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Bloodstained cottons and gauges scattered, garbage littered on dirty, potholed floors, ceiling fans hanging with long iron rods in a risky condition, lack of ventilation and spit all around the walls speak of the filthy and unhygienic condition of the emergency ward at Mitford Hospital.
   Patients arriving at the emergency department of the Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital are void of proper treatment due to inadequate medical equipment and short supply of power and water.
   ‘There is no way to sterilise equipments before use here because we do not have any gas supply. We have to use spirit and soap and normal water instead of sterilising. But there are times when we don’t have supply at all,’ said a nurse at the city’s second largest public hospital.
   The emergency department was shifted to its present place, which happened to be a godown, in December 2007.
   ‘The previous emergency was a better place with tiles and required equipments,’ said an Emergency Medical Officer, who has been working there for the last four years.
   If 50 people come to the emergency department in case of any accident, it would not be possible to provide them with necessary treatment, said the EMO adding ‘We do not have casualty service yet.’
   A large number of people from the southern part of the city depend on this hospital established in 1820 on the bank of the River Buriganga.
   People from Keraniganj and other places across the river take treatment at this hospital, which can hardly accommodate all the arriving patients, said the hospital director, Mahmuda Khatun.
   ‘I asked the concerned people to apply for repair of the toilets and the doors, she said.
   About garbage that remain scattered inside the toilets and on the floors in other parts of the hospital, she said it doesn’t depend only on the hospital staff, but it is also the responsibility of patients and their attendants who dump them at corners although there are dustbins all around.
   Tender to repair the emergency department, dormitory for doctors and nurses are also under process, said the director.
   The stench at the dirty corridors of the 600-bed hospital forces doctors and visitors to put handkerchiefs on their noses, witnesses said. The emergency section has four rooms with wastes, cracked floors and without windows. The rooms contain six observation beds.
   Medical wastes are carelessly tossed into metal bucket which have little inside than outside. The only ventilation system is provided through a few holes on top of the brick wall in only two of the rooms.
   Electric fans are suspended with long iron rods from the almost dilapidated ceiling.
   The toilets, kitchens and floors of different wards of the over-crowded hospital are littered with garbage, said an attendant of a patient.
   ‘Water supply in the toilets is not sufficient and most of the taps and doors of the toilets are broken and so everyone needs to keep someone on guard in front of the door while using the toilets,’ he added.
   To stop spreading of dusts, the employees of the emergency section sprinkle water in the potholes five to six times each day, said a Class IV employee.
   One side of two of the rooms is partitioned with hardboards, and on the other side lives a leader of the fourth class employees with his family.
   Sometimes when the family cooks the smell come into the emergency department through the holes of the cardboard, said doctors and nurses.
   ‘We have no security here. If we keep equipment on the table of the nurses’ duty room and go to another room for a while, we find them missing upon return,’ said a nurse.
   There is no equipment for washing stomach in case of poisoning and the patients are taken to another section of the hospital. The female section of Emergency is without any doors (palla) or windows and contains three beds. Female patients hardly stay there, as there is no door and no security, sources at the section said.
   The only bathroom of the Emergency always remains under lock and key, as there is no water supply there. The power supply is also irregular, the hospital staff said.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority in a special drive against unfit vehicles and drivers on Wednesday filed 61 cases and seized seven buses and human haulers in the capital.
   The special drive conducted at Rokeya Sarani, the road adjacent to the US Embassy, Postagola intersection and Shanir Akhra in the capital also seized papers of 47 vehicles and four fake driving licenses, BRTA officials said.
   The DMP in association with BRTA launched the special drive on February 26 to curb plying of unfit vehicles and check fake driving licenses, officials said.
   Excepting for the weekly holidays, the drive will be conducted at four selected points in the capital everyday till March 6 in the first phase, they said.
   Besides, the regular mobile court drive of the BRTA on the same day filed 20 cases and realised Tk 25,600 in fines at Bakshibazar area in old Dhaka, said BRTA executive magistrate, Abdur Rashid, who led the drive.
   The BRTA’s mobile court drive was launched on April 16, 2007 in the wake of widespread allegations of harassment of passengers by the CNG-run auto-rickshaws and cab drivers in the city.
   The BNP-led alliance government in 2002 introduced meter fare system for four-stroke CNG auto-rickshaws and taxicabs in the capital by phasing out the two-stroke auto-rickshaws.
   The BRTA is now conducting the mobile court against all modes of motorised transports, including CNG auto-rickshaws, officials said.
   All the cases in the two drives were filed under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance.
   Over 4.12 lakh motorised vehicles including cars, jeeps, microbuses, taxicabs, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, buses, minibuses, trucks, human haulers and motorcycles were registered with the BRTA in Dhaka between 1999 and 2006, they said.

Transport employees at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology on Wednesday gave a 15-day ultimatum to the university authorities to press for their various demands including formulation of specific service rules.
   Campus sources said members of Sahayak Paribahan Karmachari Samiti, an association of the SUST transport employees, submitted a memorandum to the vice-chancellor at around noon asking for immediate steps to implement their demands.
   The demands included taking immediate step to
   prepare specific service rules regarding promotion and making the job of master roll employees in the transport section permanent.
   The association leaders in the memorandum threatened to go for tougher movement if the authorities do not meet their demands within 15 days.
   Khayrul Alam Chowdhury, convenor of the association, told New Age that despite repeated pleas, the university authorities are yet to take any step to meet their demands.
   The administration officer in the SUST transport section, Anwarul Islam Chowdhury, said a five-member committee had been formed on February 14 at a meeting chaired by the vice-chancellor to prepare rules for the transport employees.
   ‘The committee will start its work within one or two days,’ he added.
   When contacted over phone, vice-chancellor Professor Aminul Islam declined to make any comment in this regard saying the transport adviser council of the university is the proper authority to look into the matter.

Shahidul Islam, a college student in Barisal, was looking for the stall selling a compilation of lyrics of Mukunda Das, a popular bard of the anti-colonial movement.
   As soon as he was helped to locate the stall, Shahid did not wait a moment and rushed there to buy the 500-page expensive title on Tuesday.
   ‘I am usually fond of novels and buy them from the fair. But in recent years, I found many uncommon books and got interested in them. Mukunda Das is a famous poet in our area but I never found any book regarding him or his songs,’ he said proudly holding the book in his hand.
   Booksellers at the fair said usually the most demanded genre is novel and poems but in recent times people’s attraction has increased on other genres too.
   ‘People’s interests seem to be changing and this year’s experience is quite different. I was confused while bringing out the diary of Dr Anwar Hossain but it became the best-seller in the fair,’ said Osman Gani of Agamee Prakashani.
   Robin Ahsan, owner of Shraban Prakashan, found that there has been a revolutionary change in readers’ mindset and they have become more critical and analytic on any issue and that has been reflected in their buying habit.
   He said the demand for his ‘off-track’ books was much more than the novels and collection of poems. He cited the autobiography of Fidel Castro, Bangladesher Chalachchitra: Sangkate Janasangskriti by Geetiara Nasrin and Fahmidul Huq, Prashner Shakti by Anu Muhammad and Micro-credit: Manufacturing Myth by Faruq Chowdhury.
   A hobbyist linguist found his interests in Padabir Utsa Sandhan by Samar Paul, a narration of history of the titles of surnames in Bangladesh. He asked the price and ordered for two copies. As he disappeared, there were marks of exclamation in the expression of the salesman.
   Books on nature were also going better and a number of titles by Dwijen Sharma, Bipradash Barua and Mokarram Hossain on flora and fauna were doing good, said salesmen.
   Sahtiya Prakash is bringing out a number of memoirs by noted personalities and this year they published Dinu Billah’s memoirs on Ajit Guha’s residence in Old Dhaka.
   This genre was mostly ignored by publishers in the past, but in recent times interest in the genre is growing. Oitijjhya published six memoirs and autobiographies. Among those, Kantateo Golap Thake by Abdush Shakoor, Ekbachan Bahubachan by Samarendra Sengupta and Abhibasi Ami by Rizia Rahman are notable.
   The Oitijjhya’s chief executive, Arifur Rahman Nayeem, said all of them were selling good.
   Asked about the reason of bringing out such titles, Nayeem said, ‘Readership is decreasing for many reasons but the taste of people is being elevated gradually. I now don’t fear to invest a huge amount on such titles.’
   People may be tired of the typical story telling pattern of novels and are switching over to other genres, he said citing the sale of the translation of William Dalrymple’s ‘The Last Mughal’.
   Reprint of classic literatures were also on high demand, said the sellers.
   Parua reprinted a century-old Bangla book, Periplus by Jogendranath.
   In an age of dozens of television channels, the readers’ interest has also grown on the making of the television programmes. A visitor at the Mizan Publishers said she bought the title by Shahed Zahedi’s ‘Sangbadik, Upasthapak, Parichalak Haoar Abhinaba Upay’ which tells the means of becoming a presenter in any television channel.
   The CSB chief reporter, Tushar Abdullah’s ‘ETV Theke CSB’, anchor Samia Rahman’s ‘Ekush Shatake Television Sangbadikata’, and former BTV director general Faruq Alamgir’s ‘Samprachar Sangbad: Ekti Ruprekha’ are selling better said the concerned publishers.
   Unlike all other genres, recipes and fashion books also made way in people’s choice. Two giant publishers brought recipes on ‘desi’ food and another publisher brought a manual for make-up.
   Books on manners and etiquette are also available in the fair. Oitijjhya published An Executive’s Handbook of Etquette and Manners by Akhtar Sanjida Kasem.
   Till Monday a total of 2,299 titles were published since the fair was inaugurated on February 1, according to Bangla Academy statistics. Some 214 were under the genre of ‘others’.
   The academy officials said they listed ‘others’ those which do not fall under the conventional genres like story, novel, essay, poetry, research, rhyme, children’s literature, biography, complete works, liberation war, science, travel, history, politics, medical, computer, religion, translation, dictionary, science fiction and satire.

A two-day UNESCO Book and Publication Exhibition 2008 began at the Central Public Library at Shahbag in the city on Wednesday.
   Bangladesh National UNESCO Club Association in cooperation with UNESCO Dhaka Office is organising has organised the fair marking International Mother Language Day. Women and children affairs and cultural affairs adviser Rasheda K Chwodhury inaugurated the fair.
   Education secretary M Momtazul Islam presided over the inaugural session, addressed, among others, by UNESCO representative to Bangladesh Malama Meleisea, UNESCO Commission secretary M Mahmudul Hasan, litterateur Selina Hossain, Gias Kamal Chowdhury and Mahbub Uddin Chowdhury.
   Different publications, books and posters published by UNESCO are put on display in the fair, which will remain open to all from 11:00am to 6:00pm today.

Weather may remain mainly dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country in the next 24 hours till 6:0pm today.
   Light to moderate fog may occur over the river basins of the country during early morning, Met Office said, predicting slight fall in night temperature over the country.
   Country’s highest temperature on Wednesday, 31.4 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Cox’s Bazar and the lowest, 11.4 degrees Celsius, at Ishwardi.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:00 pm and rises tomorrow at 6:22am.

Prospective trading partner South Korea is eager to double its investments to about $2 billion in diverse areas in a couple of years, the Korean ambassador to Bangladesh, Suk-Bum Park, said on Wednesday.
   ‘We are going to double our investments, which are now more than $900 million, in a couple of years,’ Park said.
   Diverse investment activities from Korean companies will soon be undertaken in Bangladesh, he told New Age in the Sonargaon Hotel where a visiting Korean trade delegation was having a meeting with local entrepreneurs.
   A 10-member Korean delegation with a wide range of their businesses and products arrived in Dhaka on Monday.
   The delegation comprises representatives from Hyundai Machinery Co Ltd, Dae Eun Precision Co, Soriso, Kook-Bo Tech Co, Han-A System, Jinsun Textile Company, SD Hi Tec, Boo Kwang Tech Co, Funt Co Ltd, Comet Co Ltd and Chang Jin Tape.
   The items the companies represent include machinery, herbal cosmetics, slaughtering machines, packaging tapes and color sorter machines used in rice processing plants.
   More than 200 local businessmen and importers held talks with the visiting Korean businessmen, said officials in Kotra, the commercial section of the Korean embassy.
   ‘We are happy with the interest the local businessmen showed in Korean products,’ said Koo Ja-Dong, the delegation head.
   In 2007, Korea imported Bangladeshi goods including naphtha, raw hide, frozen food and readymade garments worth more than $100 million, Kotra officials said.
   During the same period, Bangladesh imported Korean items, mainly textile machinery, paper and chemical products, worth about $600 million, they said.
   Park said Korean investments were expected in shoe factory, petro-chemical industry, knowledge-based industry and information technology sector.
   He said Bangladesh has the potential to become a middle-income country in 10 to 15 years for its investment opportunities, including low-cost labour and promising entrepreneurs.
   Nearly one-third of the $900 million Korean investments in Bangladesh is in different export processing zones, Park said, adding the attraction of Korean and global investors will increase to a great extent towards Bangladesh once the proposed exclusive Korean export processing zone is established in Chittagong.
   ‘The world’s largest shoe factory is planned to be established in the KEPZ,’ Park told New Age.
   The factory with 72 assembly lines will employ 15,000 people and produce more than 100,000 pairs of shoes a day — 30 million pairs a year — for export.
   Park said the state of emergency was no barrier to investments and business.

Japan offered to support clean-energy projects in Bangladesh, including nuclear energy.
   The chairman of the Japan-Bangladesh Parliamentary League, Taro Aso MP, expressed Tokyo’s willingness in this regard when the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdury, called on him at the Japanese parliament office on Wednesday.
   Taro Aso, also a former foreign Minister, who just assumed the chairmanship of the Japan-Bangladesh Parliamentary League the previous day, added that ‘while there were some reservations in Japan about anything nuclear, now the Japanese people are persuaded that the time for nuclear energy has come.’
   The chairman praised the current reform process in Bangladesh, where ‘there has been no evidence of severe violence of any kind and no act of terrorism’.
   He would work for stronger Japan-Bangladesh links.
   Two other Japanese members of parliament — Kousuke Ito and Akihiro Nishimura — were also present among others.
   Earlier, Iftekhar held a meeting at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation with its president Koji Tanami discussing the possibility of Japanese support for the proposed Padma bridge, among other things.
   ‘Support to the Padma bridge would be very much in line with the Japanese philosophy to assist infra-structural development, and hopefully will be forthcoming,’ the foreign adviser said to the media afterwards.
   He also discussed post-disaster reconstruction with the bank president for which Japan is providing $60 million in soft loan.
   On both occasions, Bangladesh ambassador to Japan, Ashraf-ud-Doula, the director general of foreign ministry, Shahidul Islam, and the Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh, Masayuki Inoue, were present, according to a
   message from the Japanese capital.

The Russia ambassador to Bangladesh on Wednesday said his country was interested in investing in a subway system for Dhaka.
   The ambassador, Gennady Trotsenko, told the communications adviser, Ghulam Quader, that Russia would also like to provide
   technical assistance in the construction of the subway for the capital city.
   Trotsenko told reporters after the meeting that he had met the communications adviser at his office to discuss bilateral issues.
   He said Russia had extensive experience in manufacturing and operating subway systems in its own cities, and wanted to
   assist Bangladesh in the proposed mass transit project for Dhaka.
   The envoy said Russia was also interested in investing in a number of other sectors including modernising the transport system throughout the country and building and running power plants.
   ‘Power plants in Bangladesh face diverse difficulties that cause power disruptions much of the time, but there is no such problem in Russia,’ the ambassador said.
   The communications adviser said many countries and donor agencies had shown an interest in providing financial and technical assistance to the capital’s subway project.
   Donor agencies are satisfied with Bangladesh because it repays its loans on time, Ghulam Quader said.
   ‘We have also received proposals from non-resident Bangladeshis,’ he said.
   ‘We have prepared project proposals and are now looking for consultants,’ the adviser added.

Jonoganatantra Andolon, a social organisation, on Wednesday demanded that the government ensure the security of Professor Anu Muhammad.
   It also demanded a proper investigation into the death threat to Anu Muhammad and the trial of those responsible.
   The five-point demand, which was placed at a press conference in Dhaka, also includes restoration of a democratic environment, freedom of expression, active role of the state in ensuring the security of the citizens and ensuring human rights including the right to participate in political, cultural and economic activities.
   ‘The government must ensure the security of Professor Anu Muhammad and his family,’ said the Jonoganatantra Andolon’s convener, Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, while placing the five-point demand at a press conference in Dhaka.
   He alleged that the government had not take any action to probe the death threat to Anu Muhammad, who has been playing an important role to protect people’s rights including free-thinking and freedom of expression.
   Professor Piash Karim of BRAC University observed that the death threat to Anu Muhammad, who has been vocal against various vested interest groups, was a part of the conspiracy to derail the movement for democracy.
   Arup Rahi, a painter, and Monwar Mustafa of Nagorik Samaj also spoke at the press conference.
   Anu Muhammad, a teacher of economics at Jahangirnagar University, on Saturday filed a general diary with Khilgaon police station after he received a phone call from someone who threatened to kill him if he did not stop teaching and participating in talk shows in TV channels.

The power Development Board has decided to keep all industries and factories in the Rajshahi zone closed on Sundays to ensure supply of power to the farmers for irrigating their land during the Boro season.
   A press release, signed by PDB executive engineer Alamgir Hossain on Tuesday, urged the owners of all industries and factories to keep their industries and factories closed on Sunday. Welding factories will be closed after 5:00pm everyday, it added.
   The board has taken the decision to help the farmers with smooth supply of power during Boro cultivation, said an official of the department.
   ‘If anybody violates the rules, the department will take legal actions against the owner of the industry or factory,’ read the press release.
   According to the sources of the department, the rules of the government to shut down shops and business firms at 8:00pm every day are still in force.

A Chittagong court on Wednesday sentenced a young man to 17 years’ rigorous imprisonment for possessing firearms.
   The second additional metropolitan magistrate, Ikramul Hoque Chowdhury, handed down the verdict against Shah Alam, 28, a resident of Dhanialapara in the city.
   According to the prosecution, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested Alam and seized a 303 rifle, a light gun and eight cartridges from Raj Boarding at Dhanialapara on August 10 in 2005.
   After examining witnesses and evidences, the court pronounced the verdict against the convict.

Powdered milk company, Dano is organising a ‘rhyme and illustrate’ contest 2008 on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.
   The participating children will have to collect a set of four individual books with different interesting Bengali rhymes available in every 400gm regular and instant pack of the brand.
   Each book contains a page where the participants have to write their own rhymes and draw as they like and send those by April 10, 2008, said a press release.
   A panel of judges comprising eminent personalities of the country will select the winners from two groups.
   The winners will be awarded with attractive prizes like computer, 21” color TV, digital camera, digital dictionary and bicycle.

Week-long art workshop begins
at RU today
A week-long art workshop to be conducted by British artist Stephanie Quayle begins at Rajshahi University today. The fine arts department of the university, British Council and Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts will organise the workshop. The RU vice-chancellor, M Altaf Hossain, will inaugurate the programme with the fine arts department chairman, Amirul Momanin Chowdhury, in chair.

Students confine
RU provost
Students of Sher-e-Bangla Hall at Rajshahi University confined the provost of the dormitory in his office room for two hours Tuesday night to press for their five-point demand. Campus sources said the students confined the provost Shaheed Zaman at around 9:00pm demanding prevention of theft incidents in the hall, improvement of food quality, increasing the number daily newspapers and magazines at the reading room and stepping up security at the hall.
— New Age