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The Dhaka City Corporation is trying to get funds from Japan for the proposed 1.25-kilometre tunnel from Jahangir Gate to Begum Roquiah Sarani.
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, at a meeting with a delegation of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation at Nagar Bhaban on Wednesday, sought Tk 378.7 crore.
   Japan ambassador Matsushiro Hoirguchi and the JBIC country representative Tomohiro Hamada were present.
   A project concept paper for the tunnel was placed at a meeting on April 20 before its placement to the executive committee of the National Economic Council. The meeting asked the corporation to conduct a detailed feasibility study.
   ‘We need to submit a revised project concept paper to the Planning Commission after the study,’ said a corporation official.
   He said the corporation had made an offer to the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology for the feasibility study.
   In reply, the university issued a letter to the corporation early June detailing the terms of reference.
   ‘BUET will begin the study after the approval of the terms of reference,’ he said. The study may take two to three months.
   The length of the main tunnel, with four lanes, would be 17 kilometres and the width 50 feet.
   The proposed tunnel will have 0.25-kilometre approach road.
   Vehicles, approaching towards Mirpur, Agargaon and Shaymali, will not need to wait on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue after crossing the Mohakhali flyover.
   ‘We have completed a study with the help of our own officials at five crossings for the proposed tunnel. The crossings are at Agargaon, Jahangir Gate, Mohakhali, Mipur 10 and at Shyamali,’ he said.
   The study said about 3,200 cars will pass through the tunnel during peak hour every day.

The Dhaka City Corporation has drafted a budget of Tk 1,200 crore for the financial year 2006.
   The budget figure was Tk 922.01 crore for financial year 2005; the figure was Tk 677.34 crore for financial year 2004.
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, is likely to announce the budget on July 4 at Mahanagar Natya Mancha, corporation officials said.
   A general meeting of ward commissioners will discuss the budget before its announcement. The budget will be finalised at the meeting, the officials said.
   In the planned budget the corporation proposed about Tk 700 crore for infrastructural development of the city including road repairing, constructing foot path and surface drain. The amount is higher than the current fiscal where the allocation was Tk 676.47 crore.
   The draft proposes an allocation of Tk 1 crore for each of the ward commissioners for development.
   The corporation failed to achieve the target of revenue earning in the current financial year; the figure was Tk 391 crore. The revenue target in the sector was Tk 305.82 crore for financial year 2004.
   The corporation failed to achieve the target of earning about Tk 200 crore from self-assessed holding tax in the current financial year. It could earn only Tk 110 crore, they said.
   Another official said although the corporation failed to achieve the target in the present financial year, the target of tax realisation would be increased for the next financial year. But there is no possibility for additional tax, he said.
   About Tk 10 crore has been proposed for mosquito control activities; the figure was Tk 15 crore in the current financial year.
   This will be the fourth budget of Sadeque Hossain after his assumption of office on May 15, 2002.

The Sylhet City Corporation announced a Tk 472.18-crore budget for the financial year 2006 on Wednesday.
   The budget has proposed no new taxes, said the Sylhet mayor, Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran.
   The corporation has estimated an earning of about Tk 29.33 crore from sources including taxes, fees, rents and compensations for road digging.
   The corporation has estimated Tk 100 crore to come from the annual development project and Tk 80 crore in special project grant from the government.
   The corporation also expects to receive Tk 100 for rehabilitation of the flood affected people, Tk 100.3 crore for slum development and Tk 45 crore for water supply and sanitation and infrastructures and the construction of M Saifur Rahman Children’s Park at Dakkhin Surma from the government and non-governmental organisations.
   About Tk 17.42 coroe has been earmarked as revenue cost; the development expenditures in the revenue source has been proposed at Tk 28.51 crore.

A teenaged girl who was raped and forced to abort her five-month-old foetus is in a critical condition in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   The physicians said she had developed vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula, known as the most painful physical disorder that requires multiple surgeries to heal and stitch the ruptures at the points of the birth and excreta outlet.
   She has also been threatened by the rapist not to go to court and to refrain from giving statements to the press.
   The victim cannot get over her trauma of being tied up with a nylon rope when a traditional birth attendant cut the foetus with a big scissor without any anaesthesia.
   The girl was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition on June 16 by her mother after the abortion.
   She said she had been raped by Anar Mia, 50, a distant grandfather, had been forcing her to sign a blank paler and had offered her the treatment cost to stop any legal action and press coverage.
   Daughter of a mentally challenged father, with four more siblings, the girl wants to marry Anar as she does not have any other options.
   The medical college authorities have not taken any initiative to refer her to the one-stop crisis centre, the government’s agency to provide medico-legal assistance for female victims.
   She told New Age she had been raped some time in January in her village, Araihazar in Narayanganj, when she was going to her grandparent’s.
   After she had become pregnant, Anar on June 4 took her to a place for abortion. ‘They tied me up with nylon and jute ropes and began the surgery,’ she said showing scars in the hands. ‘One of them beat me with a staff to silence me. I tore apart the ropes in pain.’
   At one stage, she fainted from non-stop bleeding. Anar and his associates planned to dump her by a road at night. ‘I requested one to inform my mother of the incient and he did.’
   The victim’s mother rescued her the next morning and brought her to the medical college in a critical condition.
   A doctor of the gynaecology and obstetrics said the girl requires several months to recover. ‘She is now undergoing conservative treatment. Unsafe abortion has put her life at risk.’
   The girl’s family refused to file any cases in fear of being ostracised. They do not have the financial or social strength to take a strong stance against the rapist, who is influential.
   Although such cases are supposed to be referred to the one-stop crisis centre, the girl was not provided with any such direction at the hospital. The gynaecologists and doctors, who are supposed refer female victims to the centre, contradicted the victim, saying that she tried to have a ‘regular’ delivery with the help of a traditional birth attendant.

The Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, on Wednesday accused the government of giving him cold shoulder in his bid to develop the city and ensure civic amenities for the residents.
   ‘If the government does not change its stance, the people of Chittagong will lunch a tougher movement,’ he said at a post-city corporation budget news conference at the CCC auditorium.
   About the proposed budget of Tk 387.53 crore, Mohiuddin said the implementation of such a large budget was not unattainable if government and autonomous agencies paid the corporation taxes regularly.
   He said different government and autonomous agencies owed the city corporation Tk 233 crore in unpaid taxes and
   service charges and he would have to take legal action the agencies did not settle the arrears.
   Mohiuddin also urged the government to reintroduce city tax on vehicles to and from the Chittagong port, which was withdrawn in 1981 through an ordinance. He said the city corporation could earn Tk 60 crore every year from the tax on vehicles.
   If the government did not repeal the ordinance he would go to the higher court, he said.
   He also accused the Chittagong Port Authority for not paying the city tax.
   According to an assessment of the city corporation, the port authorities should pay Tk 40 but are paying Tk 7 crore every year, said Mohiuddin.
   The government does not have to make any investment for the development of the port city, it only has to recommend the projects proposed by the city corporation, he said. ‘I would construct the hanging bridge without any financial help from the government, if it only makes me the project director.’

Several hundred students and teachers along with the family members buried Sitara Parvin, a professor of mass communications at Dhaka University, in the Banani graveyard Wednesday afternoon.
   Her father, former president Shahabuddin Ahmed, was the first person to put earth on the grave.
   Sitara’s janaza was held at the Dhaka University central mosque after the zuhr prayers.
   The body, in a coffin, was place at the department for viewing. Hundreds of students of mass communication gathered at the place. The coffin was also placed at the foot of Aparajeya Bangla for viewing.
   Vice-chancellor SMA Faiz and pro-vice-chancellor AFM Yusuf Haider placed flowers on the coffin.
   The Dhaka University Teachers’ Association president, AAMS Arefin Siddique, department chair Golam Rahman, and other teachers paid their respect.
   Sitara’s only daughter Esha Srabanee and husband Ahaduz-zaman Mohammad Ali, also a teacher of the department, stood by the coffin. Ahaduzzaman’s elder brother, lawmaker Asaduz-zaman Noor, was present.
   Representatives of the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and of the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, also placed flowers.
   The representatives of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, Dhaka Sub-Editors’ Council, Press Institute of Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, Abritti Samanway Parishad, Swarakalpan, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, Bangladesh Chhatra League and Bangladesh Chhatra Moitree also placed flowers.
   Sitara was killed in a car crash near Juliet on the I-55 interstate highway in Chicago on June 23 on her way to Kansas.
   The body was flown back to Bangladesh on June 28.
   Her qul khwani will be held in her Gulshan residence after the asr prayers on Friday.

The University Grants Commission on Wednesday approved the revised budget for 2005 and original budget for 2006 financial years respectively of 20 public universities. The National University has been excluded from the budget.
   The commission approved the revised budget of Tk.447.53 crore for 2005 financial year and the original budget of Tk. 502.12 crore for financial year 2006 fiscal year of public universities.
   There are 21 public universities in Bangladesh.

One robbed of
Tk 34,000
Muggers robbed a businessman of Tk 34,000 after stabbing him on the New Airport Road at Gulshan Tuesday night. The police said the victim, Abdul Baset, was going to hi residence at Uttara in a taxi-cab from Motijheel. The muggers got on the cab at the Staff Road level crossing when the driver stopped the cab at about 10:00pm. The muggers dropped Baset on a road near Kawla. Baset was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was under treatment till evening.
— New Age

Tk 1.5 lakh looted
at Pallabi
Robbers looted Tk 1.5 lakh in cash, ornaments and other valuables from the house of an expatriate Bangaldeshi at Pallabi in the Dhaka city Tuesday night. The police said eight robbers entered the first-floor residence of Parvez Ahmed at Baigartek at about 8:00pm. The robbers held the family members hostage and confined them to a room. The robbers then took away Tk 50,000 in cash, gold ornaments weighing about eight tolas and other valuables. None was arrested till Wednesday in this connection.
— New Age

American Alumni award programme
The American Alumni Association will hold its first award ceremony at the Sheraton Hotel today to honour five distinguished Bangladeshi American-university graduates. The nomination categories are arts and culture, business, education, public service, and science and technology. The AAAwards 2005 has been initiated to recognise the efforts of American university graduates in Bangladesh. The organization is an association of graduates from American colleges and universities in Bangladesh. Since its inception in 1998, the association has organised a number of recreational events, awareness campaigns on social issues, and training and workshops. It has given out scholarships to students attending American universities and organised fundraisers. The association also conducts computer-based testing in Dhaka for students requiring TOEFL, GRE, GMAT and GED.
— New Age

1,000 tube wells
for rural areas
The Rotary International Bangladesh will provide 1,000 deep tube wells for people in rural areas and renovate 200 schools in its working year that begins on July 1. Rotary District 3280 governor Salim Reza said this at a news briefing at the Dhaka club on Wednesday. He said the tube wells would be installed on financial support of $4.5 lakh from seven Rotary districts of the other parts of the world. ‘Rotary clubs of Turkey and Australia will provide $1 lakh for school renovation.’ The Rotary year 2005-06 will be inaugurated on July 1 with a rally sponsored by the Rotary Club of Dhaka Urbana.
— New Age