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Two non-governmental organisations took an initiative to provide slum dwellers in the Dhaka city with healthcare facilities for the next 18 months.
   The NGOs hope that about 60,000 people will be benefited from the programme.
   The Concerned Women for Family Development and ARBAN-initiated programme was inaugurated in a programme in the CWFD conference hall in Dhaka on Monday.
   The sponsors said healthcare facilities, including reproductive and adolescent healthcare, would be provided to the slum people living in abject poverty through eight city clinics.
   Pregnant women will get special care for safe motherhood, they said. If any complexity arises, then the patient would be referred to hospital free, they said.
   Basic medication will also be provided free and a blood bank will be developed for emergency need.
   Dwellers of any slum can buy a family card paying Tk 75 to get the service for the year. The card is now available at 22 ARBAN centres in different slums.
   The inaugural ceremony was also addressed by USAID team leader (population) Beth Paige, team leader of CARE Bangladesh (income project) Upul Batagoda, CWFD president Niloufer Manzur, ARBAN executive director Md Kamal Uddin and deputy chief of NGO Service Delivery Programme Tamara Smith.

Although food products are restricted from being marketed without the seal of approval from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution, 36 per cent of the noodles now available in the market do not carry the seal, according to a recent survey released on Monday.
   The Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh conducted a survey on 25 brands of noodles, including eight foreign ones, which have been sold in the market between April and May.
   None of the foreign brands carried the BSTI seal of approval, said the survey, adding that 88 per cent of the packages neither carried the address of the manufacturers nor of the importers.
   About 64 per cent of the packets did not mention the manufacturing date and 60 per cent did not mention the expiry date.
   ‘The manufacturers and importers of the noodles are grossly violating the regulations of the BSTI by hiding information,’ said the association’s president, Kazi Faruque, while disclosing the survey’s findings at a press briefing in CAB’s in Dhaka.
   According to the BSTI, the package of a product has to carry the name of the product, name and address of the manufacturer and also of the importer, weight, list of ingredients, manufacturing and expiry date.
   ‘When we asked for it, the Cocola company said it could not write the manufacturing and expiry date on the packages of its brand of noodles because it does not have such a machine,’ said Faruque.
   ‘We also informed the BSTI director general of these violations, but no effective measures were taken,’ he alleged.
   Regarding the foreign brands of noodles, he said, ‘The BSTI’s director-general said their hands are tied due to legal complications.’
   But every food product, be it local or foreign, should be strictly examined by the BSTI. So if need be, the legal complications have to be removed immediately, stressed the CAB’s president.

A group of Grade 4 American students of the American International School, Dhaka as part of a community service spent time with a number of children under treatment in Shishu Hospital on Monday.
   They school principal handed over a cheque for Tk 35,000 to the hospital director, Salim Shakoor. The money was collected from sales of cookbooks and friendship bands in a Valentine’s Day fair.
   The schoolchildren played with colourful toys and books with the children under treatment in the hospital. The students collected the toys for the children in the hospital.
   The school allows its students in a community service programme to spend time with local children.
   The students visited Shishu Bikash Kendra, a foundation of the hospital, in February.
   The American children in their interviews with the local children found similarities between them, except for playing computer games or going on vacations.
   Frederik, a student of the school, interviewed Anamika, a child under treatment. Frederik said he had felt sad for her as she had painful experiences.
   A child in the hospital, Babu, said he was happy to play with toys. ‘My father is a member on the hospital staff and he could not buy me such nice toys except a plastic toy car.’
   Students also designed a web site on the community service activities and took it to an international cyber fair.
   The hospital’s child neurology and development department head, Naila Khan, said the money would be spent on the development of the children, who are epileptic and mentally challenged, at the Shishu Bikash Kendra. The toys will be kept there.

A half-day general strike called by the Sylhet Bibhag Ganadabi Parishad protesting against the government decision on the repair of the century-old Kean Bridge instead of construction of a swing bridge was observed in Sylhet on Monday.
   No untoward incident took place during hartal hours. Educational institutions and almost all the business establishments remained closed.
   Government and private banks in the city functioned as usual with their main gates locked up.
   Motor vehicles stayed off the road; a few rickshaws and auto-rickshaws plied. Railway services and flight operation were normal, sources said.
   The Kotwali police arrested Turan Miah, president of the council, in a hotel at Laldighirpar in the city Sunday midnight on charge of taking preparation for subversive activities during strike, sources said.
   He was later freed from the court custody at 4:00pm on Monday in the face of a demand for his release by the council activists.
   The activists brought out processions and held rallies in the city to make the hartal successful and to realise their demand.
   The construction of a swing bridge over the River Surma has become uncertain as the executive committee of the National Economic Council did not approve the proposal for the bridge, sources said.
   The minister for finance and planning, M Saifur Rahman, also alternate chairman of the committee, submitted the proposal of a Tk 150-crore project for the construction of the bridge at an ECNEC meeting in 2004. But the committee did not approve the proposal on the grounds of fund crisis at the moment.
   The minister for communications, Nazmul Huda, at a public meeting in Sylhet in September 2002 announced that the construction of a swing bridge near the Kean Bridge would be completed by 2004.
   But the proposal could not be materialised as the authorities did not take any steps.
   The authorities later made a decision on the construction of another bridge close to the Kean Bridge involving Tk 28 crore. The project was recently shelved.
   The Roads and Highways Department then took up a Tk 3-crore project to repair the Kean Bridge, which frustrated the people of the division, the sources said.
   Socio-political and professional organisation leaders were continued their agitation programme in the city over two weeks.
   They demanded that the government should allocate funds for the construction of the proposed bridge over the Surma in the next budget.
   The council secretary, MA Malek, told New Age that the demand for the swing bridge is not only the demand of the city dwellers, but also of one crore people of Greater Sylhet.

The Chittagong Development Authority took up a project to asses the viability of expansion of the city over the next 10 years in accordance with the master plan.
   The agency officials said preliminary work on the project, Detailed area plan for Chittagong, involving Tk 2.88 crore had begun on May 15 and the assessment would begin on Wednesday.
   The agency earlier authorised the Development Design Consultants Limited, a private company, to implement the project.
   According to the project concept paper, the agency will prepare a layout of the plan for 574.97 square kilometres out of the total 1152.55 square kilometres of the city area in the first phase of the project. Layout of the remaining area will be prepared later.
   Vast areas at Patiya, Hathazari, and Karnaphulli will be included in the detailed area plan.
   Hills, rivers, canals, drains, water reservoirs, and natural resorts will be earmarked in the layout and necessary steps will be taken for their preservation and protection.
   Sites for sewerage facilities, roads, utility plants, and other necessary institutions will also be earmarked.
   The project coordination, Mohshin Bhuiyan also an executive engineer of the agency, told New Age that during the survey, permanent milestones would be installed in the city which could be used for other surveys.
   He said the project would be implemented on time and the city would be expanded according to the plan.

The Unilever Bangladesh Ltd and the GrameenPhone Ltd signed an agreement in the Dhaka city on Monday regarding SMS voting services for Close Up1, a music talent hunt.
   With this partnership, the GrameenPhone clients will be able to vote for their favourite singers in Close Up1 through text messages, said a release.
   About 40,000 young singers have singed up for the programme from all over the country.
   Unilever Bangladesh finance director Waqar Ahmed Kazi and GrameenPhone marketing director HS Muyeed signed the deal.
   Unilever marketing manager Asif Iqbal and senior brand manager Afzlul Hasan Khan along with GrameenPhone deputy general manager (marketing) Ghalib Ahmed Ansari attended.

A fire broke out in a 16-storey building at Karwan Bazar in the Dhaka city on Monday.
   Local people and fire service officials said the fire had originated in the generator room of Pragati Bhaban at about 6:15pm. The officials and employees of the offices, housed in the building, left the premise immediately.
   Six fire-fighting vehicles went to the place and put out the fire at about 7:00pm.
   The generator of the building was damaged in the incident, fire brigade officials said.
   No casualty was reported.

The Forum against Repression on Women and Children at a briefing at the Khulna Press Club on Monday demanded immediate arrest of and punishment for the people who on May 26 threw acid on an eight-month-old baby, Muka, who died in hospital on May 28.
   Her mother, Rexona Parvin, 23, and brother Badsha, 5, were also injured in the incident. They were under treatment. They are residents of Jaigirmahal at Kayra in Khulna.
   The police on Saturday arrested the chairman of the Amadi Union Parishad at Kayra in this connection.
   The forum convener, Md Khaza Mahiuddin Lavlu, addressed the briefing, attended by other human rights activists.
   The forum demanded free treatment of the mother and her child and security for the family members.
   It demanded arrest of all the accused in the case, their punishment and financial help for the family.

The Apollo Hospitals Dhaka recently launched a vaccination programme for children and pregnant women.
   Jesmine Sultana, wife of the hospital’s managing director Khondoker Moniruddin, inaugurated the programme by feeding a child a polio vaccine.
   Under the Expanded Programme for Immunisation, the programme is a collaboration pf the health services directorate and Apollo Hospitals.
   The STS Group managing director, Khondoker Moniruddin, director of nursing services Rozalind Conway, director of medical services Praful B Pawar, hospital doctors and high officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare were present.

The Bangladesh University held a seminar on ‘good governance’ in the university auditorium in the Dhaka city on Sunday.
   The vice-chancellor, Quazi Azher Ali, welcomed the guests; ATM Shamsul Haque, former chairman of the Administrative Reorganisation Commission, was chief guest.
   The Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre rector, Ahbab Ahmed, was present as special guest.
   Business administration dean Professor Amiruzzaman Khan, trustee Professor Ataur Rahman, Professor AHM Mahabubul Alam, college principal Masud Hasan, preparatory principal Tahera Ahmed, teachers and students of the university were present.

The Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programmes and the Square Group launched a campaign on creating awareness of HIV/AIDS among the people in a ceremony at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka on Sunday.
   The centre's director Mohammad Shahjahan, also its chief executive officer, pointed to the severity of HIV/AIDS threat and called on all to join hands to prevent it through the campaign, Ashun AIDS Niye Katha Boli 'eXpress 2005.'
   Square Group director Anjan Chowdhury was present.
   Ayub Bachhu, Asif, Shakila Zafar and Bappa Mazuder expressed solidarity with the programme.

CPB to begin
fund-raiser
The Dhaka committee of the Communist Party of Bangladesh will begin a fund raising programme for the party in the party central office at 5:00pm today. The committee will distribute more than 1,000 tin-cans among the party activists which the activists will keep in their house and put in money for the party. The cans will be collected at the end of every month, a release said.
— New Age

300th show of
agit-prop play in Ctg
Non-governmental organisation Nari Unnayan Shakti will hold the 300th show of its agitprop play, Laily Banur Sangsar, at the Central Shaheed Minar in the Chittagong city today. The play aims to created awareness of HIV/AIDS among the people, said a release of the organisation. Representatives of UNICEF and the local administration will be present.
— New Age

Landline trouble
at Jigatala
Eighty-eight landlines of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board were disconnected because of the underground cable repair at Jigatala and on Maneshwar Road in the Dhaka city. Telephone board sources on Monday said 60 of the lines had been restored and it would take three more days to restore the remaining connections after repair. The telephone board, in a release, regretted the suffering of its subscribers due to the temporary disruption.
— BDNews

Iranian minister
in Dhaka
The Iranian minister for culture and Islamic guidance affairs, Ahmed Masjed Jeme, arrived in Dhaka on Monday on a four-day official visit. A bilateral meeting on the development, diplomatic and cultural relations will be held in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs on Tuesday. Ahmed Masjed will meet the ministers for science and CIT, education, information and the state minister for religious affairs. He will visit the National Museum, Folk Art and Craft Foundation at Sonargaon, Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manjil. He will inaugurate the Iran corner at the National Museum. The seven-member team includes Cultural Co-operation Organisation director general Ali Reza Ismaili and editor of the monthly History and Geography Abdur Rasul Kheir-Andish.
— New Age

Summer vacation at Dhaka Univ
The University of Dhaka will go on a month-long summer vacation from tomorrow. No classes will be held throughout the month; but some teachers have already told the students that they would continue taking classes to complete courses.
— New Age