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The city dwellers faced severe traffic congestion in most parts of the city on Sunday, the first working day in Ramadan, despite steps claimed to have been taken by police authorities to streamline the city traffic.
   Traffic snarl-up cost working hours of office-goers and home-bound people on board various vehicles, stuck in on city roads in both directions. The situation worsened in the afternoon as Iftar time was approaching and people rushing for homes to break the day’s fasting along with the families.
   Many people were seen standing at different bus stoppage due to lack of transports to take them home.
   The roads stretching from Farmgat to Matsyabhaban, Moghbazar to Malibagh and Mohakhali to Moghbazar, Shewrapara to Miprur-10 were found clogged with thousands of vehicles moving at a snail’s pace for hours.
   It took more than an hour for a man to reach Kakrail from Farmgate, a journey that takes hardly 15 minutes by bus when the road is free, said a morning commuter.
   ‘I started from Pallabi by a bus at 10:45 am and reached Gulistan at 12:45 pm which usually takes less than one hour,’ said Ami, a resident of Mirpur section-12.
   Rasel, a resident of Uttara said he had to spend about two hours in the morning to reach Paltan, usually a one-hour ride.
   The suffering of the city dwellers intensified in the afternoon as city’s fragile public transport system failed to handle the rush of people heading for homes.
   Most offices shortened office time to facilitate employees
   to have iftar at homes. But
   many of them ended up on the roads and had to break their fast there.
   ‘I boarded a bus from Motijheel at 4:30 pm but failed to reach home at Mirpur section-6 before iftar at 6:05 pm,’ said Siraj, who works in a private firm.
   Traffic congestion also held back Arif, who works in a Gulshan office, from joining
   iftar with the family at Mirpur.
   Like in the previous years, the traffic division this time also initiated measures to keep city roads free during Ramadan, but their drive focused on throwing unlicensed rickshaws out of roads without arranging alternatives for millions who travel by rickshaws.
   No visible steps are in sight to streamline city transport routes to efficiently handle the Ramadan rush of commuters, forcing people to wait for hours on the roads, city dwellers complained.
   Movement of rickshaws usually goes up in the city during Ramadan with hundreds of seasonal pullers, mainly the jobless people of the northern and greater Mymansingh regions, coming to Dhaka targeting Eid shoppers.
   According to the latest statistics of the Dhaka city Corporation, there are about four lakh rickshaws in the city and 79,616 of them have licenses.

Sixteen more dengue patients were admitted to different hospitals in the Dhaka city on Sunday raising the number of dengue-infected people to 403 since July 1, said an official of the Dhaka City Corporation.
   Of the new cases, 13 were admitted to Holy Family Hospital, two to Mitford Hospital and one to General Hospital.
   A total of 403 dengue patients have been admitted to city hospitals since July 1 and 56 of them are still undergoing treatment, said the chief entomologist of the corporation, Nasim-us-Seraj.
   He said the city corporation had laid on awareness campaign to prevent dengue infection caused by Aedes mosquito.
   Various steps, including publishing advertisements in different dailies, have already been taken to make the people aware of the dengue menace, Seraj added.
   ‘We have been conducting adulticiding in addition to larvaciding of Aedes mosquito at every ward of the corporation for the last two weeks,’ he said.
   Two fogger machines are being used in each ward for adulticiding in the afternoon and the drive will continue till the end of Ramadan, he added.
   The DCC entomologist also suggested use of mosquito nets during sleep at night and even at day time during the season of Aedes mosquito.
   At least 11 persons died and 2,198 were affected in 2006, four died and 1,048 affected in 2005 and 13 died and 3,934 were attacked with dengue in 2004.

Experts at a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday stressed the need for applying local realities like independent political system incorporating ethnic and religious groups for the development of every country.
   They made the observation at the seminar, titled ‘Himalayan Consensus and China Today’ organised by the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute at its conference room in Gulshan.
   Columnist for the South China Morning Post and writer Laurence J Brahm was the key speaker at the programme moderated by BEI senior research fellow M Shafiullah. The seminar was attended, among others, by the BEI senior adviser Ashfaqur Rahman, ex-army official Abdul Matin, former ambassadors Aminul Islam and Tofail K Haider.
   Dwelling on the issue, Brahm said Shambala Foundation, a Hong Kong-based NGO, was working to promote the concept of Himalayan Consensus for human equality, closing income gaps, ethnic diversity, sustainable development and peaceful solution to conflicts.
   ‘Himalayan Consensus rejects global values of the political systems set by the United States since World War II,’ the American-born Chinese analyst, Brahm said.
   The core philosophies in three religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are much common which can help to find a way-out for eliminating income gaps between the poor and the rich in countries of the Himalayan region.
   Ashfaqur Rahman said, ‘This consensus can be effective in Asian countries for achieving development goals in Himalayan region.
   Tofail K Haider said the Himalayan Consensus can help in freeing the world from wars and discouraging weapon business.

Publishing house Oitijjhya has published a special Eid compilation, Rangin Phool, for children with attractive illustrations.
   The compilation, for the first time in the country, will be launched at the Sufia Kamal auditorium of the National Museum at 11:30am today.
   Kabir Choudhury, Rahat Khan and Mainul Ahsan Saber will attend the function as guests.
   The price of the 480-page compilation, comprising contribution of more than 100 writers on over 40 themes, will be sold at Tk 200 per copy, said a release.

Rich greeneries, proper drainage and adequate walkways in the park at Farmgate have made it different from most other parks in Dhaka.
   The park, however, remains occupied by the drug users and floating people especially after evening due the lack of care by the Dhaka City Corporation authorities.
   ‘The park was given a facelift by the Public Works Department three years back, but it is gradually losing its attraction due to lack of maintenance,’ said Ahmed, a local resident.
   Now drug addicts, vendors, floating people and jobless youths are often found in the park making its environment unwelcome for the visitors, he added.
   Some portions of the park have remained filthy as it is not cleaned regularly.
   As the night falls, the
   park plunges into almost darkness as a good number of lights have remained out of order for long.
   Still, a large number people, particularly old men and women, come to the park every morning for walk, some local people said.
   There is a boundary wall around the park which has a good many concrete umbrellas and benches for the visitors. The park is dotted with different types of trees.
   While visiting the park on Saturday, our correspondent found that a group of five youths were smoking cannabis under an umbrella on the eastern side of the park.
   An old woman was found washing dishes and arranging his launch at the southern side of the park.
   Goura Gopal Bhaumik, a retired High Court officer who was sitting on a bench, said lack of maintenance has made the park almost unusable.
   Mamun, a second year student of the Dhaka College was found reading a news paper sitting on a bench of the park along with a jobless youth named Razzak.
   ‘I have come to the Islami Eye Hospital with my ailing mother but it will take about two hours more to get the appointment of the doctor, Razzak said’
   ‘I am passing time here as I have nothing to do,’ he added.
   People of different walks of life come to the park everyday to pass their time as it is located at a buy point of the city.
   A good number of students also come to the park, said Alfaz, a resident of Farmgate area adding that particularly the elderly people come to the park in the morning for walking and doing exercise..
   The authorities concerned should take immediate steps to properly maintain and take care of the park so that the people can come here for jogging and recreation, some visitors said.

A new passengers-cum-cargo ship of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation was introduced on the Barisal-Chittagong route on Saturday.
   The modern luxury vessel, MV Bara Awlia, sailed from the Chittagong river port at 9:00am Saturday and reached Barisal at 5:00am on Sunday, six hours behind the schedule.
   Bara Awlia left Barisal for Chittagong with five tonnes of cargo and some passengers at 11:30am. It earlier carried about 30 tonnes of cargo and a few passengers, mostly officials and employees of BIWTC, from Chittagong to Barisal.
   Strong current and inadequate navigation signs caused the delay in Bara Awlia’s reaching Barisal in the maiden trip of the BIWTC ship, which has been introduced for the benefits of the passengers and transportation of cargo on the coastal route, BIWTC sources said.
   According to official sources, the regular 14-hour journey of the ship will start at 9:00am on every Thursday from Chittagong and return trip from Barisal will start at 9:00am on the following day.
   The local people and businessmen in Barisal, however, demanded a revision in the timetable of the vessel. They said the authorities should fix up the ship’s departure schedule from Chittagong at 7:00am instead of 9:00am and from Barisal at 11:00pm instead of 9:00am.

The admission tests in honours courses at Chittagong University will begin on January 6, 2008.
   The admission test committee of the university at a meeting on Sunday also decided to initiate distributing admission forms for the session 2007-08 from October 07 and receive it till December 10.
   The aspirants will have to collect the admission forms by December 06, decided the meeting chaired by the CU vice chancellor, M Badiul Alam, in the chair.
   Students having GPA-6 in the SSC and HSC examinations will be eligible for the admission tests, university sources said, adding that the admission tests would be completed by January 13.
   The admission forms will be sold for Tk 300 per set at the CU, New Market and Kapashgola branches of Agrani Bank, the sources added.

Admission tests for the first year honours courses in 2007-08 session of Khulna University will be held in January 10-12 in 2008.
   A meeting of the university authorities, chaired by the vice-chancellor, M Mahbubur Rahman, also decided to distribute the admission forms between October 30 and December 3, said a KU press release today.

Light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at a few places over Rajshahi, Sylhet, Chittagong and Barisal divisions and at one or two places over Dhaka and Khulna divisions in the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Moderately heavy rainfalls are also likely at one or two places over the country, Met Office said, predicting nearly unchanged day temperature over the country.
   The country’s highest temperature on Sunday, 35.0 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Jessore and the lowest, 24.5 degrees Celsius, at Sylhet.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:00pm and rises tomorrow at 5:46am.

The government on Sunday decided to deploy about 8,000 additional forces in the city ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr aiming at maintaining law and order.
   The decision was taken at a meeting on law and order with the home secretary, Abdul Karim, in the chair.
   Held at the home ministry, the meeting reviewed the overall security measures of the country and felt the necessity to deploy additional forces in the city to maintain law and order and combat crimes that usually increase ahead of Eid.
   Ministry officials said 6,000 policemen and 1,900 members of the Rapid Action Battalion would be deployed on the city streets soon to beef up security.
   The home secretary briefing newsmen after the meeting said the Special Branch of police would monitor the security arrangements. He said five battalions of RAB would be deployed at different markets and alleys of the city.
   As per the arrangements, the police will set up check posts at 429 places, deploy 136 mobile teams, 24 Detective Branch teams, 100 motorcycle patrol teams and 500 policemen to facilitate traffic.
   He said the lawmen would also help force taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers to take passengers to their chosen destinations during Ramadan.
   Different law enforcing and intelligence agencies briefed the meeting about their respective measures taken to check crimes during Ramadan. The home secretary wanted to know if they have any shortage of manpower and logistics at anywhere, meeting sources said.
   ‘Usually such meetings are held ahead of Eid to intensify security particularly in the capital,’ said a high-ranking official who was present at the meeting.
   RAB will have separate arrangements. A total of 200 small teams of the elite force will patrol the streets with motorbikes to help city dwellers to reach their destination safely. Besides, they will patrol with vehicles.
   The bus and launch terminals and railway stations would be brought under strict monitoring system a week before Eid, the official said, adding that Ansars would be assigned to check overcrowding and ensure safety of homebound passengers.
   Inspector general of police Noor Mohammad, director general of RAB Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Naim Ahmed, president and general secretary of Dhaka City Shop Owners’ Association and senior officials were present.

The Awami League’s senior presidium member, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, on Sunday said that Wednesday’s physical and verbal attacks on some leaders were the sudden outburst of the ‘agony of the country’s people’.
   ‘The unwanted incidents that took place in front of Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi office were the sudden expression of the agony of tormented people,’ Sajeda, who has been made head of the one-member inquiry committee, told reporters after holding a meeting with the AL’s acting president, Zillur Rahman, at his Gulshan residence in the morning.
   The AL on Saturday formed the one-member inquiry committee to probe the attacks on some party leaders after the meeting of the party’s working committee on Wednesday, and asked it to submit its report within a week.
   The angry activists of the AL and its front organisations on Wednesday manhandled an organising secretary and verbally abused four others, including acting general secretary Mukul Bose, who are said to be reformists who are ready to run the party, if required, without Hasina.
   Sajeda, however, said the party is still united, although she feared that the outburst of the so-called agony against certain leaders might take place again if the AL’s unity was not upheld.
   ‘The committee will start its work from Monday and the party’s working committee will take necessary action if any party member is found to be guilty,’ she said, adding that the committee would submit its reports in three to four days.
   She told reporters that the committee would sit in the Dhanmondi office from 10:00am to 12:00 noon everyday from Monday to collect information about the incident.
   ‘I have talked to the party’s acting president and informed him of the details of my assignment,’ said Sajeda, adding that the committee would collect information from witnesses including the people of the adjoining area, drivers of the leaders’ vehicles and the shopkeepers who were in front of the office.
   She added that statements of the victims might be also taken during the investigation, if necessary.

International Ozone Day was observed in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the world, laying importance on accelerating the efforts to make sure the phasing out of Ozone Depleting Substance gases from the country by December 2010, a universal timeframe under the Montreal Protocol.
   Bangladesh has been observing the day since 1995 with other member-countries of the UN in the light of the Montreal Protocol, a global treaty to phase out the production and consumption of ODS across the world.
   This year’s theme of the day is ‘Celebrating 20 years of progress in 2007’ that commemorates the adoption of Montreal Protocol in Canada in 1987.
   Addressing a seminar on the occasion here on Sunday, experts called for sensitising the common people about the gases harmful to ‘ozone layer’, a stratospheric layer protecting the earth from the sun’s ultra-violet rays.
   They urged the government to take steps for the recovery of CFC gases used in the refrigerators and air-conditions and strengthening the on-going training programme for technicians of the chilling sector as well as distributing more recovery kits to stop release of the gases in the air.
   According to scientists, the ozone layer protects the planet from ultraviolet radiation, which at high levels poses a number of dangers, including increased risk of skin cancer and cataracts.
   They first marked the decline in stratospheric ozone over Antarctica in 1986. The hole varied between 20 and 29 million square km in the early 1990s. It was 29 million sq km in September 2000, 27 million sq km in September 2003, and 24 million sq km in 2004.
   The highest depletion was found over the North Pole up to 30 per cent, while that over Europe and other high latitudes varied between 5 per cent and 30 per cent.
   The scientists estimated that the ozone layer over mid-latitude and Antarctic would heal by 2050, if no further ozone-damaging chemicals are released into the atmosphere.

Panic gripped temporary workers of Platinum Jubilee Jute Mill as three cases were filed against some 200 unnamed workers with the Khalishpur police station for beating up one of their leaders and ransacking another’s residence.
   The cases were lodged Saturday night after a group of temporary workers prevented the officials from entering the mill, assaulted PJM trade union president Delwar Hossain and vandalised the residence of trade union general secretary Jahangir Hossain in the morning.
   The workers had been observing work abstention programme at the mill gate since September 3 to press home their demands.
   The labourers said temporary workers didn’t join their work on Sunday as they went into hiding fearing for arrest by the police.
   More than 5,000 temporary labourers work in seven jute mills in the region.
   Some 6,000 sacked and retired workers of the state-owned jute mills in Khulna-Jessore region staged sit-in on the mill premises for two hours from 9:00am on Sunday demanding payment of all their dues.
   They vowed to continue the agitation until their demands were met.

The Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court on Sunday ordered the police to reinvestigate a case against former housing minister Mirza Abbas.
   ‘The police could charge Abbas with the laundering of foreign currencies, seized from his house, but the accused has been charged with keeping the currencies at his house to be smuggled out,’ the judge, Azizul Haque, said, ordering the reinvestigation.
   Law enforcers picked up Abbas from near the Anti-Corruption Commission at Segun Baghicha on February 25 as he came out of the commission after submitting his wealth statements.
   Abbas was later indicted in a case filed by police subinspector Rafiqul Islam under the Foreign Currency Act and Tax Evasion Act on charge of keeping foreign currencies amounting to Tk 4.90 lakh at his house at Shahjahanpur.
   The police also submitted the charge-sheet to the court charging Abbas with keeping the currencies to be smuggled out.
   The trial of the case was later halted by another court on a petition for reinvestigation.

Zakir Hossain, Lakshipur correspondent of daily Sangbad and former president of Lakshipur Press Club, died of cardiac arrest Wednesday. He was 65.
   He is survived by his wife and five daughters.
   He was buried at the family graveyard after namaj-e-janazas at Lakshipur Press Club and Amani village on Thursday.
   A large number of people, including the additional deputy commissioner (general), attended the janaza at Lakshipur Press Club.

Dr Nirmal Chandra Sarker, an eminent homeopathic practitioner, died of old-age complications at Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on Sunday. He was 90.
   He is survived by his wife, one daughter and one son.
   He was cremated at Shashman Khola in Barisal the same day.

The Siam Health Foundation distributed 3,500 packets of oral saline and 50,000 water purifying tablets among the flood victims in Sirajganj on Friday.
   The Bangladeshi expatriates living in Thailand have provided the medical support for the flood-affected people of the district.
   The district commissioner of Sirajganj, Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil, additional district commissioner, Dulal Krishna Shaha and general secretary of the foundation, Dr Monirul Islam Khan, among others, were present during distribution, says a press release.

A kindergarten student and a van puller were killed and 11 other students injured when a bus headed for Sreepur hit the van carrying the students at Memberbari on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway Sunday morning.
   The van puller, Afaz, 44, died on the spot and the playgroup student, Mehedi Hasan Apu, of Baniarchar, died in Bangladesh Medical College Hospital.
   The Prabhati Paribahan bus and the van that carried the students fell into a roadside ditch.
   Eleven other students — Shahriar Mohin, Nayem, Afsana, Sony, Nazmul, Helal, Fahad, Parvez, and Jahida of playgroup and Rifat and Nayem of nursery were also injured in the accident.
   Nine of the injured, including Mehedi Hasan, were taken to Bangladesh Medical College Hospital. Others were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   One of the children in the van was given first aid. No bus passenger was injured.
   The body of Afaz was sent to Gazipur General Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

A housewife was beaten to death Saturday night allegedly by her husband at Amurbunia under Dumuria in Khulna.
   The victim was Namita Rani Mandal, 26, wife of Dipankar Mandal.
   Villagers and the Khalishpur police said Dipankar had an extra-marital affair and he left his family about two years ago.
   Dipankar returned home a few months ago and started torturing his wife, the villagers said.
   Dipankar entered into an altercation with his wife Saturday night and beat her up at one point, the police said. Namita died on the spot.
   The police said Dipankar then poured poison into her mouth and told the neighbours that she had committed suicide. The police found injury marks on the body.
   The police arrested Dipankar, his brother, Subhankar, and mother, Tepu Rani, for their suspected involvement in the killing.

Production in the Karnaphuli Paper Mills at Chandraghona under Kaptai in Rangamati has been suspended since Friday as a mechanical fault developed in the broiler house, mill sources said.
   A sudden trip took place again in the broiler house when emergency renovation was going on, said the sources.
   The mill, an industrial unit of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, meets about 30 per cent of the domestic demand for paper.
   

DAM receives Tk 22.48 lakh in August
Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital has received Tk 22.48 lakh as donation form individuals and organisations in August. The Dhaka Ahsania Mission has so far received Tk 52 crore for construction of the 500-bed cancer hospital, said a press release on Sunday.
— BSS

RAB seizes Phensidyl, polythene in Barisal
The Rapid Action Battalion seized 150 bottles of Phensidyl and 15 mounds of polythene from different areas in Barisal city on Sunday. Sources in the battalion said, they checked the passengers of Dhansiri Paribahon, operating on  Khulna-Barisal route, and seized 150 bottles of Phensidyl from the possessions of two traffickers — Rokeya and Rabeya — at about 2:30pm on Sunday and arrested them. On other hand officials of the Directorate of Environment seized 15 mounds of polythene from Bandh Road area of the city on Sunday morning. Kaisar Ahmed, deputy director in charge of Barisal office of environment directorate, said they were trying to find out the buyer, supplier and traffickers of the seized polythene to file a case against them.
— New Age