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Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on Thursday formed a new probe committee to re-investigate the corruption and irregularities detected in the earlier investigations.
   The syndicate of the university formed the five-member new probe committee in its meeting Thursday.
   Vice-Chancellor professor Mohammed Tahir told New Age that the committee was asked to submit its report in two months.
   ‘The new committee has been formed because the earlier committee has recommended a revision of the report before initiating any action,’ he said.
   The committee headed by the director general of health services Dr Shahjahan Biswas while deputy controller of examinations Iftekharul Alam has been made its member secretary. Members are –– BSMMU treasurer Mubin Khan, Dhaka Medical College principal MA Faiz and BSMMU professor of cardiology Dr Sajal Bannerjee.
   Professor Tahir said that the previous investigation report will be handed over to the newly formed committee on Sunday.
   The previous report, submitted on July 28 to the vice chancellor, unearthed large scale nepotism, corruption and irregularities in the recruitment and procurement in the country’s lone medical university since its inception, involving its current administration headed by vice chancellor Prof Tahir.
   The 250-page report made some 80 recommendations, including measures against the offenders.
   The committee members think certain issues should be handled by the Anti-Corruption Commission, and recruitment and promotion of incompetent persons should be cancelled.
   The probe committee report revealed corruption involving taka in crores, including irregularities of around Tk 3 crore in a single case of purchasing Cathlab, an important instrument for heart surgery.
   During the period of the immediate past government (2001-2006), some 3,600 teachers and employees were recruited against 1,600 posts, most of the administrative recruits are still holding key positions.
   ‘Without the involvement of the administration, it would not have been possible to commit such financial corruption and irregularities. The matter was proved during the investigation,’ said one of the members of the committee that did the previous investigation.
   ‘We worked hard to prepare the report. And we want implementation of the recommendations of the report,’ professor Nazrul Islam, chairman of the previous probe committee, told New Age.
   It will make the university clean and people will be afraid to do any corruption in future, he added.

The prison authority has provisionally selected three more buildings in the capital to turn them into special jails for accommodating the high-profile prisoners.
   Deputy inspector-general (prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui said so while briefing newsmen at the Dhaka Central Jail on Thursday, but he added that the proposal is yet to be finalised.
   He said that they had marked out one of the multi-storied NAM buildings, a building at Sher-e-Banglanagar adjacent to the special jail where Sheikh Hasina has been detained since July 16, and the Railway Hospital at Kamalapur.
   Haider said that they had prioritised the NAM flats and the building in Sher-e-Banglanagar because they would be easier to protect.
   ‘If we select the Railway Hospital, then all the employees and patients of the hospital need to be shifted to another place, which may cause serious problems,’ he said.
   ‘We’ll send our proposal to the office of the inspector-general (prisons), and after that it will be submitted to home ministry for final approval,’ he said, adding that some 62 VIP prisoners were now being kept in various prisons across the country.
   Referring to press reports on Sigma Huda’s complaint that the government would be responsible if she died in jail, Haider said that it was not true as the authority had provided her with all types of medical and other facilities since her imprisonment on July 5.
   ‘Sigma Huda, wife of detained former communications minister Nazmul Huda, was brought to the jail on July 5, and she got division (VIP facilities) on July 19, but before that we provided all kinds of facilities that a prisoner with division gets,’ he said.
   Haider said that even Sigma’s private physician, an associate professor of the cardiology department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, was called to conduct her medical check-up and, after doing so, he said that Sigma was okay.
   ‘Every time we send Sigma to the special court by prison van whenever she is summoned, but if she was seriously sick we would have sent her by ambulance,’ he said.
   Dr Selina Parveen, a physician of the jail’s hospital who was present during the session, also said that Sigma was okay.
   ‘However, we’ll send her to a hospital outside the jail for medical check-up again by Sunday or Monday if she wants,’ she said.

The army and fire brigade personnel would officially end their search for bodies in the factory building of Jung Sign Textiles Limited at Dhaka Export Processing Zone under Savar in Dhaka by Thursday night.
   A devastating fire damaged 200 knitting and 100 weaving machines of the Taiwanese textile factory Monday afternoon, trapping more than 50
   workers.
   Most of the workers managed to come out but they claimed that some of their colleagues might still be inside as all the exits had been shut. Rescue workers could not confirm anything either.
   Experts of army engineering corps and members of the fire service and civil defence launched rescue operation immediately after the fire broke out at around 4:30pm on Monday.
   The security officer in-charge of the factory, Abdur Rahman, did not allow newsmen to visit the spot till Thursday afternoon, saying that higher authorities had instructed him to do so.
   The station officer of the DEPZ fire station, Anowar Hossain, told New Age, ‘Although there is no chance of finding any bodies under the rubble but we will continue our operation until clearing the entire rubble of the factory building.’
   An official of DEPZ fire station, Shafiul Alam, told newsmen that thick black smoke was emitting from the wreckage but the army experts and firefighters were removing the rubbles.
   He said 40 firefighters from the Mirpur training camp were brought in to assist three other fire units of Savar and DEPZ fire station to complete rescue operation by Thursday.
   The general manager of BEPZA, Shamsul Hoque, told newsmen, ‘I have seen smoke emitting from the debris but the rescuers could manage to remove all wreckage by Thursday night.’
   ‘The two probe committees formed on Tuesday are expected to submit their reports within one week and they have four more days on their hands,’ he said adding that Jung
   Sign Textiles is also scheduled to submit a final damage
   report to BEPZA by Thursday night.

The arguments in the Tk 2.4 crore bribery case against detained former communications minister Nazmul Huda and his detained wife Sigma Huda will begin on August 7, and in the wealth case against Awami Shechchhasebak League secretary Pankaj Devnath and his wife Monika Devnath on August 8.
   Two separate Special Judge’s Courts fixed the date for hearing the arguments after concluding the recording of the testimony of defence witnesses in the cases on Thursday.
   The cases will be ready for verdict after the completion of the arguments.
   Another court chaired by M Ashraf Hossain on Thursday framed the charge against former minister Shahjahan Siraj’s daughter-in-law Farzana Khan in a tax evasion case.
   She was charged with evasion of Tk 62,66,000 in tax for her wealth amounting to Tk 2,55,66,000.
   The formal trial of the case will start on August 5 with the recording of the testimony of the prosecution witnesses.
   Farzana and Monika are being tried in absentia as they have become fugitives.

A visiting senior IMF executive on Thursday assured Bangladesh of resisting any IMF attempt of imposing policy measure that could affect its economy and the welfare of the people of Bangladesh.
   ‘I’ll resist any attempt by the IMF of imposing measures that will affect Bangladesh,’ visiting IMF executive director for South Asia Adarsh Kishore told reporters, after a meeting with the Bangladesh Bank governor, Salehuddin Ahmed, at his office.
   Earlier, he made a courtesy call on the finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, at his office and exchanged views on the economic policies and management.
   Kishore arrived in Dhaka earlier in the day on a three-day visit to exchange views on economic management as Bangladesh representative in the IMF executive board.
   Kishore told reporters after the meeting with the Bangladesh Bank governor that he was here to hear the authorities in Bangladesh and said the country’s economic management was on the right track.
   ‘The biggest challenge for Bangladesh is bringing budgetary and fiscal policies in order,’ he said.
   In response to newspaper reports on 12 trade bodies’ criticism about the IMF role in Bangladesh’s economic policies, he said: ‘I saw the report. I think, the fears are unfounded.’
   He added that Bangladesh was a sovereign country to take decision on its own.
   ‘No,’ Kishore said, replying to another question whether it is true that the IMF suggestions to raise energy prices and liberalisation of trade are to make Bangladesh products incompetitive both at home and abroad.
   ‘We’ve only given suggestions to the authorities on the trade policies and fiscal policies,’ he added.
   Replying to another question whether the suggestions of raising energy prices simultaneously, if implemented, would put extra price burden on the people, he said: ‘Welfare of the people must be obliged while imposing any measure.’
   After his meeting with the finance adviser, the IMF executive said whatever the IMF might suggest, it was for the authorities in Bangladesh to determine the pace, timing and sequence of reform, and the quantity and quality.
   ‘The final decision of implementation will be in Dhaka and nowhere else.’

Expressing grave concern over the deteriorating floods across the country, political parties on Thursday urged the government to expedite relief programmes immediately to tackle the situation.
   The parties also urged countrymen to work with the government to actively face the crisis.
   In a statement, acting chairman of the Jatiya Party Anisul Islam Mahmud requested the party leaders and workers to stand by the flood-affected people.
   The JP leader urged all to build a national unity to face the natural calamity. The Jatiya Samajtantrik Sramik Jote urged the government to make an all-out effort to protect the victims and property in the flooded areas.
   JSSJ urged the well-to-do people to come forward to help the government in its relief operation in the flood-hit areas.
   The National Awami Party (NAP-Bhasani) also urged people to stand by the flood victims, forgetting all political animosity and misunderstanding.
   The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal urged the government to declare the flood-hit areas as ‘calamity zone’ and supply essential commodities and medicine for the survival of the flood-affected people.
   The Samajtantrik Chhatra Front in a statement also expressed concern over the aggravating flood situation.

The Turkish government has provided $100,000 assistance to the victims of the devastating landslide that had recently occurred in Chittagong.
   The cheque for the amount written to the ‘Chief Adviser’s Relief and Welfare Fund’ was forwarded by the Turkish embassy to the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, through the ministry of foreign affairs.
   Ambassador Ergin said in conformity with the spirit of existing deep rooted fraternal relations between the governments and people of two countries, his government extended the assistance as the continuation of his government’s contribution to the relief efforts of the Bangladesh government for alleviating the sufferings of the victims.
   The ambassador also said the Turkish government had similarly provided $100,000 during floods in 2004.

The Anti-Corruption Commi-ssion on Thursday seized a power generator of the Chittagong City Corporation which was illegally used at the house of the mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
   A commission team, led by deputy director Arif Siddique, found the generator during a search of the house at Chasma Hill to establish the authenticity of the wealth statement submitted by the mayor.
   The team interrogated the corporation’s chief executive officer Imtiaz Hossain regarding the unauthorised use of the generator. No other thing was seized from the house, sources said.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Mohiuddin Chowdhury at his house on March 7 on charge of his involvement in corruption.

A teenaged boy’s presence of mind averted a train accident on the Dhaka-Chittagong route at Chanpur in Comilla on Thursday.
   Rakibul Hasan, a Class X student, went on a boat to the area to cut grass from beside the railway.
   At this time, a man showed him a nearly one-foot gap in the railway due to displacement of the welded joint and expressed the fear that an accident might happen any moment.
   Rakib then promptly informed the matter to an employee of Paduar Bazar level crossing and returned to the spot.
   Seeing the arrival of a Noakhali-bound 712 down inter-city train, Upakul, coming from capital, the boy took off his red ganjee (vest) and waved it in front signaling the train to stop at about 11:15am.
   The driver saw the red signal and stopped the train to escape a certain accident.
   After the railway was repaired at about 1:45pm, the train resumed journey towards its destination with nearly 1,000 grateful passengers who owed their safety to the teenaged boy.

The National Board of Revenue is still in dilemma over accepting the back taxes of former prime minister Khaleda and her government’s finance minister M Saifur Rahman, who has once reigned supreme over this revenue authority.
   The NBR high-ups at an emergency board meeting on Thursday failed to reach a decision whether to accept or refuse the paid tax on undeclared money or wealth of the two former bigwigs of the 4-party alliance government.
   Meeting sources told the news agency that they would sit Sunday again to discuss the matter and make a decision, on which depends in a large part the two former government leaders’ effort to take a clean chit from the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   But, after the meeting, the NBR chairman, Baidur Rahman, declined to say anything to the newsmen in this regard.
   On July 31, Khaleda paid more than Tk 33 lakh while Saifur paid over Tk 30 lakh as back taxes to get legalised their untaxed money under a government amnesty for the holders of undisclosed money, earned through legal means. The tax-dodgers can have their money authenticated with 5 per cent penalty apart from usual tax.
   Sources close to Saifur confirmed that the former custodian of state exchequer might take to law if the NBR declined to accept his tax.
   On Wednesday, the NBR chairman told reporters that they would not legalise Khaleda’s undeclared money as she did not pay the tax on NBR’s prescribed form. He pointed out that Khaleda did not use the income-tax return form in paying the tax.
   Khaleda and Saifur both paid the tax for their undeclared money through the Bangladesh Bank.
   Meanwhile, the NBR at the emergency board meeting decided to file tax-evasion cases against five delinquents. The national revenue-collecting agency already has filed tax-dodging cases against 11 persons.
   Talking to the news agency, Tax Ombudsman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury refused to say anything about the tax payment of Khaleda and Saifur. But, in general, he said as per provision of the NBR-related laws the NBR had to take the money if any taxpayer wants to pay his tax.
   ‘It’s the income-tax return where the NBR has to say something —like paid tax little or the taxpayer gave more tax,’ said the arbiter in matters of taxes.
   About the tax return of previous years, he said the taxpayer could give the tax showing his/her wealth in the revised return form. ‘There is no problem about it.’
   About any inconsistency in the income tax return, he mentioned that NBR could re-assess the wealth if they thought so.

The finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, on Thursday said the government would import more food, if necessary, to face the possible challenges of further price-hike of essentials due to flood.
   ‘There’ll be no hesitation if financial support is needed,’ he told reporters at the ministry of finance, replying to a question about his plan to face the challenges of soaring prices.
   There are apprehensions that the current flooding across the country will cause further rise of prices of essentials.
   According to the Bangladesh Bank, the rate of inflation on yearly average already rose to 7.20 per cent at the end of the last fiscal year while it rose to record highest at 9.20 per cent in June this year on point-to-point basis.
   The finance adviser said the ministry of food and disaster management was looking into the issue and there was no supply shortage of food at present as the chief adviser had already announced.
   ‘We’ll import more food, if necessary,’ said the adviser, who is also in charge of commerce ministry. There is nothing to be scared of, he added.
   Replying to another question, he said the government would examine the inter-linkage of impacts before raising the prices of fuel oil, electricity and gas now under the government plan.
   ‘The government didn’t make any decision in this regard,’ he said, adding that the government would also have to consider how the difference of an item, say fertiliser, between the import price and the domestic price could be met.
   He said the price of fertiliser had recently increased in the international market.

Top leaders of four leftist parties on Thursday criticised the present reform measures undertaken by the caretaker government.
   ‘The government has to get to the bottom of corruption to wipe it out,’ said Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Worker’s Party.
   ‘It’s not possible to stop looting and corruption in a free-market economy,’ he said.
   Menon was accompanied by leaders of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Workers Party and Samyabadi Dal, who voiced similar complaints against the government’s reform plans.
   The delegation spoke to reporters at Zia International Airport on Thursday, after their 11-day visit to China.
   The leaders asked the government to ignore prescriptions by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and to go for more comprehensive reforms that will yield better results for the country.
   The 16-member delegation held meetings with senior officials from the Chinese foreign ministry and other agencies in China.
   During their stay, the delegation travelled to the Chinese province of Ningzia and visited Islamic institutions in the capital, Inchuan.

The country’s second largest Bibiyana gas field is ready to increase its gas production to 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from September this year, double the 300 mmcfd at present.
   Steve N Wilson, new president of Chevron Bangladesh, disclosed this at an introductory meeting with local journalists at a city restaurant on Thursday.
   The external affairs director of Chevron Bangladesh, Naser Ahmed, was present.
   Chevron, the US-based international oil company, has developed the Bibiyana gas field that began gas production from March this year.
   Energy industry insiders believe that such a major disclosure from Chevron about 600 mmcfd production would play a vital role in removing the prevailing concerns about the gas availability to serve the country’s future huge power plants planned by the government to address the nagging power crisis.