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Polythene shopping bags have made a comeback in the absence of effective measures against manufacturing, marketing and use of the bags that are exposing the city dwellers to a severe threat of environmental degradation.
   Polythene bags have become available again in almost all the kitchen markets and stationary shops in Dhaka as the buyers prefer carrying commodities, especially fish and meat, in polythene bags.
   An official of the Department of Environment said polythene shopping bags had made a safe comeback in the absence of any drive by mobile courts since the separation of judiciary from the executives last year.
   ‘We have, however, started drives against different industries, which do not have the effluent treatment plant. Ten industries at Savar were fined during a drive last week,’ he said adding ‘Drive against polythene shopping bags will also start as soon as we get magistrate for the drive.’
   More than 600 factories have now been manufacturing polythene bags in Dhaka and around 400 of them are located in Old Town of Dhaka covering Swa-righat, Imamganj, Chankharpool, Nayabazar, Killarmor, Chairman Gali, Lalbagh, Islampur, Chawkbazar, Asgar Lane, Rahmatganj and Water Palli, sources in the department said.
   More than 100 polythene factories are located at Kotawali, Sutrapur, Mirpur, Kamrangirchar, Jinjira and Tejgaon, they added saying that the main wholesale markets of polythene bag are in Chawkbazar, Begumbazar and Moulvibazar.
   Most of kitchen markets in the city get polythene bags from these wholesale markets, said a source engaged in the trade at Lalbagh.
   Magistrates, who were earlier assigned to conduct drive against unauthorised manufacturing and marketing of polythene shopping bags, said power of magistrates needed to be increased to make the drives effective.
   Former magistrate Rokon-Ud-Doula, who was one of two special magistrates having the power to conduct drive against illegal poly bags, said the mobile court against polythene bags should start again and its power needed to be increased.
   He said it was very essential to amendment the existing law giving more power to the magistrate to take action against the manufacturers and against those who are involve in marketing.
   The Bangladesh Environment Protection Act 1995 had given power only to the Paribesh Adalat (Environment Court) to take action against the manufacturers and users of illegal shopping bags, Rokon said adding that the courts had the power to fine highest Tk 10 lakh and give 10 years imprisonment or both.
   The Environment Court can also seize the factory and confiscate the machinery, but the magistrates of other courts do not have that much power, he said.
   The government in 2000 amended the Environment Protection Act 1995, giving power to the special magistrates to fine highest Tk 10,000 and give six months imprisonments against the manufacturers and users, but they have no power to seize the machinery and seal the factory, said Rokon.
   An initiative was taken to amend the Environment Protection Act 2005 to increase the power of mobile courts, which is still under process, said an official of the environment ministry.

The successful candidates of the admission tests to 24 public schools in the Dhaka City will have to complete their admission on January 29 and 31.
   The school authorities published the results of the tests Friday afternoon.
   Centrally controlled by the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, the admission tests were held on January 16, 18 and 21.
   ‘Waiting lists will be posted in every school. If any seat remains vacant after the deadline fixed for the admission, students from the lists will get the chance for admission,’ said an official of the directorate.
   The authorities of the schools have sold 36,532 forms against 7,479 seats available for admission to different classes in 2008 academic year.
   The 24 schools are divided into three groups — Group A, B and C — on the basis of their location and quality of education to some extent.
   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 Qamrunnesa 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 Qamrunnisa Government Girls’ School, Tejgaon Government Girls’ High School, Tejgaon Government High School and Dhanmondi Government Boys’ High School.

The Dhaka International Trade Fair failed to draw a good crowd on Friday as the chilly weather accompanied by drizzle forced the city dwellers to remain indoors even on the holiday.
   Participating traders said they were expecting a good business during the holidays in the last week but the weather had reduced their sale.
   The fair had a deserted look on Thursday and Friday with a few visitors in the evenings, they said, adding they were afraid that many of them would not be able to manage installment charges of stalls and pavilions this year.
   Expressing dissatisfaction with the sale, Mohammad Zahir of Partex Textile said, ‘We had sold goods of about Tk 100000 per day in the previous year but this year we can hardly sell items of Tk 25,000 a day’.
   ‘We have sold goods of Tk 8,000 only today which is not sufficient to meet the daily expenditure of the pavilion,’ said the man in–charge of sales at the pavilion of Pran Group on Thursday.
   Employees of some stalls and pavilions were also busy with maintenance of their products as rain water was soaking through their merchandise from the ceilings.
   Almost all the big and large stalls are offering discounts and special offers to attract the buyers towards the end of the fair.
   Girls and women of different ages were found queuing up at the Pavilion of Unilevier Bangladesh for free make-up and suggestions on hairstyle. Unile-vier Bangladesh is giving special offers on its brand products like Sunsilk, Lakme and Ponds for the women at its pavilion.
   Suparna, a university student, said she had liked their suggestion on free hairstyle. ‘They took my digital photo at the spot, downloaded it into the computer and showed me how I looked with different hairstyles and finally suggested which hairstyle I should have chosen’, she added.
   Anamika Huq, a college student, said she had loved the makeup with the Lakme free spirit product from this stall.
   Different ceramics industries at the fair including Standard Ceramic, Popular Ceramic and Monno Ceramic, are offering discounts on different items of crockery. Women mainly housewives are buying plates, dishes, cups, mugs and other products from these pavilions.
   Some electronics’ appliances stalls and pavilions, including Sony-Rangs, Samsung and Toshiba, are announcing different offers, gifts and discounts on their products.
   Sony-Rangs pavilion is giving scratch card gifts like special price discount, tour packages to Darjeeling-Bhutan-Nepal and Bangkok, and mugs or dinner sets with any products from its pavilion. They are also offering gifts like Sony digital video players or microwave ovens with the LCD television of Sony-Rangs.
   A total of 395 organisations, including 15 from eight foreign countries, are taking part in the fair.
   The foreign participants include firms from India, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, USA, UK, Japan and Turkey.
   The fair is scheduled to remain open till January 31, from 10am to 9pm on working days and from 10am to 10pm on holidays.

The first ever laptop fair began at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center in Dhaka on Friday aiming to provide different brands of laptop to the potential buyers under one shed.
   A total of 10 pavilion and 5 stalls of different companies of brand laptops are participating in the three-day fair inaugurated by comer and education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman.
   He said that the country had a lot to be achieved specially in the information technology sector.
   MA Taslim, member of Better Business Forum, and Mostofa Jabbar, president of Bangladesh Computer Samity, was also present at the function.
   Muntasir Ahmed, coordinator of the fair organising company, Maker and Market Communication, said all the
   distributors and importers of different laptop brands were participating in the fair.
   Apart from different brands laptops, hardware of laptop, desktop and other computer related products are also available at the fair.
   Intel is offering gifts with all of its products while other participants are offering discount on the prices of laptops of different brands like Acer, Asus, HP, Intel, Toshiba, Dell, Fujitshu, Gigabite, Hassy, Kings and Daffodil.
   The participating companies are Toshiba, Comtrade, Tecnoage Care, Flora Limited, Gigabite, Rishit Computer, Intel Corporation, Asus, Acer, Multilink International, HP, Evermarch Bangladesh, Daffodil, Tech valley and Computer Source.
   The fair is open to all from 10:00am to 9:00pm.
   The fair drew a good crowd on the first day despite chilly weather that disrupted normal life in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

Sale of warm clothes in the Khulna city, mainly at the footpath shops, has gone up due to the chilly weather of the past few days in the region.
   According to the sellers of warm clothes, sale in their shops increased Wednesday and Thursday and most of the buyers are from the low income group including rickshaw pullers, day labourers and porters.
   We have piled up both new and old warm clothes and now the sale of old clothes is higher than the new ones, said a seller, Abdur Rahman in Chitrali area, claiming that the price of their goods has not increased this year.
   The footpath shops are located at Picture Palace area, Clay Road, Kalibari Road, Helatala area, Sat Rastar Mor, near Moylapota crossing, Sonadanga bus terminal area, Khalishpur BIDC Road area, Chitrali bazar, Natun Rasta, Rupsha Ferry Jetty area, Daulatpur area and Relly gate area in the city.
   Some sellers said the policemen had barred the hawkers from opening their shops at the footpaths in Helatala, Ferryghat and Dakbunglow areas.
   A day labourer Budhodev Halder, 24, in Khulna, who had bought an old sweater from a footpath shop in front of Khulna Shopping Complex on Thursday at Tk 40, said that the sale at the footpath shops was enormous presently.
   Khulna met office had recorded the minimum temperatures of 13.4, 15, 18.5, 19.5, 14, 14.5 and 13.5 degrees Celsius from January 18 to January 24 respectively, said officer in charge of Khulna met office, Md Amirul Azad, adding that this cold is felt acutely here as uncomfortable wind accompanied by slight drizzle is blowing strongly in different parts of Khulna zone.
   As easterly low and westerly low prevailing in the country have made the sky cloudy the chill is felt severely here, he said, adding that this chilly weather may continue in the zone for two to three days.

The police picked up 42 persons on various charges from different areas in the city and nine upazilas of the district in last 24 hours till Friday evening.
   They also seized 20 bottles of Phensidyl from one of the arrested, Nabi, 45, a suspected drug peddler, during a raid in Harian area under Motiher police station in the city.
   Of the remaining 41 arrested, 22 were rounded up from different areas in the metropolis while 19 from the nine upazilas, the police said.
   The traffic police lodged nine cases under the motor vehicles ordinance and seized two motorbikes and a truck without registration during drives against the non-registered motor vehicles and other document related malpractice in different parts of the city during the time.

Light rain or drizzle may occur at a few places over Dhaka, Khulna, Barisal, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today.
   Weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky elsewhere over the country during the period, the Met Office said.
   Light to moderate fog may occur over the river basins of the country during early morning, it said.
   The night temperature may fall slightly over Rajshahi division and remain nearly unchanged elsewhere over the country, the Met Office predicted.
   The country’s highest temperature on Friday, 27.5 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Cox’s Bazar and the lowest, 12.0 degrees Celsius, at Dinajpur.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:40pm and rises tomorrow at 6:42am.

Kite exhibition held in Dhaka
Bangladesh Kite Federation organised a kite festival at Hajaribagh in Old Town of Dhaka on Friday. Around 70 types of kites of different countries were put on display at the exhibition, organised marking 19th founding anniversary of the federation. A kite-making training and a reception to kite players were also held on the occasion, says a press release.
— New Age

Roundtable on transition to democracy today
Peshajibi Samanway Parishad, a combine of 14 professional groups, will hold a roundtable discussion, titled ‘Fair election, political dialogue and transition to democracy’ at the National Press Club at 3:00pm today. Leading politicians will attend the discussion. Eminent lawyers, physicians, engineers, educationist, journalists and leaders of other professional bodies will also attend the function to be moderated by Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, convenor of the parishad and editor of the Bangladesh Observer.
— BSS