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The Dhaka City Corporation identified 675 illegal hoardings, neon signs, and other advertisements as the advertising firms concerned did not apply for permission for the hoardings by the deadline.
   There are 68 illegal advertisements including billboards and neon signs under zone-1, 36 under zone-2, 102 under zone-4, 138 under zone-5, 81 under zone-6, 78 under zone-7, 14 under zone-8, 116 under zone-9, and 42 under zone-10.
   No illegal billboards had been found under zone-3, said a high official in the corporation.
   The corporation recently asked all the advertising firms to apply for their billboards and other advertisements to get permission by July 31. But the ad firms had applied for only 450 advertisements like billboards, neon signs, and unipoles within the stipulated time, said the official.
   The corporation will now give permission to the applicants based on its advertisement guideline, and the scrutiny in this regard is going on.
   ‘After the scrutiny, the final decision will be taken at a meeting of the committee of the corporation on August 14, and afterwards we will launch a drive to dismantle all the illegal billboards,’ the official said.
   On the first day of its drive against illegal billboards and other advertisements on July 1, the corporation dismantled five billboards on Tongi Diversion Road, at Sonargaon crossing, and Tejgaon.
   Later it postponed the drive and decided to carryout the drive after giving permission to the applicants through proper scrutiny.
   The corporation also decided that large TV screens (tri-vision) seen at Farmgate and Mirpur Road near Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, and some other places would be brought under the taxation scheme. If taxes are not paid, the screens would be pulled down too, said the official.
   The corporation earlier had started a drive to dismantle all neon signs, billboards, and all types of advertisements in the capital from July 20, 2003 to bring the advertisements under a guideline. But the drive had been suspended following a stay order of the High Court division on July 22.
   The corporation failed to achieve the revenue target from the advertisement sector in the fiscal year 2005 because it could collect revenue of Tk 10 lakh as against the target of Tk 20 crore due to the legal dispute between the corporation and the advertising firms.
   The corporation also failed to achieve their revenue target of Tk 9.62 crore from signboards, billboards, and other types of advertisements in the fiscal year 2004 due to the dispute. They collected only Tk 60 lakh.
   The corporation fixed a new target of Tk 12 crore in the current fiscal year and expected to achieve the target as the court declared its judgement in favour of the DCC, said an official in the corporation.
   Revenue earning from this sector is very poor since the financial year 2002-2003 when the corporation decided to give the permission to set up billboards, neon signs, and other advertisements under the guideline, he said. A huge number of billboards, neon signs, and other advertisements, however, had been set up at different parts in the city by this time without permission of the corporation. Sometime the ad firms did it with the connivance of corrupt officials of the corporation.
   In addition, old billboards and other advertisements had been displayed without taking permission for time extension for that, he said.
   Sources in the corporation said they have neither granted permission to set up new billboards, neon signs, and other types of advertisements nor extended time for old ones since July 1, 2003. So the billboards which have been set up after July 1 are illegal, they added.

Two mobile courts on Sunday fined some restaurant owners, a cosmetics shop owner, and some scrap auto parts vendors at Uttara and Uttar Jatrabari in the capital with Tk 4.02 lakh.
   They were fined for selling adulterated food, keeping their premises unhygienic, selling date-expired food and cosmetics items, and occupying footpath.
   A court led by metropolitan magistrate ABM Abul Fattah fined the Rajlaxmi Food Industries, and the Uttara Model Restaurant with Tk 30,000 each.
   The court fined the Bismillah Mishti Mukh, Swad Hotel and Restaurant, and the Hot Deli fast food shop with Tk 20,000 each.
   Fattah said the Rajlaxmi Food Industries premises were found to be unhygienic and many of its food items did not have expiry dates on them.
   The Swad Hotel and Restaurant, and the Uttara Model Restaurant were fined for keeping their premises unhygienic.
   The Bismillah Misti Mukh was fined for carrying rotten meat, and for unhygienic premises.
   Another team led by metropolitan magistrate Jahangir Alam fined three owners of food shops at Uttar Jatrabari with Tk 1.50 lakh for selling food products with counterfeit labels of the Century Marketing Company and for selling date-expired food items.
   ‘We have fined Anisur Rahman and Akhtaruzzaman, two owners of a food shop on Shaheed Faruk Road, with Tk 50,000 each and sentenced each of them to three months of imprisonment,’ Jahangir said.
   Rafiqul Islam, owner of the Sonali Traders in the same building, was fined with Tk 50,000 and was sentenced to three months of imprisonment for selling date-expired cosmetic items.
   The court also fined 14 scrap auto parts vendors with Tk 1.32 lakh for occupying footpath space at Dholaikhal. Fourteen cases were filed against the accused in this connection.

Renovation of the Karnaphuli Shah Amanat Bridge could not be started even after five months of the schedule to complete the work.
   The Roads and Highways Department said a project involving Tk 5.6 crore was taken to replace 4,000 wooden floorboards out of 7,000, which were ruined three years back.
   The bidding procedure was completed in October 2004 and the four-month project was schedule to begin in November, they said.
   But the replacement work could not be started as the wooden floorboards, to be imported from Germany, is yet to reach.
   There are at least 20 big holes on the bridge and thousands of vehicle ply amid high risks of accidents every day.
   Not only the 4,000 floorboards to be replaced, condition of the remaining 3,000 floorboards has also turned vulnerable, said a source in the RHD.
   Although the authorities, to avoid accident risks, imposed restriction on the movement of heavy vehicles like truck, lorry and covered van two and a half years back, it was not implemented due to the indifferences of the toll collectors and the law enforcers, the sources said.
   Minor accidents very often take place on the bridge while at least five persons died in the last three years falling into the holes, the RHD sources said.
   The RHD additional chief engineer, Chittagong, Anwar Ahmed, however, said minor renovation works are being done regularly to keep the bridge fit for vehicular movement.
   The state minister for communications, Salahddin Ahmed, said the replacement work had not started in time as the boiled woods to be imported from Germany were yet to reach.
   He said the woods would reach soon and the work might be started by two months.

The Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited, owner of the CityCell mobile services, will award eligible journalists for their outstanding contributions.
   CityCell marketing and sales vice-president Intekhab Mahmood at a news briefing on Sunday said the CityCell Media Award would be given to journalists in seven categories in print media and in four categories in electronic media.
   Each award will comprise Tk 50,000, a certificate, and a crest. A board of judges will select the best reports to be awarded.
   Investigative reporting will get preference, said Intekhab at the briefing at the Sheraton Hotel.
   He said the CityCell will also announce a lifetime achievement award which will be given to a veteran journalist to recognise his or her outstanding contributions. The award will comprise Tk 2 lakh, a certificate, and a crest.
   The seven categories in print media are development issues, entertainment, crime, local journalism, sports, news photo, and health, science and technology.
   The four categories in electronic media are entertainment, crime, development, and sports news.
   Works of journalists on the issues published within the year should be submitted and the date of submission will be announced through newspapers and electronic media.
   The awards for 2005 will be announced by March. A journalist may submit one report or a series in a category, and a photojournalist may submit five photographs.
   A television journalist may submit a compact-disk or a VHS cassette of the report. Forty per cent of the award value will go to the camera crew of the best television report.
   Impress Telefilm managing director Faridur Reza Sagar and CityCell assistant marketing communications vice-president Taslim Ahmed also spoke.
   Channel i is the media partner of the award.

A Chittagong City Corporation mobile court on Sunday sentenced two persons to three-day imprisonment each, sealed off an oil mill, and fined 13 food shops on charges of selling adulterated and unhygienic food.
   The court, led by magistrate Sayeda Sarwar Jahan, sentenced Milon Kanti, canteen manager of the University of Science and Technology Chittagong, and Mohammed Liton, manager of the Hotel Lakeview at Khulshi, to imprisonment and fined the both with Tk 3,000 each, in default to suffer one more week in prison.
   Milon was accused of adding colour to meat. Liton was accused of selling adulterated food.
   The Energy Oil Factory at Foy’s Lake was sealed off on charge of producing soyabean and mustard oil without approval from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution.
   The court also fined five butchers, four restaurants, a bakery, a grocer’s, and two fruit vendors with a total of Tk 24,100 on charges of adulteration and giving short measure.

A Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leader was shot at near his residence at Mirpur in Dhaka on Sunday.
   His family said some friends of Humayun Kabir Rawshan, general secretary of the Bangla College unit of Chhatra Dal, called him out of his residence at Mirpur Section 1 at about 10:00am, when he was about to go to court for a case filed against him. The assailants shot him in the head, legs and hands.
   The local people took Rawshan to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was under treatment till the evening. His condition was reported to be critical.
   His elder brother Hasan said the assailants targeted Rawshan as he protested against criminal activities and extortion in the locality.
   The local people said Rawshan has links with a gang engaged in criminal activities.
   Two of the gang members, Sujan and Khokan, were killed in a mob beating when they went to the Section 1 kitchen market early 2004 for extortion.
   The traders also severed both wrists of another gang member, Mahfuz, in 2004. They said Rawshan was accused in a number of criminal cases.

Administrative activities at the University of Dhaka remained suspended on Sunday as the officers’ association began a three-day work abstention to press home its 20-point charter of demands.
   The offices at the administrative building, departments, and halls of residents remained empty from the morning. The officers brought out a procession and held a rally.
   The demands include representation of officers in all university policymaking bodies, extension of their service tenure to 62 years from the 60 years and gradually extending it to 65 years. The teachers now have a service tenure of 65 years.
   They demanded a solution to discrimination in the salary structure for officers and equalisation of their designations.
   They said officers at the same levels have different designations at different offices.
   They also demeaned a quota for admission of their children, and housing facilities.
   The leaders at a rally in front of the administrative building threatened to go on a strike for an indefinite period if their demands are not met by August 9.

The State University of Bangladesh computer and programming club held an award ceremony for the participants in a three-day information technology festival on its campus at Dhanmondi in Dhaka on August 4.
   Lab Aid Group chairman Ali Ahmed Bhuiyan, as chief guest, distributed prizes among the winners, said a news release.
   The acting vice-chancellor, MS Ilyas Dhami, thanked the organizers. He said information technology training should cater to the need of Bangladesh.
   Science and technology dean AAKM Lutfuzzaman and computer science department lecturer Niaz Makhdum Mohammad also spoke.
   The festival featured seminar, programming contest, gaming show, and quiz. City college students took part in the contest.

The Australian Trade Commission of the Australian High Commission and IDP Education Australia held
   the Australian Education Exhibition between August 6 and August 7 at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka.
   The acting Australian high commissioner, Richard Rodgers, opened the exhibition on Saturday, said a news release.
   The high commissioner said, ‘Australian universities enjoy an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research, with international linkages, including the operation of high quality institutions in Bangladesh.’
   ‘A combination of low living costs, low student fees and a consistently high quality of education has made Australia a favourite among students from 140 countries,’ he said.
   Australian Trade Commission country manager Minhaz Chowdhury and IDP Education country director Sharif Rahman attended.
   Leading Australian universities and vocational institutions took part in the exhibition.

The Fair and Lovely Foundation vocational training program began on August 1. Four hundred and fifty women were selected for the hands-on training in eight subjects, said a news release.
   Training course in four of the subjects — beauty and makeup, bakery and confectionery, ikebana and food processing — began this month.

Eden College students slate fee increase
The Eden College unit of the Samajtantrik Chhatra Front on Sunday condemned a decision on increasing session fee for third-year students. Some students complained that the authorities increased the fees without any notice. The students said the authorities had fixed Tk 1,200 against the previous fee of Tk 895, and the students came to know of it when they went to the bank to deposit the fee. The students went out on demonstrations against the increase. They will lay siege to the bank today in support of the demand.
— BDNews

Club Teen web site goes online
A BDNews web site for the teens, Club Teen, went online on Sunday. The news agency editor, Rashed Chowdhury, managing editor Sohel Manzur, and Club Teen coordinator Snigdha Ahmed, spoke and answered the questions from the students and journalists at a briefing marking the occasion at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Sunday. Rashed said the Club Teen includes categories such as education, career, counselling, sports, health, fashion and beauty.
— New Age

Two drugged, robbed at Gulshan
Miscreants took away valuables drugging two persons unconscious at Gulshan in Dhaka on Sunday. The two, Abbas Khalifa and Ahmed Karim, were found beside the Madhumati bus counter at Gulshan Circle 2 at about 1:30pm. The two were under treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital till the evening.
— New Age

Three killed in city road accidents
Three persons, including a teenaged girl, were killed in three separate road accidents in Dhaka on Sunday. The victims were Minara Begum, 15, of Shanir Akhra, Babul Mia, 28, a bus helper of Kaliakair and an unidentified man aged about 60. Hospital sources said a minibus hit Minara from behind at Shanir Akhra Friday when she was crossing the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway at about 10:30pm. Local people took her to DMCH where she died at about 6:30am. At Abdullahpur, the bus helper Babul was run over by a bus at about 1:30pm when he was crossing the Dhaka– Mymensingh Highway. He was taken to DMCH where doctors declared him dead. The unidentified man killed on the spot when a bus ran him over at Nayabazar at about 12:30pm.
— New Age