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The Birishiri Tribal Cultural Academy of the tribal people is now plagued by fund crunch, manpower shortage and indifference of the higher authorities towards its expansion and development.
   The academy was established on a three-acre plot near the Durgapur upazila headquarters in 1977 to promote the educational and cultural activities of the tribal people living in the hilly and forest regions of Netrakona, Mymensingh, Tangail and Sherpur districts.
   The main centre of the academy is in the two-storey L-pattern building. The academy’s 1000-seat auditorium is equipped with modern facilities.
   The walls of the rehearsal rooms are fitted with mirrors. The academy runs a three-year course on tribal cultural activities such as traditional dance, lyrical drama and folk festival. Twenty students are admitted to these courses in every session.
   The academy has been facing difficulties in preserving the artefacts, attributes and heritages of the tribal people for want of space. These are now stored haphazardly in a small room. A huge collection of old cultural attributes is lying scattered and uncared for, according to the academy officials.
   The officials said the establishment of a tribal cultural museum was a long standing demand of different tribes of this region. The cultural ministry was approached time and again for allotting fund for the establishment of a museum. There is yet no positive response from the ministry, they added.
   Mosharaf Karim, director of the academy, said fund crisis was a major stumbling block in the expansion and development of the academy. The annual grant of the government for this academy is Tk 28 lakh and 75 thousand. Bulk of this allocation is spent towards meeting the salaries of its staff.
   ‘A very little amount remains surplus out of this allocation for undertaking expansion and development work of the academy after paying the salaries of the staff’, an official of the academy noted. Several sanctioned posts of deputy director, engineer and other staff of the academy were now lying vacant as they could be filled up with new appointments for fund constraint, he added.
   The academy needs at least one jeep and four motor cycles. But it has only one motor cycle. That too remains out of order very often. A large number of indigenous people belonging to garo, banai, koch and hajong tribes live in the hilly and forest areas of Mymensingh, Netrakona, Tangail and Sherpur. They mostly live at Durgapur and Kamalkanda upazilas in Netrakona, Dhubaura, Haluaghat and Phulbari upazilas in Mymensingh, Madhupur and Ghatail upazilas in Tangail and Shreebardi, Nalitabari and Jinnaigathi upazilas in Sherpur.
   A good number of foreign and local NGOs have been working for the promoting the education and welfare of the tribal people.
   The NGO activities helped a lot of tribal men and women improve their economic condition.
   Talking to New Age, some tribal people said they pinned much hope on the Birishiri Cultural Academy in the task of promoting the culture and education of the tribal people and preserving their heritage. But it has so failed to rise to our high expectation, they observed.
   They called upon the cultural ministry to spare no efforts for the overall development academy in fulfilment of the aspiration of the tribal people.

A Barisal court on Wednesday sentenced four persons, including two brothers, to life term imprisonment in a murder case.
   The Barisal Speedy Trial Tribunal also fined Zakir Hossain alias Joy and his brother Titu, Sajjad Bin Faruk alias Moshi and Titu-2 Tk 20,000 each, in default, to suffer one year more rigorous imprisonment.
   During the trial, three other accused persons — Guiter, Wasim and Dipu — were dropped from the charge sheet by the prosecution on January 3, 2004 while trial of Bappi, another main accused was stayed by the order of the High Court in January.
   According to the prosecution, Tanvir Hossain, an HSC student of Patuakhali Government College was attacked by accused persons with sharp weapon at PTI road in the Patuakhali town
   on November 19, 1997 and left him injured critically.
   Tanvir was taken to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital and later he was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   Victim’s father Khorshed Alam filed an attempt to murder case against the accused on November 20, 1997 saying that they had a long conflict with the accused following a land dispute.
   But the case was turned to a murder case when Tanvir died on November 27, 1999.
   The police submitted charge sheet against nine persons on July 2, 2002 after investigation. The case was transferred to the Barisal Speedy Trial Tribunal on March 3, this year.
   After examining 14 witnesses, Tribunal Judge MA Matin handed down the verdict.

A large number of rice mills have been thriving on the cheap labour of woman workers in Narsingdi and Kishoreganj.
   As many 300 boiler rice mills have sprung up at Ashuganj in Narsingdi and 60 at Bhairab in Kishoreganj
   At least 12,000 woman workers toil night and day at these rice mills for a mere daily wage of Tk 15-16.
   They come from the poorest families of Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Barisal, Shariatpur, and Satkhira districts.
   The woman workers usually dry and husk the paddy and pack the husked rice into sacks under the supervision of a head worker.
   Apart from these tasks, they bear the burden of carrying, spreading and boiling the paddy.
   Workers are paid Tk 4.50 for boiled and Tk 6 for ‘Atap’ (sun dried) rice and Tk 7 at handle boilers per maund. With this meagre wage each woman has to maintain four to five dependants leading lives of misery, in damp and derelict shanties.
   Family planning is beyond them and the fertility rate of each of them is minimum of five. These women are often deserted by their husbands when they find it difficult to maintain the family. Yet the children cling around their abandoned mothers.
   Children are deprived of education, sanitation and most die of waterborne diseases like diarrhoea.
   The young women at the mills sometimes fall victim to sexual repression by local hooligans.
   Latifa Begum, Kariman Begum, Asia Khatun, Shamsunnahar, Majeda Begum, and Nurjahan told the news agency that the mill owners make much profit though they sweat for it.
   Extreme hardship forces these young girls to early marriage hoping that jointly they would overcome the problems of life, unfortunately this hope does not see the light of day.
   Mizanur Rahman, owner of Khaja Rice Mill and Vice-president of Kishoreganj district rice mill owners’ association, and Haji Rafiqul Islam, president of Ashuganj rice mill owners’ association admitted the sad plight of the workers.
   They said it was true that the women workers were the most neglected in this industry.
   ‘We are considering their plight and will take steps to improve their standards of living,’ said Rahman.

The Birampur police rescued six children from a restaurant at Birampur near the Dhaka-Dinajpur Highway early Wednesday while they were taken for trafficking into India.
   The police also arrested three persons in this connection with the trafficking.
   The rescued children were identified as Ahad Ali, 12, Sabban, 2, Rabban, 4, Ahsun, 10, Furkan, 9, and Lallu, 8, while the arrestees were Shahadat, 30, Barkat, 45, and Amena alias Baby, 38.
   Sources said the traffickers had brought the children from the Imamganj area of Dhaka alluring them to take on a trip to Rangpur and Saidpur.
   The police said they were investigating the matter.

The police recovered two guns and four rounds of bullets from village Dhamura under the Uzirpur upazila in Barisal on Wednesday morning.
   Abdur Rab, officer-in-charge of the Uzirpur police, said they had arrested Nasir, a local extortionist on Sunday and sent him to jail after failing to extract any information regarding hidden weapons from him.
   Then the police arrested Jahangir, 29, a close associate of Nasir, also son of Abdul Khalek, a member of the local union parishad on Tuesday. According to his confession the arms and ammunition were recovered from the attic of their house.
   Jahangir claimed that Nasir gave him the arms and ammunition to store.
   Sarwar Alam, sub-inspector of the police station, filed a case on September 7 in this connection accusing Jahangir and Nasir.

Panic spread in the Khulna city after two fake bombs were recovered from the Miyapara area under Kotwali police Wednesday morning.
   A note accompanying the prank bombs contained death threats to the city mayor Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, and to the city BNP general secretary, Nazrul Islam Monju.
   Local residents said they informed the police at about 7:00am after seeing two cans of chewing tobacco sealed with red and black tapes in front of the Beg Manjil in the Miyapara area.
   The police rushed to the scene, recovered the objects along with the note of death threats which was addressed to Akram, ordering him to kill the mayor, and to Sohel, ordering him to kill the city BNP general secretary.
   The police said they also recovered a small piece of white cloth on which Monju’s name was written and a cross (x) sign was drawn.
   The anonymous note did not disclose the identity of Akram and Sohel.
   Stone chips were found in the cans after the police opened those in the police station.
   M Akbar Ali, deputy commissioner (headquarters) of the Khulna Metropolitan Police, told New Age that they were investigating the matter.

Absence of a bridge over a canal on the Panhgachi-Jatrapur Road under Kurigram sadar has been hindering the movement of a large number people of the area and plying of all modes of transport.
   Thousands people of Panchgachi-Jatrapur union under sadar, Begumganj union under Ulipur and Noonkhawa union under Nageswari upazilas have to cross the canal everyday to go to different destinations. They cross the canal by boats and rafts.
   But rickshaws, push carts, bullock carts and mechanised vehicles can not use this important road for the absence of a bridge over the canal.
   The canal on the road was created when people of the area cut the road to flow out flood water from their submerged villages a few years ago. The breaches on the road gradually turned into a big canal for lack of repair.

A BDR member was found dead on the Panbari border under Patgram upazila in Lalmonirhat Tuesday night.
   The BDR suspected that Ataur Rahman, 50, a nayek of the Panbari camp under 19 Rifles Battalion, might have been killed by smugglers.
   Ataur left the camp Tuesday morning and did not return till late afternoon.
   The body was sent to the Lalmonirhat General Hospital morgue.

An Indian national was rounded up on charge of infiltration on the Kurigram border on Wednesday.
   He identified himself as Ershad Hossain, 30, of village Keshamat Karla under Dinhata sub-division of Coochbihar district of west Bengal in India.
   According to BDR and police sources, a BDR petrol team found the Indian national on the border area at about 5:00am. Later, he was handed over to the police.