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Waterborne diseases started breaking out in coastal areas, pounded by cyclone Sidr on November 15, for want of drinking water as decomposing corpses remained afloat in water sources, which were also washed away by saline water during the storm.
   Trees uprooted by the storm have also made the ponds unusable and a small number of tube wells have only added to the sufferings of the people, local residents said.
   Stench from the decomposing cattle corpses, still afloat in water and lying scattered here and there, have filled the air in many places such as Lathimara, Haringhata, Laldiar Char, Fatrar Char, Mirzar Char, Char Sakhina and Gyanpara in Barguna, and Dimer Char, Pakkhir Char, Kachikhali, and Katka of Sarankhola in Bagerhat.
   ‘Waterborne diseases, especially diarrhoea, have already broken out and the situation warrants immediate intervention to check the spread of the diseases in epidemic forms,’ said Dipak Chandra Kirtonia, a physician from Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College on his return from visits to remote areas. Dipak is leading an emergency medical team.
   Reports on death kept pouring in from remote areas as people and rescuers continued search for the missing from one place too another. Cyclone deaths have already crossed 3,500. The army control room put the figure at 3,153.
   Victims and aid workers said the number of death would be much higher than the present figure.
   Although more socio-political, cultural and private organisations have joined hands with the government in relief operations, the efforts are still far from the requirement. In many affected areas, people are going without food and drinking water as no relief has reached them yet.
   Forester Asadul Islam at Kachikhali of Sarankhola said the Red Crescent aid workers had distributed some dry food among the victims, but there was no drinking water.
   Yunus Farazi of Nidrar Char said there had been no drinking water in his area and all the people of Asar Char had moved to his area.
   More than 500 people died in Asar Char, at a distance of about 20 minutes by trawler, where about 10,000 people involved in dry fish industries lived, but the entire area was reeking with corpse stench, said Dulal Farazi, member of the Asar Char union council.
   Amir Ali of Sarankhola lost his son to the storm. He was looking for his son miles away at Amtali on Tuesday.
   Local union council member Kabir Akhand said it would be difficult for many to find their family members who went missing.
   ‘In my ward, we buried in one mass grave 84 bodies of which 24 could not be identified. They were from other areas,’ he said, adding about 200 people of his ward remained missing.
   ‘Besides a few cases of diarrhoea, people with complaints fever and cold have approached the medical teams,’ said BRAC health director, Faruque Ahmed, from remote village at Harinpala at Bhandaria in Pirojpur.
   Some 70 people, including diarrhoea patients, have received treatment from the medical team working at Harinpala on Tuesday, the physician said.
   Faruque, who is leading a 2,500-member relief unit that includes 13 medical teams of BRAC, said there was scarcity of water purifying tab on the local market.
   ‘We need to fall back on Dhaka to maintain the supply chain,’ said the official of BRAC, which has committed Tk 7 crore in emergency assistance for cyclone victims.
   As it became difficult for the people to fetch water from deep tube wells at a long distance, BRAC is working to clear the polluted ponds with bleaching powder before the water can be filtered and made safe for drinking.
   Faruque, who also worked in Sudan, said the resilience of the people is very high, but they are still traumatised by the devastation that has left them homeless and most of them to lose one or more family members to the cyclone.
   Local teams have informed the local upazila health officer, who is coordinating the government and NGO medicare activities, of the situation in remote areas.
   The volunteers working in the worst-hit areas said the scale of relief activities should be widened to cope with the situation.
   A number of national and local socio-political organisations such as the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Students Federation and Udichi have started distributing relief goods such as dry food, molasses, semolina, sugar and match boxes among the victims.
   People in many areas were still crying for help. ‘Relief distribution is only seen on television, but not in reality,’ said one Abdus Sam Howladar at Fakirhat.

Restoration of road network and power supply, repair of embankment breaches, creation of employment opportunities and rehabilitation of the affected are the immediate needs of the people in the cyclone-hit southern districts.
   District administrations said Sidr had affected about 10 million people in Barguna, Bagerhat, Khulna, Pirojpur, Jhalakati, Barisal, and Madaripur.
   The committees formed in upazilas to assess the losses in sectors including shrimp farming and hatcheries because of the cyclone were unable to work properly as the road communications remained disrupted in many places.
   Relief operations in remote areas were being hampered as roads remained blocked with trees uprooted by the cyclone, volunteers said.
   A large number of trees uprooted in the cyclone that had struck the coasts on November 15 were on Tuesday still on the roads that link remote areas with the upazila headquarters, local residents said.
   Many areas were inundated as the cyclone caused breaches in coastal embankments. Houses and standing crops were razed to the ground.
   Local representatives have sought immediate support from the government for the rehabilitation of the affected families.
   Farmers in affected areas feared the saline water that found its way to the ponds and cropland during the storm might hamper farming in the areas. The losses of crops and businesses will need to be compensated by the creation of employment opportunities for the poor, local leaders said.
   People in char areas, involved in dry fish business, have been ruined, said Dulal Farazi, member of the Asar Char union council.
   ‘The families invested Tk 1 lakh to Tk 2 lakh each in the business and they are now left with nothing. The storm has not only killed people and damaged the houses, it has also made living difficult for the survivors,’ he said.
   Lack of power supply has stopped business activities, including the operation of the Patharghata fish landing station, the largest market where trawlers from the sea anchor to sell their catches.
   Ferry services in nine places in the Barisal and Khulna divisions were yet to resume. Reports from the districts said ferries of the Roads and Highways Department at Antali, Khepupara, Hazipur, Mohipur, Char Khali, Paira Kunja, Baraitala, Zia Nagar and Amua had remained suspended since the storm struck the coast. Referring to the large number of trees uprooted by the cyclone, local social organisations have urged the government to ensure due price of timbers.
   ‘A large number of people in the costal districts are involved in cooperatives on social forestry and they might be exploited by people trying to take advantage of the situation,’ said Hamid Miah, a cooperative activist in Barguna.
   He said each mature tree earns them about Tk 1,50,000, but people will be taking the opportunity to deprive the growers, he said.

Living has become more painful than death in the south, five days after cyclone Sidr had struck Bangladesh on November 15.
   People in the south are now struggling to rise from the debris, fighting against hunger, lack of drinking water, cloths and medicine.
   The green belts of Sundarban and social forestry have save the lives of hundreds of people as the severity of Sidr weakened as it made landfall in the areas, local people said.
   About one million people lost their dwellings in the region. They are now struggling to rebuild or repair their houses amid scarcity of helping hands and building materials. Stench of corpses decomposing around has filled the air.
   Drinking water sources became unusable as saline water filled the ponds and other such sources. Decomposition of corpses has also made the water unfit for drinking.
   Shortage of fuel oil has made transport, lighting at night and cooking difficult twigs and branches of the trees uprooted by Sidr were yet to dry up to be used to make fire.
   Rice, pulses, other food items and kitchen utensils have been destroyed or washed away. The cyclone victims were running here and there looking for relief goods every time they hear the sound of any transport going by.
   Sidr struck the region just at the time of aman harvest when farmers were preparing for harvest festival, nabanna utsab, scheduled for mid-November.
   The Barisal division agriculture office said Sidr had damaged crops on 15.5 lakh acres of land worth an estimated Tk 1,500 cores in the division.
   The office said 44 per cent of the aman cultivation, on 7,98,368 acres out of 17,95,431 acres cultivated, had been damaged in the six districts.
   People in the region were harvesting aman in less affected areas, sources in the agriculture office said.
   They said 39 per cent of vegetables cultivation, on 7,54,405 acres out of 19,31,725 acres of land cultivated, had been damaged.
   The Ras Mela festival committee has this year shortened the duration of the festival, which has been observed for more than a hundred year years.
   Ananta Mukharjee of the festival committee and Ranjit Kumar, Kuakata upazila nirbahi officer, said the festival was scheduled to begin on November 22 and continue till November 27.
   But 17 pairs of images of Radha-Govinda and the temples of Radha-Govinda and Madanmohon Seba Ashrams have been destroyed by Sidr.
   Only the rituals of ghat puja, bisarjan and ganga snan will be observed this time, they said.

The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has voiced concern over mounting death toll and devastation in the wake of cyclone Sidr, his spokesman said on Monday.
   The UN secretary general’s spokesperson Alex Cerniglia said, ‘There are a number of assessment teams working through different UN agencies in Bangladesh.’
   ‘We are waiting for their reports back. Once we will receive the reports, we will appeal to the international community for funding to help Bangladesh,’ he said.
   In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Ban expressed ‘his profound condolences to the people and government of Bangladesh for the many deaths and the destruction involved, and the full solidarity of the UN system at this time of crisis.’
   The statement noted that UN humanitarian agencies on the ground in Bangladesh are already responding to the basic needs of some of the hundreds of thousands of people estimated to have been affected.
   On Friday, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, John Holmes, said the UN would make available several millions of dollars from its Central Emergency Response Fund, which was established to expedite aid operations following disasters.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has said the nation is facing a catastrophe caused by the deadly cyclone Sidr and made a clarion call for all irrespective of party and opinion to stand beside the distressed people with whatever they could spare.
   ‘There is no alternative to concerted and united efforts to effectively combat this national catastrophe,’ he said in an address to the nation over state-owned radio and television Tuesday evening, a day after witnessing the scenes of devastation along the country’s southern coast.
   Fakhruddin, who cancelled his visit to Uganda to attend the Commonwealth summit, scheduled for November 23-25, in view of the exigencies at home, expressed the hope that all irrespective of party affiliation would come forward in helping out the helpless and distressed humanity.
   The head of caretaker government urged the business community to be sensitive and prove their social accountability in controlling the price hike of essential commodities.
   He said the government was trying utmost to deal with the post-cyclone situation with its own resources. But, given the resource constraints, the government would welcome any assistance from Bangladesh’s friendly countries, development partners and others.
   Fakhruddin said the government had set up an effective mechanism to deliver the relief goods to the affected people and ensure their primary rehabilitation.
   ‘It would be fruitful if any assistance is channelled through the government,’ he said.
   Referring to the cancellation of his visit to Uganda to attend the Commonwealth summit in Kampala, the chief adviser said he did not think it wise to leave the country, even if for a small period of time, in view of the enormity of the disaster.
   ‘Let’s come to keep alive the indomitable and courageous people of Bangladesh attacked by cataclysm and rekindle
   their hope for new life,’ he told the nation in an emotional address.
   Terming the November 15 ‘Sidr’ which ripped through country’s south-western part fiercer with heavier speeds than the 1991 cyclone, the chief adviser said even then the extent of damages, especially casualties, had comparatively been minimised for various advance preparations of the government.
   ‘But there is no scope for complacency.’
   The head of government said over 6 lakh people from 15 districts got shelter in 2,000 cyclone centres in the coastal belt. Besides, the weather forecasts and highest danger signals were broadcast by different mass media, including television.
   He, however, described a heavy loss of life and property in the powerful storm, giving some grim pictures he saw himself during his visits to the affected areas.
   ‘The agonies of affected people who lost their kith and kin and also the screams of the hapless that I witnessed all beggars description,’ he apprised the nation.
   The chief adviser informed that about 40 lakh people were affected in the hurricane, of which the number of casualties runs into thousands while the number of injured is much greater.
   Nearly 9 lakh houses were ruined totally or partially, innumerable livestock perished, hundreds of kilometres of roads damaged, massive damage was done to crops, mainly Aman and Rabi crops, and telecommunications. Electricity generation collapsed.
   A big portion of Sundarban, world’s largest mangrove forest with a treasure of flora and fauna, suffered a colossal damage.
   Fakhruddin said the government had kept prepared relief materials and relief teams to quickly tackle the unfolding situation.
   ‘The country will have to brace itself with post-disaster preparedness and middle and long-term rehabilitation programme after overcoming the immediate disaster situation,’ he told the nation.
   Already action has got off for formulating plans and programmes.
   From now on, he said, attention must be given to rehabilitating the agricultural sector and rebuilding the damaged houses of affected people.
   Besides, long-term initiatives have to be taken for reconstruction and strengthening of the coastal dams as well as building more cyclone-shelter centres.
   He described the ongoing relief, rescue and rehabilitation operations by government with the synergy of the administration, joint forces, army, navy and air force.
   He said the government so far allocated Tk 35 crore for rebuilding the wrecked houses at district and upazila levels.
   An amount of Tk 15 crore has already been given from the Chief Adviser’s Relief Fund to meet the urgent needs of the cyclone-stricken people.
   Besides, government and military medical teams remained active providing medical services to the cyclone victims.

Ismail Hossain was buying 250 grams of onions at the municipal market in Lalmonirhat Monday evening. It cost him Tk 13, an amount for which he could have bought more than double the amount of onions a year ago.
   He has also cut down on his intakes of commodities, especially food items, by a half, or more, for over a year.
   ‘I would buy 1 kilogram of onions. After Ramadan, I have started buying a quarter of the amount,’ said Islam, who pulls vans, has failed to increase his earnings to match the spiraling prices of essential goods. He said he needed to stop beef, mutton and pulses.
   Ismail stopped buying mutton a long time ago. He managed to buy 1 kilogram of beef on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr just for his children. ‘That was the last time we had beef,’ he told New Age as he was paying Tk 15 for 250 grams of green chilies.
   Ismail, who is a landless farmer, said he and his wife could do away without eating beef, but the three children do not understand the crisis and want to eat meat and fishes. H said he could at least provide the children with eggs.
   By pulling vans in the town, he earns between Tk 100 and Tk 120 a day which, he said, is not enough to buy food, not even rice and vegetables, for his family.
   ‘If I need pay Tk 24 for a kilogram of rice, how much is left to buy other goods? I also need to buy clothes for the family,’ said Ismail, before leaving the market for his hut at Majhapara in the town.
   Noor Zaman, who has been trading in vegetables for 25 years, said most people these days have stopped buying the amount of goods they used to buy early this year. ‘They bargain and then say they would buy less to save money.’
   The people who are not better off financially feel the pinch Ismail faces these days in the north. As commodity prices doubled or tripled and continued increasing all over the country, a cross-section of people find it very difficult to cope with situation.
   People have changed their food habit, dropping most expense items off the menu. They now buy less expensive commodities to survive the situation.
   ‘I have cultivated vegetables in my flower tubs as prices have been on the rise for a year,’ said Momin Hossain Khandaker, who works with a non-governmental organisation in Lalmonirhat.
   He also has learnt to do away with many items. ‘I never buy goods that are costly and wait for the prices to come down,’ he said, adding he do not buy any vegetables when they first become available on the market.
   Momin’s family used to take meat twice a week and fishes with every meal a few months ago. Now they eat meat once a month and have started eating small fishes and eggs which are not that expensive.
   Momin, who finds it hard to run his family with his salary of Tk 8,000, considers himself luckier than thousand others who do not earn enough but need to shelve out money more than their salaries to run the family.
   ‘Think of the people who earn Tk 2,000 a month. It is not possible for them to run a family of four even by buying poor quality rice for Tk 24 a kilogram, flour for Tk 40, potato for Tk 22 and aubergines for Tk 18. Soya bean oil now sells for Tk 95 a litre,’ he said.
   Vegetable prices have multiplied this winter in comparison with the prices the previous season although vegetables are produced in plenty in the region. Both the growers and traders have accused the government of failing to contain prices.
   Momin said spiraling prices had taught people austerity. ‘You visit any house in the town and you will find people are struggling to survive, not only by buying less, but also by decreasing the amount of meal.’
   The people of the region feared they would not be able to survive long if commodity prices continue increasing at the pace they are now doing. People of middle- and low-income groups are the worst sufferers.
   A five-day visit to the north has revealed frustration and unhappiness among a cross-section of people.
   The whole northern region this year faced poor yield of aman because of flooding. The production of winter crops and vegetables, hit by unavailability of fertilizer, will add further to the sufferings of the people.
   A famine-like situation is already evident in the districts of the region, resulting from scarcity of food and employment. The loss of aman production will further increase of rice prices, the people said.
   They said the government should assess the situation and take steps to save people.

The US-based aeroplane manufacturer Boeing has offered a fresh proposal to sell its new-generation aircraft to the Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited, now facing severe shortage of aircraft.
   A Boeing team is expected to arrive in Dhaka on November 27 to make a presentation before the Biman board of directors on the proposal, said a senior Biman official.
   The presentation scheduled for November 28 or 29 will include a comprehensive overview of the Boeing 777, 787 and 737 new generation series with specific references to the products in consideration of Biman’s market environment, said the official.
   The Biman managing director, MA Momen, also chief executive officer of the concern, on Monday told New Age they welcomed the proposal.
   ‘Boeing will make a presentation on its package proposal. We welcome this kind of proposal as Biman is now facing shortage of aircraft,’ he said.
   Bangladesh government will need to give a sovereign guarantee as per the package proposal which includes supply of 12 Boeing series aircraft by 2015, arrangement of loan, training and other logistics, according to sources.
   ‘The Biman authorities should not lose this opportunity of buying new generation aircraft from Boeing which has made a lucrative offer for us. We could have survived the global competition if Biman had accepted a similar proposal of Boeing in 2003,’ the Bangladesh Airline Pilots’ Association president, SM Helal, told New Age on Monday.
   He said there was no other option for Biman but to procure new-generation aircraft to salvage the national carrier which needed to suspend operation of lights on about six international routes because of fleet crisis and expensive maintenance of the old DC 10.
   The interim cabinet on September 19 approved the proposal to declare the Bangladesh sky open to designated airlines for three months to cope with the huge rush of passengers effective from October 1.
   The civil aviation and tourism ministry placed the proposal at the meeting of the council of advisers with the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, in the chair, in the face of the rush of passengers, most of whom are workers in the Middle East and Malaysia, and Biman’s failure to operate adequate number of flights to carry them.
   It has been reported that thousands of workers are losing their jobs in the Middle Eastern countries and in Malaysia and they cannot reach their destinations in time because of the crisis of air tickets, affecting the manpower export sector which earns about six billion dollars a year.
   Because of the incapacity of Biman to operate sufficient number of flights, the authorities concerned decided to offer additional frequencies to other local and foreign airlines, especially those operating flights to and from the Middle East and Malaysia.
   Biman, which was turned into a public limited company on July 23 in the face of perennial losses and mismanagement, still cannot manage the flight schedules properly for shortage of aircraft, causing sufferings to passengers, said sources.
   Biman is now struggling to survive with three DC 10s and three Airbuses, out a total of 12 aircraft in its fleet, operating flights on 20 international routes, besides two F 28s, carrying passengers on four domestic routes.

The Pakistani police baton-charged a protest by journalists and rights activists in the southern city of Karachi and arrested more than 140 media workers, witnesses and senior journalists said.
   The clash left several protesters with bleeding head wounds.
   Around 200 people rallied outside the press club in the country’s largest city to condemn strict curbs on the media imposed under president Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule.
   The police rushed at the protesters when they tried to remove barricades leading toward the provincial governor’s official residence and chanted slogans in support of media freedom, an AFP reporter said.
   Those arrested included the president of the Karachi union of journalists, Shamim-ur-Rehman, and Sabih Uddin Ghousi, president of Karachi press club.
   The tensions continued as the police and paramilitary troops blocked several protesters inside the press club.
   More than 140 journalists later came out of the club and offered themselves up for arrest, press club secretary Imtiaz Ahmad Khan said.
   The police carted them off in vans, he said.
   A police officer said they had orders not to let the journalists near the governor’s house and would use force if anyone tried.
   Journalists have rallied in several cities over the curbs, which have seen two of the leading private television news channels shut down.
   US ambassador Anne Patterson visited one of the channels, Geo, when she made a trip to Karachi on Monday.
   The arrests came hours after Pakistan said it had released more than 3,400 people detained since Musharraf imposed the state of emergency on November 3.
   In a further move aimed at ending weeks of raging political turmoil and global pressure, the election commission announced the nuclear-armed nation would vote in a general election on January 8.
   Musharraf, who flew to Saudi Arabia earlier in the day, faces growing international calls to scrap the state of emergency, free political prisoners, lift curbs on the media and ensure a fair vote.
   Interior ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said 3,416 people arrested in the past two weeks had already been released and the remaining 2,000 would be freed ‘soon’.
   It was the first clear indication of the number of lawyers, political opponents and activists rounded up since military ruler Musharraf imposed the emergency on November 3.
   Reacting to the general elections schedule, exiled former premier Nawaz Sharif said it was ‘not possible’ to take part if they were held under emergency rule.
   Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose party is the biggest opposition group in the country but not part of the alliance, said she was considering a boycott.
   Musharraf flew to Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah, but officials said he had no plans to meet Sharif, who is in exile there.
   The interior ministry also said the ousted chief justice and the 13 other Supreme Court judges who were sacked were now free from house arrest, although one said they remained virtually under siege.

The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, has called upon the countrymen to come forward in aid of the victims of cyclone Sidr that slammed inland from the Bay of Bengal Thursday night and wrecked country’s southern region.
   Assuring all possible help from the government side, the army chief made the call on Tuesday during a visit to Sharankhola, the worst hit remote upazila of the coastal district.
   ‘Not a single man shall die without food as the government has a sufficient stock of foodstuffs,’ he said consoling the distressed people who have lost everything in the natural disaster.
   He assured the injured of providing all necessary treatment from the army medical team and informed them that a floating medical hospital would be set up on board a launch for providing medicare, including surgery.
   General Moeen also pledged that each of the families of those killed in the cyclone would be given Tk 10,000, saying that the government would take steps for the funeral of the dead.
   The Bagerhat district army commander, Lt Colonel Sayeed Siddiqui, informed the army chief that the death toll in Sharankhola rose to 655 to date, as the area in the vicinity of the seaside mangrove-forest Sundaban fell under the terrible eye of the storm.
   General Moeen went round the relief operation sites and water plant of the army and distributed saris, lungis and powdered milk among the victims.
   The army chief also visited worst hit areas of Mathbaria upazila in Pirojpur.
   He distributed relief goods, including rice, pulses and powdered milk, among the victims at Mathbaria Shaheed Mostafa Kamal playground.
   Before distributing relief he assured the hapless victims that the government and army remained beside them to tackle this disastrous circumstance.
   Stating that there is no crisis of relief, General Moeen said the relief operation started in the affected areas on an emergency basis.
   ‘The army personnel extended all-out cooperation to the victims in affected areas and they would continue it,’ he told the locale people.
   Assuring sufficient government support to the victims, especially those who lost their nearest and dearest ones, he said the district and upazila administrations were preparing list of affected people.
   Jessore cantonment GOC Major General Rafiqul Islam and local army commander Lieutenant Colonel Mostafa Kamal Rusho, among others, accompanied the army chief during his visit.

EARTH Foundation chairman KM Khalid Hossain on Tuesday admitted that he and his associates swindled the public and different organisations out of more than Tk 100 crore through his beleaguered ‘humanitarian’ organisation, RAB sources said.
   During his first day remand at Rapid Action Battalion-2 office in the city’s Moghbazar, Khalid confessed that he lured scores of individuals and companies into investing in different schemes and projects offering them huge returns.
   A team of RAB-2 arrested Khalid from Panthapath area Sunday night in connection with a case filed with Dhanmondi police station by the management of Shameem Enterprise, a printing company, on charges of embezzling Tk 13.5 crore.
   He was remanded into custody for two days.
   RAB-2 commanding officer and additional deputy inspector general of police Akbar Ali told New Age, ‘We are extensively interrogating him to extract information about swindling and primarily he confessed to misappropriation of huge amount.’
   ‘We are trying to find out his bank accounts or other options to know where he put the huge amount,’ he said.
   Khalid faces 36 cases filed with 33 police stations in the city in last two months on fraud charges.
   RAB is dealing with two of the cases filed with Dhanmondi police station.
   The authorities of Naheed Ad and Printing filed a case on charge of swindling Tk 2.16 crore, Noor and Noor Company Tk 1.11 crore, Elegance Consortium Tk 91 lakh, NM Mallik Tk 1.90 crore, NX Advertise Tk 1.45 crore, Jas Printers Tk 56 lakh and Shatarupa Advertising Tk 55 lakh.
   EARTH Foundation, abbreviation of Effective Assistance and Rehabilitation for Tormented Humanity, was an unknown organisation until recently and its eye-catching media advertisements announcing huge development projects creating thousands of jobs surprised many. The massive fraud of sophisticated nature only surfaced when individuals and companies started filing cases charging the organisation’s chief with cheating and embezzling taka in crores.
   Khalid, who was imprisoned for over two years for fraudulence earlier, did not disclose the source of money for his organisation’s huge projects involving crores of taka, interrogators said.
   It is alleged that several thousand people who became members of the foundation’s micro-credit schemes neither got any loan nor the amount they deposited.

The Bangladesh Bank’s move to get the authority to fix salary and compensation for its staff has scaled a major hurdle as the law ministry has recently responded positively to a finance ministry proposal.
   ‘The legal barrier has been cleared for a separate pay scale for the central bank staff as the law ministry finally gave green light to our proposal,’ an additional secretary of the finance ministry told New Age.
   The proposal will now be sent to the Cabinet Division for approval of the council of advisers, he said.
   The central bank has long been seeking a separate pay structure for its staff and the authority to decide the salary and compensation packages for its employees. The authority has so far been exercised by the government.
   Bangladesh Bank earlier sent its proposal, seen as a big step forward for its full functional autonomy, to the finance ministry, which sought the law ministry’s vetting.
   A committee of the council of advisers at a meeting in August decided to place the proposal in the cabinet meeting for its approval, sources said.
   The law ministry recently responded positively and said the central bank staff could be excluded from the ‘Service (reconstitution and conditions) Act 1975’ simply through a gazette notification, which would empower the central bank to formulate a separate pay scale for its staff.
   According to clause 5(1) of the act, no separate pay scale for any government organization, be it fully government or autonomous, is justified.
   With a 5500-strong staff, the central bank runs short of skilled manpower to oversee the country’s booming banking and financial sectors, central bank sources said.
   Poor pay structure discourages efficient people to join the central bank jobs and many mid-ranking officials are lured into private and foreign financial institutions that offer much higher pays, they pointed out.
   About 15 to 20 newly recruited assistant directors resign from central bank jobs every year since 2003, central bank insiders said.
   Bangladesh Bank recruits about 100 assistant directors every year since 2003.
   ‘Private banks offer more than double the salary package given by Bangladesh Bank,’ a general manager of the central bank said, stressing that a separate and attractive pay scale is a must to lure young talents with good academic results into the central bank.
   Central banks of regional countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India have separate pay structures, which are more attractive than the usual government scales and thus help attract efficient manpower, he cited.

Although the Power Division has decided to give irrigation top priority in supplying electricity in this Boro season, the areas that need irrigation are likely to face a regular shortage of at least 220 MW of power because of limitations in the supply network.
   The Power Cell, based on information provided by different power agencies, at an inter-ministerial meeting on Tuesday projected that the power demand of the irrigation pumps, which get low-priced electricity, during the Boro season would be around 1,078 MW.
   But the agriculture ministry’s representatives told the meeting, chaired by power and energy adviser Tapan Chowdhury, that the irrigations pumps across the country would need around 1,300 MW of power in January-April, the peak of the Boro season.
   Power officials, however, said that it would not be possible to supply electricity to those pumps that are out of the network of the power supply system and they would ensure the supply of 1,078 MW.
   ‘The Rural Eectricity Board provides electricity to pumps that are located within 100 feet of the main lines. The agriculture ministry’s representatives, while calculating the demand for electricity, included the pumps that are far away from the main lines,’ Tapan told New Age after the meeting.
   He said that they had suggested that the pump-owners should take electricity connections beyond 100 feet from main cables by installing lines and poles at their own cost.
   ‘If they are not able to afford or acquire electricity lines, they can operate their pumps with liquid fuel,’ he said.
   Tapan said that supplying electricity for irrigation was their top priority because of the food shortage caused the flood and the recent cyclone. ‘The REB is severely constrained because the transmission lines have been damaged by the cyclone. It needs a huge fund to provide electricity beyond 100 feet from the power cables,’ he said.
   The meeting was told that the power agencies would have to manage the load by load-shedding in urban areas to supply power for irrigation as there would a shortage of around 600 MW of power in the country in the irrigation season.
   The meeting was told that if the power agencies could ensure uninterrupted supply of 1,078 MW of electricity to irrigation pumps and the energy division could ensure adequate diesel supply, it would be more than enough for a good crop.
   The Power Cell projected that the number of electrical irrigation pumps this season would be around 2.22 lakh. There were around 1.9 lakh electrical pumps last year.
   The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation projected that the number of diesel-run irrigation pumps would be around 11.84 lakh.
   The Power Cell projected that the demand for electricity would be 4,078 MW in January, 4,240 MW in February, 4,590 MW in March and 4,431 MW in April. Power generation is expected to be between 3,400 to 3,980 MW.
   The irrigation pumps will get power for six hours from 11:00pm to 5:00am and for a few hours in the day.
   Tapan asked the officials concerned to take steps so that big shopping malls, other shops and markets, except kitchen markets, drug stores and food shops, close their business by 8:00pm as per the earlier decision of the government.
   Power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan, energy secretary Mohammad Mohsin, Power Development Board chairman Shawkat Ali and other high officials of the division and Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation were present at the meeting.

Armed Forces Day will be observed today with due solemnity and enthusiasm.
   On this day in 1971, the Bangladesh Armed Forces comprising Army, Navy and Air Force came into being and launched an all-out attack on the occupation forces.
   The president and supreme commander of the Armed Forces, Iajuddin Ahmed, and the chief adviser to the caretaker government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, gave separate messages on the occasion.
   The day’s programme will begin with the offering of munajat after the Fajr prayers in all mosques at army garrisons, naval bases and establishments as well as air force bases throughout the country seeking divine blessings for the wellbeing and prosperity of the nation and development and progress of the armed forces.
   In Dhaka, the president and supreme commander of the Armed Forces will place a wreath at the Shikha Anirban (the Eternal Flame) at the Dhaka Cantonment in the morning to pay his homage to the members of the armed forces who had embraced martyrdom in the war of independence in 1971.
   The chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, the chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Sarwar Jahan Nizam, and the chief of air staff, Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman, will lay wreaths at the Shikha Anirban on behalf of their respective services.
   Chiefs of staff of the three services will made courtesy call on the president at the Armed Forces Division at the Dhaka Cantonment.
   Iajuddin will also host a reception and meet the family members of the Bir Shresthos and other gallantly award winning freedom fighters at the Armed Forces Division at the Dhaka Cantonment.
   Army, Navy and Air Force headquarters will also accord receptions to the members of the shaheed families, award winning and retired freedom fighters of their respective services.
   Various programmes have also been chalked out to celebrate the day in a befitting manner in all army garrisons, naval ships and establishments and air force bases throughout the country.
   Bangladesh Betar will broadcast a special Durbar programme at 7.30pm today.
   Private TV channels will telecast the same ‘Anirban’ programme from November 21. The national dailies are bringing out special supplements in observance of the day.

A number of countries and international agencies continued pledging support for Bangladesh to cope with the aftermath of cyclone Sidr.
   Apart from Kuwait, the United Nations and the European Commission, a number of development partners on Tuesday announced some $35 million for the cyclone victims in southern Bangladesh.
   Kuwait approved $ 10 million, the UN $ 9 million, while the EC $ 7.3 million, the Islamic Development Bank $ 200,000, Denmark $ 900,000 ,Germany $1.76 million., the Netherlands $ 1.45 million, China $ 1.5 million, Libya $ 1 million and Korea $ 0.50 million for the cyclone victims.
   Kuwait amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has announced a donation of $10 million for the cyclone victims.
   Sheikh Sabah also expressed his shock at the loss of lives and property, said a release of the Kuwaiti embassy in Dhaka Tuesday.
   UN emergency relief coordinator Sir John Holmes on Monday in New York approved $ 9 million in support of UN relief operations from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) with an additional announcement expected Wednesday.
   The package is in addition to what is already under implementation through the UN agencies and with contributions from bilateral donors.
   The European Commission is launching a second humanitarian decision for 5 million euros to help Sidr victims.
   The proposed new emergency funding comes on top of 1.5 million euros in fast-track aid allocated on Friday to take the total contribution to 6.5 million euros so far, said a release of the EC delegation in Dhaka.
   The Netherlands has expressed its solidarity and sympathy with the people of Bangladesh in the aftermath of Sidr.
   The Dutch minister for development cooperation, Bert Koenders, has pledged emergency assistance of 1 million euros, equivalent to Tk 8.54 crore, for cyclone victims, said a release of the Netherlands embassy.
   This contribution will be made through the Dutch Red Cross. Besides, the embassy in Dhaka has redirected project funds through its water and sanitation and water management programmes in affected areas for immediate relief, it said.
   Libya has allocated $1 million aid to Bangladesh to ease the crisis Bangladesh suffers as a result of the cyclone.
   The Spanish government has provide 7,50,000 for the cyclone affected people of Bangladesh.
   Germany has doubled its emergency humanitarian aid to Bangladesh in view of the scale of devastation and the donation now stands at $1.76 million.
   The funds will be channelled to the World Food Programme through German aid agencies to their partners in Bangladesh — Red Crescent Society, and Care and Caritas — which are implementing relief projects for people in dire need.
   China announced to give $ 1.5 million as emergency assistance for Bangladesh in the aftermath of cyclone Sidr.
   Among the assistance, Chinese Red Cross would provide $ 50,000 to the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society.
   The Republic of Korea has decided to provide $5,00,000 as an emergency relief to Bangladesh to help in and contribute to its efforts to recover from cyclone damage.
   Japan on Tuesday handed over relief goods worth Tk 2.7 crore, equivalent to $390,000, as emergency relief for cyclone victims.
   The food and disaster management secretary, Ayub Miah, received the first consignment of relief materials from the Japan ambassador to Bangladesh, Masayuki Inoue, at Zia International Airport after an aircraft had landed with 466 boxes of Japanese relief goods.
   The relief goods, provided through the Japan International Cooperation Agency, included tents, regular and heavy blankets, sleeping pads, plastic sheets, water purifiers, water tanks, jerry cans and generators.
   JICA resident representative Nobuko Suzuki Kayashima and director general of relief M Sadruddin Ahmed were also present on the occasion.

Two US navy’s amphibious assault ships, the USS Essex and USS Kearsarge, each carrying 20 helicopters for relief and rescue operations, are likely to arrive separately on November 24 and 27.
   Director of US foreign assistance and United States Agencies for International Development’s administrator, Henrietta Fore, told newsmen that the two ships would come to Bangladesh to help the administration in the post-cyclone relief and evacuation operations.
   Sources in the foreign ministry said Bangladesh had not formally requested the United States to send the ships. ‘The United States may have sent the ships under the humanitarian assistance programme,’ said a source.
   Henrietta arrived in the capital on a day-long tour to observe the effects of the devastating cyclone and the relief operations that have been launched. During her visit she visited cyclone-hit districts and met several officials and chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   Briefing newsmen at the Zia International Airport after handing over the first batch of relief materials, she said that the first US naval ship would arrive on November 24 and the second one on November 27.
   When she was asked how long the naval ships would stay here, she replied that it depended on the situation.
   The USS Essex and USS Kearsarge, each carrying helicopters and hovercraft, and equipped with hospital facilities and specialise in relief and evacuation operations.

The Commonwealth’s human rights arm on Tuesday called for Pakistan’s suspension from the 53-nation bloc, saying the president, Pervez Musharraf, had significantly undermined basic rights.
   ‘Pakistan under Musharraf’s emergency rule has no place in the Commonwealth,’ the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said in a statement.
   The rights body called on Commonwealth foreign ministers, who begin a two-day meeting in Kampala on Wednesday, to decide on Pakistan’s exclusion from the organisation of mainly former British colonies.
   CHRI said foreign ministers gathered in Kampala ahead of the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ‘must act to protect the basic values of the Commonwealth and suspend Pakistan.’
   Fiji was excluded from the Commonwealth last year following a military coup, while Zimbabwe was banned in 2002.
   Pakistan was previously suspended from the Commonwealth for five years following Musharraf’s 1999 coup but welcomed back into the fold on condition he took off his uniform.
   CHRI’s statement came despite reports from Pakistan that Musharraf may be starting to roll back some of the curbs he recently imposed in a bid to end weeks of raging political turmoil.

Up to 30 more militants loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric were killed in clashes with Pakistani security forces in a remote northwest tourist valley, the army said Tuesday.
   The latest deaths take the toll reported by the army from a week of fighting in the scenic Swat Valley to around 150.
   ‘Our offensive against militants has been continuing since last night and there are reports that 20 to 30 more militants have been killed,’ chief military spokesman major general Waheed Arshad said.
   The army said at the weekend that it would imminently launch a major offensive to retake Swat from followers of radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who runs his own jihadi radio station.
   Arshad said that troops were now controlling a key road in Swat’s Shangla district, which leads to the militant-held main town of Alpuri.
   Residents in different areas of Swat valley said that gunfire continued and helicopters
   hovered in the sky as scores of people abandoned their homes in Dagai and Akhund Kalai areas.
   The military had asked the residents to vacate the area on Monday so that during operations against militants there would be no civilian casualties.
   Witnesses said that people were moving towards safer areas with their belongings packed in cars, pick-up vans and even in rickshaws.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the advocate-on-record to produce in court on December 11 Abu Safa, who appealed seeking to overturn the High Court verdict that made it mandatory for parliamentary polls candidates to submit eight-point personal information along with the nomination papers.
   The full court of all the seven judges of the Appellate Division also posted for December 11 the judgement in the appeal.
   The court fixed the date for judgement after the conclusion of the hearing and ordered the appellant’s advocate-on-record Nawab Ali to ensure the presence of the appellant before the pronouncement of the judgement.
   The court on February 20, in an unprecedented move, recalled the order it had passed only two hours and a half ago setting aside the High Court verdict.
   After the recall of the order that allowed the appeal, the court decided to hear the case further and it heard the case accordingly on Tuesday.
   The High Court on May 24, 2005 delivered the verdict requiring the parliamentary candidates to submit eight-point personal information, including educational qualifications, statement of assets, criminal records, if any, along with the nomination papers.
   The High Court delivered the verdict after hearing a public interest litigation writ, filed by three Supreme Court lawyers — Abdul Momen Chowdhury, KM Zabir and Zahurul Islam.
   The information includes candidate’s academic qualifications, source of income, profession, assets, liabilities, bank balance and criminal records, if any.
   The ruling was strictly abided by the Election Commission in the subsequent parliamentary by-elections and election to the 50 seats reserved for women in parliament.
   The Appellate Division on December 19, 2006 stayed the operation of the verdict after hearing an appeal preferred by Abu Safa claiming to be a nomination aspirant.
   Pleading against the appeal, the writ petitioners’ counsel Kamal Hossain argued that Safa was a non-existing person and the appeal was filed with the court in fraudulence.
   Safa, who have never filed any nomination paper in any parliamentary polls, filed the appeal claiming himself as an aspirant, argued Kamal, adding Safa has remained absconding since the filing of the appeal.
   The writ petitioners also filed two applications seeking court orders to ascertain the locus standi of Abu Safa and draw ‘criminal proceedings’ against him and his lawyers for ‘acting fraud upon the highest judiciary’ by making ‘false’ statements.

Japan began fingerprinting and photographing foreigners entering the country Tuesday in an effort to tighten security, despite concerns by rights groups and business leaders.
   Japan modelled the tighter immigration controls on the controversial US-Visit system launched in the United States after the September 11 2001 attacks, which keeps biometric data of foreign visitors.
   ‘This has the very large objective of preventing terrorism,’ the justice minister, Kunio Hatoyama, said as he slid his two index fingers onto a scanner at Narita airport near Tokyo in a demonstration for reporters Monday.
   ‘Privacy issues are a matter of perception and so I would like everyone to bear with us. Since we are treating individuals’ private information it will be strictly protected,' he said.
   The system requires all foreign visitors aged 16 years and older to scan their fingerprints and submit to photographs on arrival, with the potential for follow-up questions from immigration officials.
   Unlike in the United States, where green card holders are exempt, Japan will extend the controls to foreign permanent residents. The only foreigners who can bypass the system are ‘special residents’ – ethnic Koreans and Chinese who were forcefully brought to Japan before and during Second World War.

Southeast Asian leaders forged ahead with their annual summit Tuesday, vowing not to have the talks derailed by a serious dispute over how to deal with troublesome member Myanmar.
   The Singapore prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, made a plea for the crisis in Myanmar, which has exposed divisions within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, not to completely dominate the summit.
   ‘ASEAN leaders will strive to prevent the Myanmar issue from obstructing our efforts to deepen integration and build an ASEAN community,’ said Lee, who is hosting the bloc’s 40th anniversary summit.
   The region’s 10 leaders got on with business Tuesday, including the signing of a long-awaited charter and a blueprint for economic integration to create a common market of more than half a billion people.
   But observers said ASEAN’s credibility had been shattered by Myanmar’s success in forcing the cancellation of UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari’s planned briefing on the crisis in the military-run country.
   Gambari said he was ‘disappointed, of course’ by the decision to axe his talks with 16 Asian leaders here on the results of his two visits to Myanmar since the regime’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September.
   ‘That was why I came here,’ he said in an interview with AFP.
   However, he said that while the briefing would have been a ‘bonus’, he was heartened by ASEAN’s statement urging the junta to move forward with national reconciliation and continue working with the United Nations.
   Singapore had invited Gambari to address the ASEAN leaders, together with their six dialogue partners, including China and Japan, who collectively make up the East Asia Summit.
   But during heated talks at dinner Monday, the Myanmar prime minister, Thein Sein, objected to the event, which some other Southeast Asian leaders also opposed on the grounds it had been taken outside the ASEAN forum.
   A diplomat said at one point, the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, stood up and raised his voice, asking how ASEAN had come to such a point of discord.
   Thein Sein had been expected to face a grilling over the regime’s bloody campaign to suppress dissent, which left 15 dead. Instead he walked away with a victory as his neighbours caved in.
   ‘That’s a domestic issue, no need to raise in EAS,’ the Myanmar foreign minister, Nyan Win, said.
   The Philippines president, Gloria Arroyo, met Gambari on Tuesday, and her spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the UN envoy had told her ‘little progress’ had been made in Myanmar.
   The New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark, also said she was ‘disappointed’ over the cancellation of the briefing and would meet with Gambari personally.
   Observers said the atmosphere had been poisoned by the Myanmar fiasco.
   ‘Certainly, this is a victory for Myanmar,’ said Hiro Katsumata from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
   ‘What is lost is the reputation of the association,’ he said.
   The United States said here that ASEAN’s credibility was at stake over its handling of Myanmar, which the bloc has been reluctant to punish despite its refusal to shift to democracy or release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
   The Myanmar issue has exposed splits within the grouping, a disparate collection of young democracies as well as socialist regimes, monarchies and authoritarian states.
   A landmark charter signed Tuesday, which commits member states to notions of democracy and human rights, had to be watered down before all 10 members agreed to sign.
   Arroyo has warned that her country might not ratify the charter unless Aung San Suu Kyi is released – in a major challenge to the bloc’s consensus-based approach.
   ASEAN leaders approved a blueprint for a common market embracing nearly 570 million people by 2015, and backed the use of nuclear energy despite safety concerns in a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
   ASEAN groups Brunei, Cam-bodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

It was only a mobile phone for which the 17-year-old garment worker, Anisur Rahman, was killed by a gang of teenage assailants near his Uttarkhan residence on September 3.
   This was revealed after the arrest of three of the assailants — Masud Rana, Raju alias Habib and Mohammad Sajib — from Uttarkhan on Monday. Masud, however, influenced the police to arrest his relative, Touhidul Islam Dipu – a class VII student of a local school — saying that Dipu was also involved in the murder.
   That Masud had a conflict with the Dipu’s family was found out later but Raju, a rickhaw-puller, and Sajib, a mason, told the police that Dipu was not present at the scene.
   On September 3 Masud Rana, a mason, called the victim out of his residence at about 7:00pm on the plea of going to his garment factory, named Metro, while Raju was waiting outside.
   The two, along with two others, took Anis to a vacant plot, belonging to Mostafa Zobaer, beside Helal Market at Uttarkhan. The place is barely five minutes’ walk away from the victim’s house, said Raju.
   ‘There Masud and his associate tied up Anis against a tree and also put a rope around his mouth so that he could not shout,’ said Raju, who stood at a distance but saw the whole scene.
   Then Masud and his associates started hitting Anis, at first with their hands and then with bricks. At one stage they laid him down on to the ground and battered his face and head with bricks, said Raju. Sajib, at the time, was sitting on the boundary wall of the plot and smoking.
   ‘Seeing Sajib, I tried to hide myself and ran away from the scene,’ he said, and added that Anis had died on the spot.
   On the following day, Sajib went to Anis’s residence and told his father, Badshah Miah, who is a scrap iron trader, that Anis’s body was lying in Mostafa Zobaer’s vacant plot.
   The body was buried in the local graveyard after an autopsy was conducted in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s morgue. Both Sajib and Raju took part in the janaza of Anis held at the local mosque.
   Badshah Miah filed a case with Uttarkhan thana on September 5, accusing unidentified assailants of the murder of his only son.
   Investigation officer of the case sub-inspector Ruhul Amin, acting on secret information, arrested Sajib from Uttarkhan on Sunday evening and, based on his confession, arrested Raju and Masud Rana on the following afternoon.
   The three were remanded and were being interrogated in Uttarkhan thana on Tuesday.

Eight bodies were recovered decomposed along the Sonadia coast at Maheskhali in Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday morning, five days after cyclone Sidr had struck the southern coast on November 15.
   The bodies were found in a fishing boat afloat overturned on the west coast of the island, said the Maheskhali police officer-in-charge.
   The families of more than 5,000 dry-fish industry labourers at Kutubdia were yet to be informed of their fate five days inside the cyclone.
   Seven traders of Kutubdia had employed the 5,000 labourers for four months to dry fishes in several places at Hiron Point, Dublarchar and Sarankhola in Bagerhat.
   The labourers on October 18 left Sonadia for four months on wages between Tk 8,000 and Tk 25,000 for the whole period.
   The families said they had talked with the labourers over mobile even in the evening Sidr struck the southern costs. Communications remained snapped after the night.
   One of the seven employers said three of the 5,000 labourers died in the storm.
   Two fishing boats of Kutubdia with 23 crewmembers on board remained missing, said the upazila nirbahi officer, Faiz Ahmed.

A Dhaka court on Tuesday asked the Dhaka central jail to shift the detained former minister ASM Hannan Shah, also adviser to the BNP’s chairperson Khaleda Zia, to a jail so that he could be provided with division facilities.
   The court of metropolitan magistrate Habibur Rahman Siddiqui issued the order as the counsels for Hannan had complained to the court that Hannan, who was a minister for jute, was kept in prison in Narayanganj where there are no provisions for division facilities.
   The police arrested Hannan Shah, leader of the BNP faction led by secretary general Khandoker Delwar Hossain, at his house at DOHS at Mohakhali on November 7 in a case filed for assaulting former army chief Mahbubur Rahman, also a leader of the BNP-faction led by Hafizur Rahman, the BNP’s acting secretary general.
   The Hafiz faction came under attack by the Delwar group at the grave of former president Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on November 7 when the both factions were observing the occasion of National Revolution and Solidarity Day, by placing flowers.
   The magistrate at the time ordered Hannan to be sent to a prison where he could be provided with division facilities. He issued the order when Hannan was produced in court after the completion of his remand in police custody for three days in interrogation in the case.