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Operators of city service buses have been charging fares much higher than the government fixed rates for long in the absence of effective measures by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
   BRTA, the state-run regulatory body, has not yet taken any effective step to check the high fares charged by the city service bus operators, although the inspectors are supposed to do the job. In April, BRTA deployed a mobile court which only checks papers of public transports.
   As a result, passengers are held hostage to the whims of the bus operators.
   Both types of bus services — one run by counters and another by conductors — charge the passengers fares at their will through bypassing the fare chart fixed by the government.
   Even low-priced CNG-run buses also charge high fares. Though all the counter-based bus services have CNG-run buses, all of them charge fares much higher than the diesel-run buses.
   After the fuel price hike, the government increased the fare by Tk 0.07 per kilometre in April. The government re-fixed the fares for 52-seat buses at Tk 0.87 per kilometre and for minibuses at Tk 0.90 per km which were at Tk 0.80 and Tk 0.83 per km respectively in 2005.
   Cashing in on absence of the lax monitoring system and enforcement of laws, city bus operators increased the fares by Tk 1 to Tk 5 on different city routes.
   Ajmery Paribahan, a counter-based bus service, collects Tk 10 from the passengers for traveling between Gulistan and Moghbazar. Other counter-based bus services plying from city heart to its peripheral areas also takes almost similar fares for the same distance.
   But the fare as per the rate fixed by the government was supposed to be less than Tk 3 as the distance between Gulistan or Motijheel and Moghbazar will be about three kilometres.
   Bikalpa City Super Service, which operates buses with CNG and plies the Jatrabari-Mirpur-1 route, takes Tk 11 for travelling from Jatrabari to Farmgate and Tk 18 from Jatrabari to Mirpur-1. A diesel-run bus also takes Tk 8 and Tk 12 for travelling from Jatrabari to Farmgate and Mirpur-1 respectively. The fare disparity has been continuing for last few years.
   Humayun Rashid Khalifa, director (engineering) of BRTA, acknowledged the fact, saying, ‘We are trying to deal with the situation by taking some measures, including ensuring of sticking up fare chart in each public bus.’
   They were also planning to open some complaint boxes to receive complaints from the passengers, he said, adding that they have started giving instructions to the bus operators for sticking up the fare chart inside the buses.
   Some 4,000 city service buses, including about 1,500 CNG-run ones, ply the capital city and its peripheral areas, BRTA sources said.

More dengue patients were admitted to different hospitals in Dhaka during the past three days till Saturday, raising the number of dengue patients since July 1 to 300.
   Among them, 21 were admitted to Holy Family Red Crescent Hospital, four to Sumona Clinic, three to Central Hospital, two each to BDR Hospital and Sikdar Medical College Hospital, and one each to Mitford Hospital and Urotrade Hospital.
   A total of 300 dengue patients were admitted to different city hospitals since July 1, said chief entomologist of the Dhaka City Corporation Nasim-us-Seraj adding that 71 of them are still undergoing treatment.
   He said they were emphasising on awareness campaign and have taken different steps, including publishing advertisements in different dailies.
   Seraj also suggested that the city dwellers should use mosquito nets while sleeping even in day time during the season of Aedes mosquito. The season of dengue starts in June and continues till October.
   As the average lifespan of Aedes mosquito eggs is around one year, total eradication of Aedes mosquito is almost impossible, he said and urged the city dwellers to dispose of all the used cans, pots, bottles and such containers properly as they cannot store water for more than five days at a stretch.
   The people should refrain from storing water in their buckets, drums, tanks, earthen
   vats and flower vases for more than five days to prevent the breeding of Aedes mosquito, he said.
   The first case of dengue was detected in the country in 2000 when at least 93 people died and 5,551 were infected. At least 11 persons died and 2,198 people were affected in 2006, four persons died and 1,048 were affected in 2005 and 13 persons died and 3,934 were affected in 2004.

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority on Sunday dismantled illegal structures of a tannery factory on the Hazaribagh canal, which were partially pulled down on Saturday.
   The water agency on Saturday dismantled a dozen of brick-built and half brick-built structures, constructed by Mitali Tannery and others, filling up the canal.
   A WASA team, led by magistrate Kazi Wasiuddin, dismantled the structures without any resistance, M Ramjan Ali, superintendent engineer in charge of the Drainage Division of Dhaka WASA said, adding they (WASA) had earlier served notice to the encroachers, asking them to demolish their structures, but they had not paid any heed to the notice. The Dhaka WASA will excavate the canal to ensure its smooth flow, Ramjan said.
   WASA will conduct its next drive on the Ramchandrapur canal at Mohammadpur, Ramjan said, adding the date for the drive would be fixed at a meeting to be held within a couple of days. The illegal structures on Ramchandrapur canal include non-brick houses and some semi-concrete structures.
   WASA has been conducting drive to reclaim canals in a bid to save the Dhaka city from water-logging during rainy season. WASA officials said out of 43 canals in the Dhaka city, 25 can now be recognised and 19 of them still have lean flows despite encroachment.

The country’s financial sector is underdeveloped but it has potentials to grow, finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said on Sunday.
   Lack of supply of knowledgeable professionals to the
   sector is one of the main reasons for its underdevelopment, he said.
   Mirza Aziz was speaking as chief guest at a prize giving ceremony of Citi Financial Quiz Competition 2007 at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka.
   The Citibank NA Bangladesh and the North South University jointly organised the quiz competition funded by the Citi Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Citigroup.
   The finance adviser said the young participants of the competition would eventually be leaders in the financial sector.
   Later, he distributed prizes among the NSU and Jahangirnagar University teams, champion and runner-up of the quiz competition.
   Hafiz GA Siddiqui, vice-chancellor of the NSU, and Mamun Rashid, managing director and Citigroup country officer, Bangladesh, also spoke on the occasion.
   The NSU were awarded a $3,000 grand prize with each team member winning $1,000 while each team members of Jahangirnagar University were awarded $500.
   The NSU team was led by Chowdhury Tauhid Jalil with team members Saiful Anam and Saiful Islam and the Jahangirnagar University team was led by Ahmed Reza with team members of Md Mehasan-Al-Rashed and Kamrul Hasan.
   The finalist two teams reached in the grand finale held on Sunday after preliminary, quarterfinal and semi final rounds between business school students of twelve reputed public and private universities in the country.
   All the rounds were telecast on Channel i, while the final was telecast live with simultaneous transmission on Radio Foorti, both are media partners of the event.
   Members of the advisory council and jury board of the competition, government officials, dignitaries, members
   of the media and many students from the participating universities also present at the ceremony.

The Bangladesh Math at Aga Sadek Road in Old Town of Dhaka has been in a shabby state for long due to the lack of maintenance by the Dhaka City Corporation.
   A portion of the playground under Ward No 69 of the corporation has been occupied by Bangladesh Sporting Club while dotted holes are there in most of the remaining portion.
   The club has built a room for its use on the playground, which was known as Pakistan Math before the independence of the country, local people said.
   A good number of people, including male and female, use the rectangular walkway around the park for jogging every morning and evening, local residents said.
   Majority of the joggers are diabetic patients, who take regular exercise in the morning and evening, they said.
   Kawsar Alam Raju, a student of class-VII in the Bir Sreshtha Matiur Rahman High School, said, ‘We play cricket and sometimes football in this field. Today we are playing cricket together here as our exams are over.’
   The playground is uneven having no grass. Dotted holes are also there in different parts of the playground making it almost unusable.
   Some of the trees planted around the walkway have been uprooted in the absence of monitoring by the authorities concerned. The galleries on two sides of the playground are also in a poor state in the absence of care.
   At one corner of the field, Bangladesh Rifles has made a tin-roofed makeshift house to sell essential commodities during Ramadan.
   Local commissioner Mohon renovated the playground in June, 2003, according to a plaque in the entrance gate of the field.
   The commissioner had renovated the walkway and therefore it is still useable, the local people said.
   The city corporation runs 10 playgrounds in the city for more than 10 million people living in 90 wards and most of the playgrounds are in a poor condition.
   The corporation allocated Tk 2.50 crore in its budget for the current fiscal year (2007-2008) for the development of city parks, open spaces and playgrounds.

The Bangladesh Academy of Science and Pratipalak Society for Culture and Science, an NGO, organised a scientific seminar at the BCSIR auditorium in the Dhaka city.
   The science and technology adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, was present as chief guest at the seminar, titled ‘Development of Chemical Metrology Infrastructure of Bangladesh’.
   Chaired by academy president Shamser Ali, science and technology secretary SM Oahiduzzaman, BCSIR chairman Chowdhury Mahmud Hasan, Incepta Pharmaceuticals managing director Abdul Muktadir, Pratipalak chairman Shantanu Saha Roy spoke at the seminar.

A 12-day solo art show of artist Samiran Chowdhury began at the Saju Art Gallery in the Dhaka city on Thursday.
   A total of 47 paintings and sketches have been put on display at the show that will remain open from 10:00am to 8:00pm every day except Friday.
   The artist has used oil, charcoal, chalk-pastel, acrylic, plastic colour, oil pastel and water colour on the campus.
   Samiran’s artworks mainly reflect figures of human being and animals featuring beauties of life.
   The images shown in his canvas are men, women, cows, pigeons, sunflowers, boats, birds and working people in the country.
   Figures of cows and women dominate the show. The artist follows woman’s approaches to life and their way of living.
   Samniran has so sketched the figures of women that they look very young and live and romantic.
   Woman figures drawn on the canvas acts, plays and smiles give an expression of duality. This duality is presence in the masterpiece of Leo Nardo Da Vinci’s Monalisa.
   The figures of cows in Shamiran’s paintings remind a viewer of the tradition Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin’s made in his artworks.
   He has reflected the fight of bulls in his works. The bulls are very healthy. But, such healthy bulls are now only found in the dairy farms in Bangladesh, not in the field or cottage of poor farmers. Bulls in a dairy farm are chained. They have no way to engage themselves in fighting and here the artist differs with Shilpacharya as he is far away from the facts.
   His paintings also reflect the country’s historical events like war of independence in 1971 while bauls are unique feature of his artworks.

Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at one or two places over Khulna, Barisal Chittagong, Dhaka, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today.
   Moderately heavy falls may also occur at places during the period, the Met Office said, predicting nearly unchanged day temperature over the country, it said.
   The country’s highest temperature on Sunday, 35.2 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Rajshahi and the lowest, 23.8 degrees Celsius, at Maijdicourt.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:15pm and rises tomorrow at 5:41am.

JICA team calls
on DU VC
A four-member team of Japan International Cooperation Agency called on Dhaka University vice-chancellor SMA Faiz at the university on Sunday. They discussed matters relating to mutual interests, especially the academic and research programmes of Japan Study Centre of Dhaka University. Possibilities of enhancing joint collaborative programmes between the university and JICA were also discussed, said a press release. The JICA team comprised its senior project administration officer Sangara Fuyuki, architect Sasaki Shiro, senior researcher and lecturer of Jumonji University Satoru Takahashi and deputy resident representative of JICA in Dhaka Ehara Keiji. DU Pro-VC AFM Yousuf Haider, treasurer Syed Abul Kalam Azad and director of the Japan Study Centre Ataur Rahman were also present.
— BSS

7 opera artistes held in Rajshahi
The police arrested seven performers of traditional opera group in the Rajshahi city on Saturday for staging an opera show without taking permission of the local administration. The arrested are Nurul Islam, Saidur Rahman  Aminul Islam, Khaleda Khatun, Sabina Yesmin, Beauty Khatun and Abdur Rashid. Police sources said Nurul Islam organised an opera show at his house at Maria under Bagmara at around 3:00pm. Tipped-off, the police went to the spot and cancelled the opera show and arrested Nurul along with six others.
— New Age