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The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Sunday directed the housing and public works ministry to immediately take initiative in framing appropriate law to ensure public safety in buildings and establishments with all necessary facilities, particularly automatic fire-extinguisher and quick safe exit.
   She also ordered the authorities concerned to identify all risky, illegal and dilapidated buildings and establishments and take realistic action in this regard.
   ‘No more waste of time. Realistic and effective steps will have to be taken regarding all risky, illegal and unfit-for-human-habitation old and weak buildings and establishments by identifying those,’ Khaleda said.
   The prime minister gave the directive while addressing a function marking the golden jubilee of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh on its premises.
   Her instructions came against the backdrop of two tragic incidents of factory fire and building collapse in Chittagong and Dhaka.
   Public security will have to be given top-most importance in all construction works in the country, she said.
   ‘All bhabans (buildings) must have automatic and easy fire-extinguishing system as well as other facilities like quick safe exit in emergency situation,’ the prime minister said.
   She urged the engineers to play their part by taking initiative in this regard in their respective institutions following the ethics of profession.
   Referring to the massive contribution of engineers in the country’s development, production, construction and innovation, Khaleda said now sincere and skilled leadership of engineers is very urgent in the era of technology-dependent globalisation.
   ‘Acquire the latest technology and utilise them for the necessity of the country – this is our expectation,’ the prime minister told the engineers present at the function from all over the country.
   Khaleda also urged them to be more active in helping attain quickly sustainable economic growth through ensuring best utilisation of country’s natural and human resources.
   About the demands of the engineers, including providing selection board to non-cadre engineers, creating engineer cadre, resolving inter-cadre discrimination, providing balanced and equal dignity to all officers of cadres and services, including engineers, she said that those demands remained under active consideration of the government.
   The IEB general secretary, Eng ANH Akhter Hossain, Eng Riazul Islam and Eng Md Kamruzzaman also spoke at the inaugural function presided over by the IEB president, Eng Dr Anwarul Azim.
   The theme of the three-day golden jubilee conference was ‘Good Governance and Engineering’.
   The prime minister gave away IEB medal-2005 to Eng Mahmudur Rahman, adviser to the energy and mineral resources division and the executive chairman of the Board of Investment, for his outstanding contribution and leadership in engineering, management, industrialisation and development.
   She also conferred AMIE degree, equivalent to BSc Engineer given by the IEB, upon 15 diploma engineers.
   The prime minister also confirmed the registration of nine engineers as professional engineers nominated by the Bangladesh Professional Engineers Registration Board.
   The IEB awarded Chittagong centre best centre award for 2005, Jamalpur best sub-centre and Singapore best overseas chapter for the year 2005.
   Ministers, MPs, engineers’ delegations from friendly foreign countries and distinguished personalities also attended the function.

Different political parties and garment workers organisations on Sunday continued protest against the building
   collapse in Dhaka and fire in
   a garments factory in Chittagong that killed about 70 workers.
   The organisations held protest rallies in Dhaka and demanded immediate arrest and their exemplary punishments of the responsible owners.
   The Bangladesh Garment workers Unity Council leaders at a protest rally at Muktangan, demanded Tk 5 lakh as compensation for each of the deceased and Tk 50,000 for the injured.
   The coordinator of the council, Salauddin Swapan, announced a protest rally programme in Chittagong for March 5. The rally ended followed by a procession.
   Bangladesh Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra called a day-long strike in the garment factories on March 2 and extended their support towards the hartal called by the Communist Party of Bangladesh protesting against the killings on the same day from organisation’s protest rally at Muktangan and demanded punishments of the responsible factory owners and government officials.
   Chaired by the organisation president Iddris Ali, the rally was also addressed by its general secretary Ruhul Amin.
   The Garment Workers Unity Forum formed a human chain at Muktangan and brought out a black flag protest procession.
   Bangladesh Janamukti Party also called for a half day hartal on March supporting the hartal call given by the CPB.
   The central steering committee of Panch Bam Dal,
   also demanded immediate arrest of the responsible owners and their exemplary punishments.
   Jatiya Ganafront, Jatiya Nirman Sramik, Bangladesh Home Workers Women Association, Pragatishil Chhatra Jote and Bangladesh Chhatra Union also demanded sufficient compensations for the deceased and wounded workers of the accidents.
   A delegation of the Bangladesh National Council of Textile Garments and Leather Workers led by labour leader Roy Ramesh Chandra which is now visiting KTS Textile in Chittagong will hold a protest rally at Muktangan in the capital on March 2.
   Ganamukti O Jatiya Sampad Rakkha Sammilita Andolan will also hold a protest rally at Muktangan today.

The prevailing crisis of fertiliser, power and diesel has seriously hampered the Irri and Boro cultivations in the nine upazilas of Pabna.
   Along with the crisis, the prices of fertiliser also have marked a rise of Tk 60 to 70 per bag within a week. A bag of urea which was sold at Tk 290 a week earlier, now costs about Tk 360 and TSP’s price has gone up to around Tk 670 from Tk 610.
   At the same time due to the crisis, the district’s fertiliser dealers were asked by the upazila agriculture officers to introduce quota system for the farmers and as a result a farmer just can purchase one bag of urea at a time, making the farmers frustrated as they are not getting their required amount.
   Taking the advantage of the crisis, a good number of traders are selling adulterated fertiliser, but there is no initiative taken by the concerned authorities to take action against those.
   The farmers of villages Ranigram, Narayanpur, Malanchi and Tebunia under Maligachha union in Pabna sadar upazila alleged that although the authorised dealers have failed to supply necessary quantity of fertiliser to them, huge quantity were being sold with a premium in the markets.
   Frequent power outages, low voltage and high price of diesel have made the situation worse for the small and marginal farmers.
   In Pabna, more than 25,000 hectares of Irri-Boro field are irrigated through electricity driven deep tube-wells and around 40,000 hectares are irrigated by using shallow tube-wells and power pumps run by diesel.

The Bangladesh Teachers and Employees Unity Council on Sunday threatened to go for an indefinite strike at the educational institutions across the country from July 8, if the government fails to meet its 17-point demand by June 29.
   The council leaders announced the programme from a grand rally held at Muktangan in Dhaka to
   press home their 17-point demands, including a 10 per cent pay rise.
   The teachers and employees from different parts of the country gathered at the place at 10:00am from where they brought out a procession that paraded different city streets. It ended at the Central Shaheed Minar.
   The Bangladesh Non-government Technical Teachers’ Association president, M Shahjahan Alam Saju, also convener of the council, told
   New Age that about 12,000 teachers took part in the rally despite ‘harassment’ by the police.
   He alleged that the police prevented the agitating teachers from assembling at the venue.
   ‘Before the strike programme, we will also hold another grand rally at the Central Shaheed Minar on June 18 and submit a memorandum to the prime minister,’ Saju said. The council has about 1.5 lakh members, he mentioned.
   The council, a combine of eight organisations of the teachers and employees of non-government schools and colleges from high school to master’s level, has been agitating for the last three years to realise their demands.
   Currently the government pays 90 per cent of salaries for the teachers and employees of non-government educational institutions.
   The council president, MA Awal Siddique, chaired the rally which was addressed by central leaders M Akhtaruzzaman, M Shakhawat Hossain Mollik, and Pradip Chakrawarty.
   The demands include cancellation of uni-track education system, allocation of a 30 per cent dearness allowance with the basic salary and a separate service commission for teachers of non-government educational institutions, two full-fledged festival allowances, medical allowance of Tk 500, and an end to repression of teachers and employees.
   There are about 5 lakh teachers and employees in about 30,000 non-government educational institutions across the country.

A third year student of soil science department of Khulna University was shot dead early Sunday behind the Agriculture Institute at Maheshwarpara-Madhyapara under Daulatpur police in Khulna city.
   The deceased was identified as Islam Joardar, 21 of village Hasanpur under Dumuria upazila in Khulna.
   The Daulatpur police said they recovered the body from the spot bearing injury marks all over the body and bullet injury on head.
   The police see old feud behind the killing.

The US embassy in Dhaka on Sunday expressed shock at the loss of lives in the incidents of building collapse in Dhaka and fire in garment factory in Chittagong.
   At least 72 people were killed in the two incidents on Thursday and Saturday.
   ‘The US embassy would like to convey its condolences to the family and friends of those persons who perished in the tragic garment factory fire in Chittagong and in the Tejgaon building collapse in Dhaka,’ an embassy statement said.

A Dhaka court on Sunday imposed a temporary injunction upon the election of Dhaka Taxes Bar Association scheduled today.
   The fourth assistant sessions judge Mujibar Rahman passed the order as three lawyers Ismail Hossain, Elahi Bax and Rafiqul Islam of the association filed a petition, seeking the injunction against election.
   The petitioners alleged that the association without completing its voters list, were going to hold the election through fraud lists.
   The association also did not complete the audit reports of corruption against former officials, violating the association rules, they alleged.
   Meanwhile the scheduled two-day election of Dhaka Bar Association will start at the association building premises today.

Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, lawyers’ wing of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, will declare today its panel to contest the elections to the Supreme Court Bar Association scheduled for March 29 and 30.
   Sammilito Ainjibi Samonnoy Parishad, a coalition of pro-opposition lawyers, held a meeting of its central committee on Sunday night at the bar council to decide its panel for the elections. The meeting was in progress when we went to press at 11:00pm.
   Samonnoy Parishad declared its convenor, M Amirul Islam, as its candidate for the presidency of the bar after its earlier meeting on February 7.
   According to sources in the parishad, 22 lawyers, including the present general secretary of the bar, M Enayetur Rahim, are vying to get the parishad ticket for the post of the general secretary of the bar.
   The pro-government forum, at a meeting of its central executive committee on Sunday afternoon at the Supreme Court Bar Association office, finalised its panel excepting one post of assistant general secretary and six posts of members.
   The meeting decided to declare its full panel on Monday at a press conference.
   The forum’s panel will be led by ABM Nurul Islam and Abdullah-Al-Mamun, who will run for the posts of the president and the general secretary of the bar respectively.
   According to the schedule of the elections, the nomination papers of the contesting candidates will have to be submitted by March 10.

A male crocodile at the 800 year old pond of Khanjahan Ali shrine in Bagerhat died on Sunday morning following a fight a young crocodile.
   The dead crocodile — Kalapahar, a member of ‘marsh crocodile’ species, got seriously injured during a fight and his upper jaw had to be cut off from the body.
   The sources said more than 100 years old Kalapahar, got injured as a young male crocodile attacked Kalapahar at the eastern side of the pond, while one of the attendants of the shrine allegedly tried to bring the young ones at the side of the pond to do some brisk business from the shrine visitors.
   Generally, two male crocodiles attack each other when they come close and that is why while the young one came nearer to Kalapahar, they got locked into a fight, said a crocodile specialist, Md Abdur Rob, also an employee of Sundarban forest east division, adding that Kalapahar could not cope due to his old age.
   The Sundarban forest officials with the help of locals
   and the attendants of the shrine brought Kalapahar on the eastern bank of the pond where he died in the morning.

A rally of the secondary and higher secondary level school, college and madrassah teachers were held in Wazirpur of Barisal on February 18.
   Local lawmaker Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal was present as chief guest at the function, coordinated by Moulana MA Latif. The upazila nirbahi officer, MI Siddiqui, chaired the rally at the WB Unions Institution.
   Pointing out various problems they are facing, the teachers placed a set of proposals to address those.
   Alal, also the general secretary of BNP’s youth front Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, mentioned different steps taken by the government, and assured the teachers of solving their problems.

A worker died and three others sustained critical injuries when a chunk of soil collapsed on them while they were digging a deep drain on Jail Road in the Kishoreganj town Sunday afternoon. The deceased was identified as Dain Islam, 24, son of Nurul Islam of Bhuriarchar under Sadar upazila, and the injured were Nurul Islam, 23, Rafiqul Islam, 25, and Abdul Latif, 35.
   Hearing screaming of the injured, local people immediately took them to the Kishoreganj Sadar Hospital where the on duty doctors declared Dian dead.