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The government initiative to stop black marketing of transport tickets has hardly brought any positive results as black marketers in connivance with some transport staff have captured most of the tickets to create an artificial crisis.
   The black marketers have already collected the lion’s share of tickets for trains, buses and launches, sources at the Kamlapur Railway Station, Sadarghat launch terminal and inter-district bus terminals in the city said.
   Hundreds of home-goers were flocking to the terminals for the past few days to collect advance tickets to celebrate Eid with their near and dear one’s, but most of them failed.
   Operators of the ticket counters at Gabtali and other inter-district bus terminals on Friday claimed that all tickets had been sold.
   Asked about the reason for ticket crisis, manager of a Hanif Enterprise counter said black marketers were too influential to capture the tickets.
   ‘The black marketers with the help of local influential people have grabbed most of the tickets. You will not get tickets of the four days before Eid even in the black markets now, as they will release all the tickets on the travelling date or the day before travelling mentioned on the tickets.’
   Another counter manager of Nabil enterprise said, ‘I sold ten to fifteen tickets of each trip to some known individuals as situation compelled me to do so. They will release it at the right time near our counters’.
   The manager of Hanif Enterprise counter, however, said most of the owners of the inter-district bus companies had increased the number of vehicles.
   Hanif Enterprise has already added 40 extra buses on their fleet, he said. Asked about the government initiatives against the black marketing of tickets, a counter manager said it was an almost impossible task for the government.
   The scenario, however, was a little bit different at the Kamlapur Railway Station as the authorities were selling date-based advance tickets from October 25 to October 29.
   On Saturday, long queues were there at the station as people started standing in lines from the early morning, but the front liners were mainly the black markets and their associates.
   Each of the black marketers hired young men to collect tickets from the booths and preserved it for selling it at higher rates later.
   Some failed ticket buyers on Friday morning expressed their frustration as the black marketers collected most of the tickets through their accomplices.
   A railway traffic inspector, who was performing his duty in front the booth, told New Age that some people along with their associates stood in line and collected a large number of tickets. ‘Though we do realise that they will sale the tickets later at higher rates, what can we do as they collected the tickets by maintaining the set rules and regulations?’
   The railway authorities, however, said they would add extra coaches, but tickets for those will be sold on the date of journey.
   Crisis of launch tickets was also acute at Sadarghat with the launch operators claiming that all cabins for October 31 and afterwards had already been booked.
   Sources at the terminal, however, said most of the cabins had been booked by some people influential at the terminal who would make those available on the date of journey at higher rates.
   It was also alleged that some launch staff had kept some cabins reserved to gain benefits.
   ‘True, the cabins have been booked, but not by the passengers. Come on the date of journey, pay higher rates and you will get cabins as many as you need,’ said a source at the terminal.

A special mobile court on Saturday issued arrest warrants against eight meat traders at Hajaribag in the city on charge of selling buffalo meat as beef.
   The court, led by magistrate Rokon-ud-Doula, raided the Hajaribagh Slaughter House at 3:00am and found butchers slaughtering the buffaloes and cattle heads an hour before the schedule.
   ‘We found 30 buffaloes and 50 cattle heads in the slaughter house. The buffaloes were butchered to be sold as beef and by violating all government and Islamic rules,’ said Rokon.
   Although it needs clearance from veterinary surgeons of the Dhaka City Corporation before slaughtering any animal, no surgeon was found there during the drive, he said.
   As the eight traders of the house were absent during the drive, the court issued arrest warrants against them.
   The court on Friday issued arrest warrants against 20 meat traders at Kaptanbazar on the same charge.
   Thirty-five courts started drives on October 4 in all 28 police areas in the city in view of Durga Puja and Ramadan to check fitness of vehicles, vehicle papers, and ensure enforcement of traffic laws.
   The courts are also checking food adulteration and use of chemicals and artificial colours in foodstuff. They are also monitoring the sale of foodstuff in open spaces.
   The courts are checking forgery in measures, sale of meat without licence, curbing drug business, stopping black marketing of tickets at the bus and launch terminals, demolishing illegal structures.
   Among the courts, five are conducting special drives.
   The courts in the past fortnight realised Tk 1.74 crore as fines and jailed 153 people for varying terms. The drives will continue till Eid-ul-Fitr.

Mobile operators and home appliance and furniture shops are providing customers with special offers on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. The mobile operators top the list of such offers, which have elicited a good response.
   Banglalink has been running mobile fairs at Eastern Mallika on the Elephant Road, Mayuri Community Centre at Mirpur, and Party House Community Centre on the Outer Circular Road, beginning from October 24 and to run till the end of the month. The operator is offering a discount between Tk 300 and Tk 1,100 on Banglalink connections with a talk time worth Tk 200.
   Mobile operator Aktel is giving an offer of for prepaid SIMs. It is selling the connection for Tk 599 with a free talk time of Tk 500. The talk time will remain valid till November 6.
   Rashed Hasan, public relations executive of Aktel, told New Age that they were getting a good response. He said its SIM for Tk 99 had been selling well.
   GrameenPhone also brought down the price of its prepaid SIM to Tk 600 from Tk 1,200 and the price of Easy Gold SIM to Tk 1,600 from Tk 2,000 with Tk 100 talk time and free short message service.
   The offer is only for Eid and the company has not yet decided to continue the offer after Eid, said Yamin Bakht, GrameenPhone general manager. He said the company was receiving very good response.
   Home appliance shops are also offering special discounts or gifts. LG is giving a discount ranging between 25 per cent and 100 per cent in a programme called ‘miracle envelope’ in its showrooms.
   Sony is also offering discounts on the price, and gifts on scratch card on the purchase of its television sets. Konka is giving away scratchcard gifts such as fridge, colour television set, washing machine, microwave oven, and price discount.
   Furniture marts such as Aftab, Navana, and Otobi are also giving 10 to 15 per cent discounts.
   A sales executive at Navana at its Gulshan outlet said it provided the offer as it did on the occasion of Eid every year. ‘We are also giving offer as many families are interested in buying furniture before Eid.’
   Real estate companies and apartment sellers are not lagging behind. The Multiplan Limited is giving a microwave oven free till Eid day on each booking of its apartments.
   Rupayan Housing Estate is offering Dhaka-Singapore-Dhaka air ticket and gift vouchers on booking of its commercial and apartment projects. Bashundhara is offering fridges, and television set and dinner sets on booking.

Most of the shopping spots in the Dhaka city remained overcrowded by Eid shoppers of all ages over the weekend while the rush of the people is expected to further intensify after the 25th Ramadan.
   Despite the overwhelming crowd on the day, traders at different shopping centres said the rush of the shoppers was already over as most of the middle class people had finished their shopping in the middle of Ramadan while the rich people, especially businessmen, were now coming to market for shopping.
   Khokon, a cosmetics seller at Eastern Plaza, said the sale of cosmetics and ornamental goods was not in full swing as the women would buy the products just a day ahead of Eid.
   Tight security measures have been taken by the government at the city’s different markets and also by the authorities of different markets on their own to ensure that people can do their last minute shopping without any hazards.
   Buyers and sellers at different city markets, including the Eastern Plaza and Bashundara City, unanimously claimed that there was no problem accept the price hike of goods.
   Women, who came to markets with their daughters, said they felt comfortable even when it was night because of the security measures inside and outside the markets.
   Alamin, a Chittagong University student, who came to Dhaka for Eid festival, told New Age that the prices of goods were higher but the security measures were enough.
   Abdul Baten, a professor, said the prices of the goods were much more, being about 20 to 50 per cent higher in some cases than that of the previous year, while the law and order situation of the markets was quite good.
   The quality of the products found at the Eastern Plaza was good but the price was not negotiable, said Mukta, a housewife coming to the city for Eid shopping from Munshigonj.
   Younus, a trader at Bashundara City, admitted to the excess of prices, saying they could earlier sell clothes at Tk 2,000 but now there were no clothes in his shop of that price as they had bought the clothes at higher prices.
   The Eastern Plaza Shop Owners’ Co-operative Society Ltd director, SM Awal Mahmud, said, ‘After the August 17 series blasts, they had strengthened security measures through by setting up closed circuit television cameras and now the market had more than 50 cameras.
   The closed circuit cameras are active twenty four hours and these equipments are able to preserve any image for the next seventy two hours, he said.
   If any body comes with explosives or tries to do any subversive activities, the cameras will identify him immediately and security men have been stationed on each floor of the market, Awal said, adding that all the markets in the city are in good condition in terms of security as the law enforcing people were active at these markets.
   Mohammed Abdul Hque, security superviser of the shopping mall, said they were closely monitoring the market until it closed down at mid-night, and if they found anybody with any criminal intention, they instantly handed him over to the police.

Bus owners are charging 150 per cent more than the fare fixed by the government from passengers, alleged speakers at a rally at Shahbagh on Saturday.
   Speakers at the protest rally and human chain organised by the Citizen Rights Movement also criticised the government for failing to do anything against ‘the illogical fare hike’ in road and river transport.
   In a written speech the movement’s convener, Tushar Rahman, said following the fuel price hike the government increased bus and launch fare but the bus owners are charging 150 per cent more than the fixed fare.
   Although the price of CNG has not increased, owners of CNG-run buses have increased their fare following the diesel-run buses, said Tushar.
   Presiding over the rally, former secretary Margub Morshed said when because of the price hike of food and essentials middle class people were leading a difficult life, charging extra transport fare would only add to the situation.
   A number of lawyers, journalists and former government officials, including Saeed Lutfullah, Zulfia Akhter Rita, Zesmin Ara Sathi, Ahsan Uddin Sardar, FR Khan, MA Gani spoke at the rally.

Teachers of non-government technical colleges formed a half-an-hour human-chain to press-home their 12-point demand at Muktangan in the Dhaka city on Saturday.
   Teachers from across the country under the banner of the Bangladesh Technical College Teachers’ Association gathered there at around 11:00.
   The 12-point demand includes formation of a separate national pay-scale for the technical college teachers, changing of manpower structure of such colleges and appointing more teachers, setting up a teachers’ training institute and establishing an education bank.
   There are about 1,200 technical colleges across the country where around 14,000 teachers and employees are engaged.
   President of the association MA Sattar and general secretary Mohammad Ali and a god number of teachers took part in the programme.

Police nabbed three suspected car lifters, including a senior traffic sergeant of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, from different parts of the city and recovered three stolen private cars from their possession on Friday.
   The arrested were identified as Kuddus Ali, 25, Golam Naser Azam alias Parvez, 45, a senior traffic sergeant of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and Abdul Kuddus, 58.

The board of directors of the East West University approved the university campus design recommended earlier by a five member jury board.
   The design was submitted by Riddhi Architects along with six other architecture firms in an open competition.
   The jury board was chaired by Bashirul Huq, Professor Alamgir Habib of BUET, Lee Chor Wah, deputy president of the Malaysian Institute of Architects and design director of TAK of Kuala Lumpur, Khan Md Mustapha Khalid and Mohammed Farashuddin, founder vice-chancellor of East West University, were members of the Board. The well-known Malaysian architect Lee Chor Wah has recently spent four days in Dhaka for participation in the selection process of EWU own campus design.

The authorities of the Leading University on Friday organised an orientation programme for freshers on its Siddheswari campus.
   Member of the Anti-corruption Commission Professor Moniruzaman Miah was present as chief guest on the occasion while founder chairman of the university Alhaj Ragib Ali, Professor Nazmul Karim Chowdhury, Professor Mohammad Mohiuddin and Professor MA Mannan were present among others.
   The chief guest appreciated the role of the country's private universities to accommodate a large number of students and providing them with proper education.
   An iftar party was organised after the programme.

The Development Studies Group of the liberal arts and science faculty of the Independent University, Bangladesh organised a seminar titled 'Ivory Coast: legacy of colonialism' on the university Baridhara campus on Thursday.
   Brigadier General M Sakhawat Hussain (Retd) attended the seminar as the keynote speaker while Dr Tanvir A. Khan, moderator of the Development Studies Group, moderated the seminar.
   The university vice-chancellor, Professor Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, chaired the seminar, says a press release.
   Professor Mufakharul Islam, director SLAS, spoke on the occasion while Professor Ainon Mizan proposed the formal vote of thanks.
   The presentation described Ivory Coast as an agricultural country, rich in natural resources, which was known to be the most modern of all West African countries.
   Political in-fighting, corruption, nepotism, social unrest and external interference made the once thriving country into a failed state, managed and overseen by 9000 UN troops, 4000 being Bangladeshi.
   There was a lively discussion following the presentation which was attended by a large number of academics, policy makers and students.

Nusrat Haque, a student in the bachelor of business administration programme at the North South University, has won the first prize in the 2005 Essay Contest for Young People.
   The contest was co-sponsored by Goi Peace Foundation of Tokyo, Japan and
   UNESCO.
   Nusrat plans to travel to Japan from October 10
   to 15 to attend the award ceremony.
   A complimentary round-trip ticket will be provided for Japan Airlines. She will also receive free room, board and ground transportation during her Tokyo stay.

Robbery in Chittagong
Robbers looted cash and valuables worth about Tk 1 lakh from a residence at Khulshi in the Chittagong city early Saturday. The police said about seven armed robbers attacked the house number L/33 at Railway Colony adjacent to Railway Academy at Khulshi at around 12:30am and took away Tk 25,000 in cash and seven tolas of gold ornaments after taking hostage the inmates at gun point. A case was lodged with the Khulshi police.

Beyond Borders distributes prizes
Beyond Borders, a project of the British Council’s Connecting Futures Programme, distributed prizes among street children on Saturday at the Democracy Watch auditorium in Dhaka. The prizes were distributed among the winners of a sports competition held earlier. Inaugurating the ceremony, the director of the British Council, June Rollinson, said these children would shape the future of the country. Presiding over the ceremony, executive director of the Democracy Watch, Talea Rehman, said her organisation wants to help the children to fulfill their dreams.

Transport strike in Sylhet observed
Truck employees and labourers in Sylhet on Saturday observed dawn-to-dusk strike in protest at toll collection and harassment by police and kept the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway blocked for two hours and a half, demanding immediate punishment of a police officer. Local sources said Friday afternoon, sub-inspector Sayed Ahmed demanded toll from a truck driver. But as the driver refused to pay the toll, the sub-inspector beat him up. The sources said the police officer collected tolls from truck drivers regularly ahead of iftar in the name of checking papers.
— New Age