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The government on Tuesday asked authorities to strengthen mobile court drives against adulterated and substandard food before the Ramadan.
   ‘The mobile court magistrates must implement the new law against adulterated and substandard food keeping themselves above fear or favour,’ said Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, minister for LGRD and cooperatives, at a meeting at the secretariat.
   He said the government will provide all necessary logistic support to the courts.
   The meeting decided that sanitation inspectors of city corporations and municipalities were to be engaged in the drives, where they will be given magistracy powers.
   Besides, two magistrates at the district level will be given additional powers. Outside the district and municipalities, sanitation inspectors under upazila health officers will also be given magistracy power.
   The meeting also decided to set up modern testing laboratories at divisional and district levels and import testing kits for quickly ascertaining adulteration.
   According to reports of the chief metropolitan magistrates office and the Dhaka City Corporation, submitted in the meeting, 138 persons were sent to jail and 2,885 cases were lodged against 3,461 persons for their involvement in producing and selling adulterated food. A total of 321 mobile courts charged fines of about Tk 1.52 crore 52 between May and September 25.
   The minister congratulated the magistrates engaged in the anti-adulteration drive for their courageous role.
   The first meeting of the National Food Safety Advisory Council was held on Tuesday.
   The meeting, chaired by the chairman of the council, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, discussed different strategies regarding food safety.
   Among others, local government secretary AHM Abul Quashem, establishment secretary ASM Abdul Halim, industries secretary M Nurul Amin, food secretary Muhammad Fazlur Rahman, environment secretary Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury, Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute director general ABM Abdul Haque Chowdhury, Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate Jalal Ahmed and Dhaka City Corporation chief executive officer Saifuddin were present.
   The parliament enacted Bangladesh Pure Food (amendment) Act 2005 amending the 1959 law against adulterated food.

The World Tourism Day was observed in the country as elsewhere on Tuesday.
   Different tourism-related organisations especially those in the private sector held colourful rallies, cultural programmes, food festival, and seminars on travel and tourism.
   This year’s theme of the day is ‘Travel and Transport: From the imagination of Jules Verne to the reality of the 21st century.’ The world tourism organisation had chosen the theme paying tribute to the French visionary and writer, Jules Verne.
   The main objective of the day is to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political, and economic values.
   The Dhaka University Tourist Society organised a rally to mark the day, and also the 10th anniversary of the society. Vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, SMA Faiz, inaugurated the rally on the Teachers-Students Centre premises.
   The society also arranged a documentary film show on tribal society’s lifestyle and different tourism spots at the TSC Road Island in the evening.
   The Sonargaon Hotel organised a daylong food festival and Bangladeshi cultural show at the Café Bazaar Restaurant. Grant J Gaskin, general manager of the hotel, inaugurated the programme in the afternoon.
   Guests were delighted with the taste of cuisines of different Bangladeshi and other foreign countries at the lunch and dinner at the hotel.
   Bangladeshi cultural groups performed live music and dance on the stage at the café while Bangladeshi musical instruments were displayed at the lobby of the hotel.
   Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and Jubak Tourism Limited organised a seminar on role of transportation to develop the tourism at the Parjatan Abakash Hotel.
   The Concord Entertainment Limited offered a four-day special concession for the visitors at Fantasy Kingdom and Heritage Park in Dhaka, and Foy’s Lake in Chittagong from September 27-30. Another amusement park, Nandan, also provided special facilities for its visitors on the day.

The Rapid Action Battalion will start gathering intelligence about criminals on from October 3. The battalion will begin regular vigilance from October 6 to contain the law and order situation under control for the next few months.
   This was discloses at a meeting on Tuesday regarding law and order of Khulna and Barishal divisions at the conference room of Khulna deputy commissioner’s office.
   The next few months will feature a number of festivals and important events including the two Durga Puja, Eid-ul-Fitr, Shab-e-Qadr, SAARC Summit, Victory Day and Christmas.
   Vigilance will be strengthened at public places, terminals and stations to avoid any untoward incident during the period, said sources at the meeting.
   Besides the battalion’s activities, five Ansar members and three policemen will be deployed at every temple during the puja beginning October 9.
   A combined operation of different law enforcing agencies will be launched soon to prevent piracy.
   Drive against food adulteration will also be strengthened during Ramadan.
   The state minister for home, Lutfozzaman Babar, attended the meeting. The cabinet secretary, Saadat Hussain and home secretary Safar Raj Hossain were also present.
   According to sources at the meeting, Babar directed that extortion in the transport sector should be stopped and should punish those involved.
   He also directed to make profiles of all bombers and outlaws so that they can be identified easily and arrested.
   After the meeting, Babar said at a press briefing at the circuit house, he has sternly directed the top officials to make sure that high profile attacks like that of August 17 may not occur.
   The ongoing drive of the law enforcing agencies will continue and security measures will be beefed up during the next few months, he said.
   At the briefing, he also said he heard about the problems from the district police and administrative officials and discussed about solutions.

Mobin earns a salary of Tk 20,000 per month. But the motorbike he wants to buy, costs Tk 1,00,000. He now needs to arrange the money. Under the My Loan scheme of HSBC he can borrow as much as Tk 80,000 — four times his salary. But that is only half the picture.
   Suppose he borrows Tk 50,000. If he decides to pay the loan back in a year, he will have to pay the bank Tk 4,584 every month. However, he can also choose to pay back the amount in a maximum of three years. In that case, he will have to pay Tk 1,808 every month, or Tk 2,497 a month for a two-year scheme.
   The motorbike loan is a part of My Loan scheme of HSBC that offers loans for a number of purposes including home loans to build, buy or renovate a house, car loan, travel loan, student loan, professional loan, furniture loan, wedding loan, lifestyle loan and even a loan to convert your car into CNG, called the CNG conversion loan.
   If eligible, the smallest loan one could take is Tk 30,000 and the maximum amount could be as high as Tk 1 crore in the case of the Home Loan.
   For eligibility, you do not require any personal guarantee or cash security. The bank only requires a minimum salary earning for a few of the loans, and proper documentation regarding the product to be bought.
   You can draw money up to four times your monthly salary, take as much as three years (in the case of home loan 15 years) to pay back the money, pay a processing fee, and pay back the money at an interest rate of 14 per cent.
   Now, if you happen to visit the HSBC MY Loan fair beginning today at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Centre, you can take out a loan from any of these schemes on the spot. If you do not have the paperwork at hand, you can at least find out in a couple of hours whether you are eligible for a loan based on the information you provide.
   Also, if you take out the loan from the fair, there will be no processing fee and as a bonus the bank will discount the interest rate by one percent.
   Furthermore, there will be 45 establishments in 80 stalls, including Rangs Auto, Rahimafrooz Distribution, Pacific Furniture, Partex Group, Hayes & Haier and Executive Motors where one could buy products immediately after taking out the loan.
   The fair will be open from 10:00am till 9:00pm till Friday. To add more colour, there will be two laser shows every evening at 7:30pm and 8:30pm as well as a children’s art competition on Friday.

Mobile operator CityCell recently signed an agreement with Disability Feeding Project, based at the Dhaka Shishu Hospital to provide funds for helping children with disabilities who find it difficult to eat and drink.
   Chris Maloy, chief executive officer of CityCell and Melanie Adams, project manager of disability feeding project signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
   The project based involves working both at home and hospital, training mothers in dietary requirements of their children.
   If the project shows significant benefits for children and their mothers, the organisers intend to promote it service for disabled children and their mothers across the country.

The Speedy Trial Tribunal, Chittagong on Tuesday sentenced three persons to death and three others to life term imprisonment for killing Shafiqul Alam Bablu, a Chittagong city unit leader of Jatiyatabadi Chatra Dal.
   Seven others were acquitted of the charge.
   Mohammad Hasan Imam, judge of the tribunal, declared the verdict in a packed courtroom under tight security.
   Abdul Kader Mashud, Abdul Malek Shohel, and Mohammed Jahangir were sentenced to die and Saber Ahmed Tarjan, Lutfur Rahman, and Mohammed Absar were sentenced to life term imprisonment.
   The court also fined the lifers with Tk 10,000 each, in default they are to suffer two more years in prison.
   Tarjan, Lutfur, Absar, and Jahangir were tried in absentia.
   The acquitted are Abdur Rashid Titu, Kamruzzaman Chowdhury, Rashed, Moham-med Hassan, Mohammed Jamal, Kamrul, and Mansur.
   Of the 14 accused in the case, the trial of Tinku Dash remains pending following an order of the High Court.

The engineering and computer science faculty of the Independent University, Bangladesh has introduced a special day called SECS Open DAYZ to popularise computer literacy among students and visitors to this event.
   The day will be an annual program of events to be organised by the Club of Engineering and Computer Science.
   This year the day was observed for the first time inaugurated by the vice-chancellor, Professor Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, on Sunday at the Baridhara campus.
   The inauguration ceremony was followed by a computer game show. A number of students precipitated in it.
   The organiser faculty director, Professor Mohammed Anwer, took part in a question-answer programme.
   The day long programme ended with a sizzling cultural show performed by the students.

The Chittagong Youth Form, Dhaka awarded meritorious students of Chittagong residing in Dhaka at the National Press Club on Monday. Twenty students, who got GPA-5 in the last SSC examination, were awarded crests, books and certificates.
   The state minister for environment and forest, Jafrul Islam Chowdhury MP, was present as chief gets on the occasions. He said merit has no alternative in the progress of a nation. Adviser of the Central Insurance Company Azizul Hoque Chowdhury, managing director of Takaful Islami Insurance Company KAM Ferdouse, editor of Toitumbur Salima Sabi, publisher Syed Zakir Hossain, Banaskahali Proshaba chairman Kamrul Islam, Dr Sukumar Boraura, Anamul Hoque Chowdhury were also present.
   The ceremony was presided over by Md Abdul Halini, president of the forum, while general secretary Kamruddin Ahmed delivered the welcome speech.

The largest ever BCS computer show ended Tuesday at the Bashundhara Shopping Complex. The show had nearly one lakh visitors, said organisers of the Bangladesh Computer Samity.
   Visitors’ interest was on latest technology in computer hardware, software, and internet, they said.
   Industry insiders said this year home users featured prominently at the show and in multimedia, notebooks and palm tops. Clients from small enterprises and corporates were interested in multipurpose technology like printer-photocopier, latest servers, and wireless internet connections.
   The show began on September 22 and 104 companies participated in the fair.
   A total of 10 seminars were held during show on topics ranging from computer hardware and software to digital world and telecom technology.
   The Samity organised the expo to raise enthusiasm among the public and organisers it was successful. They also held a contest for website in Bangla language to promote the language.

Founder of Hawkers Kalyan Bahumukhi Samabay Samity Fazlur Rahman died at Comilla Adhunik Hospital on September 21. He was 75.
   He was buried at his Bangpai village home under Chouddagram in Comilla.
   He is survived by three sons and five daughters.
   A condolence meeting presided over by the Samity founder president, Sayed Md Ismail, was held at the Samity central office.
   One of the founders of the Samity Md Ishak, adviser Kazi Mainuddin Bashar, general secretary Jalal Ahmed, accountant Mohammad Ali, among others, spoke on the occasion.
   The Samity vice-president, Mofizur Rahman, general secretary Abu Taher, adviser Abu Said Mollah expressed their deep shock at the death of Fazlur Rahman and extended their sympathy to the bereaved family members.

Pir held for forging money
The Rapid Action Battalion members detained a pir, Belayet Hossain, from the Dhaka city’s Sabujbagh area Monday night for making counterfeit currency notes and exploiting innocent people. Official sources said a RAB 10 team raided a house, Dhansiri Kutir, at East Maniknagar at about 9:15pm and held him. The team seized four bundles of white paper cutting in the size of Tk 500 denominations and some passports from the house. The officials said the said pir was engaged in sending people abroad in exchange of Tk 5 to 7 lakh and later exploited. When the victims ask for their money, the pir used to give them forged bank cheques. The pir was being interro-gated, the officials added.

Police DIG leaves for Liberia as UN official
AKM Mahfuzul Haque, deputy inspector general of police Sylhet range, will leave for Liberia today to join as a planning coordinator of the United Nations. Earlier, Mahfuz worked with the UN peace missions in Haiti and the former Yugoslavia. Joining as an assistant superintendent of police in 1986, he served as superintendent of police in Pirojpur, Kishoreganj and Jhenidah and as deputy commissioner of police in the Dhaka metropolis. He was also the addition DIG in Chittagong and Rajshahi range.

Port mobile court realises Tk 1.5 crore
The Chittagong port magistracy on Tuesday in an evection drive in the Firingi Bazar Ferryghat area of the city recovered 15 kathas of the River Karnafulli bank from illegal occupants and realised Tk 1.5 lakh as fine from five encroachers. The magistrate, Monir Chowdhury, recovered the land demolishing 15 installations, including the office of Firingi Bazar Labor Union. The court also seized 20 thousand of bamboos, which the traders kept there for sale.

RU students put barricade on highway
Agitated students of Rajshahi University put barricade on the Rajshahi-Dhaka Highway for three hours from noon on Tuesday and assaulted transport workers. Campus sources said four students of Bangla department of the university started for Rajshahi in a bus of Hanif transport Sunday noon from Dhaka. As the bus reached Rajshahi late, the students roughed up the bus staff and complaint it to the Rajshahi bus counter manger. Failing to get solutions, Tuesday noon, the students of staged demonstration on the Rajshahi-Dhaka High way at noon and put barricade at the university main gate.
— New Age