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About 80 per cent people consider the price spiral of essential commodities as their gravest concern, while the highest 67.3 per cent have little trust in the law enforcement agencies, a study found.
   The Power and Participation Research Centre, which conducted the governance survey, launched its report at a seminar on Saturday at the LGED auditorium in the city.
   ‘The economic concerns are very critical for the people,’ remarked PPRC executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman, while presenting the keynote paper based on the survey findings, which are incorporated into the centre’s annual report on governance in Bangladesh.
   On the low-trust scale, the business community comes after the police and other law enforcers being named by 43.3 per cent of the respondents, closely followed by government offices by 39.8 per cent, political parties by 36.4 per cent, and politicians by 33 per cent.
   ‘It shows that, as an important economic activator, the business community has a problem of trust and legitimacy,’ Hossain said.
   The centre carried out the survey in early this year on 4,500 people of both urban and rural areas to develop a set of governance indices under a study styled Unbundling Governance.
   Hossain said the ‘hoirani’ or harassment index reflects a key element of mis-governance people face in their everyday life. ‘Unpredictability, wastage of time, misbehaviour, and procedural superfluity are the major ways of harassing people, especially the poor,’ he elaborated.
   The PPRC chief said, ‘The findings under the attitude index shows that, although the society has widely welcomed women’s education, it is still conservative about their participation in politics and salish [rural arbitration].’
   He presented a summary of the political optimism index developed through the study that showed 59.4 per cent respondents did not hope for any significant improvement in politics, while 45 per cent were moderately optimistic.
   Governance is not an exclusive issue of the government; it also includes the private sector and the non-government organisations, the governor of Bangladesh Bank, Salehuddin Ahmed, told the seminar.
   ‘In many cases, the private sector entities have lengthy bureaucratic procedures, too, and in some cases they don’t abide by the rules and norms that reflects poor governance,’ Salehuddin said.
   The central bank chief also stressed the need for effective regulatory bodies for improved governance.
   Economist Wahiduddin Mahmud echoed the governor, saying good governance was possible, if the watchdog institutions delivered properly.
   As the World Bank is now indexing the eligibility of countries for its assistance based on their governance performance, we should also prepare our own evaluation, he pointed out.
   Wahiduddin said, ‘Accountability should be mutual. We should also monitor whether the donors are providing assistance according to their commitments made under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper framework.’
   Akbar Ali Khan, former cabinet and finance secretary, said the core instrument for instituting good governance is ‘punishing the bad, awarding the good’.
   According to him, Bangladesh has become a demonstration of the Gresham’s Law — ‘bad money drives good money out of circulation’, as everywhere in the country bad people are driving away the good.
   When everyone has recognised corruption in various sectors like power and health, mis-governance is now very much an issue to be treated like ‘the devil on the trail’, quipped WB country director Christine I Wallich.
   Asian Development Bank country director Hua Du, DFID Bangladesh chief David Wood, Professor Imtiaz Ahmed of the Dhaka University, and Manusher Jonno team leader Shaheen Anam, among others, also spoke at the seminar chaired by principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Kamal Uddin Siddiqui.

A civic forum on Saturday suggested creation of a monitoring commission on state affairs for appointing the Election Commission to ensure its neutrality and credibility in holding free and fair elections.
   The group, Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad, came up with the suggestion at a discussion on ‘the upcoming general election: the crisis of existing system and process’ at the National Press Club.
   Masih Malik Chowdhury, a chartered accountant and political think-tank, said that the proposed seven-member commission should include two just-retired chief justices, the leader of the house and the leader of the opposition in the parliament, and a former chief election commissioner who had conducted an election successfully.
   ‘The commission would select the members of the Election Commission after having discussions with the political parties and social organisations even at grassroots level,’ he suggested.
   ‘The incumbent CEC is trying to justify his controversial actions saying ‘to err is human’, but I am asking him, is “to err intentionally” also human?’
   Masih also called for reviewing the qualification for being a lawmaker saying graduation should be the minimum educational qualification of a person intending to contest the parliamentary election. Besides, the person should have taxpayer’s identification number, and must not be a defaulter in paying loans, income tax and bills of utility services.
   The electoral process cannot be free and fair until the judiciary was separated from the executive branch of the state, he observed and suggested making it mandatory to put signatures of the majority of polling agents on the result-sheet of any election.
   For ensuring voters’ right there should be a place to vote for none and if 25 per cent votes of any constituency go to nobody, the election should be cancelled, he said. Former judge of the appellate division, Golam Rabbani, said there should be strict regulation on the electoral expenditure. ‘Billionaires invest millions in election to make billions more and it should be stopped.’
   He also stressed the need for empowering the local governments for holding a credible election.
   Khandaker Ibrahim Khaled, the managing director of Pubali Bank, said the present Election Commission had completely lost the people’s trust and so they must go. ‘The present struggle is between democracy and conspiracy. Conspiracy cannot be overpowered by rules or regulations. Bangladesh has its own method to combat conspiracy and it has been proved again in Kansat,’ he said.
   Former vice-chancellor of the Jahangirnagar University, Kazi Saleh Ahmed, however, said the concept of a caretaker government was ‘against the spirit of democracy’ and it had also ‘ruined the image of the Supreme Court.’
   ‘The practice of superseding the seniors began after the caretaker system was introduced and it raises questions about the morals of the court of justice,’ he said.
   The Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad president, Quazi Kholikuzzaan Ahmad, moderated the discussion also attended by former caretaker government adviser, ASM Shahjahan, Taher Uddin, Midas managing diretor, Abdul Karim, Dhaka University teachers, Ashraf Chowdhury and Harun-ar-Rashid.

Agitating teachers under the umbrella of the Shikkhak Karmochari Oikya Jote staged demonstrations in front of the houses of lawmakers across the country on Saturday to press for their demands.
   The teachers also staged a sit-in in front of the residence of the education minister, Dr Osman Faruq. About two hundred teachers from Karimganj-Tarail took part in the sit-in demonstration.
   The police exchanged hot words with the agitating teachers after the chief coordinator of the SKOJ, principal Selim Bhuiyan participated in the sit-in programme.
   Later, they held a meeting with the education minister. During the meeting, the minister assured them of meeting their demands.
   Teachers from Sutrapur led by Abdul Gani gathered in front of the residence of Dhaka city mayor, Sadeq Hossain Khoka, at about 11:00am.
   About three hundred teachers of Dhaka-4 constituency staged a sit-in in front of the house of lawmaker Salauddin Ahmed at 7:00am. The lawmaker assured them of informing the prime minister of their demands.
   More than 100 teachers gathered in front of the residence of Dewan Md Salauddin in Savar. As the lawmaker was not at home his mother expressed her solidarity with the demands of the teachers.
   Meanwhile, teachers and employees of technical schools and colleges announced various programmes at a press conference at the Reporter's Unity on Saturday.

The central government should separate the local government from its control to ensure good governance and strengthen democracy, speakers said at a workshop on Saturday.
   The Bangladesh Centre for Communication Programme organised the workshop on ‘role of media to strengthen local government’ at the CIRDAP auditorium in association with Democratic Local Government Programme, USAID and RTI International.
   The speakers stressed on the role of media to address legal disputes between the local and central governments.
   Development expert Dr Syed Jahangir Haider said not only the media, but the local government has also the responsibility to disseminate the information to the media.
   Badiul Alam Majumdar, country director of the Hunger Project, underscored the need for ensuring transparency and accountability in local tier.
   The News Today editor, Reajuddin Ahmed, said the local government should not be termed as ‘local government’ unless it can reduce dependency on the central government.
   A number of union parishad members and chairmen also attended the workshop and expressed their dissatisfaction over the ‘biased’ role of media.
   The Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum general secretary, Mostafizur Rahman, said media can inspire the representatives of the local government by focusing their constructive roles in society.
   With the DLGP chief, Lamar Cravens, in the chair, the workshop was also attended, among others, by Prof Mohabbat Khan, Prof Salahuddin M Alimuzzaman, and the Municipality Association of Bangladesh president Azmatullah Khan.

The medical board reviewed the health condition of the president Iajuddin Ahmed on Saturday and noted with satisfaction that his condition is now steady.
   The board examined the president’s health at Bangabhaban as per prescription of the physicians of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where the president had undergone cardiac surgery.
   ‘The board expresses satisfaction at the president’s health. His overall health condition is steady as before. The president is fit to continue light office work as recommended by the Mount Elizabeth Hospital,’ a Bangabhaban release said quoting the board physicians.
   Headed by Brig Gen (retd) Dr MA Malik, the medical board comprised Maj Gen MA Moyeed Siddiqui, Maj Gen MG Rabbani, Prof KMHS Sirajul Haque, Prof Sufia Rahman, Brig Gen Sheikh M Bahar Hossain and Lt Col Mamunur Rahman.

Three members of a family were killed and two others injured as a Dhaka-bound express train rammed a tempo on a level-crossing at Chhanua Bazar in Feni Saturday morning.
   The police said the accident took place at about 8:30am when the Dhaka-bound ‘Subarna Express’ ploughed into the tempo after the three-wheeler stopped on the level-crossing.
   The deceased are Rekha, 22, 8-month-pregnant wife of Mohammad Shahjahan, an expatriate living in Saudi Arabia, his sister in-law Munni, 18, and nephew Mizan, 7. The injured identified as Hazera, 15, and tempo driver Kamal were admitted to Feni Sadar Hospital.
   ‘The accident took place as there was no guard at the level-crossing,’ said a witness. Shahjahan’s younger brother, Hanif, got down from the tempo and tried to move it by pushing to avoid the accident but failed.

The Indian BSF troops abducted two workers while collecting stones from a quarry and took away their five boats from Bisnakandi stone quarry area in Goainghat upazila on Friday night.
   The workers were identified as Lilu Mia, 32, and Kalimullah, 35, of Bhitarmul village under West Jaflong union of the same upazila.
   Local people said the BSF men entering Bangladesh territory abducted them while they were collecting stones near the frontier area at about 8:00pm. They also took away their five boats used in carrying stones, the sources said.

Parents of a Dhaka University student on Saturday urged the government to take the necessary steps to rescue their son, Arman Hossain Mintu, who was abducted again from Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court’s premises on June 12.
   Abul Khair, a small trader of Jatrabari, and his wife, Mariam Begum, at a press conference at the Crime Reporters’ Association of Bangladesh’s office, alleged that the abductors have been threatening them with dire consequences since they were granted bail by the CMM’s court on 25 July.
   ‘The magistrate’s court granted bail to two of the abductors, Touhid and Rashid, when the Kotwali police claimed that they had got some important clues from them during the first remand and sought seven days more for interrogation,’ Khair said.
   ‘Since my son is still in the grip of abductors, how could the court grant them bail?’ he questioned, allegingh ‘their bail might be the result of underhand dealing’.
   Khair said that his son, Mintu, had appeared in his Masters’ examinations and the BCS examinations this year and he was doing a part-time job with Suruj Agency of the American Life Insurance Company.
   On March 6, one Rony called Mintu to his Katasur residence in the name of opening a policy with Alico, and then allegedly confined him and took away his mobile phone, over Tk 20,000 of the company policy and also forced him to put his signature on some blank forms. Rony and his fellow gangsters then demanded Tk 5 lakh for his release, he said.
   When the police arrested three of the abductors, Touhid, Rashid and Rony, after a case was filed with Mohammadpur police, Mintu was left on the DU campus on March 19 with his hands and legs tied up.
   The abductors managed to be released on bail, though the police had wanted seven days’ remand.
   ‘I was in the court on June 12 when the case came up for hearing. I had told Mintu to wait for me out of the courtroom, from where the abductors kidnapped him again,’ Khair said.
   It is thought that he was kidnapped again because his parents had refused to withdraw the case.

The grassroots level leaders of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday urged the party chairperson and the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, not to nominate the ministers and MPs, who had lost popularity and become inactive in their constituencies, for contesting the upcoming parliamentary election.
   They also said that the government should take steps to contain prices of essential commodities and resolve the ongoing crisis of electricity.
   They placed the suggestions at face-to-face meetings with the prime minister at the state guest house Jamuna, which is also the PM”s evening office, in Dhaka.
   A total of 33 leaders, including the lawmakers from six Chandpur constituencies and the presidents and general secretaries of the BNP’s upazila and municipality units participated in Saturday’s consultation.
   There is no coordination in the activities of the party in Chandpur as the state minister Ehsanul Haque Milon and other MPs of the district are aloof from organisational activities, some local leaders were quoted to have alleged in the meeting.
   The MPs have made the party virtually inactive in Chandpur by forming ‘pocket committees’ in all upazila and municipality units, they said.
   The MPs were also allocating tenders for development works to their cronies, they told the prime minister.
   Khaleda asked the party lawmakers and the leaders to be with the people and resolve local problems within the shortest possible time.
   She asked them to end intra-party and intra-alliance feuds and work to ensure victory of the alliance candidates, who-
   ever they may be, in the next election.
   The BNP secretary general and the LGRD and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, senior joint secretary general, Tarique Rahman, and the PM’s political secretary, Harris Chowdhury were present.

Two lawmakers, one from the ruling BNP and the other from the opposition Awami League, confessed on Saturday to lying about their election expenditures and being more focussed on ‘development’ activities rather than their legislative duties.
   ‘We are not lawmakers. We remain more occupied in seeking and distributing relief materials like wheat,’ Awami League lawmaker Motahar Hossain told a discussion at the National Press Club in Dhaka.
   He said, ‘We become legislators by lying… We lie in our reports on election expenses.’
   He also said, ‘We talk about people, but do not work for them… Alas! We cannot do anything [for them].’
   The parliamentary caucus on education in conjunction with some non-government organisations organised the discussion on ‘corporate social responsibility for quality basic education.’
   The state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Haque, at the meeting echoed Motahar, saying lawmakers as a rule resorted to falsehood to get entry to parliament and all their election expenditure reports were concocted.
   ‘To tell it frankly, I spent much more than the legally fixed amount of Tk 5 lakh to get elected lawmaker [in the 2001 general elections],’ he said. ‘It is impossible to get elected otherwise, in the context of our current political culture.’
   Ehsanul said he made the confession at this point of time, with three months to go before the dissolution of Jatiya Sangsad, ‘so that something good can be done in future.’
   The Transparency International, Bangladesh chairman Muzaffer Ahmad, who moderated the session, dubbed the lawmakers’ observations as expressions of their frustration at the existing political environment.
   Only one of the 10 legislators present, Golam Habib Dulal of the Jatiya Party, voiced his dissent to Motahar’s observations, saying those were ‘his very personal, not generalised, observations.’ The rest, however, kept silent.
   Dulal regretted the fact that bureaucrats of deputy secretary rank were authorised to draft the laws rubberstamped by parliament.
   Another Awami League lawmaker, Shahjahan Khan, stressed the need for a strong common commitment of the ruling and opposition lawmakers to the correction of any anomalous situation and to ensuring transparency in governance and regulation of the NGOs and corporate houses.

Five Dhaka courts find sufficient reasons to continue with the trials of over one hundred cases, though the government claims those are aimed at political harassment of the defendants and has petitioned for their dismissal, sources said.
   They said, ‘Most of the cases are unlikely to be disposed off within the tenure of this government, as the trial courts have been changing their hearing dates since 2003 on repeated government petitions to write them off.’
   One of these cases is against the housing and public works minister, Mirza Abbas, and three others being tried at the Court of the Metropolitan Session’s Judge, Dhaka in connection with the killing of a police constable, Abu Nasser, in the city’s Rajarbagh in 2001.
   Another such case, for disrupting public safety filed with the Ramna police station on February 21, 2001, against Abbas and his brothers Mirza Khokon and Mirza Kalu has remained stayed at the public safety disruption tribunal of Dhaka by a High Court order.
   An explosives case against BNP joint secretary general Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and seven others filed with the Motijheel police station in connection with a bomb blast at the party’s central office on December 24, 1996, now pending at the Court of the Fifth Additional Metropolitan Session’s Judge, Dhaka, is on this list.
   The court also has refused to dismiss another explosives case filed against BNP leader Mohammad Nabiullah Nabi and 13 of his associates with the Demra police station in connection with a bomb blast near the Sayedabagh Bridge on May 11, 1999. The court maintains there are sufficient reasons to continue its trial.
   Another example is a case filed against Mirza Khokon, Mohammad Manjurul Alam Swadhin and four other BNP men for bombing to death a rickshaw-puller, Imam Ali, at Khilgaon level crossing on November 11, 1998, now awaiting disposal at the Court of the First Additional Metropolitan Session’s Judge, Dhaka.
   This court, too, has not approved a government appeal to dismiss a case against 23 BNP men led by Dhaka City Corporation ward commissioner Mohon Mia for slaying a Jubo League leader, Abdus Salam, on November 9, 1998 in front of the BNP office at Bangshal.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, a major component of the BNP-led 4-party alliance, on Saturday pleaded for cautiously thinking about the JP chairman, HM Ershad, before including him in the alliance.
   ‘I think present structure of the 4-party alliance is strong enough to win the next general elections under the leadership of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia. I don’t think there is any necessity of thinking anew,’ the Jamaat secretary general and social welfare minister, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid said while talking to the news agency.
   In reply to a question, he said it was not clear to them whether HM Ershad would join the alliance or not because ‘we don’t know what he actually discussed during a dinner meeting. What we have learnt is from newspaper reports.’
   Mujahid said, ‘He (Ershad) is neither speaking about national interest, nor about democracy. He is now busy with himself, and likes to have a safe life at this stage of his life.’
   The Jamaat leader said Ershad, who was one of the signatories to the 4-party alliance charter during its formation, suddenly had left the lineup at a time when the anti-government movement was at its peak. ‘The way he left the alliance without saying anything had hurt us.’
   Taking into account the political gimmickry of the ex-military ruler, Mujahid said, ‘He is an unpredictable person. Any decision about him must be taken very cautiously.’
   Asked whether Ershad’s joining the alliance would cause inconveniences to the Jamaat, the social welfare minister observed that the Jamaat is such a party that does not depend on who is coming or going.
   He said the Ershad issue did not came up in the Jamaat’s Majlish-e-Shura meeting with that importance. The meeting of the Shura, the highest policy-making body of the Jamaat, basically discussed organisational matters and present political situation.

The BGMEA on Saturday urged the Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parisad to keep the apparel sector outside of the purview of its Monday’s hartal in the interest of the sector.
   In a statement, the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, SM Fazlul Haq, said the RMG sector is passing through a crucial time and any kind of hartal and siege programmes would hard hit the sector.
   He urged the SKOP leaders to exempt the sector from their hartal programme.

At least 17 students were injured in a clash between activists of Jaiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Islami Chhatra Shibir on Dinajpur Medical College campus here on Saturday.
   Campus sources said the clash erupted when a group of outsiders belonging to the ICS, the student wing of Jamaat, equipped with weapons stormed a college hostel to take its control.
   Activists of the JCD resisted the attack. They said some 14 JCD workers and three ICS activists were injured in the clash.

Leaders of the Communist Party of Bangladesh on Saturday said the ‘dirty competition’ between the ruling BNP and the main opposition Awami League to get deposed autocrat HM Ershad into their fold is the naked manifestation of rheir political bankruptcy.
   Addressing a rally organised by the Dhaka City unit of the CPB, they said in order to assume power the two parties are playing a dirty game to have the toppled autocrat in their political alliance.
   Ershad who has the blood of many martyrs in his hands, including Tajul, Maijuddin, Noor Hossain, Jehad and Selim, has now become a dear man to both the BNP and the Awami League, the CPB leaders said adding that this amoral politics could not do any good to the country.
   Presided over by the CPB Dhaka City president, Mahabub Alam, the rally was addressed, among others, by CPB president Manjurul Ahsan Khan, acting general secretary Syed Abu Zafar and Ruhin Hossain Prince.

An accused managed to escape from the police custody near the Morelganj police station in Bagerhat early Saturday.
   The police said Chandu Mia, 32, son of Azahar Ali Hawlader, of South Sutalori village under the upazila, was arrested in the early hours from his house and being taken to the police station in handcuffs.
   At one stage, Chandu suddenly jumped onto a trawler in the river and managed to escape. He was accused in a case filed with the police station in 2002.
   The officer-in-charge of the police station, Anwar Hossain, said they were carrying out operation in the area to arrest the accused again.