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River vessels especially passengers’ launches are still plying different routes violating the safety rules during the nor’wester season which increased the risk of accidents on waterways.
   Though the shipping ministry, shipping department and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority have taken some precautionary measures to avoid the risk of accidents during the period from April 15 to July 31, vessel owners are not paying heed to the instructions, sources in the terminals and surveyors said.
   The shipping department which keeps watch round the clock to check vessels during its ongoing drive found a number of errant vessels and cancelled route permit of 15 vessels in the last 15 days till Sunday, sources in the department said.
   The officials found that most of the captains were not appointed as per proper grading system and the vessels not built as per the plan approved by the authority.
   The shipping secretary Sheikh Enayet Ullah, the shipping department director general AKM Shafiqullah and the BIWTA chairman Sunil Bose also took part in Sunday’s drive and found that the vessels were violating the instructions given by the ministry on April 10 to avoid accidents.
   The authority so far cancelled the route permit of 15 vessels, including MV Gowree of Shreenagar-2, MV-Patarhat-5, MV-Shahnur, MV-Karnaphuli-3, MV-Al Arafat, MV Shaikat-8, MV Shaikat-2, MV Reaz-7, MV-Dweepraj, MV- Jalpalanka, MV-Upakul and MV-Jamal-2.
   ‘We had conducted the drive in the last 15 days and cancelled the route permit of 15 vessels after stopping their journey,’ Shafiqullah told New Age on Monday.
   ‘If the vessel owners only follow the integrated safety and operational measures during the nor’wester, it will be possible to reduce the accidents in a large scale.’
   The DG also said that the authority would continue the drive and take punitive measures against any errant vessels.
   A mobile court on Monday found three more errant vessels at Sadarghat terminal and realised Tk 45,000 in fines from the vessel owners. It also detained a captain during the drive but released him after three hours, sources in the terminal said.
   Sources in the BIWTA said that 3,597 people were killed in 385 accidents in the country since 1964 and most of the accidents took place during the nor’wester season.

Economists, academics and activists said the proposed budget lacks political vision and was biased towards the primacy of the private sector as there is nothing new other than changes of a few figures for different sectors.
   They made the observations at a seminar on budget, trade and investment, held on Monday. They also pointed out that the budget was based on the World Bank prescribed poverty reduction strategy paper, which is actually structural adjustment plan in another guise.
   Anu Muhammad, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, said referring to the oft-repeated tax to GDP ratio, ‘One should also analyse the ratio tax to services.’ He said the government was becoming increasingly reluctant to provide necessary services.
   The finance adviser in the proposed budget said that private sector participation at different levels of health services is needed and where areas were the private sector is more efficient would be leased out on management contract basis.
   ‘If the government does not provide essential services such as medical services why should the citizens pay taxes?’ questioned Anu.
   Monower Mostafa, a researcher for Unnayan Onneshan, a research organisation, said the budget must be discussed with its politics in perspective. That is where one must look into in order to be able to ascertain its objective. There had been no substantial changes in the structure of the budget, but the allocations had changed a bit, he said.
   MM Akash, a professor of economics at the Dhaka University, pointed out the motivations of the political quarters that had brought about the current regime. He also explained it was the political vision of those quarters that would be eventually upheld in the budget.
   The government would be obliged to fulfil the agenda of multilateral lending agencies by liberalising the different public sectors, including the financial sector, he said.
   Economist Salimullah Khan said every year three million people entered the labour market. But the budget did not provide any details about how many people would get employment through its huge expenditure of Tk 87,137 crore. He also said that inflation would continue unabated due to the large budget deficit and referred to the phenomenon of stagflation.
   The seminar was organised by Voice and Action Aid. Ahmed Swapan Mahmud moderated the session.

The Detective Branch of the police has traced the gang who were reportedly involved in the killing of HM Arefin Alam Rusho, son of a couple who are both army officials, in front of a private bank on Satmasjid Road in Dhanmondi on May 24. This information was disclosed on Monday.
   The police arrested one of the gangsters, Sirajul Islam Siraj, from Gosairhat in Shariatpur on June 3, and he has already made his confessional statement to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka on Sunday.
   Siraj, along with his five associates, followed Rusho — son of Lieutenant Colonel Dr Shafiqul Alam, a neurosurgeon at the Dhaka Combined Military Hospital, and Lt Col Dr Ambori of Comilla CMH — when he, along with his future father-in-law Joynal Abedin, emerged from the National Credit and Commerce Bank Ltd’s Dhanmondi branch after withdrawing over Tk 4.50 lakh at about 11:45am on May 24.
   They shot Rusho in his head from close range when he tried to resist them, and decamped with the money taken from Joynal Abedin.
   Rusho was taken to the nearby Bangladesh Medical College Hospital where the attending doctors declared him dead.
   After the gruesome the incident, different sections of the police and other law enforcing agencies launched a massive manhunt for the culprits, and set up check-posts all over the city, but failed to trace any of them.
   In his statement to the court, Siraj said that he went into hiding in his village home at Gosairhat after the incident, and his associates also left the capital for shelter he same day.
   They also hid the motorbike, which they had used for the robbery, in Savar from where the police seized it on Saturday.
   After the confessional statement, the police took Siraj into their custody on a three-day remand again on Sunday. The police are now hunting for the other gangsters.

Arguments in the case against former state minister Amanullah Aman and his wife Sabera Aman start today, as Aman has decided not to bring any defence witness to the court.
   After the hearing of arguments, the case will be ready for verdict.
   M Firoz Alam, judge of the special judge’s court-1 of Dhaka, set the date for arguments, as Aman’s counsel SM Shahjahan told the court on Monday that they would not bring any defence witness.
   On June 7, the court fixed Monday for recording testimonies of defence witnesses after Aman and Sabera had told the court that they would bring witnesses to defend their case.
   The court framed charges against the couple on May 16 and examined them on June 7 after 23 prosecution witnesses including the complainant, Anti-Corruption Commission deputy director Abdullah-Al Zahid, had testified against them.
   Aman was charged with submitting false wealth statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission, which is punishable with imprisonment for three years or with fine or both under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act and with imprisonment for three to five years or with fine or both under the Emergency Powers Rules.
   He was also charged with possessing wealth of Tk 9,94,63,761, which is beyond his known sources of income, and for amassing huge assets and money by abusing power when he was a state minister.
   The offence is punishable with imprisonment for three to ten years and with fine and confiscation of property under the ACC Act and with imprisonment for up to seven years or with fine or both under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
   Sabera was charged with abetting her husband as she kept property worth Tk 6,62,88,752 in her own name in order to save her husband from the charge of owning assets disproportionate to his income.
   If the charges are proved to be true, she will be handed the same punishment that her husband may be awarded.
   Special judge’s court-1, chaired by AK Roy, continued recording testimony of the investigation officer, ACC deputy director Sharmin Ferdousi, in the case against former state minister Mir Nasir Uddin and his son Mir Helal Uddin on similar charges.
   Another court of Shahed Nooruddin continued recording testimonies of prosecution witnesses in the case against Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir on similar charges.

A roundtable in Dhaka on Monday called for implementing the recently formulated condition of the Election Commission to allocate 33 per cent posts for women in all committees of a political party.
   ‘The proposal has created a unique opportunity to empower women in political parties by inducting considerable
   number female members in all committees of a political party,’ they said.
   The EC has set the condition on the ground that women are playing a significant role in political activities, including meetings, processions and rallies but their leadership was not proportionately reflected in the organisation, opined the speakers at the roundtable.
   The roundtable on ‘political empowerment of women’ was organised by Jatiya Kanya
   Shishu Advocacy Forum and Sujan, an NGO, at the National Press Club.
   Sujan president and noted economist Professor Muzzafar Ahmed, general secretary Dr Bodiul Alam Mojumder, litterateur and columnist Syed Abul Maksud, Dr Zafar Ullah Chowdhury, Justice Kazi Ebadul Haque, former lawmaker GM Kader, Maleka Begum and Hajera Begum, among others, spoke on the occasion.
   The roundtable was conducted by veteran women’s rights movement leader Maleka Begum.
   They said women empowerment was necessary for economic and social development of the country. The speakers also underlined the importance of providing security to the women, who constitute half of the total population, in their workplaces. They also called for establishing the rights and privileges of the underprivileged and neglected women in society.
   ‘A meaningful representation of women in parliament should be ensured for bringing qualitative changes of women in society,’ they added.

The World Day against Child Labour will be observed in the country today as elsewhere across the glove.
   This year the Day will focus on the elimination of child labour from the country’s agricultural sector.
   Different organisations have chalked out programmes, including discussion, to mark the Day.
   The Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum organised a news conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Monday to brief on the child lobour in the country.
   Citing the national child labour survey (2002-2003) conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the BSAF officials said there are over 4.23 crore children aged between five and 17 in the country and 31.79 of them are engaged in different forms of labour.
   Of the total child labour, 7.08 lakh are engaged in urban areas and 24.71 lakh are in rural areas, the forum officials said adding 12.91 lakh are engaged in risky labour both in urban (3.87 lakh) and rural (9.04 lakh) areas.
   Regarding the statistics of child labour in the agricultural sector, BASF chairperson Wahida Banu said, ‘Currently we have no statistics about the number of child labourers in agricultural sector.
   ASM Mahmud, project coordinator, BSAF presented a paper on child labour and gave the aforesaid data.
    The BASF officials stressed the need for a political commitment to eliminate worst form of child labour from the country.
   The worst forms of child labour include working in wielding workshops, helper of tempo or human haulers, bidi factory, bedding store, tannery industries, battery factory and others, they said.

The Awami League’s president, Sheikh Hasina, will go to Tungipara today on a two-day visit.
   She is scheduled to leave Dhaka in the morning at about 9:00am and will return to the capital on Wednesday night, said party insiders.
   ‘During the visit the AL president will offer Fateha at the grave of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and will take part in a milad mefil at Tungipara,’ Hasina’s special personal secretary, Hasan Mahmud, told New Age on Monday.
   Hasina had to cancel her earlier visit, scheduled for May 30, due to the crisis caused by the arrest of Abdul Jalil, the party’s general secretary.

Foreign affairs adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury left Dhaka on Monday for Canberra to discuss matters of common interests with his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer, officials said.
   During the three-day official visit, he would also meet speaker of Australia’s House of Representatives David Hawker and take part in a roundtable discussion with members of Australia-Bangladesh Parliamentary Group.
   He is also expected to deliver a lecture at the Australian National University on ‘Evolving Challenges for Bangladesh in South Asia.’ He is scheduled to attend a briefing on Bangladesh operations of AusAid, the official development cooperation agency of the country.
   The foreign adviser hoped the visit would help strengthen the bilateral relations.
   ‘I believe we should have more academic exchanges. Australia can be an important source of support for information and communication technology training,’ he told the media prior to his departure.

Germany has provided 110,000 euro to non-governmental organisations in Bangladesh as grant for commissioning 17 development projects on public health, care of the disabled and education.
   The German embassy in Dhaka has released the grants for the implementation of small-scale projects by November this year, said a press release issued on Monday.
   The grants will be used to implement the projects, including construction of vocational training centres for adults and adolescents as well as a bakery for vocational training of children with disability.
   The grants will also be used for development of underprivileged groups in urban and rural communities through sanitation and income generating projects like chicken hatcheries and pig-rearing.
   The ‘small-scale project’ focuses on purchase of medical equipment for a hospital which tends to patients with diabetic related diseases.
   The project is a standing programme of the German embassy providing support to new project proposals without time-consuming administrative procedures, the release said, adding that preference is generally given to proposals which are ready for immediate implementation.

The government has appointed an army officer as managing director of a state-owned medicine company and given postings to two officers on special duty.
   Colonel Mehbubul Haq has been made managing director of Essential Drug Company Limited on a deputation.
   Additional secretary SMA Mannan, who was made OSD earlier, has been posted as director of a government employees’ housing project. Joint secretary AKM Amir Hossain, also an OSD, has been made director of registered primary schools’ development project under the primary and mass education ministry.
   The appointment and postings were announced through separate gazette notifications issued by establishment ministry on Monday.

Inclement weather on Monday prevented most of the local people from visiting the voter registration centres to have their photographs and fingerprints taken for the inclusion in the electoral roll.
   Some 515 eligible voters, in the last two days till Monday afternoon, visited five centres set up in the municipal area, and had their fingerprints and photographs taken for being registered as voters.
   A total of 1,401 filled up the forms that were submitted for data entry on Monday.
   Most of the people who were expected to visit the registration centres on the second day of the project
   could not turn up due to the rain and water-logging, said an official who is involved in the project.
   The officials, however, expected that attendance will increase as soon as the weather turns normal.
   The EC launched the pilot project in Sreepur municipality of Gazipur district on Sunday amidst almost incessant downpour.
   The pilot project will run for three weeks and will cover some 45,000 eligible voters to gather field-level experience before finalising the methods of simultaneously preparing the national identity cards and voters’ roll with photographs.
   Enumerators, most of whom happen to be local school-teachers, went on door-to-door visits and distributed 3,266 voter registration forms till Monday. The local people have been asked to visit the registration centres to have their photographs and fingerprints taken for the inclusion in voters’ roll and getting national ID cards.
   Five centres have been set up initially to prepare the list under the pilot project. A total of 24 laptops are being used to carry out the task.
   Besides, 145 enumerators are engaged in distribution of voter information forms and collection of data.

A Comilla resident on Monday filed an extortion case against former minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and 11 other BNP leaders.
   Businessman Mohammad Ibrahim of village Kolakandi under Titas upazila filed the case with a cognisance court.
   Magistrate Selina Parvez asked the Titas upazila officer-in-charge for taking legal action after a proper investigation.
   According to case details, Ibrahim alleged that co-accused Raja Mia and Abdul Haque demanded Tk 1 lakh as toll from him in 2003 after they were assigned by the former health minister.
   He said he had paid Tk 40,000 in the first instalment and promised Mosharraf over telephone to pay the rest amount.
   According to allegations, the accused created pressure on Ibrahim, forcing him to leave the area.
   Joint forces arrested Mosharraf at his Gulshan home in Dhaka on March 7. He faces three other extortion cases — all filed with different police stations in Comilla.

The police seized 200 rounds of bullet found in two bags at Uttara in the Dhaka city Monday morning.
   Acting on a tip-off, a team of the Uttara police recovered the two abandoned bags from an open place at Sector 3, Road 13 in Uttara at around 7:30am.
   Later, they opened the bags and found 200 rounds of bullet of shotgun, the police said.
   The bullets were made in Sri Lanka as SBL-12 and CGE-Sri Lanka was inscribed on the shells of bullets, Dulal, an assistant sub-inspector of the Uttara police station, told New Age.

The police on Monday submitted charge-sheet to chief metropolitan magistrate’s court of Dhaka, implicating businessman Salman F Rahman in a Tk 4.56 lakh fraud case.
   Akamatullah, a former foreign ministry official, on April 1, lodged the case with the New Market police against Salman, also political adviser to Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, claiming that his two daughters paid the amount for two plots of Sun City 3, a project of Shinepukur Housing owned by Salman.
   ‘The company promised to hand the plots over by mid-2002, but it failed,’ said Monirul Islam, investigation officer of the case.
    Salman was arrested on February 4 and jailed under the Emergency Powers Rules. He was among the corruption suspects listed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Criminal Investigation Department police arrested a ward commissioner at the city’s Malibagh area on Monday for his suspected involvement in the killing of the headmistress of Siddheswari Girls’ School and her only daughter in 2004.
   A CID police team picked up Ariful Islam Arif, commissioner of Dhaka city ward No 53, from his Malibagh residence at about 7:00pm. The headmistress Sabera Begum and her daughter Sharmeen Sultana Shampa, were hacked to death at their Baridhara residence on December 16.