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A large number of blocks of footpath and some portions of city roads, constructed by the Roads and Highways Department under the Dhaka Urban Transport Project, subsided recently.
   Such a situation has been causing problems for pedestrians as the authorities concerned have not repaired the footpath or the roads.
   The roads and footpaths were constructed under the Dhaka Urban Transport Project of about $140 million.
   The project was completed in June by the Dhaka City Corporation and the Roads and Highways Department.
   The footpaths and roads at places subsided for lack of maintenance by the Roads and Highway Department, said a city corporation official. ‘Roads at many places have also got damaged.’
   ‘We have made several requests, orally and in writing, to the Roads and Highway Department for an immediate repair, but the department has not taken any step till now,’ he said.
   Another corporation official said they had sent a letter to the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board on September 5 to convene an emergency meeting between the authorities concerned.
   The footpaths subsided near the Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical Univeristy footbridge on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, near the market on the New Elephant Road, in front of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Office at the Kakrail crossing, near the Science Laboratory, near the police box at the Science Laboratory, from Kataban to the Hatirpool crossing, to the south of Kadam Chattar, to the north of the Pir Yemeni Market, at Matsya Bhaban, and near Purta Bhaban.
   Blocks subsided on the Rampura Road at many places; the noses of medians were not constructed properly at many places; some portions of the road and blocks on footpath from Malibagh level crossing to Mouchak subsided.
   Paving blocks subsided from the Malibagh Supermarket to Mostafa Stadium (Janapath Sarak). Some paving blocks at the Khilgaon community centre went missing.
   Paving blocks also subsided at places of Basabo, from the Khilgaon crossing to Lucky Saw Mill, from the Fakirapool crossing to Bangabhaban, on the Khilgaon Road, on Kamalapur Station Road, from Nightingale to Fakirapool Bazar on the Inner Circular Road.
   No work of footpath was done in front of the Muktijoddha Sangsad at Khilgaon and near Khilgaon Jorapukur.
   Carpeting became damaged on both sides from the Malibagh crossing to Kamalapur railway staiton, and at the Chanmari crossing.
   One or two places of the road from the Malibagh crossing to Kamalapur railway station also subsided.
   The Janapath Road from Narayanganj to Kamalapur bus stand developed cracks.

Five mobile courts raided sweetmeat shops and restaurants, including Fu-Wang Foods Ltd, in Dhaka, fined them Tk 3,55,800 and filed 210 cases on Tuesday.
   A court, led by magistrate Rokon-ud-Doulah, inspected Fu-Wang Foods at Tejgaon and Topkapi, a Turkish restaurant at Gulshan.
   The court found some food items with crossed expiry dates and filed two cases against Fu-Wang officials. The court fined a company official, Dulal Chandra Roy, Tk 1 lakh.
   The court also issued a rule against the owner, Shu Chin Hua, on charge of selling substandard food items.
   The court filed a rule against Topkapi owner Nadim Mostafa Ali and filed a case against him under the Dhaka City Corporation ordinance for keeping the kitchen filthy and selling substandard food.
   Another court, led by magistrate ABM Abul Fattah, inspected four confectioners and a chanachur factory at Mirpur 11 and Pallabi.
   It found substandard cakes, biscuits and filthy environment. The court fined the confectioners Tk 1,45,000 and filed five cases.
   A court led by magistrate Syed Muzibul Haque inspected sweetmeat shops and restaurants at Lakshmibazar and Sutrapur and realised Tk 32,000 in fine. Eight cases were filed.
   The court found the kitchen filthy. Some shops had toilets inside the factory. The court fined Nandita Mishtanna Bhandar Tk 5,000.
   The court raided Gaus Pak Five Star Hotel, Café Badar, Khandakar Tea House, Seven-Eleven Mishtanna Bhandar and Al-Aksa Sweets and Bakery Shop at Loharpool of Sutrapur and fined them Tk 5,000 each. The court fined Café Badsha Tk 2,000.
   The Dhaka City Corporation court, led by magistrate Mokhtar Ahmed, inspected three restaurants at Dhanmondi and Gulshan and fined them Tk 40,800.
   The court found burnt edible oil and essence used in the cooking foods. The court fined Saad Tehari at Dhanmondi Tk 20,400 and Lemon Grass and Summer Can at Gulshan Tk 20,400.
   The fifth court, led by magistrate Mizanur Rahman, inspected four restaurants at Kafrul and fined them Tk 38,000. Four cases were filed.

A Chittagong City Corporation mobile court on Tuesday fined three confectioners and six restaurants Tk 2.31 lakh and sealed one confectioner on charge of selling unhygienic food.
   The court, led by magistrate Sayeda Sarwar Jahan, raided Chattala Bakery at Jogi Chand Lane of Paschim Maderbari and fined it Tk 75,000 for producing food without the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution approval.
   The court fined Master Bakery Tk 55,000 and Pragati Bakery Tk 30,000 for not having manufacturing and expiry dates on the packets of its breads and biscuits.
   The court sealed off Ananda Bakery for selling substandard food and keeping the factory dirty.
   The court then raided Zaman Restaurant at Fakir Hat and fined it Tk 20,000 for keeping the kitchen dirty.
   The court fined Oriental Hotel Tk 30,000, Darbar Hotel Tk 10,000, Madina Hotel Tk 5,000, Al Monir Hotel Tk 3,000 and Al Darbar Hotel Tk 3,000 for selling unhygienic food.

The government has taken up a Tk 15.55-crore project to computerise Bangladesh Railway signalling system on important routes, especially Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet.
   The project will be implemented with financial assistance from South Korea. An agreement was signed between South Korea and Bangladesh at the communications ministry on Tuesday.
   The additional director general (infrastructure) of the Bangladesh Railway, M Abdullah, and team leader of Korea’s railway system business, Jae Joon Han, signed the deal.
   The minister for communications, Nazmul Huda, and the Korean ambassador, Park Seong Ung, were present.
   The Akhaura railway junction will be developed. The signalling and interlocking systems of the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet routes will be computerised, ministry officials said. The Akhaura bypass will also be developed.
   A ministry official said travel time would be reduced by least by two hours on the Dhaka-Chittagong route and by one hour on the Dhaka-Sylhet route after the project is completed. The project is expected to be completed in the current financial year.

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority drive against bill defaulters in the capital city continued on Tuesday, but not without some difficulty faced in the form of questions raised about transparency of the agency’s billing.
   The drive for realising the arrear bills started from 31/F Topkhana Road by disconnecting the water supply line of the sixstorey building.
   As the owner of the building Aftab Uddin was not present, the court filed a certificate case against the owner. The notice delivered by the court said in 15 days the property will be confiscated unless the owner pays the bill in 24 hours.
   When the court read out the notice to the tenants and ordered them to leave the spot within 7 days, some of the tenants burst out in anger for the involvement of the WASA officials in letting the bill reach Tk 34 lakh.
   ‘What was WASA doing when a single bill reached to Tk 34 lakh in 12 years, there must be a huge corruption by the WASA officials as well,’ said a tenant.
   The building houses a hotel, and a number of different offices including the office of a major leftist political party.
   Chief revenue officer of WASA, Hafiz Uddin, said water supply to the building had been discontinued once earlier and the tenants had been notified to pay the bill several times.
   When the mobile court led by magistrate Quazi Wasiuddin went to realise a bill amounting Tk 6 lakh from the city’s Cosmos Centre, a multi-storey building that houses many corporate offices including the office of a leading news agency, they were grilled by the building management for not bringing to book ‘WASA’s corrupt officials’ who have long been issuing fake bills without reading the meter.
   Although the mobile court alleged that there had also been lack of proper initiative from the owner of the Cosmos Centre, the magistrate with an instant notice reduced the bill to Tk 2 lakh on the basis of average monthly bills, and realised it on the spot.
   A WASA official said it has become very difficult for them to realise some unpaid big amounts such as the bill of Tk 8.0 crore from the Hotel Purbani in Motijheel.
   ‘It was the biggest mistake to let the bill increase’, he said.
   It is also tough for the mobile court to realise the arrear bills from the defaulters who are current or former lawmakers.
   The list of defaulters includes a number of members of the parliament, and a newspaper, the ownership of which is currently being disputed in the court.
   Quazi Wasiuddin said the WASA authorities have taken a strong step to realise all the unpaid bills by any means necessary.
   Answering to a query he said the court is also trying to realise the unpaid bills from the influential quarters and they have been notified.
   Already an influential person made a payment of Tk 12 lakh recently after the operation had started on August 23, he said without disclosing the name of the person.
   The mobile court also disconnected the pipeline of the holding no 71/1 on the Outer Circular Road for an unpaid bill of Tk 8.5 lakh. From the holding no 70 in the same area it realised Tk 1.50 lakh out of the unpaid bill of Tk 3 lakh.

The minister for information, M Shamsul Islam, in Dhaka on Tuesday said Bangladesh is now much ahead in hygienic coverage among South Asian countries.
   Speaking at a roundtable on the ‘role of media in attaining 100 per cent sanitation by 2010,’ he called on all to work together to attain 100 per cent hygienic sanitation coverage.
   The Media and Communication Committee of the National Sanitation Taskforce of the LGRD and cooperatives ministry, the Forum of Environmental Journalists Bangladesh and the Unit for Policy Implementation organised the discussion, chaired by the National Press Club president and News Today editor Reazuddin Ahmed. It was moderated by FEJB chairman Quamrul Islam Chowdhury.
   Shamsul Islam said Afganistan, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan have targeted to achieve 50 per cent sanitation coverage by 2010. But Bangladesh has already attained 59 per cent hygienic sanitation coverage by June 2005.
   Reazuddin said Dhaka’s sewerage system must be improved and an efficient delivery system for supplying sanitary latrines to poor families must be ensured.

The University of Rajshahi decided to stop taking students on player and artist quota in first year bachelor’s course.
   The senate at a meeting on Monday made the decision. The vice-chancellor, Altaf Hossain, presided at the meeting, attended by the pro-vice-chancellor, Mamnunul Keramat, registrar Abdus Salam, student adviser Jahid Hassan and other high officials.
   Sources in the university administration said 40 students are admitted to bachelor’s course every year on player and artist quota; and complaints of nepotism and corruption has become common regarding the selection.

The day-long student strike called by the Rajshahi University Chhatra League and the Progressive Students’ Alliance to press home their four-point demands, passed off peacefully on Tuesday.
   Five applied maths students arrested earlier on charge of vandalism were released on bail.
   The Chhatra League and the alliance brought out several processions. No classes or examinations were held.
   No university buses plied because of roadblock.
   More policemen were deployed on the campus during the strike, but no untoward incident was reported.
   The demands included the release of the five students arrested earlier, withdrawal of cases filed against them, an end to classroom and other problems and end to autocratic behaviour of the university administration.

The Chittagong customs on Tuesday deposited Saudi riyal worth about Tk 1.85 crore, seized from a Dubai-bound flight at Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport, with the Bangladesh Bank.
   Customs officials said they had deposited 10 lakh Saudi riyals with the Chittagong branch of the central bank in the morning.
   The authorities seized the Saudi currency, stuffed in a handbag, from a Dubai-bound Bangladesh Biman aircraft, which came from Saudi Arabia after a stop-over at Zia international Airport in Dhaka, at about 10:00pm on Monday.
   The officials said they had failed to arrest anyone as no one claimed the ownership of the bag.

The Pizza Hut opened its branch at the GEC crossing in Chittagong on Monday. The branch has over 120 seats.
   The Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, sent a message on the occasion.
   The Transcom Foods Limited chairman and managing director, Latifur Rahman, inaugurated the outlet.
   He said, ‘We hope that we will get similar support from the people of Chittagong that we have got from millions of people in Dhaka.’

The University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh held a seminar on ‘career prospects of ICT education in Bangladesh’ on its campus on Saturday.
   Founder chairman of the Dhaka University computer science department M Lutfor Rahman attended the seminar as the keynote speaker.
   The vice-chancellor, Rafiqul Islam, presided at the seminar. BASIS president Sarwar Alam and BJIT project manager Manjurul Karim spoke.
   The keynote speaker highlighted the potential for ICT education.

The American Biographical Institute, Inc has nominated Professor Md Suhrab Ali, a biochemist and medical scientist, for inclusion in the Premier Edition of International Directory of Experts and Expertise to be published in 2006 from Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
   Professor Ali will be conferred the Diploma of Expertise Plaque as a reminder of the inclusion in the Contemporary Who’s Who.
   Professor Ali is currently serving as the dean of health sciences faculty of the State University of Bangladesh.

The qul khwani of the late Suraiya Khanam Choudhury will be held in her Apurba residence 5/F, Road 104, Apt no-A-1/5 (first floor), Gulshan 1 on September 16 after the asr prayers.
   Suraiya Khanam died of old-age complications on September 10 in a local hospital.
   She was wife of Imamuddin Ahmed Choudhury, former commerce adviser of the caretaker government.
   She is survived by her husband, only son Niaz A Choudhury and a daughter.
   Relatives, friends and well-wishers are requested to attend the qul khwani and pray for salvation of the departed soul.

Sten Le Berrigaud joined the Alliance Française, Chittagong as director on Saturday. He is from Bretagne in France.
   He began his career as a cultural coordinator and French language teacher at the Alliance Française, Delhi and he later became director of the Alliance Française de Bhopal in India.
   He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in teaching French as a foreign language, M Phil in American studies and MBA from Sorbonne University.

Tk 1 lakh for ailing Mujibur Rahman
The government gave Tk 1 lakh from the Prime Minister’s Fund for the treatment of actor Mujibur Rahman Dilu, now under treatment in BIRDEM Hospital. The state minister for cultural affairs, Begum Selima Rahman on Tuesday handed over a cheque for the amount to Mujibur’s family at the hospital. Mujibur Rahman suffers from Guillain-Barré syndrome, said a handout. Doctors said Mujibur was recovering.
— UNB

Workshop on children’s rights
Dhaka ward commissioners on Tuesday vowed to work for the rights and rehabilitation of street children in cooperation with the non-governmental organisations. The ongoing programmes for street children will be benefited if ward commissioners are involved, they said. Aprajeyo Bangladesh organised the workshop for the ward commissioners on their responsibilities for children’s rights. Ten ward commissioners joined the workshop and shared their experiences. The organisation protects street children, provide them with formal and non-formal education and place them on jobs.
— New Age

CPB slates fuel
price hike
The Khulna district Communist Party of Bangladesh held rallies and brought out processions in the city on Tuesday to press home for its 11-point demands. The demands include reduction of fuel prices, measures against Islamist forces, and overthrow of the BNP-led alliance government. The rallies were held at five places. The leaders said Bangladesh is now facing a crisis and only a left democratic force can save it. .
— New Age

Sit-in against Indian river-linking project
The Khulna unit Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association staged a sit-in demonstration at the Picture Palace crossing in the city on Tuesday in protest at the Indian river-linking project. Khulna BELA adviser Firoz Ahmed, Zafar Imam, Wahidur Rahman, Mahfuzur Rahman Mukul, Khalid Hossain, Alamgir Hossain Lavlu, Mahendranath Sen, Subrata Kundu, Mehedi Hasan and GM Shahajahan spoke. The speakers said the river-linking project would obstruct the flow of 37 rivers of Bangladesh.
— New Age

35 vessels
fined in Ctg
The Chittagong port magistracy on Tuesday and Monday fined 35 inland vessels Tk 4 lakh. The regular mobile court, led by magistrate Monir Chowdhury, fined 18 vessels on charge tax evasion, 9 on charge of overloading, six on charge of crossing the sea illegally, 1 on charge of improper loading and 1 on charge of flouting berthing law.
— New Age

Workshop on atomic technical cooperation
A two-day national training workshop on planning and management of international technical cooperation project began in the auditorium of the Atomic Energy Centre in Dhaka on Tuesday.
— New Age