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The main opposition party, Awami League, has alleged that the government reinstated 16 officials and employees, who were dismissed on charge of corruption.
   The party brought this allegation at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of religious affairs on Wednesday.
   ‘The allegation of corruption and dishonesty against the officials were proved and the previous Awami League government terminated their service to uphold the dignity of the foundation,’ Shahjahan Khan, the Awami League representative in the committee, told the meeting.
   In response, the committee chairman, Delawar Hossain Sayedee, said that a committee was formed to probe the re-appointments.
   Sahjahan said the director of the foundation, Abdul Khaleq, was dismissed as allegation of corruption and mishandling of funds was proved by independent enquiry.
   Allegations against other officials terminated were also proved, but the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance after assuming the office brought all the ‘corrupt’ officials back to the service.
   The meeting also formed a five-member committee headed by a deputy secretary to work on a proposal to turn the Islamic Foundation into a directorate.
   The meeting was attended, among others, by Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain, Mufti Mohammad Wakkas, Md Karim Uddin Bharsha, Shah Mohammad Ruhul Quddus and Promod Mankin.

The Central Hospital Limited completed 500 free cleft lip and palate surgeries sponsored by the Smile Train, a US-based charity organisation, on Wednesday.
   At a press conference held at the hospital, the authorities said that they would continue operating on poor patients having cleft lips in the coming years.
   Professor Matiur Rahman, an eminent surgeon and vice chairman of the hospital, addressed the press conference along with other directors and medical experts attached with the hospital.
   Unofficial statistics show that about 5,000 children with cleft lips are born every year in the country. They remain socially isolated because of the defect, do not go to school and cannot get married, particularly when the patient is a girl. Apart from their ugly appearance, these patients with cleft lips suffer speaking problems and catch cold easily, said experts in the conference.
   Satish Kalra, South East Asia regional director of the Smile Train, USA, was present at the conference.
   When asked why they are sponsoring Central Hospital, he replied that it is the only hospital they found in the country that has appropriate rescue services including intensive care units if anything goes wrong during surgery.
   Professor AJM Salek, professor and head of the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of the DMCH, operated on the patients on behalf of the Central Hospital and Smile Train.
   Referring to some badly repaired cleft lips, he said, ‘Maybe the patients are poor, but one cannot do faulty surgeries on them because it substitutes one deformity with another one, often a worse one.’
   Dr MA Quasem, director of the hospital, read the keynote paper at the press conference. He said that a cleft lip surgery costs twenty to twenty five thousand takas, whereas the Smile Train pays only around eight thousand for each surgery. The Central Hospital provides the rest of the money.
   There is an agreement signed by the Smile Train with the Central Hospital that it will sponsor 500 cleft lip surgeries a year in partnership with the hospital.

A parliamentary committee on Wednesday stressed removal of corruption to achieve the targets of the poverty reduction strategy paper.
   ‘The strategy paper will yield no result in poverty reduction unless corruption is uprooted,’ a member of the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry told a committee meeting, said sources present in the meeting.
   Presided over by the committee chairman, Mushfiqur Rahman, the meeting at Sangsad Bhaban discussed the PRSP, status of revenue collection and fake notes that has spread across the country.
   It was observed that fake notes have spread across the country for lack of money sorting machines.
   The Bangladesh Bank told the meeting that the machines could not be procured due to complications in the tender process, meeting sources said.
   The National Board of Revenue told the meeting of a revenue earning growth of 10 per cent to Tk 17,453 crore during the July-February period of the current fiscal year, which fell about 20 per cent short of the target of Tk 21,774 crore.
   During the period, collection of import duty rose 8 per cent to Tk 9,067 crore while value-added tax, supplementary and excise duties by 12.6 per cent to Tk 5,532 crore, and income tax 16 per cent to Tk 2,709 crore.
   The meeting began with a condolence resolution, praying for salvation of the departed soul of the late Shah AMS Kibria.

The amended constitutional provision for reserved seats for women in parliament and the law enacted for indirect election to those seats do not reflect the policy of the government nor the national consensus on the reserved seats.
   This was stated by Tania Amir on Wednesday when she concluded her arguments in the hearing of the writ petitions challenging the constitutional provisions made by the 14th amendment to the constitution and the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Seats for Women) Election Act 2004.
   The counsel submitted the bills of the 14th amendment and the election law to the court. The bills state that the government had gone to make the constitutional provision and the law in order to uphold its election manifesto and continue the earlier provision of reserved seats.
   Referring to the bills, the counsel argued that by enacting those, the government neither upheld its election pledge nor it ensured continuation of the previous provision.
   In the election manifesto, the government pledged for direct election to the reserved seats for women, but they enacted laws making provisions for indirect elections.
   Replying to a court query, she said that though the election manifesto got no legal implication, the government had declared its policy of reservation of women seats with the provision of direct elections to those seats, as the bills said that the government had gone to make the constitutional provision and the law in order to uphold its election manifesto.
   ‘So, the intention of making the constitutional provision for reservation of seats for women and enacting the election law has not been upheld by the enactments’, he argued.
   She further argued that the interim provision for reservation of seats for women had been made incorporating an article in the fourth schedule of the constitution.
   Article 65(2) of the constitution says that the parliament will consist of 300 members to be elected from single territorial constituencies and the members to be elected from reserved seats for women under article 65(3).
   As the constitution does not allow inclusion of the members to be elected from reserved seats under the fourth schedule of the constitution, the present parliament cannot have the reserved seats and thus the provision made through the 14th amendment to the constitution is not valid, argued Tania.
   The hearing remained inconclusive for the fifth day and will be resumed Sunday.
   Tania Amir and Asaduzzaman moved the case for the petitioners and the assistant attorney general, Rajik-Al-Jalil, appeared for the government.

The International Rice Research Institute awarded the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute a plaque of honour on Wednesday.
   The award was given on the occasion of International Year of Rice 2004 in recognition of its outstanding contribution to food security and health of the people of Bangladesh over three decades.
   BRRI director general Dr. M. Mahiul Haque received the plaque from IRRI representative to Bangladesh Dr.Noel P Magor in a ceremony at the BRRI Gazipur.

The West Zone Power Distribution Company, a subsidiary of the Power Development Board will take over power distribution assets and liabilities of the board in western areas including greater Khulna, Jessore and Barisal from April, 2005.
   Two deals — Provisional Power Sales Agreement and Provisional Vendor’s Agreement — were signed on Wednesday between the board and its subsidiary in this regard.
   The company has been distributing power in the west zone — comprising of 21 districts — since its inception in 2002, as a public limited company under a reform programme to improve operational efficiency, provide better services and reduce system loss.
   Under the deals with the board, the company will buy electricity of 12 crore units at a cost of about Tk 26 crore each month and sell it to the customers at government-approved rates.
   It will bear overhead expenditure, operation and maintenance expenditure and future development from its own earnings.
   The company has about 2.3 lakh customers in the rural south-western region and in greater Khulna, Barisal and Faridpur.
   Company officials claimed that the system loss in the western zone came down from 22.63 per cent to 18.17 percent in 2004-05 fiscal and the monthly overhead expenditure decreased from Tk 5.38crore to Tk 4 crore.

The Higher Secondary Certificate examinations under seven general educational boards will begin on May 12, sources in the education ministry told New Age on Wednesday.
   The examinations to HSC equivalent Alim under Madrassah Education Board and Business Management under Technical Education Board will also start on the same day.
   The examination schedules of the HSC and Madrassah would be published soon, while the schedule of the Business Management examination was already published, the sources said.