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Nearly two lakh Hindu families have lost 1.22 lakh bighas of land, including their houses, in the six years since the Vested Property Act was annulled in 2001 to return the ‘vested’ property to their original owners, according to a research on the issue.
   Abul Barkat, a professor of economics at Dhaka University who has conducted the research, says some 12 lakh or 44 per cent of the 27 lakh Hindu households in the country were affected by the Enemy Property Act 1965 and its post-independence version, the Vested Property Act 1974.
   At the current market price, the value of the 22 lakh acres of land (one acre roughly equals three bighas) that the Hindu families were displaced from is Tk 2,52,000 crore, which is more than half of the country’s gross domestic product, he says.
   ‘This is a man-made problem contrary to the spirit of humanity. We have to get rid of this uncivilised state of affairs to establish a civilised society. Otherwise, we have to face a bigger historic catastrophe,’ Barkat insists in the abridged version of his research paper, ‘Deprivation of affected million families: Living with Vested Property in Bangladesh’, which will be published in its entirety later.
   In 2001, the then Awami League government enacted the Vested Property Return Act to repeal the Vested Property Act with a view to restoring ownership of the lost land to many an affected Hindu family. The move was criticised as a ‘political tokenism’ aimed to appease minority voters prior to the general elections.
   While trying to review the impact of the law on the land ownership of the Hindu community, Barkat has found that no list of the people evicted or the quantum of lands grabbed on the basis of the Vested Property Act has been prepared till date.
   Instead, politically powerful people grabbed most of the land during the reign of the BNP-led alliance government between 2001 and 2006. Forty-five per cent of the land grabbers were affiliated with the BNP, 31 per cent with the Awami League,
   eight per cent with Jamaat-e-Islami and six per cent with the Jatiya Party and other political organisations.
   An earlier research on vested properties, also done by Barkat in 1997, painted a diametrically opposite picture of political affiliation of direct beneficiaries of appropriated property — 44 per cent with the Awami League and 32 per cent with the BNP since the former was in power and the latter the main opposition.
   In his latest research report, Barkat mentions that the affected Hindu families met with more incidents of violence and repression in the immediate-past five years of the BNP-led government than in the previous five years of the Awami League government.
   Political elements, locally influential people in collaboration with the land administration, trickery by land officials and employees themselves, use of force and crookedness, fake documentation, contracted farmers and death or exile of original owners have also been blamed for land grabbing and perpetuation of the ‘vested properties’.
   Barkat points out that 53 per cent of the family displacement and 74 per cent of the land grabbing occurred before the country’s independence in 1971 after the then Pakistan government, following the India-Pakistan War in 1965, introduced the Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order II, which was widely criticised as a tool for appropriating the lands of the minority population.
   The issue came to the limelight in the form of another research on ‘Impact of Vested Property Act on Rural Bangladesh: An Exploratory Study’ which was undertaken in 1995-96 and published in 1997 — a move that sensitised the public.
   This time around, his research covered the progress since 2001 and used as samples 450 affected Hindu families in 16 union parishads in 16 districts across the country.
   In view of the gravity of the problem that has had tragic effects on the demography over 42 years, Barkat acknowledges that it will also be a tough task to establish the rights of the original owners.
   More than 60 per cent of the owners and the successors of ‘vested properties’ are either dead or have left the country, he says.
   He also dismisses the ‘Hindu versus Muslim’ polarisation in the problem and claims that it is an issue created by communal elements and vested interests groups. ‘Criminals do not bother whether a piece of land is owned by a Hindu, a Muslim or a Santal; they resort to easy means to loot property,’ he adds.
   To solve the residual problems of the Vested Property Act, Barkat has come up with a number of recommendations such as identification and listing of such cases and lands, amendments to certain provisions of the 2001 law that hinders its implementation, cancellation of leases of such land to different people for 99 years, and involving citizens’ groups in addressing the problem.
   He explains that the scrapping of the Vested Property Act in 2001 has not paved the way for its implementation to end deprivation of the Hindu community due to deliberate delay and criminalisation of the political economy.
   ‘The vested property act incapacitated Hindu people in serving the nation, depriving the country of their more valuable contribution. Also the inability to raise protests against the repression by a tiny class of looters implies the weakness of the majority people who are though non-communal,’ Barkat observes.

The move to create the much-talked-about new political platform is still in a ‘fluid’ state, as its behind-the-scene initiators are not yet sure whether the politicians from major political parties that they have approached will join in or not.
   The initiators are also in a tangle as they try to accommodate conflicting policies and ideologies in a bid to woo the potential breakaways.
   ‘The process is in a fluid state… It is yet to be crystallised,’ Sheikh Shahidul Islam, secretary general of a Jatiya Party faction who is involved with the process, told New Age on Thursday. ‘We are not yet sure about the joining of certain leaders of the major political parties.’
   Shahid, who is working on the draft constitution for the new party, said, ‘the constitution is at an initial stage as we [the leaders who have already agreed to join the new platform] are maintaining on individual basis.’
   He claimed that the new party would be a secular-democratic organisation and support positive programmes and activities of the interim government and the army.
   The process to formally float the new party will begin as soon as the government relaxes the ban on political activities, he added.
   Giving hints about the tangle on accommodating conflicting policies and ideologies, a joint general secretary of a faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, who is also involved with the process, said, ‘We are facing problem in accommodating conflicting policies, ideologies and programmes.’
   He said the leaders they were trying to rope in from different political parties were providing different agenda. ‘We want to float a party which will have secular-democratic ideals and be manned by relatively clean men. But there is the possibility that some leaders, who were convicted by court and clearly demonstrated their inclination to religion-based politics, are also in the race to join the process.’
   He said a number of leaders might not join the new party if the planners hankered after ‘a fallen autocrat, who had made Islam the state religion, and who was convicted by court for corruption’.
   ‘No person, who supports religion based politics and extremism, would be welcome,’ he added.
   A young leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who is a former lawmaker, said some BNP leaders who had initially showed interest in the new party were now hesitant, as they were no longer certain about its policy and programmes.
   Sources involved with the initiative said the initiators of the new platform were in touch with some senior and mid-level leaders of the Awami League, the BNP, the Jatiya Party led by HM Ershad, two different groups of leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party, and a Workers Party polite bureau member who is popular in his constituency.

The Awami League is rethinking the traditional way of choosing its leaders and weighing the idea of keeping non-political figures off party posts and parliamentary polls as part of party reforms, AL insiders say.
   The party may discontinue its current practice of candidate nominations for parliamentary elections through a board. Instead, it may introduce a system of election to find out worthy candidates for the constituencies.
   A section of AL leaders, comparatively younger ones, who are involved in the party reforms initiated recently by the party chief, Sheikh Hasina, said the proposals came informally and would be placed before the party’s next council session, to be held sometime after lifting of the current ban on politics under the state of emergency.
   They said that the party would try to find out alternative sources of funds to reduce dependence on individual donors, mostly rich businessmen who can influence the party decisions.
   ‘It is unfortunate that the political parties nominate non-political businessmen only for funds,’ a central working committee member of the party told New Age on Friday. He said AL was trying hard to get rid of such elements.
   The mid-level party leader said all other parties should take similar measures to keep such elements out of the political process.
   He said that the top leadership had realised that the party needed to rethink the process of choosing leaders.
   ‘Dedicated activists should be in the leading positions in the party and strangers should not be encouraged in those positions,’ said a former lawmaker of the party.
   Another central leader said that a number of leaders had left the party after differences over reform issues in the past and the AL would not hesitate to lose some leaders if they disagreed with the decisions that would be taken in the party council on reform issues.
   ‘But all the present leaders favoured the maximum reform in the party,’ he added.
   Talking to New Age, a good number of former party lawmakers supported the view that the party chief should not hold the post for more than two terms. Also, the party chief and the head of the government should not the same person.
   ‘The provision is not new, it was in the party constitution till 1991 which could be re-introduced if the council wants,’ another former lawmaker said adding that every decision should be taken by the central working committee and be approved by the council.
   Earlier, the AL chief informally decided to seek funds from the government and the party on Thursday sent separate letters to four foreign missions to know how political parties in their respective countries received government funds.
   Hasina and other top leaders of the party have also gone through the constitutions of the political parties in different developed democratic countries for ideas before bringing necessary changes in AL’s own constitution in keeping with the demand of the time after withdrawal of the ban on political activities, sources said.
   The party has assigned some leaders with the task of making an assessment of the organisational situation at the union, ward, upazila, district and city corporation levels and preparing a list of the party committees. They were asked submit reports by Monday, AL insiders said.

The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, said on Friday that the current restriction on politics should go immediately to ensure political reforms and demanded holding of the stalled elections shortly.
   In only her second appearance before the media after a state of emergency was imposed on January 11, the immediate-past prime minister said the elections should be held without any delay.
   She was approached by journalists after her meeting with the outgoing US envoy, Patricia A Butenis, at Sheraton Hotel in the evening.
   Khaleda denied existence of dynastic dominance in Bangladesh politics saying, ‘There is nothing called dynasty here. Those who have been accepted by the people will do politics. Those who are doing politics now have come to their positions by their own merits. None of them came to politics using their family backgrounds’.
   ‘I myself came to politics by my own merit and with people’s support and you all have been beside me all the way,’ she said.
   On her talks with Butenis, Khaleda said, ‘It was her farewell call as she served long in Bangladesh and we discussed many issues, including the polls, electoral reforms, inner-party reforms and lifting of ban on politics’.
   ‘She said the US wants immediate election, so we do. And I told her we want to reform the party and as soon as the ban on politics will be lifted, we will begin the reform,’ Khaleda said.
   The outgoing ambassador and Khaleda talked for nearly two hours at the hotel.
   Before leaving the hotel, Butenis said Khaleda was very generous during the talks and they touched on a lot of issues and talked about electoral reforms, what the Election Commission was doing, reform of political parties and the ban on political activities which had made it impossible for the BNP, the Awami League and other parties to actually contribute to the debate and share their ideas.
   ‘I think it is important for the government to lift the ban on political activities and invite ideas of the parties. I think it is important for Bangladesh and that should be done,’ Butenis said.
   The BNP secretary general, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, standing committee members Dr RA Ghani, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui, the party chief’s adviers, TH Khan, Reaz Rahman and Mushfiqur Rahman, and senior leader Mir Shawkat Ali assisted Khaleda during the meeting.
   After the state of emergency was imposed, Khaleda went out of home on April 2 to visit the grave of her husband late president Ziaur Rahman, on April 26 she dined at her bother Sayeed Eskandar’s house and on May 12 she met two former congressmen of the United States at Reaz Rahman’s residence.

Extortion continues unabated at the four inter-district bus terminals in the capital despite an intensified countrywide clampdown by the army-led joint forces on top criminals and their patrons, extortionists and corrupt elements.
   A large number of listed criminals and their patrons have managed to slip through the dragnet of the joint forces, although nearly two lakh people have been detained for suspected involvement in crime and corruption since the proclamation of a state of emergency on January 11.
   The suspected criminals and their patrons have also managed to retain their monopoly over extortion at the bus terminals through their agents.
   ‘Previously, we paid the toll in the terminal area but now we have to take the money to a place of their choice,’ said a transport owner at the Mohakhali inter-district bus terminal told New Age.
   ‘We joined the business knowing fully well that we would have to pay toll in any circumstances until we went bankrupt,’ a frontline transport leader said.
   ‘The declaration of a state of emergency has not stopped the toll collection; it has only resulted in a change in the collection system,’ a transport owner at the Sayedabad bus terminal told New Age. ‘The syndicate previously collected toll from the terminal area but now they collect it at different points of the inter-district routes through their agents.’
   Intelligence sources claim that Abdul Baten and Saiful Alam, president and general secretary respectively of the Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Malik Samiti (road transport owners’ association), Mirza Abbas, former minister for housing and public works, former BNP lawmakers Mosaddak Ali Falu and Nasir Uddin Pintoo, Shimul Biwas, a former chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation, Gias Uddin Al Mamun, managing director of the private TV channel-1, are the top leaders of the extortion syndicate.
   The syndicate continues its operation through Chowdhury Alam, commissioner of ward 56, Ahmed Hossain, commissioner of ward 70, Kazi Abul Bashar, commissioner of ward 74, MA Kaium, commissioner of ward 21, Ahsan Ullah Hasan, commissioner of ward 6, Monowar Hossain Dipjol, commissioner of ward 9, and Nabi Ullah Nabi, a former ward commissioner of the BNP, the sources said.
   A transport owner at the Gabtoli inter-district bus terminal told New Age that ‘some “linemen”, acting on behalf of certain leaders, are regularly collecting tolls in the name of several associations and unions’.
   Mazharul Islam, a manager of the Gulistan inter-city bus terminal, told New Age, ‘My management has engaged me only to deal with the police sergeants and patrol inspectors and we pay them between Tk 500 and Tk 3,000 each on weekly or monthly basis.’
   Another transport owner at the Mohakhali terminal told New Age, ‘The agents of the syndicate board the buses faking as passengers and collect Tk 140 to 250 a day from each at Gabatoli, Mohakhali and Sayedabad bus terminals soon after the buses start for their destination.’
   ‘They collect tolls in the name of the owners’ and workers unions’ Tk 400-650 from each bus every day and distribute the money among the agents of the absconding and arrested syndicate members,’ said a young transport owner.
   Hasan Mohammad, supervisor of a transport company in the Gulistan area, told New Age, ‘I went to the Kashimpur jail-2 last week to pay Tk 12, 000 for one of the influential leaders.’
   Most of the toll is collected by the Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity while the rest by Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Sramik (workers’) Union and distributed among the influential leaders.
   The general secretary of the Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owner’s Association, Kafil Uddin, declined to make any comment about the toll collection.
   The Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, Nayeem Ahmed, told New Age, ‘We are continuing a massive hunt for extortionists and none of the owners admitted to the incidents of toll collection.’
   A transport owner, who recently joined in the business, told New Age, ‘We don’t have any choice, if we stop paying toll to the “godfathers”, we face death threats and if we stop paying bribe to the police we face several false cases.’

India made the most of a poor Bangladesh decision to field first by accumulating 326 without loss on the opening day of the second Test at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium on Friday.
   Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar sprung a great surprise when he asked the visitors to bat on a track that only offered some low bounce and virtually no movement. The Indian batsmen then made a mockery of his decision throughout the day, hitting the bowlers to all corners of the ground, which was staging its inaugural Test.
   The only thing that troubled the batsmen was the stifling heat that forced opener Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik to retire hurt having made 138 and 82 respectively. Skipper Rahul Dravid was unbeaten on 88 at stumps with Sachin Tendulkar on nine.
   Bangladesh were also not helped by some sloppy fielding and questionable umpiring that deprived the hosts of getting a breakthrough. Sakib al Hasan dropped Karthik at second slip on 10 off Syed Rasel, who was playing in place of Shahadat Hossain.
   Umpire Darrel Harper gave Karthik a new lease of life on 74 when he failed to read a nick to the disbelief of Mohammad Sharif, playing his first Test in five years.
   Mohammad Rafique dropped a simple return catch of Jaffer shortly after lunch. The batsman also survived a strong lbw appeal off the same bowler while batting on 42.
   The Mumbai opener, who got a ‘pair’ in the first Test, later went on to score a century before he started vomiting on the ground and had to leave the field.
   With the innings, Jaffer became the 15th batsman in Test history to score a century after a pair. Sri Lankan batsman Chamara Silva last achieved the feat in 2004 against New Zealand.
   Jaffer and Karthik, who did not bat after the tea break, scored 175 runs together to set up the highest first wicket partnership record against Bangladesh. Previously, the highest first-wicket partnership against the hosts was 168; made by Saeed Anwar and Toufiq Umar at Multan in the 2001 Asian Test Championship.
   The unbroken first wicket partnership record then saw the involvement of Dravid and Tendulkar.
   At stumps, Dravid was 12 runs short of completing his 24th Test century. The Indian captain smashed 11 fours and a six in his 131-ball innings.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police has decided to ask the banks to make sure that clients keep their mobile phones switched off inside the bank branches during transaction hours.
   The city police took the decision at a meeting at its headquarters Thursday night as law enforcers believe that information about big transactions leaks from inside the banks through mobile phones.
   The city police decided to keep an escort team standby at each of the city’s 33 police stations to respond to the calls from banks and clients.
   DMP on Thursday urged the people to take police escorts for big transactions and carrying big amounts inside the city.
   All the officers-in-charge of police stations in the metropolitan and officials above inspector level were present at the midnight meeting with the city police commissioner, Naim Ahmed, in the chair.
   The meeting followed the killing of a senior army official’s son when he tried to resist robbers taking away Tk 4.45 lakh from his relative at Satmasjid Road in Dhanmondi in broad daylight Thursday. The money was just withdrawn from the National Credit and Commerce Bank Limited, Dhanmondi branch, and the killing took place in front of the bank.
   The police suspect that the information of withdrawing the money might have been leaked out from inside the bank branch through cellphones.
   ‘The clients must shut their cellphones inside the bank and we’ll also request the bank authority to ensure it,’ an official source told Friday.
   The meeting also decided to request the bank authorities to inform the police of any transaction involving above Tk one lakh.
   ‘Bank authorities must inform the police of big transactions and if any client refuses to take police escorts, the authorities must take it written from him/her,’ the source said.
   Meanwhile, the police said that they had already identified the gang involved in the Thursday’s killing and robbery after going through the
   video footage collected from the bank. But none of the gang members was arrested till Friday evening.
   Joynal Abedin, who was robbed off the money, filed a case with Dhanmondi police around Thursday midnight accusing five unknown robbers of the incident. Officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi police Monwar Hossain was investigating the case.
   The body of SM Arefin Alam Rusho, son of physician couple, lieutenant colonel Shafiqul Alam and Lt Col Ambori, was buried at the army graveyard at Banani Friday afternoon.
   His namaj-e janaza was held at the CMH jam-e mosque in Dhaka Cantonment after Friday’s juma prayer. Adviser to the ministry of health and family welfare, major general (retd) ASM Motiur Rahman, and chief of army, general Moeen U Ahmed, were among others, who attended the janaza.

Military-run Myanmar on Friday extended the house arrest of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for another year, police sources said, ignoring international calls for her freedom.
   Officials visited the Nobel peace prize-winner at her lakeside home here to inform her, they said.
   ‘We issued an order of further detention,’ one source said.
   Another police source confirmed her latest period of detention, which started in May 2003 and was set to expire this weekend, was extended by a year.
   ‘We informed her about the extension,’ said the source, which was among the officials who visited Aung San Suu Kyi.
   The 61-year-old has spent most of the past 17 years under house arrest and has little contact with the outside world, apart from her live-in maid and visits from her doctor.
   The last time the opposition leader — the only Nobel peace laureate in detention — was able to leave her house was November 2006, when the junta allowed her to meet visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari for one hour.
   The extension was widely expected, with observers saying the junta is fearful the hugely popular democracy leader could threaten its rule.
   Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but was never allowed to govern, quickly denounced the extension.
   ‘Our government totally ignored domestic and international calls demanding her freedom,’ said Myint Thein, an NLD spokesman. ‘We are very disappointed by this. Her detention is not good for the country,’ he said.
   Political figures from across the world have ramped up calls for her release, with ex-US president Bill Clinton and 58 other former world leaders sending a joint letter last week to junta head General Than Shwe.
   Two other Nobel peace laureates — former US president Jimmy Carter and former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung — were among those who signed the appeal.
   US First Lady Laura Bush on Wednesday called on China, an ally of Myanmar, to join efforts to free her, saying that American women ‘stand with her and that we watch her and we think about her a lot.’
   In the past week the junta has detained at least 60 pro-democracy activists as they went to pagodas to pray for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, and 45 people, mostly NLD members, still remain in custody.
   Amnesty International said Wednesday the human rights situation in Myanmar had worsened over the past the year with authorities stepping up repression of political opposition.
   The UN has estimated there are 1,100 political prisoners in the country formerly known as Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.

The number of unsettled audit objections against Petrobangla, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation and their subsidiaries has reached more than 4,400 involving a staggering amount of around Tk 43,000 crore.
   One of the objections raised by government auditors against Petrobangla in connection with the Magurchhara gas field blow-out in 1997 alone involves about Tk 30,000 crore and has remained unsettled for years.
   The number of objections against over-expenditures has been increasing every month as the energy and mineral resources division and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General have failed to settle the issues related to fringe benefits enjoyed by hundreds of officials and employees of these organisations, sources in the division said.
   According to them, although the division was able to settle 1,200 audit objections in the past one year by convening tri-partite meetings between officials of the division, office of the CAG, and the companies concerned, the fringe benefits-related complications have spawned more and more new objections.
   The energy adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, recently sent a letter to the finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, requesting him to take immediate steps to settle the audit objections, especially those related to fringe benefits, the sources said. In response, Mirza Aziz last week informed Tapan Chowdhury that the acting finance secretary, Mohammad Tarek, would hold a meeting in this regard with energy officials soon.
   As of March, the number of unsettled commercial audit objections against Petrobangla and its 11 subsidiaries stood at 2,463 involving around Tk 40,770 crore and that of project-related objections at about 450 involving Tk 1,048 crore.
   On the other hand, the number of objections against the BPC and its eight subsidiaries stood at around 1,963 involving Tk 1,449 crore.
   The money apart from the Magurchhara blow-out claim had allegedly been over-expended in processing various tenders and as fringe benefits, such as house rent, tiffin allowance, and festival allowance and bonus, given to staffers of these organisations in the past one decade. Objections against outstanding gas bills and purchase of foreign goods are also on the list.
   The auditors also objected to the so-called system loss or pilferage of fuel oil of the BPC and its subsidiaries worth crores of taka during transportation over the years.
   As per the audit reports, hundreds of staffers of the two state-owned gas and oil agencies and the companies under them drew fringe benefits more than double to triple the amount they were entitled to.
   A high official of the energy division, however, claimed that the auditors had a misunderstanding about the benefits the officials and employees of the companies concerned should get.
   ‘Most of the companies were private entities during Pakistan period. Their staff then enjoyed benefits like other private sector companies and the trend continues. Besides, as per the companies act of 1994, the boards of directors of the companies have the authority to grant such benefits to their staffers,’ he explained.
   In his opinion, the government auditors have failed to differentiate between the fringe benefits enjoyed by the staff of these companies with that of other public sector entities.
   He, however, admitted that there might have been some over-expenditure. ‘In case
   any over-expenditure is found in any tripartite meeting, we settle the objection by paying up the sum.’
   Sources in Petrobangla and energy division said it would be difficult to settle the Tk 30,000 crore objection related to Magurchhara blow-out as the government formally asked the then operator of the gas field, Occidental of the US, to pay around Tk 4,000 crore as damages for the loss of gas of the field.
   ‘The government auditors at that time set the amount based on some newspaper reports that said gas worth Tk 30,000 crore was lost in the blow-out. But, later, an expert committee found the actual gas loss was to the tune of Tk 4,000 crore,’ said a source.
   Neither Occidental nor any
   of its predecessors, UNOCAL and Chevron, however, has agreed so far to pay the Tk 4,000 crore to compensate for damaging a gas structure with an
   estimated 250 billion cubic feet of gas.
   When contacted on Wednesday, the energy secretary, AMM Nasir Uddin, told New Age that the finance secretary would hold a meeting with energy
   officials to discuss how to settle the objections after completion of the ongoing budget formulation.
   ‘If we can clear up the fringe benefit issue with the office of the CAG, the bulk of the objections will be settled,’ he said.

The government is negotiating with the Nordic Development Fund for obtaining a euro 10 million loan to purchase 100 single-decker buses powered by compressed natural gas for the loss-making Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation.
   The NDF is a multilateral development financing institution of five Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden — which was established in 1989 with the aim of facilitating economic and social progress in the developing countries by participating in financing of projects of interest to its member countries.
   ‘The Economic Relations Division is in discussion with the NDF to make the terms and conditions of the loan favourable to Bangladesh,’ said a communications ministry official.
   The NDF loan proposal, however, put a condition that the government would have to purchase the buses from any of the Nordic countries.
   The proposal said the rate of interest on the loan, repayable over 40 years, would be only 1 per cent during 2012 to 2021 and 2 per cent during 2022 to 2041. It also said, ‘No down payment will have to be made, and the country will get a 10-year grace period.’
   Communications ministry officials said, if the negotiations became successful, the government would procure the buses in the next fiscal year.
   Some officials of the ministry, however, said it was not feasible for the government to procure the buses for the losing corporation plagued by mismanagement, corruption, and inefficiency.
   The state-owned BRTC, which now owns a fleet of 741 buses and 170 trucks, incurred a loss of around Tk 30 crore in fiscal year 2005-06, around Tk 35 crore in FY05, Tk 42 crore in FY04, Tk 33 crore in FY03, and Tk 24 crore in FY02.
   The ministry sources also fear that the cost of the buses would be much higher than usual due to a loan condition to award the procurement contract to a company of the loan-providing countries through a limited competitive bidding.
   They said it would also be a violation of the Public Procurement Regulations 2003, which stipulates open tender for any government purchase.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Division on Thursday sent to the Cabinet Division for approval of the council of advisers the draft Gas Ordinance with a provision for a maximum penalty of five years in jail or a fine up to Tk 5 lakh or both for gas pilferage from the supply network through illegal connections.
   ‘We have requested the council of advisers that the draft Ordinance be approved in principle. If the council approves the draft, it will be sent to the law ministry for vetting,’ said a source in the division.
   ‘After we finalise the Ordinance it will be again sent to the council of advisers for the final approval. If the council approves, the president will have to promulgate it as an ordinance as there is no parliament in session,’ he said.
   The draft of the Gas Act was prepared almost two years back, and it recommended a maximum penalty of three years in jail for pilferage of gas. It was submitted to the BNP-Jamaat government, which could not approve the draft as it was apparently busy preparing for the general election which was later cancelled.
   The division has modified the draft, specifying the penalty provisions and making the punishment harsher.
   ‘The Ordinance will allow gas distribution companies to set up their own legal wings with magistrates to launch drives against illegal connections and punish culprits. At present the companies have to request the government to provide a magistrate and sometimes they have to wait for days for one,’ said a source.
   The draft Ordinance specifies the penalty provisions for domestic, commercial, industrial and other consumers for stealing gas, establishing illegal connections from the existing supply network, meter tampering and theft of gas pipeline materials, regulators and other equipment.
   Referring to domestic consumers, the draft Ordinance says that if a gas connection holder — landlord or tenant — takes an illegal line bypassing meter or tampers with the meter, he or she will be fined Tk 10,000 or sentenced to three months of imprisonment or both.
   For the same offence, a commercial consumer will be fined Tk 20,000 or given six months of imprisonment or both, and an industrial consumer will be fined Tk 1 lakh or imprisoned for one year or both, and a consumer of the ‘power and fertiliser category’ will be fined Tk 2 lakh or sentenced to two years of imprisonment or both.
   If a domestic consumer repeats the offence, he or she will be fined Tk 20,000 or given 3-6 months of imprisonment or both, a commercial consumer Tk 40,000 or one year in jail or both, an industrial consumer Tk 2 lakh or 2-3 years of imprisonment or both and a power and fertiliser consumer Tk 5 lakh or 2-5 years of imprisonment or both.
   If anyone is caught stealing pipeline materials, meters, regulators or other equipment, he or she will be fined Tk 1 lakh or given a one-year sentence or both. For repeating the offence the punishment will be Tk 2 lakh or 3 years of imprisonment or both.
   Those who will be caught purchasing stolen materials will be fined Tk 1 lakh or given a one-year sentence or both, and for repeating the crime the punishment will be Tk 2 lakh or 1-3 years of imprisonment or both.

Ideal School and College, Motijheel is the highest earner among the non-government educational institutions in the capital city, finds an education ministry investigation.
   It earns Tk 11 crore annually followed by the Monipur High School at Mirpur with slightly over Tk 10 crore, according to the investigation report secured by New Age.
   Tuition fees and other charges are the main sources of their income, the report said.
   The Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, a famous educational institution, which earns Tk 9 crore annually has been placed third in the education ministry’s list of huge earners, although 95 per cent salaries of their teachers and employees are paid from the public exchequer. The ministry started the investigation into the earnings of the city’s educational institutions following a directive from the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, to let him know the income levels of the apparently solvent schools and colleges.
   In his letter dated April 17, Fakhruddin, also a former central bank governor, asked for income statement from those institutions that are placed under the government’s payroll called Monthly Pay Orders.
   ‘Of the total 349 institutions from which the ministry could collect income information, 248 are schools, 55 madrasshas and 46 colleges,’ a ministry official said and added that the detail report has been sent to the CA last week.
   ‘Perhaps the ministry has failed to know the income information of about 50 such institutions,’ a ministry official said adding that their actual incomes would be higher than the authorities reported to us.
   Motijheel Model School and College earns above Tk 8 crore, Bir Shreshtha Munsi Abdur Rouf Rifles School and College Tk 4 crore and Mirpur University College above Tk 2 crore.
   Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrassh which is sponsored by a charity trust earns Tk 1.12 crore annually, according to the ministry report.
   ‘A number of influential persons in recent years have become more interested in grabbing posts of office bearers of managing committee or governing body with the intention to make money from such institutions,’ said a guardian.
   ‘The reputed institutions in the capital city earn a lot mainly during admission in the beginning of the academic session and it should be stopped,’ he said.
   The Notre Dame College, Holy Cross School and College, Scholastica School, BIT and SFX Greenherald International School and some other institutions were outside of the purview of ministry’s investigation as they are solely private.

A shortage of doctors and nurses in Africa is now one of the biggest obstacles to providing life-saving drugs to AIDS patients, condemning untold numbers to an unnecessary death, a new report says.
   Africa has increased the number of AIDS sufferers on treatment from 100,000 in 2003 to 1.3 million last year, but a lack of medical workers is preventing further expansion of drug programs, according to the report released Thursday by Medecins Sans Frontieres.
   ‘The international community says it wants to achieve universal access, and in Khayelitsha we were coming close, but at a certain point things started to collapse,’ said Eric Goemaere, who heads the agency — also known as Doctors Without Borders — in that sprawling Cape Town township.
   ‘We are absolutely saturated. We have come back to waiting lists and it feels again like we are losing the battle,’ he said.
   Southern Africa is hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, accounting for the vast majority of the 40 million infections and the daily death toll of 8,000. Despite the advances in AIDS treatment taken for granted in rich countries, more than 70 percent of Africans who need it are still waiting.
   On an average day, about 200 AIDS patients flock to the clinic set up by Doctors without Borders in Khayelitsha. Many others languish at home, not for lack of drugs but because there aren’t enough health workers to administer them.
   At the clinic in Khayelitsha — where about 30 percent of adults have the AIDS virus — nearly 6,000 people are currently receiving anti-retroviral therapy. But the number of new patients starting treatment each month dropped from 270 in May 2006 to 100 last December — mainly because of lack of health workers.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs ministry will hold on May 31 its first-ever meeting with its committee of advisers, formed back in September 2000, to devise a plan for implementing the CHT peace treaty in full.
   Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury will chair the meeting at the secretariat which will take stock of the progress made in implementing the 1997 peace accord and chalk out a working plan to expedite implementation of its clauses that have remained shelved to date, according to the notification of the meeting.
   The notice dated May 16 and signed by an assistant secretary of the ministry said the meeting also would discuss development issues of the hill districts.
   Maulana Mohammad Shahjahan, who is on the advisory committee, said the notice reached the committee members in Rangamati on Wednesday.
   Besides Mohammad Shahjahan, the other members of the committee are CHT Regional Council chairman Jyotirindriya Bodhipriya Larma, chairmen of the three hill district councils, Rajahs of the three CHT circles, Nurunnabi Chowdhury of Khagrachhari, and Azizur Rahman of Bandarban.
   The committee has not been able to convene even a single meeting during the six years and nine months since its formation, as it has been kept inoperative by the governments of Awami League as well as the BNP-led four-party alliance, said a committee member.

The Election Commission has yet to pay candidates back deposits for the forestalled Jan 22 elections.
   ‘The Election Commission has not refunded the deposits for the cancelled January 22 elections,’ election commissioner Muhammad Sahul Hossain told the news agency Friday.
   ‘No candidate has asked for refunds through returning officers either. We will decide on the issue soon,’ he said.
   The Elections Act 1972 says a national elections contender has to deposit Tk 10,000 for filing nominations with a returning officer.
   A contestant fetching less than one-eighth of the votes cast in a constituency, however, loses the deposit, according to the Act.
   The candidates will get the deposit back in case the elections are cancelled.
   As many as 4,146 candidates submitted nominations for the 2006 elections, of which 265 were cancelled.
   But 54 more candidates were allowed after they appealed against cancellations, bringing the total number of valid nominations to 3,935.
   Again, 2,370 candidates withdrew, lowering the total number of contestants to 1,556.

A divided US Congress on Thursday approved $100 billion to keep fighting the war in Iraq, as Democrats pledged to resurrect failed attempts to force the president, George W Bush, to withdraw troops.
   Passage of the legislation capped a four-month struggle between Bush and the new Democratic-led Congress over the increasingly unpopular Iraq war, now in its fifth year.
   Underscoring Democratic division, house speaker Nancy Pelosi of California voted against it and Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada voted for it.
   Three Democratic senators running for president — Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut — opposed providing money with no withdrawal deadlines. Joseph Biden of Delaware, also a presidential hopeful, voted yes.

Bangladesh Rifles members seized huge quantity of illegal firearms from deep forest of at Nikkongchari hill upazila near Myanmar border in early hours Thursday.
   They also destroyed a camp of suspected miscreants and gunrunners, sources in the para-military border guard forces said.
   A team of 40 Rifles battalion, lead by major Monir Ahmed Chowdhury, raided an abounded house of a tribal headman in a village bordering Myanmar at about 2.30am.
   BDR men recovered five Pakistan-made long barrel guns, two local guns, five rounds of ammunitions and other equipment and substances for making weapons and bombs from the den.
   Suspected terrorists managed to flee their hideout. BDR men seized some combat dresses from the den.

At least 12 people, including seven children, were injured when the roof of a two-storey community centre building housing stranded Pakistanis collapsed at Mohammadpur in Dhaka on Friday.
   Locals said a portion of the roof of the ground floor of the building at Humayun Road collapsed at around noon leaving at least 12 people, including seven minor children, injured.
   The police and Rapid Action Battalion members went to the spot and evacuated the residents from the building. ‘We made repeated appeal to the government in the past to repair the dila pitated building but the authorities did not take any step in this regard,’ some residents said.