Main Page «
Front Page «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Patients and their attendants at BIRDEM Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University have been facing severe water shortage for three days as supply by the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority remains poor.
   Water shortage has been hampering medicare in the hospitals; and the patients have been using bottled water for toilet and other jobs, complained the attendants.
   Many patients have failed to take dialysis in time because of the problem and some have left the hospital, said an attendant at the intensive care unit of BIRDEM Hospital.
   An attendant said his patient needed dialysis by March 7, but he could not be administered the treatment in time for shortage of water.
   Another attendant named Masud said his father, who is critically ill, needed to buy bottled water from outside to go to toilet.
   Yet another attendant, Jani, described a similar experience at BIRDEM Hospital. Like them, other patients and attendants continue to face the same situation.
   BIRDEM Hospital medical officer Mir Mubarak Hossain said low voltage was the main reason for the interrupted supply of water.
   He said the patients, their attendants and physicians all were suffering because of the problem.
   This has hampered surgeries in operation theatre as water is required for washing hand and surgical instruments, Mubarak said. ‘We cannot keep the hospital clean for lack of water and cannot provide the patients with drinking water.’
   He said the Gynaecologist Society held a workshop at the hospital on Tuesday, but it could not be held properly because of water shortage.
   A physician said washing and going to toilet were two major problems caused by the shortage.
   Mubarak said although the water supply agency provided water by its lorries several times; but the amount was not adequate.
   The water supply to the hospital resumed Wednesday evening; but the amount was not adequate for such a large number of patients, said another physician.
   The attendants at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University said they had also been facing the same situation for four days.
   Many patients and their attendants complained they received water for about half an hour a day. They said this was not adequate for such a large number of patients.
   An attendant said four elevators of Block C of the hospital could not be operated because of low voltage and frequent power outages.
   ‘We had to climb up the stairs up to the 10th floor as we found the elevators closed most of the time,’ he said.

The Chittagong Eye Infirmary and Training Complex Trust and the Ispahani Group of Companies have undertaken a Tk 350-crore project to set up a world-class hospital in Chittagong.
   A two-day meeting of the lenders and stakeholders of the proposed Imperial Hospital Limited was held in the in the eye infirmary auditorium on Wednesday. A news briefing followed the meeting.
   The chairman of the proposed hospital, Rabiul Husain, said the hospital would be set up to deliver standard healthcare services in Chittagong.
   He said the hospital would provide treatment for 1000 patients in its cardiology, nephrology, neonatalogy, neurosurgery, orthopaedic, oncology, and medicine departments. He said the authorities also planned to set up a training institute for nurses.
   ‘Senior consultant physicians and trained and experienced nurses, and technical hands will be recruited from abroad in the initial years to ensure world-class healthcare services,’ he said.
   Rabiul said the construction had already begun at Pahartali, on the outskirts of the city, and the hospital is expected to go into operation by the third quarter of 2008.
   The managing director of the hospital, Mirza Salman Ispahani, representatives from United States-based Architectural Project Management and Operational Management Group and investing firm Netherlands Development Finance Company, Arno PJ de Vette, David Vellinga, Bob Beyer, Whim H Griep, Mahmudul Islam, Mohinder Singh Dutt, Larry Parrett, Mark Brito, Kevin Stansbury and Mahmood Malik also attended the briefing.

The female activists of different trade unions were taken aback at an opinion exchange meeting on Wednesday, when the female ward commissioners of Dhaka City Corporation expressed their helplessness in performing their duties properly.
   The meeting held at the Planning and Development Academy in Dhaka was organised by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies highlighted on the rights and security of female workers and the role of female ward commissioners.
   The female ward commissioners echoed the same and said they were not provided with offices and also with the needed manpower.
   The administrative officials and their male colleagues hardly help them.
   Even the female ward commissioners are deprived from the honorarium.
   The ward commissioner of ward no 34, 35 and 54 Fazilatunnisa said, ‘we cannot face the people, as we failed to fulfil the commitments.’
   Member secretary of female workers development project steering committee of the institute, Shirin Akter presented a concept paper on the issue.
   Quoting the statistics of labour force study of 2004, Shirin said out of the total labour force of 4.43 crore in the country, 98.44 lakh are females, which is 22.21 per cent of the total, she said and added that more than 10 lakh female workers were employed at the garments sector in the capital and the growth rate at present stood to 7.6 per cent per annum.
   Chairperson of the institute’s steering committee and adviser to the prime minister, professor Jahanara Begum, chaired the meeting and urged the women to be united to realise their rights.

Dhaka is likely to face serious consequences of surface and ground water if it does not have adequate water bodies do not exists, said experts.
   A recent study shows the city has little of water bodies. The city has 4 per cent of its area in river and 4 per cent in water body, finds surveys of the Dhaka Environment Project conducted by the Department of Environment.
   Experts said lack of water body would hamper recharging of groundwater and retention of flood water.
   Dhaka University geography professor Nazrul Islam, chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies, said, ‘The city should have at least 25 per cent of its area in water bodies.’
   He said the retention of surface water would become difficult and flood would take place in more severe form for lack of water bodies.
   The Dhaka Environment Project is a plan to be implemented over a 20 years with an investment of $8 billion focused on management issues of Dhaka.
   The surveys of the project, conducted between May 2003 and September 2004, covering 1,696 square kilometres, showed the metropolis had 67 square kilometres of water bodies and 64 square kilometres of rivers.
   Senior research officer Golam Rabbani of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies said lack of water bodies would hamper the recharging of the ground water level.
   He said the rivers around the city were dangerously polluted, creating huge pressure on groundwater for household use.
   ‘The water level of the city is going down between 0.76 and 1 metres a year and dirt-filling of water bodies would bring about a severe crisis in a short time,’ Rabbani said.

Women of all walks of life demanded on International Women’s Day on Wednesday an end to discrimination of all kinds against women in family and other spheres of life.
   Women activist said violence against women begins in families and it spreads to other spheres.
   Women are repressed by means of food and nutrition, dowry, physical and mental torture, financial discrimination and other such things, they said.
   An adult woman needs to write her husband or father’s name as her guardian in all state affairs, and it is ‘really a humiliation for woman,’ said the women activists.
   Several hundred women, including working women, garment workers, women with disabilities, non-formal workers and housewives, staged a human chain agitation programme to push for their demands.
   The International Women’s Day observance committee organised the human chain that stretched for about a kilometre on the roadside opposite the national assembly building on Manik Mia Avenue.
   The women’s day observance committee was formed in 1991; and it has been organising programmes to mark the day from the time. This year the theme of the day was ‘Not women, we want recognition as individuals,’ said the committee coordinator, Samia Afrin.
   The women leaders said not only violation against women, but disrespectful act and behaviour of any kinds against women should be stopped.
   They demanded wages for women workers the same as their male counterparts.
   Forty-eight development organisations such as CARE Bangladesh, Action Aid, Manusher Janya, Concern, Karmajibi Nari, Acid Survivors Foundation, CRP, Nari Moitri, Nari Pakkha and Nari Udyog Kendra joined the human chain.

The British Council will begin a three-day youth festival at the Institution of Engineers building in Chittagong today, the officials said.
   The Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, will open the festival at 3:30pm.
   The British Council is organising the event under its project, Connecting Futures, which is part of its global initiative aimed at creating a platform for young people to share, learn and develop mutual understanding and enhancing social tolerance among diverse section of people, the organisers said.
   Addressing a press meet at the Chittagong office of the British Council on Wednesday, the organisation’s programme officer Shabnaaz Zehereen said hundreds of young people from across Bangladesh were expected to attend the festival.
   ‘We are holding such a festival for the first time in Chittagong,’ she said. ‘We have communicated with the local colleges and university in this regard.’
   “The young people will get a chance to develop mutual contacts with the young of the United Kingdom for a better understanding of each other,’ she said. The project was taken up in 2003. Fifty-four countries are now involved in the project.
   In 2005, the festival was held in Dhaka which could draw about 3,000 young people, she said.
   Mohammad Jahangir of Ganatantra Charchay Tarun Forum also spoke.

The student of the Eden College gave a 24-hour ultimatum to its principal for evacuating the occupiers of five rooms at Khodeza Khatun Hall of the college.
   The students on Wednesday went out demonstrations in front of the principal’s office and submitted a memorandum, demanding evacuation of the occupiers. They also gave an ultimatum ending 10:00am today for meeting their demands.
   Sources said some leaders of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal occupied five rooms of the hostel. The leaders took money from those whom they provided accommodation at the hostel.
   In September 2005, a college unit Chhatra Dal leader, Rupali, occupied Room 323, and the borders were forced to stay in Room 206.
   But on March 6, Rupali, some leaders Sima and Ruma broke open the room and kept living there.
   The occupation sparked off resentment among the residents and they met the hostel superintendent but she preferred a written complaint.
   The residents lodged a complaint, but the authorities paid no heed to the demands.

The Khulna district and sessions judges court on Wednesday sentenced a policeman to life imprisonment in a murder case filed with the Khulna sadar police.
   The court fined the convict, Amir Hossain, Tk 10,000, in default, to suffer one more year in jail. The judge, AKM Ishtiak Hussain, gave the ruling in the absence of convict.
   Small trader Hemayet Khan of Altapal Lane of Khulna sadar was shot dead by the convict early November 26, 1999.

Hundred-bed Ambia Memorial Hospital and Diagnostic Limited will open in Barisal on March 12. The Barisal mayor, Majibar Rahman Sarwar, will inaugurate the hospital.
   The hospital’s management committee in a briefing on Wednesday said a Rupali Bank branch at the Barisal Nathullabad bus terminal financed 60 per cent of the Tk 14-core project. The remaining amount was provided by the board of directors of the hospital.
   The authorities said the eight-storey hospital building has been built on 35 decimals of land on the West Bogra Road.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Wednesday said the opposition was unhappy at the arrest of the two most wanted terrorists of the country as they did not like curbing of terrorism.
   She regretted that when the people across the country were in jubilation over the capture of the militant leaders, they (opposition) were feeling unhappy.
   The prime minister was addressing a big public meeting at the Government Mujib College ground here.
   She said the opposition had not wanted to see the arrest of these terrorists as it (opposition) may have links with these militants.
   The capture of the two most wanted terrorists, who were responsible for killing innocent people, including judges, and perpetrating bomb attacks, would help expose their local and foreign links, Khaleda added.
   The prime minister said it was irresponsible for the opposition to say that the government was staging a drama by capturing the top terrorists. The opposition is saying this because it wants to divert the people’s attention from the bomb incidents and unearthing of the links.
   Referring to the BNP-led alliance’s pledge to end terrorism, she said her government had been arresting terrorists and killers one after another, which had resulted in the restoration of peace throughout the country.
   Khaleda said the opposition was now deeply concerned, unhappy and perturbed at seeing the curbing of terrorism, increase of production, creation of employment generation, stopping of copying in the examinations, increase in per capita income and huge investments by both local and foreign entrepreneurs.
   She said the main opposition did not carry out development activities for the people during its last five-year rule.
   ‘That is why people’s confidence has increased in the BNP. People witness development and peace when the BNP comes to power and so they want to see this party in power again and again.’
   Each and every district and upazila had become the den of terrorists and godfathers during the previous Awami League regime, Khaleda said and added after return to power the government had taken all steps to curb terrorism by launching Operation Clean Heart and the formation of RAB.
   She said the main opposition is unhappy with the activities of RAB and has threatened to stop its activities with the ulterior motive to let loose a reign of terror and establish the rule of godfathers.
   Their ill motive would not be allowed to be fulfilled, the prime minister added.
   Presided over by the law minister Moudud Ahmed, the meeting was addressed, among others, by health and family welfare minister, Dr Khandaker Musharraf Hossain, PM’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury, Advocate Mahbubur Rahman, MP, commerce ministry adviser Barkatullah Bulu, lawmakers Shahjahan, Zainal Abedin Farooq, Musharraf Hossain, MA Hashem, local BNP leaders Nizamuddin Farooq and Harunur Rashid Azad and Jamaat leader Nurul Monayem.
   Earlier, the prime minister laid the foundation stones of Musapur Regulator Construction, Companyganj Fire Service Centre, Companyganj Health Complex, Community Centre and Companyganj Upazila Parishad Bhaban.

The Chittagong City Corporation mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, vowed to resist the government’s move in handing over the management of the New-mooring container terminal of the port to private firms.
   ‘The shipping ministry with a motive to make some easy money is planning to hand over the port equipment to the private individuals,’ he said in a press conference at the CCC auditorium on Wednesday afternoon.
   Mohiuddin, in his written statement said the decision would ruin the port and he would resist the ploy with the help of the people of Chittagong at any cost.
   Citing the arms haul at the CUFL jetty, he said handing over the operational activities of the container terminal to the private sector would make the area a safe zone for the smugglers and arms dealers.
   He alleged that a vested quarter was trying all out to turn the port into a loosing concern, as it would deprive the port from earning huge revenue.
   Half of the construction work has been completed of the Tk 434 crore self funded project of The Chittagong Port Authority.
   The authorities in February floated tender to hand over its management and operational activities to private firms after the implementation of the project that sparked discontent among the port workers.
   The shipping minister, Akbar Hossain, is scheduled to sit with the port users and leaders of the different workers’ associations today at the port house.
   The corporation sources said the mayor would lead a human chain in front of the port house in the morning to protest against the process.

The updated map of the Dhaka city surroundings (RAJUK plan) and the Dhaka Metropolitan City have recently been published.
   Digital cartography and GIS centre Mappa published the maps in March, said a release.
   The maps demarcate the Rajuk plan, its jurisdiction area, metropolitan area, city corporation area, municipalities, district demarcation, upazilas, and unions.
   The map also features proposed roads, link roads, subways, commuter light railway, mass transport feasibility, embankment, eastern and Dhaka bypass.
   The map shows 28 police stations, demarcation of 90 wards, detailed communication network and important places. The map has been printed on both sides of a 25 inches by 37 inches sheet of paper. The map is available at Mappa office on Green Road.

The Social Resistance Committee, a platform of different non-governmental organisations working on women rights, demanded restoration of the Women Development Policy 1997 soon and reserving one third of parliament seats for the women.
   The platform also demanded that government must specifically distribute responsibilities for the women members in the local government and to create a positive working environment for them.
   Hena Das, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parisad, while presiding over the programme, said the struggle of the women’s organisations should aim to establish a repression free society.

The post graduate orientation programme for the spring semester 2006 of the Northern University Bangladesh was held at a Dhaka city hotel on Tuesday.
   Professor Monirul Haq, member of the University Grants Commission, attended the programme as chief guest while the university vice-chancellor, Professor Mohammad Ali, chaired the function.

Meser Ahmed Sikdar, a renowned English teacher of the Barisal city, died of cancer in his residence at Srinath Chatterji Lane in the city Wednesday morning. He was 71.
   He is survived by his wife, three daughters and two sons.
   He was buried at Barisal Muslim Gorosthan after janaza at the BM School ground Wednesday afternoon.
   His qul khwani will be held in his residence Friday afternoon.

Education UK fair begins today
The three-day 8th Education UK Exhibition 2006 will begin at the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka today. Twenty-six universities and colleges of the United Kingdom will join in. The Dhaka University vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, will open the fair at 10:30am. The exhibition will also be held at the Hotel Peninsula in Chittagong during March 13–14.
— UNB

CMP arrests
121 people
The Chittagong Metropolitan Police arrested 121 people, including two convicts and a wanted criminal, in Chittagong in 24 hours till Wednesday afternoon. A Khulshi police team arrested the wanted criminal, Mohammed Jahangir, in possession of a pistol and two bullets. The two convicts, Mohammed Iqbal Hossain, 28, and Mohammed Nurul Alam, 30, were arrested at Panchlaish and Chandgaon.
— New Age

Seminar on
ethics today
The proposed Ethics Club of the North South University will hold a seminar on corruption, ethics and sustainable development at the Banani campus of the university in Dhaka at 10:00am today. Ethical and moral values from the various religious perspectives will be addressed in the seminar. Retired Appellate Division judge Md Abdur Rouf, also former chief election commissioner, will be attend as chief guest. The vice-chancellor, Hafiz GA Siddiqui, will attend as guest of honour.
— New Age