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The government is likely to withdraw the suspension order of MBBS students’ admission from four private medical colleges as they have met minimum requirements to run as full-fledged colleges, sources in the health ministry said.
   The colleges are ZH Shikder Women’s Medical College in Rayerbazar, East West Medical College in Uttara, Shahabuddin Medical College in Gulshan and International Medical College in Tongi.
   In February this year, the government suspended the admission process of 13 private medical colleges out of 32 for their failure to meet minimum requirements to run as full-fledged medical colleges.
   The nine other colleges are Central Medical College and Eastern Medical College in Comilla, Maulana Bhasani Medical College in Uttara, Ibn Sina Medical College in Kalyanpur, Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College and North Bengal Medical College in Sirajganj, Nightingale Medical College in Ashulia, Northern International Medical College in Dhanmondi, Tahirunnessa Memorial Medical College in Gazipur.
   Khandakar M Sefayet Ullah, director of medical education of directorate of health services, told New Age last week that as the 13 colleges didn’t meet requirements, they were not allowed to admit students.
   He also informed that four or five private medical colleges might get permission to admit the students for the session of 2007-2008. ‘The medical colleges that follow the rules will get the approval and the rests have to be shut down permanently,’ he said, adding that there is no compromise with the quality medical education.
   The sources said the four private medical colleges had their own infrastructures like hospitals and laboratories as well as adequate teachers and increased number of patients. The authorities of the colleges also recruited teachers as per the private medical education policy.
   According to medical education policy approved in 2004, the teachers and employees of the colleges have to be qualified by the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council.
   As per the rules, the institutions will have one teacher for every ten students apart from 50-bed hospitals for dental colleges and 250-bed hospitals for general medical colleges.
   No medical college can be established in a rented house. A medical college must have its own building on 2.5 acres of land in metropolitan area and on 5 acres of land outside the metropolitan area, according to the rule.
   Part-time teachers would not be more than one-fifths of permanent teachers. But most of the colleges had more part-time teachers than permanent ones, the sources said.
   A team comprising high officials from the health and family welfare ministry and medical education found the 13 colleges running without meeting minimum requirements and recommended suspension of students’ admission into the colleges.
   The team also found that most of the private medical colleges lacked adequate teaching facilities, enough regular teachers, laboratories, hospital with proportionate patients, adequate infrastructures and transparency in accounts.

Trains now run on schedule in Kushtia, making 35 years’ record of being late a thing of the past and regaining the confidence of commuters.
   Passengers, who were used to waiting for hours at the station for a train to appear, are now even missing trains for being late. Many of them, who had shifted to other modes of transport due to perennially unpredictable railway service, recently started to shift to trains.
   The miracle took place as the railway authorities initiated vigorous drive to streamline the train service like many other sectors did since the present government took office in January.
   Central train controller of Rajshahi, Nurul Huda told New Age on Friday that all the trains in the west zone of Bangladesh Railway were running on time unless accidents cause any disruption. ‘If we get enough logistic supports, we will be able to solve problems caused by accidents and keep the services unaffected,’ he said.
   ‘Train is late’ has been a common announcement, which is no longer heard for some time now, said Quamrul islam, a senior citizen in Kushtia.
   Zulmat Ali, booking master at Kushtia Court Station said five trains stop twice a day at the stoppage and run on schedule. These are express trains Modhumoti and Nakshikatha, two shuttle trains and a local train.
   Trains were late even for five hours and no one could tell why. Late for half an hour or more was usual for express trains, residents close to the station said.
   Kamrunnahar, a regular train passenger from Kushtia, said ‘I never got trains running on time a year back. Recently I missed Nakshikatha as I came to the station late.’
   The discipline has brought relief to commuters, but hawkers and shopkeepers in and around the platform are having dull sales as people now need not to wait at the station for indefinite hours.
   Joshi, a herbal medicine seller, looked unhappy to see that trains now maintain schedule, leaving an empty platform for him and others.
   ‘My sale has declined at least by Tk 50 per day,’ said Ayub, who sells looking glass on the platform.
   Perfect schedule makes journey easier and cheaper for Moshiur Rahman, a student of Kushtia Government College.
   Train costs him Tk 7 for a trip to Alamdanga, while bus charges Tk 25, he compared.
   Halting trains here and there for loading and unloading smuggled goods was one of the major reasons behind the unpredictable train service, commuters said. Smugglers used to stop trains either using force or bribing the railway people.
   Above all, poor supervision of the railway authorities is to blame.
   Train controller Nurul Huda said disruption at one point disturbs the whole network and such disturbances were frequent in the past.

Rafiqul Islam, for the first time in his 40 years of drifting life, feels delighted and a little secured to have a house of his own.
   Floods and erosions have forced him to move with his family from one place to another and from one shoal to another in Kurigram district and start life anew.
   Poverty and hunger had always accompanied him until he, like many other ultra-poor, has been provided with a shelter in Kumar Kamrangir char of Kurigram, where he has been living for the last eight years.
   Rafiqul now boasts of a safe house, cattle and a piece of land to cultivate. His family has access to healthcare and his children go to school, and all these have happened for Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital, the country’s first floating hospital initiated by a Frenchman.
   Lifebuoy Hospital now works in the northern part of Bangladesh, ushering in new hopes for hundreds of homeless and hapless families like Rafiqul in the shoals of the Jamuna.
   Tara Mia of Bhatiborali char has the same story to tell. Once a landless and moving from place to place for a home and livelihood, he now owns a piece of small land for growing maize and leads a happy life.
   In 1994, Yves Marre, a French humanitarian worker, sailed to Bangladesh in a barge, which he later developed into a floating hospital that started operation in March 2002.
   Its works have now spread to seven northern districts between Sirajganj and Pabna and the beneficiaries are mostly women and children.
   Friendship is presently working actively in 75 islands, covering a population of 40,000 people and imparting training on traditional and mechanized sewing techniques to provide the poor and vulnerable women and adolescent girls with a living.
   While working for giving the poor basic health services, the charity found that its target people need homes and food first and decided to go beyond its primary objective and started taking initiatives for shelter and livelihood developments in the char areas.
   Friendship’s activities, spread in the districts of Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Bogra, Sirajganj, Tangail, Pabna and parts of Dhaka, also include protecting people from floods and rehabilitating the affected by the deluges, a common phenomenon in char areas and on the banks of mighty rivers of the country.
   Its emergency relief, reconstruction and income generating programmes are supported by international donor agencies and multinational companies.
   The organisation plans to build 1300 houses and install around 500 sanitary latrines and sink some 500 tube wells in next six months with supports from the French government.
   Around 900 houses will also be raised on plinths to keep them safe from monsoon flooding and supports will be available in this purpose from the British Department for International Development under its Chars Livelihood Project.
   These houses are to be built in a part by part technique so that they can be shifted to safer place during floods and brought back intact after waters recede.
   Nearly a hundred chars will be brought under this programme within the next one year, the charity officials said adding that the poor farmers will be provided with cash and material supports for agricultural production.
   Boats will be there to carry farm, poultry, dairy and fishery produces to market places and entrepreneurs will be given management and skill development training under the project.
   Friendship’s 100 satellite clinics are now working in the flood effected areas.
   Ten schools set up in 10 chars are educating 960 children, who had little or no chance of going to school. Teachers of these schools are inhabitants of the chars and chosen from best students who teach Bangla, English and Mathematics.
   Students also receive livelihood training on tailoring, mechanical and electrical works, livestock, poultry and fish farming.
   The organisation has taken up another initiative of giving the chars an oval or triangular shape to ward off the direct shocks from the rough river and protect those from the force of water. Ponds for fish farming have also been dug on some of the shoals.
   Mobile phone service, a modern amenity, has also been made available for char people.
   Director of the charity organisation, Dr Runa Khan said they trained up the people on how to protect themselves from natural disasters and diseases. ‘We monitor their conditions regularly. Patients have register books for follow-ups,’ she said.
   The floating hospital has been well-equipped for X-ray, pathological tests and surgeries. There are eye and dental treatment chambers. Even a seaplane has been kept standby for taking emergency patients to Dhaka.
   Encouraged by the activities of Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital, the Emirates airlines also took up a floating hospital venture in the char areas.
   The Emirates Friendship Hospital will provide health services in 50 selected chars and remote areas in Kurigram district, covering a population of 120,000 people and bringing a new ray of hope to the people battling with poverty and hunger.

Different non-governmental organisations on Friday organised programmes to mark the Child Rights Week with a call to uphold the rights of children in Bangladesh.
   The Save the Children (Sweden-Denmark) at a news briefing at the National Press Club in Dhaka marked the 18th anniversary of the Child Rights Week, saying everyone should shoulder the responsibility to ensure the rights of the children.
   At the briefing, the acting country representative of the Save the Children, Obaidur Rahman, said ‘If we can create awareness of child labour, child abuse and child rights, we will be able to stand on a firm ground.’
   The Save the Children also announced a seven-day programme at the briefing to mark the week, from September 29 to October 5. The National Girl Child Advocacy Forum in cooperation the women and children affairs ministry, meanwhile, held a painting competition at the premises of Shishu Academy in the city as part of its observance of the week.
   Six hundred children of 55 educational institutions took part in the competition divided in three age groups.
   The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, and the chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed called for an intensified campaign for the promotion of children as Bangladesh joins the international community today in celebrating the International Children Day and Child Rights Week.
   Bangladesh is one of the first signatories to UN Child Rights Charter…. I hope every conscious citizen of the country will come forward for the welfare of the children, the president said in a statement.

Agriculture scientists have teamed up with extension officials to popularise alternative crop farming among Sirajganj farmers, affected twice by floods in little over a month’s time, to help them reduce single-crop dependence and offset crop losses.
   Scientists of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute and officials of Department of Agriculture Extension on Friday distributed BARI-innovated pulses seeds among selected farmers of Belkuchi upazila on Friday.
   BARI director general Harun-ur-Rashid attended the seed distribution programme as the chief guest at the upazila hall room, presided over by Khandaker Hashibur Rahman, deputy director of DAE, Sirajganj.
   In the first phase, 60 farmers were given two kilograms of BARI-Mash-3 seed of high yield variety pulses each under post-flood rehabilitation programme. Scientific officers introduced them to the farming techniques for better yields.
   Among others, Azizur Rahman, director of Bangladesh Pulses and Oilseed Strengthening Research project, Dr Harunur Rashid, senior scientific officer, Dr Ismail Mian Bhuiyan, SSO and Dr Jalal Uddin, CSO of Ishwardi were also present at the function.