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Residents of the Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall of Dhaka University were once again agitated on Sunday denouncing ploys to ‘punish’ any of them on the basis of ‘false statements from the house-tutors’.
   The university syndicate’s probe body could not submit its report till Sunday evening.
   The seven-member committee, later reduced to six members, met in the afternoon to finalise the report. The meeting was on progress till 7:00pm Sunday.
   The girls in the morning brought out a procession wearing black ribbons protesting against the ‘ploys to expel them for participating in the recent movement at the hall’ and paraded the entire university campus.
   The residents got agitated in the morning when they found out that the inquiry committee investigating the hall incidents would recommend expulsion of six residents for leading the agitation during July 17 and July 18.
   The residents kept 10 house tutors of the hall confined for 14 hours to realise their 13-point charter of demands.
   Most of the residents called on the vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, in the morning and told him to refrain from taking action against any of them. They threatened to leave the hall en masse if he did.
   Faiz told them that he was yet to receive the probe-body’s report and no undue action would be taken against anybody.
   But the residents were not convinced at the vice-chancellor’s statement. They said each and every resident had participated in the movement. No individual could be identified for leading it.
   The inquiry committee recorded statements of 35 persons — 21 residents against whom the house tutors lodged complaints, nine of the house tutors, the former hall provost, Nasreen Ahmad, who was forced to resign, the pro-vice-chancellor, AFM Yusuf Haider and two officials and one employee of the hall.
   The impasse at the hall erupted after 10 of the house tutors submitted resignation for ‘extreme misbehaviour’ of the students.
   They accused the residents of behaving like the Pakistani military in 1971 and demanded action against 21 residents who led the agitation.
   On the following day, the residents accused the tutors for their fictitious remarks and demanded the comments be immediately withdrawn.
   The university authorities also tried to mediate between the residents and tutors but the residents refused to apologise to the tutors unconditionally. They gave a condition that the tutors would have to admit that their statements to the press were false.
   The newest hall of residence for girls went without any administration till July 27 as there was no provost or house tutor.
   The provost of the Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall, Tahmina Akhtar, was given the additional responsibility as the hall’s provost on the night of July 27.

Matiur Rahman Nizami, minister for industries, said the government will recruit an additional 176 people for the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute to enhance its capacity and gear up regulation and monitoring standardization including the fight against food adulteration posing a serious threat to public health.
   Nizami was addressing a press conference on Sunday held at his ministry’s office to brief on the performance and achievements of different organisations of the ministry during the previous fiscal, which has just ended.
   But he was compelled to focus more on the activities of the standards institute, the state organ, to regulate and monitor quality and standard of products when reporters referred to cases of widespread adulteration of food items and recent drives against adulteration.
   ‘A proposal to recruit 176 officials and employees as well as procure modern equipment and adequate number of vehicles is under the government’s active consideration,’ he said.
   Admitting that activities of the institute were affected by various problems, Nizami pledged that the institute would begin awareness campaigns for consumers and expand its vigilance soon.
   Nizami pledged the institute’s cooperation to journalists, when they complained about the reluctant attitude of its officials.
   Newsmen alleged that they were often discouraged when asking for information from the institute.
   Briefing the ministry’s performance in the last fiscal, Nizami said during the fiscal 2004-05, mobile courts of the institute lodged 3,001 cases against adulterators, sent 22 to jail and realised Tk 46 lakh in fines.
   Nizami said the five organisations under the ministry utilised 99 per cent of their allocation in the annual development programme.
   He claimed that the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation attracted investment of Tk 794 crore.
   Fertiliser plants of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation produced and supplied 19.56 lakh tonnes of urea, he said.
   Although sugar mills under the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation produced only 1,06,000 tonnes of sugar missing their target, the corporation reduced its operational losses compared to that of the previous fiscal.

The government has taken initiatives to conduct deoxyribonucleic acid test of three persons who have been accused in the case of rape and killing of schoolgirl Mili.
   After the home ministry’s directives, blood of the three accused was collected on Sunday morning which would be sent to Singapore for DNA test.
   Professor Abdul Quashem, chief of the pathology department at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, collected blood and handed over it to the investigation officer of the case, Ali Ayub Chowdhury.
   The Rajshahi metropolitan magistrates, Yusuf Ali and Fazlul Haque Chowdhury, were also present during the collection of blood of the accused.
   Three accused — Fazle Bari Leon, Saduzzaman Dineer, and Fazlur Rahman — allegedly raped and killed Mili, a Class VI student of Government PN Girls’ High School, at her Sheikhpara residence in the Rajshahi city on May 3.
   The home ministry at a review meeting on June 22 took the decision to do such test, sources said.
   A forensic medicine specialist of RMCH, Emdadur Rahman, however, expressed doubt over authentic report after examining the blood for three months.
   He said the clothes and other evidence should be protected at 4 degree Celsius. ‘The test might fail to give proper result, if it is not kept at suitable temperature.’
   The clothes and other evidences of the rape have been kept in a plastic bag at the malkhana (godown) of the Boalia police station.
   On the other hand, the family members of Mili expressed unhappy over such test. They said the existing evidences collected by the police were enough to verify the culprits and bring charge against them.

Canteens at the halls of residence of Dhaka University functioned as usual on Sunday despite a drive at the Salimullah Hall canteen on the previous day.
   The same environment continued at the kitchens with dirty utensils being used for cooking.
   The spices, grinded days before, and rotten vegetables were piled high to be cooked for the students.
   Students got their usual share of rotten deep-fried fish. The beef, they were served, continued to demonstrate the same resilience between their teeth that many claim would outdo rubber tires.
   The hall residents had half expected, in vain, an improved environment at the canteens after the mobile court drive.
   Moazzem, a resident of Surya Sen Hall, had his breakfast with bread and poached egg as he found the curry, served with paratha, smelled bad and tasted sour.
   ‘If you want to live at the halls, you must dispense with cleanliness or taste. Otherwise you would simply starve,’ said Nabin, another resident.
   The canteens are the dumping ground for vegetable of the worst quality. That was apparently why the manager of Salimullah Hall canteen had fled when the mobile court visited there, according to Towhidur Rahman, a resident of that hall.
   Some of the canteen managers said they had to buy low-quality foods as some of the student leaders have regular meals there without paying.

As part of the drive against adulterated food, which began on July 14, four mobile courts comprising four magistrates raided different hotels, restaurants, sweetmeat shops, warehouses at the Shassongacha and Rail Station Road in the district on Saturday.
   A mobile court raided 12 hotels and rest houses on the Rail Station Road.
   The mobile courts fined the Bhi Bhi Tk 20,000, Melody Tk 5,000, Hossain Bakery and Confectionery Tk 3,000, two showrooms of Shoshi Sweetmeat Tk 16,000 (Tk 8,000 each), Abdin resthouse Tk 10,000, Abdin Hotel Tk 5,000 and Khwaza Hotel Tk 5,000.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh president, Monzurul Ahsan Khan, on Sunday called upon the countrymen to wage tough movement to overthrow the ‘failed’ four-party alliance government.
   Addressing a rally organised on the occasion of the 13th anniversary of murder of party leader Ratan Sen,
   he also urged all the left parties to be united to make it ‘an alternative force’ in the country.
   The speakers at the rally, organised by the district unit of CPB at the Shaheed Hadis Park in the city, slated the government for price hike of essentials and closing down mills and factories.
   They also demanded reinvestigation into the Ratan Sen murder case and punishment to the killers.
   Ratan, also a former president of the district unit of CPB, was hacked to death in front of the Khulna Court in the broad daylight on July 31, 1992.
   The rally, followed by a procession that marched the city streets, was addressed, among others, by the CPB city unit president, Firoz Ahmed,
   general secretary, Monoj Das, district unit general secretary, SA Rashid, and other local leaders.
   Party presidium member Sheikh Moniruzzaman, also the district unit president, chaired the rally.

The Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights has enumerated 29 instances of death in the hands of the law enforcement agencies across the country in the month of July.
   The BSEHR survey is based on the data in the print media.
   The survey says that 16 were killed in ‘crossfire’ with the police, eight with the Rapid Action Battalion, three killed in gunfights between the police and the alleged criminals while two housemaids were tortured to death by the law enforcers.
   The report said that social violence had led to the killing of 271 persons in July alone.
   Some 406 persons died in mishaps and transport accidents, including thunderbolt, wall collapse and drowning.
   Forty-nine women and children were raped with five of them killed following rape.
   The report said 11 housewives were killed for dowry while a number was tortured for the same reason.
   Acid-throwing claimed 18 victims. Four people were bombed to death while 31others were injured in bomb blasts. According to the report, 36 women and 12 men committed suicide in the last month.
   Some 22 were abducted while the bodies of 57 were recovered.

Women of the ethnic minority communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts demanded equal rights and opportunities for themselves as their male counterparts have been enjoying at personal and family levels in the society. They demanded necessary amendments to the customary laws in this regard.
   Indigenous women activists’ groups at a round table discussion on ‘personal and family rights of the indigenous women’ jointly organised by the CARE Bangladesh, an international NGO, and KAPO, a local NGO in a local restaurant on Friday also demanded that such laws should exist in a written form.
   A set of recommendations were chalked out in the discussion participated by 34 women organisations working with eight indigenous communities in the CHT.
   President of the CHT Mahila Samiti, Madhabi Lata, headwoman Suniti Chakma, Manjulika Chakma, and Sagarika Raoza were among the discussants. Serin Chakma chaired the programme.

Owners of five restaurant, sweetmeat and fast food shops were on Sunday fined Tk 1.49 lakh for food adulteration and violation of related laws.
   An unlicensed ghee factory was also unearthed during the day’s raids in Gulshan, Motijheel and Old Town areas, conducted by three mobile courts as part of the home ministry’s ongoing drive against substandard food.
   One of the teams found the ghee factory in the Old Town having no approval from the Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute.
   Another team fined owners of a restaurant and two sweetmeats in Gulshan Tk 1.15 lakh — Dhanshiri Restaurant Tk 75,000 for using adulterated food and unhygienic atmosphere, Rana Sweetmeat Tk 30,000 for food adulteration and of Banaful Sweetmeat Tk 10,000 for not using expiry date in a food item.
   The mobile court, which conducted drive in Motijheel, fined the owners of two restaurants and a fast food shop Tk 24,000.

A halfday hartal, called by the Bagerhat unit of the opposition Awami League in protest against an attack on district AL leaders and activists on Saturday, was observed partially and peacefully in Bagerhat on Sunday.
   Most shops and markets were closed and classes were interrupted in educational institutions. Transactions in banks and insurance companies were normal.
   A few motor vehicles plied the district routes but there was no interdistrict traffic. Activities at the Mongla port were normal, sources said. The district AL and its front organisations jointly brought out a protest march.
   Sources from different upazila headquarters said protest marches were held in the morning and the hartal was observed partially.
   At least 50 activists of the AL and its front organisations were injured when BNP activists attacked them in Kachua on Saturday.

Four compartments of a Mymensingh-bound goods train were derailed Sunday morning at Mymensingh road rail station suspending the train communications for two hours.
   Mymensingh Railway Control office said a rescue team went to the spot and restored train communications at about noon repairing the rail line after two hours.

The Agri Business Development Organisation of Bangladesh, a platform of 20 seed merchants’ associations, urged the government to provide necessary support to strengthen the seed industry.
   The demand was made by speakers at a discussion on ‘role of private sector for development of seed industry’ organised by the Bangladesh seed federation and the seed association platform on Sunday.
   They also demanded for full implementation of the national seed policy 1993, which emphasized public and private sector development for production of sufficient improved seed and ensuring that they are available to the farmers.
   The association leaders argued that the government should withdraw the ‘notified crop’ bar especially for paddy, jute and potato to make the quality seed available to the farmers through joint venture seed production.
   According to the seed policy, there is a clear-cut government restriction in case of direct import and inventing varieties of five notified crops — paddy, jute, potato, wheat and sugarcane — as these need at least two-years’ of adaptability trial by the technical committee. The seeds of these crops would be fit for marketing when the variety is released by the agriculture ministry, according to the policy.
   The member director, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, MA Razzak, told New Age on Sunday that the seed importers’ demands would lead to a dependence on foreign countries. ‘It would be risky for us in case of disasters in those countries.’
   Although the ‘grain yield’ from hybrid varieties is high, seed production is expensive and not more than 2 tonnes in per hectare. It is also widely argued that hybrid varieties do not have provision of seed preservation for replanting in the next season because of the terminator technology, which means the yield is sterile and unable to reproduce.
   Yield of BR-29, a high-yielding variety invented by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, is not less then 5 tonnes per hectare, and its seed production is cost-effective and up to 5 tonnes per hectare.
   He said BR-29, depending on the soil and climate can reach up to 8 tonnes per hectare.

The responsibility to maintain latrines, set up by the government and the non-governmental organisations at the rural areas, should be given to the representatives of the union councils, said experts at a seminar on Sunday.
   They said if the sanitary latrines, built by different authorities, are not maintained properly, they would become unusable in no time.
   The Dhaka Ahsania Mission organised the seminar on ‘Sanitation by 2010: Strategic Options’ at the CIRDAP auditorium in the Dhaka city.
   Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the minister for LGRD and Cooperatives, spoke on the occasion as chief guest. The joint-secretary to the LGRD ministry, Md Mokhlesur Rahman, country representative of WaterAid Bangladesh Khandker Zakir Hossain, Professor Mujibur Rahman and the executive director of the NGO Forum, SMA Rashid, among others, addressed the function. The Ahsania Mission deputy executive director, Ehsanur Rahman, presented the keynote paper.
   Mannan Bhuiyan said the government is reviewing whether the representatives of the union council should be entitled with the responsibility to maintain the latrines. Once the sanitary latrines are set up either by the government or the non-governmental organisations, the authorities concerned simply leave them as they are.
   ‘As a result they were gradually damaged due to lack of proper maintenance,’ he said.
   The efforts, made by the government and the non-governmental organisations, have contributed to the increase of sanitary latrine coverage from 33 per cent in October, 2003 to 48 per cent in March 2005,’ he said. ‘So far, 189 unions, nine upazilas and four municipalities have been brought under sanitary latrine coverage.’
   Ehsan said sanitary latrines in the rural areas remain in an unhygienic condition due to poor maintenance and lack of adequate water facilities.
   Mujibur Rahman suggested that the existing design of the ring slab latrine be modified to remove maintenance problems.
   Some of the participants said the progress in sanitation in some areas — Sylhet in particular — was thwarted.
   Given the current trend the government would not be able to provide ‘sanitation for all by 2010’, which is one of the UN’s millennium development goals.

Nearly 40 lakh people in Bangladesh suffer from Hepatitis-C, a killer virus eventually leading to liver cirrhosis, said the health and family welfare minister, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, on Sunday.
   Mosharraf, quoting a recent survey, said around three per cent people in Bangladesh are carriers of Hepatitis-C.
   Addressing a seminar at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, Mosharraf stressed on the need for a mass awareness campaign to prevent the disease.
   Sandhani organised the seminar on ‘Mass Awareness to Prevent Hepatitis-C in Bangladesh.’
   Sandhani adviser Mani Lal Aich Litu presented the keynote paper.
   ‘Since Hepatitis-C shows no symptoms the virus continues to destroy liver cells and creates liver cirrhosis or cancer,’ said Mosharraf.
   Mani said Hepatitis-C virus is transmitted through blood transfusion, sharing razors, ear piercing, sexual contact and from mother to child.
   ‘Thirty per cent of Hepatitis-C transmission is yet to be ascertained,’ he said adding that HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-C have common modes of transmission.
   ‘The symptoms of the virus, which has no vaccination, is loss of appetite, weakness, weight loss and muscle pain,’ he said. ‘When the symptoms become visible, it is liver cirrhosis or cancer.’

A suspected robber was arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion from Demra area in the Dhaka city on Sunday.
   The battalion said a RAB-3 team raided a house at Sarulia under the Demra police station upon information of a possible gathering of suspected criminals there at about 1:30pm.
   Sensing presence of the law enforcers, the suspected criminals tried to run away but RAB personnel caught, Kamrul Hasan, and recovered a pistol loaded with a bullet from his possession.
   Kamrul, along with his associates, commits robbery on buses, said the battalion.
   In another raid, a RAB-2 team arrested a young man, Imtiaz, from West Shahidnagar in Lalbagh of Old Dhaka on Saturday night and recovered a revolver from his possession.

The Coordination Council to Protect Workers, Employees and Enterprises on Sunday called upon the government to realise its sevenpoint charter of demands within September 1.
   Otherwise the council will hold a national convention of the workers in Dhaka on September 2 and a tougher programme including strikes, hartals, and besiegement will be announced, said the leaders of the council at a rally held at Muktangan in the capital.
   The demands include cancellation of the government’s disinvestment policy, allocation of Tk 300 crore immediately for raw jute procurement for the nationalised jute mills, announcement and implementation of a wage and pay commission for the workers, and curbing of the price hikes of essentials.
   A written declaration read out at the rally said ‘The BNP-Jamaat alliance government is following a disinvestment policy according to the prescriptions of the World Bank and the International Monitory Fund.’
   The government is shutting down mills and factories rendering thousands of workers jobless, the declaration said.
   Production in 15 nationalised jute mills among 22 is suspended due to a wrong jute policy of the government and it did not allocate money to buy jute for the nationalised mills, the declaration alleged.