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The students of Dhaka University, the country’s premier university, have no scope to raise voice and protect their interest during formulation of major policies of the institution.
   Although most of the students seem little concerned about their representation in policy-making levels, a few expressed their resentment at the absence of their representatives which leaves interests of the students unprotected.
   The Dhaka University Order 1973 allows five representatives of students in Senate, the highest policy-making body of the university, but the seats have remained empty since 1998, after the central students union of the university was dissolved.
   Students of the university said if the students’ representatives had been present at the sessions of the senate, their opinions could have been recorded and the authorities would have to consider their views.
   Manjurul Ahsan, a student of applied physics, cited the instance of budgetary allocation for different sectors. ‘More than three-fourth of the budget goes to salaries and allowances of teachers and other staff and a little portion is allocated for students or education related sectors,’ he said.
   ‘If there were representatives of students, they could demand more allocation for education related sectors,’ he added.
   Manabendra Dev, a student of international relations, said the authorities have prepared a budget ofTk 126 crore and only 9.09per cent of the money was earmarked for educationalpurposes and only 1.17 per cent for research. ‘It is totally anti-student and also a deviation from the objectives of a university,’ he said.
   He accused the government of reducing the allocation for educational purposes and imposing increased fees on the students.
   A number of other students said it makes little difference if the students have their representatives in the policy-making bodies, because whoever would go there would do little for the interest of the general students.
   ‘The rules allow five representatives of the central students union and in the present context they will be either from the ruling party or the opposition party and they will just follow the instructions of their leaders, not protect the interest of the students,’ said Quamrul Hasan, a student of accounting.
    Though there is no students’ representation in the Senate at the moment, the authorities have proposed an allocation of Tk 17.33 lakh for students unions although there has been no election to the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union and the hall unions in the last 16 years.
   The Dhaka University Central Students’ Union, formed in 1924, remained inactive since 1990 due to intervention in its affairs by political parties, university administration and outside elements.
   Division and fierce rivalries among student organisations also played a major role in making the once-glorious DUCSU inactive. The student organisations had played a vital role in the historic language movement of 1952, mass uprising against the Pakistani rulers in 1969, the war of independence in 1971 and the anti-autocratic movement in 1990.
   The last elections to the university and hall unions were held in 1990. The present state minister for labour and employment, Amanullah Aman and ruling BNP lawmaker, Khairul Kabir Khokan were elected vice-president and general secretary of the central students union.
   A syndicate meeting in May, 1998 questioned the validity of the union as its tenure was long over and the university authorities postponed all its activities.
   Since then, the authorities have taken no steps to reactivate the union. In 1991, the then vice-chancellor, Maniruzzaman Miah, took a number of steps to revive the DUCSU, but anti-government student organisations opposed the move fearing confrontation.
   Similar attempts were also made by his successor, Emajuddin Ahmed, in 1994, but all the moves went vain. The last attempt was made by AK Azad Chowdury and he failed too in the face of opposition from some student bodies.
   The incumbent vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, several times said he would take necessary measurers to revive the students union if there was a consensus among student organisations.

The Dhaka City Corporation on Sunday issued a letter to the construction firm Asha Enterprise, owned by Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, BNP lawmaker for the Lalbagh constituency, asking it to stop the road construction through the Azimpur graveyard.
   But sources in the corporation said the lawmaker still continued with the construction even on Sunday flouting the order of the mayor.
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, told New Age he had ordered the corporation department concerned to record the work done so far in the measurement book so that any further work could be detected.
   ‘I have talked to the inspector general of police and asked him to implement the corporation order,’ the mayor said in the afternoon on Sunday.
   A letter will be sent to the inspector general of police in this regard, the mayor said.
   A corporation engineer of Zone 3 said an orderly carried out the letter to the residence of the lawmaker Sunday noon.
   The corporation orderly, Ali, received a phone call at the lawmaker’s residence at 4:23pm. He said he had been waiting there for an hour for someone to receive the letter.
   The letter was received at 4:30pm by one Habib, caretaker of the office of the lawmaker’s wife, ward commissioner Nasima Akhter. ‘I have just come from outside and received a letter,’ Habib told the New Age at 4:30pm.
   Lawmaker Pintu and ward commissioner Nasima Akhter Kalpona could not be contacted over telephone at their residence. A caretaker said both of them were outside.
   A corporation official said the authorities after an inspection approved the work; but the corporation has now changed its stand in view of public resentment.
   Nasiruddin in the name of Asha Enterprises got the work order from the corporation on February 8 for the construction of a link road between New Market and the Azimpur Road on the east of the graveyard.
   The work, involving Tk 1.17 crore, includes a drain and the reconstruction of the eastern demarcation wall of the graveyard, said sources in the Dhaka City Corporation.

Harassment of women and mugging have become rampant as security measures remain inadequate at both ends of Khan Jahan Ali Bridge in Khulna.
   The bridged was commissioned on May 21, 2005. The eastern and western ends of the bridge have become places for city residents for strolls in the afternoon.
   Both the sides of the River Rupsa have catered to the need for recreational facilities of the city residents.
   A large number of snack bars, groceries and tea-stalls have been set up to cash in on the gathering of the people, said a shop owner. A number of anti-social elements such as drug peddlers, pickpockets and muggers now roam about the areas, he said.
   Girls and women visitors face harassment by boys and men, who roam about the areas.
   The shopkeepers said a girl lost her necklace a week ago from near the western end of the bridge.
   They said the police patrolled the area, but such measures proved inadequate to check such incidents. They thought permanent deployment of the police might improve he situation, especially in the afternoon and on public holidays.
   A high official of the Khulna Metropolitan Police said they would deploy at least a police team very soon.

Administrative activities at Rajshahi University came to halt as the Officer and Employees Unity Council on Sunday started its three-day work abstention to press home their five-point demand.
   Their demands include immediate job confirmation of 31 employees who were appointed on January 15, 2002, extension of service age to 65 years and cancellation of the decision to cut 20 per cent of pension.
   Activities at all administration buildings remained stalled and no any work was held in departments and faculty offices.
   At a rally on the campus, leaders of the council threatened with launching an indefinite work abstention programme if their demands were not met within June 25. The council general secretary, Ayub Ali, was in the chair.

The city people in Khulna walk risking their life down the footpaths built over underground sewers and passages with lots of concrete slabs lying broken for long.
   The official sources said the Khulna City Corporation had 525.09km of sewers out of which 179.08km are brick-made, covered with slabs with manholes at places.
   The local people alleged a large number of slabs on the drains remained damaged for long.
   ‘The pedestrians walk down the footpath and sometimes stumble and fall into drain and become wounded,’ a resident said.
   The sources said a good number of manhole covers were stolen. The slabs have also broken down at some places, said the city dwellers, causing frequent accidents.
   The cratered footpaths turned into death traps for the people during power outage, they said.
   Such footpaths include the stretches on Ahsan Ahmed Road, Khan Jahan Ali Road, KDA Avenue, South Central Road, Shamsur Rahman Road, Lower Jessore Road, Islampur Road, Ratan Sen Sarani, Sir Iqbal Road, Sher-e-Bangla Road and Bina Pani School Road.
   A high engineering department official of the corporation said they had replaced a number of damaged slabs.

Several hundred people teaming up as Chittagong Bakery Owners’ Association laid siege to Chittagong office of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution at Agrabad on Sunday.
   The association went out on demonstrations to push for their 12-point demand. They vowed to resist the mobile court raids on bakeries against food adulteration before any policy on food production is formulated.
   The bakery owners held a rally in front of the BSTI office with the association president, Mohammed Amanullah, in the chair.
   The speakers demanded that the authorities should introduce mobile testing labs with the mobile courts and should not conduct any such drives before that.
   They also demanded that the authorities should provide BSTI certificates in a month after submission of food sample.
   The Bakery Owners’ Association submitted a memorandum to the director general of the standards institution through the deputy director general in the Chittagong office.

A team of professionals from the Bangladesh Pratibandhi Foundation and the Shishu Bikash Network are due to leave today for Adis Ababa, Ethiopia to provide technical training to the Ethiopian government for conducting surveys on childhood disabilities.
   This is the first of several surveys to be conducted worldwide to ascertain the prevalence of childhood disabilities in Asia, Africa and other developing countries through a joint World Bank and OECD
   initiative.
   The door-to-door two-stage survey method has been validated by an international team of experts, including Professor Sultana S Zaman, ex-professor of psychology at Dhaka University and general secretary of the BPF, Dr Naila Z Khan, professor of child neurology, Dhaka Shishu Hospital and chairperson of the SBN, Dr Zena Stein, professor of epidemiology, Columbia University and Dr Maureen Durkin, professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin, United States.

Assailants shot dead a trader, Bachchu Mia, 65, at Jinjira Bazar in Keraniganj on Sunday.
   The police and local people said six assailants attacked the man who traded in corrugated iron sheet soon after he had come of toilet at Tinpatti.
   He was critically wounded. He was taken to Mitford Hospital where he was declared dead.
   The victim’s brother, Sirajul Islam, said a gang of extortionists had long been demanding money from him and they killed Bachchu.
   Fellow traders kept their shops shut after the incident and went out on demonstrations to protest at the killing.
   Bachchu earlier survived another attempt on his life. The police did not take any action, they alleged.

The Dhaka University vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, opened an operation theatre at the university medical centre on Sunday. The pro-vice-chancellor, AFM Yusuf Haider, and the physicians attended the ceremony, said a release.

Rain or thunder shower accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely at one or two places all over Bangladesh till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office in a forecast on Sunday.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged during the period. The highest temperature on Sunday, 36.8 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Mongla and the lowest, 24.5 degrees Celsius, in Rangpur and at Srimangal.
   The sun sets in the capital city at 6:48pm today and will rise at 5:11am on Tuesday.

2 construction firm employees shot
Extortionists shot at two construction firm employees at Pallabi in Dhaka on Sunday. The two — Tauhidul Islam, 35, caretaker of the Fast Dream Construction Firm, and Enamul Haq, 25, supervisor of the Sanctity Construction Firm — were under treatment in Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The police said two young men came to an under-construction building of the Dream Construction Firm at Section 11 at about 7:00am and called the caretaker out of the building. They shot at the caretaker, injuring him critically. The extortionists raided another under-construction building, being built by the Sanctity Construction, and shot at the firm supervisor.

RAB arrests six persons in Ctg
The Rapid Action Battalion arrested six persons, including a drug peddler and five drug abusers, from the Chawkbazar area in the Chittagong city Saturday night. RAB said they arrested drug peddler Mohammed Ali Asgar, a resident of Hulain under Patiya in the district, from Chawk Super Market at around 9:00pm and recovered some brown sugar from his possession. They arrested five drug-addicts — Mohammed Yasin, Aminul Hoque, Shahab Uddin, Mamunur Rashid and Gias Uddin — when they were taking brown sugar at a nearby den.
— New Age