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The Rajshahi unit of Chemists and Druggists’ Association Saturday afternoon went on a strike for an indefinite period in the district, demanding the release of two drug centre employees arrested earlier on Saturday.
   The association at a meeting on Sunday also made a decision on enforcing the strike all over the country from Monday.
   The event has caused a short supply of essential drugs in hospitals and clinics, including Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, causing sufferings for the patients. Many scheduled surgeries had to be deferred.
   The attendants of patients admitted to hospital in the district became hapless after failing to find the required medicines throughout Sunday.
   The association officials said the Narcotics Control Department had arrested two employees of Raka Pharmacy and Morsheda Pharmacy at Lakshmipur on charge of selling pathedrine and morphine without licence. The arrested were Sazzad Hossain, 35 and Rashed Biswas, 20
   All the 1,400 chemist shops in the city and the upazilas stopped selling medicine Saturday evening demanding the release of the arrested.
   The association members at an emergency meeting Sunday morning decided to continue the agitation programme until the arrested were released.
   The Bangladesh Chemists and Druggists’ Association vice-president, Harunor Rashid, also the association’s district unit president, was in the chair.
   The association general secretary, Ziaul Haque, said the deputy director of the detective branch under the department, Khushi Mohan Biswas, had demanded Tk 2 lakh as bribe from the shops.
   He claimed the two shops had valid documents for selling medicines of all sorts. As the drug owners refused to pay the amount, the narcotics officials arrested the employees.
   The deputy director brushed the allegation against him and said they had found unauthorised drugs in the shops.
   The employees were arrested and a case was filed as they failed to show licence, the director said.
   The RMCH director, Abul Kalam Azad, however, said the strike had no impact on hospital activities.
   He said some surgeries had to be rescheduled for want of anaesthetic drugs. He said he had informed the police commissioner of the incident. But no step was taken till afternoon.
   The Rajshahi Protection Movement Council president, Jamat Khan, issued a statement urging the chemists to call off the strike.

Continuous rainfall for the past four days has been disrupting Eid shopping, especially on footpath and at open spaces where low-income people go shopping.
   Roadside and open markets are facing a serious setback because of the rain. The sellers said although the middle of Ramadan was the high time for sale, bad weather held back the buyers from shopping.
   Footpath markets have mushroomed at Gulistan, Sadarghat, Old Town, Baitul Mukarram, Gausia, New market, Elephant Road, Mouchak, Karwan Bazar and other common places in front of large markets targeting the Eid.
   But many hawkers withdrew their makeshift shops on Sunday for water stagnation. Footpath shops at Gausia and on the Elephant Road remained covered with plastics.
   Manik Mia, a seller of readymade shirts in front of the Dhanmondi Hawker Market, said ‘I bought a number of shirts for Eid, but failed to sell them because of the rain.’
   Half-sleeved and full-sleeved shirts are selling between Tk 100 and Tk 250, T-shirts between Tk 50 and Tk 150, belt between Tk 50 and Tk 200 and shoes between Tk 200 and Tk 500 on the Elephant Road.
   Ladies’ wear such as three-pieces are selling between Tk 200 and Tk 500, cotton, silk and georgette saris between Tk 120 and Tk 400, and kameezes between Tk 100 and Tk 300 on the footpath.
   Raining though it was, disrupting Eid shopping for the poor, Eid shopping in air-conditioned and posh markets places went on as usual.

Information and communications technology can strengthen democracy and establish good governance by ensuring accountability and transparency, said the information and ICT minister, Abdul Moyeen Khan in Dhaka on Sunday.
   Using the technology, people can directly ask the ministers about their activities, said the minister, opening a three-day international workshop on ‘building an information society: Road2Tunis’ at the Bhasani Novo Theatre Complex.
   Representatives from five continents have joined the workshop, organised by the Ministry of Science, and Information and Communications Technology and the UN Development Programme.
   The minister said people could inquire about minister’s activities using ICT, which would take long if the queries would go to the parliament, where all such questions are not answered.
   Moyeen stressed the need for using ICT for development of rural people. About 70 per cent people of developing countries in south Asia, also in Bangladesh, live in rural areas and ‘we cannot plan development without their involvement.’
   ‘ICT gives the opportunity to break the so-called digital divide. This is the only high technology which is becoming cheaper day by day. We can connect even a remote village by using ICT,’ he said. ‘Access to people, their affordability and awareness are the three challenges the government faces in making ICT effective.’
   The Bhutan minister for information and communications, Layonpo Leki Dorji who attended the opening session as special guest, said the use of ICT was to bring about changes in society. He said the technology could be used for the rural people in Bangladesh, Bhutan and India.
   Science secretary Mian Mushtaque Ahmed said a public sector investment of about Tk 30 million had resulted in a private sector investment of about Tk 300 million by this time.
   The government is helping local entrepreneurs to develop and reach the global ICT standards, he said. ‘And in this regard, the government has established an ICT incubator at Kawran Bazar, with high-speed internet connectivity. The place now houses about 50 software firms and ICT service providers and 500 software professionals.’
   Bangladesh is working on the submarine cable connection and this will go in operation by year-end, he said.
   The UNDP Bangladesh resident representative, Jørgen Lissner said ICT technology was as important to a professor as to a peasant and Bangladesh needed to go a long way in this regard. A number of action and policies need to be taken to make the ICT sector effective.

Mayur Banchao Nagarik Forum, a citizens’ forum to save the River Mayur, held a boat procession along a five-kilometre span in the river, from the Alutala embankment to Gallamari bridge, in Khulna on Sunday.
   The forum with the help of Action Aid, Rupayan and Samaj Pragati Sangstha brought out the procession demanding protection of the river and the environment of the city.
   The forum’s other demands include proper management of the sluice gate, end to the encroachment on the river and its pollution and dredging at Kagibachha and ensuring fishermen’s right to the river.
   The environmental science department of Khulna University, Environmental Awareness Club and the people joined the procession.
   The local Daily Tribune editor, Begum Ferdausi Ali opened the programme.
   The forum convener, Wahidur Rahman, Firoz Ahmed, ward commissioners Ruma Khatun and Konika Saha, Khalid Hossain and Alamgir Islam Lablu led the procession.
   The Moyur has become a stagnant water body since 1982–83 after the Khulna protection dam had been erected. The river now has an average depth of 3.53 metres.
   There have been allegations that some influential quarters had encroached on a large portion of the river, depriving the fishermen of their rights. The water of the river is polluted in many ways, the residents said.
   The residents said the city corporation threw municipal wastes into the river.

Twenty-nine mobile courts on Sunday realised Tk 9,34,200 as fine and filed 198 cases for violation of traffic rules, BSTI ordinance, food act, DMP act and environmental act in 27 police areas except at Turag in Dhaka.
   The courts also jailed one person to two days’ imprisonment.
   A court raided the Bhai Bhai Restaurant and realised Tk 40,000 as fine from it. The court also realised Tk 30,000 from the Pubali Restaurant at Syampur on charge of selling stale, rotten and adulterated food items.
   Another court raided the City Flower Mills at Kotwali and realised Tk 60,000 from it as fine for selling wheat and maize fit to be consumed by animals.
   A court raided the Chakladar Varity Store at Mirpur and realised Tk 10,000 as fine from the owner.
   Another court raided a vermicelli factory and realised Tk 20,000 from the owner, Mohammad Ali, for producing vermicelli in an unhygienic condition.

The number of fake currency notes increased in the Chittagong city which was found even in the wads of money drawn from the banks before Eid-ul-Fitr.
   Businessmen in different shopping centres said they were detecting a number of fake notes every day.
   Taking the advantage of rush hour ahead of Eid, a section of dishonest people were deceiving the shopkeepers with the fake notes by purchasing goods from them, sources said.
   Mohammad Alauddin, a readymade garments shop owner at Southland Shopping
   Centre, said he had received seven fake notes of Tk 500 from the customers in the last five days.
   Another shopkeeper at Apollo Shopping Centre, Adhir Chandra, said they had also received five fake notes of Tk 500 and four of Tk 100 in a week.
   ‘I detected a fake note of Tk 500 with a customer, but I did not hand him over to the police as it seemed he might be a victim of fraudulence,’ he said.
   Some bank clients also alleged they had found fake notes in the money drawn from banks.
   Kankan Chowdhury, a businessman and a resident at Halishahar Housing Estate, said he found three fake notes of Tk 500 in a wad of Tk 1 lakh drawn from a private bank.
   ‘When I went back to the bank to make complaint, the officials did not listen to me,’ he said. As he insisted on changing the notes, they threatened to hand him over to the police.

The High Court on Sunday ordered officer-in-charge of the Uttra police station, Akhteruzzaman, and sub-inspector Abu Sayeed to appear in person before the court on November 11 to explain why contempt proceedings would not be drawn against them for violating a High Court order.
   A High Court bench of Justice MA Matin and Justice Rezaul Haque also issued a rule on the Home Secretary, Inspector General of the Police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and OC and SI of Uttara police station to show cause within two weeks why contempt charges would not be drawn against them.
   The court passed the order after hearing a petition filed by assistant secretary of the Foreign Ministry Abul Hasan Mridha and his brother Nazmul Huda.
   The High Court on September 12 granted anticipatory bail to Abul Hasan Mridha and Nazmul Huda in a woman repression case filed with the Uttara police station. In spite of the High Court order, Uttara police arrested them on the same day while they were going to their lawyer’s chamber.
   Their counsel Manzil Murshid showed the copy of the High Court order and requested the police to release them. The police did not comply with the High Court order.
   Manzil Murshid moved the petition for the petitioners.

A special court in Dhaka on Sunday sentenced two brothers to death on charge of killing a television actress, Anima Abeda Irene, in Green Road staff quarters in October 2001.
   The judge, Golam Mortaza Mujumdar, of the Speedy Trial Tribunal 2, sentenced Irene’s husband Sheikh Abul Kawsar Chisty and his brother Mahmud Hasan Chisty to death.
   The court acquitted Kawsar’s friend Sohel Haider Choudhury, former cultural reporter of Bhorer Kagaj.
   The prosecution said Irene had been pressing Mahmud Hasan for registration of their flat in the name of her daughter, Chhoya, as Kawsar had extra-marital affairs with another girl for long.
   The two brothers shot Irene dead at the entrance of staff quarters on October 7.

Criminals threatened the principal of Madan Mohan College in the Sylhet city with killing and the principal lodged a general diary with the Kotwali police, seeking security on Sunday.
   The principal, Major Ataur Rahman Pir, mentioned in his GD that anonymous persons called him over phone in his residence as well as at official phone on Friday and Saturday.
   The callers threatened him with killing if he gave appointment to the post of vice-principal of the college.

The orientation ceremony of the fall semester 2005 of the Eastern University was held at the Russian Cultural Centre in the capital on Saturday.
   The state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon MP, attended the programme as chief guest while the University Grants Commission chairman, Professor Asaduzzaman, and the National University vice-chancellor, Professor Wakil Ahmed, were present as special guests.
   The Eastern University Foundation chairman, Abul Quasem, chaired the programme while the vice-chairman, Professor AKM Saiful Majid, delivered the welcome speech.
   The state minister emphasised the role of private university in bringing higher education within the reach of common people and the present government introduced higher education in the private sector.
   He urged the students to avail the opportunity provided by the government for obtaining higher degrees from private university instead of going abroad.

Warner Music releases DVD and CD on ‘The Concert For Bangladesh – George Harrison & Friends,’ today.
   The package includes original 99-minute concert footage, a 45-minute documentary with exclusive interviews with Sir Bob Geldof and Kofi Annan, and loads of other bonus footage.
   During Bangladesh’s war of liberation in 1971, George Harrison organised a big concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden in New York.
   The Beatle and his close friend Ravi Shankar had been inspired to raise money for the millions of Bangladeshi refugees who were forced to flee their war-torn country to India.
   Their friends Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell and Billy Preston were also included in the group to perform the concert.

Rally against Sinha Textile incident
Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishod leaders at a rally at Muktangan in Dhaka on Sunday demanded judicial inquiry of the Sinha Textile Mills incident at Kanchpur. The labour leaders said the security guards of the mills were responsible for the incident and the police fired on the workers without any provocations. They demanded proper treatment of the wounded and compensations. The SKOP coordinator, Wazedul Islam, read out a declaration at the rally, demanding payment of festival allowance for the workers before Eid-ul-Fitr. Abdul Kader Hawlader, Mokaddem Hossain and Khalilur Rahman also spoke.

RMCH professor receives death threat
The activists of the banned Islamist outfit Jagrata Mulsim Janata allegedly issued a death threat to a Rajshahi Medical College Hospital professor, demanding Tk 1.5 lakh. The letter issued to PK Sarkar of the surgery department, said if the amount was not paid, he would be killed. Sarkar received the letter on Sunday by post. He filed general diary with the Rajpara police in this regard. Sources said Sarkar had earlier received few calls in the name of Bangla Bhai, demanded Tk 5 lakh. The police earlier failed to investigate the matter, Sarkar said. The letter asked Sarkar to keep the money under a tree at the hospital outpatient department between 10.00pm and 11.00pm on October 27.

Job fair registration begins
The registration with a job fair, slated to be held on December 20, has begun this month. The registration process will continue till November 10. Interested employers have been requested to contact the job fair secretariat, Jubok Information Technology at BSRS Bhaban, Karwan Bazar, said a release.
— New Age