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Many shops and markets in city and its suburbs are yet to abide by the government’s decision to stop their business by 8:00pm every day reportedly due to lax monitoring by the law enforcers.
   Shops mainly in the lanes and by-lanes continue their business till 9:00pm or so. It was found that shops, including stationery, audio-video and electronic appliances ones, weren’t maintaining the timetable properly.
   The Power Division decided to enforce Section 114 (3) of Labour Act 2006 and asked on January 29 all the shops across the country except those selling food items, medicines and emergency supplies to follow the government’s rule to close down their daily business by 8:00pm so that additional electricity could be supplied for irrigation.
   The act says, ‘All the shops except some will close down their daily business by 8:00pm to save around 200-400MW of electricity for facilitating the operation of irrigation pumps in the evening peak hours.’
   Drugstores, kitchen markets, fruit and vegetable shops, restaurants and food shops, salons and retail shops selling tobacco, cigarette and betel leaf have been kept out of the purview of the ban apart from those at dockyards, railway stations and airports.
   Dhaka Metropolitan Shop Owners’ Association president Md Helaluddin said they at a meeting agreed with the government to follow the rule and asked all the markets to close down their day’s business by 8:00pm.
   ‘It’s not our responsibility to monitor whether shop owners close down their businesses.’
   Abdus Salam, who runs a video shop at Mohammadpur, kept open his shop till 10:00pm on Saturday. ‘I am unaware that the ban has been imposed again.’ Almost all the owners don’t shut down their shops by 8:00pm as they did earlier.
   Mizanur Rahman, a government official, said this time law enforcers aren’t doing their jobs properly to force the shop owners to abide by the rule. ‘Lack of monitoring may be one of the reasons for not following the rules properly,’ he said.
   Helaluddin said other business and industries should also be brought under this rule to save the electricity as the government earlier failed to reduce load-shedding by imposing ban only on shops and markets.
   The interim government first enforced the ban on shops till 7:00pm but it was withdrawn during Ramadan in September.
   Power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan told New Age that the ban on the shops would continue till the end of summer.

Five hundred and forty-two new titles hit the month-long Ekushey Book Fair at Bangla Academy in seven days.
   Last week’s new titles included 120 novels, 98 collections of poems, 46 collections of essays and 53 collections of short stories.
   The total number of new titles in the first week of the Ekushey Book Fair last year was 382, academy sources said.
   About the increase in the number of books this year, Suchipatra chief executive Saif Bari said, ‘Last year the publishers did not dare bring many books to the fair as the nation was in a state of political turmoil during October, November and December in 2006 and January in 2007. That is why we could not stack enough books last year.’
   This year high prices of papers and other printing materials have affected the publication sector a little bit, said another publisher.
   A total of 77 new books hit the fair on Thursday. The new titles included 24 collections of poems, 16 novels, seven collections of stories and six collections of essays.
   Bangla Academy director general, Syed Mohammad Shahed launched the novel ‘Ashulia’ by Sohrab Jisan, at the Writers’ Corner. The novel was published by Mukta Prakashoni.
   Meanwhile, most of the book stalls and food shops out of the allotted 50 at the Suhrawardy Udyan started selling their items on Thursday.
   The Bangla Academy, as part of its regular programmes, held a discussion on ‘The achievements in arts and literature in 36 years: Studies of Science in Bengali Language (1972-2007’.
   Subrata Barua presented the keynote paper in the discussion presided over by Professor Ajoy Roy. Mamunur Rashid, M Lutfar Rahman and Oparesh Kumar Banerjee took part in the discussion. A colourful cultural function followed the discussion.
   A discussion on ‘The achievements in arts and literature in 36 years: Language (1972-2007)’ will be held at 4:00pm today with Professor Mansur Musa in the chair. Professor Jinat Imtiaj Ali will present the keynote paper on the occasion. Mohammad Daniul Haq, Sourav Sikder and Syeda Airin Zaman will participate in the discussion.

Activities of the woman affairs department in Sylhet are being seriously hampered due to acute shortage of staffers in the department’s district and upazila offices.
   The department is facing difficulties in carrying out its activities in the district and upazila levels as it has been plagued with manpower crisis for long, sources in the department said.
   At present, there are only five staffers, out of 14 posts, at the district office of the department, the sources said adding the remaining nine posts have been vacant for several years.
   Besides, more than 84 per cent posts have lied vacant at 12 upazila offices for long seriously disrupting the field-level activities of the department.
   ‘Despite having more than 72 posts including that of accountant, assistant accountant, at 12 upazila offices, there is only one officer each at 11 upazilas. The post of district sadar upazila officer lies vacant,’ a source in department’s district office said.
   Even the lone teacher post at a day-care centre set up at Kazitula in the city for children of working-class women remains vacant for several months, according to sources.
   The centre, which has the capacity to accommodate 60 children, has now only 30 children, district office sources said.
   The number of children at the centre is gradually declining as the authorities are yet to employ a teacher at the centre, the sources added.
   Currently, credit collection under the department’s micro-credit project has remained halted as there is no credit supervisor and accountant in the district office.
   The woman affairs department distributes rice among 10,470 poor women under the VGD project of the government.
   It distributes loan among 38,350 women under a micro-credit programme with a view to creating self-employment for the poor women in the district.
   The department also provides allowance among a total of 13,280 poor women under the government’s widow allowance project.
   The department arranges community meeting, courtyard sitting (Uthan Baitak) and awareness workshop under the promotion of gender equity and women empowerment project for the women of 101 unions in the district, department sources said.
   It also arranges awareness programmes on gender issues, women empowerment and observes special days like World Woman Day, World Population Day and World AIDS Day, the sources added.
   When contacted, Monwara Begum, district officer of the department, told New Age that they have made repeated request to the authorities concerned to fill the vacant posts at the district and upazila offices.
   ‘But the authorities are yet to take any step in this regard,’ she added.

An increase in fees for issuing the passports has angered the clients in the Barisal region.
   The fee for an emergency passport has been raised from Tk 5,000 to Tk 6,000 while for an urgent passport from Tk 2,500 to Tk 3,000 and for an ordinary passport from Tk 2,000 to Tk 2,500 since January 22, sources in Barisal regional passport office said.
   Those who submitted applications but have not yet received passports have to adjust the increased fees by depositing rest of the money at the time of delivery of the passports.
   It would have been better, if a notice was served in this connection before implementing the increased rates of passport fees, said assistant director in-charge of Barisal regional passport office, adding that the increase is made as the new passport book contains 64 pages whereas the earlier one contained 48 pages.
   Increase in passport fees has proved that the government has a propensity to extract money from the people without giving better services, Mintu Bose, secretary of Nagorik Parishad, and Mizanur Rahman, member secretary of Nagorik Samaj, told New Age on Thursday.
   They demanded scrapping of the decision and an end to harassment of the clients by the authorities concerned.

Fifteen persons were on Thursday awarded Chandraboti Gold Medal for their contributions to their respective fields.
   National Professor Kabir Chowdhury handed over the award to the recipients at a function arranged by Chandraboti Academy in Dhaka.
   The recipients included National Professor Abdul Malik (medical science), Professor Muzaffer Ahmad (economics), Murtaza Baseer (fine arts), Rasheda K Chowdhury (education), Abubakar Siddiq (educational development), Mansur Musa (research), Shykh Siraj (agriculture), Chowdhury Mahmud Hasan (science), Kaiser Chowdhury (juvenile literature), Abu Karim and Nasir Ahmed (poetry), Monwara Hakim Ali (woman entrepreneurship), Manzurul Ahsan Bulbul (journalism), Neaz Ahmed (banking), Mostafizur Rahman (pharmaceutical industries) and Nasir Ali Mamun (photography).

Sammilita Sangskritik Jote has drawn up a 16-day programme to mark International Mother Language Day.
   The programmes begin at Central Shaheed Minar at 4:30pm today. Language movement hero Professor Rafiqul Islam will inaugurate the programme as chief guest. The programmes will continue till February 19.
   The organisation will also hold different programmes at Rabindra Sarobar in Dhanmondi from February 15-21 and at Mirpur Outer Stadium from February 17-23.

Etcetera Bangladesh Private Ltd, a concern of ASCENT Group, launched its third Pizza Corner outlet at Banani in Dhaka on Thursday aiming to cater for the pizza loving people in the area.
   Maher Murshed, acting chairman and managing director of ASCENT Group, inaugurated the outlet, said a press release.
   The Pizza Corner is an international franchise and a part of Global Franchise Architects. The first outlet was opened in Dhanmondi in 2006 and the second one in Uttara in 2007. It has gained the acceptance of valued customers through its mouth-watering pizzas along with appetisers, pastas, salads, bakes and deserts.

Two persons, including a teenage boy, were killed in separate road accidents in Savar on Thursday.
   The police said an unidentified youth aged about 25 died on the spot as a bus knocked him down at Baroipara on Nabinagar-Kaliakoir road at about 5:30am.
   In another incident, a boy aged 13 was run over by a bus near Bismile bus terminal on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway at about 4:30pm. Two cases were filed with the Ashulia police station.

Light rain or drizzle is likely at one or two places over Rajshahi, Dhaka, Sylhet and Khulna divisions and weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country till 6:00pm today.
   Light to moderate fog may occur over the river basins of the country during early morning, Met Office said. Night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country.
   Country’s highest temperature 30.4 degrees Celsius was recorded on Thursday at Jessore and lowest 13.8 degrees at Srimongal.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:49pm and rises at 6:36am tomorrow.

The Ekushey Book Fair on Thursday hit some buzz of controversy over the selling of books written by Jamaat-e-Islami leaders.
   From a press conference, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, a cultural outfit, criticised Bangla Academy for allotting a stall to Adhunik Prokashani that put the books up for sale at the fair.
   The SSJ demanded cancellation of the allotment.
   The stall sells books by Jamaat ideologue Moududi, the party’s former Ameer Golam Azam, Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and other leaders Abbas Ali Khan, Khaleque Mojumder, Qamaruzzaman and Delwar Hossain Saidee.
   The leaders are widely known as having links to 1971 war crimes or blamed for backings for the ‘war criminals’.
   Dhaka University teacher Muhammad Samad, also SSJ vice-president, said, ‘The Ekushey Book Fair is organised in memory of the students and people who shed their blood to uphold the dignity of their mother language.’
   Samad emphasised that the fair organiser should not have approved a stall to sell the books written by ‘anti-Liberation and war criminals’.
   Samad said, ‘We protest Bangla Academy’s decision to allot a stall to the publisher. The stall must be cancelled immediately.’
   Poet and writer Abu Hasan Shahriar said, ‘It’s a shame on writers, publishers and readers that Bangla Academy has approved a stall for Adhunik Prokashani.’
   Expressing his surprise at how the books of ‘identified war criminals’ found their way into the book fair, poet Humayun Reza said, ‘An investigation should be opened into why and how the their stall was still there even after the matter came to light.’
   Imran Ashraf Chowdhury who came to the fair from Uttara said, ’The war criminals don’t have the right to participate in the Ekushey Book Fair. They must be tried for war crimes.’
   ‘Bangla Academy has committed a crime by allotting a stall to the publisher.’
   Dhaka University student Javid Iqbal Bangali demanded cancellation of the stall allotment.

The police arrested a poultry farm owner on charge of dumping fowls died of avian influenza in open space when the authorities culled 11,000 chickens of 14 poultry farms in Hathazari upazila on Thursday.
   Mohammed Ali, owner of the Azizia Poultry Farm at Burirchar area in Hathazari, was arrested on charges of throwing several hundred dead chickens into a local cannel and not informing the authorities concerned of bird flu attack in his farm.
   District livestock officer Abdul Mannan said they culled 11,000 fowls of 14 poultry farms at Burirchar and adjoining areas at Hathazari in an effort to
   check bird flu from spreading further.
   Chittagong City Corporation authorities continued spraying anti-virus liquid in the city dustbins and different kitchen markets to check the outbreak of the flu among the poultry birds and keep the situation under control.
   Meanwhile, sale of poultry birds marked a sharp decline in the local markets, as panic gripped the consumers in the city and adjoining areas after the detection of the bird flu virus in a poultry farm Saturday last.

Qul khwani of politician Saif Uddin Ahmed Manik will be held at his residence on Ramakrishna Mission Road in the capital today after asr prayers.
   Gana Forum and Moni Singh-Farhad Smriti Trust in separate statements requested all to attend the programme.

Two persons were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment in Sylhet on Thursday for possessing illegal arms and ammunition. The convicts are Belal Miah and Hizmat Ali, of Karimpur village under Jagannathpur upazila in Sunamganj. Ferdous Ahmed, judge of special court in Sylhet, sentenced Belal to 10 years’ and Hizmat to seven years’ imprisonment. The judge also fined them Tk 3,000 each, in default to suffer one more year in jail, court sources said. According to the prosecution, the Kotwali police seized one pistol and three rounds of bullet from the two persons on January 6, 2006 and filed a case in this connection under the arms and explosives act. After examining witnesses and evidence, the judge handed down the verdict.

Save the Children, Australia began a two-day conference of its National Children’s Taskforce in Dhaka on Thursday.
   The taskforce president, Shahidul Islam, inaugurated the conference at LGED Bhaban, Agargaon in the capital
   Leaders of the central committee as well as 64 district committees of the taskforce are taking part in the conference.
   A new committee of the taskforce was formed for next two years’ term on the opening day of the conference that also discussed last year’s activities of the forum. On the concluding day of the programme today, an action plan will be adopted to address the rights issue of the children.
   They will discuss a draft child rights report on Bangladesh prepared for sending to the United Nations.
   Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum chairperson, Wahida Banu and Save the Children, Australia country director Sultan Mahmud, among others, were present at the inaugural function.
   The taskforce has a total of 4,000 children members who monitor the child rights activities and carry out advocacy programme on child affairs issues in their respective districts.

The district police super was ordered stand-released and officer-in-charge and a sub-inspector of Thakurgaon thana were suspended.
   The inspector general of police issued the orders taking disciplinary action against them following OC Sohrab Hossain and SI Rezaul Islam filed GD against each other, the police said.
   Filing of GD by OC and SI accusing each other of insubordination and misbehaviour on February 1 and 2 had created confusion and chaos in the district police administration.
   Masud Ul Hasan, SP, left for Dhaka on order to report at the police headquarters. Suspended Sohrab was closed in Barisal Police Lines and Rezaul in Thakurgaon Police Lines.
   But unidentified police sources said the conflict arose from sharing of money in which the police super was also involved.

Today is the sixth anniversary of death of Begum Aziron Nessa, mother of freedom fighter Anwar Hossain Bir Pratik.
   On the occasion, a prayers session will be held at her village home at Khoksha in Kushtia.

Syed Badruzzaman Nannu, a freedom fighter and former president of Sadarpur upazila unit of Awami League, died of cardiac arrest at his house at Noyroshi village under Sadarpur upazila in Faridpur Wednesday night. He was 80.
   His namaj-e-janaza was held on the upazila mosque compound after Zuhr prayers on Thursday. Later he was buried at his family graveyard at Noyroshi village in the afternoon.

A two-day workshop on algorithm and computation organized by Bangladesh Academy of Sciences and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology began at the seminar room of BUET on Thursday.
   BAS President Professor M Shamsher Ali inaugurated the seminar as chief guest while Professor AMM Safiullah attended it as special guest.
   Chaired by M Kaykobad, the seminar was also addressed, among others, by Professor Naiyyum Choudhury, secretary of BAS, Professor M Saidur Rahman and Shinichi Nakano, representative of Japan.
   Speakers said information and communication technology has extended greatly beyond its conventional domain. It is penetrating every phase of our lives including security, health, business and e-governance.
   The significance of algorithms and computation in ICT can hardly be over emphasized, they noted.
   A total of 150 representatives from Japan, German, South Korea, France, Greece, Poland, Canada, India and Bangladesh are taking part in the workshop.

Outstanding holding taxes of the Barisal City Corporation stood at Tk 15 crore, hampering the activities of the corporation seriously.
   BCC sources said Power Development Board topped the list of defaulters with Tk 7 crore unpaid. Of the outstanding taxes, Upazila Primary Education office owes Tk 44.46 lakh, Barisal Sadar Hospital and Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital Tk 36.2 lakh, Teachers’ Training Institute Tk 24.65 lakh, district judge’s court Tk 19.67 lakh.
   There are some 35,000 holding taxpayers in the metropolitan area, the sources said, adding that even though the private taxpayers pay taxes regularly, the public organisations have become defaulters.
   Awlad Hossain Dilu, mayor in-charge of the BCC, said some taxpayers had not been paying any holding tax even for last 22 years.

Declaration of 10 newspapers cancelled in Sylhet
The district administration on Thursday cancelled the declaration of 10 local dailies and periodicals for irregular publication. The deputy commissioner Harunur Rashid Khan said the declaration of the dailies and periodicals was cancelled due to irregular publication or for not publishing any issue. The newspapers and periodicals were the daily Janadhara, daily Sylhet Sangbad, daily Jalalabadi, daily Barta Bahak, daily Sachitra Sylhet, daily Brihattar Sylheter Manchitra, Weekly Dinrat, Weekly Gram Surma, Monthly Al-Faruq and Quarterly Natak.
— New Age