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The guardians and their kids have started preparing for the admission tests in the city’s renowned schools as some of them have started selling admission forms for the academic year 2008.
   A number of coaching centres have also started alluring the guardians by pledging that their wards would get chances in most of the schools of their priorities by taking preparations for the tests in their respective coaching centres.
   The authorities of the schools said one fourth of the children seeking admission usually get chances in schools of their choices.
   The sale of admission forms for Bangla medium section of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College ended on November 4. The admission test will be held in the first week of January 2008.
   The sale of admission forms for the English medium section of the school ended last week and the test will be held in the second week of December, school sources said.
   The principal of the institution, Tahmina Khanam, said they would take admissions of 1,250 students in Bangla medium and 70 students in English medium in Class I.
   Holy Cross School and College have completed selling admission forms for Class I on November 15. A total of 100 students would take admission in Class I and the test will be held on November 22, 23 and 24.
   Sale of admission forms for 100 seats in Class VI at the school will continue till November 25, school sources said.
   Monipur High School in Mirpur will take admissions of 1,040 students in Class I. The sale of admission forms will start in the first week of December and the test will held in the first week of January.
   Ideal School and College in Motijheel will sell admission forms between November 24 and November 29 and the test will be held in the second week of December.
   The 24 government schools in the Dhaka city will start selling admission forms on December 12 and they will continue it till December 26.
   The date for the admission tests has not been fixed but and official of the education directorate hinted that it might be held by January 20.
   The schools are divided into three groups — Group A, B and C — on the basis of geographical location and the quality of education in part and the tests will also be held in three days.
   More than one lakh new students enrol in the city schools every year, according to the estimate of the directorate.

A good number of hoardings fell down in the capital during storm Thursday night, giving the city authorities reminder of the fragile structures of billboards and the risks they pose to commuters.
   There was, however, no report of casualty as the hoardings collapsed mostly after midnight when the city roads were almost deserted due to storm and rains.
   Huge advertisement boards collapsed on the road in many parts of the city, including Mirpur Technical Crossing, Dar-us-Salam Road, Kalyanpur, Panthapath opposite to Bashundhara City Complex, Bishwa Road and Begunbari.
   Debris of the billboards littered the roads in many other parts of the capital city blocking traffic until Friday morning. People employed by advertising farms were seen erecting the structures, caring little about the restriction on such billboards.
   Most of the billboards were installed at 20 to 30 feet height on shabby structures and more likely to collapse even in moderate wind and rainfall. There are hundreds of unauthorised billboards in the capital and a good number of them are in risky position.
   Accidents from billboard collapse a couple of years ago alerted the city authorities to the risks from unauthorised billboards with faulty structures.
   Dhaka City Corporation authorities took some irregular drives to dismantle the illegal and risky billboards, but there was no visible impact as billboards continued to cover the city’s skyline.
   The DCC authorities once asked the advertisers to pull down hoardings from the rooftops, but the directive was ignored. The corporation also decided that large-sized billboards will not be allowed, yet there are many such billboards in the city.
   Maqsudur Rahman Chowdhury, chief conservancy officer of DCC, recently told New Age the drive against illegal and risky billboards continued at night and would continue from now on.
   He said dismantling of billboard is time consuming. It takes six to eight hours to remove a large billboard, he cited.
   Currently, there is no specific data regarding the total number of billboards in the city to DCC, but advertising industry’s estimate suggests there are over 10,000 outdoor advertisement boards throughout the capital.

Bus terminals, especially at Sayedabad and Gabtali, and transport counters in Dhaka on Friday faced a rush of people headed for village homes to see the damage caused by cyclone Sidr that lashed the south Thursday afternoon.
   A ticket reservation officer of the Sohag Paribahan at Malibagh, Amena Akhtar, said, ‘An increased number of people are buying tickets to destinations in Khulna and Chittagong. The demand for tickets to destinations in Cox’s Bazar is not that heavy.’
   All the transport agencies cancelled the bus trips on Thursday evening, she said.
   A man at the Hanif Enterprise counter, Alal, said the bus service on the route to Barisal had been suspended till Friday afternoon. Buses left for Khulna, Chittagong and Sylhet as usual. The rush of passengers to such destinations was significant.
   The man at the transport counter at Kalyanpur said no bus tickets were available for Friday and most tickets for buses for Saturday had been booked by then.
   A man on the Shyamali Paribahan counter, Jamal, said buses had left Dhaka for various districts on Friday as usual and the rush was worth noting.
   Bangladesh Inland Waterway Transport (passenger vessel) Association vice-president Shahabuddin Milon said motor launches left for southern destinations on Friday. But the rush of passengers was very thin.
   The manager at Kamalapur railway station, Abu Sayed, said, ‘The rush of passengers was normal. The rush we faced was for tickets to Rajshahi because of admission tests at Rajshahi University. We added more coaches to the inter-city trains to Rajshahi.’

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority will start the process of registering 5,000 more CNG-run auto-rickshaws by early December and complete it by January 2008.
   The registrations will be given to the three-wheeler drivers, who have valid licenses, said a BRTA official.
   ‘We will publish advertisements in newspapers
   inviting applications from the three-wheeler drivers and then start selling the registration forms,’ Humayun Rashid Khalifa, director (Engineering) BRTA, said to New Age on Thursday.
   The advertisements will be published within the next 15 days after the approval of the communications ministry, he added.
   Each driver will need to deposit Tk 20,000 through a pay order with the application form. After completing the allotment process, the money will be refunded to them.
   The communications ministry early this month had
   asked the road transport authority to allot the registrations only to CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers.
   The agency has recommended that any person, not below 18 years of age, either having a business in the capital city or living in the city, will be eligible to apply for the registration, the BRTA chairman, ABM Shahjahan, said.
   The agency also proposed that the registrations should be allotted to 5,000 individuals so that people of the lower-middle income group could own auto-rickshaws to earn their livelihood.
   With the addition of 5,000 more auto-rickshaws, the number of such vehicles on the city roads will be 18,000.

The Dhaka City Corporation plans to upgrade the 50-bed Mahanagar General Hospital at Nayabazar to a 250-bed
   one as a precondition for getting permission to set up a medical college hospital there. The corporation on Thursday sent a proposal in this regard to the local government, rural development and co-operatives ministry for its approval.
   The Directorate General of Health has informed the city corporation that to get permission for setting up the medical college hospital it will have to upgrade the 50-bed hospital to a 250-bed one and run the hospital for a minimum of two years first. Besides, at least half of the hospital beds will have to be occupied every day before the government can approve establishment of the medical college, said a DCC official.
   He said, ‘We have sent a proposal for turning the Mahanagar General Hospital into a 250-bed hospital to the LGRD and co-operatives ministry on Thursday. After getting its approval, we will propose the organogram of the 250-bed hospital.’
   The corporation in 2006 took the initiative to set up the medical college hospital named Dhaka City Corporation Medical College and Hospital in the old town of Dhaka.
   The DCC last month completed the expansion work of Mahanagar General Hospital for accommodating 100 more
   beds at an estimated cost of Tk 1.24 crore, said another DCC official.
   To begin with, the proposed medical college will enroll 50 students and an 11-storey administrative building will be constructed on a 9,380-square-foot land on the hospital premises, he said.
   The city corporation has already appointed a consultant to construct the administrative building.

Bankers, small importers and businessmen at a two-day view-sharing meeting that ended in Rajshahi on Thursday called for devising ways and means of addressing price hike of essential commodities in the retail markets.
   Convened by the local branch of Bangladesh Bank at its seminar hall, the meeting was attended by some 150 small importers and chamber leaders from Rajshahi, Pabna, Chapainawabganj and Natore.
   In his presidential address, BB general manager Abu Hena Muhammad Razi Hassan observed that the small-scale importers had a vital role in arresting price hiking.
   He underscored the need for enhancing participation of more importers in the field of importing essential goods so that the market supply of those could be enhanced.
   In this context, he asked the bankers of different public and private level commercial banks and chamber leaders to extend their necessary cooperation toward the importers for the sake of their close coordination and running the business smoothly.
   He highlighted the steps undertaken by the government and the BB aimed at encouraging the importers and businessmen along with overcoming the present national crisis.
   Referring to various problems relating to import business and supply of commodities the attending importers sought effective cooperation from the bank officials engaged in import purposes.
   They assured of extending wholehearted cooperation in addressing price spiral of the essential commodities.

Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at many places over Chittagong and Sylhet divisions and at some places in Rajshahi, Dhaka, Barisal and Khulna divisions with heavy to very heavy falls at places during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said.
   The night temperature may remain unchanged over the country, it said.
   The country’s highest temperature on Friday, 30.1 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Cox’s Bazar and the lowest, 15.8 degrees Celsius, at Hatia.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:12pm and rises tomorrow at 6:15am.

The communications ministry has once again asked for the draft regional motor vehicles agreement from the foreign ministry to examine and give its opinion.
   The ministry has to prepare by January its response to the draft agreement proposed by India to promote regional connectivity.
   The communications adviser, MA Matin, expressed his dissatisfaction at the delay in getting the draft, ministry officials said.
   The ministry wrote its second letter to the foreign ministry on November 8, repeating its earlier request to send the draft agreement as soon as possible.
   It also asked for a copy of another proposal mooted by Sri Lanka at the SAARC transport ministers’ conference in August in New Delhi on development of institutional capacity for planning and monitoring inter-regional transport projects.
   ‘We have sent the reminder to the foreign ministry as the delay has irked our adviser,’ said a senior official of the communications ministry, adding the first letter was sent in October, but it was not entertained.
   The Indian draft recommends ways to remove physical and non-physical barriers to regional transport movement, allowing people to travel freely across the region and facilitating smooth movement of goods.
   The draft agreement was discussed at the transport ministers’ meeting in New Delhi.
   At the meeting Bangladesh said it would inform other SAARC members of its decision by January before the next SAARC transport ministers’ conference scheduled for March 2008 in Sri Lanka.
   The SAARC secretariat would prepare the final draft after consolidating all the member states’ views.
   ‘We need to examine the pros and cons of the agreement before finalising our standpoint on the issue,’ said the communications ministry official.
   The idea of developing a regional motor vehicles agreement was mooted in the draft declaration of the 14th SAARC summit held in New Delhi earlier this year. But it was finally dropped from the declaration and kept pending until assessments and necessary preparations were completed.
   Earlier, at an inter-ministerial meeting on September 18, the government assigned the foreign ministry instead of the communications ministry to work as the lead ministry to determine the country’s standpoint on providing transit facilities to India.
   The foreign ministry was also tasked with coordinating all regional and bilateral transport connectivity issues in consultation with the ministries concerned, including communications, shipping and aviation ministries.

Exploring new markets, increasing local supply of raw materials and ensuring compliant production environment are a must for Bangladesh to survive the global competition which is getting stiffer day by day, trade experts said at a seminar Friday.
   Bangladesh’s top export earners, the apparel industry has to develop skilled human resources, increase productivity and diversify products to protect global market share from being overtaken by competitors, they pointed out at the seminar on ‘Strategies to Enhance Competitiveness of Bangladesh’s RMG in Globalised Markets.’
   The seminar was held at Hotel Sonargaon as part of the Bangladesh Apparel and Textile Exposition 2007, an annual show of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
   Former president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ASM Quasem moderated the seminar.
   Professor of economics at Dhaka University MA Taslim in his keynote speech said the global apparel market size expanded to $311 billion last year from just $198 billion in 2000 and $108 billion in 1990.
   ‘The booming market has not only widened opportunity for Bangladesh but also escalated the challenges and competitions,’ said Taslim. The former tariff commission chairman stressed the need for effective strategies to retain and increase the share of Bangladesh’s apparels in the global market.
   ‘New markets, sufficient capacity in backward linkage industries and compliances in production facilities should be addressed seriously,’ said Musatfizur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
   The trade analyst said continuing and drastic cuts in prices offered by global apparel buyers were eroding competitiveness of local apparel manufacturers and exporters.
   Zafar Osman, a director of Dhaka chamber, said industry would require large investments in the coming days.
   BGMEA president Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, vice-president ABM Shamsuddin and other directors attended the seminar.

The Trinamool Congress and Congress on Friday demanded sacking of the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government in the wake of the Kolkata High Court’s observation that the March 14 police firing in Nandigram was ‘unconstitutional and not justified’.
   ‘The government of Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee must be sacked. The chief minister has failed to protect the constitution in Nandigram and has no moral right to continue in office,’ The Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, said.
   She said the High Court order was ‘humane’ as it had considered the plight of villagers who had “borne the brunt of police brutalities and armed cadres’.
   On High Court’s directive that the CBI should continue the enquiry and submit a report to the court within a month, she said the agency should summon all witnesses of the March 14 ‘genocide’ in Nandigram.
   West Bengal PCC working president Pradip Bhattacharjee told PTI over phone from Delhi that the Left Front government should immediately resign.
   ‘Constitutional rights of the people have been violated at Nandigram and the court order has amply proved that the state government had failed to protect the constitution in Nandigram.’
   The BJP state president, Sukumar Banerjee, said ‘it has been proved that the state government has been lying that this was not a massacre.’

Speakers at a discussion meeting on Friday said there was no alternative but to hold the trial of 1971 war criminals.
   It would not be possible to ensure fair politics in the country without trial of war criminals, they said, adding that Jamaat-e-Islami, a religion-based political party responsible for war crimes, was making the issue controversial and the government was trying to avoid strong stance on the issue.
   Bangladesh Juba Moitri, youth front of Workers Party of Bangladesh, organised the discussion meeting titled ‘war of independence, trial of war criminals and youths’ at Asad auditorium in the capital.
   Cultural activist Kamal Lohani said Jamaat who opposed war of independence in 1971 was conspiring against the issue on war criminals, terming it civil war.
   The interim government was trying to avoid the issue for holding the trial of war criminals, saying it was not their responsibility, he added.
   Chaired by Juba Moitri president Noor Ahmed Bakul, the meeting was also addressed by its general secretary Sadakat Hossain Khan Babul, leaders Mostafa Alamgir Ratan, MA Syed and Kishore Roy.

45 criminals held, smuggled goods seized in Rajshahi
The police arrested 45 alleged criminals and seized 54 litres of spurious liquor from different areas in the city and nine upazilas of the district on Thursday. The police said 25 of the arrested were rounded up from different areas in the metropolis while 20 others from nine upazilas of the district. The police seized the locally made liquor after raiding different places in the district. Traffic police lodged 17 cases under motor vehicles ordinance during drives against the non-registered motor vehicles during the period. The Rapid Action Battalion also arrested a wanted criminal and seized smuggled goods from different areas in Jaipurhat on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off, a RAB team rounded up Abdul Hakim, 30, from his village in Panchbibi upazila. In another raid conducted at Kanpur village under Akkelpur upazila, RAB seized 80 smuggled Indian saris and 37 pieces of wrappers worth about Taka 75,000. RAB handed over the arrested person and seized goods to concerned police stations.
— BSS