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Diesel-run vehicles account for more than 80 per cent of the air pollution in Dhaka as most of them fail to comply with the approved emission standard, said a recently published survey report.
   About 60 per cent of the city dwellers consider motor vehicles as the main source of air pollution, about 55 per cent consider diesel-run buses to be most polluting the air and 22 per cent feel that diesel-run trucks cause the air pollution.
   Nearly 60 per cent of the dwellers said they contract diseases because of air pollution and 88 per cent believed smoke and dust are the most important air pollutants.
   The public perception of air pollution was revealed in the survey, Stakeholders Perception on Air Pollution by Diesel Vehicles in Dhaka City, conducted by the Air Quality Management Project of the Department of Environment and the World Bank.
   The air quality project director, Mohammad Nasiruddin, said in 2004, they conducted a study, Roadside Vehicle Emission Testing Programme in Dhaka, where they surveyed 2,140 vehicles of all types to identify the principal contributors to air pollution.
   ‘At the end of the study, we found 90 per cent of human haulers followed by 60 per cent diesel-run minibus have failed to comply with the approved emission standard, as their smoke capacity is higher than 80 Hartridge Smoke Units (HSU),’ he said.
   The study suggested a set of recommendations that included retirement of old-technology vehicles following a time-bound road map, introduction of low sulphur diesel, imposition of a total ban on the import of all types of old vehicles and switchover to natural gas as the main source of transport fuel.
   Nasiruddin said, ‘After the study, we launched the survey, designed to understand the current perception of the people in general, stakeholders and interest groups on the issue of diesel vehicle pollution control.’
   The survey found that 68 per cent of the citizens are willing to pay higher fare for cleaner non-polluting buses while 37 per cent supported CNG conversion and 27 per cent were for an outright ban and aged-based retirement of the diesel vehicles.
   The level of knowledge and awareness of air pollution among bus and truck drivers are very low. Nearly 74 per cent of truck and bus owners think their vehicles emissions are at acceptable level, but 77 per cent said their vehicles were fined sometimes for high smoke emission.
   About 84 per cent of the owners are interested in buy- ing CNG-run buses if diesel vehicles are banned, but 55 per cent said the business is not sufficiently profitable, the survey said.
   The survey recommended that the important governance issues such as yearly fitness certificates for commercial vehicles and issuing licences for commercial vehicle drivers need to be streamlined.
   The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire among 842 persons who included ordinary citizens, bus and truck drivers and owners, filling station attendants and automobile mechanics.

Intelligence agencies and the police claimed they detected the motive behind the killing of geology professor Sayeed Taher Ahmed of Rajshahi University.
   Mia Muhammad Mahiuddin, a teacher of the university geology department, killed Taher Ahmed with the help of hired killers as Taher was obstacle to the promotion of Mahiuddin and as Taher knew of the forged research paper made by Mahiuddin for his PhD degree.
   The investigation officer, Achanul Kabir, of the case filed in connection with the killing, said, ‘We unearthed the motive of the case and charge sheet will be submitted this week against five persons, including Mahiuddin and Shibir leader Salehi.’
   Sources in the geology and mining department said Mahiuddin received his PhD degree by publishing the same articles in different journals and stealing from articles by other researchers abroad.
   In 1998, Mahiuddin and Japanese teacher Yuziro Ogawa jointly published a journal, Journal Science volume 33/2005. Mahiuddin published the same article for the second time to his name in the Rajshahi University journal. He later submitted it to the department’s academic committee for his promotion.
   The academic committee, following the killing of Taher, found that Taher had known about Mahiuddin’s unethical activities and objected to his promotion as professor.
   The academic committee at a meeting on May 3 found all the allegations against Mahiuddin true and made five-point recommendations, which were approved by the planning committee.
   The committee recommended that as Mahiuddin was involved in forgery, he would have no right to continue in service with the university. Other recommendations included termination of Mahiuddin from all department and university activities.
   Subinspector Achanul said the report from the university had been submitted to the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate on May 10 and the court granted it as a case clue. The copy was also sent to the home ministry monitoring cell.
   The Rajshahi police commissioner, Nayeem Ahmed, said ‘If Taher had submitted the forgery report to the department planning committee, Mahiuddin would have been terminated. So he planned to kill Taher with some hired killers.’
   The police commissioner said Shibir leader Salehi also had close relation with Maududdin and was involved in the killing.
   The commissioner said the charge sheet would soon be submitted to court.

The Sheraton Hotel handed over a cheque for Tk 4,48,076 to UNICEF Bangladesh on Sunday for the immunisation programme for children.
   The hotel general manager, Trevor MacDonald, handed over the cheque to Louis-Georges Arsenault, UNICEF representative in Bangladesh.
   The funds were raised in two years at the hotel, a chain hotel of the worldwide Starwood Hotels and Resorts, through the ‘check out for children’ programme.
   This is a partnership programme between the Starwood Hotels and Resorts and UNICEF whereby small amount of voluntary contributions are raised from guests to support child survival efforts worldwide, said Hwee Peng, corporate communication manager of the Starwood Hotel and Restaurant in Singapore.
   She said Starwood has 90 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region and all hotels have been involved in this fundraising programme for 10 years.
   Starwood has so far raised more than $13 million through the programme and the fund has been given to UNICEF to immunise thousands of children across the world against fatal diseases.
   MacDonald said over a decade, the programme grew and developed into one of the most successful corporate fundraising partnerships.
   He said the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka was also involved in the ‘check out for children’ programme to promote the fund-raising campaign for UNICEF’s lifesaving work in immunisation.
   ‘The “check-out for children” mechanism is incredibly simple, yet effective — on arrival at any Starwood hotel, guests are invited to add one dollar to their hotel bills as a donation to UNICEF’, said MacDonald.
   Arsenault said, ‘It is indeed a commendable endeavour taken by the Sheraton Hotels worldwide and it significantly contributes to UNICEF’s immunisation programmes for saving millions of children’s lives.’
   He said immunisation became costlier with the introduction of new and better vaccines, but there was no better way to invest in child health and survival.
   Bangladesh has begun to see the benefits of immunisation efforts by significantly reducing child mortality from vaccine preventable diseases, added Arsenault.
   Among others, Janny Lee, assistant manager of Sheraton Utama in Brunei, Zafrin Chowdhury, communication officer of UNICEF Bangladesh, and Mahbubur Rahman, assistant director of marketing of Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, were present on the occasion.

The residents of Motihar Hall at the University of Rajshahi on Sunday locked up the provost’s office, demanding his resignation for his alleged misbehaviour with the students when they went to meet him to discuss the water and power problem.
   The hall provost was not in office when the students locked up the room. The students submitted a memorandum to the vice-chancellor, Altaf Hossain, in his office to push for their 13-point demands and gave him three days to address the problem.
   The agitating students earlier teaming up as the Motihar Hall Students Council, brought out several processions and held rallies demanding immediate solution to water and power problems.
   They on May 13 also met the hall provost, Afrauzzman Khan, and informed him about the problems; but the provost misbehaved with the students.
   In protest at the misbehaviour, the hall students went out on demonstrations on Sunday and locked up the provost’s and other offices, demanding his resignation.
   The residents of the hall also threatened a tougher movement against the authorities if the problem is not addressed in three days.
   The students have been facing water shortage as all the three tube wells on the hall premises are out of order.
   The problems of power and water keep prevailing in other halls. The residents of other halls such as Bangabandhu Hall, Ameer Ali Hall, Abdul Latif Hall, Sher-e-Bangal Hall and Madar Bux Hall also complained of power and water shortage.

About 100 poor girls gathered at the Lake Shore Hotel at Gulshan in Dhaka on Sunday to receive certificates after completing a basic training course on information and communications technology.
   And almost all of them expressed their confidence of becoming self-reliant by using their training on some jobs.
   ‘I never thought of such training and I would have remained ignorant of the latest technology that could takes me to any place just sitting in font of a computer,’ said Nipa, who earned a certificate. ‘Now I train the children in information technology at the school I work for.’
   The event was part of the vocational training programmes conducted by the Fair and Lovely Foundation in association with the Khan Foundation to work for financial empowerment of women.
   A number of trainees said they wanted to be on job or to become small entrepreneurs after the training and they expressed to quit the traditional domestic jobs they are engaged in.
   Most of the trainees have received their higher secondary education degree and some of the have bachelor’s degree.
   Another participant named Sharmin said, ‘I want to go through more such training.’ She urged the organisers to arrange a diploma course for them.
   Sanjiv Mehta said the Unilever Bangladesh had arranged qualitative training programmes for women.
   The foundation till date has provided 1500 girls with ICT training in cooperation with Indian IT training firm NIIT, he said.
   The minister for science and information and communications technology, Abdul Moyeen Khan, UNDP resident representative Renata Lok Dessallien, and Khan Foundation executive director Roksana Khondker also spoke.
   Dessallien said human resources investment in men amounts to individual investment while investment in women goes to the nation. ‘Women will implement what they learnt during training at the family level,’ she hoped.

The Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh on Sunday submitted a memorandum to the commerce minister, Hafizuddin Ahmed, demanding market stability and the passage of Consumers’ Rights Protection Act.
   They submitted a 10-point demand, including formation of a high-powered national task force comprising high officials from the ministries of finance, home affairs, agriculture, industry and commerce to keep the market stable and withdrawal of tax on imported commodities such as milk, pulse, sugar, etc.
   The government has taken an initiative to protect consumers’ interest by enacting the law soon, Hafizuddin Ahmed told a six-member delegation of the association.
   The minister told the delegation in his office that no trader would be allowed to make high profits. It will be also possible to check adulteration if the law is enacted, he said.

Rain or thunder shower accompanied by temporary gusty or squally 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 register a slight increase during the period. The highest temperature on Sunday, 35.0 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Mongla and the lowest, 20.4 degrees Celsius, in Jessore.
   The sun sets in the capital city at 6:34pm today and will rise at 5:16am on Tuesday.

30-day cultural workshop begins
at DU
A 30-day cultural workshop organised by the Dhaka University Sahitya Sangskritik Sangsad began at the Teacher-Student Centre of Dhaka University on Sunday. The Bangla Academy director general, Abul Kalam Manzur Morshed, attended the inaugural function as chief guest while the chairman of the America-Bangladesh Cooperation Organisation M Jasim Uddin was special guest. The president of the Dhaka University organization, Bipash Anwar, chaired the function. After inauguration of the workshop, a cultural function was held in the TSC auditorium.
— BSS

BOU arranges training for its officers
The Bangladesh Open University organised a four-day basic training programme on ‘administrative and financial management’ from May 14-17 for its officers. The training was inaugurated on its Gazipur campus on Sunday. Thirty officers of the university are taking part in the training programme. The university vice-chancellor, Professor M Ershadul Bari inaugurated the training programme as chief guest. There is no alternative to training to increase the ability and quality of work and it would be beneficial for the participants, he said. The function was chaired by pro-vice-chancellor MA Razzaque. Registrar Mohammad Monjur-e-Khoda Tarafdar spoke.
— New Age