Main Page «
Front Page «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The Bangla Academy authorities on Wednesday failed to complete the allotment of stalls for the Ekushey book fair as scheduled because of submission of new applications from influential quarters.
   The authorities assured the publishers at the academy in the evening that the lottery for allotment would be held in the morning today.
   The fair organising committee member secretary, Muhammad Nurul Huda, said the committee had primarily decided on 374 stalls and planned to stick to the figure.
   But it might not be possible for them to go by the decision for different reasons, said Huda.
   He could not confirm the total number of stalls. ‘We would confirm it after the lottery,’ he said.
   Referring to the fear of some publishers, Huda said every year there were allegations regarding stall allotment because the academy cannot ensure a good location for all the publishers.
   The construction of the stalls and stages was on progress on Wednesday. As in the past year, the fair ground will be divided into four zones.
   Commercial publishers will be around the pond. The non-governmental organisations will be in front of the academy press building. The children’s corner will be in front of the Nazrul Mancha and the socio-cultural organisations will be near the main entrance.
   Some publishers expressed their resentment at the delayed allotment of the stalls as they will have only four days to complete the stall work.
   The Eid hangover is hampering the preparations of the publishers for the book fair, according to a number of sources concerned. ‘I have not been able to do work since Eid as the workers are yet to return,’ said Robin Ahsan, owner of the Shraban Prakashan.
   The publishers said the supply of books would be delayed at least by a week for the Eid holidays. The publishers usually try to bring out their major titles in the first week of the fair.
   Muhammad Quayum of the Ekushey Publications prefers a short-duration fair. He said no international fair is held beyond 12 days.
   The fair committee decided that publishers would have to sell only their own titles. The committee decided that books written, edited or translated by Bangladeshi writers would be allowed in the fair.
   The sale of pirated books will be prohibited. Each of the stalls will sell books on a 20 per cent discount and no bulk discount will be allowed.
   There will be no smoking on the fair ground and no polythene bags could be used.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is expected to inaugurate the fair on February 1.

Negligence by the officials at the General Post Office in the functioning of pillar-boxes has caused an increase in the
   incidence of letters going missing.
   Some pillar-boxes in Dhaka are not locked up and letters from the boxes go missing, complained city residents.
   A box in front of the Sonargaon Hotel has not been locked for a long time, said Kader Miah, a trader at Karwan Bazar. ‘I posted letters several times to my village, but my family never received them.’
   There are unlocked boxes at Segun Bagicha, Goran, Basabo, Kazipara, Mirpur and in Old Town.
   There are 459 letter boxes on an area of 360 square kilometres in Dhaka, said the officials of the postal department. But there is only inspector for their maintenance.
   Some residents, expressing their dissatisfaction, claimed that they had never seen postal department employees operating the pillar-boxes.
   The General Post Office does not collect and dispatch the letters from the boxes regularly, they said.
   A high postal department official told New Age on Monday that the boxes were put up at different city points to ensure easier postal services, but the irresponsibility and insincerity of the workers hamper the services.
   The GPO authorities failed to provide the number of letters posted in such pillar-boxes, although there is a rule for them to keep an account.
   The boxes are divided into three categories, based on the destination. The yellow boxes are for letters meant for destinations within Dhaka, the reds are for destinations within Bangladesh, and the blue boxes for overseas letters.
   A GPO official said many boxes remained pasted up with posters, which creates confusion among the people.
   Pillar-boxes at different places, including at Shantinagar, Taltala and Gulistan, have remained broken for long. The authorities have not taken any initiatives to repair them, said Sohel Rahman, a resident of Shantinagar.
   ‘The pillar-boxes serve people well. We try to address the problems regarding such boxes whenever we receive any complaints,’ the deputy post master general (north), Rozina Sultana, said.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic wing re-arranged some city routes to ease traffic congestion at Bangla Motor crossing, Eskaton and on the Sonargaon Road.
   But the commuters of the areas began suffering from Sunday as the traffic department imposed a ban on rickshaw crossing at Bangla Motor and Kanthal Bangan.
   Rickshaws are not allowed to cross the main roads at Bangla Motor and Kanthal Bagan between 8:00am and 11:00pm every day.
   A traffic department news release said BRTC 60 buses, which earlier plied the Malibagh–Tongi and Malibagh-Mirpur routes, have been rescheduled on the Moghbazar–Bangla Motor Link Road via Bangla Motor crossing.
   The department also changed the route of 50 buses of the Meghla Paribahan, which earlier plied between Bhulta of Narayanganj and Kalabagan.
   The buses will run through Mastya Bhaban-Kakrail-Moghbazar-Bangla Motor-Bangla Motor Link Road from today, said the release on Wednesday.
   Twenty human haulers will also run through Malibagh-Moghbazar-Bangla Motor-Bangla Motor Link Road from Thursday, the release said.
   Sixty (6A and 6C) buses of the Pirjangi Mazar-Gulshan route started plying on the Moghbazar-Bangla Motor-Bangla Motor Link Road route.

A full-fledged environmental research centre, especially for soil, crop and water contamination, in the University of Dhaka was launched Wednesday.
   The Australian high commissioner in Dhaka, Lorraine Barker, inaugurated the centre, set up with the financial assistance from Australia to support the government and non-governmental organisations in developing manpower for research programmes.
   The vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, was present at the function held at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.
   The Australian envoy said her country initiated different partnership programmes with Bangladesh and hoped that the centre would contribute the country a lot.
   The director of the centre, Professor SM Imamul Huq, said it would initiate collaborative research with various national and international institutes and arrange training programmes to create awareness on environment protection.
   Apart from its regular jobs, the centre will hold workshops, discussions and symposiums, launch short courses on various environmental issues and exchange expertise with the partners.
   The dean of the Dhaka University bioscience faculty, Professor Syed Saleheen Qadri, and Professor Ian Devy, also spoke.

Excessive in-take of red meat and sweetmeats have caused many to be hospitalised for heart ailments and high level of sugars in the body, following the Eid-ul-Azha, doctors said Wednesday.
   Doctors in big hospitals in the capital said the number of heart patients and diabetics had doubled during the past five days from the night of Eid-ul-Azha, the second biggest religious festival of the Muslims, celebrated on Sunday.
   Increased number of heart patients are being admitted to National Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and so far 184 patients got admitted to the hospital in the four days, which ended on Tuesday. The disease claimed 19 lives during the period, hospital records revealed.
   The director of the institute, professor Mohammad Nazrul Islam, said excessive intake of meat affected the people who had scheimic heart disease during the Eid as they took fatty food.
   ‘It has, however, not yet been proved whether or not the red meat was the only culprit causing problems.’
   The institute’s chief matron, Peara Begum, said the number of deaths was relatively less this year compared to the corresponding period of 2004 as the awareness level against heart ailments had increased among the people.
   ‘The coronary care unit faced a big number people with minor heart problems and the patients were released after primary treatments.’
   An on-duty doctor of Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders said the number of diabetic patients increased for ‘negligence to their health.’ ‘The sale of insulin has also increased since the Eid.’
   He said many diabetic patients ate sweetmeats and their health condition deteriorated.
   Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Suhrawardy Hospital, Mitford Hospital and private hospitals informed they had rendered heath services as usual. The increased of the number of patients with food poisoning was negligible, they said.

Assets worth about Tk 8 lakh were burnt in a fire at a textile mill in the Kalurghat industrial area of the Chandgaon police area in Chittagong Wednesday morning.
   Fire service officials said the fire at the CAN Textiles originated from a burning cigarette at about 11:40am.
   Three fire-fighting units brought the fire under control with the help of the factory employees just after noon.
   Garments, yarn and chemicals of the mill worth about Tk 8 lakh were damaged, said sources in the fire department.
   No casualty was reported.

Demanding construction of a deep seaport at Akram Point and protection the Mongla Port, the members of the greater Khulna development action committee will observe a dawn-to-dusk hunger strike at the Shaheed Hadis Park on Saturday.
   The committee alleged that Khulna was deprived of all kinds of developments at different times and no government felt the urge to fulfil the legitimate demands of the region.
   The people are fighting for the development of the greater Khulna region, the committee members added.
   Sheikh Ashrafuzzaman, the general secretary of the committee while talking to New Age on Wednesday said the country would be benefited once the deep seaport at Akram Point in Mongla is established, since the point possesses the natural characteristics required for a deep seaport.
   The local units of the different political parties, social and professional organisations are supporting the hunger-strike and are organising rallies and processions at different places in the city, said the sources of the committee.

The leaders of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association leaders on Wednesday met the vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, and demanded exemplary punishment for the police personnel responsible for manhandling a university teacher on January 20.
   The leaders also threatened with initiating agitation programmes, otherwise.
   A nayek of the police beat up the Dhaka University teacher and the incident sparked off resentment by the teachers after the teacher had informed the association of the matter.
   Sheikh Morshed Jahan, associate professor of the Institute of Business Studies, fell victim to police atrocity on January 20 when he, along with his wife, went shopping at New Market.
   Morshed filed complaint with the deputy commissioner (traffic) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The late language movement hero Dr Khandaker Alamgir, also a former student leader, was buried in the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur Wednesday afternoon.
   The body was earlier kept at the Central Shaheed Minar where the leaders of political parties and organisations paid their homage to Alamgir.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Muahidul Islam Selim, the Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal chief, Khalequzzaman, the Gana Swasthya Kendra chief, Zafarullah Chowdury, and Chhatra Union and Samajtantrik Chhatra Front leaders also placed flowers to pay homage.
   Alamgir, who was the first president of the undivided Chhatra Union, died in New York on January 21.
   His body was brought to Dhaka on Wednesday.

A two-day training programme on ‘therapeautic community’ was held in January 14–15 in the training room of Ashokti Punarbason Nibash in Dhaka.
   Organised by Apon, the programme was sponsored by the Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited and the Daytop International of the United States.
   Thirty-two participants from different organisations working on drug rehabilitation programmes, members of the Department of Narcotics Control and Dhaka Ahsania Mission attended the programme that focused on the training to enhance knowledge and skills of human resources on drug addiction treatment in the country.
   At the closing ceremony held on January 18, the managing director-in-charge of the bank, Abul Hashem Khan, distributed certificates to the participants.
   The ceremony was also attended by the Department of Narcotics director general, Kamaluddin Ahmed, the Daytop director, Fernando Perfas, the Apon director, Brother Ronald Drahozal and the medical consultant of the bank, Mozammel Hossain Khan.

The thirty-fourth anniversary of death of Ghayasuddin Ahmed Choudhury was observed on Wednesday. He died in 1971 in a car accident in Dhaka.
   Ghayasuddin served as the Dhaka division commissioner, Board of Revenue member, secretary to government and chairman of the election authorities during the British and Pakistan periods.
   He was president of the then East Pakistan Sports Federation and president of the Football Federation. He was the only Bangladeshi who acted as Pakistan’s chef de mission in the Olympic Games.
   A Qur’an recitation and a prayer session were held in Dhaka and Sylhet on the occasion.

Eleven-year-old Pritu, a student of Class V of the Laboratory College, has been suffering from bone cancer. They have spent all their property on his medical expenses.
   Pritu is now undergoing chemotherapy in Tata
   Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. His father needs Tk 8 lakh for further treatment.
   Pritu’s family can be contacted over telephone at 815 1723 or over mobile at 0172818506 or 0176 757671.
   Money can be sent to savings account Mohammad Abul Fazal number 7973, Ruplai Bank Ltd, Mohammadpur Brach, Dhaka.

Muggers stab army sergeant in Ctg
An army personnel sustained wounds when muggers attacked him with sharp weapons at Dampara of the Kotwali police area in Chittagong Wednesday morning. The injured is identified as Sergeant Abdul Kader of the Special Works Organisation. The police said four muggers had attacked Kader near the Jamiatul Falah Complex when he was walking to the organisation office after getting down from a bus at about 4:00am. He was returning from his village after the Eid holidays, the police said. The muggers took away valuables and cash from him. Two persons — Kamal and Mizan — were arrested from the Battery Gali in the morning. They were handed over to the Kotwali police. A case was filed.
— New Age

DU MBA admission test January 28
The admission tests for Master of Business Administration of the Institute of Business Adminis-tration of the University of Dhaka will be held at 10:00am on January 28. A detailed seat plan will be posted on the bulletin board at the examinations centre and at the web site www.iba-du.edu.
— BSS

Children drama fair ends in Khulna
The two-day Children Drama Fair 2005, organised by a local non-governmental organisation, Rupantar, ended in the Caritas auditorium in the Khulna city on Wednesday. Twenty teams from 20 schools of Khulna, Bagerhat and Narail joined the fair. Ten schools — Kailashganj Government Primary School, Bajua Girls’ High School, Purba Bajua Government Primary School and Dulal Chandra Primary School of Dakop upazila in Khulna and Karori Government Primary School, Afra Government Primary School, Chunakhola Government Primary School, Chanpatala Government Primary School, Modhudia Government Primary School and Ranabijaypur High School staged 10 plays on the concluding day.
— New Age

Review meeting on parking skyscraper
The commerce ministry officials at a Wednesday meeting in the capital reviewed that the under-construction 20-storey skyscraper of the Sadharan Bima Corporation would provide parking space for more than 500 vehicles to ease the working-hour traffic congestion at Motijheel in Dhaka. The building, which will have three underground floors, will accommodate the vehicles up to the eighth floor, they said. The minister for commerce, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, presided at the meeting in the ministry.
— BSS

Canadian envoy
visits CRP
The Canadian high commissioner in Dhaka, David Sproute, visited the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed on Wednes-day. The centre coordinator, Valerie Taylor, welcomed him. Valerie briefed him on the centre’s activities. The managing trustee and chief executive officer of the organisation, Shafi Shami, was also present. The high commissioner exchanged pleasantries with the patients in the centre and went around the hospital. He also visited the Ganakbari Women Rehabilitation Centre.
— New Age