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The piracy of titles published by local houses began dominating the Ekushey book fair, which will conclude on February 28, as sales increased.
   Few publishers seemed to care for the copyright issues and some are pirating the titles as they are on high demand.
   Noted publishers said earlier only books of Indian writers were pirated; but now many of them are bringing out pirated editions of titles by popular writers.
   The owner of a stall in the fair was earlier fined for pirating books by Humayun Ahmed.
   Large publishing houses began printing books on expensive papers and using modern printing and packaging technology to check piracy, and it increased the production costs and book prices. Some publishers are also using hologram security seal to check piracy.
   Some publishers are printing classics in translation done by the Indian writers. They are simply photocopies and bound in book form, some said.
   The stall owners said the printing of books where writers died 50 years ago did not require licensing. But they failed to say anything about the cases where translators are still alive.
   Piracy in another form, which amounts to cheating, is also taking place in the fair. Some people collect the waste formats of book during the production process from the Banglabazar market and bind them in book form, containing 10 formats from 10 different titles, with a cover reading another title. But this form of piracy or cheating is not that much pervasive. Such books are cheap and are sold a 100 pieces for about Tk 1,000 on the wholesale.
   Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, who owns Ankur and Chardik, said some houses bring out pirated editions two days after the publication of the original book. Such titles included the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.
   ‘They just scanned the Ankur editions and printed them on low-quality paper and sell them for prices between Tk 50 and Tk 70 with the help of some people selling them on the pavement or at traffic signals,’ he said.
   The same was the case with the translation of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Living History, he said. Chardik has the copyright for the Bangla translation; but others brought out the pirated edition.
   Mesbah Uddin said the court restricted the sales of Taslima Nasrin’s Ka; but pirated edition are available everywhere in the city.
   He said book publishing in Bangladesh is yet to take the form of an industry and some publishers are cashing in on the scope.
   He said the many publishers and translators do not bother about licensing in the printing of latest titles. Few Bangladeshi houses have licence for Bangla translations.
   Monica Ali’s Brick Lane became popular among the readers and one of the houses received the copyrights to print the book in Bangla; but long before its publication had arrived, a number of translations flooded the book market.
   The same was the situation with the translation of Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons
   and Deception Point by Dan Brown. At least three translations of the titles are on sale in the fair.
   The sellers at the Batighar stall could not say if the publishers had taken permission from Brown or his publisher for the translation.
   The Bangla Academy warned a number of stalls against violating the fair guidelines, but any action is yet to be taken. The rules reserve the right to sales only for the publishers.
   A noted writer said he is in favour of pirated editions of the western titles as very few people can afford to buy the originals. ‘They have taken a lot from this part of the world, and there is nothing wrong if people here violate the copyright for some knowledge.’
   Writer and novelist Mainul Ahsan Saber, however, ruled out the logic. ‘It is simply stealing. I do not expect my books to be pirated and I should not pirate books by others,’ he said.
   The fair information centre reported the arrival of 44 titles on Sunday. Khilkhil Kazi, grand daughter of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, released Chhotoder Nazrul Rachanabli, published by Agamee Prakashani.

Several hundred children, individually or from educational institutions, took part in the opening ceremony of the first-ever festival only for children on Sunday.
   The three-day festival, Bangladesh Children Festival 2006, began at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, featuring games, amusement programmes and lots of information for children.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, inaugurated the festival as chief guest. He said the family and relatives of children’s are equally responsible along with the government for upholding the fundamental rights of children.
   Iajuddin blamed lack of awareness of the children’s rights among the family and parents for violation of their rights.
   ‘I think that if the family and parents become aware about their children’s rights, it will much easier to implement the rights of the children in our country’, he said.
   He urged the civil society to raise a social movement against hazardous child labour and implement the national policy on children rights outlined in 1994.
   The president also insisted that there should be organisations which would present the resources and potentialities of the country in such a way that the children could found their dreams on them and build a wealthy nation.
   Dr Mahbubur Rahman, secretary of the establishment ministry and chairman of the festival implementation committee, said in last decade around 20 lakh children died and near 50 lakh were injured in different wars and human made disasters across the world.
   He said every year developed countries are spending big amounts of money for making weapons or for luxury expenditures. But a little amount of this expenditure could ensure education for all children of the world, he said.
   The Adhyayan Sishu Foundation organised the festival in cooperation with the Bangladesh Sishu Academy and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.
   They also organised different competitions for children across the country such as debate, general knowledge competition, poetry recitation and painting
   as part of the carnival.
   The foundation chairman, Hossain Al Masum, said, ‘We have arranged this festival for making the children dream to build this country.’
   There are several pavilions and stalls of different organisations, and live puppet and muppet shows, cultural programmes are entertaining the children.
   Different schools have arranged attractive science projects on environment, machinery, astronomy and such other issues.
   On the other site, children materials, including toys, dresses, children foods, crafts, books and gift items, are on the display for the visitors.
   Seven Bangle films for children, 30 fillers and short films and documentary will be screened at the venue every day from 10:00am to 6:00pm.
   Eminent performers, including magician Jewel Aich, artist Mustafa Monowar with his puppet show, singer Ferdous Wahid, Kumar Bishwajit, Shakila Zafar and Baby Naznin, will perform in the evening shows.
   The festival will remain open to children along with their guardians till March 1 from 10:00am to 6:00pm and the entry ticket cost Tk 5.

At least 50 cyclists brought out on Sunday a procession from the Shahbagh crossing in Dhaka demanding reduction of taxes and other duties on bicycle imports.
   An alliance of non-governmental organisations, Road for the People, organised the procession, which ended in front of the office of the National Board of Revenue at Segun Bagicha.
   The organisers submitted a memorandum to the finance minister through the revenue board chairman.
   The organisers said the present taxes and other duties on the import of bicycles amount to 69.5 per cent on the price and this is a huge amount.
   The alliance’s programme coordinator Maruf Rahman said bicycle was meant for the low-income group people and especially for the students.
   ‘Bicycle does not need any fuel. It is cheap and an environmentally-friendly,’ said Maruf.
   The Dhaka Cycling Club general secretary, Azharul Islam Sumon, Ushika executive director Ibnul Sayed Rana, and Bidhan Chandra Pal of the Hunger Project Bangladesh joined the procession.

A five-year-old girl was killed at Banashree of Khilgaon in Dhaka on Saturday night.
   The family said the girl, Sharmeen Akter, daughter of Ulfat Ali, went out of their Meradia residence at about 5:00pm and went missing.
   Her body was found in a canal at the end of Banashree Block G at about 7:00am Sunday.
   The Khilgaon police sent the body to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   The police said there were marks of injuries at different parts of the body.

Some 70 shops were burnt in fire that broke out in a market at Pallabi in Dhaka early Sunday.
   Sources in the Fire Service and Civil Devence and the police said the fire had originated from an electric short-circuit in a shop of the New Society Market at Section 11 of Mirpur at about 2:00am.
   The fire burnt 20 groceries, 20 meat shops and 10 shops each of oil and spices.
   Ten fire engines visited the place and extinguished the fire at about 5:00am.
   No casualty was reported.
   The shop owners claimed the extent from the fire to over around Tk 1 crore but; fire service officials were yet to establish the extent of damage.

Bakarkhani, a type of small round biscuit-like bread, especially popular among the residents of Old Town in Dhaka, is losing its popularity as the shops who used to prepare the food do not market it in other parts of Dhaka or across Bangaldesh.
   Many Old Town residents now live in other parts of the city, but for a taste of bakarkhani, people need to visit Old Town, said a bakarkhani lover at a daylong bakarkhani festival in the Novera Hall of the National Museum on Sunday.
   Organised jointly by the Elite Cosmetics Limited and social organisation Dhakabasi, the festival was inaugurated by Anti-Corruption Commission commissioner Muhammad Muniruzzaman Mia. He said ‘I have a fascination for bakarkhani, so I have come here to enjoy it.’
   The president of Dhakabasi, Shukur Malek, stressed the need for more investment and attention to uphold the heritage and promote the product.

Weather is likely to remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky over Bangladesh till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said in a forecast on Sunday.
   Night temperature may remain nearly unchanged during the period. The highest temperature on Sunday, 37.2 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Jessore and the lowest, 16.4 degrees Celsius, at Ishwardi.
   The sun sets in the capital city at 6:00pm today and will rise at 6:22am on Tuesday.

Reports on educational issues get lesser importance in both print and electronic media, found a nongovernmental organisation.
   The organisation, Other Vision Communications, in its recent survey among a section of journalists found that news from remote areas have little coverage in the national newspapers and very few of the local correspondents have knowledge on the education issue.
   The organisation claimed the survey was conducted in seven regions of the country — Sylhet, Chuadanga, Satkhira, Noakhali, Bhola, Khagrachhari and Dhaka.
   The survey report was released in a seminar on ‘mass-media for quality education’ at the National Press Club, stressing more training on educational issues for the local correspondents.
   Very few of the local correspondents have clear idea of education management and education policy, the survey found. It also revealed that the grassroots newsmen have little idea of state-policy level issues like the millennium development goals, the poverty reduction strategy paper, and the education for all programme.
   Most of the local journalists have to depend on field work to achieve efficiency in educational reporting and most of them do not have institutional background.
   The organisation chief executive, Tareq Ahmed, said the government should ensure clear information to the journalists on education management, education policy and any decision on such issues.
   He also demanded formulation of rights to information act, nullifying the official secrets act for free flow of information. Soharab Hasan, joint-editor of the daily Jugantar, chaired the seminar.

A three-day workshop on ‘capacity building of reserved seat commissioners of the six city corporations’ started on Sunday at the Lake Shore Hotel in the capital.
   Organised by the International Republican Institute, and supported by USAID, most of the female commissioners are participating in the workshop.
   The training will increase the ability of reserved commissioners to develop effective messages, respond to constituent needs and to overcome barriers.
   The proceedings of the first day started with the welcome speech of Marilyn Evans, resident country director of IRI. Yuliani Paris, a member of the House of Representatives, Republic of Indonesia, presented the keynote paper.
   ‘The overall goal in working with these commissioners is to increase women’s real participation in politics, encouraging and enabling female leaders to become decision makers who have the power and resources granted to them by law,’ Aminul Ehsan of IRI told New Age.
   At the end of the first day’s proceedings the participants had dinner with Judith Chamas, the US Charge de Affairs to Bangladesh. The workshop will end tomorrow.

A two-day education exhibition on ‘studying in Australia’ ended at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka on Sunday.
   The Australian Trade Commission of the Australian high commission and the IDP Education Australia organised the fair. The Australian high commissioner, Douglas Foskett, inaugurated the exhibition.
   Eighteen Australian institutions took part in the fair that began on Saturday. Nine of them were universities and the rest were polytechnic institutes, the organisers said. Studying in Australia became popular among Bangladeshi students after the 9/11 crisis.
   In 2005, around 2000 Bangladeshi students went to Australia for higher education. The Australian high commissioner said more than 2,00,000 students from more than 40 countries, including Bangladesh, were studying in Australia.
   ‘The Australian universities and educational institutions enjoy an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research having a strong commitment to quality, equity, high academic standards and programmes of continuous improvement,’ he said on Saturday.
   Another reason for the popularity of Australian education in Bangladesh was scope for immigration, the organisers said.
   The participating institutes are the Australian Campus Network, Murdoch University, University of Commerce and Language, Swinburne University of Technology, Box Hill Institute of TAFE, Sydney Institute of Business and Technology, Charles Darwin University, Sydney West International College, Hales Institute, TAFE NSW, Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, University of Canberra, Kangan Batman Institute of TAFE, University of South Australia, La Trobe University, University of Southern Queensland, Melbourne Institute of Technology and Monash University.

Election to RAC
on March 5
The first election to the newly formed Reporters Against Corruption will be held at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on March 5. The election will begin at 11:00am. This was decided at the third meeting of the convening committee on Saturday in the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity auditorium with its convener, Shahiduzzaman, in the chair. The meeting was also attended by Mizan Malik, Wakil Ahmed Hiron, Tawfiq Faheem, Sawar Babar Chowdhuray, Nazul Hasan Raju, Aminul Islam, Dip Azad, Asif Showkat Kallol, said a release.
— New Age

SUST teachers’ assoc election today
Election to the teachers’ election of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology will be held today. Two hundred and sixty voters, among 368 enlisted, will cast their vote as 108 teachers of different departments are abroad for study, sources said. The vote will be cast between 10:00am and 5:00pm at the teachers’ club on the campus under the supervision of the election commissioner, Ashraf Uddin, an associate professor of mathematics of the university. Two panels, one backed by the Awami League and the left leaning parties and the other by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, are competing in the election.
— New Age