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The West Coast University of Panama has been offering bachelor’s courses at two centres in Khulna and one in Dhaka without the approval of the education ministry or the University Grants Commission.
   The courses are in electrical and electronic engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and architecture.
   ‘Our centres are running under the Dhaka-based AMDA Foundation and we do not need approval from the education ministry or the UGC,’ claimed M Akbor Hossain, chairman of the foundation.
   ‘Getting licence from the West Coast University authorities we have been enrolling students in four undergraduate courses since December 2006 and the classes started on February 19,’ the admission officer at the institute’s Shantinagar head office, Aftab Hossain, told New Age on Thursday.
   ‘We will also launch a post graduate course in business administration in October,’ said the institute’s information executive, Sharmin Aktar.
   According to the Private University (Amendment) Act, 1998, no private university can be established or run, no undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma or certificate course can be run, and no degree, diploma or certificate can be provided in Bangladesh by any foreign university without due authentication and/or certification from the government.
   The UGC is the country’s sole regulatory body that gives approval for running any tertiary educational institute, whether private or public.
   In response to a query of the education ministry about the West Coast University’s centres in Bangladesh, the commission in a letter to an assistant secretary to the ministry, Hafiz Ahmed, on March 21 urged the government to take the necessary steps to close down the centres.
   ‘The Bangladesh centre/ Khulna campus of the West Coast University, Panama is running illegally,’ ruled the letter signed by the UGC director of Private University Division.
   ‘In the name of running study centres, the authorities of AMDA Foundation have started selling certificates,’ said the UGC chairman, Professor M Asaduzzaman.
   Earlier, the UGC published a notice in various newspapers, warning against launching educational courses by any private university or institution without getting approval from the commission first.

Speakers at a function on Tuesday stressed the need for reserving 10 per cent quota in services for 1.64 crore persons with disability in the country.
   They made this observation while addressing the quarterly national councillors’ conference of grassroots level disabled persons organised by the National Grassroots Disability Federation in collaboration with the Action on Disability and Development at its auditorium in Banani, Dhaka.
   The federation organised the conference, with the federation president Akter Hossain in the chair, on the eve of the National Disability Day today with the call for inclusion of the disabled people in the national decisive bodies working for their welfare. Some 104 councillors representing 52 organisations run by the disabled participated in the council.
   The Manusher Jonno Foundation’s executive director, Shahin Anam, said ‘Bangladesh is in fact a single country comprising people of many languages, religion and culture.’
   The National Pratibandhi Foundation deputy director, Salma Nasreen, said ‘The confidence of disabled people had proved that they are not in fact disabled, however, our approach to humanity is disabled.’
   The ADD’s country representative, Mosharraf Hossain said ‘Repression on the disabled is still continuing, though their dignity has been increased.’
   The daily Prothom Alo deputy editor, Anisul Huq, demanded elimination of the discrimination against the disabled in both private and public sectors.
   A councillor, Julekha Akter demanded their representation in the policy-making bodies working with the issues of the disabled.
   Ibrahim Hossain called for cancelling the rules about disability introduced in 2001 as it had not protected the rights of the disabled people. He stressed the ratification of UN Convention, adopted on December 13, 2006, on the rights of persons with disabilities.
   The Naripratibandhi Parishad’s chairperson Umme Kulsum Ranjana felt the need of establishing a rights-based society for the welfare of people physically handicapped as well as the entire nation.
   The general secretary of the federation, Habibur Rahman, also spoke on the occasion.

A Chittagong mobile court on Tuesday realised Tk 1.2 lakh in fines from 24 vehicles on charge of causing environmental pollution by emitting black smoke.
   The court, led by special metropolitan magistrate Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, fined the vehicles, including buses, trucks, lorries and human haulers, while conducting the drive at Bahadderhat area in the city.
   The court also seized one and a half tonnes of coconut oil from the Jams Packers Limited at Mazirghat area in the city as the company was selling the oil without purification.
   Our Barisal correspondent reported that a mobile court on Tuesday fined six diagnostic centres, clinics and pathological labs in the city Tk 3.35 lakh and sealed off an x-ray centre.
   Another mobile court fined a shoe store Tk 30,000 and collected VAT amounting to Tk 1.72 lakh from the store.
   Shuva Diagnostic Lab was fined Tk 1 lakh for not taking permission from the environment department, non-payment of VAT and using unskilled technicians, Sheba Clinic Tk 1 lakh for enhancing seats without permission and unhygienic condition, Medinet Diagnostic Centre Tk 50,000, Lab Star Diagnostic Centre Tk 30,000 and Jonaki X-ray and Pathological Centre Tk 15,000 for different irregularities including lack of documents and non-payment of VAT and tax.
   The mobile court also sealed off Barisal X-ray for operating it in unhygienic environment.
   Another mobile court collected VAT of Tk 1.72 lakh from Kohinoor Shoe House on Chawkbazar Road of the city and fined it Tk 30,000.
   The mobile court drives were led by magistrate Munim Hasan, magistrate Shariaz.

As many as 137 plots out of 170 allotted for setting up CNG filling stations have been lying vacant for the last four years.
   Although contrary to the rules, the allottees have the plots in their possession on one pretext or the other. The rules, however, require that an allottee must set up a filling station within six months of the allotment.
   In the four years since the communications ministry allotted 170 plots for setting up the CNG stations on government lands in 2003, only 24 have been built.
   Meanwhile, the allotment of six plots has been cancelled. Three plots could not be handed over because of complexities surrounding land demarcation.
   The allottees, most of them leaders of the immediate-past government, are occupying the 137 plots worth Tk 550 crore.
   Among those who got allotment are: former adviser to the commerce ministry Barkatullah Bulu, former MP GM Siraj, former MP Salahuddin Ahmed, former MP Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, former MP Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee, Mofiqul Hasan Tripti, former MP Helen Jerin Khan, Monirul Huq Chowdhury, Monowar Hossain Dipjal, former JCD leader Shahabuddin Laltu and JSSS leader Rezabuddowla Chowdhury.
   Communications secretary Mahbubur Rahman told bdnews24.com last week that an order had already been issued for preparing a list of the plots where filling stations had not been set up. The allotment of plots lying vacant without any proper reason will be cancelled, he said.
   The past BNP government allotted the lands for building CNG filling stations and conversion plants to reduce the use of fossil fuel without inviting applications from the members of public for such allotment.
   This breach of rules allowed some quarters close to the government to have allotment of a number of plots before others could get any intimation of it.
   Because of the various faults, the Roads and Highways Department cancelled the allotment of six plots. But Bangladesh Railway could not cancel any allotment although similar faults existed in case of most plots.

Several hundred families in Chittagong become homeless every year due to erosion of the rivers Karnaphuli, Halda and Shankha.
   Sources in the Water Development Board said they submitted three projects involving Tk 110 crore to check erosion of the rivers. They were uncertain about the fate of the projects as the ministry had not responded to their repeated queries in this regard, the sources added.
   The board submitted a project involving Tk 40.37 crore to the water resources ministry in August 2002 to tame erosion of the river Halda which devours a number of dwelling houses at Narayanhat, Mirzarhat, Bhozpur, Kumbarpara and Rosangiri areas in Fatikchari upazila every year.
   One more project involving Tk 19 crore was placed in 2003 to check erosion of the river Shankha while another project involving Tk 50 crore was submitted in the same year to stop erosion of the Karnaphuli.
   Several thousand families at Banskhali, Chandanaish, Satkania and Fatikchari upazilas rendered homeless during the past five years due to the erosion of the rivers which could have been avoided through implementation of the projects, said an official of the WDB.
   The government spends more than Tk 2 crore a year to protect land from river erosion, the WDB official said, adding that the implementation of the projects was a must to stop the erosion permanently.

The Public Service Commission needs to modernise its recruitment, selection and assessment systems with a special emphasis on IT and English language to pick up competent candidates, experts told a roundtable on Tuesday.
   The roundtable, titled ‘Role and Capacity of the Public Service Commission’, was jointly organised by the Ministry of Establishment and the United Nation Development Programme at the BCS (Admin) Academy.
   Dr M Abul Kashem Mozumder presented a sharing draft study report on the topic at the roundtable chaired by PSC Secretary Md Abdus Sattar.
   The report focused specifically on the PSC as the central recruitment agency and its current and potential functions in human resource development.
   Dr Mozumder said the reputation of the PSC as an independent body has significantly been undermined over the years and there is a resistance within the PSC itself to reform it.
   Establishment secretary Md Abdus Salam Khan addressed the roundtable as chief guest while BPATC Rector Abu Md Maniruzzaman Khan and UNDP Country Director Manoj Basnyet as special guests. About the candidates of the 27th BCS examinations, the Establishment Secretary said steps might be taken against them if the allegations brought against them are proved.

Students of Dhaka Engi-neering and Technology University on Monday faxed a memorandum to the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, demanding reopening of the institution and punishment for six students responsible for its closure.
   The memorandum also demanded punishment for the vice-chancellor and the officials concerned.
   Earlier on March 26, the activists of Chhatra League and Chhatra Shibir attacked the general students and some teachers over a cricket match organised to mark the Independence Day.
   After the attack, the DUET authorities closed the university and asked students to vacate the halls of residence within the next day.

Acute shortage of first class magistrates in Barisal is seriously hampering the activities in lower courts and mobile courts as well as local administrations.
   Sources in the district administration said nine posts of first class magistrates out of 10 have been lying vacant in the 10 upazila magistrate courts of the district for long. More than 900 cases are pending with the courts for trial, they said.
   Munim Hasan, the only first class magistrate, is also in charge of revenue deputy collector of the district.
   The sources said there is an urgent need for first class magistrates to run the cognizance courts, trial under speedy trial act, record confessional and death statements of the accused and witnesses and to operate mobile court drives against adulterated food items.
   Manzur Elahi, the deputy commissioner and district magistrate of Barisal, acknowledging the fact said that he had informed the higher authorities of giving immediate postings of at least four magistrates. ‘I have yet to get any reply,’ he said.

A Barisal court on Tuesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping a schoolgirl about six years back.
   The convict — Sabuj Kha, 26 — was also fined Tk 30,000. In default, he will have to suffer one more year imprisonment.
   Besides, the court acquitted other three accused — Masud Kazi, Manju Kazi and Babul Majhi — of the charge as the prosecution failed to prove the allegations against them. All the accused were tried in absentia.
   According to the prosecution, the accused led by Sabuj Kha, of Khontakhali village, entered the house of the victim at Desh Khakkata village
   of the Chanpura union under Mehendiganj upazila on April 18, 2001 and abducted the schoolgirl.
   They later took the girl to a nearby betel-nut garden and raped her. After hearing the scream, the family members with villagers went to the spot, but the rapists had managed to flee.
   The victim filed a rape case with the Mehendiganj police station the following day against four people, including Sabuj. Sub-inspector Siddiqur Rahman submitted charge sheet on July 15, 2001.
   After examining eight witnesses and other evidences, Judge Belayet Hussein handed down the verdict in the absence of all the accused.

Rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at a few places over Sylhet division and at one or two places over Rajshahi and Dhaka divisions and the regions of Jessore, Kushtia, Noakhali and Comilla in the next 24 hours till 6pm today, according to the Met Office on Tuesday.
   Weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country. Prevailing mild to moderate heat wave over Khulna division and the regions of Rajshahi, Bogra and Ishwardi may continue.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.
   Country’s highest temperature 38.4 degree Celsius was recorded on Tuesday at Ishwardi and lowest at 19.5 degrees at Sylhet.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6.15 pm and rises tomorrow at 5:47am.

DU cricket fans burn Bashar in effigy
The cricket fans at the University of Dhaka burnt Bangladesh cricket team captain in effigy on Tuesday and demanded his resignation for his failure in the last two matches of second round of World Cup Cricket. Around 30 students of different departments of the DU gathered on the campus and burnt Habibul Bashar in effigy, witnesses said. The students said Basher is no more capable to lead the Bangladesh cricket team as he failed to guide the team.

One burnt to
death in Ctg
A boy was burnt to death in a fire in Baizid Bostami area of Chittagong Monday night. The fire service officials said the fire broke out at a house from an electric short-circuit at around 10:05pm and engulfed the adjacent establishments. An unidentified boy got trapped inside one establishment and was burnt alive during the incident when a fire fighter, Jakir Hossain, was injured. Seven fire fighting units rushed to the spot and doused the blaze at 11:45pm, however, assets worth Tk 10 lakh were burnt, the sources added.
— New Age