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Crisis of electricity in the Chittagong city has reached to the peak in recent days with an average daily load-shedding of over 200MW, two-fifths of the demand.
   The power crisis has also been disrupting water supply and causing immense sufferings to the city dwellers.
   Most of the city areas, including Halishahar, Nasirabad, Chawkbazar, Mahidibag, Agrabad, Nandankanan, Pahartali, Chandgaon, Madarbari and Gosaildanga, remain without power six to eight hours a day.
   Frustrated with the frequent power outages, residents of Bibirhat on Friday attacked two Power Development Board stations.
   The Power Development Board officials said they could supply maximum 300MW of power against the estimated daily demand of 500MW.
   Two out of five units of the Kaptai hydroelectric project recently went inoperative because of an abnormal fall in the water level of the Kaptali Lake, they said.
   The remaining three units were generating between 115MW and 120MW power a day against the capacity of 250MW.
   The situation worsened as a unit of the Raujan Power Plant tripped Wednesday due to mechanical glitch while Shikalbaha Power Plant turned inoperative due to the lack of gas supply, they said and added that the remaining unit of the Raujan plant could generate about 100MW.
   The one unit of the Raujan plant and three units of the Kaptai plant generate about 220MW power while another 70MW to 80MW are supplied in Chittagong from the national grid.
   ‘We are supplying 70MW to 80MW of power from the national grid in Chittagong and it will continue till the end of Ramadan,’ the chief engineer of the power board, Chittagong, Kabindra Nath Sen, told New Age.
   He said they were trying their best to reduce the power crisis, but were helpless as production was much lower than the demand.
   Sources in the Chittagong WASA said procurement of water reduced significantly as they had to keep their pumps off during the load-shedding.
   ‘We can hardly procure 12 crore litres of water a day against the capacity to 17 crore litres,’ a WASA official said.

The Bangladesh English Language Teachers’ Association has launched a programme to train at least 300 English teachers every year from all levels, including rural schools and madrassah, to help them develop their efficiency in English language teaching.
   The training programmes along with workshops on ELT are organised by the association, a voluntary organisation run by the English language teachers.
   BELTA president Arifa Rahman said so far the association had trained nearly 500 teachers by conducting free training on ESL teaching methodology with the help of six international experts.
   It has been organising one workshop through local experts on ELT classroom practice for teachers of English in the British Council Auditorium every month for the last one year.
   Through training, teachers are developing various teaching skills including large classroom management, gender discrimination, material design and effective class routine and lesson plan preparation.
   Arifa said it has been detected that many English teachers, especially in rural areas, do not have any competence to teach English. Many of them even do not have English background.
   Outdated textbooks and examinations, emphasis on content rather than language skills, few trained teachers and large class sizes have resulted in lack of English language proficiency among professionals, students and general people, Arifa said.
   Both the SSC and HSC level English syllabuses and the methods of examination must be redesigned, she said.

The F-28 aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, smashed in an accident at Sylhet Osmani Airport in 2004, was sent to Ashulia in Dhaka Friday afternoon to set up a restaurant.
   The Western Grill Air Corporation, a sister concern of the Mackan Consulting Limited, moved the shell of the damaged aircraft from the Sylhet airport runway.
   The Western Grill will turn the aircraft shell into a modern restaurant at Ashulia in 10 weeks, said the company at a briefing at the Sylhet Press Club on Thursday.
   Adel Karim Ullah of the Western Grill said this would be the first aircraft restaurant in the sub-continent.
   ‘We hope people will appreciate the initiative. We also hope it will attract a large number of visitors,’ he said.
   The waiters will be dressed like aircraft crewmembers. The restaurant will have the capacity to accommodate a hundred customers at a time, the sources said.
   The location of the restaurant will be designed to look like a runway. There will also be a reception room matching the restaurant decoration sprawling two bighas of land.
   The F-28 aircraft of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines with 82 passengers on board fell into a ditch beside the Sylhet airport runway during landing on October 8, 2004.
   The Biman authorities removed the engine and sold the body through tender. Captain Mostafa Awlad bought it as a highest bidder for Tk 11 lakh, on behalf of the Western Grill Air Corporation on July 10.
   Awlad runs two aircraft restaurants in the United Kingdom.

Delay in upgrading the Barisal office of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation to an area office has hampered the management of the river port, causing financial losses from steamer service.
   The Barisal station earns more revenue and river vessels at the station carry more passengers than at other river ports, it remains under the jurisdiction of the Khulna area office.
   The steamer service from the river port once carried a large number of passengers. But after the road transport system had been developed, the port at Mongla lost its importance, making the Khulna area office inactive. Steamers leave the Khulna port six days a week without enough passengers.
   The station office in Barisal has then become a busy place as steamers ply the Dhaka-Barisal route, with additional passengers. Three sea trucks ply the Barisal-Lakshmipur, Char Alexander-Mirzakalu, and Monpura-Shashiganj routes.
   The Barisal office station manager, Khaled Newaz, said the station staff faced difficulties at every step as it was not upgraded to an area office.
   Only four Class I and II cabins are allotted for people in Barisal; steamer cabins remain empty on the Barisal-Khulna-Barisal route.
   The Barisal office can spend only Tk 299 on repair; but a higher amount is sanctioned for the Khulna area office. This often delays repair of steamers in Barisal, he said. Steamers on the Barisal-Khulna-Barisal route incur losses as they often ply without enough passengers, he said.
   The corporation decided to upgrade the Barisal station when the head office in Dhaka was planned to be shifted to Barisal, which was later cancelled.

Cracks have developed in the slopes of the approach roads of Bir Shrestha Mohiuddin Jahangir Bridge at Doarika and Major MA Jalil Bridge at Shikarpur on the Barisal-Dhaka Highway.
   The roads and highways authorities started works to repair the cracks and blamed faulty construction works for the cracks which have posed threat to vehicular traffic.
   Sources at the Roads and Highways Department and local witnesses said failure in constructing the slopes as per the design and non-maintenances of the outlet for excess of water are the main reasons for the cracks.
   A 14 square feet hole has appeared on the approach road of Doarika Bridge after a recent spate of four-day rain while a 10 square feet hole has appeared on the approach road at the eastern side of the Shikarpur Bridge.
   The China Harbour Construction Company Limited constructed both the bridges which were opened for traffic on April 4, 2003.
   According to the contact, the company was also to maintain both the bridges for one year after the inauguration. Then Roads and Highways Department took over the duty of maintenances.
   Abdul Hye, sub-assistant engineer of the Barisal Road and Highways Department, alleged that the Chinese company did not construct the outlet for excess of water properly.
   Thousands of heavy vehicles ply the highway, crossing the both bridges every day. The length, width and height of
   the slopping of approach roads of the bridges were not appropriate in ratio of the length and traffic of the bridges, he added.
   The drainage system constructed by the Chinese company cannot stand against the pressure of traffic and heavy rain.
   He said permanent drainage system and slope construction was immediately necessary to prevent further expansion of the cracks.
   The cracks on the slopping of the approach road will not, however, affect the main bridges.
   Repair works of both the cracks and filling up the holes was continuing, and it will take some more days, said the supervising official of the department.

The implementation of a project of the Chittagong WASA involving Tk 978 crore to treat 13.60 crore litres of water of the River Karnafulli will begin in six months.
   WASA officials said three water reservoirs and a booster station would be set up. Distribution lines will also be installed.
   The officials said the project would be implemented on the financial assistance of the Japan Bank for International Co-operation. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the parties on Monday.
   The officials said Tk 972 crore were allocated for the project and the water treatment plant would be set up at a cost of Tk 660 crore.
   Thirty acres of land have been earmarked at Rangunia for the plant, with a capacity to treat 13.60 litres of water a day.
   Chittagong WASA chief engineer Mohammed Shafiqual Islam told New Age that the government and the Japan agency would sign a deal in February and the implementation would begin soon after the deal. He hoped that the project would be completed by 2010.
   Chittagong WASA now produces 17 crore litres of water a day against the demand of 40 crore litres.

A young man, arrested for his suspicious movement in front of the prime minister’s residence in the Dhaka Cantonment Friday afternoon, was sent to jail on Saturday.
   The police produced Nasir Uddin alias Ratan, 20, in the chief metropolitan magistrates court and appealed that he should be sent to jail custody.
   The police submitted that the army detained him while he was roaming about suspiciously with a bag in front of the prime minister’s residence. He was later handed over to the Kafrul police as he could not give any satisfactory reply.
   After hearing, magistrate Syed Mohammad Mojibul Haq, ordered him to be sent to jail.

The Savar police arrested two persons at Ashulia in possession of a luxury jeep and Tk 58 lakh on Saturday.
   The arrested are Liakat Ali Khan, 52, a junior officer of Uttara Traders at Mohakhali, and his chauffeur, Ali Hossain, 45.
   The police said they had been told that a jeep was approaching Dhaka from Jessore carrying two kilograms of heroin, firearms and cash at around 11:15am.
   A team of the Savar police waited in ambush and managed to stop the car and seize Tk 58. But the police failed to seize the reported heroin and the firearms.
   Subinspector Ibrahim Khan, who led the operation, told New Age, ‘Liakat claimed that the seized money is legal and he brought it from his Jessore office. We suspected that it was hundi money as no body came from his office to claim the money or for his release,’ he said.
   Ibrahim said, ‘We will produced them in court on Sunday, seeking a remand and we hope we will crack the mystery.’

The 8th biennial district conference of the Zonta International District 25 began on September 30 and ended on October 2 with the theme ‘rising to the challenge, making a difference.’
   The conference ended up with a rally chaired by the Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka. The state minister for expatriates welfare and oversees employment, Md Qumrul Islam, was also present.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, inaugurated the conference; the minister for education, M Osman Farruk, was special guest.
   The minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Moudud Ahmed, attended the concluding session as chief guest. The state minister for civil aviation and tourism, Mir Md Nasiruddin, was also present.

The health science faculty of the State University of Bangladesh organised a seminar on ‘national awareness development on lead poisoning’ on the university campus on September 28.
   Jatiya Sangsad whip Zahed Ali Chowdhury attended the seminar as chief guest; the vice-chancellor, Professor MS Ilyas Dhami, was in the chair.
   International expert on lead T Venkatesh, director of the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India, Bangalore, India, read out the keynote paper.
   He said children are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning and the important sources of lead are car battery repair shops and household paint.
   The second guest speaker was Krishnajyoti Goswami of Vivekananda Institute of Medical Science, Kolkata who emphasised awareness building in remote areas.
   Professor Md Suhrab Ali, dean of health science faculty, presented data from a study on jewellery workshops in Dhaka that showed lead toxicity in them could be minimised by vitamin C intake.

Historian and art critic Professor Muhammad Sirajul Islam died of cerebral haemorrhage in a city hospital early Saturday. He was 77.
   A large number of students and colleagues of the retired professor of Dhaka University gathered at the Islami history department to view the body.
   He was buried in the Mirpur Intellectuals’ Graveyard in the afternoon after his first janaza at Sat Gambuz Masjid at Dhanmondi and the second at the Dhaka University central mosque at noon.
   Former Islamic University vice-chancellor Sirajul, also former director general of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, suffered for old-age complications.
   After receiving bachelor’s degree from Calcutta University in 1948, he joined the Islamic history and culture department at Dhaka University in 1951.
   A member of the Public Service Commission, he chair of the department during 1977–1980.
   He was also a visiting professor at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, United States, during 1981–1984.
   The Dhaka University Teachers’ Association, department of Islamic history and culture, alumni association of the department and the Bangladesh History Society in messages condoled on the death.
   His qul khwani will be held in his Dhanmondi residence at 4:00pm Monday.

CMP arrests 86
in 24 hours
The Chittagong Metropolitan Police arrested 86 people, including three wanted criminals, in the city in 24 hours till 4:00pm Saturday. The police said they had arrested Mohammed Rahman alias Mana, 30, on Sagarika Road at Pahartali, and Monir Hossain, 30, and Mohammed Halim from near MA Aziz Stadium. During the drives, the police also recovered 14 bottles of Phensidyl (codeine syrup) from Monir and Halim.
— New Age

Boy found dead
in Khulna
The body of a teenaged boy was recovered from a ditch in the Khulna town Friday night. The police said his had kidnapped Milon, 13, of Banaripara at Daulatpur on Wednesday. The police recovered the body from a ditch at 10:00pm. Sources said Milon had an affair of love with Moushumi, 13, of the area. He might have been killed over a feud as the girl’s family refused to accept the relationship. A case was filed and the police arrested Moushumi, her father Sawkat Hossain, mother Aleya, two brothers, Alamgir and Jahangir.
— UNB

WP training
workshop
The city unit Workers Party on Saturday held a daylong training workshop at Asad Auditorium in the capital city. The workshop, conducted by Azizur Rahman Asad, discussed organisational affairs, movements and other political issues. The secretaries and activists of different units took part in the workshop.
— New Age