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The agitating interns locked up some sections, including the outpatient department, at Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital on Saturday.
   Sources in the hospital, also known as Mitford Hospital, said the interns went on the strike for an indefinite period on Thursday to push for their three-point demands.
   The demands include payment of their honorarium in arrears for five months, payment by the fifth of each month and accommodation. They said on Saturday if the authorities fail to meet the demands, the hospital director and assistant director should resign.
   The interns in a procession went to meet the assistant director, Sunil Kumar Das, at about 10:30am.
   The interns vandalised the office of the assistant director and confined Sunil inside as the guard told the interns that the assistant director was not in office, the sources said. The interns also locked up the director’s office.
   The interns then went on to lock up the office of Class IV employees and had a scuffle with the employees.
   The scuffle panicked the physicians, employees and attendants, pushing them to run for shelter.
   The director and assistant director, in the meantime, got out of the office as the employees broke the locks.
   The interns drove out all, including the patients, of the outpatient department and closed it for the day.
   The police opened the department in the afternoon.

Experts at a discussion on Saturday put out a call for expediting the implementation of the Dhaka Metropolitan Building Construction Rules.
   The speakers, especially architects, at the programme at the BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka, demanded proper implementation of the rules and stressed the need for strengthening Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha.
   Architect Iqbal Habib said the execution of the building construction code was immediately required to stop unplanned construction in the capital city.
   He suggested that the Institute of Architects Bangladesh, which organised the programme, should take steps to expedite the implementation of the rules.
   The institute general secretary, Mahbubur Rahman, and senior planner of Chittagong Zarina Uddin, who edited the draft rules, read out the keynote paper.
   Mahbubur Rahman said the new building construction rules would improve the procedure of the construction and urban environment.
   He said the rules would ensure enough open and green spaces. He said the rule provisions for a ‘one window cell’ which will facilitate approval for building in about two months.
   ‘Earlier people had to take approval from 11 organisations for a building of or more than six storeys and the process used to take about two years,’ he said.
   A high-powered ‘urban development committee’ will also be formed so that people can lodge complaints with the committee against the one-window cell, he said.
   The institute president, Khadem Ali, said no benefits could be reaped from the rules without a strong committee to supervise the implementation of the rules.
   Stressing the need for training of manpower at Rajuk, Zarina said the agency should increase its capacity and the skills of its staff.
   Iterating the need for strengthening Rajuk, senior Rajuk architect Nargis Tanjiman Ara said the agency
   should be manned with skilled people to implement the building code.
   The institute vice-president, Harun Ur Rashid, architect ASM Ismail and architect Kazi Golam Nasir also spoke.

The botany teacher at the University of Rajshahi who was suspended in May on an allegation of sexual harassment a
   girl student, allegedly threatened the victim and two members on the inquiry committee formed to investigate the incident.
   The student informed the department chairman and the proctor that the teacher had been threatening her to withdraw the complaint.
   Sources in the department said Professor Anisuzzman and Professor Mahbubur Rahman, who are on the inquiry committee, filed general diaries with the Motihar police in this connection.
   The fourth-year girl student in April lodged a complaint with the department chair accusing the teacher, Professor Nurul Amin, of sexually harassing her inside the lab.
   The university, based on her complaint, formed a seven-member committee to investigate the incident.
   The committee found the incident true and the syndicate on May 10 suspended the accused.
   The sources said after being suspended, Amin had allegedly been pressuring the student and two committee members to withdraw the charge.
   A fourth-year student of the department said the teacher had also been threatening the students who had carried out the movement against him.
   Another botany teacher said Nurul was loyal to the BNP and some teachers who are also loyal to the party were made members on the committee. The committee members are trying to protect Amin, he said.
   The committee convener, Professor Sadequl Islam, also social sciences dean, said the inquiry was still on and the report would be submitted soon. The committee failed to submit the report by the deadline in May.
   The proctor, Professor Enamul Haque, acknowledged the incident of threatening. Nurul Amin could not be reached for comments.

Education for the children with disabilities, now under the social welfare ministry, should be brought to the education ministry, and one tenth of the education sector budget should be allocated for the programme.
   An organisation of the people with disability, Jatiya Trinamul Protibandhi Sangstha, at a Dhaka Reporters Unity press conference placed a 10-point charter of demands to the government that also include their rights to health and employment.
   Placing the demands at the conference organised by US-based Action on Disability and Development, the organisation president, Akhter Hossain, said the country’s people with disability were deprived of their basic rights to education, health and employment.
   Their other demands include enumeration of the people with disabilities, orthopaedic hospitals in each divisional headquarters and free medicines for them, increasing their monthly allowance to Tk 300 from Tk 200 and increasing the number of beneficiaries to 2.5 lakh from 1.04 lakh.
   Interest free loan, Tk 50 crore grants to the organisations working for the people with disabilities and 10 per cent quota for them in the recruitment are the remaining demands of the organisation.

The river Mayur that follows through Khulna has been drying up day by day due to dumping of wastes polluting its water, speakers said at a human chain programme on Saturday.
   Rupayan and Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association organised the programme near the Khulna Press Club, demanding protection of the river from pollution.
   The speakers said the river is drying up rapidly because of construction of a city protection embankment and dumping of unwanted substances.

Save the Environment Movement on Saturday formed a human chain in Dhaka to push for the reclamation of all the canals and water bodies from encroachment to address the problem of water stagnation.
   The green group activists gathered in front of the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority office at Karwan Bazar and held a rally at the place.
   The speakers said if the canals and water bodies were not recovered, the city would become unliveable in future.
   The speakers demanded exemplary punishments for those who encroached on the canals and water bodies.
   Abed Reza chaired the programme. Convener Abu Naser Khan, Gorky Welfare Foundation president Jesmin Ara Sathi, and Amra Dhaka Basi leader Haji Ansar Ali also spoke.
   Naser said 43 canals in Dhaka city were identified by the water supply agency, but only a few of them have so far been reclaimed.
   He put out a call for the authorities to reclaim and excavate the canals to keep the city sewerage system functional.

The government should keep in mind environmental issues during fund allocation for the next national budget, said speakers at a discussion at Biswa Sahitya Kendra in Dhaka on Saturday.
   They said budgetary measures, increased allocation or imposition of new taxes can either protect or destroy environment. Green activist forum Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan organised the discussion.
   The forum’s executive director Atiur Rahman said the government should make an environmentally-friendly budget and allocate funds considering long-term effect on environment.
   ‘The government should allocate a minimum of Tk 1,000 crore for the ministry; said Atiur. The figure was Tk 417 crore in the budget for 2005–2006.
   The forum demanded that allocation for the ministry in the development budget should be increased to 3 per cent of the total allocation from 1.2 per cent as was done in the budget for the current financial year.
   The budget should allocate funds on a priority basis for natural disaster preparedness, he said.
   He said there should be no allocation for projects which are not environmentally-friendly.
   The Agricultural Extension Department should be given more funds to increase the production and supply of compost manure, he said.

The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy will host dance events during June 8–10 where Padmasree Madhavi Mudgal and Padmasree Alarmel Valli will perform.
   Sadhana, a centre for the advancement of South Asian music, will be organising the programme.
   Madhavi Mudgal will present Odissi on June 8, Alarmel Valli Bharatnatyam on June 9 and the artistes together will present Samanvaya, a choreographic presentation combining rich forms of Odissi and Bharatnatyam, on June 10.
   The artistes will be accompanied by some of the finest musicians of North and South India. Gautam Bhattacharya will be doing the lighting of the performances. The music will be done by Madhup Mudgal and Prema Ramamoorthy.
   The two artistes have just completed a month-long tour of Europe with Samanvaya, which means ‘a coming together’ in Sanskrit.

Rain or thunder shower accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at many places all over Bangladesh except for the Sylhet division and at a few places over the Sylhet division with moderately heavy rainfall at places over the Chittagong, Barisal, Dahak and Rajshahi divisions.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged during the period, said the Met Office in a forecast on Saturday. The highest temperature on Saturday, 35.4 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Jessore and the lowest, 23.2 degrees Celsius, at Srimangal.
   The sun sets in the capital city at 6:43pm today and will rise at 5:11am on Monday.

5 hurt in JCD infighting in Khulna
Seven Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activists were injured in a clash centring infighting of the organisation’s Government BL College in Khulna on Saturday. An altercation began between two factions — the Satkhira group and the Narail-Bagerhat group — and they clashed at one point. Seven activists were injured. Of the injured, Hiron, Mohit and Mridul were admitted to a local clinic. The police said they had been informed of the matter and said only two were injured.

Unilever sports award ceremony
The award ceremony of the annual sports competition organised by the Unilever Bangladesh Limited Sports and Reception Club ended in the auditorium of the Institution of Engineers in Chittagong on Friday. Three hundred workers and employees took part in 33 indoor and outdoor events at the factory at Kalurghat in Chittagong.

Rabindra Sangeet Sangstha body formed
A convening committee of the Khulna unit Bangladesh Rabindra Sangeet Sangstha was formed on Saturday. Chaired by Bharatee Ghosh, the meeting in the Khelaghar office on Ahsan Ahmed Road formed a 13-member committee, with Anita Das as convener and Rakiba Khan Luba as member secretary.
— New Age