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In the wake of diesel price-hike the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority on Thursday increased the fares for passenger river vessels to Tk 1.18 a kilometre up to the first 100 kilometres and Tk 0.88 for subsequent kilometres effective from today.
   The government increased the price of diesel with effect from midnight past Monday. The minimum fare has been increased to Tk 10, up from the previous Tk 9, a BIWTA release said.
   The previous fare for the first 100 kilometres was Tk 0.80 a kilometre and Tk 1 for subsequent kilometres, the release said.
   The fare was set after a meeting of the water transport authorities with the leaders of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport (Passenger Vessels) Owners’ Association on Thursday.
   The government June 30 announced the increase in the prices of diesel, petrol and octane. Diesel price a litre was increased to Tk 55, up from the previous price of Tk 40.
   The communications ministry on July 1, one day after the diesel price increase, set the fare at Tk 1.05 a kilometre for diesel-run buses with seats between 42 and 52, and at Tk 1.08 a kilometre for buses with seats between 32 and 36 seats effective from Tuesday, a government handout said.
   The government set special fares for diesel-run buses plying between Mawa and Paturia ferry points — at Tk 1.08 for large buses and Tk 1.11 for small buses.
   The previous per kilometre countrywide flat fares for large diesel-run buses was Tk 0.87 and for small buses Tk 0.90.
   The government, for the first time on June 12 after the commissioning of CNG-run buses on the road in 2003, set fares at Tk 1.20 a kilometre large buses and Tk 1.10 a kilometre for small buses.
   The government on April 26 increased the fare of CNG-run auto-rickshaw, and taxicabs after the CNG price increase. The government doubled the price of compressed natural gas to Tk 16.75 from Tk 8.50 with effects from April 25, this year.

The Equity and Justice Working Group on Thursday demanded that the G-8 countries should raise funds under the UNDP instead of the World Bank, and compensate the affected developing countries including Bangladesh for polluting the environment. They also demanded reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide to save the world.
   A US citizen emits a total of 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year while a Bangladeshi citizen emits only 0.2 tonne, although Bangladesh is a densely populated nation, they said. Due to the excessive emission of carbon dioxide by the rich countries and global warming, one third areas of Bangladesh will disappear under water by 2050, they added.
   The working group leaders were speaking at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital.
   The WB in the name of promoting the development works halts the progress of developing countries, imposing various conditions under the loan schemes and playing the role of a mediator for handing over the resources of these countries to the multinational companies, the leaders said.
   Former adviser to the caretaker government, Sultana Kamal launched a campaign titled ‘owe climate and cancel Bangladesh debt’ at the conference where Equity Bangladesh member, Syed Aminul Haq presented a concept paper in this regard.
   The development of Bangladesh is hampered due to the burden of foreign debts while the international monetary assistance is also decreasing, equity leaders said. When Bangladesh suffered losses of about $3.2 billion because of the damages caused by cyclone Sidr the industrialised countries pledged to provide adequate aid to the country, but so far they have given only $400 million, the leaders said, adding that still 0.2 million people are homeless in the Sidr affected areas.
   Among others, Equity BD members Mostafa Kamal Akanda, AHM Bazlur Rahman, Shahdad Islam Chowdhury and Atikul Islam Chowdhury attended the conference.

The BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain on Thursday warned that disciplinary action would be taken if any of the party’s grassroots level leaders contested the local government polls violating the party’s stance.
   ‘BNP will not participate in the farcical local government polls. People will boycott the polls designed to create a bunch of collaborators’, Delwar said at the end of a token hunger strike staged by Jatiyatabadi Muktijoddha Dal demanding release of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia.
   Delwar said it would not be wise for the government to try to impose any condition on Khaleda for her release. He also asked the government not to hold Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman hostage. ‘People will not accept any forced decision in this regard. If they do not follow the right track, we will be compelled to take to the streets along with the people’, he said.
   Delwar said the government was proceeding with its ‘blueprint’ paying no heed to public opinion. ‘They are hell-bent on holding local government polls though they have no right to do so.’
   He said that this government had come to power by entering an ‘entente’ with the Awami League.
   ‘We have demanded release of our top leaders, including Khaleda Zia and [Jamaat-e-Islami amir] Matiur Rahman Nizami, to create an environment for dialogue’, he said.
   The BNP-led alliance in a statement on Thursday demanded immediate withdrawal of the increased price of petroleum products and asked the government to refrain from taking moves to hike power price by 42 per cent.
   Top alliance leaders – BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, Khelafat Majlis amir Muhammad Ishaq, Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andaleeve Rahman and Islami Oikya Jote secretary general Abdul Latif Nezami – in a joint statement condemned the government’s decision to increase the prices of fuel oils and said it would badly affect the country’s economy and cause more sufferings to the people.

The chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, has said the commission will focus on the sectors where corruption is still pervasive according to the recent report of the Transparency International Bangladesh.
   ‘We have no intention to dispel the TIB report, rather we will talk to them to know about the nature of corruption in those sectors and in future we will try to work keeping in mind their (TIB) recommendations,’ he told reporters during his monthly briefing on Thursday.
   ‘If we don’t give focus on the corruption in the service sectors, the graft indices will not be hopeful next year also,’ he said.
   Terming the TIB report ‘reflection of truth’, the ACC chairman said as the activities of the TIB and the ACC were complimentary, their (TIB) statistics would help the commission to take our future course of action.
   The ACC chairman said the government could take any measures about any person in the jail on charge of corruption out of humanity or from any other point as per law. Hence, there is no scope for misleading the move and create any misunderstanding, he said.
   Mashhud observed that many political leaders might get bail till the next polls and nothing would be happened that would question the last one and a half years stride of the commission against corruption.
   When his attention was drawn on comments of an adviser ‘no more big action’, he said, ‘the pace of the drive may slow, but it will certainly continue’.
   Referring to the last one and a half years’ activities of the ACC, he said the time was not sufficient for a country like Bangladesh where corruption gets deep roots. We have to give attention to prevention of corruption in future, he said.

The Bikalpadhara Bangladesh on Thursday urged the government to hold talks with all political parties to find a way out of the critical juncture the county is presently faced with.
   The party secretary general, Abdul Mannan, at a press conference at its central office of Segunbagicha in Dhaka, said the interim government’s failure to tackle the ongoing crises had added to people’s woes.
   The recent increase in fuel prices by the government would multiply sufferings of the common masses, Mannan said, slating the administration’s failure in curbing the spiralling of prices of essentials.
   ‘So there is no alternative to holding discussions with the political parties, to resolve the present crises,’ Mannan concluded.
   The Bikalpadhara has formed a 301-member central divisional committee with Abdul Mannan as convener.
   The party’s central leader MA Halim, Nurul Amin Bepari and others were present at the press briefing.

The Workers Party of Bangladesh will observe a countrywide mass hunger strike on July 10 to press home its 16-point demands.
   The demands include reduction in fuel prices, control of increase in prices of essentials, and introduction of a mass rationing system of food items.
   On behalf of the party’s politburo, its general secretary Bimal Biswas, in a press statement, said that the recent hike in fuel prices would increase sufferings of the people.
   The party has collected mass signatures in favour of its 16-point demands and placed the demands before the district and upazila administrations.
   Bimal Biwas urged the party and the countrymen to make the hunger strike programme a success.

The National Board of Revenue on Thursday sued former deputy minister Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu and ex-lawmaker MAH Selim on charges of dodging tax.
   Senior special judge Md Azizul Haque ordered jail warrants against the accused people, now behind bars, taking the cases into cognisance.
   Assistant tax commissioner Md Hafiz Al Asad filed the case against Dulu for submitting a flawed affidavit to the NBR, in which he allegedly concealed information about his income of Tk 3.04 crore earned from 2001-2002 to 2005-06 tax years.
   Another assistant tax commissioner, Md Maniruzzaman, filed a case against Selim, known as Silver Selim.
   Selim allegedly dodged Tk 9.37 crore in tax on the income of Tk 37.50 crore.

The High Court on Thursday discharged its rules upon the Public Service Commission over the public servant official recruitment process, clearing the way for publishing the stalled viva voce results of the 27th Bangladesh Civil Service examinations.
   A fresh viva voce of the BCS examinations was completed in May last but the PSC could not publish its results due to the High Court embargo.
   After hearing both sides, a division bench, comprising Justice MA Rashid and M Asfaqul Islam, passed the order.
   On May 30 last year, the caretaker government cancelled the viva voce of the 27th Bangladesh Civil Service examinations in response to widespread allegations of nepotism and corruption in the recruitment process.
   On July 22 last year, the High Court, upon three identical writs filed by a group of aggrieved selected candidates, had issued rules on the PSC in this regard, restraining it from publication of the results until the cases are disposed of.

Bangladesh has called for establishing a global food bank and an international food fund within the auspices of the United Nations to ensure long-term food security for developing countries, particularly for the least developed countries.
   Ismat Jahan, ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, made the proposal while addressing a high-level segment of the Sustentative Sessions of the UN Economic and Social Council in Washington on Wednesday.
   She was speaking on behalf of the LDCs on the theme ‘promoting an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development,’ according to a message received in Dhaka.
   Ismat Jahan expressed deep concern that the deepening global economic slowdown, soaring oil and food prices and the growing threats of climate change posed significant challenges to the development prospects of the developing countries, particularly those of the LDCs.
   She stressed the need for undertaking an in-depth inter-governmental policy discussions on how the current global challenges could be best addressed in an integrated manner. She urged the UN to take a lead role in this regard.
   The ambassador also expressed her concern that over the years, Official Development Assistance and Foreign Direct Investment to the agricultural sector in the LDCs had drastically reduced.
   She called upon the developed countries to fulfil their ODA commitment of 0.2 per cent of their GNI to LDCs by 2010 as agreed during the 3rd UN Conference on LDCs in 2001.
   Ismat Jahan urged the donors to give ODA as direct budgetary support to LDCs in a predictable and flexible manner.
   She urged the developed and the developing countries in a position to do so to provide duty-free and quota-free market access to all products from all LDCs, unilaterally and without discriminations, even before the conclusion of the Doha Round.

The timeframe for depositing money for this year’s Hajj under both government and private management has been extended by one week to July 13. The previous deadline was July 6, a statement by the Press Information Department said on Thursday.

A fisherman was killed in an attack by tiger at Gora canal of River Kalagachi in Sundarban under Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira Wednesday evening.
   The dead was Kawser Ali Mali, 48, an inhabitant of Shora village in Shyamnagar upazila.
   A tiger swooped on him and took him away inside the forest as he was catching fishes at the Gora canal. Fishermen recovered the body Thursday morning.