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The opposition Awami League and its allies on Friday officially announced the much-talked-about set of electoral reforms proposals to ‘free the next general election from any evil influence.’ The next elections are scheduled for early 2007.
   The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, announced the joint reforms proposals, formulated by 10 opposition parties and groups, at a crowded news briefing at the National Press Club.
   The parties are Awami League, Workers Party of Bangladesh, Gana Forum, Samyabadi Dal, Ganatantri Party, Gana Azadi League, Ganatantrik Majdur Party, National Awami Party, Hasanul Haq Inu’s faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and the Communist Kendra.
   The proposals suggest that the chief adviser and the other advisers to the caretaker government, which conducts the general elections and runs the administration for 90 days during the elections, and all the election commissioners, including the chief election commissioner, should be acceptable to all and be appointed on a consensus of all political parties.
   The proposals said the president will appoint acceptable persons as chief adviser and advisers in consultation with all political parties on a consensus.
   ‘The chief and other advisers should not have any active involvement, at present or in the past, in any political party. Moreover, the chief adviser should be acceptable to all political parties,’ said the proposals.
   The proposals suggested that eligibility for being appointed chief adviser should not be limited only to judges; it should rather be expanded to other professions.
   The president will act in all matters on the advice of the chief adviser during the tenure of the caretaker government, keeping parliamentary democracy in consideration.
   The Ministry of Defence will be entrusted with and run by the caretaker government during its tenure.
   The jurisdiction of the caretaker government will be confined only to day-to-day, routine work and assisting the Election Commission in conducting the general elections.
   As regards the reforms in the Election Commission, the proposals said the appointments of the chief election commissioner and other members of the commission have to be made in consultation with all the active political parties.
   The number of election commissioners will also be fixed in the same way. It should be ensured that the Election Commission must have the power to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner and in an independent atmosphere.
   An independent secretariat for the Election Commission should be formed to make the commission an independent institution, free from the control of the executive branch of the government.
   The reforms agenda also proposes to increase the number of reserved seats for women and direct election for them.
   With regard to electoral rules, the opposition parties suggested that the Election Commission should have the freedom to announce election schedules, select members of the all-party polls monitoring teams, register voters, introduce electronic voting system and transparent ballot boxes, and put an end to the use of muscle power and black money in elections.
   The opposition combine wants transparency in preparing voter’s list, banning electioneering at religious places, including mosques, temples and churches, and describing the candidate’s financial status in a public document open to all.
   All the candidates must submit statements of their election expenses within seven days after the polls. The proposals also suggest banning the use of religion as a tool to seek votes.
   The reforms proposal also said persons who were loan defaulters even a year before elections must not be allowed to take part in polls.
   Moreover, they also suggest that war criminals and those who opposed the war of independence cannot stand for elections.
   The reforms proposals also suggest the deployment of law enforcers under the Election Commission to ensure enforcement of electoral rules and security in the voting centres, and the commission will be in full control of them.
   To ensure intra-party democracy and practice of democracy by political parties, the proposals suggest that leaders should run the parties in a democratic manner, hold regular council sessions and polls to elect party leaders and submit financial statement of the party’s activities to the Election Commission, which should be mandatory.
   There should be an arrangement for training sessions for political activists by the Election Commission, the proposals said.
   The administration of the Election Commission should be spread to upazila levels, and the commission officials should take charge of all government officials engaged in the election process during the polls.
   The Election Commission must be free in appointing presiding, returning and other officials concerned and deploy law-enforcing agencies. The government should be bound to heed the directives and meet all the requirements of the commission.
   As per the CHT peace accord, a new voter’s list of the permanent residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts must be prepared and their voting rights be ensured. Expatriate Bangladeshis must be included in the voter’s list and arrangements must be made so that they can cast their vote.
   All the officials engaged in election duties must be under the supervision of the Election Commission for a certain period and the commission must have the right to take action against any official if he is found guilty of malpractice. The government must also punish any official found guilty by the commission.
   The proposals suggested that the commission should provide voters with identity cards, arrange computerised voter’s roll and introduce electronic voting system.
   The commission should form all-party observers’ teams for every constituency. The local organisations of election observers will have to enlist with the commission at least a year before the general elections.
   The commission should supply the lists of the observers to all political parties when the schedule is announced.
   Regarding the rules and regulations the observers must obey, the proposals said the observer must not enter any voting room or polling booth.
   The proposals insisted that only the Election Commission will announce the results of the polls from its secretariat in the capital.
   The proposals suggested that the Election Commission must be empowered to compel parliamentary candidates to provide information — especially on their academic qualifications, criminal records, if any, assets and sources of income — to the commission along with nomination forms. The particulars of the candidates must be included in public documents open to all.
   The proposals suggested that the candidates must open register books as public documents open to all so that anyone can see the expenditure and income sources of the candidates.
   The candidates must also submit weekly reports to the commission, and there should be an arrangement in the Election Commission to review the expenditure.
   There must be strict enforcement of existing electoral laws and political parties must cooperate with the Election Commission, said the proposals.
   The proposals also suggested that time limit should be fixed for the disposal of election-related cases.
   The opposition leaders present at the briefing included Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil MP, Gana Forum president Dr Kamal Hossain, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, JSD president Hasanul Haque Inu, Samyabadi Dal leader Dilip Barua, Gantantri Party’s Azizul Islam Khan, Gana Azadi League president Abdus Samad, Ismail Hossain of NAP, Ganatantrik Majdur Party secretary Zakir Hossain and Hossain Ali of Communist Kendra.
   Besides, Barrister Amirul Islam, Barrister Rokonuddin Mahmud and Professor Shamsul Huda Harun were present.

BNP general secretary Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan on Friday said the opposition Awami League should place its reforms proposals in the parliament for discussion.
   He said ‘some of the proposals are absurd,’ aimed only to obstruct fair elections.
   ‘Some proposals could be discussed and some are absurd which will only obstruct free and fair elections,’ he told reporters in an instant reaction.
   Mannan Bhuiyan termed the appointment of the chief adviser to the caretaker government on a consensus in consultation with all political parties ‘impossible.’
   He said the BNP could sit with the opposition political parties in or outside the parliament to discuss how to ensure that elections are free from black money and terrorism.
   On the opposition’s demand that the defence ministry should be placed under the caretaker government instead of the president, Mannan said the last three elections were held with that ministry under the president.
   BNP believes in free and fair elections, he said, adding that the Election Commission is also independent and neutral.
   Mannan said the opposition would have to come to the parliament with their proposals for discussion if some of their points are to be accepted.
   The minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Moudud Ahmed, also made a similar comment, asking the opposition to place their proposals in the parliament where the government could consider some of their rational proposals to strengthen the election system and ensure fair election.

Garment export of the country is most likely to cross the $6 billion figure in the just ended fiscal year 2004-2005, said exporters and officials of the Export Promotion Bureau.
   Bangladeshi exporters faced fierce competition in the second half of the fiscal year and saw a slight decline in export of woven products, but export of knitwear rose substantially, said exporters.
   ‘Statistics of the July-May period of the 2004-2005 fiscal year and the trend observed in the statistics of June clearly show that country’s export earning has certainly crossed the six billion dollar figure,’ said Mir Shahabuddin Mohammed, vice-chairman of the EPB.
   Export performance belied the ‘illogical’ speculation of certain quarters that the export rate would decrease significantly in early 2005, observed the EPB’s executive boss.
   Statistics released by the EPB last week showed that in the first eleven months of the just ended fiscal year, the country earned a total of $5,756 million by exporting readymade garments, more than $5,043 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year which earned a total of $5,686 million from RMG export.
   ‘Total earning from the export of readymade garments will cross $6.1 billion,’ said one senior official of the statistics division of the bureau who is working with June data which will be released by the end of July.
   From July 2004 to May 2005, the country’s total export earning stood at $7.79 billion, including $5.76 billion earned by readymade garments that constituted 73.93 per cent of the total export. Total export earning in fiscal year 2003-2004 was $7.6 billion.
   Exceeding the target by 13.10 per cent in the July-May period of fiscal year 2004-2005, export of knitwear has increased by 34.58 per cent and earned $2.54 billion.
   Export of woven garments earned $3.22 billion in the period, but though the sector missed the target by 6.75 per cent, its earning was 1.93 per cent higher than last year’s.
   Bangladeshi readymade garments will face more competition as new exporters are emerging in global apparel market after the beginning of the quota-free era, Mir Shahabuddin said, hoping that Bangladeshi exporters would maintain the growth of exports by meeting the new requirements of buyers like compliances, competitive prices and speedy supply.
   ‘It is rather a steady growth,’ said Ghulam Faruk, former vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
   Export did not fall as expected in the early months of the post-MFA period, he said, hoping that the trend of growth will be maintained in the future.
   The major decline in readymade garment export was expected to be in USA, the single largest destination of Bangladeshi apparels.
   Like other exporting countries, the market share of Bangladesh in USA’s market has been threatened by swelling exports from China, but Bangladeshi exports have grown in volume.
   In the first five months of 2005, the Bangladeshi RMG sector achieved more than 20 per cent growth in USA’s market, said sources in the BGMEA, quoting statistics of the US Commerce Department.

The heirs of a shareholder of the erstwhile Standard Bank — one of the three banks merged in 1972 to form the nationalised Rupali Bank — have claimed ownership of Rupali Bank shares.
   A recent letter to the Privatisation Commission reads, ‘We the undersigned as legal heirs of deceased Yasin Chowdhury humbly pray for getting back our shares before completion of sale of government-owned 67.26 per cent shares with further request to rectify the share register incorporating our name therein.’
   The letter was signed by Gul-e-Noor Afsar Chowdhury, Rana Tanvir Chowdhury and Masroor Rumi Chowdhury of 16 Nasirabad Housing Society, Road 2, Flat 2D, Chittagong.
   Yasin Chowdhury of Katalganj in the Chittagong city held a good number of shares of the Standard Bank and consequently was a director of the establishment until it was nationalised, explained the letter.
   The Rupali Bank was formed merging three banks — Muslim Commercial, Standard and Australasia Bank. All shares were deemed to have been expropriated by the government by dint of the nationalisation order of 1972.
   As the commission issued public notice and also posted online international tenders for divesting Rupali Bank shares, Yasin’s heirs claimed that the government should return their shares before commencing the sell-off.
   In support of their application, they pointed out that the state became the owner of all shares of the erstwhile Standard Bank, merged them with those of two other banks and floated the Rupali Bank as a public limited company. ‘Hence our right, title, interest in the shares of Standard Bank Ltd being allotted to our predecessor now held by the government are legally returnable.’
   When asked, the commission chairman, Enam Ahmed Chaudhury, said the commission has nothing to do with the claim because ‘It is assigned only to sell off the shares, not to deal with an issue of compensation as a result of nationalisation.’ He maintained that anyone with such claims could go to the court.
   The commission, a statutory regulatory body responsible for disinvestment, is in the process of selling out shares of the Rupali Bank selecting parties among interested parties who have applied in writing.
   In their letter, the three claimed that Yasin was allotted 250 fully paid up shares and 25 bonus shares of the Standard Bank registered under the companies’ act 1913. Yasin was also appointed director the bank.
   In an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders on August 15, 1970, some 25,000 right shares were issued for allotment at the rate of ‘one for three shares’ held by the shareholders.
   Accordingly, the reported heirs mentioned, Yasin was entitled to 91 full right shares and the letter of rights was issued as such in his name with assurance of payment of the amount due.
   ‘Although the name of our predecessor appeared in the share register on the date of nationalisation as a Bangladeshi shareholder, he had not been compensated nor was he allowed to get back his shares despite repeated attempts and reminders to the appropriate authority,’ said the letter.
   Yasin is said to have died on September 13, 1983, leaving the three as legal heirs with devolution of ‘all the right, title, interest of the estate, assets including the shares of the erstwhile Standard Bank Ltd.’ Those demanding return of shares were not available for comments regarding possibility of litigation.

Students with top results in the Secondary School Certificate examinations are to face heightened competition to get admission to reputable colleges even as several hundred colleges across the country will continue to suffer from a lack of adequate number of students.
   The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) will hold a meeting Saturday to revise the admission process as a record number of 17,276 examinees from all the nine education boards have got grade point average of 5, sources in the directorate told New Age Thursday.
   ‘We have to find out a way to stop the “business” of admissions at a few famous colleges. Much money is taken by coaching centres and influential touts by promising to get the students admitted to them,’ said Professor Shamsur Rahman, director (college) of the DSHE.
   One hundred and thirty-five colleges are offering intermediate courses in the Dhaka Metropolitan area and less than ten of them have earned a good reputation. As the few reputed colleges have only 10,000 seats, nearly half of the students who have secured top grades in this year’s secondary finals will not get admission to them.
   ‘There are nearly 3,000 government, non-government and private colleges across the country with around 4.7 lakh seats,’ said the DSHE official. ‘But the number of successful students is 5.10 lakh.’
   As most of the students vie for getting admission to reputed colleges, 884 colleges, about one-third of the total number of colleges in the country, do not get the required number of students, sources in the education ministry told New Age.
   Talking to New Age on Thursday, the minister for education, M Osman Farruk, said setting up of institutions in an unplanned way across the country is responsible for the unusual situations.
   The minister once again repeated the warning to stop salaries of the teachers and employees of colleges without the required number of students.
   According to the government’s rules, the required number of students for any intermediate level college is 33.
   As many as 464 colleges under the Rajshahi Board do not have the required number of students; 122 colleges under Dhaka Board and 59 under Jessore Board suffer the same fate. The number of such colleges under Comilla Board is 83, under Barisal Board 48, under Chittagong Board 56 and under Sylhet Board 52.
   ‘Students usually try to get admitted to only 10 to 12 colleges in the capital,’ said Shamsur Rahman, and added that the students of the science group will have to face tougher competition this year as most of the students who got GPA 5 are from this group.
   Of the total GPA-5 achievers, 15,631 examinees scored the highest grade point in the examinations under the seven general education boards, with 5,672 from Dhaka Board alone.
   Of the total 15,631 GPA achievers under seven education boards, 13,961 are from the science group, 1,384 from commerce and 219 from humanities.
   The government in 2003 formulated the admission policy to admit students on the basis of their results in the SSC examinations.
   The students who came out successful with GPA 4 and above but below 5 are afraid that that they will not be able to get admitted to the renowned colleges of the city.
   Notre Dame College, Dhaka College, Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Ideal School and College, Holy Cross School and College, Residential Model School and College, Dhaka City College, Dhaka Commerce College, BAF Shahin College and Motijheel Model College are some of the notable colleges in the city.
   There are 1,100 seats for science, humanities and commerce groups in Dhaka College, 2,139 seats in Notre Dame College, 902 seats in Dhaka Commerce College, 606 in BAF Shahin College, 990 in Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, 1,083 seats in Dhaka City College, 819 seats in Government Badrunnesa College, 972 seats in Government Bangla College in Mirpur, and 1,050 seats in Ideal College.
   Besides, there are 444 seats in Rajuk Uttara Model College, 488 in Holy Cross College, 300 in Residential Model College and 750 in Lalmatia Women’s College this year.

The BJP Friday asked the Indian government to take steps to detect and deport illegal migrants in the country after deleting their names from documents like voters list and ration card in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to scrap the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal (IMDT) Act.
   Flaying the Centre for setting up a group of ministers (GoM) for studying the Supreme Court judgment, the BJP senior vice-president, M Venkaiah Naidu, said ‘any delay in tackling this dangerous problem and any diversionary tactics will be considered anti-national.’
   ‘If needed, let the government convene an all-party meeting to agree on modalities to follow up on the Supreme Court judgment. We should lose no time,’ he told reporters here.
   The Centre’s decision to set up a group of ministers to study the judgment was ‘shocking’ and ‘is a delaying and diversionary tactic. This is being done to buy time in view of the coming Assembly polls in Assam and to pursue their vote bank politics so that the Congress can get benefit,’ he said.
   The country in general and the people of Assam in particular ‘are immensely happy that the anti-national law has been struck down. But, it is unfortunate that the United Progressive Alliance Government is going against the mood of the nation,’ he said.
   Venkaiah Naidu said even after the apex court ruling, the Congress still wanted to pursue its vote bank politics and is ‘in the process of converting this larger internal security issue as a minority and majority issue.’

The Awami League and its allies plan to organise countrywide mass contact programmes to drum up support for their joint reforms proposals regarding the caretaker government system and the Election Commission.
   The alliance partners will hold a meeting to finalise the programmes.
   The components of the 11-Party Alliance will hold a meeting today to chalk out the programmes, the alliance coordinator, Bimal Biswas, told New Age on Friday.
   ‘We are yet to elaborate on the proposed nine-point programme that forms the basis of our alliance with the Awami League,’ said Bimal.
   The opposition alliance plans to hold a meeting on Sunday, he said.
   The Awmai League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, told New Age, after the announcement of the proposals, ‘Our prime objective will be to hold countrywide mass contact programmes in favour of the proposal.’

The Communist Party of Bangladesh expressed its scepticism over the effectiveness of the proposals to reform the Election Commission and the caretaker government system made by the main opposition Awami League and its allies.
   The party president, Manzurul Ahsan Khan, and its general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, in a statement on Friday welcomed the announcement of the reforms proposals.
   But the leaders expressed their doubts over the appointment of the chief adviser to the caretaker government, saying any party can create an impasse opposing the ‘neutral’ person and the forces at home and abroad could use such an opportunity to their advantage.
   ‘To eradicate people’s sufferings, the electoral reform proposal is not enough, but mass movement to overthrow the BNP-Jamaat government should be given an equal importance,’ the leaders in the statement said.
   The two leaders iterated they would continue with their ongoing anti-government movement from their own position.

In a reaction to the proposals for electoral reforms by the Awami League and its allies, the Jatiya Party (Manju) chairman, Anwar Hossain Manju, said all of those who are in power and those who are not feel the need for reforms in the electoral process. He said all democracy-loving politicians, people and the democratic world hope that the democratic system will continue in Bangladesh. Manju said, ‘If the system is disrupted because of our short-sightedness and imprudence, people will get hurt and the world will be concerned.’

The Jute, Yarn, and Textile Workers and Employees’ Action Council has called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal and a 24-hour industrial strike today to press home its seven-point charter of demands.
   The demands include stopping disinvestment of nationalised jute mills, immediate allocation of at least Tk 2 crore for buying raw jute for the jute mills, declaration of the wage commission for the workers, payment of their dues, opening of the closed mills and factories, and control of the price hike of essentials.
   Different labour, and left-leaning political organisations, including 11-Party Alliance, Left Democratic Front, Panch Bam Dal, Workers Party of Bangladesh, Communist Party of Bangladesh, a faction of
   Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu), Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, Coordination Council to Protect Workers, Employees, and Enterprises, and Bangladesh Trade Union Federation, have extended support to the hartal and the industrial strike.
   The council leaders at a protest rally at Muktangan in Dhaka on Friday alleged that the production in some fifteen nationalised jute mills out of 22 came to a halt due to want of raw jute.
   The government is following the disinvestment policy on the public sector according to the suggestion of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, they said.
   The leaders said it did not allocate adequate money for the nationalised jute mills in the last jute buying season, hampering production in the mills and depriving the workers and employees of the 15 nationalised jute mills of getting their salaries for the eight months.
   The Coordination Council to Protect Workers, Employees, and Enterprises also held
   a rally at the same venue on the day in support of the programmes.

Awami League president Sheikh Hasina has been abroad on private visits over a total stretch of nine months since her party’s debacle in the 2001 national polls.
   Today she is scheduled to spread wings again for two weeks in quest of her international engagements.
   The absentee leader of the opposition in parliament set foot back home only two weeks ago after a 14-day jaunt in Europe, and is now on her way to the US to treat the auditory damage caused by the sound-bursts of what could have been the fatal explosions of grenades hurled on an Awami League rally on August 21 last year.
   Her current schedule extends to July 30.
   In the last two years alone, Hasina spent a total of five and a half months abroad. All her nine overseas trips were said to be private, and in some cases spent on being with her son and daughter, now domiciled in the United States.
   After the bitter harvest of votes in October 2001, Hasina took off for an overseas private trip to the UK and the USA on December 6, 2001. She returned home on January 12, 2002, and took to wings to the same destinations for an extended stay of four weeks, originally set for two.
   It was followed by a third trip in July, purportedly private, on July 16, 2002. She returned home on August 10 after completing a 25-day trip to the UK and the USA.
   She again flew into London on October 22, 2002; and to Thailand and India on November 22, only a month later. Hasina took part in an international conference in Bangkok. In New Delhi, she met Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and returned to Dhaka on November 30.
   Her sixth trip abroad was on February 5, 2003 to the holy pilgrim-point of Makkah for performing hajj. She performed the same as a royal guest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and returned home on February 25.
   On May 14 this year she went on a one-month trip to Europe and the USA. Then Hasina visited Italy to join a seminar in Rome on May 14. That was the eighth time she went on an overseas trip. Her last trip was arranged on August 7 to Canada to attend an academic ceremony of her daughter.
   From there she went to the USA to spend time with her son Joy and daughter Putul. She returned after three weeks on August 23. On October 25, 2003, Hasina left for Germany and returned on October 30. She visited China in between November 6, 2003 and November 12 on an invitation of the ruling communist party of China.
   In 2004, Hasina left Dhaka for the United States on May 5 on a 10-day tour to meet her daughter and son in Miami and returned on May 13, cutting short her programmes in America following the assassination of her party lawmaker Ahsanullah Master.
   On July 2, she left for Istanbul and returned on July 6, after attending a conference of D-8 signatories there.
   Hasina went to Singapore on the night of September 23 for better treatment of her hearing problem caused by the grenade explosions of August 21 and returned home in the early hours of October 2.
   Hasina left Dhaka on October 21 to attend an international conference in New York and also for better treatment for hearing impairment. She returned home ending a 46-day visit to the US and the UK.
   In 2005, the leader of the opposition in parliament went to Spain to participate in a four-day international summit of former heads of states and governments to mobilise world opinion against bomb attacks, killing, terrorism and human rights abuse.
   After the conference, held on March 7, 2005 to commemorate the terrorist carnage in Madrid a year before, she flew to the USA for treatment and returned home on April 6 after a month-long tour abroad.
   During the visit, she joined a two-day long conference of the Association of Asian Parliamentarian for Peace (AAPP) on April 4 and 5 at Manila. The Awami League president, who left for France en route London on June 18 at the invitation of the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Rene Vander Linden, returned on July 2 after ending a 14-day tour of Europe.

The alleged bomb-maker in the July 7 London terror attacks has been arrested in Cairo, where he is being interrogated, Egyptian officials said. They named the man on Friday as 33-year-old Magdy Nashar and said he had been arrested ‘several days ago.’
   They did not give any further details. British police said Friday they were ‘aware’ of an arrest in Egypt in connection with the investigation into last week’s London bombings.
   ‘We are aware of an arrest made in Cairo but are not prepared to discuss if we may or may not wish to interview (the person) in connection with this investigation,’ a spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police told AFP.
   ‘This remains a fast-moving investigation with a number of lines of enquiry, some of which may have an international dimension.’
   The US network ABC News reported the arrest earlier Friday, saying Nashar is the alleged bomb-maker behind the attacks on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus that killed at least 54 people and injured some 700.
   Citing sources including the FBI, ABC said the detained man helped set up the attackers’ bomb factory and left Britain two weeks before the blasts.
   Previous reports in Britain said police were seeking a man with a similar name who had been studying for a doctorate in chemistry at Leeds University, in the same city where three of the suspected bombers lived. A British grant-awarding group said Friday it had given the man financial support to pursue research which had an industrial application.

The government has decided to regularise the jobs of more than 9,000 teachers and employees who have been working under two projects of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education even after the tenure of the projects expired a few months back.
   The government on June 20 issued a gazette notification and set out the guidelines to bring the teachers and employees of development projects under the revenue budget and to determine their seniority.
   Earlier, in December 30, 2004 the ministry sent a summary to the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, who is also in charge of the ministry, requesting her to create 9,063 posts under the revenue budget to absorb the manpower.
   A total of 9,063 teachers and employees working under the two expired projects have not received their salaries as they were not brought under the revenue budget because of the government’s indecision.
   A total of 3,497 teachers and employees of the Improvement of Primary Education of Chittagong, Sylhet and Barisal Divisions Project (phase-II) have been suffering because of the government’s indecision since June 2003.
   The tenure of the project, funded by the Asian Development Bank in 1998 for improving primary education at the grassroots level, expired on June 30, 2003.
   Similarly, a total of 5,566 teachers and employees of the International Development Agency-funded Improvement of Primary Education in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna Divisions Project (phase-II) are not getting their salaries since January 2004.
   The period of this project expired in December, but the teachers and employees were not incorporated in the revenue budget, although their jobs should have been regularised according to the service rules of the project proposal.
   Under the project, a total of 5,506 assistant teachers are in government primary schools, 6 employees in the project implementation and management unit, 11 in the compulsory primary education implementation and monitoring unit and 43 in district primary education offices.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels said on Friday they would violate a three-year ceasefire and carry arms in military-held areas unless the government safeguarded their cadres after attacks in the restive east.
   As a two-week rebel ultimatum seeking safety assurances lapsed, the Tigers demanded measures without further delay, failing which they vowed to make their own security arrangements and use armed escorts.
   Analysts and diplomats fear such a standoff could deteriorate into a direct armed confrontation which would in turn break the ceasefire and raise the spectre of a return to a civil war that has already killed over 64,000 people.
   ‘Please be advised that we will be forced to resort to our means and modes of transport if suitable action is not taken,’ Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political wing head, SP Thamilselvan, said in a letter to the Nordic monitors of the ceasefire who act as intermediaries with the government.
   ‘If this becomes a necessity, the military should not interfere with our travel and security arrangements,’ he added. ‘If on the other hand, the military attempts to prevent or hinder such travel, we would be compelled to act suitably.’
   Under the truce the rebels can move through government areas, but dozens of rebel cadres, police, soldiers and civilians have been killed in recent months despite the ceasefire.
   Sri Lanka’s military said it killed a Tiger cadre in a firefight in the eastern district of Trincomalee on Thursday night after troops were fired upon.
   The army has beefed up patrols as tension escalates over the violence, which it blames on feuding between the mainstream rebels and a renegade faction. The Tigers accuse the military of helping breakaway cadres mount attacks.
   The Tigers closed their political offices in government-held areas in the east on Thursday and pulled their cadres back to pockets of jungle they control, as diplomats and analysts warned the truce could be in danger of rupturing.
   Hagrup Haukland, head of the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission which oversees the 2002 ceasefire, does not expect the situation to escalate but said any trust between the two sides had evaporated.
   ‘Two previous ceasefires have already broken down since the Tigers’ war for self-rule began in earnest in 1983, breaking the conflict into three parts.
   ‘There is a fourth generation war going on because (people) are killing each other,’ added Haukland. ‘The cornerstone in the ceasefire agreement is the ability of the LTTE to conduct their political work in the north and east. And if they can’t do that, then for sure, the ceasefire is void.’
   The standoff comes just weeks after president Chandrika Kumaratunga’s government agreed to share $3 billion worth of tsunami aid with the Tigers, who the United States list as a banned terror group with the likes of al Qaeda.
   Kumaratunga appealed for calm on Thursday, vowing to ensure strict adherence to the ceasefire. There was no immediate government response to the Tigers’ renewed threat on Friday.
   Sri Lanka’s stock and foreign exchange markets fell on Thursday as security in the east worsened.

The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board is likely to select a company for installing fibre optic cable by next week. The 165km cable between Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong will connect Bangladesh with the global submarine cable network.
   ‘The 10-member evaluation committee is expected to complete the evaluation process by next week. It will then be forwarded to the telecom ministry for approval,’ said a high official of the board.
   Upon the ministry’s approval, the matter will be forwarded to the cabinet committee on purchase for its approval. The selected company is expected to complete its work within four months from signing the contract.
   The telephone board on May 8 opened the bids of seven international telecom equipment manufacturers — Alcatel of France, HESIBEL of Turkey, Siemens of Germany, Samsung of Korea, and Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation and China National Railway Construction of China.
   The technical evaluation committee dropped two of the Chinese companies — ZTE and the national railway — in its initial screening and found the remaining five technically responsive.
   According to the sources, Siemens offered Tk 42 crore, Alcatel Tk 37 crore, Huawei Tk 32 crore, Samsung Tk 36.8 crore and HESIBEL Tk 28.7 crore for installing the cable.
   The board invited the fresh tenders for the project in April at the directives of the cabinet committee on public procurement, which on March 21 rejected a BTTB proposal to award Siemens the contract, citing irregularities in the tender process and asked that new tenders be called.
   The committee also asked the ministry to take action against the officials responsible for the irregularities and the telecommunications ministry sent the board’s chairman, Nurul Islam, on special duty on June 22.
   The ministry has also sent a file to the president’s office for approval to take disciplinary action against the corrupt officials involved in the irregularities.
   Bangladesh signed an agreement on March 27, 2004 in Dubai to join a 16-party consortium for installation of 20,000km SE-ME-WE-4 submarine cable network project at the cost of $500 million.
   As a member of the consortium, Bangladesh is required to contribute Tk 657 crore to the project that includes installation of the fibre optic link from the landing station of the submarine cable at Jilongjha in Cox’s Bazar to Chittagong.
   The landing station has already been constructed and officials said if the installation of fibre optic cable begins by August, it is possible to join the submarine cable network by the yearend.

At least 50 Bangla films that have not got certificates of the Bangladesh Film Censor Board are being screened in cinema halls across the country, sources in the board have claimed.
   ‘The owners of the cinema halls show the uncensored or uncertified films with the assistance of the deputy commissioners and law enforcing agencies,’ said a member of the board.
   ‘Dhakar Kutub, an uncertified film, is being screened at Gulshan Cinema Hall in Narayanganj,’ he said, and added that though the film was seized on Monday by the police, it has still not been handed over to the board.
   The film was seized for vulgarity, but within 24 hours it began to be shown again in the same hall, he said.
   Last week the censor board directed owners of cinema halls not to screen Tin Badsha and Masud Rana Ekhon Dhakay, but some cinema halls are screening these films.
   Tin Badhsa is being shown at Nancy Cinema Hall in Dhamrai under Manikganj district, said the source.
   The chairman of the board, Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, who is also secretary of the information ministry, told New Age on Wednesday that ‘cinema hall owners frequently screen those films which have got no certificates from the board’.
   He also added that the government has plans to cleanse the film industry of vulgarism, indecency, excessive violence and ugliness.
   ‘The film industry gives a large amount of revenue to the government annually and it also upholds the culture of the country, but now it has become a threat to the guardians as it shows a lot of vulgar scenes and perverts the morals of the younger generation’, he said.
   The number of cinema halls in the country is over 300 despite closure of many at different places due to poor response of the viewers, said a source in the information ministry.
   The government wants to promote the art of cinema and documentary films despite the vulgar films, he said.
   There are many unacceptable practices of cinema hall owners in the country which should be stopped by enacting new laws, said the chairman of the board.
   The hall owners often screen two films in a hall, one of which is an English or Chinese movie and the other a blue film.
   The Bangladesh Film Censor Board forbids many Bangla films on the charge of indecency, but there is no action against the halls screening blue films, said Palash Mia, a camera operator in Padma Cinema Hall on Malibagh DIT Road.
   ‘Forbidding films guilty of vulgarism is a good move,’ he said. ‘But that does not exempt the censor board from taking action against the halls screening English movies that show the bare bodies of men and women.’

A mob lynched three suspected robbers at the Technical Training Centre in the Khulshi police area in Chittagong early Friday.
   The police said about eight robbers were trying to break into the centre at around 2:00am.
   As the night guards and a resident teacher resisted them, robbers attacked them with iron roads, injuring a night guard, Ashim Kumar Das, and the teacher, Uttam Kumar Das.
   Hearing the cry for help, the local people went to the place and caught hold of three robbers.
   The mob beat the robbers; two died on the spot and the other was critically injured.
   The injured later died in Chittagong Medical College Hospital at around 5:00am.
   He was identified as Ekramul Haque, 35, a resident of Apainna at Fatikchari, Chittagong. The dead could not be immediately identified.

The police could not arrest anyone in connection with the killing of Rafiqul Islam Patwari Liton, assistant general secretary of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal unit at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, till Friday evening.
   Liton, who sustained injuries following an attack by his rivals on Wednesday afternoon, died in Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital early Thursday.
   A seven-member probe committee formed to investigate the killing, however, did not start its activities on Friday due to weekly holiday.
   The university authorities fear further trouble on the campus as a faction of the JCD university unit kept up their movement protesting against the killing, and looking for the supporters of their rival group to take revenge, sources said.
   The faction will bring out a mourning procession on the campus on Saturday morning at 10:00am.
   On the other hand, the Bangladesh Chhatra League university unit held a rally at the Madina Market area protesting against the killing, and demanding immediate resumption of all classes.
   Speakers blamed the university authorities for its failure to keep the campus free from violence.
   The university was closed sine die on Thursday after the death of Liton. A huge number of police were also deployed at different points of the campus to fend-off further trouble.

The Russian government has approved a plan to spend 435 billion rubles ($15 billion) on a new ten-year space programme, the Russian Space Agency announced on its website Friday.
   The new spending plan, to run from 2006-2015, includes provisions for a new spacecraft Kliper, two new launching pads and a probe to one of two moons orbiting Mars.
   Russia also intends to double the number of its satellites to 70 by 2015 for communication, weather and research purposes.
   The majority of the spending will come from the national budget, with the rest made up of other government funds, according to the director of the space agency Anatoli Perminov.
   In 2006, the Russia state plans to spend 23 billion rubles, an increase of 4.7 billion compared with this year.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, left here for home on Friday at the end of her five-day official visit to Japan.
   The Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh, Matsushiro Horiguchi, the Bangladesh ambassador to Japan, Serajul Islam and officials of the Japanese foreign ministry saw off the prime minister at the Narita International Airport before she boarded in a VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines in the afternoon.
   Khaleda Zia is expected to arrive at the Zia International Airport, Dhaka at 11:55pm.
   She went to Japan on Monday at the invitation of her counterpert, Junichiro Koizumi, to strengthen bilateral relations between the two friendly countries.

The Bangladesh Rifles personnel of the Jakiganj boarder outpost in Sylhet district detained four Indian youths in possession of arms and a large amount of ammunition at the Atgram frotier area about 100 kilometres from the Sylhet city, while they were trespassing on Bangladesh territory on Friday noon.
   The detainees were Rabin, Morter, Auver and Mil. All of them are Indian citizens.
   The rifles men recovered one Indian AK-47 rifle, two 9mm pistols, three grenades and 600 rounds of ammunition and about 6,000 Indian rupees.
   They were on their way to Sylhet sector headquarters at Akhalia in the city for interrogation on Friday evening.

The country’s overall flood situation is likely to further deteriorate as major rivers continued to swell due to incessant rain and onrush of hill water from across the border on Friday.
   According to the bulletin of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, more low-lying areas in and around Dhaka and Narayanganj are likely to be inundated as the rivers surrounding the capital continued to rise.
   At noon on Friday, the Buriganga registered further rise by 15cm at Dhaka, the Lakhya by 13cm at Narayanganj, the Turag by 17cm at Mirpur, and the Tongi Khal by 8cm at Tongi. The Lakhya and Turag were flowing 11cm and 6cm above their danger marks.
   At 73 points out of 86 monitored on Friday, 57 points recorded rise and 11 registered fall. Five were flowing above their danger marks.
   The Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Ganges-Padma continued to rise at all the points, the bulletin said.
   But the rivers in the Meghna and Southeastern Hill basins marked rise and fall.
   The meteorological office forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall at few places over Dhaka, Rajshahi, Khulna, Chittagong and Barisal divisions due to the influence of an active monsoon low over the Gengetic West Bengal and adjoining Bangladesh during the 24 hours from Friday noon.
   The trapped rainwater inside the DND embankment, however, caused untold sufferings to thousands of the dwellers for the past couple of days as they ran short of supply of drinking water.
   Reports from our correspondents said the flood situation in the northern and southern regions particularly in Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Sirajganj, Gaibandha, and Barisal aggravated further following incessant downpour and swirling of hill water from across the border.