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The bureaucracy is burdened with nearly 500 civil servants, who have been dumped on the establishment ministry as officers on special duty at different times since the incumbent government assumed power in October 2001.
   These officers, most of whom have no work other than drawing salary at the end of the month, are supposed to face disciplinary actions for allegedly manipulating their promotions or engaging in other irregularities. Many still don’t know what prompted the action against them.
   One additional secretary, 24 joint secretaries, 184 deputy secretaries, 147 senior assistant secretaries and 69 assistant secretaries are currently posted at the establishment ministry as officers on special duty. One hundred and forty-two of them are on study leave and 26 have recently been posted at different directorates and ministries, sources in the ministry said.
   ‘The number of OSDs has come down recently, as many of them have been given postings and some others attached with different directorates and departments under different ministries,’ the establishment secretary, Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, said when talking to New Age last week.
   A former secretary blamed the government for the mess.
   ‘The rules clearly say promotions should be given against vacancies. However, the government gives promotions to please a section of officers without taking into account the number of vacant posts. As a result, the number of OSDs continues to grow,’ he said when talking to New Age.
   However, civil servants are not always made officers on special duty as a disciplinary action.
   ‘Some officials are on study or training programmes and some others awaiting postings,’ a high official of the establishment ministry said when talking to New Age on Wednesday. ‘It is true, however, that a good number of them are likely to face disciplinary action.’
   Meanwhile, the government is considering promotion of a large number of deputy secretaries to the rank of joint secretary, according to sources. A list of around 200 officials has been prepared for the next meeting of the superior selection board, which is expected to take place soon.
   ‘The situation will be complicated further, if another lot of officers are promoted without giving postings to those who have been attached with the establishment ministry without any work since their promotion,’ another official said when talking to New Age.

More than 2.70 lakh people, mostly schoolteachers, who were engaged by the Election Commission for enumeration for a fresh voter list for the upcoming general elections, are yet to be paid for their work.
   ‘It is not the amount, which, needless to say, is negligible,’ said a resident of Mirpur in the capital city, who worked as a supervisor. ‘It is the recognition. The payment is one way of recognising the effort we put in.’
   Several other supervisors and enumerators echoed his sentiment.
   The commission asked district election officers last week not to pay 216,723 enumerators and 55,684 supervisors they had engaged for the list after the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissed its appeal against the January 4 verdict of the High Court. In its verdict, the High Court had asked the commission to prepare the list on the basis of the existing electoral roll.
   The commission has already issued a payment order of more than Tk 27 crore but not yet decided when the remuneration for the enumerators and supervisors will be disbursed.
   The EC secretariat spent more than Tk 56 crore in 2000 on remuneration for enumerators and supervisors.
   ‘The commission stopped disbursement of Tk 27.24 crore, which is allocated as remuneration for 2,72,407 field-level staffs appointed for preparing the draft list. Perhaps, the remuneration will be given and a decision will come in a couple of days,’ said the acting secretary of the secretariat, Jasmine Tuli, on Wednesday.
   She said the commission will pay Tk 1,000 to the enumerators and supervisors.
   If the money is not spent within June 30, the last day of the fiscal year, it will have to be returned to the finance ministry, she added.
   The commission received Tk 59.87 crore in two phases from the finance ministry against its demand for Tk 120 crore. It has so far spent Tk 9.71 crore on the draft list, Tk 14.35 crore on transport, Tk 4.09 crore on stationeries, Tk 2.50 crore on paper and printing, Tk 4.29 lakh on jute sacks and Tk 1.64 crore on training for enumerators, supervisors, assistant returning officers and 300 upazila election officers.
   She could not detail sector-wise bills, such as printing, which remain pending.
   Sources in the commission said the dues might be around Tk 5 crore.

At least 30 people were injured on Wednesday in clashes between workers and officials of a readymade garment factory in the Dhaka export processing zone at Savar.
   In the morning several hundred workers of A-1 garments factory started a work abstention programme to press home their 11-point charter of demands.
   More than 100 workers from Youngone, Spot-ex and Shine Fashion, a sister concern of Ring Sign Industry, expressed solidarity with the demands and also went on work abstention.
   The workers also staged demonstrations.
   ‘We staged a sit-in and refused to work, as the authorities refuse to fulfil our demands about salary, working hours, overtime allowance and other benefits,’ said an agitated worker.
   ‘The workers tried to reason with the management but it did not pay any attention,’ Sabina, another worker who was injured in the clashes, said.
   Meanwhile, Shine Fashion announced that they would meet the workers’ demand after a meeting between the representatives of the workers and the management.
   As the news broke, the A-1 workers staged demonstration, asking the authorities to immediately meet their demands. Otherwise, they said, they would not join work.
   At about 11:30am, the general manager, the production manager and some sidekicks of the owner assaulted some workers, triggering off violence.
   The workers assaulted the general manager, Mohammad Hannan, and the production manager, Mohammad Jewel.
   A journalist of the electronic media was also assaulted before being rescued by members of the police, the Bangladesh Ansars and the Rapid Action Battalion.
   ‘We tried to convince the foreign authorities [of the factory] into meeting our demands but a section of local officials misled them,’ a representative of the workers alleged.
   All the workers of Youngone, Spot-tex and A-1 factory located at Old DEPZ pledged to continue their demonstrations until their demands were met.
   In a joint statement, Jatiya Sramik Federation president Sahida Sarkar and general secretary Amirul Haque urged the authorities to accept the demands of the workers immediately.
   A tense situation is prevailing in the area despite deployment of a huge contingent of the police, the Bangladesh Rifles, the Ansars and the Rapid Action Battalion.

Garments Sramik O Shilpa Rakkha Jatiya Mancha, a combine of garments workers’ organisations, on Wednesday called upon the government to fulfil its five-point demands within June 10.
   Otherwise, the combine will observe countrywide daylong strike in the garments industries on June 12.
   The demands include fixing minimum wage for garment workers at Tk 3000, giving trade union rights, weekly holiday and appointment letters for the workers.
   Leaders of the garments workers at a press conference at the Asad Auditorium in the capital said they made the decision of holding the strike at national convention of the combine in February.
   The combine will hold mass contacts from June 3 to June 10 to make the strike a success, the combine coordinator, Quamrul Ahsan, said at the press conference.
   It will also hold a red flag rally of workers at Muktangan on June 4.
   Abul Hossain, Sarder Khorshed, Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, Lavly Yesmin were, among others, present at the press conference.

Budgetary allocations for agricultural subsidies fail to benefit farmers, as although the government has increased allocations for agriculture drastically, funds for agricultural services have decreased over the past couple of years.
   The government’s basic means to aid farmers have remained fertiliser subsidies and electricity rebate.
   The agriculture minister, MK Anwar, admitted on Sunday that the 20 per cent electricity rebate did not benefit farmers. However, he thinks ‘the fertiliser subsidies do benefit the farmers’.
   Since middlemen run electric pumps and exact a fixed rate from farmers depending on the quantum of land, the rebate does not benefit the target group, he said. ‘It is useless and I have notified the finance ministry in this regard also.’
   MA Sattar Mandal, an agricultural economist at the Bangladesh Agricultural University, says subsidies should be well targeted; otherwise, there will be the chance for misallocation, as is happening.
   The government has to provide support to the agriculture sector as a whole and only then will its benefit reach the farmers, he said.
   It is regrettable that in Bangladesh all governments provide subsidy only for fertilisers and they do so only to protect their political interest, said Sattar. ‘The market should be allowed to function better to ensure the benefits of subsidies.’
   New Age has found that although the government subsidises urea by about 60 per cent of the international price, its rates increase by up to 46 per cent between the factory gate and the crop field. Each 50-kilogram bag of urea costs Tk 240 but farmers buy it for Tk 340-350.
   Price of imported fertilisers, subsidised by up to 25 per cent, also appreciate by the time it reaches the farmer through multiple layers of middlemen and traders from the importer.
   The prices of these fertilisers — triple super phosphate, muriate of potash and di-ammonium phosphate — increase by up to 44 per cent between the importers and the farmers. A 50kg bag of TSP costs Tk 820 at the dealer level whereas the price is Tk 606 at the importer level. The same amount of MOP costs Tk 750 at the dealer level but Tk 521 at the importer level.
   Amid widespread complaints that fertiliser do not benefit farmers, a parliamentary standing committee formed a one-member committee to take action against ‘cliques that were plundering the agricultural subsidies’ on July 26, 2005.
   Farmers are hardly aware of the amount of subsidy. They contend that whatever subsidies there are do not work towards their welfare while dealers and retailers reap the profits during peak seasons, exploiting an artificial crisis.
   The retailers and dealers, on the other hand, make allegations against each other. Dealers say they are regulated by the government but there is apparently no control over the retailers.
   Retailers claim that dealers are obligated to sell fertiliser to farmers at retail prices but rarely adhere to regulations.
   According to the regulations, every district administration, in cooperation with agriculture officials concerned, forms a committee and decides on a fixed retail price for each upazila. This fixed price is supposed to be ensured through routine monitoring. But these rules are seldom implemented.
   ‘Every dealer has some 10-15 retailers who may buy from a dealer as much as they need by using different names. But the BCIC [Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation] rules permit sales of only 10 sacks to a particular retailer which is often violated,’ said Abdul Hannan, a retailer of Natun Hatkhola in Jhenaidah.
   A dealer buys 50kg urea from the mill gate at Tk 240 and eventually it sells for Tk 340-350 at the retailer level, he said.
   Generally, the allocation for subsidies is retained by the finance ministry, which releases the funds upon a recommendation of the corporation based on estimates of ministries and departments concerned.
   According to sources, this process is riddled with bureaucratic red tape since the recommendation makes its way to the finance ministry through the Prime Minister’s Office. A delay at any stage of the process could result in a shortfall of fertilisers that are required to be imported.
   This lack of adequate supply, coupled with stockpiling, creates a fertiliser crisis of as was the case during the last boro season. Urea demand in Jhenaidah was 61,134 tonnes while the government supplied only 38,500 tonnes, said Jahangir Hossain, a BCIC dealer of the district.
   As for the budgetary allocations for agricultural services, even the topmost officials of the agriculture ministry have no clue. According to them, the entire authority to dedicate funds for certain heads rest entirely with the finance ministry.
   A top official said the agricultural ministry had no autonomy whatsoever in deciding its allocations and thus was fairly in the dark as to the amount of budgetary allocation.
   Asked about the reported autonomy of the ministry whereby officials would be able to set their own budget, the official said, ‘It is absolutely bogus. There is no such [autonomy]. The entire exercise is conducted by finance ministry.’
   Although the ministry submitted a recommendation, none of the officials were certain of how much would be implemented by the finance ministry.
   The budget for agriculture increased 90 per cent and administrative outlay by almost 200 per cent in 2004-05. But the outlay for agricultural services declined by about 10 per cent.
   The ministry’s budget increased another 100 per cent in the budget for the current fiscal. Seventy-seven per cent of that was dedicated to administrative expenditure while services declined by another three per cent. Agricultural extension, a crucial service for farmers, saw its budget decrease by 34 per cent.
   With increasingly higher retail costs of agricultural inputs and low prices of agricultural produce, farmers are gradually becoming marginalised.
   MK Anwar admitted that farm input costs are much higher in Bangladesh than neighbouring countries. ‘Our farmers pay much higher price for fertilisers, irrigation and energy compared to those in the neighbouring countries,’ he told New Age.
   In Punjab of India, farmers spend $47 for producing a tonne of paddy, $58 in Thailand and $63 in Vietnam, while Bangladeshi farmers produce a tonne of paddy for $89.
   According to a report of Unnayan Onneshan, a research organisation, rice farmers alone incurred a loss of Tk 9,100 crore in 2004-05.

The state minister for power, M Anwarul Kabir Talukder, on Wednesday claimed they had taken steps to improve the power situation by June 30 through proper management of the power agencies and enhancing the efficiency of power units.
   ‘The existing power situation will improve by June 30. At least the ongoing power crisis will not get worse. After June 30, you will see gradual improvement of power situation,’ he told a workshop on ‘3-year Roadmap for Power Sector Reform’.
   The minister said that lack of coordination among the power generation, transmission and distribution agencies was one of the major reasons for power crisis.
   Giving an example, the minister said he found this week that a 210MW unit of Ghorashal Power Plant was producing only 100MW as the transmission system was unable at that moment because it was fully loaded. ‘On the other hand, Kazla area was suffering for load-shedding as the distribution system was overloaded at that time,’ he said.
   ‘Such situation has arisen because of lack of coordination among the agencies. There has been no harmonisation among the power sector agencies.’
   Talukder said there was room for improvement in the agencies and for improving the power situation. ‘I believe the power sector will continue to improve. I will make sure that the officials will do this.’
   The power shortage at this moment is around 1600MW as the PDB generates about 3200MW against the demand of nearly 4800MW.
   He said as the water level at the Kaptai Lake has marked rise due to torrential rain in Chittagong, production from the Kaptai Hydroelectric Power Plant that had been producing only around 30MW of power for the last few weeks would increase to about 200MW by June.
   He apprised that the 100MW Khulna Power Plant would start production by June 6 while a 210MW Ghorashal unit would start production by two days.
   The minister told reporters that different power agencies would provide consumers with prior information about load-shedding from the next week.
   ‘Copies of a chart on load-shedding will be kept at the local power offices from where consumers can collect those,’ he said.
   Power cell director general BD Rahmatullah highlighted the three-year roadmap for power sector reform that aimed at adding 2000MW power in three years and creating a number of companies under the PDB which would be a holding company.
   A Rouf Chowdhury, director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, however, expressed doubt whether the roadmap would be implemented. ‘What was said in the roadmap is nothing new. The suggested measures have been circulated for over seven years,’ he said.
   ‘This roadmap has been prepared for three years. What has the government been doing for the last five years? Apart from adding 80MW (from Tongi Power Plant), the government has done nothing, although around 2000MW of power is supposed to be added during the period,’ he said.
   The minister, however, was hopeful about implementing the roadmap for improving the power situation.
   Power secretary ANH Akhtar Hossain, representatives from different lending agencies including World Bank, and power and energy sector officials were present at the workshop.

The state minister for power, M Anwarul Kabir Talukder, requested all the city mayors to install big screen television sets at important public places, assuring uninterrupted power supply so that people can watch the World Cup football beginning on June 9.
   Anwarul sent demi-official letters to the mayors of Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal in this regard early this week.
   The minister said as there was a gap between demand and supply, some areas might face power outages during the World Cup.
   ‘If big screen TV sets are installed in public places, a large number of people will be able to watch the matches at a time,’ he said. The minister said the power agencies would ensure uninterrupted power supply to the areas where big screen TV sets would be installed.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, is likely to announce ‘nationalisation’ of the jobs of non-government primary school teachers in phases in the last week of June.
   ‘The announcement will merely be a follow-up on a December 29, 2005 commitment of the prime minister to meet the demand in phases,’ said the secretary general of the pro-BNP teachers’ association, M Akkas Ali Sheikh. ‘We went on a fast-unto-death on December 27, 2005 at the Central Shahid Minar in Dhaka to push for the nationalisation of our jobs,’ Akkas Ali said, adding ‘political adviser to the prime minister, Haris Choudhury, came to us at 8:30pm on December 29 and broke our fast by drinking us fruit juice.’
   ‘Haris Choudhury, on be half of the prime minister, assured us that the government would meet our alternative proposal of a nine-point charter of demands, including job nationalisation, in phases,’ he said.
   ‘The prime minister agreed to hold a meeting with 300 representatives of our association in her office in the last week of this month where she is likely to make the formal announcement of nationalisation,’ Akkas said.
   The nine-point demands include nationalisation in phases, a hundred per cent salary from the government, increase in house rent and medical allowance, a full-fledged festival allowance, creating positions of headmaster, cancellation of circular regarding compulsory recruitment of science teacher, cancellation of district scrutinising committee and appointing existing secretary-general of the association to the position of member-secretary of the teachers’ welfare trust.
   ‘The government will nationalise the jobs of 75,948 teachers working with 19,380 schools across the country in phases,’ Akkas said.
   But ‘no sympathy for them,’ he said, referring to the teachers who are now on a fast unto death at Muktangan as ‘they are doing it on political grounds.’
   ‘It is Khaleda Zia who promised the nationalisation of our jobs before the parliamentary elections in 2001,’ he said. The election manifesto of the BNP said all non-government primary schools will be nationalised, Akkas said, referring to the BNP’s manifesto published on September 7, 2001.
   The pro-Awami League teachers, who went on fast unto death at Muktangan Dhaka on Tuesday, meanwhile, brought out a procession, in shrouds, which paraded city roads Wednesday noon.
   ‘Twenty-six teachers went on fast, and three of them were admitted to hospital in the afternoon on Wednesday,’ Mohammad Shamsul Alam, president of the pro-Awami League teachers’ association, told New Age.
   ‘More teachers from across the country are marching towards Dhaka to make the programme successful,’ he said, adding ‘all the schools will be locked up. Strike will be enforced at all the schools till June 8.’
   The teachers will bring out a procession from Muktangan this noon, wearing shrouds.
   ‘The teachers have been suffering from diarrhoea, fever, heat and mosquito bites at Muktangan,’ Shamsul said, adding ‘We have been agitating for 11 years to realise the demand.’
   ‘It is unfortunate that no one from the government has visited us to even express sympathy,’ he said.

A Supreme Court guard, Golam Rabbani, was suspended on Wednesday for hoisting the national flag at half-mast in front of the office of the Chief Justice on the occasion of the death anniversary of late president Ziaur Rahman on May 30.
   The Supreme Court registrar, Fazlul Karim, told reporters that Rabbani was suspended following a preliminary investigation on the incident.
   ‘We can not take the offence lightly, as it involves the image of the highest judiciary,’ he said adding a departmental inquiry committee was also formed to probe into the matter.
   The registrar said the matter (keeping the national flag half-mast on the court premises) was also conveyed to the Chief Justice.
   The action against Rabbani was taken on charge of violation of the National Flag Rules, following newspaper reports along with photographs published on Wednesday that showed the national flag flying at half-mast in front of the Chief Justice’s Office on May 30. According to the rules, there is no provision for hoisting the national flag at half-mast or atop respectively marking the death or birth anniversary of any late president of the country.

Nepal’s parliament is expected to consider stripping the king of his remaining parliamentary roles, a lawmaker said on Wednesday, after voting to withdraw most of his powers earlier this month.
   King Gyanendra reinstated parliament in April after weeks of protests against his absolute rule, and political parties soon approved sweeping curbs ending the monarch’s control of the army, and making him open to questioning in parliament and the courts.
   But any bill passed by parliament still needs the king’s signature to become law. He also opens and closes sessions, and reads out the government’s annual policy programme.
   ‘All this will end now,’ said Narayan Man Bijukchhe, a deputy of the Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party that is part of a seven-party alliance behind the pro-democracy protests.
   Bijukchhe, who heads a panel finalising the proposed changes, said the king would have no role in parliament under the plan.
   ‘The prime minister will call the session, present the government’s programmes and the speaker will end the parliament session,’ he told Reuters. Under the proposals, expected to be presented to lawmakers soon, bills will not need the king’s signature to become law.
   King Gyanendra threw the Himalayan nation into turmoil in 2005 when he sacked the government and took absolute power saying it had failed to crush an anti-monarchy Maoist insurgency that has killed 13,000 people.
   Last week, the government and rebels held their first meeting since peace talks failed in 2003. They agreed to hold elections for an assembly to be tasked with preparing a new constitution and deciding the future of the monarchy, a key Maoist demand.

MNH Bulu, a director of private satellite television channel Baishakhi, was arrested midnight Tuesday hours after he had filed a case against the public works minister, Mirza Abbas, over a business feud.
   The police arrested Bulu from his Gulshan residence in connection with two cases filed by his estranged wife Hosne Ara Naznin and Muktijoddha Sangsad Central Command Council project affairs secretary Abdus Salam Majumder.
   The cases, number 49 and 50, were filed with the Gulshan police in a span of five minutes Tuesday night.
   Bulu was placed on a one-day police remand on Wednesday in the case filed by Salam in which the complainant claimed that Bulu along with his manager, Anwarul Kabir, and two others had tortured him for claiming Tk 2.43 crore Balu owe to him. Anwar was also arrested and placed on a one-day police remand.
   Salam alleged that Bulu had made an agreement with him in April 2005 for purchasing a piece of land in Gulshan and paid Tk 1.50 crore out of the total price of Tk 2.52 crore. The rest of the money was scheduled to be paid within four months.
   The agreement was revised on September 19, 2005 under which Bulu was to pay Tk 4 crore more as the price of the plot, Salam said adding Bulu had paid him Tk 1.37 crore and started dilly-dallying in paying the rest of the money.
   ‘After repeated reminders, Bulu called me at his Gulshan residence Monday night. As I entered the house at about 10:00pm, he along with Anwar and two others had confined me in a room and tortured me mentally and physically,’ Salam alleged. ‘They forcibly took my signature on two pieces of white paper and released me after about three hours.’
   In another case, Naznin alleged that Bulu used to torture her for dowry and her protest against pushing his second wife, Sanjida Kashem, in sex trade’, the police said.
   Earlier on Tuesday, Bulu had filed a case with the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate court against Mirza Abbas and the managing director of the channel, Shahidullah, for issuing death threats to him over a business row.
   Bulu told the court that Shahidullah had threatened him several times between May 16 and 24 that the minister (Mirza Abbas) would knock him off if he (Bulu) did not sign a document of share transfer.
   ‘I agreed to withdraw my share from the company on certain conditions following a dispute with the board of directors. But the accused are pressing me to sign the document without repaying the money I had invested and Tk 1.5 crore I had given the company as loan,’ he said.

The governing board of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines is likely to cancel the tender for repairs of two aircraft in the wake of allegations that the tender evaluation committee manipulated the evaluation process to please an influential person.
   The board is scheduled to meet today to review the report of the committee, which has recommended that SIA Engineering be awarded the contract although the Singaporean firm came up with what some Biman officials say ‘an unusual offer’.
   SIA, of which the influential person in question is an agent, quoted $2,625,500 for the repair of each of the aircraft, although the types of work are substantially dissimilar.
   Two other firms in the fray – MSACO of Lebanon and JORAMCO of Jordan – quoted almost identical prices for the repair of the two aircraft. MSACO quoted $2,181,000 and $2,022,000, and JORAMCO $2,390,000 and $2,130,000.
   The Biman managing director, MA Momen, told New Age that the board would look into the allegations. ‘It will also see whether there was any irregularity.’
   The Biman director for engineering, Molla Moshiur Rahman, insists that there were no irregularities in the tender process.
   ‘We did not put any recommendation in our evaluation. It is up to the board to make the decision,’ he said when talking to New Age recently. ‘If there is any anomaly, the board can ask for a re-tender.’
   The evaluation report contradicts his claim, though.
   ‘Since the offer of the only responsive bidder is within official estimate and comparable with the prevailing market price the 8C check evaluation committee unanimously recommends SIA Engineering Company for awarding the contract,’ it says.
   Some Biman officials claim that the tender documents for 8C check of two A310-300 aircraft have been prepared in a way so that SIA gets the contract.
   The tender evaluation went through the tender documents of the three firms in a single day and declared MSACO and JORAMCO disqualified, they alleged.
   MASCO was disqualified because it did not have the requisite experience of 4C checks of 10 A310 aircraft or 8C checks of any other twin-engine aircraft in the past five years.
   JORAMCO, on the other hand, was not considered as responsive and asked to clarify some minor mistakes. The committee had no reservation about its technical or financial status.
   Sources in Biman said the SIA agent is one of the few influential people manipulating the finance-related affairs of the national airliner.
   He also got the task of 4C check of the same two aircraft five years back. At present, he has the contract of overhauling airbus engines as an agent of a Singapore-based company.

The joint forces of the Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh Navy and the police will begin a crackdown on river routes today to curb increased incidents of crimes in waterway.
   The decision was made at a marathon meeting at the battalion headquarters on Wednesday night, with its director general Abdul Aziz Sarkar in the chair, at the instruction of the home ministry.
   The battalion intelligence wing chief, Gulzar Uddin, commanding officers from coastal belts and leaders from other organisations involved with shipping affairs attended the meeting to sort our a strategy to fight the crime on river routes.
   ‘The decision was made in the wake of increased piracy, extortion, hijacking and smuggling on waterway,’ a battalion official, who attended the meeting, told New Age.
   The meeting shared information with others and located the spots where most of the crime incidents are taking place.
   ‘We are also gathering intelligence information to identify the places of crime occurrences to make the drive successful,’ said the battalion’s legal and media wing director, Masuq Hassan Ahmed.
   The leaders of the Bangladesh River Transport Workers’ Federation, Bangladesh Launch Owners’ Association, Bangladesh Oil Tanker and Owners’ Association, Bangladesh Cargo Vessel Owners’ Association and other organisations raised concerned about the increase in crimes on river routes.
   They said waterway covers a vast area of Bangladesh, but the authorities have never given due attention to curb crimes in such places. The leaders gave an assurance of support of all kinds in the fight against crimes on river routes.
   Meeting sources said major rivers and waterway such as Dhaka-Chandpur, Dhaka-Khulna, and Dhaka-Barisal frequently used for various purposes will be the focal point of the crackdown.
   The joint forces, splitting into groups, will patrol the routes, especially around the points of crime occurrences and search vessels.
   ‘Our aim will be to arrest the criminals and put them behind bars which will gradually reduce crimes on river routes,’ said another battalion official.

A four-member committee, which is investigating the smuggling of 72.5 kilograms of heroin to the United Kingdom in consignments of furniture in October 2005, will submit its report on June 15, a member of the committee said.
   The committee, which was formed on May 8 with officials of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department, believes M/s Tipu Enterprise – housed at 52 BK Das Lane, Farashganj – was involved.
   ‘We will submit the report to the National Board of Revenue but will not file case against the company,’ the member said. ‘The board will then seek help from the home ministry for initiative to file case and take further action.’
   The office of the clearing and forwarding agent of the consignment was locked.
   Meanwhile, the bill of entry of the consignment was missing from the office of the Chittagong customs. ‘Probably the document was stolen with the help of some dishonest customs officials,’ the investigator said.
   Earlier, a five-member committee, comprising officials of the National Board of Revenue, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department, the Bangladesh Bank and the Department of Narcotics Control, investigated the smuggling of 75.5 kilograms of heroin to the UK and found BD Foods Limited and its sister concerns responsible.
   The four-member committee was formed with only members of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department, raising questions about its efficiency.
   HM Revenue and Customs of the UK found 67 cartons of heroin concealed in a consignment of furniture, such as counter table, almirah, locker and small table, Tipu Enterprise had shipped to Southampton.
   The British customs authorities looked into the consignment as no one claimed it after it had reached the port on November 17.
   The consignment was marked for Prestige Tiles, owned by IA Chowdhury and housed at 3 Castalia Square in London, and shipped from the Chittagong port on Colombo EXP.V-04W37, according to port documents.
   Maritime Services Limited, housed at 3 Jahan Building, 79 Agrabad, was the shipper for Tipu Enterprise, and Masco International Limited, housed at 1724 Sheikh Mujib Road, Agrabad, was the C&F agent.

Publication of local daily Andolaner Bazar remained suspended for the second consecutive day on Wednesday following an attack on the press from where the newspaper is printed.
   The authorities of the High Quality Printers declined to print the newspaper fearing further attack by the hoodlums of a ruling party lawmaker, who had attacked the press and stopped printing Monday night, the daily’s executive director, Anisuzzaman Dablu, said.
   ‘We are yet to get any security for our office and the printing press despite our application to the deputy commissioner,’ Dablu said on Wednesday adding ‘The superintendent of police is, however, scheduled to sit with us [newspaper authorities] in the evening.’
   The press came under the attack following a series of reports published in the newspaper on the negative activities of the lawmaker of Kushtia-1 constituency, Shahidul Islam.
   The activists loyal to the lawmaker also attacked a convention of journalists in the town on Monday leaving 23, including the Bangladesh Observer editor, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, injured. The convention was organised to protest at the repression on journalists.
   The local journalists are still panicked as the authorities failed to nab any of the attackers involved with the attacks till Wednesday evening.
   Meanwhile, the president of a faction of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Hasanul Huq Inu, at a press conference in the Kushtia Press Club Tuesday night criticised the government for ‘nourishing such lawmakers who wanted to kill journalists’.
   ‘In fact, it is the government blueprint to kill the freedom of press by resorting to violence on the journalists,’ he said.

Taliban guerrillas have killed at least a dozen Afghan police and abducted up to 40 others in two separate attacks in the south of the country, officials said on Wednesday.
   In the southern province of Zabul, a senior police official, Mohammad Rasoul, was killed and four other people, including two senior provincial officials, were wounded after the Taliban hit their car with a rocket on Tuesday night.
   ‘They were part of a reinforcement sent to help a group of highway police who had come under Taliban attack on a road of Zabul,’ Yousuf Stanizai, the interior ministry spokesman, said.
   An official in Zabul who declined to be identified said more than 10 policemen were killed in the Taliban assault.
   The raid in Zabul came hours after the Taliban attacked a police base in Chora district of neighbouring Uruzgan province and abducted up to 40 policemen, an official in Kabul said on condition of anonymity.
   A Reuters reporter received a phone call from an unknown person who described himself as Mullah Ahmad, a Taliban commander. He said the militants had taken the police hostage and the Taliban’s leadership would decide their fate.
   He said militants had killed 12 police in the attack before kidnapping the others.
   The violence in Zabul and Uruzgan comes amid a series of operations by US-led coalition forces in the south in the past two weeks.
   Some 350 people have been killed, many of them in air strikes. Most of those killed were militants, but the toll also includes dozens of police, at least 17 civilians and four foreign troops.
   It is the bloodiest period in the insurgency since coalition troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
   The Taliban and their Islamist allies are mostly active in the southern and eastern areas.
   Some 23,000 coalition troops are hunting the militants while a NATO-led force has begun expanding its mission into the south.

The Bolivian president, Evo Morales, said Tuesday the US government had organised groups to kill him and said he believed assertion of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez that Washington was preparing to overthrow his administration.
   ‘I’ve been informed recently how the US had organised teams — groups to persecute Evo Morales, to kill Evo Morales. They haven’t been able to and now we’re organised, from unions to this political party and they can’t stop us anymore,’ Morales said, without giving more details.
   The US Embassy in Bolivia called the charges ‘baseless.’
   ‘We’re supporting democracy in Bolivia in a consistent manner and are looking for a constructive relationship with the Bolivian government based on dignity, mutual respect and common interests,’ the Embassy said in a statement Tuesday.
   Chavez said during a visit to Bolivia last week that the US government was plotting to overthrow Morales. His comments came after President Bush said he was ‘concerned about the erosion of democracy’ in Bolivia and Venezuela.
   ‘I want you to know that what my colleague Chavez said is no lie,’ Morales told reporters while inaugurating a Cuban-funded program to provide free eye surgeries in the town of Escoma, about 125 miles west of La Paz.
   Morales, who were elected in December, nationalised Bolivia’s natural gas industry earlier this month and has pledged to fight corruption and pull the poor Andean nation out of poverty.
   Since taking office, Morales has had tense relations with the US government, which he frequently refers to as the ‘empire.’

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, is recovering fast and expected to return home from Singapore by June 9, a Bangabhaban bulletin said on Wednesday.
   There was not problem developed after the doctors unplugged the president’s respiratory machine on Wednesday morning.
   He is now able to speak after attachment of a speaking tube with the endotracheal tube, the doctors said.
   After attachment of the speaking tube, the attending doctors asked the president, ‘Are you felling better’? His answer was ‘So far so good’.
   The doctors also the president down on a chair for around two hours and given temporary physiotherapy, the bulletin said.
   The president is likely to be taken to the cabin today and he is expected to return home by June 9 next, the press Secretary of the president, M Mokhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, said
   Meanwhile, the foreign minister, M Morshed Khan during his transit stay in Singapore, visited the president at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital on Tuesday evening.

The Awami League-led 14-party alliance will lay siege to the Dhaka city by holding rallies at the entry points on June 11.
   The alliance leaders on Wednesday at a meeting at AL general secretary and coordinator of the alliance Abdul Jalil’ s NAM flat in the capital initially finalised nine points surrounding Dhaka to hold rallies and put up obstacles.
   The opposition leaders and workers will take positions at the entry points of the Dhaka city at Savar, Amin Bazar, Tongi, Ashulia, Kanchapur, Postagola, Kamlapur, Sadarghat and Keraniganj.
   The alliance leaders will finalise the nature of the programme today after consulting with the AL chief, Sheikh Hasina, said Workers Party general secretary Bimal Biswas told New Age after coming out of the meeting.
   The alliance coordinator, Abdul Jalil, in a press briefing after the meeting said the alliance was considering to file a corruption case against the Election Commission, for ‘misusing’ money in the name of preparing fresh draft voters’ roll.

The government is unlikely to increase the price of fuel oil during its present tenure as hinted by the World Bank country director, Christine I Wallich, on Wednesday.
   ‘It’s difficult for any government to decide election considerations,’ she told newsmen after a meeting with the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, at his office.
   ‘What we can say is that the poor will not be affected… inflation would not also be affected as such (by oil price hike),’ Wallich said, referring to the findings of a World Bank study.
   He, however, said the issue did not come up for discussion. They had talks only on the reform of National Board of Revenue.
   ‘The NBR needs to be very effective… efficient to increase revenue collection,’ Wallich said, adding that the country needs enhanced revenue collection to finance the subsidy to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.
   Saifur appeared unwilling to talk to the press as he only said, No comment… My concentration is only on budget preparation.’
   ‘No finance minister talks to the press just a week before placing the budget,’ said the minister, who is scheduled to place budget in parliament on June 8.