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The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority pulled down 30 illegal tin-roofed structures along the Jirani canal on Wednesday, the second day of the ongoing drive.
   A WASA team, led by magistrate Delwara Begum of the Dhaka district administration office, conducted the drive with the help of 150 day-labourers and policemen.
   The water agency started the drive from Nandipara Bridge to Trimohoni area and destroyed the tin-shed and bamboo-made structures, including Dhaka Purba Muktijoddha School constructed in 2000.
   An owner of a building who was seen busy with pulling down his own structure said he knew very well that erecting structures on the canals was illegal. ‘I built it as many others constructed such structures along the canal, but they did not face any obstruction from the authorities concerned before.’
   Zahurul Alam, superintendent engineer, drainage circle of Dhaka WASA, said they have been pulling down all illegal structures along the canals except slums.
   ‘This is for the first time we can conduct the drive along the canals without any hindrance,’ he said, adding that they had to suspend a drive on the canals in midway in 2005 due to ‘political pressure’.
   ‘We will continue our drive on 12 canals till March 30 and will also pull down those structures we could not demolish earlier for pressure from political parties,’ he added. About renovation work along the canals after the drive, he said they have yet to undertake any project in this regard.
   Another WASA official said renovation work could be done under the eastern bypass project which is still waiting for the approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council. As part of the ongoing drive, they will pull down illegal structures on Katasur-Ramchandrapur canal today, he said.
   Despite the demolition of a number of houses and shanties along 12 canals by the agency in 2005, those were again encroached shortly after the drives.
   Most of the city’s 43 canals had been filled with earth partially or totally by influential quarters over years for lack of proper initiatives to save them.
   Urban development experts said encroachment on natural water reservoirs, including Shahjahanpur, Mohakhali, Debdholai and Kalyanpur and five of its branches Ibrahimpur, Begunbari, Hatirjheel, Rayerbazar, Diyabari and Katasur-Ramchandrapur and Jirani, was mainly responsible for water-logging in city areas.

An ongoing investigation into the fake admissions in the University of Dhaka reveals more 20 cases of fake admission in economics department alone.
   ‘There are cases of false admission in almost every department of the university,’ a member of the investigation team, headed by the DU pro-vice chancellor Professor Yusuf Haider, said on Wednesday.
   He, however, did not mention the departments and exact number of fake admission for the sake of the investigation.
   The investigation team was formed in 2006 after 11 fake admission to the public administration department were identified.
   The team during the investigation also found 30 more cases of false admission in 2004-2005 session in international relations and economics departments.
   ‘During the past five years, over 150 cases of fake admission took place in each session,’ said a senior teacher of the university. ‘Around Tk 3.5 crore change hands every year in these false admission cases,’ the teacher claimed.
   Influential student leaders, officials at the concerned departments and Administrative Building are involved in the forgery of admission, a source in the probe body said, ‘False admission cannot take place without their involvement.’
   The vice-chancellor, SMA Faiz, told New Age on Wednesday that the DU syndicate has decided not to spare anyone involved in fake admission.
   In some of the cases identified so far, the students has registration and roll numbers everywhere except in the dean’s office, the probe committee source said adding cases of false registration and roll numbers had been found only with the concerned departments and nowhere else.
   Other sources said a section of employees at the deans’ office were involved in the forgery by increasing the numbers in admission tests and replacing their names in place of the students who did not take admission even after being qualified.
   The Dhaka University syndicate on March 15 suspended three employees for their alleged involvement in irregularities in admission of students to the institution.

Two mobile courts on Wednesday raided a number of eateries and a private hospital in the Dhaka city and fined them Tk 4 lakh on various charges.
   A court, led by magistrate Nani Gopal Biswas, conducted drives on Shahbagh and Bijoynagar areas and realised Tk 2.10 lakh in fines.
   The court fined Rabiul Islam, the manager of Muslim Sweetmeat at Bijoynagar, Tk 50,000 for keeping the shop environment dirty.
   It also filed a case and issued an arrest warrant against the shop owner M Ali.
   The court found the kitchens of Sung Garden Restaurant and New Changhua Chinese Restaurant in the area unhygienic and even its bathrooms attached to the kitchens.
   The magistrate filed two cases and realised Tk 50,000 each from the restaurants.
   The magistrate fined Kinnari Restaurant Tk 10,000 and filed a case. A source in the mobile court said the environment of this restaurant was better than others and the court might not fine it.
   At Shahbagh, the mobile court raided Shahbagh Curry House and Super Star Hotel and found dirty environment.
   The court filed two cases and realised Tk 25,000 in fines from each of the restaurants.
   Another court, led by magistrate M Rafiqul Islam, raided two bakeries-cum-sweetshops and a clinic-cum-diagnostic centre at Madhya Badda.
   The court found that there was no clear expiry dates on bakery products at the shop of Banaful & Company. The court filed a case and realised Tk 30,000 in fines.
   The court also raided Madhuban Sweetshop and found that there were no labels on food items or any details of ingredients and expiry dates.
   The court filed a case and realised Tk 1 lakh in fines from the shop.
   At last the court raided a private hospital, Sami Hospital and Diagnostic Centre. It found reagents in a fridge without having expiry date.
   The technicians working with the hospital did not have any certificates. The court realised Tk 60,000 in fines and filed a case.
   The chief metropolitan magistrate, Rokan-ud-Doula, didn’t conduct any drive on Wednesday following the death of one of his relatives, a source close to the magistrate said.
   The magistrate will not also carry out any drive today, the source added.
   On the other hand, two other mobile court magistrates ABM Abdul Fattah and Towfiqul Alam had not been conducting any drive for the last one week.

Speakers at a seminar in the Khulna city on Wednesday called for saving the rivers of the country by stopping all activities that hinder their free flows.
   They also urged the government to take immediate steps to dredge the silted up rivers and ensure planned use of the river water to save many areas of the country from desertification.
   ‘Most of the 1,500 rivers of the country have been dried up in the past 1,000 years and the condition of many of the 230 rivers, of which 54 comes from India and three from Myanmar, is vulnerable,’ says the keynote paper presented at the seminar on ‘role of rivers to ensure water supply’.
   Professor Md Salequzzaman of Khulna University presented the keynote paper at the seminar organised at a city hotel by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association. Professor Wahidur Rahman chaired the seminar.
   Moderated by Professor Anwarul Quadir, the seminar was attended by senior government officials, NGO personnel, professionals and civil society members.
   The keynote paper identified Farakka Dam as the major reason for drying up of the rivers in Bangladesh.
   It also held responsible encroachment and construction of dams in the name of irrigation and preventing flood and bridges and culverts and other infrastructures for the drying up of the rivers.
   Professor Zafar Imam, Water Development Board executive engineer of Khulna Sirajul Islam, Department of Public Health Engineering, Khulna executive engineer Kamal Uddin Ahmed, KCC water department executive engineer Sheikh Abdul Hannan, Coastal Development Partnership coordinator Ashraf-ul-Alam Tutu and Mahfuzur Rahman Mukul of BELA, among others, addressed.
   The speakers gave a call to stop encroachment to save the rivers and save environmental degradation.

Speakers at a discussion for the print and electronic media people on Wednesday stressed the need for creating mass awareness to resist human trafficking.
   Forty-five journalists took part in the event, organised at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity by Nari Unnayan Shakti with the support from the Daywalka Foundation, IOM and ATSEC, Bangladesh.
   Farida Yasmein, president of the Bangladesh Journalist Forum against Human Trafficking presented the keynote paper at the function. Kamaluddin Ahmed, secretary (OSD), ministry of establishment, Sunny Petit, deputy director of the Daywalka Foundation USA, and Afroja Parvin, executive director of Nari Unnayan Shakti, addressed the discussion.

The Rapid Action Battalion in separate drives arrested 13 people, including four suspected abductors and nine robbers, when seized a gun from different parts of the Chittagong city on Wednesday.
   The battalion sources said they, acting on a tiff-off, arrested Gias Uddin, Mohiuddin, Mohammed Kawsar, Iqbal Hossain, Mohammed Monsor Alam, Nur Hossain, Abul Kalam, Nur Uddin and Mashud Bin Omar when they were taking preparation to commit robbery at Fariderpara in Chandgaon.
   RAB informed that they had seized a single barrel gun along with two rounds of cartridges and a microbus, which was being used in robbery, based on the confessional statements of the arrestees.
   RAB said they arrested four abductors — Sikandar Alam, Salim Uddin, Jalal Ahmed and Fakir Ahmed — from Kadamtoli in the city on charge of abducting Jahir Ahmed, a resident of Maderbari, on Tuesday and demanding Tk 50 lakh as ransom.
   RAB informed that they had trapped the abductors luring with the ransom, adding that they had also rescued the abducted person from the same locality.

A two-day workshop for media personnel on ‘reproductive health, gender issues and HIV/AIDS prevention’ began at the Press Institute of Bangladesh on Wednesday.
   The Department of Mass Communication and the United Nations Population Fund jointly organised the workshop.
   Information secretary Didarul Anwar attended the inaugural ceremony as chief guest while director general of the Department of Mass Communication Mohammad Abdul Mannan was in the chair. Didarul said journalists of both the electronic and print media have responsibilities for the people of the country. He said media can play a vital role in promoting various development programmes which are important to achieve the millennium development goals.

The fourth international medical exposition Medexpo will begin in the Dhaka city today, aiming to showcase the latest medical services as well as equipment available across the world.
   Former adviser to the caretaker government National Professor Abdul Malik will formally inaugurate the three-day fair as chief guest at the Sheraton Hotel.
   Kazi Wahidul Alam, chairman of the Medexpo Ujjapan Committee, informed that 43 national and international companies would showcase their equipments and services at 57 stalls and two pavilions.
   Dr Moniruzzaman Bhuiyan, president of the Bangladesh Private Clinic and Diagnostic Owners’ Association, and Saleh Mujahid, head of marketing and sales, Otobi Ltd, were also present at the press conference.
   Organised by the Triune Exhibition and the Event Management Services, the event will be co-sponsored by BPCDOA and Otobi Ltd. The event is open to all from 10:00am to 8:00pm with no entry fee.
   It was learnt that five seminars on oncology, ENT, cardiology, orthopaedics would be organised by the Singapore Medicine and Gulshan Club, Rotary Clubs of Dhaka, Inner Wheel Clubs of Dilkusha and BPCDOA during the event.
   Prominent health service providing institutions of the country like Lab Aid Specialised Hospital, Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital, as well as institutions from Germany, the USA, Belgium, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and India will showcase their equipments and services.
   Erbis Toshiba, Agfa, Babel Corporation, Endolap Services, Hitachi, Fuji Film, Graphics Ltd, among others, will also display their medical equipment at the exhibition.

A Chittagong mobile court in separate drives arrested 12 people, dismantled three illegal candle factories when detained a barge and a tugboat on different charges on Wednesday.
   The court, led by special metropolitan magistrate Mohammed Munir Chowdhury, arrested the owner of MS Ice and Cold Storage Company and 11 of its employees on charge of installing five deep tube wells without the Water and Sewerage Authority approvals.
   The company was selling water to the Sangu Gas Project from the tube wells illegally; the magistrate said, adding that more than 30 tonnes of water had been sold during the past one year.
   The magistrate informed that they had detained a barge, MV Prantik, and a tugboat, MT Dynamic, from the Chittagong Port Channel while carrying 600 tonnes of illegally extracted underground water.
   The same court also dismantled three candle factories — Standking, Sun Light and Allahardan — at the Port Colony along side seizing a huge consignment of raw materials and equipments for the lacking environment directorate approvals.

Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur one or two places over the Rajshahi, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions and the regions of Jessore, Kushtia, Noakhali, Comilla, Chittagong and Barisal till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office in a forecast on Wednesday.
   Weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky elsewhere. Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged. The highest temperature on Wednesday, 34 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Rangamati and at Ishwardi and the lowest, 15.9 degrees Celsius, at Srimangal.
   The sun sets in the capital city today at 6:10pm and rises on Friday at 6:00am.

Seminar on religious history at DU
The department of word religions of Dhaka University has organised a weekly seminar entitled ‘religious history in Bengal’ coordinated by visiting Professor Joseph T O’Councell (Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Canada). The second session of the seminar will be held today at 11:00am in the conference room of the arts faculty of the university.
— BSS

Soft drinks seized
in Barisal
Local administration of Gournadi in Barisal seized date-expired soft drinks Seven Up and Slice mango juice worth Tk 2.5 lakh and fined Kabir Hussein, agent of the distributor of the brands, at Torki Bandor Tuesday afternoon. Abbasuddin, officer-in-charge of Gournadi police, said when the agent tried to distribute the drinks, the local shopkeepers found that their expiry date was over. Informed, Rafiqul Islam, upazila nirbahi officer, searched the godown of the agent, seized the date-expired soft drinks worth Tk 2.5 lakh and destroyed the bottles on the spot. He also realised Tk 50,000 as fine from the agent.
— New Age