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The two-decade old bus terminal in Patuakhali town has become a nightmare for thousands of waiting passengers because of poor drainage system, dilapidated terminal building and lack of electricity and water.
   Over one hundred buses ply to different destinations in 25 districts everyday from this terminal located near the stadium. Hundreds of passengers gather at the terminal to avail themselves of buses for going to different places.
   Unclean waiting rooms with broken doors, windows, benches and chairs and lack of electricity and water at the terminal building only add to the woes of the passengers.
   The problems of woman passengers are all the more acute. The waiting room for women has gone under the occupation of the bus sramik union a long time ago.
   The waiting room meant for the males has been occupied by the Bus and Minibus Malik Samity.
   The toilets for the passengers have become unworthy of use due to overflowing faeces and offensive smell.
   Rainwater remains stagnant for days together on the premises of the terminal building owing to unplanned drains around it. These drains are unable to carry water quickly in case of heavy rainfall. During the
   rainy season, the passengers are found carrying shoes and sandals in their hands at the time of boarding buses and getting down from them.
   Though the municipality earns Tk three lakh to four lakh every year from the bus terminal it spends no money for improving the passenger services at the terminal, according to some bus owners.
   There has been no progress in the construction of a modern bus terminal on a three-acre plot at the Chowrasta of south-west Kalikapur.
   The foundation stone of the new bus terminal building was laid by the Minister for Local Government, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan in May 2003.
   It was to be built at a cost of Tk 64 lakh. But the contractor, who was selected to build it, abandoned the work for unknown reasons after doing the spadework.
   Fresh tender has been invited for the construction of the bus terminal.
   But the engineers of Patuakhali Municipality could not say when the work would start.

Six persons were killed and 17 injured in separate road accidents in Rajbari, Rangpur and Gazipur on Sunday and Monday.
   Our Gazipur correspondent reports: Two persons died instantly when a train rammed into a tempo at Salna-Sheemultoli Road at Salna crossing under sadar upazila of Gazipur Monday.
   The deceased are Jashim, 35, a sales man and Babul, 35, driver of the tempo. A team of GRP recovered the bodies.
   A BSS report from Rangpur adds: Nilphamari correspondent of the Bangla daily Samakal Saifullah Munna, 35, died on Monday in Rangpur. His wife Israt Jahan Pallabi, 25, and two minor daughters — Anika, 7 and Mugdha, 4, — sustained injuries when a truck hit his motorcycle at Uttam Uttarpara point near Hazirhat in Rangpur Sunday.
   The police with the help of locals sent them to Rangpur Medical College Hospital where Munna died the next day.
   Munna along with his wife and daughters was coming to Nilphamari from Rangpur after his wife’s masters’ examination.
   The Kotwali police seized the truck but its driver and helpers managed to escape the scene.
   The body was sent to the deceased’s village home for burial.
   Three persons were killed and 15 others injured when a bus turned turtle on the Daulatdia-Khulna Highway under Rajbari sadar on Monday, according to a UNB report.
   The police and witnesses said the accident took place when the Dhaka-bound bus from Satkhira hit a truck parked on the roadside at Basantapur Nimtala at about 1:30am, leaving two dead on the spot. Later another one died in Faridpur Sadar Hospital.
   Two of the deceased were identified as Abdul Halim Mollah, 55, and Abdul Aziz Mia hailed from Faridpur. The identity of another deceased could not be known immediately.
   The injured were admitted to Faridpur Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
   The police seized the bus. The bodies were sent to the hospital morgue.
   Separate cases were lodged with the police.

Some 450 extremely poor families under six villages of Rajarhat upazila in Kurigram have been brought under poverty alleviation programme of an NGO.
   With the financial assistance from the UNDP and the South Eastern Medical Device Association the NGO, ‘Thekana Sangstha’ launched a programme to improve the economic condition of the hardcore poor of these villages.
   The villages are located in the region which is visited by ‘Monga’, (near famine condition) almost every year. The poor families included in the poverty alleviation programme are mostly victims of erosion by the River Teesta.
   Under the programme, the poor villagers are being imparted training on income generating activities such as poultry rearing, bee keeping and vegetable production.
   They are encouraged to grow different varieties of vegetable in the fallow lands around their homesteads for sale in the markets and consumption for improving nutritional status.
   High breed seeds were supplied to them to increase the volume of vegetable production.
   They were also given training on apiculture and production of high quality oven.
   Each family was given seven hens and one cock to start poultry farming. Some were given bee boxes for honey collection.
   Many of them are now earning a good amount of profit by selling honey, high quality oven, poultry birds, vegetables and eggs in the markets.

Miscreants hacked a journalist at Mandartola under Harinakundu in Jhenaidah on Sunday.
   Locals said Rezamul, Kader, Lutfar, Motaleb, Shawkat and Anwar of the area hacked M Mahfuz, upazila correspondent of the daily Gramer Khabar, when he was talking to a night guard in front of Mandartola Bridge near his house at about 8:15pm.
   Hearing the screaming of Mahfuz, his neighbours rescued him in a critical state and sent him to Jhenaidah Sadar Hospital.
   Locals suspected that the incident of the attack happened following his write-up on the recent bomb attack at village Amerchara of the upazila.
   After the attack on Mahfuz local journalists at a meeting condemned the attack. A case was filed with the Harinakundu police.

A Gopalganj court on Sunday sentenced a man to life term rigorous imprisonment for killing his wife.
   The court also fined him Tk 20,000, in default,, to suffer three months more in jail.
   The prosecution story said the convict, Safayet Sheikh, 32, of village Manikdah under Gopalganj sadar, hit his wife Kazal, 22, with iron stick following an altercation on June 1, 2003. She was sent to Sadar Hospital in a critical condition where she died on June 3.
   Father of the deceased filed a case with the police in this connection on June 14.
   After examining 16 records and witnesses district and sessions judge Md Murshid Alam handed down the verdict.

Two children drowned at village Char Mollickpur under Lohagora upazila in Narail on Sunday.
   Family sources said Maria, 3, daughter of Milon of village Gobindapur under Lohagora upazila came to her maternal uncle’s home at village Char Mollickpur of the same upazila and was playing with her cousin Fahim, 3, son of Faruque Ahmed, an army person, on a bank of a pond.
   Later, they were found floating on the pond. They were taken to Lohagora Upazila Health Complex where they were declared dead.