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Ten children’s parks in Barisal continued to be neglected and encroached on by the grabbers because of the indifference of the Barisal City Corporation. The city has one more park, run commercially by private operators.
   Official sources said the 10 parks were set up in 1 wards of the city when there was Barisal Municipal Corporation. The parks together span an area of 20 kilometres for a population of two lakh.
   Later in 2003, when the Barisal City Corporation was formed, the total city area of 34 kilometres was divided into 30 wards, the sources said.
   But the corporation did not care about the amenities for children and started neglecting the parks. Now the city has Planet World as the only place for children’s recreation.
   The ten parks are on Kalibari Road, Hatkhola Road, Rajabahadur Road, near Sher-e-Bangla Medical College, Amanatganj, Amtala Orphanage, Sagardi Bazar, on Gorasthan Road, at Baidyapara and at Kawnia.
   Forty per cent of the park areas, 15.26 acres worth about Tk 30 crore are now occupied and used by private organisations and by the public library and water pump house of the city corporation. The corporation has failed to maintain, repair and upgrade the in the parks.
   Some of the rides are in a very bad shape, with their parts either broken or stolen, making the parks haven for drug abusers, criminals. They are also used as pastures for cows.
   The Barisal mayor, local lawmaker Majibur Rahman Sarwar, acknowledging the sorry state of the parks, said the corporation failed to maintain the parks because of financial limitations.
   The district-in-charge of the Shishu Academy, Pankaj Roy, said the children are the worst sufferers for lack of amusement and recreation facilities.
   Social activist Tarun Chandra, involved with various children’s movement, said the administration and civil society need to think about it on an urgent basis.
   A citizens’ rights group leader, Enayet Hossain Chowdhury, said a few children belonging to the moneyed class could afford to enter the privately-managed amusement park.
   The Planet World managing director, Shawkat Hossain Hiron, also the city Awami League convener, said private entrepreneurs lost interest in investing money in the sector as such initiatives had to face political and bureaucratic tangles.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Wednesday urged to the authorities concerned to take stern action against private universities which have been giving away certificate without conventional academic process.
   Addressing the first convocation of the Southeast University at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka, he said, ‘I was informed that some private universities are involved in irregularities of giving certificate without conventional academic process. If it is fact, I urge the authorities concerned to take action against them.’
   Iajuddin, also chancellor of the university, said private universities have been playing a vital role in spreading higher education since 1992 when the Private University Act was made.
   ‘But we have been observing that private universities are facing constraints, including lack of campus, library facilities, research works and above all congenial atmosphere,’ he said. ‘I hope the University Grants Commission will take appropriate measures to monitor the academic programmes of the private universities and ensure quality.’
   Former justice Javid Iqbal of the Supreme Court in Pakistan, who is son of Sir Allama Iqbal, made the convocation speech in the ceremony. The state minister for education, ANM Ehsanul Huq Milon, was special guest.
   Four hundred and forty-two students received bachelor’s certificates under three faculties of the university.
   One hundred and three students received bachelor’s degree and 216 students master’s degree under the business studies faculty.
   Ten students received bachelor’s degree in law, 11 master’s degree in law, 13 master’s degree in development studies and 60 master’s degree in Islamic studies under the arts and social sciences faculty.
   Twenty-three students received bachelor’s degree in computer science and technology, 1 in information and communications and engineering and five students received master’s degree in medical in radiation physics under the science faculty.
   Eighteen medals, including the chancellor’s medal, were given away in the programme.
   Mohammad Ali, with master’s degree in Islamic studies, received the highest common grade point average and received the chancellor’s medal.
   The vice-chancellor, M Shamsher Ali, said the university began its operation with 107 students four years ago and it now has more than 7,000 students. ‘We are introducing new subjects and quality education.
   The chairman of the South Asia Foundation board of governors and the university, Md Rezaul Karim, also spoke.

The Bangladesh Rickshaw and Van Pullers and Owners’ Action Council will lay siege to the Dhaka City Corporation on June 1, demanding seven steps, including issuing new licences for rickshaws.
   The council’s member secretary, Insur Ali, announced the programme at a press briefing at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Wednesday.
   The corporation signed an agreement with the council on November 6, 2001 on giving 43,000 licences to rickshaw-vans. The agreement is yet to be implemented, he said.
   The corporation instead seized a large number of rickshaws in the name of freeing the city from rickshaws. About 45,000 seized rickshaws have been distributed among the local activists in areas of the ministers and ruling party lawmakers, he said.
   The council leaders demanded that the seized rickshaws should be returned to the owners.
   They also said one Mahtabuddin, in collaboration with some corporation officials reportedly loyal to the ruling party, has been using the ownership of 8,540 expired licences in his name.
   He is selling the licences for high prices using the name of the corporation, depriving the corporation of revenue, the leaders said.
   The leaders demanded that their demands should be implemented by May 30. They threatened with the siege of the corporation, otherwise, on June 1 after a rally at Muktangan.
   The council convener, Ali Akbar, Shah Alam Chowdhury, Fazlur Rahman, AKM Giasuddin and Babul Miah also attended the briefing.

A three-day regional IT fair will begin in Chittagong today as part of a series of it fairs organised by the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services.
   The fair will begin at the Banani Complex near Agrabad in the Chittagong city as part of the five-district-based regional IT fair.
   Other fairs are scheduled to be held in Sylhet in June, in Khulna in July, in Bogra and Rajshahi in August of this year.
   Organisers said they were going to organise this kind of fair for the first time in Bangladesh with the vision of creating mass level awareness about IT and create business opportunities and business linkage platforms outside Dhaka.
   They said all kinds of IT related activities were limited within the capital city while other districts remain out of the touch of the latest technology.
   Fahim Mashroor, treasurer of the association, said they had take such initiative to create a bridge between the capital and district level IT users, professionals and traders.
   He said they had expected one lakh visitors in the five regional fairs and brought the business people, students, general IT users, IT specialists, and software and media solution providers, multimedia and ITES companies, hardware vendors, ISPs and telecom services providers on a single platform.
   Not only the software companies, but also IT services companies, internet service providers, hardware and multimedia companies and telecom providers are participating in this fair.
   Sixty stalls and pavilions of the different IT companies, including Dhaka and Chittagong-based ones, took part in the Chittagong fair which would be the largest IT fair in Chittagong so far, said Mashroor.
   The entry to the fair is free and there will be free internet browsing zone for the visitors.
   Katalyst assists as co-organiser of the fair and the Windmill Advertising Limited is the event manager for the fair.

A month-long small and cottage industries fair began at Dhanmondi Abahani ground on Wednesday to project domestic and handicraft products.
   A large number of visitors thronged the fair, with many buying cosmetics, jewelries, showpieces, plastic and leather products, and household items.
   The Mini Industries Development Services organised the fair, featuring 56 stalls to promote the SME sector, which contributes nearly 17 per cent to GDP, MIDS managing director SK Ghatak said.
   ‘We want to display the developments of our local cottage products as the sector has a great potential,’ he said.
   The fair, which will remain open to visitors from 10:00am to 10:00pm, conclude on June 4.

The Credit and Development Forum and the Concern Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday to build the capacity of community-based organisations and take over Concern’s revolving loan funds for the organizations in the country.
   The community-based organizations are self-help groups organised and developed by the Concern Bangladesh, an Irish organisation based in Dublin.

Rain or thunder shower accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at a few places over the Rajshahi, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions and at one or two places over the Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong divisions till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office in a forecast on Wednesday.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged during the period. The highest temperature on Wednesday, 35.5 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Jessore and the lowest, 22.5 degrees Celsius, at Mongla.
   The sun sets in the capital city at 6:32pm today and will rise at 5:00am on Friday.

188 sacks of sugar seized in Khulna
A taskforce team of police, Bangladesh Rifles, customs and a magistrate in a sudden raid on a warehouse on the Station Road in Khulna seized 188 sacks of sugar, each containing 50kg, at around 2:00pm Wednesday. The police arrested two persons in this connection. The Khulna police said the sugar, worth about Tk 5 lakh, lied in the warehouse owned by one Sona Babu and there was no paper in support of the purchase. The police suspected the sugar might have been smuggled from India. Two workers, Manik and Idris, were arrested. The owner managed to get away.

Seminar on media
in Khulna
Speakers in a seminar on ‘media, development and poverty alleviation’ marking World Press Freedom Day 2006 in Khulna urged journalists to play their role in development and poverty alleviation. The Coastal Development Partnership of Khulna and the Voice of Dhaka organised the seminar on Wednesday. Khulna-based journalists, elite, teachers, political party leaders, students, lawyers and NGO personnel joined the programme. The speakers said although journalists are often harassed, they are committed to publishing the truth.
— New Age