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Indian industry giant TATA Group wanted to loot the natural resource of the country in the name of investment, alleged speakers at a dialogue on Wednesday.
   The entire mineral resource sector was under the threat of the multinational companies, the speakers said, adding that the proposed investment would bring no good for the country.
   The National Committee to Protect Oil-Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port organised the dialogue on ‘Bargaining between TATA Group and Bangladesh Government: Bangladesh’s Interest’ at the National Press Club.
   Economist Dr Anu Muhammed termed ‘destructive’ the dealing between the Bangladesh government and the foreign companies as he apprehended that the foreign investors wanted nothing but to rob country’s natural resources.
   If Bangladesh agreed to provide gas to TATA as it demanded, the country would have to lose Tk 20,000 crore as gas subsidy, Anu said.
   Mentioning a survey report by the Economist Intelligence Unit which was referred to by the TATA on various occasions, he said the report showed how much Bangladesh would be benefited but it did not show how and at what cost the benefit would come.
   Anu said that there had been media terrorism in the country on the proposed investment in the last six months where there was a common belief that foreign investment meant development.
   He criticised the speech of energy advisor of saying that Bangladesh had gas reserve for 50 years. ‘Bangladesh has gas reserve for 7-8 years, what Mahmudur Rahman said is based on a mere possibility,’ he said.
   The speakers also pointed to the inconsistency between the speeches by TATA Indian agent with Indian media and its resident director of Bangladesh Manzer Hussein. The Indian spokesperson told Indian media that TATA would not invest in Bangladesh if they were not provided gas at their expected rate; on the other hand Manzer told the local media that the company had not discussed the gas price yet.
   The speakers condemned a proposal of TATA to allocate them the Barapukuria Coal Mine as the government allocated the Phulbari Coal Project to the Asia Energy Corporation, another multinational company, ‘after an underhand dealing’.
   The country was losing Tk 300 crore each year for the dealing along with huge ecological disaster and environment pollution.
   Badiul Alam, a leader of the Bangladesh Steel Mill Owners’ Association said the government should first provide gas to the local industries before giving gas to multinational companies.
   He expressed concern that TATA’s investment might destroy the local small industries as the company had not clarified in black and white what kind of steel products it would produce.
   Engineer Shiekh Shahidullah, convener the committee, presided over the programme.

The Awami League general secretary, Abdul Jalil, on Wednesday demanded implementation of the opposition proposal for reform of the caretaker government system through political discussions between the opposition and government.
   ‘No reform of caretaker government system would be allowed under the controversial ex-chief justice. The reform proposal on caretaker government and the election commission has to be implemented through political discussions among the opposition and government parties,’ said Jalil at a protest rally at Muktangan in the city.
   The Al-led 14-party opposition alliance organised rallies across the country in protest against, what they said government’s mass arrest and attack and obstruction during Sunday’s long- march programme.
   Without reform of the caretaker government and the election commission, no neutral government would come to power, said the opposition lawmaker, demanding resignation of ‘politically appointed’ chief election commissioner and two election commissioners.
   He also demanded execution of the High Court verdict on fresh voters’ list.
   Jalil told the rally that obstructions by the government to the peaceful programme of opposition could not stop them.
   The scheduled procession after the rally was postponed as Dhaka city Awami League president and former mayor, Mohammad Hanif, collapsed following a severe cardiac attack during his speech. He was rushed to hospital.

Enumeration of the stranded Pakistanis in the voters’ roll began in the city on Wednesday amid protests by a section of the Urdu-speaking people.
   The enumerators started enlisting the names of the stranded Pakistanis as per the Election Commission decision, taken in a meeting Tuesday, in compliance with a May 5, 2003 High Court order.
   As per the decision, the enumerators will enrol those who were born in the Bangladesh period, not willing to go back to Pakistan, loyal to the Bangladesh government and willing to be enrolled in the voters’ roll.
   The High Court after hearing a writ petition filed by 10 stranded Pakistanis, Abid khan and others, asked the government to enumerate the stranded Pakistanis following the Voters’ Roll Ordinance 1982 and the Citizenship Act 1972.
   ‘The enumerators have been asked to strictly follow the instruction and no one will be forced to be voters,’ said an Election Commission official.
   A section of the Urdu speaking people, however, protested the enumeration and alleged that the poor were being persuaded to be voters.
   The Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee leaders said if the government enlisted the stranded Pakistanis in the voters roll, it would be a violation of the Geneva Convention.
   ‘The government cannot do that until and unless the status of the stranded Pakistanis are re-fixed,’ the general secretary of the repatriation committee, Shoukat Ali, said. ‘How can the citizens of a country be voters in another country?’
   Many people in the camps fear that the issue, inclusion of stranded Pakistanis in the voters roll, might result in clashes between rival groups.
   The repatriation committee president, Jabbar Khan, alleged that some groups were persuading the poor to be voters.
   Several groups of the stranded Pakistanis, including the Stranded Pakistanis Youth Rehabilitation Movement, however, were helping the enumerators in their works in some Mirpur camps.
   ‘No one was forced,’ said the rehabilitation movement president, Sadakat Khan, said.
   ‘More than 3 lakh stranded Pakistanis have been living in 77 camps in 13 districts for more than three decades and 90 per cent of them were born in Bangladesh period who do not want to go back to Pakistan,’ he said.
   The Election Commission officials said the enrolment of the stranded Pakistanis in the country would be completed by February 20.

A bill was introduced in parliament on Wednesday to establish ‘Gram Adalat’ (village court) headed by union parishad chairman to resolve the minor rural disputes and ensure social stability.
   The proposed ‘Gram Adalat’ will be constituted with a chairman and four members, including two members of the union parishad concerned. Of the four members, two sides of the dispute will nominate two members each.
   The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, introduced the bill titled ‘Gram Adalat Bill, 2006’ in the House. The House sent the bill to the parliamentary standing committee on the LGRD Ministry for further scrutiny and submit its report.
   The ‘Gram Adalat’ will deal with the criminal offences like minor injury, mischief, criminal trespass, clash, provocation, wrongful confinement, assault, intentional insult, breach of peace, inducing, indecent behaviour with females and creating public nuisance by a drunkard under CrPC sections 323 or 426 or 447, 143 and 147, 141, 160, 334, 341, 342, 352, 358, 504, 506 (First Part), 508, 509 and 510.
   The adalat will also deal with offences relating to cattle head under section 379, 380 and 381 of the CrPC in case the prices of cattle head do not exceed Tk 25,000.
   With regard to civil offences, the Gram Adalat will deal with cases relating to agreement, receipt or realisation of money at the deed cost, recovery of moveable property and realisation of its cost, reclaiming possession of moveable property within one year of dispossession and realisation of compensation caused by forcible occupation of or damage to any moveable property.
   The adalat will also deal with offences relating to damages caused by the trespass of cattle and relating to wages of agricultural workers.
   The adalat will be able to punish the offender with a fine of Tk 25,000.

The four-day international conference of the Commonwealth Congress of the Association of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition ended on Wednesday with a call to the Commonwealth states to minimise deaths of under-5 children caused by diarrhoea or malnutrition by adopting a two-pronged strategy – preventive and curative measures.
   The ICDDR,B organised the international congress titled ‘Combating Malnutrition and Intestinal Diseases in Children: Are We Doing Enough?’ which has decided to make their formal recommendations during the world’s health ministers’ meeting in Geneva on May 21.
   Speaking at a press conference after the congress, the CAPGAN president, Professor Zulfiqar Ali Bhutta of Aga Khan University of Karachi, told journalists that enough research had been done on diarrhoeal diseases, and now these research results should be used in the practical field.
   Bhutt observed that simple nutrition interventions could save the lives of one million children in the Commonwealth countries alone.
   He pointed out that 70 per cent deaths of under-five children occur in the first year of their age due to diarrhoeal diseases. ‘Very young infants are at most risk of death, and the majority of deaths occur at home because access to health care facilities is limited,’ he noted.
   He referred to recent evidence published in the Lancet medical journal which shows currently available interventions can prevent more than 55 per cent of all childhood deaths.
   Not sophisticated treatments, rather simple interventions including breast-feeding, appropriate complementary feeding, vitamin A and zinc supplementation can prevent the deaths, he added.
   The ICDDR, B’s head of nutrition programme, Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, and the head of external relations and institutional development, Dr Ishtiaque A Zaman, were present.
   The congress was arranged in a bid to exchange and generate new ideas to combat malnutrition and diarrhoea in children where experts and scientists of the field from across the globe attended.
   An estimated 32,000 children under-5 years die every day in developing countries and approximately half of these deaths are associated with malnutrition.
   One-fifth of the child deaths (6000 each day) are caused by diarrhoeal diseases. In the world’s poorest developing countries one out of every four children die before the age of 5 years. The majority of these deaths are directly related to mal-distribution of knowledge and resources.
   The CAPGAN was launched in 1984 with an aim to promote knowledge and training on paediatric gastroenterology, herpetology and nutrition throughout the Commonwealth states including the developing countries in particular.

A five-day international conference on ‘impact of global issues on women and children’ will begin in the city on February 12.
   The State University of Bangladesh and the MacMaster University, Canada, are organising the conference, expected to be attended by some 400 foreign delegates from USA, Canada, Africa and the Asian region.
   The inaugural ceremony is expected to be inaugurated by the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, as chief guest at the Sonargaon Hotel, said the organiser at a press conference at the National Press Club in the city.
   Anthropologists, basic scientists, ecologists, environmentalists, economists, health economists, historians, human rights activists, information technologists, lawyers, nurses, midwives, nutritionists, physicians, politicians, sociologists and social workers from all parts of the world have been requested to take part in the conference.
   The participants will discuss global issues which adversely affect the health and well-being of women and children, describe interventions used to promote health and prevention of illness in women and children.
   The topic of the working sessions includes –– tsunami, HIV/AIDS and its impact on women and children, health care services for adolescents.
   MacMaster University professor Bashanti Majumder, registrar of State University AYM Ekram-ud Daulah, vice-chancellor MS Ilyas Dhami and convener of the conference M Shahjahan were present at the press conference.

A parliamentary watchdog on the Home Ministry on Wednesday held elaborate discussion on some important bills and finalised the draft laws–all meant for public safety.
   The bills are the Private Security Service Bill 2006, and the Acid Control (Amendment) Bill 2006, and the Law and Order Disrupting Crime (Speedy Trial) (Amendment) Bill 2006.
   ‘After discussion on the bills, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Home Ministry at its 15th meeting at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban finalised reports for their presentation in parliament,’ says an official announcement.
   The meeting also took stock of progress in implementation of the decisions adopted at the 13rd meeting.
   Committee members– the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, Mizanur Rahman Minu, Mohammad Nasim, Ataur Rahman Khan, AM Riasat Ali Biswas and Sheikh Helal Uddin—attended the meeting with its chairman Professor Mohammad Shahjahan Mia in the chair.
   Secretary of the Home Ministry and other high officials were present.

The politburo of the Workers Party on Wednesday said that the agreement with Tata Group would run counter the national interest and such an agreement would not be accepted by people.
   The politburo in a press statement said that Tata wanted to use the coal and gas of Bangladesh at their factories and sought assurance to continuous fixed-rate gas supply for twenty years, which might be threat to the energy security of the country.
   The statement said that it was utterly discriminatory to grant tax holiday to a company for more than ten years.
   It further said that the Tata’s demand for exclusive facilities and incentives would create anarchy in economic, social and environment sectors.
   It mentioned that many agreements with international companies signed during the regimes of past governments yielded bitter results, paving the way for plundering of country’s resources.
   The result of the agreement with the Tata would be the same, it warned.
   The politburo demanded a corruption-free agreement and the discussion of the issue in the Jatiya Sangsad before signing the agreement.
   The party called upon the people to protest against any sort of anti-state agreement and to protect the resources of the country.

An 8-year old schoolboy was burnt to death at Mohammad Para in the Gopalganj town Tuesday night.
   Local people said the boy Al Amin, son of Tota Miah, a rickshaw-van puller, was sleeping in their house at 9:30pm, when electric load shading was continuing for two hours.
   His mother went to her sister-in-law’s house near theirs after locking the door and lighting a lamp beside his bed.
   At one stage, the house caught fire but Al Amin could not get out of the house.
   The local people managed to control the fire before the fire-service men reached the spot.
   By the time the boy was seriously burnt and sent to Gopalganj sadar hospital immediately.
   But the duty doctor declared him to death.

A person died on Khulna-Jessore highway at Atra under Khanjahan Ali thana in Khulna metropolitan area as a truck hit him while he was going to workplace Wednesday morning.
   He was identified as Md Khokon Sardar, 30, son of Aziz Sardar Barapara-Madhyapara of Khanjahan Ali thana and a worker of Jute Spinners Mill in the city, according to the police.
   A case was lodged with the police in this connection.

A comprehensive legislative framework and an updated heritage policy are needed to support the protection and conservation of cultural heritage, said heritage conservation activists at a discussion on Monday.
   Heritage conservation activists, including architects, scholars, academicians and professionals, have taken up a nationwide public awareness programme under the banner of Campaign for Heritage Conservation.
   They said there was lack of understanding and awareness among the policy makers, local and social leaders, citizens and residents regarding the heritage issues.
   The activists suggested formation of a board based advocacy group involving members from wider range of disciplines to launch the campaign for saving the heritage.
   Dr Hameeda Hossain, architect Harun Ur Rashid, Khushi Kabir, Professor Nazrul Islam, Dr Sirajul Islam, Shaikh M Shaheedullah were present at the discussion programme.

The government on Wednesday appointed Professor Sirajul Islam Khan of microbiology department of Dhaka University the first-ever vice-chancellor of Jagannath University for a four-year tenure.
   Earlier, the government passed the Jagannath University Act 2005 in the Jatiya Sangsad but the former principal of the institution was the acting vice-chancellor.
   Although there is no syndicate committee and academic council of the university, the admission process has started two weeks ago, the university sources said.
   Before being a full-fledged university, the institution was known as Jagannath College under the National University.
   Talking to New Age Wednesday Khan said he had joined the university and held a meeting with teachers and another meeting with the education minister, M Osman Farruk, in the ministry.

The Khulna divisional convention of the Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, BNP’s youth front, was held at the Khulna Museum in the city on Wednesday.
   The Juba Dal central committee general secretary, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal MP, was present as chief guest at the function organised to drum up support for the February 26 BNP ‘grand rally’ in Dhaka a success.
   The Khulna City Corporation mayor, Sheikh Tayebur Rahman, was present as special guest at the function chaired by Juba Dal central vice president Aftab Firoj.
   Central leaders Fakrul Alam, Shafiqul Alam Mona and Shaharuzzaman Mortuja and presidents, general secretaries and organising secretaries of the district and thana units also spoke.
   The speakers urged the party men to foil the ‘conspiracies’ of the Awami League-led opposition alliance and make the Paltan rally a success.

Members of the treasury and opposition benches on Wednesday portrayed a grim picture of the healthcare system and said immediate actions were needed for its improvement.
   BNP lawmaker Rasheda Begum Hira related a personal tragedy as she pleaded for the improvement of the healthcare system.
   Nurses run many maternity clinics as doctors, endangering the lives of women and their children, she told the
   parliament. ‘I lost my first child as I was deceived by a nurse who owned a maternity clinic.’
   Helaluzzaman Talukdar Lalu, BNP lawmaker from the Gabtali constituency in Bogra, where the party’s founder, the late president Ziaur Rahman was born, said patients in his locality routinely suffered as X-ray films allocated for hospitals would run out of stock in the first 10 days of every month.
   Fellow BNP legislator Shahriar Akhtar Bulu doubted whether there were enough child specialists in upazila health complexes across the country.
   MM Shahin, an independent member of the parliament, said patients in his Moulvibazar constituency had been suffering for the past six months as the ambulance service was suspended because local filling stations had stopped fuel supply for the authorities’ failure to settle arrears.
   Jatiya Party lawmaker Nur Mohammad Mandal said the public ambulance in his Rangpur constituency had been out of order for seven months, as the local health committee, headed by the local MP, does not have authority to spend more than Tk 2,000. ‘The government takes years to resolve a problem if we send any proposal to the ministry.’
   The deputy speaker, Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui, who was presiding over the sitting, echoed the members’ concern. ‘I had to pay personally for repairs as the ambulance of the upazila health complex in my constituency had been out of order for several months. I found out that the government procedure was too long to solve the crisis.’
   Most of the lawmakers, who participated in the question-answer session, were concerned if the government had taken steps to upgrade 31-bed upazila health complexes in their constituencies to 50-bed hospitals.
   The state minister for health and family welfare, Mizanur Rahman Sinha, tried to allay their concern by telling them to meet him in his office ‘I will look into the matter.’
   He said the government had taken steps to appoint about 4,000 specialised doctors in health complexes across the country.

The government on Wednesday decided to withdraw a bill from a parliamentary panel in the face of strong opposition
   from the Awami League lawmakers who questioned its legality.
   The LGRD and cooperative minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan decided to withdraw the Birth and Death Registration [Amendment] Bill, 2006, which was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the LGRD and cooperatives ministry for scrutiny, as the opposition lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta questioned the validity of the amendment.
   ‘How an act, the legality of which is under question, can be amended,’ the Awami League lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta asked the committee meeting.
   The committee chairman, Abdul Mannan Talukdar, told journalists the government had decided to withdraw the bill for giving the act legal effect.
   After the meeting, Sengupta told journalists the government had failed to give legal effect to the act in 13 months, after it was passed by the parliament in 2004 and the president had assented to it on December 7, 2004.
   ‘Thereby the government has deceived the parliament,’ he said.
   He said the government had taken steps to amend the act keeping in view the preparation of voter roll and the upcoming general elections. ‘We cannot allow such moves as a large number of cases, involving the voter list preparation by the election commission, remains pending in courts,’ he said.