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The president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, Rashed Khan Menon, called the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate corruptions done by the prime minister, ministers and some Bhavans to prove its transparencies and impartiality.
   He was addressing a gathering arranged by the party at the northern side of the Bibir Pukur in the Barisal city centre Tuesday evening.
   Menon said the commission had been formed on the demand and pressure of the opposition political parties and mass-people.
   But, its transparency and impartiality will be questioned if the corruptions done by the prime minister, ministers and Hawa Bhavan are not investigated at first, he said.
   Ministers and leaders of the ruling parties earned crores of taka from unemployed job-seekers by giving assurance of appointments, he added.
   At one hand, the government is lingering the separation of judiciary from administration and on the other, it issued license of killing to the Rapid Action Battalion and the police, he said.
   The soil under the foot of this government has already been removed and through successful implementation of the mass no-confidence human-wall program on December 11 and implementation of the 21-point demand, the toppling of this government would be executed, Menon said.

The Grameen Bank has planned to set up a hospital at a cost of $50 million with Japanese assistance, sources in the Board of Investment said.
   The Tokushukai Medical Corporation, the largest hospital chain in Japan, will help the bank to set up the Grameen-Tokushukai Health Care Foundation.
   A delegation, headed by the bank’s managing director, Muhammad Yunus, will visit Japan some time in January to hold talks with the corporation. The investment board executive chairman, Mahmudur Rahman, will be a member of the delegation.
   The planned foundation will also raise funds from various sources to commission the hospital project. BoI sources said they were committed to reach healthcare services at the doorsteps of the rural people, especially women and children.

The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, on Tuesday said elected representatives of the municipalities were reluctant to collect taxes as they did not want voters to be offended.
   The minister made the comment when he was addressing the inaugural session of a two-day international workshop on “decentralisation for efficient urban management in Bangladesh” at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
   The Local Government Initiative and the Times Research Foundation, Kolkata, in collaboration with the US Agency for International Development in India and Bangladesh, organised the workshop.
   The Dhaka city mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, former finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhit, the director of the USAID office for economic growth in India, Rebecca Black, and Raj M Kapoor of the foundation also spoke.
   Representatives of municipalities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan were present.
   Referring to the fund constraints to develop the municipalities, Bhuiyan said the rush of the poor people towards the urban areas since the war of independence had made it difficult to provide the city-dwellers with pure drinking water, sanitation, and other civic amenities.
   In this regard, he mentioned the World Bank-funded “Bangladesh Municipal Development Fund” project and the “Committee on Urban Local Governments,” a national level committee the government constituted to carry out development work in the municipalities. “The government is not in a position to finance the municipalities with adequate fund.”
   He said the government had taken effective measures to eradicate poverty in urban areas through employment generation and to develop slum areas.
   Khoka stressed on good co-ordination between the elected representatives of the municipalities and the authorities concerned of different government bodies to improve overall situation.
   He also said adoption of long-term plans and the application of modern technology would address numerous problems the municipalities had been facing.
   Mannan and Sadeque, however, refrained from making comment on decentralisation of power for efficient urban management but Muhit felt reduction of the control of the central government on the local tier to improve the condition of the municipalities.
   “I found the mayor of my city (Sylhet) waiting for the instruction from the central government even to take up plans to renovate a road,” Muhit said.
   “The mayor, a very pompous word with a very little power, it is a farce the governments of Bangladesh have been making with the elected representatives of local administration.”
   If the number of the elected representatives of the local bodies is increased, the problems of those areas will remarkably be decreased, he added.

A month-long Muktijudhdher Bijoy Utsab will begin at MA Aziz outer stadium premises from Wednesday.
   Ruling BNP-backed Muktijuddher Bijoy Utsab Committee will organise the event to observe Victory Day.
   The state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin, is expected to inaugurate the fair as chief guest while the state minister for freedom
   fighter affairs, Mohammad Rezaul Karim, will be present as special guest.
   On the eve of the fair the committee held a press conference at the fair premises on Tuesday afternoon where the organisers briefed about the different aspects of this year’s fair.
   “The committee has been organising the fair for the last two years to uphold the spirit of Victory Day,” said secretary of the committee, Abul Kalam Azad, at the press conference. Committee chairman, Dastagir Chowdhury was present.
   Committee leaders slated Awami League-backed Muktijudhdher Bijoy Mela Committee’s bid to hold a fair at the same venue.
   “Such ill motives of the Bijoy Mela committee not only
   tarnished the image of the freedom fighters but also misguided the people about our fair,” said Azad.
   Two hundred stalls and eight pavilions have already been set up, the conference was told.

The finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman Tuesday called for unilateral Indian initiative to make South Asia economically vibrant.
   He was speaking as a special guest at a session on “Creating a Dynamic South Asian Region by 2020” at the ongoing India Economic Summit hosted by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
   The finance minister said South Asia faced the staggering challenges of not only tackling economic but also social and health problems including HIV/AIDS hindering progress.
   The Indian commerce minister, Kamal Nath, and the Sri Lankan foreign minister, Lakhsman Kadirgamar also spoke as special guests making equally forceful pleas to strengthen regional cooperation in South Asia for achieving prosperity for the region.
   Saifur said, “Intra-regional trade in South Asia remains pretty low and added while Bangladesh remains a major buyer from India the latter being a much larger economy could allow free access to Bangladesh goods to its market at least on experimental basis to find that Bangladesh’s exports would not amount too much.”
   SAFTA provides ample scope to increase intra-regional trade and saw no reason to push bilateral free trade agreements to complicate and flood the trade regime with too many free trade arrangements, he said.
   The finance minister said that the on going initiative to sort out relations between India and Pakistan should augur well for SAARC.
   Kamal said, “I do agree with the Bangladesh finance minister that there is need for introspection. I agree with him that the balance of Indo-Bangladesh trade needs to be addressed.”
   “We are engaged with Bangladesh, but the potential for trade and economic cooperation has to be multiplied.”
   “There is need for a quantum jump in trade and economic cooperation.”
   India, he said, would be flexible on even sensitive items. “India must not be fearful of competition from items from the region.”
   “We must go for a comprehensive approach; FTAs and ETAs won’t be able to provide the results.”
   “It’s a matter of regret that 95 per cent South Asia’s trade were with the outside world. The potential for trade within the region remains to be achieved.”

The police interrupted the sit-in programme of journalist Syed Abul Moksud in front of the National Press club on Tuesday, said a press release of the Communist Party of Bangladesh.
   Moksud staged the sit-in programme at around 10:00am in protest against the “crossfire” killing of the Rapid Action Battalion.

Karmajibi Nari, a non-governmental organisation of working women urged the government on Tuesday to form an emergency security fund and launch a social security programme for the garments workers.
   The organisation held a press conference at the National Press Club where the speakers said, forming of the security fund and the launch of the social security programme should be an immediate and a coordinated effort of the government, the owners of the garment factories and the development partners to combat the post multi-fibre arrangement system.
   The speakers said about 18 lakh garments workers would face a dreadful condition after the phasing out of MFA and it would be difficult for someone alone to tackle the situation of the garments sector.
   The phasing out of MFA has created new challenges for the Bangladeshi readymade garments sector.
   The press conference was attended by the organisation’s executive director Rokeya Rafiq Baby, president Shirin Akhter and directors Aloka Sarkar and Mahmuda Imam.

Candidates of Samamana Goshthi panel on Tuesday bagged all six executive member posts in the polls of the Dhaka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said chamber sources.
   The four elected candidates in the general group are Shajahan Khan with (684 votes), Kamrul Islam (678 votes), M Mohaimen Saleh (676 votes) and Shahidul Haq (646 votes).
   In the association group, Alauddin Malik won with 289 votes and Monjurur Rahman Ruskin with 270 votes.
   They defeated candidates of the “Ganatantrik Parishad” panel. Two executive members were earlier elected uncontested.
   Chamber directors are elected for a three-year term and eight directors retire every year
   to make room for newcomers in the 24-member executive board.

The body of a youth was recovered by the police from a field at a village under Shailkupa upazila of the district on Tuesday, about two weeks after he was abducted.
   The deceased was identified as Shariful Islam Nitai, 30.
   The villagers said enmity with one Tipul, an alleged member of an extremist gang led to the killing of the victim.