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Patients at Khulna Medical College Hospital have to pay extra money to get 13 kinds of medical services, finds the Transparency International Bangladesh.
   The report of the investigation on the medical services at KMCH was made public at a news briefing at the Khulna Press Club on Thursday.
   The Conscious Citizens’ Committee of the TIB prepared the report following interviews of 37 household heads at different parts of the city. The interviews were taken between June 11, 2006 and August 30, 2006.
   Either the household heads or any of their family members received KMCH services during the June, 2005 to June, 2006 period.
   According to the report, five per cent of the outpatients had to pay an average of Tk 185 to the doctors and 95 per cent of them had to wait 1 hour and 7 minutes on average to meet the doctors in outdoor.
   Forty per cent of the patients, who did X-ray had to pay an average of Tk 75, and 20 per cent, who did ultrasonogram, had to pay Tk 150 additional charge to the hospital staff and lab staff.
   Two per cent of general bed users had to pay additional Tk 5 and half of the cabin users had to pay additional Tk 750 to the hospital staff and the patients, who used trolley, had to pay an average of Tk 89 to the ward boys, the report said.
   Twenty-one per cent of the patients said the toilets and washrooms of the hospital were not fit for use while five per
   cent of the out patients said
   representatives of different pharmaceutical companies were present while they consult the doctors.
   Ten per cent of outpatients and eight per cent of those taken admission to the hospital said the doctors asked them to go to their private chambers and clinics and 25 per cent patients of the hospital said that they did not get the doctors during emergency at night.
   Forty-three per cent of the patients, who received treatment from the outdoor at KMCH, are dissatisfied with the services of the doctors while 63 per cent of the outpatients are dissatisfied with the distribution of medicine.
   The Committee member Begum Ferdausi Ali read out the report at the press briefing in presence of its convener Hafizur Rahman, Professor Zafar Imam, Professor Anwarul Quadir, Sheikh Abdul Quyaum, Dr Dilip Dutta, advocate Syeda Sabiha and other TIB officials.
   The hospital director could not be contacted despite repeated attempts over phone.

The much-talked about Asian University for Women is likely to start classes with 300 students in September 2009 and pre-academic activities in March 2008.
   ‘We expect to start the construction work of the university on 104 acres of land at Chittagong in September this year,’ Kamal Ahmad, president and CEO of Asian University for Women Support Foundation, told a news briefing held at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka on Thursday.
   ‘After five years, students will get bachelor’s and master’s certificate simultaneously and 25 per cent of the total seats will be reserved for Bangladeshi students,’ he added saying that a student will need $10,000 annually for tuition and other fees.
   Kamal also expressed the hope that the university would allow women of different
   countries in Asia to acquire knowledge and to work as the focal point of women’s development.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on October 8, 2006 assented to the Asian University for Women Bill 2006 which was passed in the 23rd session of the 8th parliament. Former prime minister Khaleda Zia laid the foundation stone of the university on January 13, 2004.
   In February 2006, the AUW Support Foundation reportedly announced that academic activities would begin from September 2007 but it failed.
   The announcement came when a delegation of the Boston-based foundation led by its chairman Jack Meyer called on former education minister M Osman Farruk on February 27, 2006. Jack Meyer also reportedly said that the design of the university had been finalised.
   However, Christopher Mulvey who served as architect and attended Thursday’s programme said, ‘The master plan was completed recently and it would take seven years to complete the construction work.’
   The foundation has so far received $15 million initial
   contribution from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and $20 million from Kuwait Foundation.
   Saudi Fund for Development, ICB, OPEC Fund, UNDP, UNESCO and some EU countries have also committed to support the foundation for establishing the university.

Speakers at a seminar in the Sylhet city on Thursday underscored need for ensuring right of the people to information.
   Non-governmental organisations Mass-Line Media Centre (MMC) and Samadhan organised the seminar on ‘Right to information for ensuring health service’ at the Sylhet City Corporation conference hall.
   The Sylhet mayor, Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, addressed the seminar as the chief guest while the director (health), Sylhet Division, Dr Abdur Rab Chowdhury, as the main speaker.
   Zaman Monir, the Sylhet correspondent of New Age, presented the keynote paper at the seminar chaired by Liaqat Shah Faridi, MMC regional programme officer and former general secretary of the Sylhet Press Club.
   Awareness should be created among the people of their right to information, Kamran said adding that the government should enact a law ensuring people’s right to information.
   Rab said the interim government was considering the issue of right to information with due importance.
   The seminar was attended, among others, by Dr Sajibur Rahman, health officer of the Goainghat Upazila Health Complex, Zahangir Hossain, MMC programme officer, Ikramul Kabir, the Samadhan executive officer, and SCC commissioner Begum Papiya Chowdhury.
   A number of reporters of different national and local dailies and representatives from different NGOs participated in the seminar.

The city dwellers continue to face severe mosquito bites for alleged negligence in duties by the city corporation workers.
   The residents of areas, including Gandaria, Jatrabari, Mirhajirbagh, Jurain, Rampura Mohammadpur, Khilgaon, Moghbazar and Uttara, complained that they were facing mosquito bites continuously.
   ‘We have to hang mosquito net even in the daytime to ward off mosquitoes,’ Jhumu, a resident of Gandaria said adding that she had found no activity of the corporation in the area during the past few days.
   ‘I have been passing my days in great difficulties as I have to study under frequent power outages and often swat mosquitoes along with scratching at their bites,’ said Mahbub a HSC examinee.
   Sheuli, a resident of Satish Sarker Road and an honours final year examinee, said to continue her study she was taking help of either mosquito-repellant coil or spray.
   Zaman, a resident of Mohammadpur Shekhertek, said they were using mosquito-repellant coil even on fifth floor at night to ward off mosquitoes.
   Chief entomologist of the corporation Nasim-us-Seraj said although the season of culex is from September to April, but now culex is found throughout the year.
   ‘We have continued larviciding along with the preparation for controlling aedes mosquito and also trying to increase the monitoring of the field-level works of the mosquito crew,’ he said.
   He also said they had taken some steps to make aware people of the dengue fever’.
   ‘We will issue letter to Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh shortly for requesting its members to keep the under-construction and abandoned houses clean
   where water can remain stagnant for more than five days,’ Seraj said.
   ‘We will also issue letters to different hospitals and clinics to give information about dengue patients so that we can take steps properly,’ he said adding the preparation to publish advertisements on dengue fever in both print and electronic media is also going on.
   An official of the corporation attributed foul weather, hanging latrines at different slums and migratory mosquitoes to the failure of the corporation to arrest mosquito menace.
   He said, ‘drains, ponds and canals in the city have become ideal breeding grounds for the mosquitoes.’
   Besides, there are many places including covered drains remain out of the drive.
   An official of the corporation said the number of mosquito workers was not sufficient to cover the huge areas of the city, suggesting that the number of the mosquito workers should be increased.
   There are 411 mosquito workers of the Dhaka City Corporation and 193 of mosquito control department have been working jointly to give larviciding and adulticiding.
   The Dhaka City Corporation has 368 fogger machines, 659 spray guns and 42 wheelbarrow machines.

A mobile court of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority on Thursday seized four buses for not having route permit and registration.
   The court also realised Tk 15,000 and filed eight cases under the Motor Vehicle Ordinance of BRTA against eight other buses for lacking insurance certificate, renewed fitness certificate and tax token. Three fake driving licenses were also seized from the drivers of three of the buses during the drive.
   The court, led by magistrate M Delwar Hossain, raided a good number of public buses at Jatrabari and seized four of them for plying without route permit and registration. The buses are one each of Shyamoly Paribahan (air-conditioned), which plies on the Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar route, of Prime Paribahan and Prince Paribahan, which ply on the Dhaka-Comilla route, and of Bandhan Paribahan, which plies on the Dhaka-Narayanganj route.
   The court sent the buses to the control room of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
   The magistrate said, ‘It is quite surprising and unbelievable that companies like Shyamoli, Bandhan, Prince and Prime operate their buses without documents.’

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority has no ground of its own in the capital to dump the seized unauthorised vehicles, which paves the way for the vehicles to return to the streets, BRTA officials said.
   ‘A dumping ground for the BRTA is badly needed for the sake of the capital’s better transport management. Due to
   the lack of a dumping
   ground, seized and obsolete vehicles ultimately go to their owners and then come to the roads again,’ said a BRTA
   official.
   In the absence of a dumping ground, the BRTA hand over the seized unfit and unregistered vehicles to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and the DMP then send the vehicles to the concerned police stations, the official said.
   The transport owners, by dint of underhand dealings with a section of the policemen, take back the vehicles and then reintroduce them on city streets, he added.
   Besides, a section of BRTA employees with the connivance of brokers manage forged papers to operate those unfit vehicles and thus the drive against unfit vehicles ultimately goes in vain.
   But the situation would be different if the BRTA had a dumping ground, he added saying that the chance of taking back the seized vehicles from the BRTA dumping ground would be almost zero as the vehicles would be destroyed there.
   Two posts of magistrates have been created in the BRTA organogram and the magistrates will run regular drives against unfit vehicles, another official said.
   ‘A dumping ground will be crucial for the BRTA when the magistrates go for drives in full swing,’ the official said.
   About six lakh motorised vehicles, including buses, trucks, human haulers, jeeps, cars and motorcycles, ply on and around the capital streets. Of them, over 4,000 are buses, said BRTA sources adding that about one fourth of the buses are old and unfit.
   The BRTA chairman, ABM Shahjahan, said, ‘We are badly in need of a dumping ground in city and the government should immediately allocate a piece of land in Dhaka for the BRTA dumping ground.’

Construction work of the Health Technology Institute on the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Campus in Barisal is going on in full swing.
   The complex of the institute, which will have six buildings, is being set up on three acres of land involving Tk 20 crore.
   It will house an academic building, staff quarters and hostels, principal’s house with boundary walls and laboratories for practical training, sources concerned said.
   Belayet Hossain, executive engineer of the project, said Tk 16.24 crore had so far been available for the construction work.
   The construction of the institute will be completed within scheduled time of 30 months since April 2007 to September 2009 if total fund is available in due time, he said.
   The country severely lacks efficient health technologists and at present there are only one-fourth of the demanded trained and certified health technologists.
   The country’s lone health technology institute at Dhaka has failed to meet the increasing demand for health technologists as medical care and service centres in both public and private sectors are rapidly expanding, sources said.
   To face the acute crisis of health technologists, the government decided to build five health technology institutes in five divisional headquarters, the sources added.

The police again seized two bombs from the main gate of the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology on Thursday within 48 hours after recovery of a bomb from the same place on Tuesday.
   The incident created panic among the students and teachers of the university.
   The police said they also seized a steel plate with message of the ‘Jadid–al Qaeda’ which claimed the responsibility of planting the bombs on the university campus.
   Campus sources said, the bombs, wrapped in tapes and plastic cover, were found on the ground of the university Central Shaheed Minar.
   Informed, explosive experts of the police reached the spot and seized the bombs. The Motiher police confirmed the incident and said somebody might have planted the bombs there to create a panic among the students and teachers on the campus.

Three people were killed and six injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a mini-truck on the eastern side of the Khan Jahan Ali Bridge (Rupsha Bridge) in the Khulna city on Thursday.
   The police and locals said the Bagerhat-bound bus of Sohag Paribahan collided with the Khulna-bound shrimp-laden truck at about 5:30am, leaving Shahidul Sheikh, 35, dead and eight others injured.
   Of the injured, Md Hiru, 35, and Borhan Uddin, 34, died after taken to Khulna Medical College Hospital. Shahidul and Hiru were the residents of Nalta village while Borhan was a resident of Kakdanga village under Fakirhat upazila of Bagerhat.
   The remaining injured — Ashraf Sheikh, 30, Halim Shikdar, 35, Dipak Dey, 33, Shah Alam, 45, Rony, 32, and Ruhul Amin Sheikh — were undergoing treatment at the hospital. All the victims were on board the mini-truck.

Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at a few places over Sylhet division and at one or two places over Dhaka, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong divisions during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office predicted on Thursday.
   The mild heat wave that is sweeping Rajshahi division may continue, it added and predicted slight rise in the day temperature over the country.
   The country’s highest temperature on Thursday, 38.8 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Ishurdi and the lowest, 21.9 degrees Celsius, in Sylhet.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:39pm and rises tomorrow at 5:12am.

Pharmacy looted at Mohammadpur
Robbers looted Tk 56,000 from a pharmacy at Mohammadpur in the city early Thursday. The police said four robbers stormed into the Patuakhali Pharmacy at Block C, Tajmahal Road when the owner was about to close the pharmacy at about 12:15am. The robbers took the money at gunpoint. Earlier, muggers looted Tk 80,000 from a passer-by, Syed Sirajul Islam, near the Moghbazar wireless gate level crossing at about 11:00pm Wednesday when he was on his way home in the area. None was arrested till Thursday evening in connection with the incidents.

Ctg mobile court realises Tk 5.9 lakh
A Chittagong mobile court realised Tk 5.9 lakh in fines from the owners of a multi-storey building and from 10 busses, a food factory and eight lighter ships on different charges on Thursday. The court realised Tk 3.05 lakh from the owner of the Rouf Tower at Bagghona in Lalkhan Bazar area for pilfering WASA water through tampering on the meter and Tk 1.65 lakh from eight lighter ships. The court realised Tk 50,000 from the owners of 10 buses in Tiger Pass area for unauthorised modification of their designs. The court also realised Tk 70,000 from Dearly, a biscuit and bread factory at Nizam Road, for unhygienic environ- ment and using substandard
ingredients.
— New Age