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The state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh will import a significant portion of the essential commodities that will be required in Ramadan to ensure adequate supply and keep their prices at a reasonable level.
   An inter-ministry meeting at the commerce ministry on Thursday, after taking the above decision, observed that the country would need to import two lakh tonnes of soybean oil, 1.2 lakh tonnes of onion, 40,000 tonnes of gram and 20,000 tonnes of red lentils during the Ramadan.
   The meeting, presided over by the commerce ministry’s additional secretary Golam Mustakim, felt that the private sector importers should also be requested to import the essential goods as per market needs so that the prices do not go high, said sources.
   It discussed the state of demand, production and import of as many as 12 essential items of which only potato is not being imported because local production is enough to meet the demand. The statistics maintained by different government offices showed certain discrepancies in the demand, production and import statistics of some of the food items.
   The meeting also urged the nation’s media not to give any negative coverage to the price situation which could create panic among the traders and consumers, leading to further price-hikes.
   It recommended reduction in the tariff rates on the import of crude and refined cooking oils. The current rate of import duty is 22.5 per cent on the former and 45 per cent on the latter.
   The meeting also recommended the banning of the export of Hilsha fish before and during the Ramadan and facilitating import of fish through land-ports.
   It resolved that surveillance of the price situation by the local administration should be strengthened, toll on consumer goods should be waived and transport facilities increased to ensure stability of prices during the Ramadan.

Bangladesh will receive a grant of 40 million pound sterling, equivalent to Tk 553 crore, from the UK Department for International Development to improve access of the poor to official financial services like credit and savings.
   The DFID is providing the grant under a programme styled ‘Promoting Financial Services for Poverty Reduction’. The UK donor agency and the Economic Relations Division signed a letter of exchange in this regard on Thursday.
   The Bangladesh Bank, the government’s apex micro-finance window, Palli Karma Shahayak Foundation, Micro-credit Regulatory Authority, and the Institute of Micro Finance will implement the programme to deliver ‘innovative and sustainable financial services’.
   The programme is designed to be implemented over the next six years at a total cost of 73 million pound sterling. A number of other donors are expected to provide the rest of the fund.
   A major objective of the programme is to eradicate monga, a seasonal famine-like situation in the northern region, through creation of job opportunities for the poor, farmers, and micro and small entrepreneurs.
   ‘The poor will be benefited more if they have better access to finance and we hope this programme will really benefit them,’ Elizabeth Carriere, acting country representative of the DFID, said after signing the letter. The ERD secretary, M Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, signed the letter on behalf of the Bangladesh government.
   Carriere said they would expect concrete results for the poor men and women, such as 20 per cent poor people’s access to financial services and three million monga-afflicted people getting appropriate savings and credit services.
   Under the programme, the central bank will upgrade its credit information bureau and help the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority become more capable of ensuring that the microfinance organisations are duly licensed and regulated, while the PKSF will utilise a micro enterprise and farmers’ innovation fund mainly in partnership with non-governmental organisations.

At least three were killed and 25 injured in a road accident at Jagorjuli near the Tajmahal Hotel on the Dhaka–Chittagong Highway in the Comilla district headquarters early Thursday.
   The deceased were Brahmanbaria Kasba municipal chairman Md Rafiqul Haque Bhuiyan, 48, Apex Group marketing manager at Barura in Comilla Binoy Sarkar, 29, and a bus supervisor Matuail in Dhaka Md Sohel Ahmed, 24.
   The police said the accident took place when a Chittagong-bound collided with a truck, carrying cement, at about 5:30am.
   A Chittagong-bound microbus also overturned as the driver tried cross past, in which three were killed on the spot and 25 were injured. Eight of the critically injured were admitted to Dhaka Medical Collage Hospital and 17 others were given first aid treatment. The Comilla police sent the bodies the Comilla Medical Collage Hospital morgue for post-mortem examinations.
   The police seized the vehicles. A case was filed.

The army-led joint forces arrested former Jatiya Party (Ershad) lawmaker Abdul Gaffar Biswas, his cousin Raja Biswas and son-in-law Mohammad Anisur Rahman Biswas at their houses at Noornagar in Khulna early Thursday.
   The law enforcers also seized a rifle, a revolver, a shotgun and 517 bullets from the house of Gaffar Biswas.
   The forces also arrested a Jamaat-e-Islami leader in Pirojpur on charge of extortion and cheating. In Khulna, the Narcotics Control Department people, along with the joint forces, raided the house of Gaffar Biswas and seized 22 bottles of Phensidyl (codeine) syrup and 26 grams of heroine.
   The arrested were later handed over to the Khalishpur police. The firearms and ammunition seized from Gaffar’s house were deposited with the police.
   The Khalishpur police officer-in-charge, Fakrul Islam, said Gaffar had claimed that the firearms were licensed.
   ‘We have been investigating whether the firearms were licensed,’ he said. The three were sent to jail in the afternoon.
   In Pirojpur, the forces arrested district Jamaat secretary general, Maulana Shafiqul Islam, also a teacher of the Kumarkhali Nesaria Mohammadia Madrassah, at a clinic in the town owned by him. He was later handed over to the police.
   He allegedly took money from people promising them job. He had also allegedly been involved in extortion during the BNP-led alliance government.
   In Satkhira, the forces arrested four members of the Islamist militant outfit Hizb-ut-Tauhid and seized a large number of books of Jihadi contents and other documents at Satpur under Kaliganj.
   The arrested are three sisters Reshma Parvin, Rehana Parvin Lipi and Khadija Parvin, and Reshma’s husband Mizanur Rahman Tito.
   The forces first arrested Rehana in the afternoon when she was returning home.
   Based on her statement, the forces later arrested Reshma, Khadija and Tito and seized the books, leaflets, membership forms, audiocassettes, compact disks, diaries, dollars, posters and army uniforms.

Four patients have died without treatment in Rajshahi Medical College Hospital from Wednesday evening after interns went on strike following a scuffle over death of a patient.
   Madhu, Fazlur Rahman, Kohinur Begum and Joynab Begum died without treatment after Sheema Begum had died unattended.
   Hospital sources said the intern doctors enforced a strike Wednesday evening after the husband and brother-in-law of Sheema scuffled with doctors.
   Hospital authorities served a notice on intern doctors asking them to join work by 6:00pm on Thursday. Relatives of Sheema said she was admitted to the hospital at about 8:00am on Wednesday but she was left unattended to until 5:00pm.
   Her brother-in-law Waliullah, a police constable, informed the doctors about her serious condition. But the doctor allegedly did not take care of her. An angry Waliullah then scuffled with the doctors.
   The doctors severely beat Sheema’s husband Shahabuddin, a guard at Rajshahi Central Jail, and confined him to the room of the hospital director, Sheema’s relatives alleged.
   Sheema died early Thursday but the body was handed over to them at 4:00pm on Thursday, they added. Major Hafizur Rahman Molla, deputy inspector general of Rajshahi Central Jail, went to the scene and promised action against Shahabuddin if found guilty.
   Hospital authorities asked the doctors to go back to work but none did. Authorities held a meeting with the doctors Thursday noon to thrash out a solution.
   Hospital director Bazle Quader said all doctors had been asked to join work saying security was tightened in the hospital.

The Detective Branch of the police seized five more stolen vehicles from different places in the capital and Tangail on Wednesday.
   They also arrested four members of a car-lifting gang who were placed on a two-day police remand on Thursday. The police said that a DB team, acting on secret information, arrested gang leader Masudur Rahman Lalon from near Dour Bridge in Turag thana on the Uttara-Ashulia road on Tuesday night.
   Based on his statement, the police arrested his three associates — Mohammad Kamal, Tipu Miah and Mohammad Kamal (Sagar) — from Kamalapur and Tejgaon Industrial Area on Wednesday.
   The police then raided different places in the capital and Tangail Chowrasta Bypass along with the arrested persons and seized a car, a microbus, one CNG-driven auto-rickshaw and two motorbikes. All the vehicles have been taken to the DB office on Minto Road.
   The police produced the four men before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Thursday afternoon and sought a seven-day remand, but the court granted only a two-day remand.
   With the seizure of five vehicles on Wednesday, a total of 22 stolen vehicles have so far been recovered since the formation of special teams for recovery of stolen vehicles on March 18, said the police, adding that eight of the vehicles have already been handed over to their owners.
   The police have also arrested 18 members of three car-lifting gangs in the period.
   The police said a number of car-lifting gangs are still active in the capital and they steal vehicles from different places everyday, especially from the parking lots of hospitals and restaurants.

The finance adviser on Thursday said Bangladesh had improved a lot over a few years in the telecoms sector because of proper policy supports and the emergence of private sector in telecoms business.
   ‘Our tele-density grew to 16 per cent in 2006, four times higher than what is stipulated in the telecoms policy,’ said the adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, at a programme organised to mark World Telecommunications Day 2007.
   The telecoms policy 1998 stipulated that the tele-density should grow to 4 per 100 people by 2010.
   The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board and the BCS Telecoms Samity jointly organised the programme to mark World Telecommunications and Information Society Day.
   Mirza Aziz, who is also in charge of the posts and telecommunications ministry, said the government would continue to pump a substantial amount of money in telecoms projects from both the annual development programme as well as from the revenue sector to encourage the growth of the sector.

A Rapid Action Battalion official was arrested at Pahartali in Chittagong on Thursday when he was receiving money after holding a businessman to ransom.
   The police said the were informed that a gang had abducted Nurul Islam, owner of a pharmacy on the Station Road at 11:00am and demanded Tk 20 lakh for his release.
   The gang later settled on a ransom of 20 tolas of gold, the police said.
   The police sent Nurul’s brother-in-law, Giasuddin, to hand over the gold to the gang.
    ‘We sent Giasuddin with the gold and arrested two at Hotel Zaman in the GEC crossing,’ said a police officer.
   The officer said one of the arrested was a Rapid Action Battalion subinspector, Salim Mia, and the other was a man named Mohammed Rashed.

Former caretaker government adviser Abkar Ali Khan has been made president of the Gulshan Society and businessman Jahurul Islam Chowhury general secretary, said a release on Thursday.
   Akbar Ali was appointed finance adviser to the interim government after the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, had became chief adviser.
   He also worked as cabinet secretary.

The British high commissioner in Dhaka, Anwar Choudhury, hosted a dinner to bid farewell to the US ambassador, Patrcia Butenis, at his Gulshan residence on Thursday.
   Foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka and a number of prominent political leaders attended the party.
   Among the latter were Awami League presidium members Tofail Ahmed and Suranjit Sengupta, and general secretary Abdul Jalil, BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Jatiya Party president Hussein Muhammad Ershad and secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader.

Four policemen were Thursday closed to police lines in Munshiganj on charge of aiding bandits in committing robbery.
   Police super Afzal Hossain said Nayek Imraj Uddin and constables Rajon Sheikh, Manik Baroi and Neptahur Chakma of Shekharnagar outpost in Sirajdikhan upazila were closed and the allegation against them was under investigation.

A man was killed and 8 others were injured by wild elephants at Meherghona village in Cox’s Bazar upazila on early Thursday. The elephants also damaged 12 houses.
   According to the witnesses and police, a group of 10wild elephants attacked the people of Meherghona, a nearby hill village about 35 kilometres from Cox’s Bazar town.
   The elephants damaged 12 houses by stomping them in a few minutes.
   At one stage the elephants killed Zafar Alam, 25, son of Imam Uddin, by stamping him to death.
   Mizanur Rahman, 10, Kamal Hossain, 15, Tajul Mollick, 35, Nasarat Ali, 45, Ani Miah, 53, Aktar Kamal, 5, Sahar Mollick, 24, and Abdus Sattar, 62, were injured when they tried to flee. The injured persons were given first aid at Eidgaon Health Centre.
   The wild elephants killed one person at Eidgaon Bhomoriaghona village two weeks ago.
   The elephants have become furious because human beings are continuously encroaching on their habitat and destroying their sources of food, said scientists. The government must set sufficient land aside for them so that they can get enough food and do not feel it necessary to attack human beings who occupy villages nearest to the forest.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion in Sirajganj discovered a local liquor making factory at Baghabari under Shahzadpur upazila in Sirajganj on Thursday afternoon.
   They also seized at least 100 litres of liquor with some brewing equipment and arrested Mohor Ali, 30, of Beparia and Siraj Ali, 40, of Nukali village.
   However, the owner of the factory, Golam Mostafa, of Seburpara village of the same upazila, managed to evade arrest.
   Mohammad Shahid, ASP of RAB-12, told reporters of the incident.

The joint forces Babul Akhter, chairman of the proposed private television channel Rupashi Bangla, in Jessore on Wednesday.
   Babul is also member of the Benapole Customs Clearing and Forwarding Agents’ Association.
   The joint forces handed him over to the Jessore kotwali police on the day after a case had been filed against him by the Benapole branch Islami Bank on charge of defaulting on the repayment of a loan of Tk 18 crore.
   He took Tk 74 crore from the bank and had not repaid the money, sources said.
   Sources said there were 27 cases against Babul Akhter. Three of the cases are related to loan default.
   Babul Akhter, owner of clearing and forwarding firm Joint Silver, allegedly grabbed the landed property of one Osman Maal at Kagajpukur under Benapole.
   The joint forces also seized his vehicle, Land Cruiser, when he was arrested.
   He was sent to court on Thursday.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, will undergo eye treatment at BIRDEM Hospital today, a Bangabhaban press release said on Thursday.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, on Thursday said the caretaker government was determined to hold elections as early as possible after reforming the electoral process.
   The remark came when new South Korean ambassador in Dhaka Park Suk-bum made a courtesy call on the chief adviser at his office.
   Appreciating the caretaker government’s performance particularly on reforms and anti-crime and anti-corruption drives, the ambassador said South Korea fully supported its reform activities.
   Both the chief adviser and the ambassador stressed the need for exploring and utilising the tremendous untapped potentials of Bangladesh and Korea in various areas of cooperation for the benefit of the two peoples, according to the chief adviser’s press secretary Syed Fahim Munaim.
   The chief adviser said Bangladesh took Korea as a very important partner and friend and urged the Korean envoy to encourage his country’s investors to invest more in Bangladesh taking the advantages of business friendly climate in the country.
   He said apart from economic cooperation, Korea could come up with increasing cooperation in educational and cultural areas. The country can set up electronic industry, power plant and transfer technology here, he added.
   Regarding Korean Export Processing Zone in Chittagong, Fakhruddin called for early operation of the KEPZ for the benefit of Koreans and Bangladeshis.
   The ambassador thanked the chief adviser for providing licence to South Korea for the EPZ, which he said would create a lot of employment for Bangladeshis and help both the countries.
   He stressed the need for high level bilateral visits to consolidate relations between the two Asian countries.
   The chief adviser said the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, would visit Seoul Korea in June.
   As the envoy said Korea was interested to invest in the power sector in Bangladesh, the chief adviser urged him to talk with the energy adviser.
   The ambassador invited the chief adviser to visit South Korea.
   Similarly, the chief adviser through the ambassador invited the Korean prime minister to Bangladesh.

The Election Commission on Thursday claimed that it is now working independently and feels no pressure from the government or from the executive.
   The EC made the claim while clarifying its stand on the issue of the separation of the EC secretariat from the executive (specifically Prime Minister’s office), and said that the interim government would do everything necessary to ensure its independence.
   ‘The chief adviser, in a meeting with the chief election commissioner, clearly said that the government would do everything necessary to ensure the independence of the EC secretariat. And the CEC told the chief adviser that the EC is now working fully independently and it feels no pressure from the government and is not influenced by the executive,’ said a statement issued by EC on Thursday.
   The statement said the EC is in favour of making itself completely independent and will initiate a dialogue with legal experts as well as constitutionalists with a view to formulating a proposal to place before the government.
   ‘Though at this moment there is no problem in working independently, the EC is in favour of settling the issue for the future. So it will submit the proposal of the independence of its secretariat to the government after incorporating the suggestions of expert,’ the statement read.
   ‘There is a legal tangle (sic) in making the EC secretariat independent of the Prime Minister’s Office because the Constitution will have to be amended,’ it said, adding even after amending the Constitution, the rules of business will have to be changed to redefine the EC secretariat’s status.

The Executive Committee of National Economic Council on Thursday approved 16 projects, including four power projects.
   The projects will cost Tk 4,932 crore, including Tk 2,639 crore in project assistance.
   The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, presided over the meeting.
   ‘The approval of these projects proved the present government’s thrust on improving the infrastructure constraints, including power,’ the finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, told journalists.
   ‘Bulk of the project cost, Tk 2,205 crore will be spent on four power projects,’ Azizul said.
   He hoped implementation of these projects would help ease power crisis.
   The power projects are: Rehabilitation and renovation of unit 1 and 2 of Ghorashal Thermal Power Station, construction of Chandpur 150MW Combined Cycle Power Plant, rehabilitation of Karnaphuli Hydro-electric Power Plant and construction of Peking Power Plant at Shiddhirganj.
   The ECNEC approved prevention and control of avian influenza and development and dissemination of poultry projects as well.
   A water management development project involving Tk 978 crore also got approval.
   Advisers, cabinet secretary, principal secretary to the chief adviser and secretaries of different ministries attended the meeting.

The Awami League joint secretary, Syed Ashraful Islam, has spelled out a plan to reform his party to establish democratic practice within.
   In an exclusive interview with the news agency on Wednesday, the leader said all party committees must be elected through secret ballots.
   The former lawmaker from Kishoreganj-3 constituency took stand for abolishing the district and upazila committees.
   Instead, there should be only a central committee and 300 committees for each parliamentary constituency, said Ashraful whose father Syed Nazrul Islam was the interim president of the country in 1971.
   He was later assassinated inside the Dhaka Central Jail with three other national leaders on November 3, 1975.
   An election commission will be responsible for staging the election to form the central committees.
   He said all reforms to the party structure should be done under party chief Sheikh Hasina.
   He said he would air his thoughts at the party’s highest policymaking body as soon as a ban on parlour politics goes.
   ‘I will table a detailed plan at the meeting of the Awami League Central Working Committee. I have already talked to some party leaders about my plans and they have encouraged me,’ he said.
   Outlining his plans, the joint secretary said primary members of the constituencies would elect all the 300 constituency-level committees through secret voting.
   For selection of candidates in a given constituency, all the primary members would cast votes in the first round of voting.
   The same voters will then cast votes in the second round to elect the committee chief from two leading candidates, selected in the first round of voting.
   Similarly, all primary members from across the country will pick the central committee through a secret ballot under the supervision of the election commission.
   ‘The process can establish democracy within the party. If it happens nobody will need to run after central leaders for nominations during national elections,’ Ashraful said.
   ‘If we can implement the election system within the party, black money holders and musclemen will not get nominated in the national polls. It will help stop the alleged nomination business during national elections,’ he said.
   Since there are different views on how the political parties could be freed from the clutches of black money holders, Ashraful said the state should have a provision to provide funds to the parties.
   ‘A Tk 50 crore annual budget for parties is enough to fund them.’
   Ashraful also said the state would not fund parties securing less than one per cent of the total votes in the general elections.

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation will import 1.2 lakh tonnes of diesel from India to ease fuel oil supply to the northern districts.
   The state-owned oil monopoly signed the import deal Thursday with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. BPC secretary Mohammad Anisuzzaman and BPCL executive director S Radhakrishnan initialled the deal.
   The diesel will reach Baghabari depot directly from Silghat of India’s Assam by barges, making it easier for BPC to supply fuel oil in the northern region. Usually, oils are supplied from Chittagong, which involves more time and higher carrying costs and wastages, officials said.
   The supply will start from June this year and a consignment of 10,000 tonnes will reach every month for one year.
   BPC imported 2 lakh tonnes of diesel from another Indian state-owned company, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd in 2006.

BNP leader Syed Zakir Hossain Jelal, also ward 15 commissioner in Barisal was sent to jail under the Emergency Powers Rules on Thursday.
   Jelal is also younger brother of former lawmaker Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, also central Juba Dal secretary. The army-led joint forces arrested Jelal at Nagar Bhaban on Wednesday for his suspectedcorruption.

The government has formed two committees to identify the problems of sick industries and suggest measures to solve their problems or allow their exit from business in a smooth manner.
   One of the committees has been assigned to prepare the draft of a law required in this regard and the other to update the number of sick industries. There is no law at present on the sick industries while their number remains a controversial issue because of lack of information and transparency.
   The disinvestment and law unit of the industries ministry has issued a gazette notification dated May 14 on the formation of the committees, a copy of which was made available to the press on Thursday.
   The government has apparently made the move following lobbying by some businesspeople from time to time seeking extra-regulatory facilities, including reprieve from legal proceedings and waiver of loan burden, from the government agencies concerned.
   The committee tasked with framing the draft law comprises six members, with the additional secretary of the industries ministry as its convener. It has been asked to submit its report within the next two months after discussing with the stakeholders and studying and comparing the relevant laws of other countries.
   The second committee, also a six-member one, is headed by a joint secretary of the same ministry. It has been given three months to update the lists of sick industries in various sectors.
   Representatives of the Bangladesh Bank, finance ministry, Board of Investment, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association, and Bangladesh Sick Industries’ Association are also on the committees.

The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has said his government is committed to upgrading skills of Muslims and other minorities so that they can enjoy benefits of the large pool of jobs created across the country.
   Addressing an international conference Thursday on empowerment of minorities through education and employment he said educational empowerment had to go hand in hand with the economic development.
   ‘Ensuring equitable access to economic opportunities to the deprived sections of the society is a firm commitment of our government’, he further stated.
   The conference was attended by the human resource development minister, Arjun Singh, the minority affairs minister, AR Antualy, and other cabinet members.
   Referring to educational backwardness of Muslims Singh said there were many districts and towns in the country with large concentrations of Muslims that were economically and educationally backward. ‘We will devise focused plans for bringing these backward areas at par with the rest of the country, with a special attention on empowerment of tribal and minorities.
   These steps would contribute for the overall development of the country. He admitted that Muslim community has lagged behind in the field of education. Educational deprivation among minorities differ
   from state to state. Hence, there is a need to have specific strategies and interventions.
   The prime minister said the government had come forward with a 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities, in which improving access to education was a key element. ‘We have doubled the funds to the Maulana Azad Education Foundation and propose to enhance it further.

Two more cases were filed against former health minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and 101 others in Comilla on Thursday.
   Ashiqur Rahman of Kamalkandi in Daudkandi upazila filed a case against 51 people, including Mosharraf, with No 2 cognizance court. The complainant alleged that miscreants looted his fertiliser shop at Boalmari Bazar after he refused to pay Tk 50,000 as toll following the national elections in 2001.
   Ohidur Rahman filed the other case with the same court against another 51 people, including Mosharraf, for damaging and looting 10 rooms of his house at south Nasuruddi village in Daudkandi upazila following the national elections in 2001.
   Accepting the two cases, the court ordered the officer-in-charge of Daudkandi thana to investigate the cases.

Former minister Hannan Shah, now remanded in custody for five days in an extortion case, fell sick at the Joydevpur police station in Gazipur on Thursday.
   The police said Hannan had fallen sick fell sick in the lockup at about 10:00am.
   The police then contacted Gazipur General Hospital for a physician, but he recovered fast and was again taken in the lockup.
   His family members said Hannan had suffered from hypertension. ‘He always stayed in an air-conditioned room for which he might have fallen sick in the lockup,’ a family member said. His insulin also increased, they said.
   They said the police had not allowed the family members to meet Hannan and his son, Shah Rezaul Hannan, in the lockup since Wednesday.
   Hannan and his son were arrested at their house at New DOHS in Dhaka on Monday. Hannan was remanded in custody in the evening in conection with an extortion case filed with the Kapasia police.
   The two have been interrogated at the Joydevpur police station since then.

IRRI and boro paddy standing on about 5,000 hectares in the haor areas at Dingaputha and Haijda under Khaliajuri in Netrakona went under water as the Haijda embankment collapsed Wednesday morning.
   The Netrakona Water Development Board executive engineer, Mohammad Alauddin, said the embankment got damaged because of a sharp rise in the water level of the River Kangsa.
   The upazila administration said the water level of the river registered a sharp rise as water rolled down the hills from across the border. A 300-foot stretch of the embankment at Gajlapur became damaged.
   No Water Development Board officials visited the area till Wednesday evening, said the upazila administration.

The Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA profiling of a person will be done in 24 hours at a cost of Tk 5,000 at the DNA laboratory of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   This information was revealed by Professor Sharif Akhtaruzzaman, the head of laboratory, during his presentation at a lecture session on ‘DNA technology in criminal investigation’ organised by Biological Sciences faculty of Dhaka University at the Teacher-Students Centre on Thursday.
   ‘DNA fingerprinting of biological material has become one of the most powerful tools for personal identification in forensic science and criminal investigation,’ Akhtaruzzaman said.
   A conventional fingerprint can be changed by plastic surgery, but a DNA fingerprint can not be altered by any known treatment, he added.
   ‘After DNA testing of these genes we can determine personal identification, paternity testing, identity of disaster victims, inheritance dispute, matching organ donors for organ transplants and studying populations of wild animals,’ the lecturer said.
   While speaking at the function DU vice-chancellor Professor SMA Faiz stressed the need for acting accordingly to the present day demand of science and technology for the advancement of society.
   The Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam, speaking as a special guest, lamented that the political leaders and the civil societies and even the media could not give proper attention to the development of science and research.
   Professor Anwar Hossain, dean of Biological Sciences faculty at DU, presided over the lecture session.