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Improper construction led to the collapse of the nine-storey building of the Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Factory in Savar on April 11, leaving at least 76 workers dead, alleged the Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad on Tuesday.
   The parishad’s inquiry committee found that the building was constructed without due permission from the authorities concerned and did not follow proper design.
   The owner of the factory, Shahryar Hassan, constructed built nine storeys although he applied for a four-storey building from the Savar Cantonment Board.
   The owner did not have permission from the chief factory investigator’s office either.
   The inquiry committee proposed formation of a judicial inquiry committee immediately and exemplary punishment to those responsible for the collapse.
   The parishad demanded sufficient compensation for the family members of the dead and wounded workers of the factory according to the laws.
   The committee also proposed that the missing workers be traced out and ensure that they are still alive.
   The parishad constituted an inquiry committee after the collapse of the factory and disclosed the findings at a press conference at National Press Club.
   The SKOP leaders Mohammad Nurul Islam, Abdul Matin Master, Shahidullah Chowdhury, Wazedul Islam were present.

The Election Commission on Tuesday formed a two-member electoral enquiry committee to look into pre-election irregularities in the July 20 by-election to the Sunamganj-3 constituency.
   Any aggrieved political party or individual can file an allegation against the violator of the electoral codes of conduct. The committee, on the basis of the allegation, will look into the irregularities and make recommendations to Election Commission for taking necessary action.
   The Election Commission, through a gazette notification on Tuesday, formed the committee comprising joint district judge of Sunamganj Reza Tariq Ahmed and senior assistant judge Arunav Chattapadhaya.
   Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Monday asked the voters eligible for postal voting to apply for their ballots by June 25.
   The voters, who work in government, semi-government and autonomous organisations outside the constituency, and their family members, and those who will be engaged in election duty or are in jail will be entitled to receive the postal ballots.
   According to the rule, the eligible voters have to apply to the returning officer for postal ballots within 15 days of the circulation of the election schedule.
   The Election Commission on June 9 announced the schedule for the by-poll to the constituency, which fell vacant following the death of Awami League lawmaker Abdus Samad Azad on April 27.
   According to the election schedule, the last date for submission of the nomination papers is June 25 and scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on the following day. The date of withdrawal of the nomination papers has been fixed on July 3.
   The Election Commission has already appointed the deputy commissioner of Sunamganj as the returning officer.

The Power Division on Tuesday was unresponsive to the directive of a committee, formed by the Prime Minister’s Office, to generate around 410 megawatts of power by June 2006 by launching new projects at a cost of Tk 1,200 crore.
   The committee for better management of the power sector, headed by the principal secretary to the PMO, Kamal Uddin Siddique, in a letter recently asked the state minister for power, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, to commission seven new projects that would generate 410MW power by June 2006.
   Mahmood, in a meeting with a subcommittee of the committee, said on Tuesday it would be nearly impossible to complete all the preliminary procedures in compliance with the existing rules and regulations to launch seven new projects and generate an extra 410MW of power in one year, said sources.
   Besides, the committee did not mention from where the division would arrange Tk 1,200 crore for the projects, he told the members of sub-committee, which was headed by Professor Faiyaz Khan of Asia Pacific University, a Dhaka-based private university.
   The committee directed the division to launch projects for setting up a 150MW power plant at Shikalbaha in Chittagong, 100MW plant at Shahjibazar, 2x20MW plant at Bogra, 2x20MW plant at Rajshahi, 2x20MW plant at Syedpur, 20MW plant at Barisal and 20MW plant at Bhola.
   The minister said according to the existing rules, if new projects have been taken up it will take 42 days to receive tenders after inviting bids, 48 days to evaluate tender documents and two months to provide letters of intent to the selected bidders.
   Besides, vetting is needed from at least three ministries, which takes up a lot of time; the projects need the approval of the Planning Commission, executive committee of the National Economic Council and the cabinet committee on public purchase, he said.
   ‘It is nearly impossible for the Power Division to complete all the procedures and generate 410MW power in one year, as most of the approval procedures are controlled by other ministries,’ he said.
   He suggested that the committee itself shoulder the responsibility and draw a road map, cut through the red tape and ensure money for the projects.
   ‘We can finish our part by the stipulated time, but I cannot guarantee what the other ministries will do.
   The PMO can speed up the time for approval.’
   Some of the projects took years to get approval from different strata of the government, but they could not be implemented because of lack of fund, he said.
   ‘From where will we get money for seven new projects?’ he asked.
   Committee members, former member of Power Development Board MAK Azad, chief engineer Abdul Matin, director-general of Power Cell BD Rahmat Ullah and high officials of the Power Division were present at the meeting.
   The PMO formed the committee in April with officials of the PMO, Power Division and heads of agencies under the division and professors from BUET and a private university. The committee formed four subcommittees to oversee the activities of the division.
   However, the state minister for power was excluded from the committee and was kept in dark about its activities.
   It was for the first time that the subcommittee met the minister on Tuesday.
   One of the committee members said that they would inform the PMO of the outcome of the meeting and plan the next course of action regarding setting up of the plants.

The editor, publisher, and managing director of the daily Jugantor were sued on Tuesday for defaming a ward commissioner of the Dhaka City Corporation.
   MA Kayyum, commissioner of Ward No 21, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court against editor of the daily Abed Khan,
   publisher Salma Islam, and managing director Nurul Islam Babul.
   Magistrate Syed Muhammad Mujibul Huq heard the case and issued a summons against the accused to appear before the court within September 4.
   The petitioner alleged the accused had damaged his reputation by publishing a report headlined ‘eight former and incumbent lawmakers and 30 ward commissioners among
   300 terrorists in the list of RAB’ on the front page of the daily on June 9 and another report headlined ‘the Detective Branch police are hunting down the former ward commissioner and Mukul’ on June 12.
   Terming the reports false and ungrounded, he said the accused had tarnished his image by publishing the reports.

Magurchhara Gas Disaster Campaign, a platform of locals and activists of non-governmental organisations, demanded due compensation from Niko for the economic and ecological loss caused by the gas field blowout.
   The organisation also placed a 14-point charter of demand at a press conference at the National Press Club on Tuesday, calling on the multinational gas giant which was responsible for the gas field accident to meet immediately.
   The demands include direct compensation to the affected families, alternative employment for them, budgetary allocation with specific target for the families, ecosystem restoration programme, filing case against Niko with the international court for the compensation, and making public of the agreements so far signed between the government and gas companies.
   The accident took place in one of the biggest gas fields at Magurchhara in 1997 causing huge ecological loss. The national committee formed just after the accident estimated the loss at Tk 15,000 crore.
   The organisation leaders showed some fruits colleted from the spot as a sign of the biological affect of the accident. Sizes of local variety of pineapple ‘honey queen’ and lemon have become smaller due to the environmental effect.
   The adverse effect is also seen in the human body, said Rina Akhter, an affected resident at Magurchhara, showing her disfigured face. She said newborn babies are growing up with physical difficulties due to the adverse effect.

Participants of the first batch of the Chakma language teaching course, were given certificates at a function in Rangamati on Monday.
   The course had 94 primary school teachers. The 40-day course was introduced by the local Hill District Council of Rangamati last year as supplement training for the primary school teachers from three hill districts.

The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, on Tuesday admitted that some of the Rapid Action Battalion members were engaged in criminal activities.
   While replying to a question in parliament, raised by Mohammad Golam Habib, of Kurigram-4, the state minister said some RAB members were engaged in some stray criminal activities for their own personal interests.
   ‘We have already cancelled their deputation order and sent them back to their respective organisations and ensured proper punitive action against them according to the existing laws,’ he added.
   Babar informed the house that the government was formulating a policy for RAB, which would soon be in effect, to prevent such criminal activities and take punitive actions against those found involved.
   Responding to another question from Mohsin Rahman Ranga of Rangpur-1, the minister said the government had a plan to install close-circuit cameras at 18 points in the capital, to detect and curb crime and added that it would be implemented immediately after getting the allocation.

Residents at Bagher Bazar in Gazipur expressed mixed reaction to the case filed in connection with Sunday’s clash between the Rapid Action Battalion members in plainclothes, and the local people and passengers of a bus.
   Young people, including those who are wanted in the case, went into hiding in fear of reprisals by the police and RAB.
   Fifteen people, including four personnel of the battalion, were injured in the clash between on the Dhaka–Mymensingh Highway at Bagher Bazar on Sunday.
   Local people alleged that the clash began after the battalion personnel had misbehaved with passengers of a bus during a traffic dispute between the bus driver and the driver of the battalion vehicle, carrying the personnel.
   A case was filed accusing 12 local residents. On Tuesday, RAB visited the spot and inquired about the incident, local sources said.
   The local residents expressed their reaction saying although the clash took place between the bus passengers and the RAB personnel, the case was filed only against local residents.
   Nobody was found in the house of Kamrul, wanted in the case, on Tuesday.
   Local people said all the family members of the people named in the case left the area to avoid harassment and arrest.
   The Hotapara police said a police team raided the house of Kamrul, and Sariful; but no one was there in the house.
   Nobody was arrested till Tuesday evening. High police officials are closely observing the development of the case, said sources in the police.

Assailants, suspected to be associates of Arman, who is now in police custody, injured at least three persons and damaged nine shops at Maghbazar in Dhaka Monday night.
   The critically injured were Shibly Kamal, 26, of Pearabagh, Tapu Ahmed, 27, of Maghbazar Wireless Gate, and Rokan Hossain of Greenway. The injured were taken to Holy Family Red Crescent Hospital.
   Witnesses said around 20 men, known as members of the Arman group, attacked the shop at Moghbazar Peyarabagh and Maghbazar market.
   The Rapid Action Battalion 2 officials said they heard of the incident and visited the place.

Jatiya Sangsad on Tuesday passed the revised budget of Tk 55,632 crore for the current fiscal (2004-05) approving an additional Tk 4,895 crore to meet the increased expenditures both in development and non-development. The parliament had passed a Tk 57,248 crore budget in June 2004.
   Finance minister M Saifur Rahman moved the Appropriation (Supplementary) Bill 2005. It was approved by the house by a voice vote.
   Saifur said the revenue target had to be scaled down due to reduction of tariff on some imported goods as floods disrupted economic activities during the current fiscal year. Slow use of project money in a number of foreign aid projects has caused a downward revision of the ADP to Tk 20,500 crore, he said.