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The Barapukuria coal mining authorities are likely to start work to purge the sealed-off part of the mine that has been remained closed for over one and half years because of emission of poisonous carbon monoxide gas.
   The experts will start injecting nitrogen into the sealed production area to normalise the chamber (part of tunnel) in phases by September so that the coal extraction from it can be started in October, said sources in Petrobangla.
   ‘Inert nitrogen will be mixed with carbon monoxide in the chamber, and the latter will be purged from the area,’ said an expert.
   The Energy and Mineral Resources Division, at a meeting chaired by adviser Tapan Chowdhury on Tuesday, asked the coal mining authority to bring the sealed part of the tunnel back into production by October.
   The coal-field came into production in 2005, but the Chinese contractor of the mine has never been able to produce 3,000 tonnes of coal per day as per the contract because of the closure of area number 1110 and other technical faults.
   The authorities suspended extraction of coal and evacuated all the workers, abandoning mining equipment in area no 1110 in late September 2005 because of emission of carbon monoxide, and sealed off the area on October 5, 2005.
   A British consultant died last month at the coal-mine when he went there to find out how to start coal production from the part of the mine that has been sealed off.
   Chinese company CMC, under a 71-month contract with Petrobangla, is scheduled to extract 3,000 tonnes of coal per day, but it has been producing only 700-1,500 tonnes of coal daily from another part of the mine.
   As a result production at the 2X125 MW Barapukuria coal-based power plant, that needs around 2,400 tonnes of coal a day, was adversely affected.
   Work at the mine remained totally suspended from October 2006 to April 2007 as the company refused to work, demanding various payments including one instalment of the supplier’s credit that Bangladesh had taken from China to develop the mine.
   Many Petrobangla officials believe that the Chinese company’s incompetence was one of the major reasons for the failure of the mine to produce at full capacity though Tk 1,600 crore has so far been invested in the coal-field.
   Sources present at the Tuesday meeting said that the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company was directed to ask the Chinese contractor to start work to purge the mine’s sealed off part of carbon monoxide by September so that coal production could be increased to 3,000 tonnes per day as per the contract by October.
   The meeting also discussed the over-heating of water in the mine and the financial condition of the Chinese company.
   The Mineral Resources and Energy Division asked the company to submit a detailed plan on mining of coal at the field.

A group of vendors, who had prepared voters’ ID cards in 1995, offered to prepare the voters’ roll with photographs in nine months with an estimated cost of Tk 225 crore, half the time and cost projected by the Election Commission.
   Vendors’ Forum of Voters List Printing 2006 came up with the project proposal accepting a challenge issued by an election commissioner that EC would welcome anyone who can do the job in less than 18 months.
   The election commissioner issued the challenge amid questions about EC’s 18-month timeline for voters’ roll preparation. The top election offices estimated Tk 450 crore for preparation of voters roll and national identity cards.
   The vendors’ forum in the project proposal submitted to the chief election commissioner expressed their eagerness to launch a pilot project with their own funding in an area fixed by the EC.
   It claimed that the country had no dearth of expertise and skills to prepare both voters’ list with photographs and national ID cards as desired by the EC.
   The commission started the countdown of its 18-month timeframe from April 30, 25 days after it spoke about the time it would require for completing the job of making the voters’ roll.

The police in Barisal released on Tuesday five out of the six detained as suspected activists of the Islamist militant outfit Hizb-ut-Tauhid in the district early Monday.
   The police 12 hours before the release of the detained organised a meet-the-press programme where they claimed their success in their fight against militancy citing the example of the six detained.
   Only one of the detained was sent to jail under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedures in the afternoon on Tuesday.
   The police said four of the five released were sisters — Hena Naznin, Nasima Aktar, Renu Begum and Niru Begum. The other released, Nur Hossain, is husband of Niru Begum.
   ABM Mainuddin Ahmed alias Mohiuddin, a former district Hizb-ut-Tauhid president and now regional commander, was produced in court in the afternoon and was sent to jail.
   The police found some books and leaflets of Hizb-ut-Tauhid from a house during a raid on information of distribution of leaflets at Rupatali in the city early Monday. The police detained Renu and her sister Nasima.
   Based on their statement, the police later arrested Niru, Hena and Nur at neighbouring Bharakati. Mainuddin was then arrested at Zia Sarak in the city.
   The books seized are on Islamic ideology and on how to establish Islamic state and society.
   The leaflets were written in 2003 by Maulana Abdul Jabbar, amir of Islami Biplabi Parishad which gave the government 15 days from June 30, 2003 to declare Bangladesh an Islamic state.
   Assistant police commissioner Hayatul Islam and Kotwali police inspector Khorshed Alam said they were detained for interrogation on information of distribution of leaflets having links with Islamist militancy.
   The police said the five were released as they were involved with preaching of and training in Islam and they had no connection with Islamist militancy.

The planning ministry has said 15 per cent of 886 projects in the current annual development programme failed to take off and did not spend a single penny.
   There were 886 projects in the original ADP involving Tk 26,000 crore, but 133 projects of them fell apart because of lack of resources, according to a half-yearly IMED review report released on April 30.
   ‘Financial progress was zero for 133 projects approved in the ADP,’ the implementation monitoring and evaluation division report based on the progress during July to December period, revealed.
   ‘No money was spent by the implementing authorities of these projects against an allocation of Tk 1,864 crore for fiscal 2006-07,’ the report said.
   Of the 133 projects, 20 are of the communications ministry, 19 of the local government division and 14 of the education ministry.
   Meanwhile, an economist said the implications could be serious if these projects were directly related to poverty reduction initiatives.
   IMED monitors the projects of the ADP and submits quarterly, half-yearly and annual performance evaluation reports in favour of the government.
   The latest report was submitted to the national economic council meeting chaired by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on April 30.
   Every year the successive governments of Bangladesh are forced to downsize the ADP either for poor implementation capacity or inadequate revenue income and inflow of foreign resources. But this fiscal year the ADP is facing problems due to various reasons including political unrest and changes of governments, economist Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said.
   ‘Tk 72.66 crore was even disbursed against these 133 projects from local sources, but no money was spent,’ the IMED report said.
   ‘The half-yearly implementation rate could be much higher if the projects which have failed to spend a single penny could spend something from the allocation,’ a senior official in the IMED told the news agency.
   The IMED report identified frequent amendments to projects and recruitment and transfer of consultants and project directors, delay in financing, loan agreements and land acquisition as some major reasons for poor performance of the ADP, the report said.
   ’Lack of prioritisation of projects is causing this poor condition,’ Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, who is also the president of the Bangladesh Economic Association, told the news agency.
   ‘Most governments prioritise projects on the basis of political considerations, not on socio-economic grounds, which is not desirable,’ Kholiquzzaman said.
   According to the IMED, only 32 per cent of the original ADP involving Tk 8,267 crore was implemented in the first eight months of the current fiscal till February. In the corresponding period last fiscal, 37 per cent of the original ADP had been implemented.
   In the latest decision on April 30, the government increased the number of ADP projects to 1,092, which involve Tk 21,600 crore.

Constitution expert Dr Kamal Hossain called upon both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia to cooperate with the ongoing anti-orruption drive.
   In an interview with private TV channel ATN Bangla, he said the two party chiefs have to account for the misrule and corruption during their regimes.
   About Khaleda, Dr Kamal said, ‘She will have to answer for all the irregularities and atrocities committed during her regime.’
   ‘She has to react positively when questions arise about putting those on trial who used her name and office to commit misdeeds and perpetuate misrule in the name of a particular house or party office.’
   Similarly, Hasina should behave and react in a positive manner when irregularities committed during her rule are questioned, Dr Kamal said.
   No one is above the law and a free and fair election, uninfluenced by anything, is the need of the day, he said.
   He urged the government to take steps for forestalling pre-election spending spree.

Three Bangladeshi truckers returning after unloading cargoes at Petrapole were held by the Border Security Force of India and meted out inhuman torture, port officials said.
   In sharp protest, truckers suspended transportation of export cargoes from Benapole port since Tuesday morning causing traffic congestion.
   Normal export activities, however, resumed at 5:30pm Tuesday after the BSF released the truckers with their vehicles.
   On return to Benapole port, truckers Hafizur Rahman, Haroon and Raqiul Islam said they were physically tortured by the BSF at the Petrapole outpost.
   Narrating their woes they said the BSF held them while returning Monday evening after unloading cargo at Petrapole. The BSF charged that the trucks belonged to Indians and had been lifted by them earlier.
   The owners of the trucks said those had been imported from India and the purchase documents were duly submitted to the Petrapole customs and the BSF as well.

A Natore district judge’sourt on Tuesday sent to jail 12 BNP leaders and activists, nine of whom are relations to former deputy minister for land Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu.
   Sources said after the killing of Dulu’s nephew Sabbir Ahmed Gama on February 7, 2004, 18 houses at Ramsha Kazipur and 30 shops at Amtaly Bazar of Naldanga in Natore were looted and set on fire.
   After the incident, Asaduzzaman, a resident of Ramsha Kazipur, lodged a case against Dulu and 104 others on February 25, 2007. The police submitted the charge sheet against 94 on May 3.
   Twelve of the accused prayed for bail appearing in court on Tuesday, but the judge sent them to jail.
   The detained are Dulu’s elder brother Nurunnabbi Talukder, cousin Atiqur Rahman, Abidur Rahman, Nazibur Rahman, nephew Helal, Belal, Bulbul, Rantu and Rahim Newaz and secretary of the Natore thana BNP.

Washington has said it wanted that restrictions on political activities and media in Bangladesh should be lifted and urged the government to uphold the rule of law and due process.
   An official of the US state department, in an interactive programme inn the past week, further insisted that the current efforts against corruption and crimes should be fair and impartial of political interests and the people arrested ‘be either charged or released.’
   ‘We believe that a timetable outlining the steps needed to create the conditions necessary for free, fair, non-violent and transparent elections restoring fully democratic, civilian government should be announced as soon as possible,’ Jonathan D Farrar said in a department-sponsored web chat on ‘US Efforts in Support of Journalists Worldwide’ in the past week.
   He said the people who had been charged needed to be given full due process and treatment consistent with Bangladeshi law and international standards. ‘All detainees should be afforded due process and proper treatment.’
   As for political reforms, he said it was the responsibility of the government and people of Bangladesh to determine what reforms were necessary.

A suspected regional leader of the ultra-left Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML-Janajuddha) was killed in a shootout with the Rapid Action Battalion at Gayeshbari under Santhia in Pabna Monday night, taking to 810 the number of such death after June 2004.
   The deceased, Abdur Rab, 35, was a regional leader of the ultra-left party and wanted in more than a dozen cases, including 11 for murder, the battalion said.
   The battalion said they had raided a house at the village on information on gathering of criminals at about 7:45pm.
   As the law men reached the place, the criminals fired on the battalion, forcing uts members to fire back. The shootout lasted for half an hour.
   Rab was caught in the shootout and died on the spot, the battalion said, adding that others managed to get away.

A superintending engineer of the Public Works Department died after falling from the fifth floor of the 12-storey commissioner building at Segunbagicha in the Dhaka city on Tuesday.
   The police said the victim, Noor Solaiman, 55, of the PWD maintenance department, was found seriously wounded on the ground floor of the building at about 3:00pm.
   He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and later shifted to Lab Aid Cardiac Hospital, where the attending doctors declared him dead at about 5:30pm.
   The police seized a chit reading ‘None is responsible for my death’ from his office.
   The reason behind the death could not be known immediately.
   The body was kept at the morgue of BIRDEM Hospital.