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A conservationists’ group has suggested that the country should opt for underground coal mining method until the proposed state-run Coal Bangla takes a full shape in next 10-15 years.
   ‘Open pit mining method is not viable in Bangladesh because of its unique geological condition. Nowhere in the world there is an open pit coal mine in a similar geological structure,’ said Sheikh Md Shahidullah, convenor of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port.
   Shahidullah and Professor M Shamsul Alam of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology were sharing the experiences of their recent visit to four coalfields in India’s West Bengal and Jharkhand states at a press conference at the National Press Club on Thursday.
   The group’s convenor said that Bangladesh should extract coal in underground mining for next 10-15 years until the proposed Coal Bangla develops into a full-fledged company and gains expertise in coal mining. He referred to the success of underground method at the country’s lone coalfield at Barapukria.
   Shahidullah pointed out that India could ventured on strip mining for coal extraction because of vast stretches of barren and rocky lands around some coal blocks. Such ventures would be disastrous for Bangladesh as its coal zones are located in fertile agricultural land in the northern region, he warned.
   They visited India’s West Mudidhi coalfields, from where coal is being extracted in both open pit and underground methods. Sonepur Bazaraia and Khudia are open pit mines, while Chinakuri Mine-1 is underground.
   Professor M Shamsul Alam said that the average depth of Indian open pit mines was around 110 metres, which would be over 300 metres in Bangladesh and thus unacceptable.
   Both Shamsul and Shahidullah said that the Asia Energy’s planned open pit mining project for Phulbari coalfield in Dinajpur was not acceptable because of the area’s geological condition as well as the company’s faulty proposal.
   The committee’s member secretary Professor Anu Mohammad identified that four groups comprising current and retired advisers, bureaucrats, journalists and lending agencies like Asian Development Bank were active in favour of Asia Energy.
   He demanded punishment of the agents of the company and people in the government who were involved in the process of signing agreement with the company.
   The economics professor reiterated the group’s demand for ouster of the company, which was at the centre of violent anti-mining protests at Phulbari a couple of years back.

Mass Uprising Day was observed on Thursday with a vow to establish democracy and economic emancipation.
   Various political parties and organisations placed flowers at the grave of Shaheed Motiur Rahman Mallik at the Nabakumar Institution in Dhaka and held discussions to mark the day.
   Motiur, a student of Class IX at the Nabakumar Institution, was shot dead by the police in Dhaka during the mass uprising in 1969 in the erstwhile East Pakistan. The killing sparked countrywide protests that led to the fall of military dictator Ayub Khan. The leaders of the Awami League and its front Chhatra League as well as Chhatra Union and other organisations placed flowers at Motiur’s grave.
   Speakers at a discussion said Motiur’s killing intensified the mass uprising and led to Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
   Chaired by Jatiya Mukti Council secretary Foizul Hakim, writer Shawkat Ali and council leader Pranesh Samadder took part in the discussion. The Bangladesh Labour Party and the Bangladesh Welfare Party also held separate discussions to mark the day.

Foreign aid should be free of conditionalities and donors or lenders must be accountable to the people and governments of recipient countries,
   rights campaigners said on Thursday.
   External finance only accounts for two per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, and 75 per cent of the foreign money goes back to donor countries and lending agencies in the forms of consultancy fees and payments for foreign procurements, said Piyash Karim, professor of economics at a private university.
   ‘Only 25 per cent of the aid remains at hand for the target group,’ he said at a press conference on ‘From Paris 2005 to Accra 2008 – will foreign aid become more accountable and effective?’
   Aid Accountability Group organised the programme at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity at Segunbagicha in the city.
   Political will and democracy are needed to ensure accountability and transparency in foreign aid management, Karim added.
   Paris declaration on effectiveness of foreign aid was adopted in 2005, and donor countries and lending agencies will evaluate the aid effectiveness in September this year in Ghana’s capital.
   Omar Tareq Chowdhury, director of Proshika, an NGO, proposed creation of a position of global ombudsperson, to whom all donors and lenders will be made accountable.
   If any aid recipient country is aggrieved, it can approach the ombudsman for justice, he suggested.
   There was never a debate seen inside the government or parliament over foreign aid, said politician Saiful Hoque.
   ‘Certain ministries, bureaucrats and a group of consultants control the entire business,’ he said.
   Conditions attached to foreign aid have negative effects on the economy and those serve the purposes of a limited coterie, he said.
   The country annually receives about Tk 10,000 crore in foreign aid, while it spends about Tk 4,000 crore on foreign debt servicing.
   It means that the country actually retains about Tk 6,000 crore from external donors and lenders for development expenditures, whereas non-resident Bangladeshis sent home Tk 42,000 crore last year in foreign currencies, he compared.
   Haque suggested that if remittance was prudently utilised and partly invested in infrastructures, the country’s dependence on foreign aid could largely be minimised.
   Foreign aid should aim at accelerating poverty reduction, ensuring gender equity and protecting human rights declared by the UN, said
   Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, coordinator of Aid Accountability Group.

At least 15 people, including three Ansar members, were injured in clashes between law enforcers and garment workers at Kanchpur under Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj on Thursday.
   According to the police and witnesses, the workers of Jaya Group of Industries started demonstration from 9:00am after security guards had prevented a sacked workers’ leader Faruq from entering the factory.
   At one stage, the agitated workers damaged windowpanes and closed-circuit television cameras of the factory in protest against the incident and demand for pay rise.
   Later all the workers came out of the factory as on-duty Ansar members of the factory fired several rounds of blank shots to bring the situation under control and the authorities concerned with the help of Shamim-Salim bahini reportedly opened fire on them.
   Three Ansar members — Feroz, Nurul Amin and Emdadul Hoque — were injured during the agitation. The workers also damaged three vehicles on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, holding up traffic for half an hour from 9:30am.
   On information, the police and RAB men rushed to the spot. The police fired several rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the mob and bring the situation under control.
   The factory remained closed following the incident. A tense situation was prevailing in the area.
   In addition, the police charged the workers of Metro Garment Ltd with baton and dispersed them while they were staging demonstration at Sastapur under Fatulla thana on Thursday in protest against sacking of their six colleagues.
   The workers started demonstration from Wednesday morning. They also instigated other workers of five garment factories to join the agitation.
   The production at Metro Garment Ltd still remained suspended following the workers’ unrest. The authorities said they did not suspend any worker from the factory. Some workers voluntarily went on retirement, they added.

The 184th anniversary of the birth Michael Madhusudan Dutt, known for his famous work Meghnadbadh Kabya and introduction of blank verse in the Bangla poetry, will be observed in Jessore today.
   Madhusudan was born at Sagardari in Jessore on January 25, 1824 and died on in a Kolkata hospital June 29, 1873 at the age of 49. His father was Rajnarayan Dutta and mother Jahnavi Devi.
   Apart from Meghnadbadh Kabya, his other famous works include Tilottoma, Ratnavali, Buro Shaliker Ghare Roan and Krishnakumari.
   He is considered father of Bangla sonnet. He introduced blank verse, similar to the structure of Spenserian sonnet, in Bangla. Sharmishtha was his first attempt at blank verse.
   The district administration has chalked up weeklong programmes to mark his birth anniversary.
   The programmes include discussions, cultural functions and Madhu Fair at Sagardari.
   The agriculture adviser, CS Karim, is scheduled to inaugurate the programmes as chief guest. The South East University vice-chancellor, M Shamser Ali, will, as special guest, attend the programme scheduled to begin at 3:30pm today. The programmes will end on January 31.

Agailjhara upazila nirbahi officer Abdul Latif Molla on Thursday pleaded not guilty in a Barisal court which on Tuesday summoned him for appearance over sexual harassment allegation made by a union council chairman.
   The chief metropolitan magistrate, Mainuddin Islam, summoned Latif Molla to face the investigation of the case lodged against him with a repression on women and children (prevention) tribunal.
   The complainant, union council chairman Hosneara Begum, also appeared in court and appealed for the withdrawal of the case, filed on January 17, as it had been settled outside court.
   The court recorded the deposition of the accused and the complainant. The investigation report will be filed with the trial court on Sunday.
   The court rejected the prayer of the complainant for case withdrawal as the case is under investigation and advised her to give deposition.
   Court sources said Hosneara Begum, chairman of the Ratnapur union council, on filed the case with the tribunal accusing Latif of sexual harassment after she had refused to have sexual relations with the officer.
   Hosneara, widow of Jahangir Hossain Makhon Serniabat, elected union council chairman for three times, alleged the accused sexually harassed her on several occasion and hugged her on January 14. She named five witnesses in her allegation.
   The tribunal judge, Abul Hossain, earlier registered the allegation and ordered Mainuddin Islam, chief judicial magistrate of Barisal, to investigate and submit report in seven working days.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Thursday urged journalists to be impartial in writing and publishing news stories.
   The media are enjoying freedom in Bangladesh, he said.
   ‘I call upon our media people to maintain the ethics of journalism and bring out objective news impartially with a sense of obligation to the nation,’ Iajuddin said in his speech as chief guest to the re-launching ceremony of English daily The Bangladesh Today at Hotel Sonargaon.
   ‘Today, the media — both print and electronic — are enjoying freedom of expression in Bangladesh,’ he said.
   The president said, ‘We should pay our sincere attention to circulating a responsible newspaper keeping national interest above.’ Speaking as special guest, the law adviser, Hassan Ariff, said, ‘The caretaker system is a testimony to the failure of our political system.’
   The ceremony was also addressed by Syed Shahabuddin Ahmed, chairman of the newspaper’s editorial board, and Mahmud ur Rahman Choudhury, its editor.
   The Bangladesh Today was launched in 2002.

A seminar on ‘sharing of gender review findings in the PRSP’ was held at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka Thursday with a call to make the PRSP gender sensitive.
   Professor Mahmuda Islam moderated the function where Professor Kaniz N Siddique presented a review paper titled ‘A review of women’s advancement and rights issues in national strategy for accelerated poverty reduction: their implementation and monitoring’.
   Highlighting a number of gaps and limitations in the efforts to make the PRSP gender sensitive, she observed that the gaps were the reasons for not meeting the required advancement of the women in the PRSP.
   ‘It’s not true that the women machinery is working well. The advancement and right issues are well in papers, but not in implementation,’ she observed.
   Organised by Gender and PRSP Group, the seminar was addressed by research director of BIDS Dr Simeen Mahmud, director of Human Rights and Legal Services of BRAC Dr Faustina Pereira, divisional chief of general economics division Motahar Hossain, counsellor and head of development cooperation of Canadian High Commission Dr Rajani Alexander and head of development cooperation of Netherlands embassy Fritz Meijndert.
   Team leader of GPG project and executive director of Steps Towards Development Ranjan Karmaker gave a welcome speech.
   In her speech, Simeen Mahmud stressed the need for inclusion of the issues on women repression in the Millennium Development Goals.
   Faustina said, ‘Women in Bangladesh are still second class citizens who, irrespective of their religions, are not able to take share of their inheritance property and its use.’
   A good number of representatives from various government and non-governmental organisations and donor agencies also attended the seminar.