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The Election Commission today launches a month-long special programme in the Dhaka city to correct errors in national identity cards.
   The voters in the Dhaka City Corporation areas, who could not collect their national identity cards, have also been given the same time to collect their cards from the server rooms of the voters’ registration units in their respective areas.
   The eligible voters, who failed to register their names in the voters’ roll, will get a chance to enlist their names after publication of the draft list of the city area.
   The EC is yet to fix the date for publishing the draft, but sources in EC said the draft list was likely to publish in the third week of the current month.
   For correcting and collecting ID cards, fourteen server rooms in the city will remain open till 31st of July from 9:00am to 5:00pm from Sunday to Thursday, and from 9:00am to noon on Fridays.
   The server rooms are located at Science Laboratory army camp for voters of ward No 86, 48-52 of Dhanmondi, Hajaribagh, New Market and Mohammadpur thana, at Lalbagh army camp and Lalbagh Model School and College for ward No 59-67 of Lalbagh thana and ward No 58 of Hajaribagh thana, at Khilgaon army camp and Mohakhali Community Centre for ward No 22-26 of Khilgaon thana, at Tejgaon army camp (MP Hostel premises) for ward No 53-55 of Ramna thana, ward No 56-57 of Shahbag thana, ward No 38-40 of Tejgaon thana, ward No 20 and 37 of Tejgaon Industrial area and ward No 53 of Motijheel thana, at Mirpur ward No 10 community centre for wards No 2, 3 and 5-15 of Mirpur, Pallabi and Shah Ali thana, at Mohammadpur PT college for wards No 41-47 of Mohammadpur and Adabar thana, at Sutrapur Abdur Rahim community centre for the voters of wards No 68-73 of Kotwali thana and wards No 74-82 of Sutrapur thana, Jatrabari Panchayet community centre for wards No 84-86 of Jatrabari thana, at Sabujbag community centre for wards No 27-30 of Sabujbag thana, at Motijheel AGB colony club for voters of wards No 30-35 of Motijheel thana and ward No 36 of Paltan thana, Uttara Haji camp for ward No 1 of Airport and Uttara thana, and ward No 17 and 21 of Badda thana, at Banani Army Stadium for ward No 15 and Cantonment Board of Dhaka cantonment, and ward No 17 of Khilkhet thana, at Senpara Adarsha Bidyalay for wards No 4, 14, 15-16 of Kafrul thana and at Banani community centre for the voters of wards No 18-20 of Gulshan thana.

Speakers at an award ceremony in Dhaka on Thursday underscored the need for raising mass awareness to combat acid violence.
   Only enactment of tough laws is not enough to check the menace, they said and called for reinforced social campaign. The Acid Survivors’ Foundation organised the function to distribute the ASF Media Award 2007 at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.
   The women and children affairs adviser, Rasheda K Chowdhury, ASF executive director Monira Rahman, inspector general of police Nur Muhammad and journalist Shah Alamgir attended the programme.
   Six journalists of both
   print and electronic media received the award in different categories for their contribution to raising awareness about acid violence.
   They are Moniruzzaman Ujjal, senior reporter of daily Jugantar, Rita Bhowmik, sub-editor of daily Shomokal, Aminul Islam, of Jamuna Prabaha, Zakir Hossain, photojournalist of The Daily Star, Kishower Laila, senior reporter of satellite TV channel Bangla Vision, and Monjurul Karim, reporter of NTV.
   Each of them was given a crest, a certificate and a cheque for Tk 30,000.
   The ASF also honoured The Daily Star with a special award.

Khulna city dwellers continue to suffer as the indefinite strike by the drivers of two-stroke auto-rickshaws continued for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday.
   The Auto-rickshaw Drivers’ Association, protesting police harassment and demanding approval to ply with four passengers instead of government’s order to carry three, went on the strike on June 28.
   The authorities have not taken any initiative yet to break the deadlock causing immense sufferings to the people, particularly the middle income group.
   The lone city bus service of Nagar Paribahan ply only in Phultala-Rupsha route with over-crowded passengers and the women, children and elderly fail to avail the service due to the rush.
   People are forced to use rickshaws and rickshaw-vans spending extra money and time, residents said.
   According to the Khulna Auto-Rickshaw Drivers’ Union, about 1,400 auto-rickshaws ply on different city routes and they charge Tk 4 for 3-kilometre in the Rupsha-Ferryghat route and Tk 10 for up to 8km distance between Khulna and Khalishpur, Khulna and Daulatpur and Daulatpur and Phultala.
   The drivers said they used to carry five passengers in each auto-rickshaw, but the law enforcers on June 28 asked them not to carry more than three passengers and began ‘harassing’ them by lodging cases.
   Daulatpur Auto-Rickshaw Drivers Union’s general secretary, Zahirul Islam Pannu said they would not be able to sustain carrying only three passengers.
   Khulna Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner (traffic), Anisur Rahman told New Age that they restricted carrying more than three passengers in an auto-rickshaw considering the security of the passengers.

The time for free birth registration for children (up to 18 years) has been extended till December to make the universal birth registration for all by 2008 successful.
   But fee will be needed at a fixed rate for people above 18 years, LGRD and Cooperatives adviser Mohammad Anwarul Iqbal told a function at the Osmani Memorial Hall in Dhaka on Thursday.
   According to the Birth and Death Registration Act 2004, which came into effect from July 3, 2006, the last date for free birth registration for people of all ages was July 2, 2008.
   The Local Government Division in collaboration with UNICEF, the Dhaka City Corporation and the Plan Bangladesh arranged the function in observance of Birth Registration Day.
   This year’s theme of the day is ‘birth registration of children on priority basis’.
   With the Local Government Division secretary, Sheikh Khurshid Alam, in the chair, the function was addressed by UNICEF representative David S Bassiouni and Plan Bangladesh representative Saiful Islam as special guests. Project director of the Birth and Death Registration Project AKM Saiful Islam Chowdhury spoke on the overview on universal birth registration in Bangladesh, while DCC chief executive officer Md Alauddin delivered the welcome address.
   Anwarul Iqbal said the government was committed to protect the child rights and had taken different steps to make the universal birth registration for all by 2008 successful.
   He emphasised raising mass awareness about the universal birth registration programme.
   Bassiouni lauded the role of the Bangladesh government in the development of children and assured that the UN body would continue it support in this regard.
   ‘UNICEF will provide 30 per cent computers for birth registration centres to make the universal birth registration programme a success,’ he added. Later, Anwarul Iqbal handed over birth registration certificates to four children.

A Bangladesh Road Transport Authority mobile court filed five cases and realised Tk 14,000 from five bus counters in Dhaka on Thursday.
   The court, led by BRTA executive magistrate (deputy secretary) Abdur Rashid, filed the cases during the drive conducted at Mohakhali bus terminal and fined the counters for not posting fare chart. All the cases were filed under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983, he said.
   In the wake of charging extra by the CNG-run buses following the price hike of CNG and diesel, BRTA started the drive against the vehicle operators and the drive, according to BRTA officials, will continue until the malpractice is stopped.
   The government on June 12 fixed fare for CNG-run buses at Tk 1.20 a kilometre for large buses and Tk 1.10 for small buses, but the bus companies started charging at their will.
   On July 1, the government has increased fares for diesel-run buses, large and small, after it increased fuel prices on Monday amid a disorder in transport fares that had been prevailing for a fortnight.
   The communications ministry re-fixed fare for diesel-run buses at Tk 1.05 per kilometre for large buses and at Tk 1.08 for small buses with effect from Tuesday following Monday’s increase in fuel prices.
   The previous per-kilometre countrywide flat fares for large diesel-run buses was Tk 0.87 and for small buses Tk 0.90.

Assailants shot an employee of a washing factory and snatched away Tk 5.5 lakh from him at Pallabi in Dhaka on Thursday.
   The victim, Mohammad Sentu, 30, was an accountant of Bright International at Pallabi.
   The police said a gang of three muggers on board a motorbike intercepted Sentu near Purabi cinema at around 1:45pm when he was returning to his office after withdrawing the money from the One Bank branch at Mirpur, Section 10.
   As Sentu tried to resist them, the gangsters shot him in the right thigh at point-blank range and fled the scene with the money leaving him critically injured.
   Hearing the gunshot, local people rushed to the spot and found Sentu lying on the road in a pool of blood. He was taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was undergoing treatment till Thursday night.
   A case was filed with the Pallabi police in this connection.

A two-day tourism-related photography contest and exhibition begin at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka today.
   The Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation along with the academy is organising exhibition and contest for the first time in Bangladesh. Mobile operator Banglalink sponsors the programmes.
   The focus of the programmes is to discover the fascinating beauty and heritage of Bangladesh, said the corporation chairman Shafique Alam Mehdi while briefing newsmen at the National Press Club VIP lounge on Thursday.
   The secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism will inaugurate the exhibition at Jatiya Chitra Shala of the academy at 10:30am. The exhibition will conclude through a cultural function at 7:00pm Saturday.
   ‘We have got a good response from the photography associations and photographers across the country on our invitation and 370 individuals sent about 3,000 photographs for the competition,’ he said.
   A three-member panel of judges selected top 200 entries and the selected photographs will be placed on display at the exhibition, which will remain open for all from 10:00am to 7:00pm. The panel of judges will also select three best photographs and each of the winners will be awarded with a crest, a certificate and a cheque.
   The news briefing was also attended, among others, by the corporation’s senior officials Shahjahan Ali Mollah, Reeti Ibrahim, Arun Kanti Aich and Parvez A Chowdhury.

The committee to observe the birth centenary of martyred intellectual Govinda Chandra Dev, a doyen of philosophical studies in Bangladesh, today holds daylong programmes to mark the occasion, which fell on February 1.
   The programmes to be organised at the Teachers-Students Centre of Dhaka University include a lecture on GC Dev, discussion, commemorative session and cultural show.
   The senior-most teacher at the department of philosophy, where Dev taught till his death, Aminul Islam will deliver the GC Dev Birth Centenary Lecture. Professors Kabir Chowdhury, Akhter Imam, Serajul Islam Chaudhury, Anisuzzaman, Nazrul Islam, Niru Kumer Chakma and Hasna Begum and writer Syed Abul Maksud will take part in the discussion.
   Dev’s students and colleagues will share their memories with him in the afternoon.
   The DU department of philosophy and the department’s alumni association have planned to hold a series of programmes throughout the year to mark the occasion.
   Born on February 1, 1907, GC Dev obtained his graduation in philosophy from Sanskrit College, Kolkata in 1929 and completed masters from the University of Calcutta in 1931.
   He taught for some time at Surendranath College in Dinajpur and joined the DU philosophy department in 1953.
   Dev has nine books to his credit apart from over a hundred articles in English and Bangla in national and international journals. The books are Idealism and Progress (1952), Idealism: A New Defence and A New Application (1958), Amar Jibandarshan (1960), Aspiration of the Common Man (1963), The Philosophy of Vivekananda and the Future of Man (1963), Tatvavidyasar (1966), and Buddha: the Humanist (1969), Parables of the East (1984) and My American Experience (1993). The last two titles were published posthumously.
   He was awarded with the title, ‘Darshan Sagar’ by the East Pakistan Saraswat Samaj in 1967 for his contribution to philosophy. The Dhaka University established a research centre after his name — Dev Centre for Philosophical Studies.
   The Bangladesh government awarded him posthumously with the highest national award Swadhinata Padak in 2008 and the Ekushey Padak in 1986.
   Dev had donated all his assets to the University of Dhaka for human welfare, to establish truth, justice, and human liberty, to realise the hopes and aspirations of the common man and to propagate his philosophy of secularism and humanism.
   He was imprisoned during the Indo-Pak war 1965. Dev was killed by the Pakistan Army on March 26 at his Dhaka University residence as they went on a brutal crackdown on the students and teachers of the university.

Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely at most places over all the six divisions — Rajshahi, Dhaka, Khulna, Barisal, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions — with moderately heavy to heavy falls at places during the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today, the Met Office said.
   The day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, it said.
   The country’s highest temperature on Thursday, 33.6 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Jessore and the lowest, 23.5 degrees Celsius, at Sandwip.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:50pm and rises tomorrow at 5:16am.

Nazia Andaleeb Preema’s 10th solo painting show begins
The 10th solo painting exhibition of artist Nazia Andaleeb Preema titled ‘Labyrinth of Abstraction’ began at La Galerie of Alliance Francaise de Dacca on Thursday. Eminent artist Aminul Islam inaugurated the 14-day exhibition as chief guest. Renowned art critic Hasnat Abdul Hye presented an analysis of her work at the inaugural ceremony. Preema has participated in nine solo exhibitions and more than 50 group expositions around the world and has participated in a number of international workshops and residences. The exhibition will remain open for all from 9:00am to 12:00pm and 5:00pm to 8:00pm every day except Saturdays when the exhibition will remain open only from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, said a press release.
— New Age