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Lack of artificial colour testing equipment in the Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution and ‘its turning a blind eye’ to the irregularities by the manufacturers are encouraging marketing of artificially coloured powdered spices, sources concerned said.
   They said people are very often cheated while buying powdered spices as most of the spices available on the markets are mixed with artificial colour, which is hazardous to health.
   Although most of the manufacturers of such spices do not follow the BSTI regulations and the Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh presented proof of such irregularities by a number of manufacturers, the state-run organisation to check food adulteration did not take any action, the sources said.
   The association submitted samples of 17 brands of packed powdered spices to the BSTI in December 2004 and the BSTI came up with the results in January.
   The BSTI results, which excluded the colour test, claimed that all 17 brands of the spices were manufactured by maintaining standards.
   ‘How could they say those products were manufactured by maintaining standards when they even could not examine whether any artificial colour was mixed?’ asked the programme officer of the association, Emdad Hossain Maleque.
   ‘We have no such machine to examine artificial colour in powdered spices,’ said the BSTI director, SM Shahidullah, on Tuesday.
   The association also conducted a survey on powdered spices of 17 brands available on the market and found that the BSTI regulations were widely violated by them.
   It is mandatory as per the BSTI rule that manufacturer of any product must carry the name of the product, name and address of the manufacturer and also of the importer, weight, ingredients and manufacturing and expiry date.
   But 100 per cent of the packets did not carry the ingredient ratio while 68 per cent did not mention the name and address of the manufacturing company, the survey found.
   It also found that 35.39 per cent of the packets had not printed the methods of use and preservation of the products and 41.39 per cent had not carried the manufacturing date.
   However, 23.52 per cent of the packets, which printed manufacturing date, avoided mentioning the expiry date.
   ‘We earlier submitted reports with proofs that vegetable oil and ghee of 11 brands were adulterated, but the authorities only took action against one of them in five months after the report had been submitted,’ Emdad said.
   Refraining from making any comment on the role of the BSTI, Shahidullah stressed honesty on part of the businessmen. ‘Otherwise, the government alone cannot curb such ill trends.’
   According to a report published recently, the Chittagong Metropolitan Police in late 2004 detained some traders for their alleged involvement in the adulteration of spices. The traders mixed saw dust with powdered turmeric.
   ‘The curries get extra colour if I use powdered spices such as turmeric and chillies of a certain brand,’ said Yasmin Jahan, a housewife on the Free School Street at Dhanmondi in Dhaka.
   Mila of Nawab Habibullah Road rather uses pasted spices, which she prepares at home. ‘I stopped using powdered spices because curries always have a colour of ashes as if those were overdone.’

City life in Chittagong became intolerable over the past couple of weeks because of supply water and power problem.
   The situation worsened as the scorching heat wave raged through the city during this time.
   The residents of areas such as Pannapara, Misturipara, Beparipara, Hazipara and Halishahar have been passing their days in a miserable condition as water supply to the areas remained suspended.
   ‘There is no water in my house to do household chores. I have no water to bath my one-year-old son,’ said Hosne Ara, a housewife at Halishahar housing estate who does not have supply water since Monday.
   She said on Wednesday that the local water supply agency did not supply water to the area for three days.
   She said the residents had to buy water containers for Tk 50 each from distant areas every day for drinking and other chores. It added to their expenditure and increased their physical sufferings.
   Inhabitants of other parts of the city are also deprived of adequate water supply. Sources in the Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Authority said the authorities failed to meet the demand as it is now high compared with the supply capacity.
   ‘The water agency can supply 30 lakh gallons of water a day; but the present demand is more than 55 lakh gallons,’ a high official told New Age Thursday.
   H said the production capacity had decreased to 20 lakh gallons as it was difficult to run water pumps because of power outage.
   Residents in areas such as Agrabad, Nasirabad, Chawkbazar, Halishahar, Alkoron, Patharghata, Patenga, Bakalia and Bahaddarhat experienced unabated power outages for 10 to 12 days. Most places did not have power for almost 12 hours every day.
   Students of the areas, especially Higher Secondary Certificate examinees, were the worst sufferers. Many found it unbearable to stay indoors in the stifling heat accompanied by power cut.
   Sources in the Power Development Board said power generation of three units at the Kaptai Hydraulic Power Project remained out of order; the generation of 60MW Shikalbaha power plant was also suspended in the past week because of a mechanical glitch.
   The board’s control room said on an average the city suffered 100MW to 120MW of load shedding every day over the past two weeks against a daily demand of 420MW.

The residents in the Khulna city are now facing acute water crisis during the hot spell due to the fall of groundwater level, and inadequate water supply by the Khulna City Corporation.
   Sources in the corporation said most of the city dwellers depend on groundwater extracted by deep tube wells. Besides, the corporation supplies water extracted by its tube wells.
   The corporation has 72 wells, 2,630 deep tube wells, and 5,647 shallow tube wells and can supply about 1.5 crore gallons of water. Some people in the city also use shallow and deep tube wells of their own.
   At present, water supply has been reduced remarkably as most of the shallow tube wells are not working, and the supply from the deep tube wells has been either stopped or reduced because of the fall of groundwater level.
   Though the remaining of water is met by natural sources of water like ponds and rivers in and around the city, a number of ponds and rivers have dried up during the dry season. On the other hand, now water of rivers is not potable due to more salinity than other times, sources said.
   The city dwellers at Bayra, Rayermahal, Sonadanga, and Maheshwarpasha said they are facing severe water crisis as water of natural sources and tube wells they use is not sufficient to meet their demand. As a result, they have to fetch water from far distances for their household use, they added.
   The people living near the rivers Rupsha and Bhairab said a large number of low income group people use river water for their domestic use, but now they cannot because of high salinity.
   The substandard hotels and restaurants also use water of the rivers for washing its kitchen utensils, but they are now fetching water from distant places, they added.
   The locals who totally depend on water supply by the corporation said they are facing shortage of water with the advent of the summer season. Though demand of water goes up during the summer, the corporation does not provide them accordingly, causing immense sufferings to them, they added.
   Abul Hossain, an employee at Khulna Press Club on Sher-e-Bangla Road, told New Age that the deep tube well of the club remains inoperative for the last few days due to decline of groundwater level. As a result, the journalists and the guests have to face severe water crisis, he added.
   Abdul Hannan, the executive engineer (water) of the KCC, said water crisis prevails mainly for the fall of groundwater level. Severe power outage is another reason for the shortage of water supply.
   The Khulna mayor, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, told New Age that the corporation has taken necessary measures to reduce the water crisis. ‘We have already started an ‘interim water supply project’ at a cost of about Tk 34 crore to reduce the water crisis.’

The Green Herald International School became champions in the final round of the Surf Excel inter-school creativity contest at Sultana Kamal Women’s Sports Complex at Dhanmondi in the Dhaka city on Friday.
   The Government PN Girls High School of Rajshahi became the second runners-up and Shaheed Anwar Girls’ School of Dhaka the third runners-up.
   The contest continued for over a month in four metropolitan cities and ended with the final round, joined in by 400 students of 20 schools.
   Eleven school of the Dhaka city, nine schools of Chittagong, and three each of Rajshahi and Khulna contested in the final round. Divisional contests were held in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Dhaka.
   Eighteen hundred and forty-two students of 92 schools took part in the competition. Unilever brand manager Sami Ashraf said the contest was unique.
   Distributing prizes among the winners, the Unilever Bangladesh chairman, Sanjib Mehta, thanked all the contestants.
   The winner schools received trophies and reference books and each participant got gifts and certificates.
   The three winning teams will be on a day out on Saturday, visiting an engineering university and watching movies.
   Five personalities were also honoured for their contribution to facilitating the programme.
   They were Rokonuzzaman Khan (Dada Bhai), Begum Momtaz Hossain, Ali Imam, Abdullah al Muty Sharafuddin, and Hashem Khan.

The body of a young shop owner in the court area was recovered from the railways in Shibbari area in the city early Friday.
   Being informed by the local people, the police recovered the body of Ruhel Ahmed, 25, of Daudpur in the South Surma, divided into two pieces.
   The police suspected that assailants killed Ruhel and dumped the body parts on the railways to prove that he had been crushed under a train.
   The family members also claimed it to be a murder.
   The body was sent to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.
   A case was filed with the general railway police.

Out of the total lottery winners of Two thousand, six hundred and fifty winners of a draw of Teletalk mobile distribution will get their SIMs daily from today.
   The Teletalk Company Ltd will provide 50 SIMs a day from each of the 53 branches of the City Bank, Basic Bank, Prime Bank and Dhaka Bank in the capital.
   Winner will know the scheduled date and the bank branch for SIM collection on web sites — http://gold.teletalk.com.bd and http://silver.teletalk.com.bd
   The authorities said the winners had been requested to produce necessary papers during the SIM collection. The distribution will end on July 3.
   Some 50,000 winners were selected in a computerised draw on May 22 out of some 4,33,461 applications.

The merit scholarship award ceremony of the East West University for the summer semester 2005 was held in the university auditorium on June 2.
   Fifty-seven students received full-tuition merit scholarship while 19 were awarded Medha Lalon fund scholarship.
   Three more students were awarded scholarship for securing top position in the admission tests of summer 2005.
   The Bangladesh Bank governor, Salehuddin Ahmed, as chief guest, distributed certificates among the recipients.
   The founder vice-chancellor, Mohammed Farashuddin, also president of the university board of directors, presided at the programme

The authorities of the Bangkok Hospital in Thailand invited Bangladeshi patients to get
   better surgery in its new three-corner-stone method in the hospital.
   The authorities in a briefing at a Chittagong city restaurant Thursday night also detailed other facilities of the hospital.
   ’We have modern technology, skilled nurses, caring medical assistance and specialist doctors to attain the best level of medical service’, said Dr Shakti R Paul.
   Cardiologist Chokchai Suwanakijboriharn, Bangladesh coordinator of the hospital Imtiaz Hasan and chief executive officer of its Bangladesh office Bayezidur Rahman also addressed the briefing.
   Chochai also showed the procedures of off-pump beating heart surgery, robotic cardiac surgery for heart valve replacement and the recent advancement in other heart surgeries.

The Sylhet Division Development Action Council on Friday formed a human chain in Osmani Udyan in the Dhaka city, demanding that the government should take steps to save the park from encroaches.
   The council leaders alleged that the land grabbers had encroached on a section of the park and set up shops, slums and bus and human hauler stands.
   They demanded that the authorities concerned should take steps to evict the land grabbers and set up a monument, commemorating the late General Osmani immediately.
   The council president, Abed Raza, called on all the political parties, and socio-cultural organisations to come forward to save the park.

Shada Kalo, a specialised boutique house for black and white apparels, opened its third showroom on the Bailey Road in the Dhaka city on Friday.
   Couples, also theatre personalities, reached the showroom at 11:00am clad in Shada Kalo dresses and inaugurated the show room by lighting candles. Aly Zaker and Sara Zaker, Jamaluddin Hossain and Rawshanara Hossain, Inamul Haq and Lucky Inam, M Hamid and Falguni Hamid, Selim Ahmed and Rosy Selim, Ejaj Munna and Taazin Ahmed, Rahmat Ali and Wahida Mollik Jolly were some of the celebrity couples present.

Eight-year boy killed in Khulna
An eight-year-old boy, Rubel, of Terokhada in the Khulna city, died in Khulna Medical College Hospital early Friday after he had been wounded by his friend. Rubel’s family said he had been playing cricket with his friends Wednesday morning when one of his friends struck him in the head with a brick. He was injured and was taken to hospital, where he died early Friday. No case was lodged.

1 held at Demra, revolver seized
A Demra police team held a crime suspect, Mohammad Shohag, 23, of the Dhakhin Tengra Taleb Ali mosque area at Demra in the Dhaka city, in possession of a .22-calibre revolver Thursday. The police said he had been wanted in a number of criminal cases filed with the Demra police.

Human chain in Khulna
Social welfare organisation Khulna Jana Udyog on Friday formed a human chain at the Picture Palace crossing in the Khulna city, demanding that the administration should not lease the six decimals of land of the century-old Shitalabari Temple in the city. A rally followed the one-hour human chain agitation programme. Ward commissioners Konika Saha and Ruma Khatun, Professor Wahidur Rahman, Delawar Uddin, Tapan Banarjee, Mizanur Rahman, Nuton Dhali and Shahin Zaman addressed the rally with Firoz Ahmed in the chair.

Ideal Commerce College library opened
The Ideal Commerce College at Farmgate in the Dhaka city held a programme to announce the first-year final examination results and the inauguration of a modern library for the students. Dhaka University professor of Bangla Wakil Ahmed, also chairman of the Bangla Academy, was chief guest at the programme. The university’s accounting and information system department professor, Dr Syed Masud Hossain, presided over the function; the college principal, Abdul Halim Patwary, also a founder, and the members of the college governing body were present.

Course on weapon convention ends
The principal staff officer of the Armed Forces Division, Major General Mustafa Reza Noor, also chairman of the Bangladesh National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention, on Thursday said Bangladesh was committed to implementing the convention. He addressed the closing ceremony of a training course on chemical weapons convention. A three-member expert team of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from the Hague conducted the course at the Dhaka Cantonment between May 31 and June 2. Mustafa distributed certificates among the 24 representatives.
— New Age