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Mosquito menace continues to frustrate people in the Rajshahi city in the absence of any drive during the past three months.
   The Rajshahi City Corporation has not yet taken any initiative to protect the dwellers from mosquito hazards because of fund constraints.
   ‘We could not launch anti-mosquito drives due to fund crunch,’ said an official of the RCC mosquito department.
   After a break of one year, the corporation began anti-mosquito drive on January 22 in 30 wards of the RCC, the corporation sources said.
   But only into one week of operation, the authorities had to suspend the drive as the insecticides and fuel were finished by the time, the sources said. The drive was carried out with 16 fogger machines.
   The RCC mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu, who is now in jail, procured 43 fogger machines and 27 of them have gone out of order, said a staff of mosquito department.
   Some spray machines also remained idle for several months, he added.
   Some officials of the concerned department, however, alleged non-cooperation from the ward commissioners in carrying out the drive.
   ‘Mosquito menace could be reduced if the ward commissioners had extended enough support to the workers for spraying larvicide in their respective areas,’ said an official of the department.
   Rajshahi College student Dibakar Chakraborty, a resident of Sagarpara, said it became quite impossible to stay in the room without mosquito net after evening and sometimes even in the daytime.
   Rubel Ahmed from the same area said mosquitoes began to get into the houses in the evening from neighbouring drains.
   Ferdous Bubly, a housewife of Kumarpara area, was worried about her daughter, an SSC examinee, as she could not concentrate on her study due to mosquito nuisance.
   While visiting the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, anti-mosquito coils, which are hazardous for health, were seen burning in several wards, including the children’s ward.
   Mosquito menace has also increased alarmingly in the kitchen markets of the city.
   Traders said the drains were the ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes as they were not cleaned properly by the RCC staff.
   Moniruzzaman Sharif, chief of the mosquito management sub-committee of the RCC, told New Age that they could not launch the anti-mosquito drive as the mayor-in-charge of RCC, Rezaun Nabi Dudu, was not in the country.
   ‘We will begin the drive soon,’ he said, adding that he had already given work order to a company to supply larvicide by this month.
   ‘We are trying to utilise all available resources to save the city dwellers from the mosquito menace,’ said Rezvi Sultan, chief health officer of the corporation.

A mobile court of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority on Sunday filed 12 cases and realised Tk 30,700 in fines from vehicles and drivers during a drive at Jatrabari in the capital.
   The court, led by BRTA executive magistrate Abdur Rashid, filed the cases against CNG-run auto-rickshaws, taxicabs, human haulers, buses and other modes of transports for not having necessary documents like updated route permits, registrations, fitness certificates and tax tokens.
   The drivers were sued for not having valid papers that include driving licenses and for flouting traffic rules, Rashid said adding all the cases were filed under the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983. The BRTA launched mobile court drive on April 16, 2007 in the wake of widespread allegations of harassment of passengers by the CNG auto-rickshaw and cab drivers across the city.
   The then BNP-led alliance government in 2002 introduced the meter fare system for four-stroke CNG auto-rickshaws and taxicabs in the capital by phasing out the two-stroke auto-rickshaws.
   But the drivers of CNG auto-rickshaws did not abide by the government rules putting the passengers in deep trouble. At present, the BRTA is conducting the mobile court against all modes of motorised transports including CNG auto-rickshaws.

The construction work of a seven-storey building of Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital began at a cost of Tk 10 crore, aiming at expanding and modernising the biggest and specialised public sector hospital in the southern region.
   The project for extension and modernisation of the hospital was approved at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council in 2006, to turn the 500-bed hospital into a 1000-bed one with modernised healthcare service facilities.
   Under the project, the public works department called tenders in January 2008 and Messrs Azad Construction and Mercantile of Dhaka got the work order in March.
   The company started its work last week by sending samples of the soil test.
   The work is expected to be completed within three years of issuing the work order. As a part of the project the work will include introduction of more 250 beds, eight administrative sections, an operation theatre, a pathological lab, a CCU, banks, a post office, pharmacy, four lifts, and extended outdoor and emergency treatment facilities.
   Steps to begin the work were initiated after the visit of Abul Kalam Azad, additional secretary of health and family planning ministry, to the hospital on April 22.
   A monitoring committee has also been formed to supervise the progress of the work, said Golam Mawla, director of the SBMCH which was established in 1968 and inaugurated in 1970.

Lack of streetlights on the 2.5-kilometre stretch of road between Dayaganj and Jurain becomes a safe haven for anti-social elements as soon as it becomes dark.
   Pedestrians often face minor injuries at night due to the lack of lights on the street for more than three years, residents said.
   Complaints lodged with the concerned authorities regarding mugging, snatching and other unsocial activities have landed into deaf years, they said, adding that the patrol parties of the local Shyampur police station pay a little heed to the problem.
   It is unsafe to walk along the road after sunset, said Babu, owner of Sattar pharmacy in Gandaria rail station area, adding that a few days back the snatchers took away his mobile phone and money.
   Safiqul Islam, a businessman of Satish Sarkar Road was kidnapped from the road with Tk 2.5 lakh on February 18, 2007 and returned the next day keeping away the money.
   His elder brother Nazrul had lodged a case with the Shaympur police on the same day. ‘The authorities have to solve the problem as many people of the area like us have been suffering a lot for over three years,’ said Nazrul.
   People also face minor injuries for the lack of streetlights at night, residents alleged.
   After the inauguration of the road in November 2005, to ease traffic congestion in Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Gandaria, Dholaikhal and Jurain areas, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakhha took the responsibility of maintaining the road, but failed to do their job properly, the residents alleged.
   Rajuk later handed over the road to the Dhaka City Corporation on September 11, 2006, a DCC source informed.
   DCC’s zonal executive officer Sheikh Mujibar Rahman said there was no record of handing over of the road to DCC from Rajuk.
   He said he had joined the office three months back and notified the officer holding the charge during the time of the handing over to help him solve the problem.
   ‘However, a committee comprising four members has been formed to hold an inquiry into this irregularity,’ he said.
   About the allegation of local residents, sub-inspector of Shyampur police station Monirul Islam Monir said they were doing their regular duties and a patrol team was patrolling through the road at least once a day.
   He said he had joined recently and no case was filed in this regard during this period.
   The DCC official assured that the repair work of the streetlights will begin after receiving the report and recommendations of the four-member committee.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital will be brought under the medical wastes management programme soon as part of the initiative to reduce the risk of health hazards.
   The DMCH nurses, ward boys and management staff are being imparted training and an orientation programme for the physicians will be held on completion of the training to start waste management, sources at Prism Bangladesh, an NGO working for medical waste management in the capital, said.
   ‘The training began on April 5 and it is likely to be completed within a month. We hope that all necessary formalities, including installation of an incinerator, to start the medical waste management programme at DMCH could be completed by that time,’ Khondokar Anisur Rahman, executive director of Prism Bangladesh, said.
   He said, ‘We have already got a positive response from the ministry concerned through the Dhaka City Corporation to shift an incinerator from Suhrawardy Hospital to DMCH and it will be shifted as soon as possible.’
   There are two incinerators at DMCH, but both of them have been lying out of order for long, said the DMCH director, Abdus Shahid Khan, adding that the incinerators were not financially viable for repairing.
   Two hundred and fifty-two clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centres out of over 1,200 in the Dhaka city have so far been brought under waste management system to save people from the risk of health hazards. The city, however, is still under the threat of hazardous waste as the 252 hospitals, clinics and diagnostic labs cover less than 30 per cent of total clinical waste generated in the city every day, said Anis.
   After bringing the 1700-bed DMCH under the network, almost half of the medical waste will come under the management network, he said adding one to one and a half kilogram of waste are produced by the patient in a bed every day.
   The wastes include infectious pathogens, blood, body fluids, tissues, organs, body parts, sharps needles, blades, syringes, scalpels, saws, broken glass and nails, which, according to medical experts, may cause HIV/AIDS infection, diarrhoea, skin ailments and other diseases if not dumped properly.
   Ten to 15 per cent of the wastes are hazardous, which make the whole range of wastes hazardous for lack of medical waste management, Anis said.
   According to the health directorate, there are 437 registered clinics in the capital and 1,971 elsewhere in the country. There are also 4,245 pathologies and dental clinics in the country, of which 817 are in Dhaka.
   More than 1,200 government and private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic labs have been producing more than 10 tonnes of waste every day.
   The Dhaka City Corporation with the help of the Prism Bangladesh began the medical waste management programme in July 2005. A dump on one acre of land at Matuail was developed for the programme.
   Prism keeps four buckets of four colours in each hospital and clinic where the wastes are dumped. Three vehicles collect the wastes in two shifts a day from the clinics and hospitals every day and dump those at Matuail, he added.

Forty slum children studying in Suravi School were
   introduced to the equipment of quality education at the British Council’s Children Learning Centre in Dhaka on Sunday.
   The Education Development Institute of BRAC University and the British Council jointly organised the daylong programme as part of Global Action Week celebrations.
   During the programme, the children were introduced to the information technology and shown some documentaries on educational equipment.
   Welcoming the programme for the slum children, noted educationist Anisuzzaman said he was very happy to know that various steps were being taken in Bangladesh aiming to ensure quality education for all.
   Educationist Amirul Islam Choudhury, M Kader, programme coordinator of Suravi School, an NGO-run school for underprivileged children, and Syeda Taslima Jamal Simu, BRAC University’s Education Development Institute junior professional, attended the function.
   Global Action Week is observed every year from April 21 to 27 by the Global Campaign for Education, which was formed in
   1999 with the initiative of the government and non-governmental development organisations in different countries across the world.

Academics at a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday stressed philosophical justifications for the possible link between knowledge, quality of earnings and good health.
   Multiple causes and effects relationship in human behaviour, instead of a single cause and effect relationship, gives a broader spectrum, they said.
   They made the observation at a seminar styled ‘Knowledge, quality of earnings, and health – some connections: socio-philosophical analysis’, organised by the Dev Centre for Philosophical Studies at the arts faculty building on the Dhaka University campus.
   A teacher of accounting at DU, Dhiman Chowdhury presented the keynote paper in the seminar chaired by a teacher of Philosophy Abdul Matin.
   Dev Centre director and teacher of Philosophy Galib Ahsan Khan, DU teacher of Philosophy Niru Kumar Chakma, DU teacher of Sociology Mahmudur Rahman and DU teacher of World Region Studies Joseph D discussed the paper.
   ‘It is necessary to devise the relationship between the medical and social model of health, the sociology of chronic health and illness, the gradient effects of socio-economic inequality on health, and the new direction of the health concept’, Dhiman said.
   Earnings from occupations and competitive environments for earning, which bring the psychological and mental strength, freedom and independence, are essential for physical and mental health, Dhiman added.
   Matin said practical philosophy was the essential philosophy for life.
   ‘Combination of spiritual and scientific knowledge is a must to establish peace in the society’, he added.

Weather is likely to remain mainly dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country having chances of rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally winds at one or two places over Rajshahi, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions and the regions of Jessore, Kushtia and Comilla during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said.
   The day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.
   The country’s highest temperature on Sunday, 38.3 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Rajshahi and the lowest, 23.7 degrees Celsius, at Teknaf.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:25pm and rises tomorrow at 5:25am.

A large number of children drop out of school every year because of physical and psychological punishment in schools, said experts at a national planning meeting in Dhaka on Sunday.
   Children lose their confidence, start losing interest and leave school because of of severe physical and psychological punishment, the experts said at the meeting on how to stop physical and psychological punishment in schools in the LGED auditorium at Agargaon.
   Save the Children Sweden-Denmark and the Campaign for Popular Education organised the programme.
   Bangladesh was signatory to the UN Child Rights Convention and any type physical and psychological punishment of children in schools and other places is prohibited by the convention. But violence against children keeps going in various forms in the country, they said.
   Although the government and other national and international agencies are working on stopping violence against children, there still is no formal initiative to stop physical and psychological punishments in schools, they said.
   The primary and mass education adviser, Rasheda K Chowdhury, and secretaries of other ministries said the government was against all forms of violence against children, but it was not possible for the government alone to monitor physical and psychological punishment in severe forms in schools.
   Rasheda suggested a social movement and regular, independent follow-up monitoring of the problem by national and international agencies.
   She said no children liked being tortured for learning and it ws one of the main reasons for early dropouts in schools.
   Popular entertainment devices such as folk songs, zari, sari, gambhira, puppet show and drama could be used to create awareness of the issue, she said.
   The primary and mass education secretary, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, said the ministry directed all primary schools to stop such punishment in schools.
   But sometimes guardians and school managing committee accept and encourage punishment as a form of discipline, he said.
   The women and children affairs secretary, Rokeya Sultana, said positive punishment could be a good alternative to physical and psychological punishment.
   She said children’s intellectual and analytical ability kept developing till the age of 12 years, and physical and psychological punishment could hamper such development.
   Nazmul Haq, a teacher at Institute of Education and Research of Dhaka University, presented a study report on this topic. He said children were usually hit in various parts of the body, even being suspended or with hands tied behind, made to kneel down, craw on the floor, and walk or stand under the sun. Students are also publicly humiliated or forced to do something.
   He found such punishment could be scarring and erode their confidence, make them stubborn, pathological liars and naughty, and make classrooms hostile, forcing them to leave school.
   Save the Children Sweden-Denmark country representative Nilss Benson, acting Campaign for Popular Education director Azizul Huq, and Campaign for Popular Education deputy director Tasmin Athar also spoke.

Bangladesh must set a production target of at least 32 million tonnes of rice in the 2008-09 fiscal year for attaining food security for the rapidly increasing population, said the speakers at a roundtable on Sunday.
   The country, to achieve the target, must produce at least 1.5 million tonnes of aus rice, 12.5 million tonnes of aman and 18 million tonnes of boro, said speakers at the roundtable on ‘Bumper boro yield and future strategy to achieve the target’, organised by the Agricultural Reporters Association of Bangladesh and the Agricultural Reporters Forum in Khamarbari.
   For increased production, the government must promote improved high yielding varieties, supply an adequate amount of fertilisers, ensure availability as well as affordability of diesel and ensure supply of electricity for irrigation, the routable suggested.
   Head of the research division of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Uttam Kumar Deb, presented the keynote paper, and the presenter of the ‘Mati of manush’ programme in Bangladesh Television, Rezaul Karim, moderated the programme.
   Agriculture and water resource adviser CS Karim was chief guest.
   The roundtable was also attended, along with others, by secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture M Abdul Aziz, FAO representative in Bangladesh Ad Spijkers, director-general of the Department of Agricultural Extension Shamsul Alam and other high officials of the concerned ministry and various private agencies.
   Considering the difficulties faced by rice importers in the current fiscal year as well as the ban on exporting rice by the major rice exporting countries, Bangladesh must depend on its own production to meet its food-grain requirement, said the keynote paper.
   Under the programme, the government may be allocated Tk 50 crore as revolving fund for providing special support to production of breeders’ seed of recently released varieties of rice as rice production may be increased by 20 lakh tonnes only by providing quality seeds of existing varieties cultivated by the farmers, added the keynote paper.
   Regarding the future strategy to increase the production of rice, the agriculture secretary said that the government strategy in rice production in upcoming days will be upazila production plan-based and the actual requirement of fertiliser would be determined by the inter-ministry committee.
   The secretary the rice production target would be decided in the meeting of the 21-member committee headed by the director-general of the DAE, but it is likely that it would not be less than 30 million tonnes next year.
   However, he assured the audience that the government would try to ensure all the facilities for the farmers to maintain the existing production trend of the boro crop.
   The government is very keen to increase the production of food-grains by using the fallow land in the Barisal and Sylhet region as an additional area of about 10 lakh hectares in the coastal area may be brought under cultivation in the boro season, said the agriculture adviser in his address as the chief guest.
   He, however, stressed the need for economical use of fertiliser through disseminating technology like ‘guti urea use’ among the farmers which will reduce the excessive use of urea.
   The marketing of good quality seeds by the private sector is a must to increase the production of rice in coming years, said the adviser.
   According to the DAE, the total area under boro rice in the current season is 46.75 lakh hectares, out of which 35.39 lakh hectares has been planted with high yielding varieties, 10.10 lakh hectares with hybrids and 1.26 lakh hectares with local varieties.

Former BNP ward commissioner of Dhaka City Corporation Nobiullah Nobi submitted his wealth statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday, disclosing that along with other assets he and his family have four plots, 2 houses, lands and 90-vori gold.
   In the statement, Nobi stated that there is some land in Jatrabari, 96.25-decimal land in Narayanganj and 4.12-decimal in Matuail under his own name while there is 30-decimal land in Narayanganj under his wife’s name.
   He has got two plots while there are two plots in names of his two daughters.
   There is a five-storied building on 2.3-katha land and a semi-pucca building in Jatrabari under his wife’s name.
   Nobi and his family have share certificates worth Tk 25 lakh. They have business capital of about Tk 47.5 lakh.
   There is 90-vori gold under his and his two daughters’ names. Nobi also has electronic appliances worth Tk 2.72 lakh and furniture worth 1.7 lakh.
   Executive director of Justice Fazlul Haque Foundation Abdul Malek submitted his wealth statement to the Commission on Wednesday stating that he has balance of Tk 45 lakh in three bank accounts, a house made of CI sheet on 1.86-decimal land in Daxinkhan, electronic goods worth Tk 1.33 lakh and furniture worth Tk 67 thousand.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has expressed grave concern over the attack on the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, in Kabul.
   In a message to the Afghan president, the chief adviser noted with happiness that Karzai was unhurt and prayed to Almighty Allah for his long and healthy life.
   Suspected Taliban militants attacked a ceremony attended by the Afghan president on Sunday, leaving nine people wounded.
   The Afghan president, cabinet colleagues and ambassadors escaped unhurt in the assault on the pageant marking the 16th anniversary of the end the Soviet-backed rule in Afghanistan.

A fire broke out at a market in the Dhaka city’s Pallabi area Sunday night.
   The fire brigade sources said the fire broke out in a shop at Mohammadi Market at Section 11 from a short circuit at about 8:30pm and soon spread to the adjacent ones.
   Informed, nine fire engines doused the flames after about an hour’s efforts. The extent of loss from the fire could not be ascertained immediately. No casualty was reported.

Army-led task force troops on Sunday arrested Mohammad Abu Sufian, executive director of East West Development Ltd, a concern of Basundhara Group, in connection with Sabbir-murder case.
   The deputy assistant director of the Anti-Corruption Commission Rupak Kumar Saha told the news agency that Sufian allegedly gave Tk 20 crore to former state minister for home affairs Luthfozzaman Babar and Tk 1 crore to Tarique Rahman for dropping the name of Safiat Sobhan Sanbeer, son of Basundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, from the charge of murder.
   Sufian was handed over to the Ramna police station. Humayun Kabir Sabbir, a director of the Basundhara Group, was murdered in July 2006.
   A case was filed with Ramna police station in October last year for allegedly giving bribe to Babar and Tarique.

A young man was hacked to death at Dhalpur in Dhaka Sunday night.
   The family of the victim, Bellal Hossain, 25, claimed him to be an informer to the Rapid Action Battalion who had helped the elite force to nab a number of criminals.
   They said one Yusuf of the locality had called Bellal out of his Dhalpur Citypalli residence in the evening.
   At about 8:30pm, the assailants attacked Bellal in front of a CNG filling station and hacked him indiscriminately with sharp weapons.
   He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where attending doctors declared him dead.

VoIP equipment seized in Ctg
The Rapid Action Battalion in separate drives seized VoIP equipment worth about Tk 68 lakh from Ashadganja and Andarkillah areas in Chittagong on Sunday. Tipped off, RAB raided a five-storey building at Ashadganj at about 1:00am and seized VoIP equipment worth TK 45 lakh left in an abandoned condition. In another drive, RAB raided the City Tower at Andarkillah at about 3:00am and seized VoIP equipments worth TK 23 lakh.

Medicines
seized at ZIA
Customs officials seized a large quantity of medicines, suspected to be sex stimulating ones, at Zia International Airport in Dhaka on Sunday. fficial sources said the medicines, weighing about 105 kilograms, had been brought in five luggage in a Kuwait Airways flight early morning, but none had claimed those. The officials later came to know that the luggage were booked from Kuwait for one Jebunnessa in Dhaka. Samples of the medicines were sent to the department of narcotics control for examination, they said. Earlier, the customs officials arrested a Singapore-bound passenger, Mahmud Zaman, a resident of Kuril Badda, for allegedly smuggling out foreign currency. The officials seized Tk 32 lakh from his luggage. He was handed over to police.
— New Age