Physiotherapy students protest
at course relegation
Alpha Arzu
A decision of the Dhaka University syndicate to shorten the course and diminish the degree of physiotherapy graduation would relegate academic status and limit scopes for higher studies abroad, students say.
Different government and private institutions have enrolled at least 300 students on a four-year course plus one-year internship.
The National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, Centre for Rehabilitation and Paralysis, Bangladesh Medical College, Gana Bishwabidyalay, People’s University of Bangladesh and the State University of Bangladesh are offering bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy.
As the orthopaedic institute and the CRP are branding their courses as BSc in Physiotherapy and BSc (honours) in Physiotherapy, the university syndicate at a meeting on April 4, 2006 decided that the graduation degree in physiotherapy would be called ‘Bachelor of Physiotherapy.’
It also modified syllabus, incorporating some new subjects in the course, said a source of NITOR.
But on August 10, the DU authorities decided to reduce the course to four years and rename it as ‘BSc in Physiotherapy,’ relegating it to a technical course under allied health science, from previous status equivalent of MBBS or BDS.
The abrupt change in course status irked the students who on Wednesday demonstrated at the NITOR demanding reinstatement of their course period and status. They also put the department under lock and key for an indefinite period.
The demonstration has left about 50 patients without services, institute sources said.
Agitating students regretted that the DU academic body has devalued their status upon advice from the dean of DU’s medicine faculty.
‘Before this decision, the course was equal to MBBS and BDS,’ said a NITOR physiotherapy student.
‘Under allied health science, we have been brought down to the level of nurses, radiology assistants, BSc in dental or assistants to BDS and technicians’, a 10th batch NITOR student regretted.
Seeking post graduation degree abroad requires a four-year academic course and at least six months internship, but the latest decision would bar them from obtaining higher education, he added.
Professional course on physiotherapy was first launched in 1973 by British orthopaedic surgeon Dr RJ Garst at Suhrawardy Hospital initially to treat war-crippled freedom fighters. But the course was stopped in 1978 due to dearth of instructors, students and supporting staffs.
In 1993-94, the government again start the course under the DU medical faculty.
According to a World Health Organisation report (2002), at least 10 per cent of the world population are disabled, and of them, 46.5 per cent are physically disabled.
Another report, prepared by the Bangladesh Health Professions Institute (CRP, Savar) in 2003, says that more than 65 lakh people in Bangladesh are now physically challenged.
Biman union opposes austerity plan
Call for steps to curb corruption
Staff Correspondent
The government’s plan to rationalise manpower of loss-making Biman and reduce allowances for its employees faces opposition from the union, which believes chronic corruption has put the national flag carrier in the red.
The convener of Combined Action Council of Biman Officials and Employees, SM Helal, told New Age, ‘The government does not need to take any austerity measures at this moment as we have decided to identify the areas where we can reduce expenses.’
‘The council has, moreover, taken an initiative to curb corruption in Biman which would help the government to make the national airliner commercially viable,’ he said.
Helal, also the president of Bangladesh Airline Pilots’ Association, said, ‘We have asked the Biman managing director not to cut manpower at the moment. The managing director, on the other hand, has asked us to submit our cost-cutting plan in a week.’
He said the council would announce its course of action soon if the government sticks to its decision.
At the directives of the finance minister, M Saifur Rahman, regarding cost-cutting measures, the Biman authorities in consultation with the World Bank are planning to rationalise its manpower and reduce additional expenses to minimise the losses the national flag carrier is reeling under.
The civil aviation secretary, Md Shahid Alam, earlier issued a four-point guideline to the Biman managing director, MA Momen, directing him to cut the expenses from every possible area as long as the financial condition of the Bangladesh Biman Corporation does not become stable.
Biman, which now has 5,500 employees and officials with only six functioning aeroplanes out of 13 in its fleet, now operates flights to 25 destinations.
MA Momen told New Age, ‘Biman has no other option but to reduce its expenses as the national carrier is now facing a huge fund crunch. Measures have been taken to reduce the additional expenses in all possible areas.’
Telecentres can change life
of rural people
Staff Correspondent
Telecentres or village information centres could radically change the life of the rural and marginalised people, said discussants at a seminar in the city on Wednesday.
Telecentre is a public place that offers access to computes, internet, telephone and other ICTs to people to help them gather information and communicate with others. A Telecentre TO BE maintained by the community people is aimed at popularising the use of modern ICT among them and advance them socially through it.
Nazrul Islam, ICT4D director, Relief International — Schools Online, presented the keynote paper at the seminar on the prospects of Telecentres in Bangladesh held at the BCS Computer Show at Bhasani Novo Theatre.
Azizur Rahman, former executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council, and B N Adhikari, chief operating officer of Bangladesh Computer Samity, were the panel discussants.
Taking part in the discussion, IT professionals said Telecentres had not developed yet in Bangladesh due to lack of experience and knowledge of technologies, lack of infrastructure in the rural areas and expensiveness of the technologies. But, they said, other developing countries like India are already started using Telecentres for their socio-economic development.
A number of non-government organisations including Young Power in Social Action, D.Net, Katalyst, Grameen Bank and Grameen Telecom, Bangladesh Friendship and Education Society, Relief International — Schools Online, and Bangladesh NGO Network for Radio and Communication are working to introduce Telecentres in the country. Around 80 Telecntres under different names have been at operation for the community people on experimental or pilot basis.
Nazrul Islam in his keynote said Telecentres should be run in association with the local people and should eventually generate enough money in fees from the users to afford sustaining on its own.
He said from their experience of running school-based Telecentres at 27 schools across the country they have found that the content and the form of language are the major barriers to information dissemination.
He suggested developing more localised content in Bangla would be a possible way.
Water talks go nowhere
Issues left for next JRC meeting to settle
Staff Correspondent
Water talks between Bangladesh and India ended in Dhaka on Wednesday inconclusively, leaving the issues including revetment of river-banks in border areas for the next JRC meeting to settle.
This was disclosed at a joint press briefing held at Sonargaon Hotel just after a ministerial-level talk between the neighbouring countries which was held after joint visits to different rivers on the border, including Ichamati, Muhuri and Feni, from September 14 to 19.
Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, water resources minister of Bangladesh, said four issues — bank protection works of bordering rivers, embankment repairing works of Muhuri river, dredging in Ichamati and utilisation of water from Feni River — were discussed at the talk.
‘We could not reach a consensus on all the issues. We need more time to resolve all the issues, and so we have deferred the decision for the next meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission,’ he said.
Indian water resources minister Saif-Uddin Soz said they have discussed all the issues and decided to extend the discussion as they could not find a solution due to some technical reasons.
He said more time is needed to find a solution due to technical reasons and the outstanding issues will be discussed in the next JRC meeting, in which we may work out a solution.
In his reply to a question Soz said the next Joint Rivers Commission’s meeting will be held very soon, but he failed to give any definite date.
The two water resources minister, Hafiz Uddin and Saif-Uddin Soz, however, expressed the hope that the problems would be solved.
Meeting sources said Bangladesh did not agree to the Indian proposal of constructing an embankment in a disputed land of the Muhuri River. Bangladesh said this issue has not been settled yet, and before settling the issue India should not construct an embankment.
Showing a map of 1966, India claimed that a char had emerged at Subroom on the Feni, but Bangladesh opposed the claim and said the char is in Bangladesh, and this issue is yet to be settled by both the countries.
The Indian side wanted permission to dredge a stretch of 20 kilometres in Ichamati River, but the Bangladesh side said that they should settle the issue of the emerging char in the Ichamati before permission for dredging is asked.
River erosion in border areas continues because of the suspension of revetment works due to obstruction by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) for the past few years. This was discussed but no agreement was reached.
The Indian side said at the meeting that Bangladesh has to take permission to do any revetment work on the riverbanks in different border areas.
They said they have to see the design of the work before giving Bangladesh permission for revetment works.
Bangladesh Water Development Board officials said they had to suspend the revetment work on riverbanks at 14 points in Chapainawabganj, Comilla, Sylhet, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Satkhira and Khagrachhari because of BSF’s interference.
Erosion by the Mohananda in Chapainawabganj, Karatoa in Panchagarh, Atrai in Dinajpur, Nagar and Kulik in Thakurgaon and the Feni in Khagrachhari cannot be prevented without revetment, they said.
The joint visit was held as per the decision of the 36th Joint Rivers Commission meeting where the two water resources minister agreed to visit the vulnerable sites of the bordering rivers to see the erosion which has threatened the territorial boundary between the two countries and led to water scarcity.
Tk 4.5cr postal scam caught
in lengthy court procedures
No hearing held in a year
Our Correspondent . Nilphamari
The fate of the two sensational cases of misappropriation of crores of taka filed by the postal department in 2005 against some employees becomes uncertain as no hearing was held in a year regarding petitions filed by the accused with the High Court seeking the cancellation of the cases.
The inquiry committee from Dhaka detected the misappropriation of about Tk 4.5 crore in the head post office in Nilphamari in April 2005.
In this connection, the post master concerned, Torab Ali, filed two cases with the Nilphamari police. Two more supplementary cases were also filed later.
Just after filing the cases, the police arrested all the four accused — assistant post master Nural Islam Munna, ledger operator Ahmedul Islam Raju, and postal operators Tashlim Uddin Ahmed and Liaquat Ali Khan. The bail petitions were repeatedly rejected in the magistrate court in Nilphamari.
The accused later filed miscellaneous cases with the High Court the same year.
The High Court granted them anticipatory bail for six months which was subsequently extended. Now the accused are moving about freely.
The High Court also passed another order staying the proceedings of the two cases filed by the postal authorities.
The accused later filed a quash petition with the High Court, seeking cancellation of the cases against them which they said baseless, false and were meant for harassment.
In connection with the quash petition, the High Court issued ruling to the Nilphamari deputy commissioner on August 12 and 13, 2005 asking him to explain why the cases would not be quashed.
The deputy commissioner also sent his explanation to the solicitor’s wing of the postal department for submission in the High Court.
The court fixed August 20 and 23 to hear the petition. But no hearing was held, as the judges concerned were busy hearing the death references of the top Jamaatul Mujahideen militants.
A high postal official said before starting the proceedings of the main two cases in the magistrates’ court in Nilphamari, the quash petition should be settled first.
There are four such petitions filed separately by the accused with the High Court. The hearing in even one of the four petitions was not held in a year.
The deputy post master general of the Rangpur region, Md Siraj Uddin, quoting the attorney general in Dhaka said new date for hearing in the petitions would be fixed soon.
Lawyers said it would take more than a month to get new dates for hearing as the High Court is on a month’s vacation. The postal officials said the accused were trying to delay the normal course of law by adopting lengthy means.
‘Labourers should fight for welfare’
Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Combined Workers’ Federation president, Mokhlesur Rahman, on Wednesday said the sufferings of labourers had increased and the labourers should initiate movements for their welfare.
The federation was founded four decades ago to establish the rights of the labourers, Mokhlesur said, addressing the projection meeting of the newly elected central committee of the organisation.
The federation works for the welfare of the workers in formal and informal sectors, he sad.
Chaired by Mokhlesur Rahman, the meeting was also addressed by its general secretary Mokaddem Hossain, vice-president Mossadek Hossain Swapan, Amjad Hossain Bhuiyan, and Zulfikar Azad.
Govt fails to solve power crisis: Menon
Staff Correspondent
The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, on Wednesday said the ‘BNP-Jamaat’ alliance government utterly failed to meet the demand for power and to control price increase of essential commodities.
‘We get electricity for two to three hours a day and nobody could confirm when power would come,’ Menon said, addressing the party’s Dhaka city committee meeting held in its central office.
The anti-government movements of the opposition combine led by the Awami League must initiate tougher movements to force the ruling alliance step down, Menon said.
Chaired by the Dhaka city committee secretary, Quamrul Ahsan, the meeting was also addressed by its Tapan Dutta, Dipankar Saha Dipu and Shahinur Rahman Kamol.
The leaders called on the government to take immediate steps to solve the power crisis and to control price increase of essential commodities.
Non-govt pry teachers’
strike begins today
Staff Correspondent
Non-government primary school teachers, agitating for job nationalisation for long, will go on a strike for six days in all the schools across the country today.
‘All the schools will be locked up from today till September 26. A rally will also be held on October 10 at Muktangon in Dhaka,’ said M Shamsul Alam, president of the Bangladesh Non-government Primary School Teachers’ Association, at a briefing at the Central Shaheed Minar on Wednesday.
‘Twelve male and female teachers from six divisions will immolate themselves if our demand is not met,’ he told newsmen.
As part of the agitation programmes, the teachers earlier on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the president, Iajuddin Ahmed.
The teachers have been agitating for the 13 years to push for their demand.
‘It is Khaleda Zia who promised nationalisation of our jobs before the parliamentary elections in 2001. But she did not keep her words,’ he said.
In its election manifesto, the BNP said all the non-government primary schools will be nationalised, Shamsul said.
There are about 76,000 teachers in 19,420 non-government primary schools with about 74 lakh students in Bangladesh.
Shrimper killed
Staff Correspondent . Khulna
The owner of a shrimp enclosure was killed in the Gilatala–Manasa area of Fakirhat in Bagerhat Tuesday night.
The victim was Sheikh Shafiquzzaman, 45, of Shalpabahirdia at Rupsha in Khulna.
The police and the local people said a group of five to six called Shafi out from a tea stall near his house at about 9:00pm.
The assailants slit the throat of Shafi, the police said. The police found the body at the place at about 11:30pm. The police were yet to establish the motive behind the killing.
No case was lodged with the police. No one was arrested till Wednesday afternoon.
1 killed, 3 hurt in road accident
Our Correspondent . Barisal
The driver of a Mishuk was killed and three passengers were injured after a head-on collision with a human hauler on the Barisal–Dhaka Highway at Kasemabad of Gaurnadi in Barisal at about 10:30am on Wednesday.
The driver was Kawsar, 26, and the passengers were Abdus Salam, 31, his son Soikat, 11, of Dhamura at Wazirpur were taken to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
The other passenger, Shanti Pal, 35, was admitted to Gaurnadi upazila health complex.
The police lodged a case against Ibrahim, the driver of the human hauler, who managed to get away, and set the body of the driver for a post-mortem examination. The police seized both the vehicles.
Two cousins drown
Staff Correspondent . Khulna
Two cousins drowned in a pond at Chakuli of Fakirhat in Bagerhat on Tuesday.
The cousins were 20-year-old Nila Shikari, daughter of Mokammel Shikari, and 14-year-old Irani Shikari, daughter of Shawkat Shikari, of Sulaimannagar in Khulna.
Nila was a second-year bachelor’s student of the Azam Khan Commerce College while Irani was student of Class IX of St Xavier School in Khulna.
The family said they drowned in the pond at around 1:00pm as Nila, who was not a good swimmer, had been trying to swim taking her sister Irani on her back.
When they went away from the bank, Nila failed to carry Irani and both of them cried out for help.
Their uncle, Akram Shikari, went to the pond and rescued the girls in a critical condition.
WB reinforces call for power,
gas tariff readjustment
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Dhaka
The World Bank on Wednesday reinforced its call for readjusting power and gas prices in Bangladesh to keep pace with the international tariff to ‘save eventually the national economy attracting investment for dwindling energy sources’.
‘There is no escaping the reality that tariff increases in gas and power will be needed,’ the Breton Wood Institution’s senior energy specialist, Alan F Towndsend, told a briefing of select newsmen at the World Bank’s Dhaka office.
He warned that unless the tariff was readjusted Bangladesh’s energy sector was likely to witness a ‘severe setback’ in the next several years with acute power shortfall for want of gas eventually frustrating the production line and exposing the country to loss of price competitiveness in the international trading, among other predicaments.
Townsend suggested that gas price to be re-fixed at at least $3 per unit and power tariff to be readjusted with at least 35 per cent increased price in line with an international financial analyst firm’s study.
‘The Bangladesh Power Development Board is incurring a loss of about a half of one taka on each transaction as a result of which the state-run organisation is in a severe crisis and has no chance to make a profit, even if operated efficiently,’ he said.
In the gas sector, Townsend said, ‘poor pricing policies’ have contributed to low levels of exploration exposing the ‘gas-rich Bangladesh geology’ to serious gas shortage in the next few years.
‘If gas is not available to fuel new power plants, the country will have to turn to more expensive options like oil and coal,’ he said.
According to the WB official, Bangladesh would eventually need to depend on huge foreign investment for its economy, particularly in the energy sector, while the ‘world’s lowest price’ would discourage entrepreneurs to channel their finance for the sector.
‘There is no doubt that the current gas price won’t encourage exploration of new gas fields,’ he said.
Townsend said foreign investment was needed for Bangladesh to face the crisis as the total donor assistance, including that of the World Bank, would not exceed $1.5 billion, which, he said, was far less than the required amount to promote the energy sector.
The World Bank is set to finance two state-of-art simple-cycle gas turbine peaking power plants in Siddhirganj to add 300mw power to the national grid by 2010.
The project will complement two 120mw similar peaking plants to be financed by the Asian Development Bank to help Bangladesh address its acute power crisis.
Two more criminals killed in ‘crossfire’
Staff Correspondent
Two more suspected criminals were killed in encounters with the police and the Rapid Action Battalion personnel in Dhaka and Chuadanga Tuesday night and early Wednesday raising the ‘crossfire’ death count to 679 since June 2004.
Of them, Raju, reportedly a member of gang of Nasim, was killed in an encounter with the RAB members at West Rampura in the capital city Tuesday night while Shahabul Islam, allegedly wanted in a dozen of cases including six for murders at Alamdanga in Chuadanga early Wednesday.
The battalion said eight to nine members of the gang went to a building construction site on opposite of the Otithee Community Centre at around 8:30pm Tuesday and started abusing Ripon, the owner of the building.
The gang members became annoyed with Ripon as he refused paying tolls to them and handed one of their fellows over to the police earlier.
As the battalion members, who were in disguise of construction workers, challenged them, the gang members opened fire on the law enforcers prompting them to retaliate, which led to a 15-minute gunfight leaving Raju dead on the spot.
Other gang members managed to flee in the dark, the battalion claimed.
In Chuadanga, the police said they arrested Shahabul from Badda in the city on Tuesday and brought to Alamdanga police station for interrogation.
An Alamdanga police team took Shahabul out to his vice den at Hatboalia early Wednesday to seize his arms and arrest his associates.
But Shahabul’s associates opened fire on the team when it neared the den and the law enforcers countered it.
Shahabul was caught in the line of fire when he tried to escape and died on the spot, the police claimed.
EU team talks election
issues with Ctg mayor
United News of Bangladesh . Chittagong
A delegation of the European Union in Chittagong on Wednesday met the city mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, election officials and leaders of the minority communities, and discussed various issues relating to the coming general elections.
During the meeting with the mayor at the City Corporation office, the EU team enquired about the present political situation, election environment, voters’ list and condition of the people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
In reply, the mayor said repression on the minority communities and threats against them continued, and the CHT people were still suffering from a sense of insecurity due to the reluctance of the government in implementing various terms of the CHT peace agreement.
The mayor said incidents of abduction and torture were still continuing in the region as happened during military regimes although the country now has got a civil administration.
Dr Anupom Sen, Prof Anwarul Azim Arif, M Kafiluddin of the Gana Forum and ATM Nizamuddin of the Workers Party, among others, were present at the CCC office.
The delegation also held a 90-minute meeting with Election Union officials and wanted to know about the method of preparing the voters’ list and flaws in publishing election results.
District election officers Amirul Islam and M Dulal Talukder briefed the European Union team.
Bill placed in JS to improve
worker-owner relations
United News of Bangladesh . Dhaka
A bill was introduced Wednesday night in parliament seeking to improve worker-owner relationship, quickly resolve industrial disputes and strengthen trial process in case of violation of labour law.
The state minister for labour and employment, Aman Ullah Aman, introduced the ‘Bangladesh Labour Bill 2006’.
The Awami League lawmaker, Shajahan Khan, objected to the introduction of the bill, but his objection was voted out by roaring ayes.
The draft of the proposed law, containing 354 clauses, was formulated on the basis of complete consensus of Tripartite Labour Law Review Committee.
Stating the objectives of the bill, the state minister said, ‘If the bill is passed, trade-union activities would be conducted properly, both domestic and foreign investments would be encouraged and unemployment would be reduced. The bill would play a far-reaching role in poverty alleviation.’
The bill was sent to the Standing Committee on the Ministry of Labour and Employment for further vetting.
The parliament also passed a bill providing for legitimacy and security as well as the power to formulate rules about relevant issues of information and communication technology.
The ICT minister, Abdul Moyeen Khan, piloted the bill titled, ‘Information and Communication Technology Bill, 2006’, which was passed through voice vote.
Earlier, participating in the discussion, Awami League members Shahjahan Khan, KM Jahangir, Shamsur Rahman Sharif and Mahbubur Rahman proposed eliciting public opinion on the bill, but their motions were rejected through voice vote.
Hearing in gold smuggling case
against Ershad held after 6yrs
Staff Correspondent
An additional metropolitan sessions judges court recorded statements of two more witnesses in the gold smuggling case against the former president HM Ershad on Wednesday, six years after taking the deposition of the last witness.
Five more witnesses have been asked to appear in the court on October 1, court sources said.
Monjurul Basid, judge in-charge of first additional metropolitan sessions court, heard from the two witnesses who told the court that they neither knew nor heard anything about the charge brought against Ershad.
The Jatiya Party chairman, who was accused in the supplementary charge sheet submitted by the Criminal Investigation Department of police for smuggling 3,000 gold bars worth about Tk 2.40 crore, was present at the court with his party men.
Additional public prosecutor Golam Mostafa Khan produced the witnesses — former joint collector of the National Board of Revenue, Fakir Ashraf, and CID arms and explosive assistant, Pandab Chandra Barman.
Mohammad Zakaria, an official of the customs intelligence (VAT), on July 21, 1990 lodged the case with the Cantonment police against two Britons Barnard Rudicard and David Enthian and four officials of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines. The Britons were arrested along with gold from Zia International Airport on July 17.
The Dhaka district and sessions judges’ court on May 14, 1992 sentenced them to different terms of imprisonments with fines as they were found guilty of smuggling.
But the court did not give judgement on Ershad as the High Court had stayed the procedure earlier. The court later on October 15, 1991 framed the charge against Ershad after the High Court vacated the stay.
The first additional metropolitan sessions judge, SM Majibur Rahman, on August 11 issued warrant of arrest against seven people who did not appear in the court.
The witnesses are the former land secretary Mohammad Ali, director general of the Narcotics Control Department Shaiful Islam, joint collector of National Board of Revenue Fakir Ashraf, assistant police commissioner of the Detective Branch MA Baten, assistant police superintendent MJ Mostafa, inspector Sheikh Mohammad Ali Haider of the Criminal Investigation Department and arms and explosive assistant Pandab Chandra Barman.
JMB activist held in Gazipur
Our Correspondent . Gazipur
Gazipur Police on Wednesday arrested a suspected activist of the banned Islamist militant outfit, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, in connection with the series bomb blast on August 17, 2005 in Gazipur.
He was identified as Omar Farukh, 18, a first year student of technical section of Chandana School and College.
Police sources suspected that Omar Farukh had switched on the bomb which was blasted at the Shaheed Minar at Bhawal Badra Alam Government College under Sadar upazila of the district. Farukh is a relative of Nizam Uddin alias Rabi, who led the series of blasts in nine spots of Gazipur on the day.
Farukh, who remained absconding since the blast, was among the 23 persons, including Shaikh Abdur Rahman and Ataur Rahman Sunny, charge-sheeted by Joydevpur police.
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