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The Private Infrastructure Project Fair, a part of the international workshop on Infrastructure Financing in Bangladesh, ended on Tuesday without much success.
   The three-day infrastructure projects fair began on Sunday at the Sheraton Hotel as the first initiative of its kind to promote long-term investment in infrastructure projects, especially with regard to power, telecom and port areas.
   A total of 12 participants, including the infrastructure financiers, facilitators, investors and investment seekers, took part in the fair with the aim of boosting cooperation and disseminating information to the infrastructure sectors’ associates.
   The Bangladesh Bank and Board of Investment jointly organised the fair with the assistance of the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre as a part of the international workshop on infrastructure financing in Bangladesh held at the same venue where experts from India, Sri Lanka, USA, UK and the World Bank were present.
   Though the aim of the fair was to disseminate information and encourage the banks and financial institutions to invest in infrastructure sectors, very few concerned persons have visited the fair so far, according to the participants.
   Hasan Imam, deputy manager of project promotion of Energypac Power Generation Ltd, said that there were very few visitors and they didn’t get any significant response from the people they had targeted.
   Energypac was exhibiting its 50 MW independent power plant in the fair as well as its captive power generation project.
   However, Bidyut Kumar Saha, assistant general manager of Industrial Development and Leasing Company, said that they got a good response from the infrastructure development companies and entrepreneurs.
   Abdus Sattar, assistant director of the Board of Investment, said that they had provided information about the board’s rules and different advice on investment.
   But they didn’t have any brochures or leaflets on the projects on closing day.
   The Ministry of Shipping exhibited different private investment projects in build-operation-transfer (BOT) and build-own-operate (BOO) modes.
   Irtiza Ahmed, director accounts of the Bangladesh Sthala Bandar Kartripakkha, said that five land ports of the country will be handed over to the private investors next month under the BOT system.
   Mohammad Shamsur Rahman, financial analyst of the Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre (IIFC), said that they provide all kinds of technical support like feasibility study, tender invitation and framing of agreements to the government.
   Presently the IIFC is giving consultancy support to the government in 18 projects including power supply systems in remote areas, ten land ports and the Khanpur Container Terminal, said Shamsur.
   The Standard Chartered Bank, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd, Grameen Phone, AKTEL, Bangladesh Telecom Operators Association and the National AIDS/STD Programme of the World Bank also participated in the fair.

The government is expected to introduce the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill 2005 at the next session of the parliament to facilitate quick disposal of cases, said the law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, Moudud Ahmed, at the ministry’s monthly news conference on Tuesday.
   He said the new law, part of the judicial system reforms, would also cut costs of conducting civil cases, which take years for disposal.
   He said the proposed amendment was approved in principle by the cabinet on Monday.
   The bill will be placed before the cabinet at its next meeting for approval, he said.
   According to Moudud, the bill has been drafted on the basis of recommendations from a series of workshops participated by judges, government lawyers, presidents/secretaries of all district bar associations and court officials and clerks.
   Based on the opinions of the participants necessary changes in law would be made through the amendment, he said. ‘Although the proposed reforms may seem tiny, these will contribute enormously to ensure quick and inexpensive disposal of cases.’
   The press conference was attended, among others, by the state minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Shajahan Omar and secretary for the ministry, Alauddin Sarker.
   The cabinet on Monday approved the amendment in principle. The amendment seeks eight major changes to the century-old law including introduction of a centralised system of filing, mediation in appeal and restriction on adjournment of hearing appeals.
   The regular weekly meeting of the cabinet, held Monday night at the Prime Minister’s Office with the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, in the chair, also approved another bill seeking amendment to the Civil Courts Act to make it consistent with the proposed amendments to the Code of Civil Procedures.

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, led by Hasanul Haq Inu, and both the factions of the Workers Party of Bangladesh on Tuesday welcomed the High Court verdict that on Monday had declared the fifth amendment to the constitution illegal.
   Jamajtantrik Dal formed a human chain in front of the High Court welcoming the verdict.
   The party leaders said the verdict proved that the military regimes were illegal.
   Hasanul Haq Inu said the verdict proved that Moshtaque, Zia, and Ershad had violated the constitution and they usurped power illegally.
   He called on the people to initiate a movement to restore the constitution of 1972.
   The appeal against the verdict by the BNP-Jamaat alliance government proved that the government had been favouring the illegal military regimes, he said.
   The party’s executive president, Moinuddin Khan Badal, and vice-president Mir Hossain Akhter joined the human chain.
   The politburo of the Workers Party, led by Rashed Khan Menon, in a resolution adopted at a twoday meeting in the party’s central office in Dhaka said the fifth amendment to the constitution not only legalised the politics of killings and military regimes, but also reinstated theocratic politics.
   The amendment also paved way for corruption in society, the resolution said.
   Chaired by Rashed Khan Menon, the meeting was attended by general secretary Bimal Biswas, Haider Akbar Khan Rano, Nurul Hasan, Fazle Hossain Badsha and others.
   Another faction of the Workers Party, led by Khandaker Ali Abbas, also welcomed the verdict.
   The faction president, Khandaker Ali Abbas, and general secretary Saiful Huq in a statement said the verdict had reflected the wish of democracy-loving people.

Eighty members of the police will join UN peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan and Liberia by December this year, according to sources at the Police Headquarters.
   They are from a panel of 80 police officials who were selected in the first week of August by a three-member Selection Assistance Team from the Department of Peace Keeping Organisation of the United Nations Headquarters. When contacted the official concerned, the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Kamal Hossain, could not confirm the fresh recruits from Bangladesh in the UN peace missions.
   The sources said some of the new recruits would replace 32 officials in the Kosovo mission in the first week of September while 10 officials will fly for Cote d’Ivoire in the same week. The rest of the officials from the panel will be deployed in Sudan and Liberia by December this year.
   The SAT team arrived in Dhaka on August 2 and selected the 80 personnel, out of 350 officials of different ranks and departments from across the country appeared before the SAT through a selection process from August 3 to 5.
   After appearing at different examinations and tests, including English language test, motor driving and weapon firing, 80 successful candidates were chosen for different UN missions.
   Earlier on July 20, over 500 junior police officials of the ranks ranging from sergeant and sub-inspector to Assistant Superintendent of Police from across the country appeared at the pre-SAT examination at Rajarbagh Police Lines, of whom 174 were selected for the SAT.

Six bodies of passengers were recovered till Tuesday afternoon from a bus that fell into the river Kobadak at Koyra in Khulna after it had got on a ferry at Chandali ferry jetty Monday afternoon.
   The bodies are of two families, forest department employee Shamshul Haque Mandal of Hajirkuti at Kurigram sadar and day labourer Nazrul Islam Gain of Amtabunia at Koyra.
   The bodies of the families are of Shamshul’s son Sourabh, 8, daughter Sabiha Sultana, 11 and his wife Fatema Begum, 30 and Nazrul’s son Al-Amin, 9, Nasima, 12 and wife Zahanara Begum, 30.
   The local administration, police, fire brigade divers and villagers recovered the bus Monday night and brought out five bodies from the bus.
   The local people, in the presence of the district administration officials, recovered the body of Sabiha Sultana near the jetty Tuesday morning, said the Koyra upazila administration.
   Koyra UNO AKM Shamimul Huq Siddique told New Age they were looking for bodies, if any, in the river with the help of the local people. ‘We have formed a one-member inquiry committee in this regard. We also have handed the bodies over to their families,’ he said.

A mob severely beat four suspected muggers as their accomplices stabbed three pedestrians during a snatching bid at Gulshan in the Dhaka city Tuesday afternoon.
   The police later arrested the suspects Shabuj, 22, Monir, 20, Salauddin, 21, and Zahir, 22, of Gulshan area.
   The injured pedestrians are Obaidul, 30, Kazi Shafiqul, 28, and Akash, 25 of the same area.
   According to local people, a gang of muggers waylaid a businessman at Section-1 of Gulshan at about 3:30pm and tried to rob him.
   As the victim shouted for help, local people and the pedestrians surrounded the four young muggers and caught them.
   Seeing them getting caught other members of the gang ran to their aid and indiscriminately stabbed the pedestrians.
   Hearing screams of the victims, more people rushed to the scene and managed to detain the four snatchers but their accomplices fled.
   The mob beat them severely until the police rescued them in critical condition at about 4:15pm. The youths were undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital under police custody till Tuesday evening.
   A case was filed with the Gulshan police station in this connection.

A female garment factory worker was shot dead at Adabar in the Dhaka city Tuesday night.
   The victim was Hasina Akther, 18, an employee of the Islam Garments at Adabar. The local people said assailants shot Hasina at point-blank in the chest on Road 15 at about 9:30pm when she was returning home.
   She sustained three bullet injuries in the chest and the abdomen. She was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where she was declared dead.

The restructuring of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board into a government-owned public limited company will begin from Thursday.
   The Germany-based consulting firm Detecon international will steer the process following an agreement signed on July 14 with the posts and telecommunications ministry on July 14.
   Detecon was selected in July 2004 through an international tender to prepare a restructuring model and a business plan, assess the board’s assets and liabilities, and make a projection on the size of workforce the board will need as a company.
   As per the contract, Detecon will complete the restructuring processes after one year of starting work at a fee of Tk 12 crore. The World Bank will finance the restructuring project.
   However, ministry officials said that the restructuring process was likely to gather full pace after one more week as some members of the 12-member Detecon team have yet to arrive in the city.
   The government originally fixed December 2004 for the completion of the restructuring project, but later opted for a ‘go-slow’ policy due to strong opposition by BTTB employees who fear it will lead to job cuts.
   The ministry, however, assured them that there will be no job cuts since the board has not gone for any fresh recruitment in the past few years.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, at a meeting of the national taskforce on information and communications technology on April 12, 2004, asked the ministry to turn the board into a public limited company with complete financial autonomy.
   In 2003 the taskforce, headed by the posts and telecommunications minister, Aminul Haque, recommended that the board should be transformed into a public limited company under the Companies Act of 1994.
   The board earns, on an average, Tk 1,500 crore a year; however, its earnings are deposited to the government exchequer. The board gets an allocation in the annual development programme for its operations, which, according to BTTB officials, entails a cumbersome bureaucratic process.

List having detailed information and photographs of suspected persons involved in the countrywide bomb blasts on August 17 is yet to reach Benapole Check Post Immigration authorities resulting in opportunities for the suspects to escape unnoticed.
   Against the backdrop of the recent serial bomb attacks intelligence agencies in the country have made a list of 117 suspected persons involved in the attacks.
   Names of only top-notch 17 suspected persons have been revealed while the remaining are under strict surveillance but their names, photographs and identities have not yet reached the check post, immigration, BDR and intelligence agencies.
   High-profile terrorists of the country feel safer to escape into India through the Benapole border.
   On different occasions, topmost criminals have used the border as their safe route to escape as the route offers both legal and illegal outlets.
   Benapole Immigration Check Post sources said they have no modern arrangement for preserving photographs and information of the top criminals.
   But police and immigration officials are always put on high alert so that the high-profile criminals like Bangla Bhai, Abdur Rahman, Ataur Rahman, Mufti Hannan, Manjur Ahmed, Ahmed Mahbub Ferdous, Hafej Shahidullah, Kazi Obaidullah and Abu Omar cannot slip into India under any circumstances.
   On the other hand, police and immigration officials have been advised to keep strict surveillance on the border to prevent nine foreign citizens of Pakistan, Kuwait and Sudan from slipping out of the country.