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The government will request soft loans from China to implement the long-awaited Rooppur Nuclear Power Project at Ishwardi in Pabna, official sources said.
   The Economic Relations Division of the finance ministry is preparing a draft proposal for sending it to the Chinese government, the sources at the ERD said.
   The ERD secretary, Ismail Zabihullah, will finalise the draft proposal by this week, ERD sources said.
   ‘To mitigate the severe power crisis in the country, establishment of RNPP is essential ... The government proposes possible Chinese assistance to implement the project,’ the draft said.
   The project was first undertaken in 1961 in view of the growing need for electricity against inadequate supply. Before the liberation, companies from Belgium, Canada, the USA, the USSR, the UK and Switzerland had submitted proposals and established its techno-economic viability through a number of feasibility studies.
   The government also acquired 105.30 and 12.15 hectares lands for the plant and residential complex respectively during the time.
   But the project was not implemented due to the then Pakistan government’s reluctance, and the Canadian nuclear plant originally proposed for Rooppur was implemented in Karachi.
   Now the ERD has started dealing with the matter after getting a concrete proposal from the Science and ICT Ministry very recently in the face of severe power crisis across the country, sources said.
   The government has decided to seek fund from the China under a framework agreement signed between the two governments on April 7, 2005 for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in Bangladesh.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, sought help in implementing the RNPP during her visit to China in August last year. The Chinese premier also expressed his country’s willingness to support Bangladesh for its implementation.
   He said the government would also inform the Chinese authorities of the problems Bangladesh now facing due to severe power shortage.

The LGRD and co-operatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, on Monday called upon all concerned to participate in formulating a pro-people, pro-poor water management system to get rid of water-related crises in the country as well as in the Asia-Pacific region.
   ‘We call for national actions to be strengthened and reinforced through regional cooperation among the concerned countries, such as through shared river basin management, and where relevant, international cooperation,’ he said while inaugurating the fourth meeting of the World Water Forum of Journalists (WWFJ) and the 17th Congress of the Asia-Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists (APFEJ) at CIRDAP auditorium.
   The main theme of the three-day meeting is ‘Water, Sanitation and Climate Change — Achieving MDGs: Role of the Media’.
   Local government secretary SM Zahurul Islam, World Bank country director Christine Wallich, Dutch ambassador Kees Beemsterboer, Tim Cullen of the Water Media Programme of the ADB, Dr Muhammad Sabur of WaterAid Bangladesh, Dr Khawaja Minnatullah of the World Bank, ATM Khaleduzzaman of
   the Dutch embassy, IUCN country director Ainun Nishat and Yukari Tsuzuki of Japan Water Forum addressed different sessions chaired by APFEJ chairman and WWFJ secretary-general, Quamrul Islam Chowdhury.
   Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said political commitment must continue, the development partners must come forward with greater support and commitment for achieving the
   Millennium Development Goals.
   He said the international partners should come forward to support implementation of this national adaptation plan of action of Bangladesh in order to reduce the local people’s vulnerability to climate change impacts.
   The mass media should be even more vibrant in the campaign for mass awareness, and academia must also come forward with innovative and affordable technological solutions, the minister added.
   Listing the steps taken in the country, such as preparing the National Adaptation Plan of Action, formulating the National Water Management Plan, providing safe drinking water to almost all people and 71 per cent sanitation coverage of the country, Mannan Bhuiyan said, ‘Even just two years back Bangladesh was suffering from appallingly poor sanitation coverage of mere 33 per cent accompanied by high disease incidence and environmental pollution.’
   Sanitation coverage has exceeded 70 per cent in just two years’ time as the present government has given priority to this sector, he asserted.
   He said changing the cultural and behavioural pattern of the people is the most important factor in attaining sustainability in sanitation coverage as the government can only provide sanitary latrines, not ensure their proper use.

The 145th anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore’s birth was celebrated on Monday across the country with much enthusiasm and festivity.
   Tagore, the doyen of all forms of Bangla literature, was the first Asian to be awarded with the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 and the lone poet in the globe whose works have been selected as national anthems of two countries — Bangladesh and India. Before being selected as the national anthem of Bangladesh, Amar Sonar Bangla, was an inspiration for the people of the then East Pakistan.
   The government and different socio-cultural organisations throughout the country took up programmes to mark the day.
   The cultural affairs ministry has drawn up a three-day national programme that includes book fair, cultural show and discussion on his life and literary works in Dhaka and places with memories of the great litterateur. The Bangladesh Rabindra Sangeet Shilpi Sangstha, an umbrella organisation of the Rabindra Sangeet singers, held a daylong function at the Bangladesh Shishu Academy.
   Veteran Rabindra sangeet singer Kalim Sharafi inaugurated the programme.
   The Public Library Directorate has organised a three-day book fair at the auditorium of the Central Public Library at Shahbagh. The fair’s participants include the Bangla Academy, Shilpakala Academy, Nazrul Institute, Bangladesh National Museum, National Book Centre and the National Library. It will remain open everyday from 10:00am to 5:00pm.
   A three-day function is being held at the Kuthibari of the Tagore family in Shahjadpur, Sirajganj. The three-day programme will also feature a Tagore fair on the kuthibari premises.

The leaders of three opposition political parties – the Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, the Jatiya Oikya Mancha and the Tarikat Federation — on Monday called upon the people to forge a strong unity and vote the ‘anti-people’ alliance government out of office in the next election.
   The people will reject the BNP-Jamaat alliance government in the next general election as the ruling coalition had indulged in ‘unabashed corruption and other misdeeds’, they told a rally.
   The three parties jointly organised the rally at the Mirpur outer stadium, in protest against the crisis of power, water and gas and the price hike of essential commodities causing untold sufferings to the people.
   The Bikalpadhara president, AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, called upon the people not to vote for the candidates of the four-party alliance as they were corrupt.
   The government has failed to meet the basic needs of the city dwellers causing extreme sufferings in their daily life, B Chowdhury said.
   The Oikya Mancha convenor and the Gana Forum president, Kamal Hossain, said the next government would be a pro-people one and they would meet the basic needs of the people.
   The Tarikat Federation president, Nazibul Bashar Maizbhandari, termed the Jamaat-e-Islami as the patron of Islamist militant outfits and called upon the people to reject the Jamaat candidates in the next election.

The International Expatriates’ Welfare Society demanded that Bangladeshi foreign missions should cooperate with expatriate Bangladeshis in different countries instead of harassing them.
   They alleged that most of the officers of the Bangladesh missions did not behave well with the expatriate Bangladeshis; moreover, they took bribes for doing a simple service for them.
   Md Reazaul Islam, joint secretary of the society, said the Bangladesh missions did harms to their citizens while other country’s missions worked for the well-being of their citizens in the other countries.
   He said at a press conference in the Dhaka city that foreign mission officers took bribe for simple services such as renewal of driving licence or helping the visa expired workers to return home.
   Rezaul and such other ten workers, who were in Brunei two years ago, were forced to return home without passport and empty handed because of Bangladesh mission officers’ conspiracy, they alleged.
   Rezaul said they protested against the foreign missions’ officers in 2004 in front of the Bangladesh embassy in Brunei when the prime minister and state minister for expatriate welfare were visiting Brunei.
   ‘For this, the foreign mission officers black listed us and sent to jail without any warrant, and after three month’s jail, we had to return to Bangladesh without passport and since then we did not get our passport back’, said Rezaul.
   Motalib Hossain, member of the expatriate society, said Bangladeshi high commission in Malaysia never helped the worker whenever they faced any trouble there.
   Nawab Ali Bhuyain, secretary of the society, said they had taken up different welfare activities to solve problems of the expatriates.

Speakers at a roundtable meeting on ‘movement of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation buses in the southwest routes’ at the Khulna Press Club auditorium demanded that the number of BRTC buses should be increased in the south-western districts.
   Newly formed organisation Jatri Kalyan Samity arranged the roundtable meeting in which people from different sections took part.
   Chaired by the organisation convener, Md Kamruzzaman Babu, the roundtable was also addressed by the Khulna Press Club general secretary, AK Hiru, senior journalist Moqbul Hossain Mintu, Greater Khulna Development Movement Coordination Action Committee secretary general Sheikh Ashrafuzzaan, UCBL Bank branch manager Siddiqur Rahman and Rupali Bank branch manager Matiur Rahman, Taslim Ahmed Asha and Nazmul Islam Shameem, among others.
   Slating the continuous transport strike in eight south-western districts, the speakers termed the strike nothing but autocracy of the bus owners and workers.
   Demanding movement of more BRTC buses on the south-western routes, the speakers urged the authorities to upgrade the service of the buses of owners’ associations. Workers of the owners’ associations often harass the passengers, they alleged.
   ‘If they (bus owners’ association) upgrade their service, they will have to face no problem to get passengers,’ they said, alleging that a good number of buses of the owners’ association had no fitness.

World Thalassemia Day was observed in the country like elsewhere in the world Monday.
   Different organisations took up elaborate programmes to mark the day.
   The Bangladesh Thalassemia Association and the Medicine Club organised a discussion meeting at the National Press Club Monday on the occasion.
   The health and family welfare minister, Khandoker Mosharraf Hossain, attended as chief guest.
   He said the government took effective steps to increase the medical facilities to prevent the disease.
   The meeting was informed that there are about one crore thalassemia-affected people in the country and five to seven thousand children are born with the disease every year.

The motor owners’ associations and transport workers’ unions of eight northern districts have threatened the government with imposing an indefinite period general transport strike from May 20 if their demand was not met within that period.
   A joint press conference held at Nilphamari on Sunday night by the leaders of the associations and the unions gave the ultimatum to the government and demanded to include the leased-out BRTC buses under their unilateral chain of operations.
   Leaders of the owners’ associations and workers’ unions from Rangpur, Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat at the conference alleged that a written agreement was signed between the communication minister, Nazmul Huda, and the associations’ leaders on August 20, 2003 about the issue of including the BRTC buses under the unilateral chain of operations, but the decision was yet to be implemented.
   The agreement said the BRTC buses would ply on the roads of northern and southern districts under the unilateral chain of operation and route plan of the respective district, the leaders claimed.
   They also alleged that the BRTC buses run by private operators after being leased out by the BRTC authorities, ply according to their own will violating the agreement and added that they would not complain if the BRTC buses were operated by its own staff.
   The president of Nilphamari District Bus, Truck, Mini and Micro-bus Owners’ Association, Toukir Ahmed, in a written statement announced for tougher agitation programmes including the indefinite strike.
   Meanwhile on Monday, the members of Nilphamari Bus, Truck, Mini and Micro-bus Owners’ Association and the Transport Workers Union threatened to hinder the normal plying of the BRTC buses on the routes between Nilphamari and Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Gaibandha.
   ‘Those people are now preventing the passengers to board BRTC buses and manhandling the staff,’ said Bhulu Mia, a ticket master of a BRTC bus counter at municipal market area in Nilphamari town.

A Dhaka court granted bail to the prime suspect in a sensational case which was filed in connection with the killing of Khairul Anwar Piyaru, former vice-president of the Bangladesh Football Federation.
   Earlier, the High Court refused to grant bail to prime suspect Amzad Hossain alias Miah Bhai, also a former ward commissioner of the Dhaka City Corporation, for several times.
   Mohammad Golam Mortuza Majumder, judge of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-2, on Sunday granted bail to Amzad, who was also accused in four cases, including three for murder.
   A High Court bench of Justice Khademul Islam Chowdhury and Ashfaqul Islam finally on April 26 rejected the bail prayer for Amzad.
   Special Public Prosecutor Mohammad Mayeen Uddin opposed the bail petition filed by the defence lawyers Mahbubur Rahman and Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan Mukul.
   According to the prosecution, a gang of criminals led by Amzad killed Piyaru at the Dhanmondi Club on February 29, 2004.