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The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission is expected to auction three licences for international gateway exchanges in the private sector by mid-February after shortlisting the eligible firms to route international calls to and from Bangladesh.
   The commission is now evaluating the offers submitted by 42 firms for the licences to set up the gateway exchanges in the private sector to route overseas calls to and from Bangladesh along with Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board.
   BTRC officials said an evaluation committee headed by SM Monir Ahmed, a commissioner of the commission, were scrutinising the proposals of the bidders to shortlist the eligible firms for inviting them to participate in the auction.
   ‘We are expecting to complete the evaluation by the end of this month and put the licences under hammer in mid-February,’ said an official.
   BTRC invited the bids in October from the Bangladeshi enterprises under International Long Distance Telecommunication Services Policy 2007 for setting up the gateway exchanges to break the monopoly of the state-owned telephone board in the international call business.
   The policy stipulates that only Bangladeshi citizens living in the country would be eligible to get the licences. The policy also bars the existing mobile and private land phone companies and internet service providers from getting the international gateway licences.
   According to the regulatory and licensing guidelines of international gateway licence, the auction will be based on open bids and the bidders will bid for the percentage of the revenue to be shared with the BTRC.
   The bidding will start at sharing 25 per cent of the revenue with the BTRC, and each successive bid will have to be incrementally higher by 0.25 per cent.
   The BTRC has also fixed Tk 15 crore as acquisition fee for each international gateway licence.
   The licences will be given initially for a 15-year term with an option for renewal after every five year subject to the BTRC’s approval. All the three international gateways will be located in Dhaka and must be open to lawful interception by the intelligence agencies.
   The guidelines say that the licence holders will set up the international gateway exchanges and launch services within four months from the issuance of the licences.
   They will have the primary ‘backbone’ connection with international networks through the SEA-ME-WE submarine cable and also other submarine cables whenever available.
   The licence holders will also have the backup connectivity through the satellite earth station until an alternative submarine cable is available.

Experts at a discussion on Saturday called on all concerned to improve the safety standards and quality of export-oriented seafood to make the products more competitive in the global market and win the confidence of trading partners.
   They stressed the need for a national action plan in this regard to ensure the safety and quality through a comprehensive approach asking the government to review the relevant laws and rules.
   The views were expressed at a seminar on the national action plan for farm-to-fork strategy for seafood safety and quality in Bangladesh organised by the Department of Fisheries project on the strengthening of fish inspection and quality control services in Bangladesh in the CIRDAP auditorium.
   The fisheries and livestock secretary, Syed Ataur Rahman, addressing the seminar, said the government had many limitations. ‘We have improved our safety mechanism, but they are still not adequate.’ He said Bangladesh was trying to comply with all international standards.
   ‘Unless we take a holistic approach, we will be in great trouble,’ he said, referring to the seafood industries and related export earnings.
   Bangladesh earns about $550 million from frozen fish sector, mainly through export to Europe and United States. The countries are asking Bangladesh to comply with international standards.
   The discussants said food safety was a market priority for the industries.
   ‘A continuous record of high standards of food safety and product quality is a major factor in retaining and expanding seafood markets,’ said TS Shetty, a United Nations consultant on fisheries, who read out the keynote paper.
   He pointed to insufficient allocation of resources, poor response to problems, lack of right approach for compliance, poor institutional capacity and delay in amendment to the Fish and Fish Products (Inspection and Quality Control) Ordinance and its implementation as major causes of concern towards compliance with global seafood safety requirements.
   Responding to the analysis, the fisheries secretary said the government efforts to amend the legislation were on. ‘The government has prepared a law to this effect, and we hope it will soon be promulgated.’
   Presided over by the fisheries department director general, Md Mokammel Hossain, the seminar was also addressed by Imtiza Ahmed, national project director SFIQCB, Md Mohiuddin, principal scientific officer of the fisheries department, Md Rafiqul Islam, director inland fisheries, Parikhith Datta Chowdhury, joint secretary of the fisheries and livestock ministry, Mahmudul Karim, executive director of the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation, and Abul Hossain, an aquaculture specialist.

Participants of a seminar in the city, including economists and academics, on Saturday suggested that the government should make some short- and long-term plans to put an end to the present price hike of essentials and avoid any food shortage threat, saying otherwise the situation would only get worse.
   They also demanded immediate import of at least one million tonne of rice, and said otherwise it would be difficult to meet the current food crisis in the country.
   The seminar on ‘food deficit, price crisis and the responsibility of the country’ was organised by the Centre for Law Research and Support, with Justice Mohammad Golam Rabbani in the chair. The convener of the organisation, Shah Alam, read out the keynote paper at the session.
   Under the short-term programmes, it was recommended that the government should continue with importing food grains from the international markets and attach more priority to agriculture rehabilitation programme to avoid the present food crisis.
   The speakers said, in the long run, the government should take new policy on food production taking the impacts of the global climate change into consideration as the country would face more natural disasters and land loss in the future due to the environmental changes.
   On the food grain prices, they pointed out that, according to government estimates, the price of rice had jumped by 50 per cent and coarse flour almost doubled while the wages increased by only 4.5 per cent on an average over the January–December period last year.
   Dr Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said the government from the very beginning had been somewhat reluctant about the real food shortage in the country caused by recurring floods and cyclone Sidr. The government even claimed that ‘the food shortage caused by the natural disasters would not leave any bad impact on the economy,’ mentioned the president of the Bangladesh Economic Association.
   Besides, he said, even one-third of the Tk 7,000 crore agriculture credit allocated for the fiscal year 2006-07 was not distributed, which also hampered the agriculture production.
   The government’s indecision to import rice in time caused a haphazard situation in the country and under the situation the price of per kilogram rice rose by Tk 5–10 a day, which means rice traders misappropriated around Tk 900 crore in just 10 days, said the keynote paper.
   Professor Anu Mohammad, Nur Mohammad, and Akmal Hossain, among others, also took part in the seminar.

The Sylhet police are yet to make any headway in the case on the grenade attack on the Urs of Hazrat Shahjalal shrine in the city after four years of the incident that left five
   people dead and 50 others injured.
   A grenade was exploded in the night of January 12, 2004 at the shrine when a gathering of hundreds of devotees was enjoying devotional songs on the occasion of the anniversary of birth of the renowned saint, Shahjalal.
   Alauddin, a drum (tabla) player from Narayanganj, and Shafiq, a teenage boy from Companiganj upazila of Sylhet, were killed on the spot in the attack.
   Three more persons — Abdul Gani of Islampur village of Companiganj, Tamij Ali of Inatabad village of Dakshin Surma, and Safar Ali of Bhaberkandi village of sadar upazila, of the district — died later from their injuries at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital.
   A 5-member probe committee headed by the then deputy commissioner, Shahadat Hussain, was formed immediately after the incident. But the probe report is yet to come to light.
   Thirteen of the 14 people arrested on suspicion of their involvement in the attack have obtained bail. Only
   Maulana Abu Sayeed, a leader
   of the banned Harkat-ul-Jihad-Al-Islami, is still in prison custody.
   The investigation officer of the case, Pranav Kumar, an inspector at the Criminal Investigation Department of police, told New Age on Saturday that the investigation of the case was still on.
   ‘The charge sheet in the case will be submitted soon to the court after completion of the investigation,’ he said.
   But, CID sources said Gopal Chakrabarti, a senior inspector of the CID, would join soon the Sylhet police and the charge of investigating the case would be handed over to him.

Robbers looted cash and valuables from six houses at Muradnagar Upazila in Comilla Friday night.
   The police said the robbers had stormed into the houses of Ramesh Pal, Jeetandra Pal, Komud Pal, Sudon Pal and a retired captain Abdur Rahim.
   At the time of getting away with their booty the robbers were attacked by the locals who beat a robber severely, the police added. The police arrested the injured robber. Other robbers managed to get away.

The police arrested a local BNP leader from Kacharipara area in Jamalpur district town early Saturday.
   The arrested is Shamim Ahmed, organising secretary of district unit of the BNP.
   The police said they conducted a raid on a place in the town and nabbed him.

Robbers looted gold ornaments and cash after beating four inmates of a house at Nagarpara under Araihazar upazila in Narayanganj early Saturday.
   The police said a gang of around six robbers stormed into the house of local school teacher Narayan Chandra Poddar, by breaking open the main gate at around 3.00am.
   The robbers tied up Narayan Chandra’s two brothers — Gopal Chandra Poddar, and Khokon Chandra Poddar — and severely beat them up.
   The gang then entered the bed room of Narayan Chandra and hit him with iron rod and also cut off a finger of his wife Alpana Rani Poddar with a sharp weapon.
   After injuring the inmates, the gang broke open an almirah and looted about 20 vories of gold ornaments and around Tk 20,000 in cash. Hearing cry, local people came to the spot and tried to catch the robbers, but they managed to flee with the booty.
   Narayan Chandra Poddar and his wife were admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.

Karmajibi Nari on Saturday held a review meeting on the role of women in the next general elections at the city’s Skill Development Centre.
   An environment conducive to women casting their votes in the elections free from influences of black money and criminal activities has to be created, said Shirin Akhter, president of the organisation.
   She also emphasised the need for ensuring inclusion the names of all workers and day labourers in the voters’ roll.
   She said the government and the Election Commission should consider the role of women in the polls more seriously, adding, ‘It is important to hold dialogue with the political parties to implement the election roadmap.’
   The Election Commission should also invite individuals, women organisations to such dialogues, Shirin said.
   In her opinion, a consensus has to be built to ensure 33 per cent representation of women in the political parties.
   Alak Sarkar, Mahmuda Imam, Arifa Akhter Onu, Fatima Hossain, Santa Maria, Farhana Urmi, and Aparna Singh also spoke at the meeting.

Chief Justice M Ruhul Amin on Saturday paid rich tributes to late veteran lawyer M Ozair Farooq and asked novices to follow his ideals inside the courtroom, whatever result of hearing turns out to be.
   He was addressing a meeting to condole the death of the former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association at its hall-room.
   ‘Farooq was a completely professional man. Whatever might be the result of a case he fought for, he was always careful of the court’s code of conduct. Newcomers should follow his footsteps,’ he said.
   Telling the audience his reminiscences of Farooq, the High Court’s senior justice and a close friend of Farook, Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman, broke into tears.
   Former SCBA president Ozair Farooq, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, died of cardiac arrest last Sunday.
   The meeting, organised by NLF Lawyers’ Solidarity Association, a welfare body of the lawyers of Noakhali, Lakshmipur and Feni, was addressed, among others, by former SCBA president Mahbubey Alam, Bar Council leader Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Subrata Chowdhury, Humayun Hossain Khan, KM Saifuddin, Shahara Khatun, Bashir Ahmed and Azhar Ullah Bhuiyan. The association’s president, ATM Taher Ullah, presided over the sad occasion.

The Myanmar border security force Nasaka on Friday abducted three Bangladeshi citizens from Tumbru border at Naigkhyangchari upazila of Bandarban hill district.
   A Nasaka contingent intruded into Bangladesh territory and abducted three woodcutters of Tumbru — Abdus Sukur, 42, Mohammad Sharif, 40, and Karam Ali, 52 — at gunpoint, sources in the security forces said.