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The Phase II of the Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant Project to add nearly 22.50 crore litres of water to the present supply from the River Shitalakhya is waiting for approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.
   The development project proposal with an estimated cost of Tk 829 crore, which was placed at the ECNEC meeting on December 29, was sent back for some clarification of some points and it will be placed again for ECNEC approval soon with the clarifications, said an official of the Dhaka Water Supply Sewerage Authority.
   ‘The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) has already assured us of providing the money to set up the plant, half of the money as grant and the remaining as interest-free loan,’ he added, saying it would take four to five years to complete the plant.
   The Dhaka WASA has already completed a survey with its own fund for the Sayedabad water Treatment Plant, Phase-II and floating of tender and other necessary formalities will be done after getting the ECNEC approval, said another official of WASA.
   The Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant, Phase I and Chandnigaht Water Treatment Plant respectively supply about 22 crore and 4 crore litres of water against the total WASA supply of about 180 crore litres a day and rest of the water comes from sources including 464 deep tube wells. The existing daily demand of water is over 200 crore litre in the city.
   The official said a process to appoint consultant for feasibility study on the Khilkhet water treatment with the capacity to supply 50 crore litres of water every day was also going on.
   The initiative to set up the Khilkhet water treatment plant is still at initial stage and the Asian Development Bank has agreed to provide fund for the plant, he said.
   The Khilkhet treatment plant will use water of the River Meghna while the Sayedabad Treatment Plant, Phase-II will use water of Shitalakhya, he said.
   Still, 85 per cent of the WASA supplied water comes from the underground source of water and the remaining 15 per cent from surface water sources, the official said.
   The Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant Phase I is taking water from the Shitalakhya while Chadnighat Water Treatment Plant from the River Buriganga, the Sonakanda and Godnail pants in Narayanganj take water from Shitalakhya.
   WASA has also a plan to implement the phase III and IV of the Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant with water of the rivers Padma and Meghna, said a WASA official adding, ‘WASA is diverting to river water as it has to reduce dependence on the groundwater because of the sharp fall in the groundwater level in recent years.

A good number of land phone users in the Khulna city are not allegedly getting their telephone bills regularly for the last few months.
   The land phone users said they were worried as they had not been getting the phone bills regularly since the last September.
   The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, Khulna, however, asked the clients to have their bills prepared by the office whenever they came, they added.
   Some of them alleged they had received bills of one or two months during the period and upon receipt of the bills of three or four months at a time it would be difficult for them to pay the bills together.
   They had about 12,000 telephone users in the city and their office used to send the bills by post earlier, while presently their staff had been distributing the bills since September, the
   BTTB sources said, adding the employees do not know all the locations of their clients’ residences.
   The sources said the employees were trying to find out the residences sincerely and now the situation had become much easier.
   ‘Since September, 2007, I have received the bill of the month of November only,’ said Mujibur Rahman, a retired professor, at Sonadanga in the city, adding he was worried about paying the bills of the other months together.
   Abu Tayeb, a resident of Noornagar, said he had a telephone in the name of his father and he had got the bill of October, but had not got the bills of September and November.
   A T&T official in Khulna acknowledged that their clients had a number of allegations against them as they (clients) did not get the bills regularly.
   ‘We have not disconnected their phone lines as we expect them to pay the bills as soon as they receive the bills,’ he said.

A mobile court of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority in a drive in the Dhaka city on Wednesday jailed a
   taxicab driver for three months for not having valid documents.
   The court, led by the BRTA executive magistrate (deputy secretary), conducted the drive in Khilgaon area in the city and sent Abdur Rashid, a yellow cab driver, to jail.
   Kamal was found driving his vehicle without necessary documents including driving licence, rout permit, registration and fitness certificate, the magistrate said.
   The court fined him Tk 10,700 or three months jail in default under the sections 138, 140, 152, 155 and 160 of Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983.
   Due to failure to pay the fine, he was sent to jail, the magistrate said.
   During the drive, the court also realised Tk 14,700 in fines from drivers for violating traffic rules and filed 19 cases against different vehicles for not having valid papers like driving licences, updated route permits, registration, fitness certificates and tax tokens.
   The vehicles facing the mobile court action included CNG-run auto-rickshaws, buses and minibuses.

Cultural group Nrityadhara enthralled an evening audience with their rendition of different genres of dances at the Teacher-Student Centre Auditorium in the Dhaka University on Wednesday.
   The event, dedicated to the late drama icon Selim Al-Deen, commenced with a Manipuri dance, a dance celebrated during the spring. The dance was choreographed by Tamanna Rahman.
   Artistes of the organisation also presented classical and creative dance items at the programme.
   Indian classical dance Odissi was presented next with the accompaniment of flute, mandira, mridanga and vina.
   The next performance was another dance depicting the lifestyle of the fishermen of the Sylhet region, which was choreographed by Kabirul Islam Ratan.
   With the aim of holding regular dance programmes, Nrityadhara organised the programme styled Nritya Parban.
   Nrityadhara, formed in 2001, has been working peripatetically in pursuit of Bengal cultural heritage.
   Deepa Khandakar, Tamanna Rahman, Munmun Ahmed, Anisul Islam Hero, Kabirul Islam Ratan, Anisul Islam Hiru, Farhana Chowdhury, Nusrat Jahan and Ritu Onwayee performed, among others, at the function.

The Second REHAB Fair Chittagong 2008 begins in the port city today.
   The Chittagong Development Authority chairman, Shah Mohammed Akhteruddin, will inaugurate the three-day fair at the Institution of Engineers, Chittagong.
   The Chittagong chapter president of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, Ali Ashraf, will be present as special guest at the inaugural session of the fair organised by the Real Estate Housing Association of Bangladesh.
   The organisers at a pre-fair news conference in the city on Wednesday said real estate and housing companies would set up 45 stalls in the fair, which would remain open from 10:00am to 10:00pm every day.
   The General Officer Commanding of the 24th Infantry Division of Bangladesh Army, Major General Mohammed Abdul Mobin, will be the chief guest at the concluding session of the fair on till Saturday.
   The REHAB president, Mokarram Hossain Khan, general secretary, Tanvirul Islam Probal, chairman of the fair standing committee, Sirajul Hoque, convener of the fair sub-committee, Kazi Ainul Hoque, and the joint convener of fair sub-committee, Mofakkerul Islam, were also present at the news conference.
   The prices of tickets have been fixed at Tk 20 for single entry and Tk 50 for multiple entries.
   The organisers said they would distribute the money earned by selling the tickets among the Sidr victims.
   Keari Limited, Navana Real Estate Limited and Rangs Properties Limited are the co-sponsors of the fair.

The Second National Adolescent Convention concluded in Dhaka on Wednesday with the participants placing a set of recommendations, including formulation of a guideline and setting up a separate directorate for the adolescents.
   Introducing unified education system for the adolescents and taking coordinated action programmes with the involvement of all children and adolescents, including disabled and indigenous, are among the other recommendations placed at the two-day convention.
   The primary and mass education and women and children affairs adviser, Rasheda K Chowdhury, was present as chief guest at the concluding ceremony of the event organised by the Disadvantaged Adolescents Working NGOs (DAWN) Forum at the Shishu Academy.
   The concluding ceremony was also addressed, among others, by the Hunger Project-Bangladesh country director, Badiul Alam Majumder, UNFPA national programme officer, Noor Mohammad, and the head of Women Rights and Gender Equality Programme of the Action Aid-Bangladesh, Nayma Imam Chowdhury.
   Shaheen Akhter Dolly, convenor of the convention, presided over the concluding ceremony while the DAWN Forum chairperson, Gulshan Ara Chowdhury, welcomed the guests.
   A total of 750 adolescent boys and girls from across the country took part in the convention with the slogan ‘safe adolescence enlightened future’.
   Addressing the concluding session, Rasheda stressed the need for coordinated initiatives by the government and non-governmental organisations to look after the issues of the adolescent.
   Formulation of a guideline is not the solution and the problem lies in the mindset as we still do not recognise the issue of the adolescents, she added.
   Rasheda urged the adolescents to refrain from taking drugs, being involved in any repression and resist heinous activities like acid violence. The adolescents present responded unanimously to her proposals.
   Badiul stressed the need for eliminating malnutrition among the disadvantaged adolescents and all kinds of discriminations, particularly against the female adolescents.
   Noor Mohammad underscored the need for providing life skill development opportunity for disadvantaged adolescents for their economic empowerment.

The admission tests to the 24 government schools in the capital for 2008 academic year began Wednesday.
   The tests for admission to the Group-A schools were held on the day while for the Group-B and Group-C schools are scheduled to be held on January 18 and January 21 respectively.
   The schools are divided into the three groups on the basis of their geographical location and the quality of education in part.
   The admission seekers need to take a 100-mark written examination for the admission.
   The results will be published within a week of the admission tests. The admission test to the 24 schools in the capital is being controlled centrally by the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education since 2001.
   The Group-A schools are Government Laboratory High School, Mirpur Government High School, Motijheel Government Girls’ High School, Khilgaon Government High School, Nawabpur Government High School, New Government Girls’ High School, Islamia Government High School and Mohammadpur Government High School.
   The Group-B schools are Motijheel Government Boys’ High School, Narinda Government High School, Government Muslim High School, Banglabazar Government Girls’ High School, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government Boys’ School, Government Bigyan College Adjacent High School, Tejgaon, Dhanmondi Government Girls’ High School and Dhanmondi Quamrunnessa Government Girls’ High School.
   The Group-C schools are Armanitola Government High School, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government Girls’ High School, Dhaka Collegiate School, Ganabhaban Government High School, Tikatuli Quamrunnessa Government Girls’ School, Tejgaon Government Girls’ High School, Tejgaon Government High School and the Dhanmondi Government Boys’ High School.

The results of admission tests to Jahangirnagar University in honours courses under the session 2007-2008 academic session will be published today.
   The results will be available on national dailies, JU website www.juniv.edu and the notice board in the register’s office of the university. According to the register office sources, the viva-voce of the successful students will be held on January 21 to January 23, and the sale and submission of forms reserved under different quotas will be carried out on January 21 to January 24.
   The list of students selected for admission will be published on January 26.

Weather is likely to remain dry with partly cloudy sky over the country during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said.
   Light to moderate fog may occur over the river basins of the country during early morning.
   Mild cold wave is sweeping the regions of Rajshahi, Ishwardi, Jessore, Chuadanga and Srimongal, Met Office said and predicted no appreciable change in the night temperature over the country.
   The country’s highest temperature on Wednesday, 27.2 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Cox’s Bazar and the lowest, 8.3 degrees Celsius, at Rajshahi.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:34pm and rises tomorrow at 6:43am.

Absence of necessary information and forecast regarding to food production and its supply has largely contributed to market volatility and price hike, economists said on Wednesday.
   The economists at a meeting, held at the office of the commerce adviser, also pointed out that proper dissemination of information was badly needed for keeping the food market stable.
   Chaired by commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, the meeting was attended by former adviser to the caretaker government Wahiduddin Mahmud, Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Quazi Shahabuddin, its former senior research fellow Sajjad Zahir, economist Ali Taslim and BRAC executive director Mahbub Hossain.
   The commerce adviser said his ministry would hold several follow-up meetings with market stakeholders for developing a proper information system regarding to food supply.
   Terming NBR, Bangladesh Bank, DAE, BBS and TCB as important departments, he said, ‘These can help disseminate proper information and make forecasts regarding to food supply.’
   The adviser said the government would plan to expand the food distribution safety net for the poor and vulnerable groups.
   Economist Wahiduddin Mahmud said, ‘It is possible to keep the market stable with timely and proper forecasts on food production and its supply.’
   For this, the economist said, ‘Accurate forecasts before and after the harvests of local production, monitoring and timely evaluation on supply and price trends in international commodity markets are must.’
   Referring to wheat price increase in international market, he said the governments of India, Brazil and Egypt had a good stock of wheat following international market forecasts on bad production and price increase in the future.
   He also stressed the need for ensuring a smooth supply chain for both the consumers and traders.

Moulana Mohammad Abdul Latif Chowdhury Fultali, better known as ‘Fultalir Pir’, passed away at his Sobhanighat residence in the city early Wednesday. He was 93. He had been suffering from old age ailments.
   He is survived with wife, seven sons, two daughters, a number of grandchildren and a host of relatives, disciples and admirers to mourn his death.
   In a condolence message, the foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, expressed his deep shock at the death of ‘Fultalir Pir’.
   He prayed for salvation of the departed soul and conveyed sympathy to the bereaved family members.

17-day BNCC
training course begins in Rajshahi
A 17-day annual training camp of Mohasthan Regiment of Bangladesh National Cadet Corps began at the Jail Warder Parade Ground in Rajshahi on Wednesday. The BNCC director, Brigadier General Kazi Anwar-ul-Islam, addressed the opening ceremony as the chief guest elaborating various positive aspects of the training and the role of BNCC in the nation building process. The Commanding Officer of 1 Mohasthan Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel ANM Saleh, and acting commander of Mohasthan Regiment, Major Khalid Mostaque, also addressed the inaugural ceremony. Some 486 cadets, including 82 girls and 125 juniors from 92 educational institutions in different districts under Rajshahi division are participating in the camp. In addition to receiving preliminary military training, the participants will get physical and mental flourishing teachings. They will also participate in different competitions like debate, cultural function, wall-magazine writing, unarmed combat, and drill and camp conservancy.
— BSS