife Mahruza Sultana, in a money-laundering case, on charges of taking a bribe of $1,75,000 and siphoning off the amount to Singapore.

ACC deputy director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury filed the case with Gulshan police under Money Laundering Prevention Act. The commission will conduct investigation into the case.

In the case, the complainant alleged that Ibrahim took a bribe of $ 1,75,000, from Siemens Bangladesh Limited in exchange for awarding a tender of the then Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board now BTCL (Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited), misusing his power during 2001-2006 regime of the past BNP-Jamaat alliance government.

The BNP lawmaker from Bhola-2 constituency was member of two parliamentary standing committees —planning ministry and information ministry — at that time.

The money was deposited to a joint account of Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore after the name of Ibrahim and his wife. A total of $1,00,000 were deposited on December 19 in 2005 and the rest $75,000 on July 25 in 2006 with the account, the case details said.

The amount was transferred to the account from another joint account after the name of Zulfikar Ali, consultant of Siemens and his wife Rahima Ali.

The ACC in its inquiry also found that Ibrahim and his wife withdrew  $3,92,289.15 on July 11 in 2007 and  $4,41,312.16 on January 16, 2008 from the account, the case statement said, adding that but, in their wealth statements submitted to the ACC, the couple did not mention about the accounts.

Source : New Age

Probe ordered whether Jalil’s bank destroyed temple to build hospital

The High Court on Tuesday directed the authorities to investigate and find out whether the Mercantile Bank Foundation had destroyed a temple to build a charitable hospital at Dubol Hati Rajbari in the district.

A bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore also directed the deputy commissioner of Naogaon and the director general of the Department of Archaeology to find out the real owner of the land.

The bench issued the order responding to the argument of former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, the lawyer of the bank, owned by Abdul Jalil, former general secretary of ruling Awami League that no temple existed on the land on which the hospital was being built by his clients.

 On July 27, the bench had issued a rule suo moto taking cognisance to a newspaper report under the headline that a hospital was being built by demolishing a centuries old temple, and directed the authorities to explain why appropriate and stern action should not be taken against the management of the bank.

The court had also directed the Mercantile Bank chairman Abdul Jalil and its board of directors to appear before it on August 16 to explain their position on the issue.

Khasru told the court that Jalil could not appear before it as he was sick.

The directors of the bank's board were appeared for the hearing.

Khasru told the bench that Jalil had purchased the land where no temple existed.

He also submitted that the plot of land was never listed by local experts as a heritage site hosting a temple.

He, however, said that once there was a theatre there.

'A person like Jalil cannot grab temple land as he is the leader of a secular political party,' he said.

But Khasru could give no satisfactory answer when the photographs of the temple' was submitted to the court.

Earlier, lawyer Sheikh Fazle Nur Taposh, MP, who defended the bank's managing director AKM Shahidul Haque, told the court that the bank had no knowledge about the plot of land on which the hospital was being built.

To a query from the court why the bank had allotted Tk 50, 00,000 for the constructing the hospital, Taposh said that the Mercantile Bank Foundation asked for the money to build the hospital in Noagaon as per the wish of Jalil.

'But the bank is unaware whether the hospital was being build on temple land,' he added.

The court exempted Shahidul from appearance at the next hearing.

The court, however, asked the other officials of the bank to appear before it again at the next hearing.

Source : New Age

Daily exercise ‘cuts death risk’

Just 15 minutes of exercise a day can boost life expectancy by three years and cut death risk by 14 per cent, research from Taiwan suggests.

Experts in The Lancet say this is the least amount of activity an adult can do to gain any health benefit.

This is about half the quantity currently recommended in the UK.

Meanwhile, work in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests a couch potato lifestyle with six hours of TV a day cuts lifespan by five years.

The UK government recently updated its exercise advice to have a more flexible approach, recommending adults get 150 minutes of activity a week.

This could be a couple of 10-minute bouts of activity every day or 30-minute exercise sessions, five times a week, for example.

Experts say this advice still stands, but that a minimum of 15 minutes a day is a good place to start for those who currently do little or no exercise.

The Lancet study, based on a review of more than 4,00,000 people in Taiwan, showed 15 minutes per day or 90 minutes per week of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, can add three years to your life.

And people who start to do more exercise tend to get a taste for it and up their daily quota, the researchers from the National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan, and China Medical University Hospital found.

More exercise led to further life gains. Every additional 15 minutes of daily exercise further reduced all-cause death rates by 4 per cent.

And research from Australia on health risks linked to TV viewing suggest too much time sat in front of the box can shorten life expectancy, presumably because viewers who watch a lot of telly do little or no exercise.

Source : New Age

124 convicts still in hiding

One hundred and twenty-four convicted activists of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, including three death-row convicts, are still in hiding as the nation passes today the seventh anniversary of the August 17, 2005 countrywide series of bombings.

The Jamaatul Mujahideen stepped into the spotlight as a hardcore militant outfit with the series of bombings in 634 places in all the 64 districts but Munshiganj, on August 17, 2005, in which two judges were killed in Jhalakati killed and scores of others injured across the country.

In subsequent attacks, the Jamaatul Mujahideen also killed at least 31 others across the country.

According to sources in the police headquarters, 341 cases were filed against the suspected JMB activists for the series of bombings.

Of the cases, 142 were filed for the August 17 blasts and 199 for the subsequent bomb attacks.

Different courts have so far delivered verdicts in 78 cases of the total 142, filed for the August 17, 2005 bombings, while the rest 64 are now under trial, said the Rapid Action Battalion's legal and media wing director Commander Mohammad Sohail.

In the verdicts in 78 cases, the courts sentenced 29 people to death, 92 to imprisonment for life and 77 to imprisonment for varying terms, he added.

The Jamaatul Mujahideen chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his operational commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai and four other leaders were executed on March 30, 2007.

The law enforcers have so far arrested 1,192 people in connection with the cases.

The law enforcers are, however, yet to arrest 124 of the convicts, including three death-row ones, police sources said.

The law enforcement agencies have already arrested most of  the top leaders and activists of the Jamaatul Mujahideen and the Islamist militants are now in a decaying state, said the acting inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Haque.

Operations against banned militant outfits are going on in full swing and they would finally be eliminated from the country, he added.

Source : New Age

BCL confines, assaults teachers in CU, RU

Activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling Awami League's associate body of students, on Tuesday confined the proctor and a hall provost in Rajshahi Univeristy, assaulted a hall provost in Chittagong University and locked up the academic building in Noakhali University of Science and Technology.

In Chittagong, a group of Chhatra League activists assaulted the Shahjalal Hall provost in his office on Tuesday morning as the hall authorities did not observe National Mourning Day on Monday.

In Rajshahi University, Chhatra League activists confined the proctor and the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall provost in the provost's office on Tuesday as the hall authorities did not invite especially activists to an iftar party marking National Mourning Day.

In Noakhali University of Science and Technology, a faction of Chhatra League locked up the academic building and damaged the windows of the Shahid Abdus Salam Hall demanding punishment of the people responsible for an incident of infighting on the campus on  May 24 that involved its rival faction.

The New Age correspondent in Chittagong University said that a group of activists of the university unit Chhatra League locked up the room of the provost of the Shahjalal Hall provost, Salamat Ullah, and started fire with tyres when they laid siege to the hall office about 10:00am.

Witnesses said that a Chhatra League group, led by Abu Sayed, had gone to the provost's room and assaulted him. The university's provost body with the help of the police later rescued the provost

The university unit Chhatra League's joint secretary Mohammed Mamun said that the hall authorities had planned no programme marking National Mourning Day although the university had decided to observe the day. The hall authorities did not fly the national flag at half-mast on the day, he added.

The provost could not be reached for his comments.

The university's assistant proctor Ali Haidar said that the Chhatra League had also submitted a memorandum to the authorities in protest at the hall authorities' not observing the day.

The correspondent in Rajshahi said that the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall unit Chhatra League in Rajshahi University had on Tuesday confined the hall provost for two hours as the provost did not invite them to an iftar party.

Witnesses said that leaders and activists of the hall unit Chhatra League confined the hall provost, SA Haidar, to his office. The activists also confined the proctor, Chowdhury Muhammad Zakaria, when he went there to rescue the provost, hall students said.

The Chhatra League activists also shouted slogans against the proctor and the provost and demanded that the provost should be removed.

After two hours, the university unit Chhatra League president, Ahmed Ali, and the general secretary, Abu Hossain, went to the hall and rescued the two university officials.

The hall unit Chhatra League complained that the authorities had favoured Chhatra Shibir activists and had not invited them to the iftar party.

The provost said that the ruling party men had wanted his removal as they were not invited especially.

The proctor told New Age that they would look into the matter.

The New Age correspondent in Noakhali said that a Chhatra League faction, led by Monjurul Islam Mohsin, locked up academic the building of Noakhali University of Science and Technology and damaged the windows of the Shahid Abdus Salam Hall on Tuesday.

They also created obstructed the semester examinations scheduled for Tuesday in protest at 'a move of the authorities to protect the members of another group who are responsible for a clash on the campus on May 24.'

The police rushed in and controlled the situation.

The vice-chancellor, AKM Saydul Hoque Chowdhury, said, 'We have set up committee to investigate the May 24 incident.'

'Action will be taken in keeping with what the committee recommends. But a section of student locked the academic building claiming the punishment of the accuses student,' he added.

Source : New Age

Dhaka to testify at ITLOS

Bangladesh will give a verbal hearing at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas in Germany on September 18 for a 'legally equitable' resolution of its dispute with Myanmar over the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, a foreign ministry official told New Age.

Foreign minister Dipu Moni, who is also the 'agent' for Bangladesh with the ITLOS, would testify the country's position on the dispute with neighbouring Myanmar over the maritime boundary.

The ITLOS, which is composed of 21 judges from around the world, has invited Bangladesh for oral proceedings at its headquarter in Hamburg on September 18.

Additional foreign secretary M Khurshed Alam, who is 'deputy agent' for the country, would assist the minister in the proceedings.

In its reply filed with the ITLOS on March 14, Dhaka made an appeal for a 'legally equitable' resolution over Myanmar's claims concerning delimitation of maritime boundary between the two

countries, according to ITLOS.

The ITLOS is an inter-governmental judicial body created under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas.

Bangladesh and Myanmar, on mutual consent, invited ITLOS in 2009 to exercise its jurisdiction over the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries.

Bangladesh submitted a 'memorial' on her claims in the Bay on July 1, 2010. Myanmar submitted a 'counter-memorial' on December 1, 2010.

The two countries, which had held prolonged negotiations over the dispute since 1974, so far failed to reach a settlement.

The ITLOS is expected to deliver its judgment in the case on dispute between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the first quarter of 2012, its president Jose Luis Jesus said on June 13.

The ITLOS president described the case, which has been registered with the tribunal as 'Case No. 16' on disputes between Bangladesh and Myanmar as 'a milestone' for the tribunal since 'it is its first case on maritime delimitation'.

Foreign minister Dipu Moni, who is also the 'agent' for Bangladesh with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, would also give a verbal hearing at UN in New York on August 24 on the country's 'position paper' for demarcating the outer limits of the country's continental shelf.

On March 8, 2010, the ITLOS president also formed an arbitral tribunal to resolve the maritime boundary dispute between Bangladesh and India.

A country is supposed to enjoy its rights to fishing and exploring and extracting other marine resources in its 12–24 nautical miles of territorial sea from the coastline, 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone and a maximum 350 nautical miles of continental shelf from the baseline.

Bangladesh has, however, long-standing disputes with India and Myanmar on the issue of 'starting point' on how to mark the coastline to draw its marine boundary, with apparently overlapping claims of the three neighbouring countries because of the funnel-like coastline of the Bay of Bengal.

Under the UN provision, no claims submitted by a country should be taken for final consideration before settling the objection raised by a neighbouring country, which might have overlapping claims.

A well defined legal maritime boundary of Bangladesh would enable the country to undertake systematic programmes for exploiting and utilising its resources in the Bay, experts said.

Source : New Age

Hasina wants roads repaired before Eid

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday ordered the communications ministry to initiate immediate steps to repair the badly-damaged highways before Eid.

She asked the roads and highways department to ensure 'accountability' in spending money for repairs and maintenance of roads and highways to get funds for the purpose, said officials.

Sheikh Hasina held an emergency meeting with the communications ministry at the Prime Minister's Office against the backdrop of suspension of bus service on a number of routes, including Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Mymensingh, by transport operators to press for repairs of rundown highways. 

Traffic movement has become almost impossible as most of the highways have developed potholes and craters due to lack of maintenance and repairs for long.

An apparently annoyed prime minister asked the communications ministry to cancel holidays of the roads and highways officials and employees if necessary to complete repair works on major highways before Eid to ease public suffering, said an official concerned.

Plying of buses has remained suspended on the Dhaka-Mymensingh route since Thursday, and bus operators of Tangail on Sunday enforced an indefinite strike on the Dhaka-Tangail route, causing immense suffering to commuters.

'Torrential rains this year has caused much damage to the highways. We will be able to repair the damaged stretches of the major roads in seven days if it does not rain,' communications minister Syed Abul Hossain told New Age after the meeting.

He, however, said that the prime minister had ordered immediate steps for completing the repair works before Eid to reduce suffering of the homebound people before Eid, which falls on August 31 or on September 1. 

The prime minister assured the roads and highways department of necessary funds for immediate repairs and maintenance of highways.

After the prime minister's assurances, bus owners in the evening withdrew their strike. 

'We asked for immediate release of Tk 690 crore allocated for the current fiscal to begin repair works on the damaged highways. We will float tenders and give work orders soon after the fund is available,' Abul Hossain said.

Secretary to the road division Md Mozammel Haque Khan made a power-point presentation on the activities of the communications ministry and the roads and highways department at the meeting that lasted over two and half hours.

The secretary said the craters and potholes on the highways would be repaired in a week on an emergency footing to ensure transport movement if it did not rain. 

At the directives of the prime minister, the communications minister along with senior officials concerned went to the badly-damaged Mawna point on Dhaka-Mymensigh highway to see the condition of the road network.

The prime minister asked the communications ministry to submit a report on the expenditures during the tenures of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government, caretaker government and the first half of the present government on roads and highways, the prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters. 

Sheikh Hasina also asked Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation to increase the number of buses it operates on highways to ease suffering of the homebound people during Eid.

She directed the ministry to operate the Dhaka-Rangpur express train from August 21.

The prime minister's advisers HT Imam and Mashiur Rahman, principal secretary Md Abdul Karim and secretary to PMO Molla Waheeduzzaman, among others, attended the meeting.

At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, the communications minister came under fire from his colleagues for the delay in repairs of the battered road network.

Abul Hossain attributed the delay in road maintenance and repairs to fund constraints and also blamed the past BNP-Jamaat and caretaker governments for their 'failure' to maintain the road network.

Rejecting his claims, finance minister AMA Muhith told the cabinet meeting that lack of monitoring by the authorities concerned was rather the reason for the sorry condition of the highways.

The communications minister, however, on Tuesday said that the roads and highways could have initiated steps earlier for release of the funds.

Source : New Age

HC summons police, arbitrators

The High Court on Tuesday asked nine people, including a union parishad chairman and three police officers, to appear on August 23 to explain their role in the arbitration which drove a housewife into committing suicide with her two children by jumping under a train in Madhabpur of Habiganj on Monday.

A bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore also issued a rule suo moto asking the government to explain why their inaction in respect of the tragic incident should not be declared illegal.

The police was asked to explain why they should not be directed to prosecute persons involved in the arbitration at village Sultanpur of Andiura union in the district, which had led to the tragic death of the woman, Ferdausi Akhter, and her two children and caused injuries to two others.

The court passed the order after Supreme Court lawyer Moniruzzaman Azad had drawn its attention to a news report carried on Tuesday by different dailies that the women with her four children jumped under a Sylhet-bound train on Monday morning after a rural arbitration had ostracized her and asked her to leave the village over an unfounded allegation that she had an extra-marital affair.

The nine persons who have been summoned by the court are – Andiur union parishad chairman Atikur Rahman, member Tapan Dev, former member Moloy Miah and three others – Abdur Rahman, Fazlur Rahman and Karim Kha.

The rest three are – Madhabpur police officer-in-charge Mainul Chowhdury, sub-inspector Ehsanul Haque and Shayestaganj railway station's police box in-charge Monwar Hossain.

Being unable to stand the humiliation in public by the rural arbitration, Ferdausi Akhter, 35, jumped under the train with her four children. She and her two children died while the two others sustained grievous injuries.

It was alleged that the village arbitration had brought allegation against Ferdausi, wife of expatriate worker Jilon Miah, that she had an illicit relationship with Jilon's nephew Abdul Kadir.

The arbitration, 10 days before the month of Ramandan began, rebuked Ferdausi and asked her to leave the village.

Source : New Age

Teachers feel insecure as BCL activists become ‘violent’

Teachers of some public universities and university colleges have said that they feel insecure as some leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling Awami League's associate body of students, have become 'violent' in recent times.

They have said that they feared attacks from Chhatra League activists during the forthcoming session for admission to the educational institutions.

Authorities of the universities and the University Grants Commission have become 'concerned' about an increased number of attacks by Chhatra League activists on teachers, the UGC chair, AK Azad Chowdhury, told New Age on Tuesday.

'The recent violence is alarming. Teachers across the country now feel insecure,' said Ferdous Hossain, who is a former secretary to the Dhaka University Teachers' Association.

Chhatra League leaders generally take money from admission seekers and ask teachers to have them admitted to the institutions, teachers alleged. And the leaders of the organisation attack the teachers if they do not agree to have the students admitted, they added.

It has become a regular phenomenon and it is likely to surface once again as the admission process in public universities and colleges is about to begin, they said.

Teachers of university colleges are most vulnerable to attacks at admission time, they added.

At least 20 teachers of the Bangladesh Agricultural University became injured when Chhatra League activists attacked them on August 8.

The university proctor, Abu Hadi Noor Ali, came to be attacked after he had handed over to the police two students held on suspicion of being involved in mugging in the botanical garden of the university.

Teachers then had not taken classes and given examinations for a couple of days demanding punishment of the attackers.

The University of Chittagong proctor, Mohammad Akhtar Hossain, and three assistant proctors Mohammad Monjur Morshed,  Mohammad Moinul Islam and Shipak Krishna Devnath submitted to authorities their resignation on August 1, over 'misconduct' by groups of Chhatra League activists. They, however, withdrew their resignation after a meeting with the authorities.

Chhatra League activists on February 18 ransacked the office of Hossain Kabir, the provost of the Alaol Hall in Chittagong Univeristy and damaged valuables over the distribution of seats in the hall.

On August 13, Chhatra League activists foiled the examinations for teacher's recruitment at the SD Degree College at Kotchandpur in Jhenaidah. The activists beat up the college principal, Amal Kumar Ghosh.

On May 22, a teacher of chemistry at the Government Bangla College at Mirpur in Dhaka was attacked by Chhatra League activists during the HSC admission test.

Rubel Hawlader, organisational secretary of the college unit Chhatra League, pushed the teacher down the staircase from the first floor in a college building as he did not agree to have students of their choice admitted.

Chhatra League activists at the time also threatened several teachers of Dhaka College. 'They told me that no one can save me if I do not have their candidates admitted,' one of the teachers said.

The National University's pro-vice-chancellor Tofail Ahmad Chowdhury, however, defended the Chhatra League activists.

Students are not always responsible for such incidents, he said. 'There is no reason to think that teachers are always innocent.'

He, however, said that students, whoever they are, should not have taken the law into their own hands.

When asked why they have not taken action, he said, 'It is not possible for us to rush in where students confine teachers. We take disciplinary action against students when we are informed of such matters.'

Former DUTA general secretary Ferdous said that incidents of violence against teachers was increasing as the attackers were not punished. 'If we cannot stop such violence against teachers, academic activities in universities will be affected,' he added.

The DUTA president, Anwar Hossain, said that the teachers should also have a role to play in not being attacked.

'I strongly condemn attacks on teachers in the Bangladesh Agricultural University. But I saw in a photograph published in newspapers that a teacher was holding a student hanging from the belt. A teacher cannot do this,' he said.

He said that investigators also need to find out whether there was any provocation from the teachers in the BAU incident. He, however, said that authorities needed to ensure punishment of attackers.

The UGC chair Azad said that any students found involved in such violence would be expelled from the university.

Source : New Age