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Dhaka City one day will face severe water-logging if proper steps are not taken to tackle the problem, said a group of speakers at a meeting in the capital.
   The speakers stressed the need for recovering all the natural canals from illegal occupiers in Dhaka city and dredging them to solve the water-logging problem.
   Nagorik Sanghoti organised the meeting on the ‘Water-logging problem in Dhaka city and the DND area: the ways out’ at Azad-Munir seminar room of Comrade Moni Singh-Farhad Smriti Trust Bhaban.
   Former director-general of the River Research Institute, engineer Enamul Haque, presided over the meeting and engineer Sardar Amin delivered the written speech that was followed by a discussion.
   Architect Iqbal Habib, Dhaka University Department of Geography and Environment’s chairman Dr AQM Mahbub, former Diploma Engineers Institution’s president Shafiuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon’s joint secretary Mihir Biswas and Shanir Akhra Movement for Water and Power Supply’s Moslehuddin Masud also spoke on the occasion.
   Nagorik Sanghoti’s general secretary Sharifuzzaman Sharif delivered the welcome speech.
   The speakers stressed the need for recovering the occupied canals in the capital. They alleged that about Tk 1 crore was spent for recovering 12 canals in 2005, but no fruitful result was seen.
   The participants said the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) dam area’s dwellers will undergo tremendous suffering from water-logging this year as no fruitful steps have taken by the government so far to solve the problem.
   They recommended cleaning of the box culverts for ensuring normal flow of water, increasing the number of pumps to drain out water and opening a control room to monitor and take quick steps to solve water-logging problems in the monsoon.

Scientists, science writers and journalists on Saturday stressed on working together to popularise science and technology through mother tongue to speed up the country’s development in the field.
   They also said the science writers and journalists should also focus on improving their standard of English as it was still crucial for higher education and research.
   They expressed the views at a symposium on ‘practicing science in mother tongue’, organised by the Bangladesh Science Writers and Journalists Forum, at the conference hall of the Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Dhaka.
   BSWJF president professor Muhammad Ibrahim, also a scientist and science writer, presided over the symposium while Dr Mobarak Ali Akhond, former director of the National Museum of Science and Technology, presented the keynote paper.
   ‘Use of mother tongue is necessary for the people to have a greater access to the essence and benefits of science,’ said Akhond.
   ‘But rather than translating English terminology exactly in Bangla, we can borrow English scientific words directly in Bangla,’ he said.
   Mustafa Jabbar, an information technology expert, said, ‘Almost 95 per cent problems in Bangla computerisation have been solved and we are expecting more advancement in this field in the next 10 years.’
   He rejected the idea that Bangla was limited to some extant in conducting research and education of science and technology and said it was utterly irrational to avoid Bangla in scientific practices on this ground.’
   Muhammad Ibrahim said the science writers and journalists did not want to focus on Bangla as accepting English seemed to be a better option considering the availability of resources in the international language and also the problem of translation.’
   ‘But to make available to the people the extraordinary benefits the scientific inventions have brought, we have to move fast to enrich our language for writing scientific papers,’ he said.
   BSWJF general secretary Mir Lutful Kabir Sadi said practice of mother tongue was important to understand tough scientific innovations. Scientists Dr Mamunur Rashid, Dr Rahima Khatun, Dr Khandaker Nesar Ahmad and Dr Selim Khan also attended the discussion.

Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan at a discussion on Saturday urged the government to immediately take steps to take back the Khilgaon playground from the capture of the Ansars.
   According to the master plan of 1960, Khilgaon area was developed as a well-planned residential area but due to the influence of land grabbers and vested interest groups, open spaces and playgrounds in Khilgaon area were disappearing, leaders of the organisation told the discussion held at Pallima Sangsad office in Khilgaon.
   Speakers at the meeting underscored the need for recovering the open spaces and playgrounds to give the place the look of a residential area as was the design in the master plan.
   BAPA president Professor Muzaffer Ahmad attended the discussion as chief guest. Cultural personality Fakir Alamgir, BAPA general secretary Abdul Matin, joint secretary Iqbal Habib, Dhanmondi Paribesh Unnayan Jote chairperson Fouzia Nakib, former chief engineer of public health engineering department Aminuddin Ahmed and former BUET Professor Ahmed Ali Sheikh participated in the discussion, presided over by Khilgaon welfare society president Monir Hossain.
   The society secretary M Hafizur Rahman Moina gave the welcome speech, while BAPA joint secretary Sharif Jamil moderated the discussion.
   The Ansars grabbed the open space popularly known as Sabuj Sangha playground in Khilgaon residential area on January 31, 2007, local residents alleged.
   Currently Ansar members have pitched up camps inside the open space, fencing the space in with corrugated iron sheets and fixing a signboard that reads ‘this property is owned by the Ansars’.
   The locals and leaders of Khilgaon welfare society strongly opposed this move by the Ansars. As this land was used as a playground by the local children, it cannot belong to the Ansars, said the speakers.
   Khilgaon welfare society president Monir Hossain Khan said locals foiled the attempt for allotting the land to the Ansars during Ershad regime.
   The welfare society submitted memorandums to the chief adviser, army chief and the housing and public works adviser in 2007, protesting the move of the Ansars. The government assured them of looking into the matter.
   The total area of the open space is more than two bighas, Khilgaon welfare society leaders said.

A 50 megawatt rental power plant, set up by private company Energy Prima at Kumargaon in the Sylhet city, is likely to go into operation next month, said a press release of Power Development Board.
   Power division secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan visited the power plant Friday morning and asked the officials concerned to work together for improving the power situation, the press release added.
   Power Grid Company managing director ABM Harunur Rashid, PDB chief engineer Jamal Ullah, deputy commissioner Harunur Rashid Khan, Jalalabad Gas Company managing director Molla Md Mabirul Hossain, power plant project director Dibyendu Bikask Chowdhury Barua and other officials were present.
   Energy Prima, which is implementing the project of the 50MW Rental Power Plant, signed an agreement with PDB in January this year to set up the power station.

Theatre academics and researchers at a workshop on Saturday stressed the need for assessment of effectiveness of theatre media to deal with gender and political issues.
   They also urged theatre professionals to come up with the idea on how theatre can be a useful tool for raising awareness about the gender and political issues in South Asia.
   Contemporary theatre movement in Bangladesh and India helped to establish theatre as an effective means to make social and political changes, they said, adding that development agencies use theatre media to educate people and increase right-based awareness in communities.
   They made the observations at the daylong workshop styled ‘Theatre, Gender and Politics’ at Rakhal Theatre Lab in Banani. Four theatre centres – Rakhal, CTRD, Babue and Nattmandap organised the workshop.
   Ahmed Abid, a PhD researcher at the University of Mahidol in Thailand, presented a paper on theatre media as a means of raising awareness about issues of violence against women and their rights on the basis of the findings of a comparative study on theatrical aspects in India and Bangladesh.
   The study focuses on theatrical activities of Bangladesh’s three organisations like Ain O Salish Kendra-Popular Theatre Unit, Acid Survivors Foundation and Centre for Asian Theatre and India’s Janam, Kat Katha and Look Doot.
   Ahsan Khan Upal, a dramatics teacher at Dhaka University, also presented a paper on theatrical practices and limitation in Bangladesh. Professor Abdus Selim moderated the discussions.
   Centre for Asian Theatre secretary general Mosharraf Hossain Tutul, theatre professional Lucky Inam, theatre academic Ribon Khondokar, UNFPA representative Mohiuddin Ahmed also spoke on the occasion.
   Some 50 theatre and development activists including academics, actors, practitioners, editors and researchers took part in the workshop.

The Shahbagh police on Saturday arrested a fake teacher at Bangla Motor in the capital city.
   The police said KA Rahman Chowdhury Tuton, of Muktagacha upazila in Mymensingh, identifying himself as an associate professor of theatre and music department at Dhaka University would take money from the students to get them admitted.
   The arrested, however, denied the allegations and claimed he was a victim of conspiracy hatched by one Hasina, owner of an advertising firm in Agargoan area, over a previous enmity.
   He said he knew nothing about his alleged fraudulence because he was in jail for three years in a case filed by the woman and was released on March 26.
   Theater and music department chairman Israfil Shahin said they earlier asked the police to look into the fraudulence of the fake teacher as they received his false visiting cards and allegations of taking money from students.
   The arrested said he was a student of Bangla department at DU and did his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2003 and 2005 respectively.

Theatre personalities on Saturday commemorated late playwright Selim Al-Deen, saying that he was a bold, committed and powerful dramatist with a highly individual approach both in theme and style.
   They said that he had deliberately written his plays in an epic mode and delved deep into the realities of the struggling life of rural people.
   Thus he introduced his own world to the domain of theatre through his plays, extensive research works and a raft of other writings, they said at a discussion on his life and works.
   The Selim Al-Deen Pathshala organised the discussion at Aziz Super Market in the city’s Shahbagh to commemorate the legendary playwright and professor of dramatics who died on January 14, 2008.
   Selim Al-Deen seeks the life blood of our theatre in the rich traditions of our ancient dramaturgy but does not turn his face away from what is truly modern, speakers said about his works.
   Launching the programme, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote president Nasir Uddin Yousuff, who directed most of Selim’s plays, said, ‘Selim Al-Deen has featured the tales of all the people in the country in his plays.’
   Shimul Yousuff, Shahiduzzaman Selim, Asaduzzaman Aman and Chandan Chowdhury recited from Selim’s plays while writer Hamim Kamrul Haq, teachers of dramatics at Jahangirnagar University Afsar Ahmed and Lutfar Rahman and poet Sohel Hasan Galib took part in the discussion.

Around one hundred students of Rajshahi University on Saturday formed a human chain in front of the central library in protest against the ‘violent’ activities of the Islamists in Dhaka on April 11.
   They also demanded proper implementation of the national women development policy.
   After the programme, the students held a rally on the library premises where speakers condemned the activities of the fundamentalists in Dhaka that left 200 people including some policemen injured.
   They called on the government to punish the offenders and establish women’s rights in the country.

A 12-day training course on integrated management of childhood illness began at the paediatric ward training hall of Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital on Saturday.
   Dr Anwarul Islam, assistant director of the SBMCH, presided over the inauguration ceremony of the training programme financed by Save the Children, USA while Dr Aziz Rahim, principal of Sher-e-Bangla Medical College, was present as chief guest.
   Course coordinator Dr Syed Zahid Hossain, facilitator Dr Alauddin, SBMCH assistant director Dr Kamaluddin and Dr Aminul Huq, Dr Abdul Hamid Sheikh of paediatric department also attended as special guests.

Rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely at one or two places over Dhaka, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions and the regions of Jessore, Kushtia and Comilla and weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said.
   Mild to moderate heat wave weeping over Khulna and Rajshahi divisions and the regions of Dhaka, Barisal, Patuakhali and Rangamati may continue, the Met Office added. Day temperature may rise slightly over the country.
   Country’s highest temperature on Saturday, 39.2 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Chuadanga and the lowest, 20.8 degrees Celsius, at Sylhet.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:22pm and rises tomorrow at 5:32am.

Emergency healthcare services are not available in rural areas and the grassroots are deprived of quality medical treatment as the public health budget is not being properly utilised, a workshop was told on Saturday.
   Health experts at the workshop noted that the country’s health sector management still remained highly centralised, leaving services at upazila and union levels in a mess.
   They stressed the need for formulation of a unified guideline for making quality healthcare services available to the common man.
   ‘What we have today is basically primary healthcare; there is no referral network at all. We have everything centralised, including healthcare, that denies a bottom-up process of policymaking,’ Abu Jamil Faisal of EngenderHealth, a health rights organisation, said at the workshop.
   He regretted that despite boasting of one of the finest healthcare infrastructures in Asia, Bangladesh had not been able to use them for real public welfare. Overlapping of organisational responsibilities and lack of coordination among agencies concerned also hamper healthcare service delivery, added Faisal.
   Development Organisation of the Rural Poor organised the four-day workshop on ‘Health and Family Planning Budget Monitoring: Tools and Indicators Formulation’ at BIAM auditorium in the city to take feedbacks and inputs from stakeholders in this regard. The organisation’s secretary general AHM Nouman explained the objectives of the initiative.
   Faisal said although allocation for health sector was a debatable issue, there was no doubt that the budgetary money had not been utilised properly for ensuring the best possible services to the people.
   A facilitator at the workshop, Arup Chakrabarty said the health budget monitoring process was an imposed one as the grassroots were not duly consulted on whether the people were happy with services or what else they needed.
   ASM Shahjahan, a former caretaker government adviser, lamented that the country had a local government ministry while the local government system remained non-existent or ineffective. ‘It seems that the local government ministry is here to thwart decentralisation,’ he said emphasising the need for devolving power.
   Citing an example of how public money is misused, the former secretary said the lowest bidder of a ministry’s tender quoted Tk 84,000 as price of a fax machine when its market price was between Tk 24,000 and 28,000. ‘We have a habit of purchasing a commodity of Tk 5 for Tk 500 if it is public money,’ he pointed out.
   Gulam Quddus, a joint secretary of the health and family welfare ministry, assured the stakeholders that the government had adequate stocks of medicines for distribution to the poor through hospitals and healthcare centres spread up to rural areas. ‘The poor must get the services,’ he said.
   He underlined the need for transparency of all organisations, including the non-government organisations in raising and utilising funds.

The chief justice, M Ruhul Amin, on Saturday said Bangladeshis had to become more disciplined towards establishing a truly democratic social system in the country.
   He said this while addressing a discussion on Eid-e-Miladunnabi organised by a group of lawyers at the Supreme Court Bar Association.
   He stressed that the ideals of the Prophet Muhammad should be followed by those wishing to create a disciplined state.
   ‘Practising Muhammad’s ideals will enable us to free society from any disharmony, alien cultures and corruption in our individual, family and social life as well as at the state level,’ the chief justice said.
   ‘It would also rid us of the mentality to deprive others. So we must all take a vow to lead more disciplined lives,’ he said.
   Senior judge of the Appellate Division Mohammad Fazlul Karim also laid emphasis on the importance of religion in every sphere of life.
   ‘Truth is the foundation of the judicial system, and if truth is established the life of the Prophet Muhammad would be reflected in the society,’ he said.
   Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury said: ‘Some people from America come here and speak of human rights and equality.’

Giasuddin Kochi, a self-taught scientist, claimed that he has invented a power generator capable of running without any fuel, which is expected to play a significant role in easing the power crisis in the country. If his claim is based on fact, then he has created a super-revolution in science, which states that only nothing can come out of nothing. Every form of power generated must have some sort of fuel, even if it is only the air that we breathe or the water that we drink.
   The young man, a commercial artist by profession who hails from Jhenidah, demonstrated his invention in front of at least 70 people including the chief engineers of the Power Development Board and Rural Electrification Board at the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s auditorium on Saturday afternoon.
   Kochi displayed a motor generating one kilowatt of electricity with which he powered five bulbs and a fan. He then used the generator to run a 410 watt drill machine.
   He said that the energy source becomes endless in the ‘combined circular system’, which is the major theory behind the invention of the power generator that uses no fuel.
   Kochi, who has read up to class X in Jhenidah, however, could not elaborate on the theory and would not allow anyone to open and inspect some of the other small components he had used in the motor to generate power. How an energy source can become infinite is beyond the knowledge of science, which says that nothing is endless. Our sun will become a cinder in about five billion years. Even our universe, with its trillions of galaxies, will burn out some day. So the secret must lie in the components that Kochi would not allow to be inspected — they must have some sort of power in them.
   ‘It is not possible according to the general theory of power generation, but we have witnessed this happening,’ said the PDB’s chief engineer, Mohammed Abul Kashem.
   The PDB’s official was sure that no fuel was used to run the motor which generated the power, though he was not allowed to inspect the components. ‘A team can be formed at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to do more research to ascertain whether this theory is reliable,’ Kashem added.
   Kochi, who has been working on the gadget since he came to the port city three years ago, also claimed that he has tested production of up to 10 kilowatt.
   A one kilowatt no-fuel generator will cost about Tk 50 thousand while a similar generator of 10 kilowatt capacity will cost more than Tk 1 lakh, said Kochi.
   After the demonstration of the one kilowatt generator, the General Electric Company’s director, ABMA Baset, said it should be run for several days at a stretch on a trial basis to ascertain the reliability of the invention.
   CCCI president MA Latif, chief engineer of the Rural Electrification Board Shahid Uddin Ahmed, executive director Sayad Sarwar Hossain, CCCI vice-president Hassan Nasir were, among others, present during the demonstration of the new power-generating machine.
   In a brief discussion during the demonstration of the no-fuel generator, the speakers said that commercial use of the new technology would bring about a revolutionary change in the power sector, as fuel crisis is threatening to engulf the entire world.
   Kochi has earlier demonstrated his invention to the engineers of the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology but would not allow anyone to inspect the extra components used.
   He is wanting the patent right of his invention before giving his no-fuel generator to anyone, said an official of the CCCI.

Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology on Saturday started its activities on its own building in the city’s Tejgaon area.
   On the day, the university was opened at 8:00am for two hours for all the students and guardians so that they could visit the new campus where the authorities concerned developed various modern facilities, said a press release.
   At a reception to the students and guardians, vice-chancellor Professor M Anwar Hossain said the overall development of the university was a continuous process and the authorities have plan to introduce new departments and courses for higher studies in the near future.

A verse play Teen Ibsen, written by Munzur-i-Mowla, based on Norwegian poet and playwright Henrik Ibsen’s life and three female characters from his plays, was launched in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Centre for Asian Theatre organised the launching ceremony at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Shilpakala Academy in Segunbagicha. Poet Abul Hossain chaired the function.
   CAT president Abdul Mannan, its general secretary Mosharraf Hossain Tutul, Humayun Chowdhury, Ataur Rahman, Ramendu Majumder and Shahnaj Munni spoke on the occasion.
   Abir Arnab has designed the cover of the book published by the CAT. The 90-page book is priced at Tk. 130.

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology on Saturday accorded a reception to the freshers on Jahangirnagar University campus.
   Vice-chancellor Mohammad Muniruzzaman attended the programme as chief guest while Professor Anwar Hossain, dean of biological science faculty at Dhaka University, Professor Sahabuddin Kabir Chowdhury, dean of biological science faculty at JU, and Professor Ishtiaque Mahmud, chair of biochemistry department at DU, as special guests.
   Chaired by Professor Ziauddin Ahmed, the programme was also attended by the department chair Dr Ibrahim Khalil.
   The graduates of the department were also given a reception at the programme. A cultural show followed the reception.

Boy electrocuted
An 11-year-old boy was electrocuted in Shah Makhdum area in the Rajshahi city Saturday morning. The deceased was identified as Himel, son of Tahajul, a resident of Nawdapara area. According to family members, Himel came in contact with live electric wire at about 10:00am and died on the spot. The Shah Makhdum police recovered the body from the spot and sent it to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Seminar on education held at RU
A seminar on ‘education system in USA and society’ was held at Momtaz Uddin Arts Building auditorium of Rajshahi University on Saturday. Department of Philosophy organised the seminar. Professor Abdur Razzak in his keynote paper said, ‘Education system in the USA is totally different from our country.’ The American students have to maintain their class routines strictly but education there is not influenced by politics, he added. Professor Shahadat Hossain Sarkar, chairman of Philosophy Department, chaired the programme.
— New Age