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

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

There are some 50 car lifters’ gangs on the prowl in the residential areas in the Dhaka city, who run operations with a strong organisational network, said intelligence and law enforcing agencies.
   The police said several hundred trained lifters are engaged in the trade in the city and neighbouring areas.
   Sources in the circle said major dens of such syndicates are on the prowl at Gulshan, Mirpur, Old Town, Dolaikhal, Bangshal, Narayanganj, Savar, Uttara and Gazipur.
   Each of the gangs steals three to four cars a month, according to an estimate of sources in the circle.
   Two such gang members recently told New Age that all such gangs operate with two wings — one responsible for stealing and taking cars to a safe place and the other for bargaining and collecting money from the owners.
   The wing responsible for bargain with owners, collection of money and sales of the vehicles deals with forging documents, changing the registration plates in workshops.
   The lifters have with them an expert mechanic, also an expert driver, who starts the vehicle without any ignition, said a gang member at Mirpur. The bargainers deal with the vehicle owner, road transport agency, rent-a-car shops and buyers.
   Almost all such gags have political influence behind them, said a car lifter in Gazipur. He said they get caught by the police and then get released with political influence.
   He said the top boss of a gang earns between Tk 50,000 and Tk 1 lakh from the sales of a vehicle. The gang members earn between Tk 2,000 and Tk 10,000.

Miscreants broke the plaque reading ‘Sangbadik Manik Chandra Saha Sarak’ on a Khulna road, earlier known as Mirpur Road, early Wednesday.
   The Khulna City Corporation on July 14 renamed the road after the New Age correspondent, Manik Chandra Saha, bombed to death in the city on January 15, 2004.
   A former president of the Khulna Press Club, Manik was also a stringer of the BBC Bangla Service.
   The corporation official set up three plaques — on both ends of the road touching Sir Iqbal Road near the Khulna Press Club and Ahsan Ahmed Road. Another plaque was set up where Manik was killed.
   The residents found all the plaques broken in the morning. All the plaques were set up on July 15.
   The Khulna Press Club in a statement condemned the incident and demanded punishment for those responsible.
   The Khulna unit Bangladesh Chhatra Union in the afternoon brought out a procession and held a rally at the Picture Palace crossing protesting against the incident.
   They said the fundamentalists and miscreants responsible for Manik’s murder had broken the plaques. They demanded the plaques should be reinstated.
   The Khulna Union of Journalists, Manik Saha Smriti Parishad, Khulna city and district units of the Communist Party, Lal Baul Khelaghar Asar, Muktijuddher Shaheed Smriti Pathagar, and the Khulna unit Udichi also condemned the incident in statements.
   The city corporation also renamed Islampur Road after Humayun Kabir Balu and another road at Boyra after Sheikh Beleluddin.
   The daily Janmabhumi editor, Humayun, was killed in Khulna on June 27, 2004. The daily Sangram correspondent, Belaluddin, died in Dhaka Combined Military Hospital on February 11 after he had been severely wounded in Khulna.

Medical services in the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital have been hampering seriously because of the negligence in duties by the doctors and inadequate infrastructures and other facilities.
   Almost all the doctors remain busy with their practices in the privately-owned chambers, hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres, the SOMCH employees and patients said.
   They said the physicians even do not treat the patients ‘properly’ in SOMCH rather suggest them to go to the privately-owned chambers, hospitals and clinics they (doctors) are involved with.
   For diagnostic tests, which could be done in the hospital free of cost, the physicians ask the patients to do it in their preferred diagnostic centres for commission.
   ‘It is an open secret. Almost all the physicians give business cards or printed addresses of their chosen diagnostic centres to the patients to get their commission,’ said an employee.
   Due to the trend of private practices by the physicians, a good number of privately-owned hospitals and clinics have been set up in and around the city over the recent years and the physicians very often suggest the patients to go there for ‘prompt and better treatment’, the SOMCH sources said.
   The sources told New Age that even the surgical operations are now done by the interns in absence of the surgeons who do the same in their chambers for extra earnings.
   Absence of the physicians some times results in wrong treatments and instances of deaths caused by it are there in the hospital, they said.
   Khairul Alam, 45, of Chhatak in Sunamganj, died in April and Palak Taran, 22, of South Surma in Sylhet died in May due to wrong treatment, they added.
   The relatives of the victims and other people went in agitation in protest against the deaths and the situation was mediated by the leaders of the Bangladesh Medical Association.
   The SOMCH director, Zillur Rahman, declined any negligence by the physicians saying they are very sincere to their duties at the hospital.
   About other problems, the SOMCH sources said established in 1962 in the city’s Chouhatta area, the 100-bed hospital was shifted to its present location at the Kazal Shah in 1972 and was improved to a 500-bed one.
   Later, it was upgraded to a 900-bed hospital, but all the infrastructures and other facilities, except for the meals of the residential patients, remained in its previous position.
   Despite the upgrading, no other facilities like infrastructure, instrument, medicine supply and manpower have been improved or increased for which the overall activities, both administrative and medical services, have been hampering seriously, the sources said.
   On an average, 2,500 to 3,000 patients visit the hospital everyday and about 1,200 of them take admission, the sources said.

The World Cyber Games 2005 Bangladesh Championship will be held in Dhaka from August 26.
   The World Cyber Games will hold the three-day computer and video games competitions, said the organisers at a briefing in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   The F1 Management is the strategic partner of the competition, which will be held at the Bashundhara City.
   GrameenPhone mobile service brand Djuice, and Sparkle Graphis Card are the sponsors.
   Prospective participants will need to join an SMS quiz contest over a Djuice connection. About 1000 participants will be selected primarily. The select group will need to visit the Bashundhara City for registration for a fee of Tk 200 a person.
   The participants will need to play two games — Need for Speed Underground 2 and FIFA 2005. Two winners will represent Bangladesh in the finals, to be held in Singapore in November.
   GrameenPhone marketing director Kafil HS Muyeed, Djuice manager Devashish Roy, F1 Management Ltd director Mohammad Irfan Hussain and managing director Fuad Awal Chowdhury also spoke.
   Further details are available on http://bd.worldcybergames. com.
   The World Cyber Games has been held since 2000. It has continued to set the standard in global game competitions and in providing comprehensive and fun game-related contents.

The installation of meters in CNG-run auto-rickshaws in Chittagong by August 1, a deadline fixed by the communications ministry, becomes uncerain as the owners will go on a 24-hour strike on the day in protest against the approval for only five companies for meter import.
   The auto-rickshaw owners’ association alleged that they need to pay about Tk 6 crore more as the importers fixed Tk 7,000 as charge for meter installation , which, they claimed, is Tk 4,000 more than the actual price.
   The association president, Abul Kashem Sarkar, said they would go on a strike for an indefinite period if the decision is not cancelled after the strike.
   ‘The ministry and the BRTA officials allowed only five companies to import the meters,’ he said.
   He said if the ministry had informed them of the matter, they would have applied for approval which would ensure a reasonable price for meter installation. He claimed that the ministry had secretly given the approval for the companies.
   He said the ministry had allowed the companies to import meters from China, Korea, Taiwan and India and each of the meters costs about Tk 3000 in Korea and Taiwan; he price is Tk 2000 in China and India.
   He said the companies are charging Tk 7,000 for the installation.
   The road transport agency deputy director in Chittagong, Majibur Rahman, said only five companies were allowed to import meters as the authority had found them eligible.
   He said applications were invited through newspaper, ‘so it was not a secret deal.’
   He said the deadline for the introduction of meters would not be extended this time. Any auto-rickshaws without meters will be detained from August 1.

An eight-year-old boy, who went missing Tuesday evening from his house at Sayedabad in Dhaka, was found severely hacked at the Basundhara River View Housing Project, Hasnabad, at Keraniganj Wednesday morning.
   The boy, Rajibul Haque, son of Rafij Uddin of the Sayedabad WASA Colony, was a Class I student of Shahid Nabi Primary School.
   A rickshaw puller informed his family at about 10:30am on Wednesday that Rajib, severely wounded in the throat and wrists, had been at Ward 30 in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   The police said criminals hacked Rajib and left him at Balur Math at the Basundhara River View Housing Project.
   The rickshaw-puller, hearing him groaning, went to the place, informed the police and took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   He was under treatment in the hospital till Wednesday night.
   Rajib told the police that one Palash had called him out in the evening and took him to Keraniganj.
   Rafij Uddin told New Age on Wednesday, ‘I supply water to the Sayedabad bus terminal and I knew one Palash at the place who demanded tolls from me five days ago. But I refused to pay him.’
   ‘Palash might have hacked Rajib,’ he said.
   No case was filed. No one was arrested.

Interns at Chittagong Medical College Hospital observed a two-hour abstention programme Wednesday demanding withdrawal of a case filed against some of their colleagues on charge of assaulting a journalist.
   The hospital sources said the interns did not attend patients between 9:00am and 11:00am. Services at the emergency ward went on as usual.
   The interns also stopped senior physicians from attending patients, the sources said.
   Naya Diganta staff reporter Zahed Al Amin filed a case accusing 10 persons, including four interns on Thursday on charge of assaulting him when he was on a visit to the hospital.

The law and justice department of the Southeast University held a seminar on ‘development and prospects of cyber laws’ on Tuesday at the university, said a news release.
   UAE-based Ajman University of Science and Technology assistant professor Mohammad Abdul Jalil read out the keynote paper.
   He talked about the development and prospects of cyber laws in several countries, including Bangladesh.
   Law and justice department teacher ABM Mahbubl Islam of the Southeast University also spoke. Arts and social sciences dean Tareq MR Chowdhury chaired the programme.

The annual cultural festival of the Royal University of Dhaka began on its campus on Tuesday.
   The festival is arranged by the cultural club of the university every year, said a release. The festival features drama, dance, music and other performing arts.
   The university chairman, Momtaz Begum, vice-chancellor designate Muhammed Ali, registrar M Abdussattar, adviser Abdur Rashid and others attended.

A day-long programme has been worked out to mark the 4th anniversary of death of Ahmed Safa, a writer and socio-political thinker, today.
   The Sultan-Safa Pathshala, a school for the homeless children, will place flowers at his grave at 10:00am.
   Food will be distributed among the students at 1:30pm.
   The school, set up by Safa, has also organised a discussion on his life and an award ceremony at 4:00pm in the school auditorium on Free School Street, Kanthal Bagan.

CityCell-Channel i Music Award today
The CityCell–Channel i Music Award 2004 ceremony will be held at 7:00pm at the Sonargaon Hotel today. Sixteen categories of awards will be given. The Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd sales and marketing vice-president, Intekhab Mahmud, and the Impress Telefilm Ltd managing director, Faridur Reza Sagar, announced the programme at a briefing on Wednesday. The programme will be aired on Channel i at 7:50pm on August 12. The award was introduced in 2004.
— New Age

3 Bangladeshis join FES summer course
Three Bangladeshi young men joined the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung summer course 2005 on ‘youth in South and Central Asia: coping future: taking on responsibility’ during July 10–20 at Ayubia in Pakistan. Jebunnessa Chapola, awareness raising and community mobilisation specialist, national consultant of the UNDP and the social welfare ministry project ARISE, Soniya Wazed, a master’s student of sociology at Dhaka University, and Farhida Islam of the sociology department represented Bangladesh. Twenty-nine representatives from Afghanistan, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka also joined the programme. The Pakistan office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung has been working in Pakistan since 1989.
— New Age

Art exhibition of
Abu Taher opened
A two-week solo art exhibition of the works of Abu Taher began at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in Dhaka on Wednesday. The foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, inaugurated the exhibition. Ambassador Farooq Sobhan, also president of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, was special guest. Abu Taher, and the director of the gallery also spoke. Morshed said the foreign affairs ministry with the help of Bangladesh high commission held an exhibition of Abu Taher’s works in Australia in 2004. The exhibition, Imaginings, is a compilation of lyrics from the world of imaginations, the painter said.
— BDNews

Consultation on psycho-social
support
The Dhaka Ahsania Mission began a two-day consultation meeting to develop a curriculum and professional toolkit on mental health care support for survivors of trafficking and violence in its auditorium in Dhaka on Wednesday. Twenty-five participants from nine organisations of Bangladesh and five of West Bengal have joined the programme. The programme will examine a report of a survey conducted simultaneously in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The organisation president and chief executive, Kazi Rafiqul Islam, chaired the opening session. Dhaka University clinical psychology department chair, Mahmudur Rahman, read out a summary report on the survey.
— New Age