Main Page «
Front Page «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Commuters had to negotiate severe traffic jam and shortage of public transport, as the police put barricades at key points in the capital city to contain a sit-in by the Awami League-led alliance of opposition political parties on Wednesday.
   There were restrictions on movement between the Mohakhali crossing and the Shaheed Jahangir gate of the cantonment, Bijay Sarani and the aeroplane crossing, Roquiah Sarani and the Shishu Mela crossing at Shyamoli and the eastern side of the Mohammadiya supermarket via Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi 27 (old) and Square Hospital on Panthapath and the Shelley crossing via the Hotel Sundarban crossing, Free School street and the Tongi diversion road up to the Rainbow crossing through the Bangla Motor link road and the Moghbazar intersection, and between the Satrastar Mor and Mohakhali through the Nabisco crossing.
   People had to wait for hours and even walk a long way because of tailbacks on Mirpur Road, Shahbagh, Rampura Road, Shantinagar, Mouchak and Motijheel, and fewer-than-usual public transports.
   Many educational institutions were closed because of the opposition political programme while others either suspended classes due to or had to do with poor attendance.
   A resident of Uttara said it had taken him to reach Moghbazar from Uttara in the morning. ‘All the buses from Uttara, Tongi, Gazipur and Abdullahpur had to take Rampura Road because of the police barricades.’
   A resident of Pallabi said he had to spend an additional one hour and a half on the road. ‘I had to walk about three kilometres because of the barricades.’
   A man, who had come from Kishoreganj at around 11:30am and was to go to Mirpur, remained stranded at Gulistan for over an hour. ‘There is no bus and I don’t have enough money to hire a rickshaw or a CNG-run auto rickshaw.’
   Meanwhile, attendance at different public and private was lower than usual.

The Dhaka Zoo is planning to open an education centre on its premises to create awareness among the visitors of wildlife conservation.
   The authorities have submitted a proposal to the finance ministry seeking budget allocation for the centre.
   Such a centre will be new for the keepers at the zoo, visitors and wildlife lovers in Bangladesh.
   If the programme becomes successful at the Dhaka Zoo, the biggest of the zoos in Bangladesh visited by 30 lakh people a year, it will be replicated in other zoos, said a Dhaka Zoo official.
   Veterinary surgeon Selim Iqbal at the zoo told New Age the centre would initially begin with education programmes by distributing leaflets, posters, organising talk show and workshops for the children.
   ‘The programme will gradually be more systematic and planned on the model of international programmes which have been successfully implemented in developed countries,’ he said.
   ‘Zoos can play an important role in creating awareness among the people of the importance of wildlife conservation required for ecology. Visitors who look at the animals in the cages will be educated so that they can also love animals and realise their importance.’
   Conservation, education, research and recreation are the key characteristics of a zoo, and the educational role of zoos will be socially, environmentally and culturally relevant, he said.
   Now many students and researchers from the department of veterinary and the animal husbandry of the Bangladesh Agricultural University, department of the zoology of Dhaka University and other universities and veterinary colleges visit the zoo during internship.
   The authorities are not appointing any specialists for the education programme of the centre. They are planning to conduct the programmes with the existing human resources.
   ‘This will be our additional duty as we have no plans as yet to appoint any experts or teachers for the job,’ said Shahzaman Khan Tuhin, nutrition officer of the zoo.
   The programme will include all the visitors, not only the students, said Selim. The visitors will be educated on how to protect endangered species and behaviour towards wildlife.
   There will be a special session for a specific school every week where children will be given lessons on wildlife.

A mobile court on Wednesday detected two diagnostic labs to be running with fake physicians, gynaecologists and unskilled technicians.
   The courts ordered to close down one of the labs and jailed a person for six months on charge of obstructing the functioning of the mobile court.
   Twelve mobile courts conducted drives in Dhaka on Wednesday. The courts filed 20 cases and fined the offenders Tk 4.12 lakh.
   Magistrate Saiful Islam found Sandhani Diagnostic Centre at Mirpur Section 10 to be running without a hygienic medical waste disposal system, and skilled radiographers and lab attendants. The court fined the lab
   Tk 35,000.
   The magistrate seized some blank pathology reports, already signed by a pathologist.
   The court also inspected the Fairs Doctors Chamber at Pallabi and found the centre to be running without licence. The court found one Dr Fatima, which no required degree, to be handling gynaecological cases. The court fined the centre
   Tk 40,000 and filed a case against it.
   Magistrate Nazmul Ahsan Majumdar in a raid on Badda found the Safe Diagnostic and Medical Centre at Kuril to be running with no trained technicians.
   The court seized some blank pathology reports already signed by physicians. The court found one Abul Hossain, who studied up to Class IV, to be working as radiographer. The court ordered to close down the centre.
   The court raided Maa o Shishu Clinic Ltd at Gulshan and Modern Nursing Home at Khilbarirtek. The court fined the clinic Tk 20,000 as it used injections with crossed expiry dates.
   Magistrate Alamgir Mohammad Mansurul Alam found reagents with crossed expiry dates to have been used at Basic Diagnostic Centre at Basabo. The centre was fined Tk 20,000 and a case was filed against it.
   Magistrate Tapan Kumar Biswas found the environment unhygienic inside a Chinese restaurant and a duty-free warehouse at Gulshan. The court fined them Tk 38,000.
   Magistrate Rafiqul Islam at Sutrapur fined some restaurants Tk 55,000 on charge of selling substandard and keeping kitchens unhygienic.
   Magistrate Fazlul Haque fined a sweetmeat shop at the Jurain level-crossing Tk 50,000 and a bakery at Jatrabari Tk 10,000. The court jailed one Masum for six months on charge of creating obstruction to the court functions.
   Magistrate Rezwan Hayat at filed nine cases and realised Tk 76,000 in fines after in had inspected a hospital and some restaurants at Uttara.
   Magistrate Abu Sayeed Mohammad Noman found environment unhygienic and burnt cooking oil in use by some restaurants at Paltan and Motijheel. The court filed four cases and fined them Tk 50,000.
   Magistrate Faisal Shah found the environment unhygienic in some restaurants at Bangabazar. The court fined them Tk 10,000 and filed two cases.
   Magistrate Rashidul Hasan found a restaurant environment dirty near Azimpur Chhapra Masjid, filed a case and fined it
   Tk 3,000.
   Magistrate Abdus Sabur Chowdhury inspected a community centre at Dhanmondi and found it to be running without city corporation approval. The court filed a case and fined it Tk 5,000.

Several hundred botany students of Rajshahi University staged a two-hour sit-in demonstration in front of the administrative building on Wednesday, demanding immediate removal of Professor Nurul Amain.
   The teacher allegedly sexually abused a fourth-year female student of the department inside the laboratory on April 7 and the student lodged a complaint with the department chair, seeking action.
   The students gave a warning if the accused was not removed, they would boycott all classes and examinations for an indefinite period.
   The students will form a human chain today in front of the central library as part of the movement.
   The authorities formed a seven-member inquiry committee, headed by science dean Professor Abul Hashem and asked it to submit the report in a week.
   The Progressive Students Alliance and the university unit Chhatra League staged separate demonstrations on the campus to push for the demand.

Five-day Cyber Fair 2006 is scheduled to begin on April 26 at the Bhasani Novo Theatre in Dhaka. The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, is expected to inaugurate the fair.
   ‘For the first time almost all the IT organisations including the Bangladesh Computer Samity, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, Internet Service Providers’ Association of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Computer Council — are taking part in the fair,’ Ashfaquddin Mamun, general secretary of the Cyber Café Owners’ Association of Bangladesh, said.
   A browsing centre with 120 personal computers will be installed at the fair. There will be a gaming zone.
   The organisers will provide the visitors with free Internet browsing facilities and there will be quiz contests for visitors.
   Sources said 64 organisations would join the fair with a display of latest hardware, software and accessories.
   Channel i, daily Jugantar and the Daily Star will be media partners.

The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit will hold a memorial meeting for the late Syed Imtiaz Ahmed, an assistant professor of international relations department at Dhaka University, in the business studies faculty conference room at 11:00am on Saturday.
   The late Imtiaz was a member of the general body of the RMMRU and a founding member of the Young Researchers’ Forum.

A trust fund named Dr MA Naser Trust Fund was introduced at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to offer scholarship for poor, meritorious students of the university.
   The wife of the late Professor Dr MA Naser, former vice-chancellor of the university, handed over a cheque for Tk 15 lakh to Professor Md Alee Murtuza, vice-chancellor of the university on Wednesday at the latter’s office.
   Five students will receive the scholarship every year from undergraduate level for four years.
   Two of the scholarships will remain reserved for students of the chemical engineering department from which one will be reserved for a female student.
   The remaining three scholarships will be open to students of all other departments, from which one will go to a female student.
   Former vice-chancellor of the univeristy Professor Emeritus Iqbal Mahmud, Professor AKMA Quader, Professor Dil Afroza Begum, Dr Zahid Hossain Khan, Naeem Hasan Khan, Md Shahjahan and KM Anisur Rahman Khan were, among others, present at the ceremony.

The Diabetic Association of Bangladesh will hold the Diabetic Samity lottery 2006 draw at the BIRDEM auditorium at 3:00pm.
   Kazi Manuwarul Huq, secretary of the Social Welfare Ministry, will be present at the programme as chief guest.
   The judges of the draw will be Pubali Bank managing director Khandakar Ibrahim Khaled and additional secretary of health and family welfare ministry Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, chairperson of the computer science and engineering department of BUET Professor Md Mashrur Ali and the City Bank Limited managing director Abbas Uddin Ahmed.

The Khulna City Corporation arranged an adolescent girls’ rally at Shaheed Hadis Park in the city Wednesday morning under the project of municipality slum and suburb project to make the girls aware about health.
   Hundreds of girls from different slums of the city and suburbs joined the rally opened by KCC ward commissioner Moniruzzaman Khan Khokon at 10:00am.

Rain or thunder shower accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at a few places over the Barisal and Chittagong divisions and at one or two places over the remaining divisions till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office in a forecast on Wednesday.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged during the period. The highest temperature on Wednesday, 35.0 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Chittagong and the lowest, 18.4 degrees Celsius, at Saidpur.
   The sun sets in the capital city at 6:22pm today and will rise at 5:32am on Friday.

A minor boy, who was missing since Wednesday morning, was found dead at an under-construction building at Pallabi area in Dhaka in the evening.
   The victim was identified as Mohammad Sumon, 8, son of Mohammad Ismail Mia of Jamaler Slum in Rupnagar residential area under Pallabi police station.
   According to the family members of the victim, Sumon was missing from 10:00am.
   Later, the slaughtered body of the boy was found in an under construction building in Rupnagar at about 5:00pm.
   The Rapid Action Battalion members arrested Ratan, a 13-year old boy soon after recovering the body in connection with the murder.
   The victim’s father filed a case with the police.

The comprehensive research universities are playing a vital role in offering quality education, said Professor Jeffrey Sean Lehman during a lecture session on ‘the role of transnational university in the 21st century’ at the BRAC Centre Inn in the capital on Monday.
   The BRAC University and the Asian University for Women Support Foundation organised the lecture session.
   Jeffrey Sean Lehman, professor of law and former president at Cornell University, is currently a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington DC and president of the Joint Centre for China-US Law and Policy Studies at Peking University and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
   Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, pro-vice-chancellor of the BRAC University, introduced Professor Lehman while Kamal Ahmed, vice-chancellor of the Asian University for Women Support Foundatin spoke on the occasion.

A three-daylong workshop on ‘capacity building of the grassroots level organisers of the Asian Development Bank’s projects, policies and implementation process’ at the Caritas auditorium ended on Wednesday.
   Arranged by local non-governmental organisation Coastal Development Partnership with the help of the NGO Forum on ADB and Bank Information Centre, the seminar was
   also attended by sixty participants, including NGO personnel, development workers, social activists, public representatives and journalists of Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira and Jessore.
   CDP coordinator Ashraf-Ul-Alam Tutu and economist Professor Anoarul Quadir addressed the workshop on the last day.

Election to BCS Forest Association executive committee was held at Mohakhali Forest Building on Sunday.
   Ali Kabir Haider, forest conservator of Dhaka central zone, was elected president and Ishtiak Uddin Ahmed, divisional forest officer, general secretary.
   Other office bearers are Md Absul Motaleb, senior vice-president, Abdur Rashid vice-president, Shamsul Azam and Abu Hanif Patwari, joint secretaries, Abdul Latif Mian, treasurer, Haradhon Bonik, literary and publication secretary, Asit Ranjan Pal, education and social welfare secretary and the members are Badrul Anam Bhuyan, Md Shamsur Rahman, Md Zahir Hussain Khondker, Dr Tapan Kumar Dey, Shirina Khatun, Md Abul Mansur, Md Abu Yousuf, Umme Habiba, Ariful Huq Belal and Amir Hussain Chowdhury.

An SSC examinee who sustained wounds in an attack by his rivals died in Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital early Wednesday.
   The victim, Mufti Redwanur Rahman, 17, son of the late Mufti Fayezur Rahman, of Kamalabagan under Majumdari in the city, was reportedly an activist of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.
   A rival Chhatra Dal group attacked Redwan near the Aided School Monday noon in which he was seriously injured, sources said. Redwan was taken to Osmani Medical College Hospital.
   The victim’s mother Syed Abe-Kawser filed a case with the police against eight persons.

China education exhibition Friday
The second China Education Exhibition, organised by the China Scholarship Council and the North South University, will be held at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre on Friday. The University Grants Commission chairman, M Asaduzzaman, will inaugurate the exhibition at 10:30am as chief guest. The Chinese ambassador, Chai Xi, and NSU vice-chancellor Hafiz GA Siddiqi will attend the inauguration. Twenty-five universities will take part in the event.

Live bomb found
on RU campus
A live cocktail bomb was found at the main entrance of Rajshahi University Shahidullah Arts Building on Wednesday. Sources said a sweeper of the building in the morning found a can wrapped around with black tape at the entrance and informed the proctor and the police of the incident. The Motihar police and bomb experts recovered the bomb and police have been deployed in front of the building.

Aktel fair begins
in Rajshahi
A three-day Aktel mobile fair began at the Institution of Engineers in Rajshahi Wednesday morning aiming at familiarising people with mobile operator Aktel. Former Rajshahi Union of Journalists’ president Mustafizur Rahman Khan inaugurated the fair. Mobile SIMs, packages, information and services have been on sales. The fair also features cultural functions and game shows. Hundreds of mobile users, mostly teenagers, flocked to the fair. The Asiatic Events Marketing Ltd has organised the event.
— New Age