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Several thousand opposition activists staged demonstrations in different areas of the country on the third of the 14-party combine’s road march on Thursday demanding reform of the caretaker government and electoral systems.
   Barring a few incidents, the third day of the six-day road march was held peacefully although there was alarm of subversive acts from the intelligence agencies, the news agency said quoting reports.
   On the day, opposition activists marched from unions to thana headquarters also demanding resignation of the chief election commissioner and two other commissioners.
   The opposition supporters brought out processions with banners, festoons and posters in their hands. They chanted anti-government slogans. In many areas, it was like electioneering as the activists shouted for their possible candidates.
   In Modhupur of Tangail, the ruling BNP activists attacked the post-march rally of the opposition leaving at least 12 people injured. The BNP activists also damaged the AL office and business establishments of AL leaders, reports said.
   Local lawmaker Dr Abdur Razzak, also agriculture affairs secretary of the Awami League, led the procession.
   In Bauphal, Patuakhali, the opposition marchers were intercepted by the police in different points. A procession led by former MP ASM Firoz faced police obstruction.
   Law-enforcers also intercepted another procession here. The police said they dispersed the processionists to maintain law and order as local MP Shahidul Alam Talukdar was scheduled to open a bridge over Murainpur-Bhoripasha canal here.
   The Awami League general secretary and 14-party coordinator Abdul Jalil, MP, said people overwhelmingly responded to the road march to show their no-confidence in the BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
   ‘I had talks with upzila and district leaders of the opposition and they said people joined the road march ignoring the government threats,’ he said quoting reports reaching the AL central office.
   He said the 23-point movement now reached the grassroots level and the government has no alternative but to accept the demand for reform of the caretaker government and electoral systems for a free and fair election.
   ‘The chief election commissioner and two other commissioners will have to go. A new election commission has to be formed in consultation with all political parties now on movement,’ he said.

After 12 days of fasting, the sacked officials and employees of government development projects on Thursday called off the fast-unto-death for the time being, facing a total indifference on the part of the government to their demands.
   They had been holding the demonstration on the Central Shaheed Minar premises in the city under the banner of the Bangladesh Government Development Project Employees’ Welfare Council mainly in demand of getting back their jobs under the revenue budget.
   The agitating development workers, however, intend to go for a tougher movement soon to force the government into accepting their demands, council president Munshi Mostafizur Rahman told a press conference on the Shaheed Minar premises. A meeting of the council on July 31 will chalk out the fresh programme, he said.
   ‘We along with our family members will take to the
   streets sometime in the second week of August to get back our jobs,’ Mostafizur Rahman announced.
   Some one lakh government development project staff were rendered jobless in line with a new ordinance, when most of the projects came under the revenue budget, the council sources claimed.
   The ordinance promulgated by the government on June 20 last year provides that the services of the development project staff that began after June 30, 1997 will not be automatically regularised under the revenue budget. They will now have to get jobs through competitive examinations.

The water resources ministers of Bangladesh and India will visit the erosion-affected sites of some bordering rivers from September 11 to 20.
   The joint visits by the Bangladesh water resources minister, Hafizuddin Ahmed, and his Indian counterpart, Saifuddin Soz, which was earlier scheduled for June 5-13, has been re-fixed at a meeting of Indo-Bangladesh joint committee on review of the Ganges Treaty held in Delhi on July 21.
   The fresh schedules of the visits are now being prepared by the two countries.
   The two ministers will inspect the erosion of the River Icchamati and the river-bank protection work and minor-lift irrigation schemes in the rivers Feni and Muhuri at Belonia and Amzadnagar respectively. Then they will visit the erosion-hit sites at different points in the Bangladesh territory, including Banbazar, Andermanik and Shafitila along the River Feni.
   Another secretary-level joint team would also inspect river-bank protection work and minor-lift irrigation schemes along the River Feni on the Indian side.
   The visits of the two ministers to the erosion sites will take place as per the decision of a meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission in September, 2005.
   The meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh joint committee on review of the Ganges Treaty finalised its report which has already been sent to the two governments, the JRC sources said.
   At the meeting Bangladesh raised the issue of not getting due shares of water stipulated in the Ganges Treaty.
   Bangladesh received the lowest quantum of water at the Farakka point between April 11 and April 20 since the treaty was signed in 1996, sources in the water resources ministry said.
   The sources said Bangladesh was supposed to get 27,633 cusecs of water between April 11 and April 20 as per the indicative schedules of the treaty, but received only 15,188 cusecs during the period. The Indian side at the meeting attributed the reason to less rain during the lean season.
   Sources at the Bangladesh water resources ministry said withdrawal of water upstream by India through more then 300 dams and diversion canals has resulted in a gradual decline in the Ganges flow and this season it recorded the lowest in the last 50 years.

The High Court on Thursday issued a suo moto rule on 10 lawyers of the Chittagong court to explain within three weeks why a proceeding for contempt of court should not be drawn against them for boycotting the court and holding meeting on the court premises.
   A High Court bench comprising Justice Jainul Abedin and Justice Mashuque Hossain Ahmed passed the order.
   The allegations, stated in the rule against the lawyers, include holding meetings on March 23 and 30 and April 2 and 3, taking decisions to boycott the court of the district and sessions judge of Chittagong, making unauthorised entry into his court, forcing and compelling him to leave the court on May 10 and raising abusive and objectionable slogans standing on the veranda close to his court and chamber.
   The allegations also include coercing and intimidating the district judge of Chittagong not to hold his court and other courts of the judgeship from 9.30am, as per the High Court notification issued on September 8, 2005, but from 10.30am, as desired by the lawyers.
   In the rule, the court also said that those acts of the lawyers were violative of the suo moto exparte order of the High Court issued on May 23, 2005, in which the court imposed injunction on any agitation of the lawyers on the court premises.

At least 20 Chhatra League activists were injured in attacks allegedly by the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal at the Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute in the city on Thursday.
   Chhatra Dal, BNP’s student front, also exploded several bombs and vandalised a residential hall and the office of a department, suspending the academic activities, witnesses said.
   The police and witnesses said a group of Chhatra Dal activists stabbed Chhatra Dal activist Russel in front of the electrical engineering department, vandalised the Shaheed Enayetullah Hall and beat up another Chhatra League activist there in the morning. They also ransacked the department office.
   As the Chhatra League activists brought out a protest procession, the Chhatra Dal activists, equipped with hockey sticks and lethal weapon, swooped on the processionists and exploded five bombs, leaving at least 18 injured.
   The Chhatra Dal institute unit president, Abdul Latif, and general secretary, Sanjoy, led the attack, Chhatra League claimed.
   The institute BCL convener, Helal Kabir, said Chhatra Dal armed activists had attacked their procession without any provocation.
   Chhatra Dal leaders claimed that Chhatra League activists had hurled abuse at them during the procession prompting them to beat up the Chhatra League activists.
   Nine of the injured — Russel-1, Russel-2, Sayeed, Khairul, Suman, Haider, Tariqul Islam, Nazim and Helal Kabir — were admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital whiel others were given first aid. Rest of the leaders and activists were released after primary aid in the hospital, sources said.
   The institute principal, Yasin Ali, said they were holding a meeting with the leaders of the rivalry organisations.

A Khulna court on Thursday sentenced eight persons to death for killing a union parishad chairman at Parshemari village under Batiaghata upazila in the district on April 3, 1999.
   The district and sessions judge, AKM Ishtiaque Hossain, pronounced the verdict, acquitting four others of the charge of the murder.
   The condemned convicts were Sheikh Akram Hossain, Kamrul Islam Kamu, Jamil Sheikh, Noor Alam alias Nur-e-Alam Sardar, Minaj Sardar alias Chhota Mia, Arjan Sardar, Shahid Goldar and Matiar Rahman Morol alias Moti Morol. One of them, Minaj was tried in absentia.
   According to the prosecution, the convicts killed Mostafa Habib, chairman of Surkhali union parishad, at the house of one Shuklal Mandal.
   Victim’s mother Amena Khatun filed a case with the Batiaghata police accusing 17 persons. Later the police submitted a charge sheet against 12 persons on April 4, 2002.
   After pronouncing the verdict by the court, Amena expressed her satisfaction and demanded early execution of the judgement.

The families of three persons, killed in the February 25 Phoenix building collapse at Tejgaon, on Thursday received Tk 3 lakh each in compensation while the 11 injured Tk 1 lakh each.
   The chief metropolitan magistrate, Jalal Ahmed, handed the cheques over to them at the court conference room and asked the other 14 victims, who have not received compensation yet, to appear in the court on August 24.
   Earlier on April 24, the families of twelve deceased, and 22 injured people received Tk 55.5 lakh in compensation from the court.
   The Phoenix Group chairman, Deen Mohammad, deposited Tk 1.20 crore in the account of the court on March 27 and eight top company officials including Deen were granted bail as the police sued them for their negligence in the building collapse that left 20 people killed and 43 injured.

An alleged criminal was killed in the early hours Thursday in crossfire between his accomplices and a Rapid Action Battalion team at Uttar Kattali in the city’s Pahartali area, the battalion said.
   According to the elite crime-busting battalion, the deceased, Mohammed Arman Hossain alias Mamun, of Uttar Kattali was a defendant in eight criminal cases. He was arrested on Tuesday night and on his confession a RAB team took him to Khejurtali of Uttar Kattali at around Wednesday midnight to recover an arms cache and nab his accomplices.
   ‘When we reached the area, some associates of Mamun opened fire on us, forcing us to retaliate,’ claimed a battalion source.
   After a brief gunfire, the attackers retreated, the source said, and the RAB team found a bullet-ridden Mamun lying on the ground. He was taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
   RAB said its members recovered a .32-bore revolver, three light guns and some ammunition from the spot.

The LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, on Thursday said 72 per cent area of the country had been brought under sanitation system.
   ‘The whole country would be brought under sanitation system by 2010,’ Bhuiyan, also the BNP secretary general said while distributing prizes among the LGRD officials who have achieved success in sanitation at their respective areas.
   The LGRD ministry has arranged the programme to focus their achievements during the tenure of the present government.

The 15th meeting of the minimum wage commission for garment workers on Thursday ended inconclusively in
   absence of the employers’ representative.
   Annsiul Huq, a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association and the employers’ representative to the commission, could not attend the meeting as he was visiting abroad.
   The meeting was held at the Minimum Wage Board office with its chairman Anwarul Haque, who also heads the commission, in the chair. The commission decided to sit next in the first week of August.
   At the meeting some commission members observed that increasing the wages in the apparel sector has become tough as the employers refuse even to Tk 1,800 as the minimum basic wage, meeting sources said.
   Besides representatives of the government, employers and workers, the supposedly tripartite commission also has an independent member, who has no axe to grind — in this case a university teacher.
   The independent member earlier suggested Tk 1,800 as the minimum basic wage.
   But the employers’ representative rejected the proposal
   outright, arguing that the employers could not afford
   such a ‘high labour cost’, which would make production unviable.
   The apparel businessmen’s last offer of the minimum basic wage was Tk 1,300, while the workers’ representatives remained firm at Tk 3,000.
   A Tk 3,000 basic salary at the entry level means a gross monthly pay of Tk 4,850, while a Tk 1,800 basic means Tk 2,650.
   The current national basic minimum wage was fixed at Tk 930 twelve years ago, when the value of taka was many times higher.
   A tripartite agreement struck on June 11 stipulated that increased wages would be implemented in the ready-made garment sector within the next three months.
   The government formed the commission on May 31, following violent labour unrest in the sector, with workers demanding other allowances and benefits, besides wage hike.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Thursday accused the opposition of conspiring to foil the next general election as their pre-poll survey showed bad results for them once again.
   She said now her political opponents were out to kill democracy and introduce one-party rule by foiling the elections. ‘But the people will not let them do it,’ she warned.
   ‘They have made a survey and found no chances of their doing any better in the next elections too…their result would be worse than it was in the past elections for their destructive politics,’ Khaleda said while addressing a public meeting at Zia Maidan here.
   Claiming that the BNP has restored parliamentary democracy, she asserted that this system would continue. She said her government would transfer power to the caretaker government in October for holding elections in January next year.
   She urged the people to cast their votes judiciously to reelect the BNP and its allies so that the incomplete tasks for development could be finished.
   Khaleda, also the chairperson of the ruling BNP, blasted the ‘destructive politics’ pursued by the opposition Awami League in last five years, creating chaos and indiscipline both in parliament and out in the street. But people rejected them, she said.
   ‘Their movement in the street could not succeed, while in parliament they even went to assault the speaker to create chaos,’ she said.
   Khaleda said people would have to take decision whether they are for chaos and terrorism or for development, democracy and peace.
   Citing various positive indices in socio-economic sectors, she said foreign reserve and per-capita income have increased and overall economy has been put on a strong footing under the alliance rule.
   On the contrary, she alleged, the previous Awami League rule had ruined the economy and made Bangladesh into a market of a foreign country.
   ‘But we do not want to become market of others. We want to increase production in the country and increase exports by creating new markets abroad, meeting the local demand.’

The police and the Rapid Action Battalion are jointly preparing a list of criminals in Rajshahi to launch a clampdown on them during the caretaker government.
   The police and the elite force will go for the operation as the criminals might create anarchy before and during the next general elections.
   The police sources said they are recording the names of the terrorists based on a grassroots investigation. The criminals, who escaped during operation clean heart, would be the targets of the next anti-crime drives.
   The sources claimed, the lists will be prepared not only by the police but other intelligence wings of the government.
   Only the police have a list of more than 200 criminals including their 20 godfathers while the Rapid Action Battalion in Rajshahi has prepared a list of around 250 juvenile terrorists in the 13 northern districts of Rajshahi division.
   The elite force will launch a crack down against the criminals in August, the RAB Rajshahi commander Quazi Shamsuzzaman Khan told.

Speakers at a discussion on genetically modified organisms here on Thursday demanded that the government should impose a ban on production and import of GM food considering its adverse impact on human health and the environment.
   The discussion on ‘GMO and food security’ was organised by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association at its office.
   The Chittagong chapter president of the Bangladesh Economic Association, Sikandar Khan, was the chief guest at the discussion presided over by Professor Shafique Haider Chowdhury.
   The general secretary of the Center for Sustainable Development, Mahfuz Ullah, presented the keynote paper at the meeting addressed by Mohammed Al Forkun, Shila Momen, Shafiqur Rahman, A M Abu Ahmed and Mohammed Idris.

Novera Deepita, a staff reporter of Daily Star, was found dead at her residence in the city’s Rayerbazar area on Thursday. She was 30.
   Family sources said her body was found hanging in her bedroom in the afternoon. She is suspected to have committed suicide.
   Novera had been suffering from schizophrenia from the age of 15. Her mobility was greatly impaired following an accident and she had been bed-ridden for several months, they said.
   She is survived by her husband, Harun-ur Rashid, a sub-editor of the newspaper, parents, brothers and sisters. Poet Rafiq Azad is her father.
   The Daily Star family in a press statement mourned the untimely death of Novera.