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Noakhali Science and Technology University was closed sine die Saturday, following a volatile situation on the campus.
   The university authorities have also asked the students to vacate the dormitories by 8:00am on the day.
   Campus sources said the students confined five teachers who went to the male dormitory for inspection Friday night. The authorities later informed the local administration of the matter.
   A police team, led by a magistrate, entered the hall breaking open the main gate and rescued the confined teachers.
   A notice, issued at about 3:00am on Saturday under the signature of acting registrar of the university and sent to the halls, postponed all classes and examinations of the university for indefinite period due to unavoidable reasons.
   It also asked all male and female students to leave their halls.
   The students of the male dormitory alleged that five students were injured as the police charged batons during the drive in the hall Friday night.
   Earlier, the students had been agitating since June 14, demanding reduction of ‘high’ fees charged by the university under various heads. They resorted to different programmes, including processions and token hunger strikes, to realise their demand, but to no avail.
   When contacted, vice-chancellor of the university Dr Abul Khayer said the fees were higher than other universities as ‘we provide better facilities’.
   He, however, said the demands would be considered after discussion with the teachers and students.
   The classes for the first year students of the university were scheduled to start on Saturday. At present, about 360 students are studying at the university.

A University Grants Commission committee began work on Saturday to find out alleged irregularities, corruption and nepotism committed in five years at the University of Rajshahi in the face of opposition by the Progressive Teachers’ Society.
   The teachers’ group denounced the committee, saying its members are controversial and are accused of being involved in corruption.
   The group said the
   members were controversially appointed during the tenure of the immediate-past government.
   Sources in the campus said the committee started interviewing university officers and employees in the treasurer’s room.
   The registrar, Abdus Salam, sent a letter to all the departments, dean’s offices, institutions, hall provosts, all administrative building sections and the university school saying that the committee has started working on the campus.
   The letter asked all concerned to lodge complaints with the committee against any such irregularities in person or in writing.
   The team will be receiving complaints between 9:00am and 10:00pm in the treasurer’s office, the letter said.
   A five-member committee earlier visited the university to investigate pro-Awami League teachers’ allegation against the authorities regarding the controversial recruitment of more than 500 teachers, officials and employees during the tenure of the immediate-past BNP-led government.
   The Progressive Teachers’ Society convener, Abdus Sobhan, said the committee was yet to communicate with any of the group members.

The Citizens’ Rights Movement on Saturday demanded death penalty and confiscation of movable and immovable property of those who would amass Tk 5 crore or more by corruption.
   The movement at a seminar at the National Press Club presented 11 recommendations to contain price spiral and unscrupulous business syndication and control the market effectively.
   The other recommendations include expanding the Operation Dal-Bhat of Bangladesh Rifles, using the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to import essential goods and sell those to consumers, forming a taskforce of law enforcement agencies to check price spiral of essential commodities during the upcoming Ramadan, and promulgating a consumer rights protection ordinance immediately.
   The movement suggested that the president should promulgate an ordinance with a provision for death penalty to those who were involved in large-scale smuggling and extortion in the transport sector.
   It also demanded setting up an adequate number of wholesale kitchen markets at the four entry points to the capital city.
   Mohammad Jasim Uddin, vice presiding of the movement, chaired the seminar. Adviser to the movement Mohammad Alfaz, Ganashashthya Kendra project coordinator Zafarullah Chow-dhury, former lawmakers Faruk Khan and GM Kader, columnists Syed Abul Maksud and Syed Badrul Ahsan, Awami League leader Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Muktijoddha Bir Srestha Smrity Parishad president Amin Ahmed Chowdhury, barrister Tania Amir, and Hamidul Hossain Tareq, am-ong others, spoke at the session.

Eight people were killed and 10 injured in road accidents in Chittagong and Bagerhat on Saturday.
   In Chittagong, five people were killed and six injured in a couple of road accidents under Sitakunda upazila.
   In the first one, two potato traders were killed and another two people injured as a truck overturned on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway and then tumbled into a roadside ditch at Baroaulia Kadamrasul.
   Local sources said the accident took place at about 6:00am, killing Tazul Islam, 32, and Rabiul Hossain, 37, on the spot.
   The injured people, including the truck driver, were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
   Another accident left three people dead and four injured as a container lorry rammed into a CNG-run three-wheeler on the Foujdar-hat Bypass at the upazila at 8:30am.
   Rani, 22, and Shamim, 27, died on the spot while another unidentified man died at Chittagong Medical College Hospital shortly after arrival. The driver of the CNG-run three-wheeler is among the four injured, who were also admitted to the CMCH.
   The police seized the lorry.
   In Bagerhat, three fish traders were killed and four injured when a pickup-van overturned on a bridge at Mollahat on the Bagerhat-Maowa Highway Saturday morning.
   The police said two unidentified fishermen died on the spot while five were injured when the fish-laden van from Dhaka suddenly turned turtle on Major Gaula Bridge.
   The injured were admitted to Fakirhat Upazila Health Complex in a critical condition where another unidentified fish trader died later.
   One of the injured was identified as Haji Tarek, 35, while identity of the others could not be known immediately.

The Power Development Board is in a dilemma over hiring a foreign firm for a 100MW power plant as the project contractor is now averse to entering into the deal because of a cost-overrun, following delays.
   Officials said after the tender process, the PDB awarded the contract to the lowest bidder, Chinese Harbin Power Engineering, to develop the project at a cost of $45 million. The power board issued the notification of award on January 26, 2006.
   As per the Public Procurement Regulations, the implementing agency, PDB, was to sign contract with the contractor within 21 days from the issuance of the award notification.
   But, despite repeated appeal from the HPE, the PDB failed to strike the contract within the timeframe for delays in getting ECNEC approval. The planning ministry took more than a year to give the go-ahead.
   Recently, the PDB invited the HPE to sign the contract, but the company refused to do so, arguing that due to the delay by about 16 months, the cost of the equipment on the international market has significantly gone up. It (HPE) has also argued that through this delay, the clause 28 of the PPR 2003 has been breached.
   In response to the invitation, the HPE offered an escalation of the project cost to $66 million in place of earlier $45 million.
   The foreign firm also informed the PDB that unless the cost of the project was enhanced, it would be impossible for them to sign the contract at the previous cost.
   Sources said the latest offer put the PDB in a dilemma. If the PDB signs the contract, it has to enhance the project cost, which the PPR 2003 does not permit.
   If the PDB goes for re-tender, the process will again take about one year and a half and enhance the project cost due to the worldwide price escalation.
   In a recent development, the PDB refused to agree to the raised project cost. In response, the HPE communicated its unwillingness to sign the contract at the previous offer and urged the PDB to give back its performance guarantee.
   Acting PDB chairman Khijir Khan said his organisation would inform the Chinese firm of its decision by this week.
   The tender for the 100-MW Chandpur power plant was invited in July 2004. But the project was yet to be awarded to the contractor because of bureaucratic tangles and government indecision, which ate up three years while the country kept reeling from a nagging power crisis.

Killing of a young man by friends nine months ago has been unearthed when the killers tried to realise ransom worth Tk 20,000 from his parents on the promise that they would get their son back.
   Four of the killers, all in early 20s, came to the parents of victim Masum to their Bhuiyarbagh residence Friday night to collect the ransom. Neighbours at once held Shakil, 22, while three others managed to escape.
   Shakil was handed over to RAB. Following his confessional statement, RAB picked up Tanvir and Rajib on Saturday from Gopchar. Babul went into hiding.
   The other killer Selim had gone abroad with job, said Shakil.
   Narrating the killing episode they told RAB that Masum and five others used to work in Mehedi Screen Print at Nandipara. Rajib and Masum fell in love with a girl, Shirin, of Bhuiyarbagh. Four of them at the behest of Rajib agreed to eliminate Masum to clear his path.
   Accordingly, on October 13 last year they called out Masum from his home after the iftar. They took him to a boat in Dhalesawri-Buriganga confluence, hacked to death and the body thrown into the water near Gopchar.
   The floating body was recovered by the police and buried in the char area, which was not known to his parents.

The students of government schools need to pay more for schooling than the students of non-government schools do in annual fees and other charges, said a survey conducted by the Barisal committee of concerned citizens.
   The committee, backed by the Transparency International Bangladesh, in a news briefing also said government school students need to pay money to teachers to be selected for junior scholarship exams and stipends given out to female students.
   The survey showed that each of the students of Class VI to Class X in government schools needs to pay, on an average, Tk 1,116 a year in fees of various types while a student in non-government schools pays Tk 1,087 a year.
   Manabendra Batabayal, a member on the committee, said this at the briefing at the city corporation office Saturday morning.
   The organisers said they had invited the officials of the district and divisional administrations, education board and education directorate and teachers, but no such people attended the programme.
   The committee survey covered 198 mahallas of 30 wards in the metropolis and 90 wards, 137 villages of 10 unions in 307.59 square kilometres of areas of the district headquarters to find out the service situation of secondary education in the region.
   The survey was carried out with random sampling method on 382 households of 50 spots, including 201 households of 20 mahallas in the city and 181 households in 30 villages.
   Of the student surveyed, 58 per cent are female and 42 per cent are male. Fourteen per cent of them are students of government schools and 86 per cent are of non-government schools.

The government Saturday signed an agreement of $100 million with the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessionary arm, to deepen and sustain education sector reform.
   Economic Relations Division secretary M Aminul Islam Bhuiyan and World Bank country director Xian Zhu signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides in the NEC conference room.
   The Third Programmatic Education Sector Development Support Credit is designed to address systematic governance issues in order to make the best use of the resources in improving quality and enhancing access to secondary education.
   The first and second credits were approved in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

The National Alliance of Disabled People’s Organisations expressed its concern about the possible termination of jobs of nine visually impaired persons as the Bangladesh Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (Teshis) has decided to cut down on excess manpower.
   A notice of the organisation published on May 26 said that excess manpower recruited between 1981 and 1991 through the social welfare ministry would be terminated.
   The notice has created a scope for the termination of the job of the visually impaired persons, said a NADPO release.
   The release said that the visually impaired employees working at the organisation were being forced to resign, or their jobs would be terminated.

The Khagrachhari Hill District Council on Thursday announced a Tk 16,78,20,000 budget for the fiscal year 2007-08, attaching the highest priority to the communications sector followed by education.
   The budget was drafted assuming Tk 16 crore would be received under the government’s Annual Development Programme and Tk 78.20 lakh generated by the council on its own, the KHDC chairman, Monindra Lal Tripura, told a budget announcement ceremony at the KHDC conference room.
   The budget has allocated Tk 3.25 crore for the communications sector and Tk 2.60 crore for education, Monindra informed the participants of the ceremony comprising mainly of KHDC councillors and heads of departments and local media professionals.
   Fourteen government departments were put under the control of the KHDC formed through an election in June 1989.

The body of Mohammad Farooq, a 10-year-old schoolboy drowned in the Bay of Bengal on Friday, was recovered from the Cox’s Bazar sea beach on Saturday afternoon.
   The police and Farooq’s family said the boy was among a group of children playing football in the Kolatoli Government Primary School playground on Friday afternoon. They went to swim in the bay after the game. At one stage Farooq swam towards the deep sea and went missing.
   His body was found after 30 hours, at about 4:30pm Saturday, at the diabetes hospital point of the beach.

A case was filed on Friday against the Jatiya Party (Ershad) joint secretary, former lawmaker Moshiur Rahman Ranga, on charge of threatening the treasurer of the Rangpur District Motor Vehicle Owners’ Association, Nitai Chandra Roy.
   Nitai, complainant of a corruption case, lodged the case with the kotwali police accusing Ranga and others of threatening to kill him.
   Central Zaker Party joint secretary Abu Azgar Pintu, Ranga’s private secretary Abdur Razzak, his personal gaurd Suman, chain master Shameem Siddique, Zakir Hosen, Najim, Abdul Wahab, Abdur Sadi Rabi, Mizanur Rahman, and Mohammad Ali Jinnah were accused in the case.
   Pintu, also president of the district vehicle owners’ association, Nazim and Jinnah have been detained since January.  The rem-aining of the accused, including Ranga, went into hiding after the joint forces had arrested the three.
   Nitai earlier lodged a case against Ranga, Pintu and nine others on charge of misappropriating Tk 38 lakh of the organization in February. Nitai said Ranga had wanted to drop Ranga’s name off the case.

A Bangladeshi national suffered bullet wounds as Indian border guards fired shots across border at Bhomra under Satkhira sadar upazila Saturday.
   The victim was identified as Khalil Ahmed, 28, of village Laxmidari under the upazila.
   The BDR sources said the BSF troops from the Gojadanga BSF camp fired seven shots towards Bangladesh near border pillar No 3 in the morning without any provocation.
   Khalil was struck by a bullet during the firing as he was grazing his cattle near the pillar. He was admitted to sadar hospital.
   Later, the BDR fired back 21 shots, responding to the BSF firing.

The Border Security Force of India shot dead an Indian national within the barbed wire fence at Phulpur across Baghadanga border of Maheshpur upazila in Chuadanga on Saturday.
   The victim was identified as Hafez Nazrul Islam, 32, a cattle trader of village Phulpur in Nadia. Neighbours said the BSF of Phulpur outpost suspected Nazrul as Bangladeshi and fired several shots, killing him on the spot at about 9:00am. Lt Col Mir Motahar Hossain of the BDR confirming the incident said they returned the BSF fire thinking that they targeted the BDR outpost.

At Least 35 died of malaria in Khagrachari in five months from January to May.
   More than 40,000 people contracted the disease, according to statistics available with the Khagrachari civil surgeon’s office.
   Independent sources claimed the number of malarial death to be four times the official figure as it has no record of the people who died outside government hospitals and healthcare centres.
   Physicians said the number of malaria patients at the place rose to 70 on Saturday.

The Anti-Corruption Commission officials and joint forces on Satu-rday jointly raided the residence of former state minister Fazlur Rahman Patal at village Gouripur under Lalpur upazila in Natore.
   The team talked to the inmates of the house, assessed moveable and immovable properties. Gopalpur pourashava chairman and BNP leader Manjurul Islam was present during the raid at about 1:30pm.

Hena Ara Begum, widow of late Sadeq Bux of Nayatola in the city, denied the allegation of grabbing land levelled against her family by a neighbour, surfacing a prolonged feud between the families of two widows over land.
   At a counter press briefing at the office of Crime Reporters Association of Bangladesh at Segunbagicha in the city on Saturday, Hena Ara claimed her late father-in-law, Wahed Bux, was the real owner of the said eight decimal land at Nayatola of Moghbazar in the city.
   A case has been pending in the court of first sub-judge to review the record and determine the ownership, she said. Her four sons, Zayedul Islam Masum, Sayedul Islam Badal, Ainul Islam Polash and Nurul Islam Pappu, were also present.
   Yakuti Begum, widow of government official Ashraf Uddin Ahmed, at a briefing at the same venue on Friday alleged that she and her family were ousted from the land, where they had been living since 1955. She accused the family of Sadeq Bux of ousting them from the land on July 15 in 1999.

Three children drowned in separate incidents under Sujanagar upazila in Pabna and Dumar upazila in Nilphamari Saturday.
   The victims were identified as Saikat, 6, Nayeem, 8, of Sujanagar and Rupali, 10, of Dumar upazilas.
   The police said Saikat, son of Alauddin and Nayeem, son of Chandu of village Manikdia drowned as they went to lift a football from a pond.
   In Nilphamari, Rupali, daughter of Puna of village Motokpur, drowned while taking her bath in a pond nearby their house.

A man was killed in a road accident on the Netrakona-Barail Road at Barail Balughat in the Netrakona district headquarters on Saturday. The deceased was Sainul Islam, 18, a resident of Balughat.
   The police said a truck hit Sainul, killing him on the spot. A mob vandalised the truck, but the driver managed to get away.

An under-trial prisoner died in Chapainawabganj General Hospital on Saturday.
   The deceased was Lutfor Rahman, 55, of Chardharampur under Bholahat in the district.
   Jail officials said Lutfor had fallen unconscious at around 10:30am in the jail and he was immediately taken to the hospital where he was declared dead.
   Lutfor was arrested in a dowry case and had remained in the jail since June 20.