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The country’s garment owners proposed the government to form a wage board for fixing minimum wage for their workers. The garment industry is the largest export earning sector, brining in about 74 per cent of exports.
   Formation of a wage board could bring hopes to about two million garment workers, most of whom are women. An overwhelming portion of these workers do not get their due wages and are often deprived of rightful privileges, according to labour organisations at home and abroad.
   Immediately reacting to the proposal, labour leaders demanded formation of the wage board in line with the national wage board and proposed a national minimum wage, that is about to be declared.
   Sources said the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturer and Exporters Association, the apex body of the garment owners recently sent a letter to the government requesting formation of a wage board for the garment sector.
   ‘The [association] leaders are interested to increase the minimum wage for workers, thus its labour arbitration committee has sent a letter to the labour ministry in this regard,’ said an official of the ministry.
   Rafiqul Islam, joint secretary of the labour arbitration committee in the ministry told New Age Sunday that the committee had sent a recommendation to the government to form a wage board for garment workers.
   Rafiq claimed that the arbitration committee consulted with the garment labour leaders but the leaders denied it.
   ‘We are informed of the proposal but labour organisations were not consulted,’ said Aminul Haque Amin, a senior leader of the Bangladesh National Garment Workers Federation.
   Amin demanded that the wage board should be formed withs instruction to follow the proposed national minimum wage.
   Currently an unskilled garment worker is paid Tk 930, as a minimum wage, which is based on a basic salary of Tk 600 while the proposed national minimum wage basic salary is Tk 1350.
   There are about 4,000 garment production units employing nearly two million workers with more than 80 per cent women.
   Garment exports earned $6.4 billion or 74 per cent of the country’s exports in the fiscal 2004-05.

The government is unlikely to nationalise the services of non-government primary schoolteachers immediately due to pressure on the economy.
   This was indicated by the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, on Sunday while talking to journalists after a meeting with the education minister, Osman Farruk, at his secretariat office.
   ‘We know about their (teachers) demand but the local currency position is very tight,’ Saifur said, but added that no specific discussion on the non-government issue was held at Sunday’s meeting.
   The finance minister also claimed that most of the welfare measures for the non-government primary teachers were taken by the present government.
   Last month, thousands of non-government primary schoolteachers from across the country staged a sit-in programme and some 22 teachers went on a fast-unto-death programme on the Central Shaheed Mianr premises to press their one-point demand for nationalisation of their services.
   The protest fasting, which began on December 27, was withdrawn on December 29, following assurance from the prime minister’s political secretary, Haris Chowdhury.
   Meanwhile, the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is expected to address a rally of teachers in Dhaka on January 19 on the National Teacher Day.

At least 17 people were killed and about 100 injured in road accidents in different parts of the country on Sunday.
   Four of them were killed in Sylhet, three in Sirajganj, two each in Rajshahi, Tangail, Bhola and Dinajpur and one each in Patualkhali and Bhairab in Kishoreganj.
   In Sylhet, two women and their two sons died and three people were injured in separate accidents at Khasikapan in Osmaninagar on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway and at Ranaping in Golapganj on the Sylhet-Jakiganj Road.
   The police said Alfura Begum and her son, Suman, were crushed under the wheels of a truck at Khasikapan at about 10:00am.
   Traffic remained suspended for about an hour as the local people put a blockade in protest against the accident.
   In another accident at Ranaping, Shaheda Begum and her son Hamza were killed and three others injured in a head-on collision between an auto-rickshaw and a bus at about noon. The injured were admitted to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital.
   In Sirajganj, three unidentified children were killed and seven people injured as a Dhaka-bound bus dashed a car from behind and the car fell into a ditch at Simanta Bazar on the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge approach road at about 5:30pm. Two of the injured were admitted to Sirajganj General Hospital in ‘critical condition’. In Rajshahi, two people were killed and at least 20 others injured in separate road mishaps at Charghat and Bagha.
   A Rajshahi-bound bus from Bagha fell into a ditch at Charghat at about noon killing one Shahjamal and injuring 20 others.
   In another incident, one Pranab Kumar of Bagha was crushed under the wheels of a Rajshahi-bound bus from Bagha at Mirganj as he tried to get down from the running bus.
   In Tangail, two buses collided head-on near Dharla in Mirzapur at about 5:00am killing two of the passengers — Ratan Mia and Jamaluddin — and injuring 40 others. Twenty of them were admitted to Tangail General Hospital and Kumudini Hospital.
   In Bhola, two children — Rabbi and his cousin Fetema — were crished under the wheels of a bus near Ilisha launch ghat at about 10:00am. In Dinajpur, one Shafiqul Islam Babu was killed in a road accident on his way to Dinajpur from Dhaka in the early hours while one Rabi Sharma of Jaipurhat, injured in a Saturday road accident, died at Dinajpur Medical College Hospital.
   In Patuakhali, a woman died and 30 people were injured as a bus fell into a ditch breaking the railing of a bridge at Ayesherhut on the Dashmina-Patuakhali Road at about 4:00pm.
   In Kishoreganj, a truck helper was killed and a truck driver injured in a collision between two trucks at Jagannathpur of Bhairab on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway.

The date for framing the charge of a case, filed in connection with the killing of two judges in Jhalakati, was shifted again on Sunday.
   MA Matin, judge of the Barisal Speedy Trial Tribunal, shifted the date on January 19. The date for framing the charge of the case was fixed on January 8, and later shifted on January 15. Two of the six charge-sheeted accused — Iftikhar Hasan Al Mamun alias Mamun Ali alias Shihab, prime suspect, and his associate Sultan — were brought to the court premises on Sunday morning, but not produced before the court.
   The judge, however, asked the authorities concerned to a send letter to the Dhaka central jail superintendent for producing the other two accused, Ataur Rahman Sunny and Abdul Awal Arif, before the court. The other two accused Shaikh Abdur Rahman, chief of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, and Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, chief of Jagrata Muslim Janata, were still absconding.
   Sultan Ahmed, driver of the damaged microbus, filed two cases with the Kotwali police station in Jhalakati in connection with the killing of two judges in the bomb attack on November 14, 2005.

Different organisations on Sunday observed the second anniversary of death of the Khulna-based New Age correspondent Manik Chandra Saha.
   Manik, also former president of Khulna Press Club and stringer of BBC Bangla service, was bombed to death at Chhota Mirzapur in the city on January 15, 2004.
   The Khulna Press Club, Khulna Union of Journalists, Bangladesh Chhatra Union Khulna unit, the Communist Party of Bangladesh Khulna city and district units, the Khulna unit of Udichi,
   Lal Baul Khelaghar Asar, Ratan Sen Public Library, and Manik Saha Smriti Parishad had drawn up different programmes to mark the death anniversary.
   The programmes include placing wreaths at the makeshift memorial of Manik, bringing out processions, and holding discussion meetings.
   The family of Manik also placed wreath at the memorial and arranged religious programme at the Shibbari Temple in the city on Saturday evening. Speakers at the meetings demanded immediate punishment for the masterminds, and the killers of Manik
   Saha. Manik Saha Smriti Parishad organised a meeting in the Khulna Press Club auditorium.
   Chaired by Khulna Udichi president Beerendranath Roy, the meeting was addressed by CPB central leader Ruhin Hossain Prince, Awami League district president Harunur Rashid, city general secretary Mizanur Rahman, former BNP city committee general secretary Nazrul Islam, Gana Forum district convener Haider Gazi Salahuddin, and Khulna Press Club president Liakat Ali.

An unidentified man was chopped to death at Uttara in the capital on Sunday afternoon.
   The Uttara police recovered the body of the man, aged about 38, from Koshaibari in the area at about 4:30pm, and later sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.
   The police said assailants equipped with weapons chopped the victim in the head, chest and back.

Two travel agents– Osman Gani and Foizullah– who were accused of misappropriating Tk 56 lakh from 36 people in the name of sending them for Hajj pilgrimage taken on a three-day fresh remand on Sunday.
   Earlier, they faced six-day remand in two phases.

Howard Bruner Schaffer, a former US ambassador to Bangladesh, called on the leader of the opposition in parliament, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, Sunday evening at her residence.
   Sources said, they have discussed latest political situation in Bangladesh. Schaffer, who is now visiting Dhaka along with his wife, also called on the foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, at his office and discussed various bilateral matters.
   Schaffer was the US ambassador to Dhaka from August 13, 1984 to July 9, 1987.
   When asked about the purpose of his visit, the director of American Centre, Jonathan Cebra, told the news agency that ‘it’s his personal visit.’

A faction of the Narsingdi BNP on Sunday protested against a news item published in some newspapers that claimed that lawmaker Sarder Shakhawat Hossain Bakul was declared persona non grata in his constituency (Manahardi-Belabo) by the rival faction.
   ‘Shakhawat was never declared persona non grata in the locality by any quarter,’ BNP leader Abdul Awal Bhuiyan told a briefing at the press club.
   He said although their rival faction had held a rally on Saturday protesting against Friday’s attack on a business centre, none of the speakers had declared Shakhawat unwanted.
   A vested quarter was conducting propaganda against Shakhawat, others present at the briefing said.
   Leaders of another faction of BNP declared Shakhawat unwanted accusing that he had instigated Friday’s attack on the business centre.

The fresh initiative of the power ministry to set up 10-30MW small power plants in the private sector has generated huge enthusiasm among the local entrepreneurs.
   Sources in the power cell, the processing and implementation wing of the power ministry, said so far some 75 local entrepreneurs have procured the pre-bid qualification documents to vie for the proposed projects.
   As per the latest decision of the government, a total of 10 small plants would be set up under private sector sponsorship at 10 places across the country. All the plants will be gas-fired.
   The Power Development Board and the Rural Electrification Board will purchase electricity from these plants at competitive rates.
   The proposed plants from which the PDB will buy electricity are 30MW– Jangalia (Comilla), 20MW– Feni (Grid sub-station), 20MW– Barabkunda (Chittagong) and 20MW– Tangail (Grid sub-station).
   The selected sites and capacity of the plants from which the REB will buy power are 10MW– Mohipal (Feni), 10MW– Habiganj, 10MW– Ullapara (Sirajganj), 30MW– Rupganj (Narayanganj), 20MW– Narsingdi and 30MW–Maona (Gazipur).
   The sale of pre-bid qualification documents for the projects began on December 19 last year and the submission of the documents is scheduled for January 18.
   A source in the power cell, however, told the news agency that the submission date would be extended until January 28 as requested by the aspirant bidders.
   Cancelling its all previous decisions, the government has finally decided to set up the proposed 10 small power plants through competitive bidding.
   The earlier decision was to set up a total of 50 small plants with capacity ranging from 10 to 50MW on the basis of unsolicited offers from the private entrepreneurs.
   But amid harsh criticism from the industry insiders and pressure from the World Bank, the government scrapped the previous decision and came out with the latest move to ensure transparency in the selection process.
   Under the fresh move, only the local firms are eligible to compete for the projects while foreign firms can only be joint venture partners having a maximum 49 per cent share.
   As per the criteria of the project, any local firm can apply for a 10MW project if it has experience of setting up at least a 2MW power plant.
   Experience of installation and operation of 5MW will be required for a firm willing to set up a 20 or 30MW plant.
   In case of financial qualification, any firm proposing to set up a 10MW plant, must have the experience of setting up an industrial plant with Tk 3 crore equity and Tk 10 crore debt in the investment.
   Any firm willing to set up a 20MW plant must have the experience of investing Tk 6 crore as equity and Tk 40 crore as debt.
   Aspirant of a 30MW plant must have experience of an investment with Tk 10 crore equity and Tk 40 crore as debt.