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The Rajshahi City Corporation has initiated the process to introduce e-governance to make its services more dynamic and people-oriented.
   It would be the first ever corporation to take the programme, the corporation’s chief engineer, Sarit Dutta Gupta, told New Age on Wednesday.
   The corporation sources said, the city dwellers, on completion of the process, will be able to make queries, lodge complaints and know the latest developments of the corporation through its website. They will also be able to know the holding tax and water bill.
   The sources said the six divisions — revenue, administration, accounts, conservancy, engineering and taxation — had already been interconnected with the network.
   In the first phase, it will be implemented in five wards on pilot-basis before July, the sources said.
   The remaining 30 wards will also be brought under the programme in phases.
   Katalyst, a Swiss and DFID supported organisation, has started conducting the feasibility study on the programme, which will submit the report soon.
   The corporation has also hired two consulting firms — Quantum Foundation and Data Soft — to run the programmes. The cost of the project, however, was yet to be estimated.

Shortage of teachers in all the government colleges in the Chittagong city has been hampering academic activities for long.
   The shortage was due to the introduction of honours and masters courses one after another without ensuring required number of teachers.
   The crisis deepened further after a number of positions had gone vacant.
   The colleges facing the problem are Chittagong College, Chittagong Commerce College, Haji Mohammed Mohsin College, Chittagong City College and the Chittagong Women College.
   The Chittagong College principal, Fatema Nargis Chowdhury, said there were 112 positions for teachers, and 21 have remained vacant for long.
   ‘My college offers bachelor’s and master’s courses in 16 subjects and we need at least 11 teachers for each subject to comply with the National University provisions,’ she said.
   The college needs 176 teachers only for honour’s and master’s courses.
   ‘But I am now compelled to run classes, including HSC and bachelor’s (pass) courses, with only 91 teachers,’ she said.
   Professor Nuruzzaman, the principal of the Commerce College, the only of its sort in the Chittagong division, said the number of teachers in his college recently reduced to 21, which was 38 in 1983.
   He said although the number of students increased, the
   education ministry had curtailed the teachers’ positions to almost a half for no apparent reasons.
   The Chittagong Government Women’s College vice-principal, Liaquat Ali Khan, said the college had 68 positions of teachers and 19 of them have remained vacant for long.
   The number of teachers was less than a half of what is required, he said.
   The Chittagong City College principal, Professor Shamsuz Zoha, said the college
   needs at least 150 teachers to offer honour’s and master’s course in 10 subjects along with the HSC and bachelor’s (pass) classes.
   ‘But there are 90 posts of teachers in the college, of which 10 have remained vacant for long,’ he said.
   All the principals of the five government colleges said students had been deprived of quality education due to the shortage of teachers.
   They said the teacher shortage compelled the students to resort to private tuition and private coaching centres.

Polyethylene products are still produced and marketed despite an anti-polyethylene law that was enacted in 2002, green activists told a news briefing on Thursday.
   The Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon coordination committee to prevent polyethylene and plastic products organised the briefing on ‘dangers of plastic and polyethylene products’ at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.
   At least 96 per cent people use plastic bottles, which affect the sewerage system badly, according to a survey report by the Work for Better Bangladesh, the speakers said.
   The report says 95 per cent people think the plastic and polyethylene products in the long run congest the sewerage line while 84 per cent believe these products affect environment.
   It also says 17 per cent respondents of the survey think people use plastic and polyethylene products because of cheap price while 24 per cent think polyethylene products are handier than ceramic or glass products.
   The speakers said the use of polyethylene products reduced on a large scale at the initial stage of implementation of the anti-polyethylene law.
   But, now that implementation of the law has slackened, polyethylene products have started to come to market again, posing a great threat to the soil and air, they added.
   The speakers emphasised campaign against the use of polyethylene and plastic products to build up awareness of their dangers.
   They put forward some recommendations, including enactment of a law to control polyethylene production.
   The committee member secretary, Amit Ranjan Dey, presented the keynote paper.

Speakers at a seminar on Thursday urged the government to introduce such a system to consult with concerned groups, including media people, before enactment and formulation of any law and policy.
   They also came up with the recommendations for support network comprising law activists, media people, jurists, and lawmakers to establish human and fundamental rights of the people.
   The Bangladesh Legal Aid & Services Trust organised the seminar on ‘Role of Media in Public Interest Litigation and Advocacy’ at National Press Club.
   Eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain, also the chairperson of the BLAST, addressed the seminar as chief guest and the BLAST vice-chairman, Justice Naimuddin Ahmed, and the BLAST trustee board member, Ataus Samad, also the advisory editor of the daily Amar Desh, as special guests.
   The speakers said the people should be made aware of
   their fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution so that they can seek legal redress in case of any violation of their rights.
   Kamal in his speech accused the guardians of the constitution of violating it at their whims.
   ‘Our constitution is the best one of its kind but the persons responsible to keep it high are violating it now and then.’
   Referring to the killing of people in the name of ‘crossfire’, Kamal said the state minister for home affairs himself was violating the oath he took to protect the constitution.
   Naimuddin said, ‘The recent incidents of killing people by the law enforcers including the police and Rapid Action Battalion under ‘so-called crossfire’ are nothing but custodial deaths.’
   Terming custodial death illegal, he stressed on judicial enquiry for each custodial death saying that no such inquiry had been made into any of the killing under ‘crossfire’.
   Such malpractice started in Bangladesh in 1974 with the custodial death, which he called ‘killing’, of Siraj Shikdar, Naimuddin told the seminar.
   Sangbad executive editor, Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, moderated the seminar and BLAST assistant director, Soma Islam, and New Age special correspondent, Shahiduzzaman, presented two keynote papers.
   Chief news editor of Channel-i, Shah Alamgir, senior correspondent of UNB, Faruk Quazi, chief reporter of the daily Star, Zayedul Hasan, chief reporter of Prothom Alo, Provash Ameen, and executive editor of Weekly 2000, Golam Mortoza, also spoke.

Scientists, policymakers and experts from 12 countries in Asia, Africa, Australia and America will join a daylong seminar Sunday.
   The seminar intends to come up with suggestions for sustainable food sufficiency in Bangladesh through partnership between the government and the non-governmental organisations, the private sector and the multilateral lending agencies.
   The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and the Bangladesh Rice Foundation will organise the daylong seminar, styled ‘Food Policy in Bangladesh: Issues and Perspectives’.
   The finance minister, M Saifur Rahman, the agriculture minister, MK Anwar, and the food and disaster management and relief minister, Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, are expected to address the seminar.
   It will have three sessions on ‘food security: emerging issues and challenges,’ ‘Bangladesh’s agricultural strategy: new perspectives’ and ‘disaster management: safety nets and nutrition interventions’, said the chairman of the Bangladesh Rice Foundation, M Syeduzzaman, at a press briefing on Thursday.
   The economic policy, agricultural strategy and technological changes in view of the changing global scenario, genetic modification and millennium development goals will be discussed on the three sessions.
   The sessions will have a special on the poor and vulnerable people, said Syeduzzaman, also a former minister for finance and planning.
   The BIDS director general, Q Shahabuddin, IFPRI senior research fellow Akhter Ahmed and the Daily Star chief reporter, Reaz Ahmad, also addressed.

Officials of the narcotics control department in separate drives arrested two women with 260 grams of heroin from
   Kadamtali and Rangipara in the Chittagong city on Thursday.
   A team of the department on secret information arrested Rawshanara, 40, from Kadamtali under the Double Mooring police station.
   The team picked up Nur Jahan Begum, 30, from Rangipara under Halishahar with the heroin during a two-hour drive that ended at 2:00pm.
   The sources in the narcotics department said the women in cooperation with one Abu have been trading drugs for a long time.
   Two cases were lodged.

DU publishes admission test result
Results of the admission test for the first year honours course for the 2004-05 session of Dhaka University ‘A’ unit was published Wednesday night. According to the merit list, first segment of 2,500 students have been called for viva-voce to be held from March 19 to March 22. The candidates were asked to bring their admit cards, main mark sheets of SSC and HSC examinations and other relevant document at the time of their viva-voce, said a press release.
— BSS

Test for municipal asst engineers
on Mar 25
The written test of the candidates for the post of assistant engineers in different municipalities under the LGRD and Cooperative Ministry will be held on March 25. The test will be held at Dhaka Mohanagar Mohila College at Laxmibazar at 10:00am on that day. The candidates were asked to bring their admit-cards.
— BSS

Canadian International
School launched
The launch ceremony of the Canadian International School Dhaka was held on the school premises at Banani in the capital on March 9. Antoine Landry, the mayor of Caraquet, New Brunswick, Canada, was present as the chief guest. The Canadian partners of the venture Clifford Kennedy and Arshad Husain were also present. The ceremony was chaired by the school chairman, Mohammad Kamal
Uddin.
— New Age

50th anniversary of DU zoology
on Apr 22
The golden jubilee celebration of the zoology department of Dhaka University will be held on April 22 instead of March 12, said a news release.
— BSS

Workshop on violence against women
Nari Unnayan Shakti, an NGO, organised a seven-day workshop and mass campaign meeting on ‘combating psychological and physical violence against girls and women’ at seven venues of Chittagong, Barisal division, including its Banasri and Kuril training centre in Dhaka. The inaugural ceremony of the workshops was held at Kuril on March 8. It was presided over by Afroza Parvin, executive director of Nari Unnayan Shakti. ILO, Bangladesh, Capacity Building Project of the government, Department of Social Services/UNDP, UNICEF and NASP supported the programmes.
— New Age

Zonta Club celebrates Women’s Day
The Zonta Club III, along with students of Shishu Bikash Kendra, celebrated Zonta Rose Day and International Women’s Day on the Kendra premises at Rayer Bazar in the capital on March 8. The club president, Fahmida Karim, board members and area director Nilufer Zafarullah, along with the staff members, were present. The school principal, Bilkis Bari, and two students spoke on the occasion.
— New Age