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The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, widely known as Shiksha Bhaban, is gradually becoming a den of anti-social elements as more than 250 employees live there at night without any permission.
   Sources in the directorate say these employees have been staying on the office premises and are allegedly engaged in anti-social activities hampering environment and security of the office.
   Although the authorities several times warned the employees and issued notices to them for vacating the premises, they continued staying there with the blessings of some influential persons at the office.
   Erfan Uddin, a deputy director, issued a notice on December 22 asking the employees to leave the office by December 31, but a number of employees were found staying inside the office till Tuesday.
   Use of electricity, water and toilet facilities by the people staying illegally inside the office has led to a rise in the expenditure of the directorate, the notice says.
   M Golam Rasul Miah, director of the Female Secondary School Assistance Project, also directed on December 29 these employees leave the office premises by today (Thursday).
   The education minister, M Osman Farruk, told New Age on Monday that the employees who stay inside the directorate had been found involved with widespread corruptions.
   ‘I have ordered the secondary and higher education director general to drive out the employees from the office premises as soon as possible,’ the minister said. ‘I was surprised to know that a huge number of employees stay illegally and are involved anti-social activities inside the office’.
   The responsibilities of the directorate is monitoring and supervision of the administrative affairs of all the secondary and higher educational institutions, including madrassahs and other special organisations, across the country.
   A total of 14,000 non-government high schools and 2,000 intermediate colleges and more than 7,000 madrassahs are under the directorate.
   Besides, it is to look after the administrative affairs of 251 government colleges and 324 government high schools.
   Moreover, it is the DG office that oversees promotion, salaries and evaluations of around five lakh teachers and employees of both government and non-government educational institutions in the country.

The Dhaka City Corporation has started operation of signal lights at 15 more points after the corporation and the traffic department of police jointly worked out the duration of red and green signals.
   Officials of the organisations said that the signals came into operation last week as they jointly settled about the duration of red and green signals overcoming the two-week long deadlock in operation of the signals that resulted from a difference of opinion.
   With functioning of the 15 signals, the number of signals in operation rose to 30 till Wednesday.
   Officials said they are now working on fixation of the duration of 15 other signals which will come into operation within this month.
   Rest of the lights, out of the total 59 signals scheduled to be installed under the World Bank-funded Dhaka Urban Transport Project, will come into operation by February, said an official of the project said.
   The points where signal lights are in operation include Darussalam, Technical crossing, Dhanmondi roads 10 and 6, Science Laboratory, New Market, Azimpur, Purana Paltan, Agargaon, Bijoy Sarani (aeroplane), Khamarbari, Kakali, Chairmanbari, Jahangir Gate, Gulshan Section 1 and 2, Nabisco, Matsya Bhaban, FDC crossing, Shantinagar crossing, Farmgate, Kataban, Bata crossing, Dholaikhal, and English Road.
   The points of other fifteen signals, operations of which are due this month, include Bijoy Sarani (adjacent to Rangs Bhaban), Bangla Motor and Sonargaon crossing.
   The deputy commissioner of traffic (south), Ansar Uddin Khan Pathan, told New Age on Wednesday that they were examining the points at Sheraton Hotel, Fakirapool and Moghbazar for fixing duration of signals.
   ‘We are facing great difficulties for fixing the time at Sonargaon crossing because of tremendous pressure of vehicles.’
   From Farmgate to Bangla Motor, including Sonargaon synchronising, optical fibre is necessary to control the traffic of the area so that the green and red lights in these areas function at a time, the official said further.
   He expressed the hope that traffic movement would be smoother following full operation of the signal lights in all 59 points.
   The Matsya Bhaban area has already experienced an improvement in movement of vehicles, he claimed.
   The signal lights at Bijoy Sarani will be examined Sunday for fixing the time and gradually other signal lights, including those of Sheraton Hotel crossing, Bangla Motor and Sonargaon crossing will come under such a test, said an official of the city corporation.
   The central monitoring system of the 59 signal lights will come into effect by March, the official said further.

Journalists in Khulna have been passing their days in anxiety after a bomb had been hurled at the Khulna-based correspondent of the Bangla daily newspaper Jugantar, Dip Azad, at the Mailapota crossing in Khulna when he was on his way home at Tootpara in a rickshaw on Tuesday.
   The residents have expressed their concern about the attempt to kill the journalist.
   The police said unidentified assailants hurled the bomb, but Azad escaped unhurt as the bomb did not go off.
   The police said the bomb was powerful and contained explosive, two gun bullets and three 0.22-calibre rifle bullets.
   The Khulna Press Club, at a rally on its premises, slated the attempt and demanded arrest of the people involved in it.
   The Khulna unit Awami League, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Chhatra Union, Chhatra Moitri and Udichi slated the incident.
   In the past year, the New Age correspondent, Manik Chandra Saha, the local Bangla daily Janma-bhumi editor, Humayun Kabir Balu, were bombed to death. Several others received death threats.
   Sources in the police said a booklet published by a faction of the underground Janajudha Party named the Khulna-based Janakantha correspondent Gouranga Nandy and the local Purbanchal editor on their hit list.
   The party in the booklet claims to have killed 87 people, including Manik and Balu, the sources said.
   The police said as the region was prone to criminal activities, the journalists became the main target of the criminals for publishing news on them.
   The Khulna Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner, M Akbar Ali, said they had been trying to arrest who had been giving death threats to journalists.

The government will launch another drive against the use of polythene bag in a month, said the officials of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation.
   The corporation has been running a seven-day exhibition of jute shopping bag on the Shishu Academy premises to motivate people to use polythene bag substitutes.
   In addition to shopping bags, jute-made household objects are also on sale in the exhibition, which will run till January 7.
   Seven private organisations also joined the fair, with products such as vanity bags, school bags, purses, wallets, shoes, wall hangings for interior decoration, carpets and mittens. Bags made of paper and cloths are also on sale.
   Visitors have been buying jute products and other bio-degradable shopping bags in volumes, said some stall people. ‘Many of them are buying five to 20 pieces at a go,’ said one of them. Sale of other products is also satisfactory, he said.
   A number of wholesalers and manufacturers have also visited the fair, said the officials of the corporation. ‘This is a good sign.’
   The corporation has stocked 42 lakh pieces of jute bags of different sizes which people can buy from at wholesale and retail prices from its office at Adamjee Court. The prices of each of the bags will range between Tk 3 and Tk 4.
   The bags will be made available in large markets so that people can buy them easily, said the corporation’s deputy manager, Abdur Rab, in charge of marketing. The corporation will also be selling other jute product at lower price, he said.
   The banks will provide financial support for the entrepreneurs and manufacturers of jute and other eco-friendly bags, said the minister for environment and forest, Tariqul Islam, at the fair opening on Saturday.
   Another such exhibition of jute products will be organised after Eid-ul-Azha, said the corporation official.

At least 60 per cent of the people cannot afford to buy any medicine, the science and ICT minister, Abdul Moyeen Khan, said on Wednesday.
   The minister said this contradicting information presented at a workshop that an 80 per cent of the population depends on herbal medicines.
   The minister was inaugurating a two-day workshop on ‘medicinal plants for life and livelihood’ in the IDB Bhaban auditorium.
   The workshop was organised by the Development of Biotechnology and Environmental Conservation Centre in association with the ministries of science, and ICT, environment and forest, finance and planning, the IUCN–The World Conservation Union and the IDRC, Canada
   The poor have natural immunity against diseases, the minister claimed, saying the government gave a priority to cultivation, utilisation, and research in medicinal plants so that it can provide medicare for the people.
   The minister emphasised the quality checking and certification of the herbal medicines. The minister also opened a homepage of the centre.
   The assistant commerce secretary, Jagdish Biswas, also contradicted information provided by a survey conducted by the centre on domestic market of the medicinal plants.
   The survey said the domestic market of herbs is worth about Tk 100 crore, which, according to him, is of Tk 300 crore.
   The environment secretary, Soyeb Ahmed, chaired the inaugural session; the state minister of environment and forest, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury, IDRC regional coordinator Madhob Karki, UNDP deputy country representative Larry Maramis, and the centre executive director, Ferdousi Begum, also spoke.

The hearing in the murder case of the New Age correspondent, Manik Chandra Saha, bombed to death in Khulna on January 15, 2003, began in the Khulna speedy trial tribunal on January 4.
   The court officials said three prosecution witnesses gave their deposition on January 4 and other gave their deposition on January 5. The court will record the deposition of the witness until January 6.
   The Khulna special tribunal posted the next hearing in the case of explosion, in which Manik was killed, for January 17, the court officials said.
   Only four of the accused — Ali Akbar Shikdar alias Shaon, Suman alias Nuruz-zaman, Akram Hossain alias Akram Hawladar alias Bomber Akram alias Fata and Bulbul Hossain alias Bulu — have been arrested and are now in jail.
   All the 13 accused in the murder case are also accused of exploding the bomb that killed Manik, the police said.
   Of the accused, Sheikh Abdur Rashid alias Tapu Sheikh alias Babu Sheikh, Altaf alias BDR Altaf alias Siddiq BDR, and Md Mahfuzur Rahman alias Mofizul alias Nasim were earlier killed in encounter.
   The other six accused, who are in hiding, are Bulbul Hossain alias Bulu, Abdus Sattar alias Disco Sattar, Shakawat Hossain alias Shaka, Sarwar Hossain alias Soro, Billal, Kachi alias Omar Faruk and Mitul.
   The Khulna Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner, M Akbar Ali, told new Age that the police had been trying to arrest more people accused in the case.
   Political, social, cultural and professional organisations of Khulna have formed ‘journalist Manik Saha memorial committee’ to observe the first anniversary of Manik’s death. The committee will organise blood donation programme, bring out a procession, and hold a drawing competition and a rally. It will submit a memorandum to the police and the deputy commissioner.
   The Khulna district Bangladesh Chhatra Union has announced a weeklong programme from January 8 to observe the death anniversary. The organisation will submit a memorandum to the Khulna mayor on January 8 and to the home minister on January 10.
   The Chhatra Union will form a human chain on January 11, bring out a procession and hold a rally on January 12. One thousand candles will be lighted just after midnight past January 14 at 00:01am.

The education minister, Dr Osman Farruk, Wednesday said the modern anthropology investigates complex cultures as well as social realities of marginalised, discriminated and disadvantaged people.
   He was addressing the inaugural session of a three-day international anthropology conference at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital.
   He said anthropology provided us with powerful insights into the dynamism of real life by studying cultural diversity and variation in human action, interactions and adaptations over time and space.
   The chairman of the University Grants Commission, professor M Asaduzzaman, vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, professor SMA Faiz, US ambassador, Harry K Thomas (Jr), chairman of the university’s anthropology, professor Zahidul Islam and professor Fredrick Barth of the Boston University, US, also addressed.
   The conference of professional anthropologists and learners, organised by the department, for
   assessing contemporary anthropology, were split into seven working sessions.
   Social and theoretical issues including anthropological perspectives in development, indigenisation of modernity, issues relating to ethnic communities, re-evaluation of globalisation, gender, empowerment and development paradigms will be discussed.
   Farruk said aid the modern anthropology investigates complex cultures as well as social realities of marginalised, discriminated and disadvantaged people.
   The cultural landscape of Bangladesh contained a great diversity in ethnic, religious and linguistic composition. The increasing cultural interactions between social and ethnic aspects and the complexity turned the country into a fertile field for anthropological investigation.
   Fredrik Barth urged Bangladesh to introduce anthropology in the secondary-level education.

The national juvenile and volunteer organisation, Palak Shishu Shahitya Sangsad, has announced the Palak Award-2004, said a news release.
   The award will be given in recognition of the work of those who contributed to juvenile literature, culture, social-welfare, journalism, administration, publication, development activities and activities to raise values.
   The award was declared in a recent meeting presided over by the organisation’s chairman, Jajabar Mintu.
   The awarded persons are as follow: Samsuzzoha Chow-dhury (freedom fighter), Syed Mahbub (poetry), Kaisar Chowdhury (juvenile literature), Ilias Ahmed (fiction), Khandakar Makbul Haque (poetry), Biren Shom (painting), Monawara Hakim (social-welfare), Mahmuda Shamsuzzoha (research in liberation war), Khan Md Babar Ashraful Haque (social-welfare), Sayeed Zaman (research in literature), Zamiur Rahman Lemon (documentary), Banamali Bhoumik (administration), Selim Pervez (journalism), Alamgir Kabir (social-welfare), Halima Begum (short story), Akhterunnahar Alo (short story), Bidyut Kumar Das (poetry) and Ali Mohammad Mansur (juvenile literature).
   The awards will be handed over formally on January 28 in Dhaka.

The Dhaka Language Club held a seminar, bridging the gap through language, at the National Press Club on December 29, said a release issued on Wednesday.
   Professor Rafiqul Islam and the club president, Masud A Khan, read out the keynote paper.
   The presentation followed an open discussion joined in by Professor Mahmud Shah Qureshi, Professor M Shahidulland and Professor Terence Penheiro. The minister for science and ICT, Abdul Moyeen Khan, was chief guest.
   The US ambassador in Dhaka, Harry K Thomas, the Japanese ambassador, Matsushiro Horiguchi and the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission chairman, Syed Marghub Murshed were present.

DU exams postponed
All the examinations of Dhaka University, scheduled for January 8, have been postponed as the opposition political parties called hartal for the day. New dates will be announced soon and the schedule for the remaining examinations will remain unchanged, said a release.

JU student stabbed
Miscreants stabbed a student of Jahangirnagar University and harassed his girl near Preetilata Hall Tuesday night. The university students damaged some vehicles on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway. The boy victim was identified as Abu Saleh Ziko, a second year student of English and also resident of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall. Ziko sustained at least five stab injuries in the neck and back. His friend was also physically harassed. Ziko was taken to Enam Clinic at Savar. The university vice-chancellor, Khandaker Mustahidur Rahman, visited Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall at 11:00pm and assured the students of taking punitive measures. The university proctor, Ali Akhand Mamun, told reporters that the university authorities had informed the Rapid Action Battalion of the incident. Extra police from Savar were engaged to find out the miscreants, he said. But the Savar police said they were yet to find any of the miscreants. No case was lodged till Wednesday night.

Citigroup donation
for Biswa
Sahitya Kendra
The Citigroup Foundation, philanthropic arm of the Citigroup, has decided to make a grant of $ 30,000 to Biswa Sahitya Kendra over a period of two years. The grant will formally be made to Abdullah Abu Sayeed, chairman of the Kendra and also winner of the recent Magsaysay Award, at a function at the Kendra on January 6.

Specialists off to help post-tsunami relief
The Bangladesh office of the Relief International has sent specialists to assist in the post-tsunami humanitarian relief operators in Sri Lanka. Initial relief operations will include distribution of emergency provisions and medicare, said a news release. Medical experts and logisticians headed by Jack Welch, director of the Bangladesh country office, have flown to Colombo on January 2. They coordinated with the organisation’s disaster specialists in a multinational term, drawing members from the United States, United Kingdom and Azerbaijan.

Crocodiles injured at Khanjahan Ali shrine
Two crocodiles — Kalapahar and Dhalapahar — at the shrine of Khanjahan Ali in Khulna are being treated after they injured each other Monday night, said caretakers of the shrine. The Bagerhat deputy commissioner, Md Moin Uddin, told New Age the crocodiles were given proper treatment.
— New Age