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The Chittagong Development Authority has undertaken a Tk 800 crore project to set up two townships in the port city to ease its housing crisis.
   One of the proposed townships named Anannya will be set up on 350 acres in the Oxygen-Kuaish Road at an estimated cost of Tk 600 crore, CDA sources said.
   Of the amount, Tk 300 crore is earmarked for acquiring the land for the town comprising 5,000 residential plots, they added.
   The other township, Kalpalok, will be set up on 90 acres of land adjacent to the existing Kalpalok Residential Area and will have 1,000 residential plots, they said.
   The CDA estimates the expenditure for Kalpalok township at Tk 200 crore, of which Tk 120 crore will be spent for land acquisition.
   Both the proposed townships will have schools, colleges, hospitals, community centres, shopping malls, kitchen markets, and other necessary institutions and facilities to provide all civic amenities to their residents.
   Playgrounds and mini parks will also be set up at the new towns for children. Strict security measures and efficient management are expected to be two other advantages of residing there, sources explained.
   The CDA has already obtained the approval of the government for the project and started the process for land acquisition, said CDA chairman Shah Mohammed Akhteruddin.
   ‘We should initiate the construction of the towns without any delay, after completing the land acquisition,’ he said.
   He hoped to be able to hand the plots over to the aspirant residents within the next two years.
   Akhteruddin, however, said they would not be able to provide all the promised facilities to the dwellers from the very beginning, as the institutions and facilities would have to be established in phases.
   In his opinion, the housing problem in the port city will be reduced significantly after implementation of the giant project.

The construction of the Swadhinata Stambha, a monument to Bangladesh’s independence, in the city’s Suhrawardy Udyan will take another year to complete due to a change in the design of its tower.
   ‘The project period has been extended by one more year to construct the tower as per a fresh design,’ the liberation war affairs secretary, Abu Solaiman Chow-dhury, told New Age.
   The government has crossed out a 150ft glass tower in the earlier plan of the monument, adjudging it unbecoming to Bangladeshi culture, said officials of the ministry, which is implementing the project.
   The immediate past Awami League government in the fag end of its tenure in 2001 put the glass edifice into the blueprint, doubling the project cost from Tk 81 crore to Tk 171 crore, they said.
   After coming to office in October 2001, the 4-party coalition government suspended the monument construction work on allegations of corruption and irregularities.
   The government then transferred the project from the public works ministry to the ministry of liberation war affairs and the work resumed after three years of suspension in 2005 under a revised project that kept the cost limited to the original Tk 81 crore.
   The project steering committee of the liberation war ministry has meanwhile asked the Department of Architecture to design a tower that can be built keeping the project expenditure within the ceiling.
   Sources said the department is expected to come up with the fresh design within a couple of months and the tower is estimated to be built by June 2007.
   Besides the tower, the monument complex will have an underground theatre, a liberation war museum and a 157-seat auditorium. There will also be an exhibition gallery and a fountain. The construction of all these facilities has almost finished, said the sources.
   A top official of the ministry also said that the government was likely to inaugurate the Swadhinata Stambha before its tenure ends in October, with the tower still under construction.

A four-month training programme began in a programme at Jatiya Pratibandhi Forum in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The ActionAid Bangladesh, with the help of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Chittagong-based Young Power in Social Action organised the training for 20 students with disabilities who passed from universities.
   Eleven of the students are visually challenged, eight physically challenged and one hearing impaired. The group has seven female.
   The training programme will include computer education and life skills development programmes to compete in job market with the physically sound people.
   The Impact Foundation director, Monsur Ahmed Chowdhury, who pioneered disability movement in Bangladesh, inaugurated the training programme.
   ActionAid Bangladesh country director Shoib Siddiki gave the welcome speech. The forum chairperson, Khandokar Jahirul Alam, and director Nafisur Rahman, Jatiya Pratibandhi Krira Samity director MA Baten, YPSA chief executive Arifur Rahman Khan and chief training coordinator Bhaskar Banarjee also attended.
   Misperception of the employers about the people with
   disabilities, distrust, confusion and lack of confidence of the people with disabilities to be employed are the reasons of joblessness of the physically challenged people, the speakers said.

Nilufa Begum, 35, a resident of Brahmanbaria, gave birth to four babies –– two female and two male –– at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Relatives of the babies are happy although they feel the challenge of rearing the four born with very low weight — one weighing 1,100gm, two 1,200gm and the other 1,300gm.
   The standard weight of a new born is minimum 25,00gm, said child specialist Saifuddin Khaled at the BSMMU.
   The four were born at about 10:00am, 10 weeks before the expected date of delivery, said assistant professor Hamida Begum at the BSMMU, who conducted the delivery, adding the delivery was smooth, but it was not sure if the babies
   would survive with their underweight.
   Rina Akhter, aunt of the babies, told New Age, ‘Due to our financial inability, we were anxious about the safe delivery after an ultrasonogram had been conducted one month ago at Barnali Nursing Home at Mirpur 1’.
   In fact, the parents would not able to take care of their eight children along with four daughters –– Taslima, 13, Akhter, 10, Laboni, 6, and Shabornna, 4, born earlier, she said. Rina said, ‘We have spent about Tk 50,000 in connection with Nilufa’s pregnancy.’
   Nilufa was admitted to Ad-Din Mother and Child Hospital at Moghbabzar on July 11 and on Friday, the hospital referred her to the BSMMU. They admitted her to the BSMMU on the day.
   ‘About Tk 1,000 is spent on the four babies and their mother a day at the BSMMU,’
   she said, adding her brother had to spend a lot to
   become father of a son. She also said Nilufa had a son, Saifullah, who died at his two years of age.
   The grandmother of the four babies, Abeda Khatun, spoke with joy and proposed two names for her grandsons –– Hasan and Hossain, while she showed no such interest about her two granddaughters.
   Medical experts consider it a rare medical event in which a single egg gets split into four and the babies will share same sex and identical behavioural patterns.
   Many curious visitors gathered in front of the room 828 of the obstetric department of the BSMMU and also in front of the neonatal department at second floor of the hospital on Saturday.
   Asma Akhter, along with her three sisters, came from 10th floor of the BSMMU’s C-block to see the babies although their mother was under treatment at the intensive care unit of the neurology department at the BSMMU.
   The relatives of the babies, meanwhile, grew angry with
   the visitors and media personnel as the father of the babies, Shafiqul Islam, who work in Saudi Arabia as a labourer, made a phone call and asked not to inform the media of the babies.
   ‘We cannot tell when the mother and babies will be released’, said a physician of the obstetrics and gynaecology department.

The Rajshahi mayor, Mizanur Rahman, distributed on Saturday Mayor’s Education Medal 2006 among the students who obtained GPA 5 in the SSC and dakhil examinations in 2006.
   The mayor, as chief guest, distributed the medals in a programme at Nagar Bhaban where the corporation’s education committee chairman Gias Uddin was in the chair.
   The Rajshahi University vice-chancellor, Altaf Hossain, and pro-vice-chancellor Mamnunul Keramat were special guests.
   The mayor said the prizes would encourage meritorious students in their next course of education.
   He called on the students to use their talent for the development of Bangladesh and its people. He said the corporation efforts would continue.
   Five hundred and ninety-three students, including 66 dakhil examinees, from 40 schools and 15 madrassahs of the city and Paba upazila were awarded.
   Fourteen students, who obtained primary scholarships in 2005, were also awarded in the programme.
   A number of educationists, teachers, guardians and students attended.

The residents of Saddam Hussein Hall of the Islamic University went on the rampage in the dining hall on Saturday as the provost did not respond to their demands.
   The students, angered by the substandard food served in the hall, damaged the furniture and utensils.
   They said they had lodged complaints with the provost, but he had not looked into the matter.
   They said the authorities did not increase food subsidies and renovate the furniture, which angered the students of the hall of residence.

More than 11 lakh GrameenPhone’s prepaid subscribers enjoyed the free talk time bonus up to Tk 1,000, depending on airtime usage, under its Thankyou programme during April-June.
   A total of 23,298 pre-paid subscribers received the bonus talk time of Tk 1,000, a GrameenPhone release said on Saturday.
   More than 3.2 lakh post-paid subscribers received Thankyou discounts during the period.
   All GP users — GP Regular, GP National, Any Time 300, Any Time 500, Easy Gold, Easy and djuice — will be benefited under the discount and bonus programme.
   GP launched the programme in January on the occasion of its reaching six million subscriber mark.
   Cash discounts up to Tk 1,000 on airtime usage were given to post-paid subscribers on a monthly basis while free talk-time to the prepaid subscribers were given on a quarterly basis.

Five lakh residents of the Barisal city are hopeful of somewhat eased supply of water as the government decided to install a surface water treatment plant.
   The Tk 26-crore project was approved by the executive committee of the National Economic Council on July 12.
   The city people have been suffering from water crisis for long as the city corporation could supply only 50 lakh gallons of drinking water against the demand for 1 crore gallons a day.
   Ward commissioner Atiqur Rahman, who is also head of the water and electricity supply sub-committee of the corporation, prepared the plan and sent it to the Planning Division of the Ministry of Finance.
   The government approved the revised plan for installation of the plant involving Tk 28 in another ECNEC meeting and ordered to ensure supply of water against the minimum demand of the city by using surface water from sources such as the River Kirtankhola.
   The corporation sources said the surface water treatment plant was likely to be built at Rupatali or near the Trish Godown in the city.

Light to moderate rain or thunder shower accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely at a few places all over Bangladesh except for the Rajshahi division till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office on Saturday.
   Similar weather may prevail at one or two places over the Rajshahi division and with moderately heavy rainfall at places all over Bangladesh.
   Day temperature may fall slightly during the period. The highest temperature on Saturday, 35.0 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Sylhet and the lowest, 23.9 degrees Celsius, at Sandwip.
   The sun sets in the capital city at 6:48pm today and will rise at 5:21am on Monday.
   The Met Office, in an extended outlook, said rainfall activities might increase in two days and there would be little change in weather in five days.

Token strike observed for gas
in Rajshahi
Vehicle movement in the Rajshahi city halted for 15 minutes on Saturday as social organisation Rajshahi Gas Andolan Parisad enforced a token hunger strike demanding gas supply through pipeline. No vehicle plied and commercial establishments put their shutters down for 15 minutes in the city. A rally was held where the speakers said they would not cast their vote if no gas is supplied through pipeline. The organisation held another rally at Saheb Bazar in the afternoon where its convener Mahtab Uddin was in the chair. Joint convener Sirajuddin Ahmed also spoke.

Donation for
museum asked for
Donation from philanthropists and welfare organisations have been requested for the language movement museum established recently to collect and conserve the documents of the language movement. The museum will be inaugurated on February 1, 2007. The donation will be received formally on August 5 from 11:00am to 1:00pm. Donation can be send to Director, Language Movement Museum, Rastrabhasha Bhaban, House 5, Road 10, Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka 1205 or 9114992, 01712819260.
— New Age