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The government has decided not to allow 62 private agencies, out of 324, to operate Hajj management this year as they were found to have been involved in various irregularities and cheating in the previous year.
   ‘Deposits of 11 Hajj agencies have been confiscated and licences of 51 agencies have been suspended for two years with their deposits being confiscated. These agencies will not be allowed to manage Hajj pilgrimage in private sector as investigations have found that they were involved in various irregularities and deceived many Hajj pilgrims last year’, religious affairs secretary Mohammad Ataur Rahman said at a press briefing at the
   secretariat on Sunday.
   He said the ministry had taken the actions against the Hajj agencies in line with the latest national Hajj policy.
   Asked about the pressure from the Hajj Agencies’ Association of Bangladesh for withdrawal of the decision, the secretary said, ‘We will stick to the decision and will not give in to any such pressure.’
   He, however, said the deadline for submitting application forms has been extended by one week from July 6.
   On Friday, the HAAB threatened to go for movement if the government did not withdraw within 48 hours the decision banning 62 agencies from Hajj management.
   There are widespread allegations that hundreds of people are deceived by the private Hajj agencies every year and many of the pilgrims even cannot go to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj rituals even after depositing the whole money.
   On March 16, the religious affairs ministry announced the Hajj Package 2008 for pilgrimage to Makkah in December through both the government and approved Hajj agencies, raising the airfare to $1,350 from 1,250 for each pilgrim to and from Saudi Arabia.
   The total charge for each balloted pilgrim ranges between Tk 1,99,112 and Tk 2,16,782 this year be deposited by July 13.
   The secretary said a total of 232 private Hajj agencies were allowed to offer Hajj package this year.
   The number of Hajj passengers this year is expected to be 65,000, of them 15,000 are balloted [under government arrangement].
   According to the latest Hajj policy, each agency must sign two agreements on non-judicial stamps – with the religious affairs ministry and with the individual pilgrim – mentioning the facilities to be provided by the agencies. Each agency must also provide guides for the pilgrims and hold orientation sessions in the Hajj Camp in Dhaka.
   The agencies will not be able to receive any money without signing the agreement with individual pilgrims on the prescribed form which, the officials believe, will help check irregularities in Hajj management this year.

Former Dhaka University Vice-chancellor, Professor Maniruzzaman Miah on Sunday said that different types of coaching centres across the country were harming the education system.
   ‘Aware of the harmful role of coaching centres, I had asked the government to close the coaching centres much earlier,’ said Maniruzzaman Miah, also chairman of the national education commission report 2003.
   Speaking at a press conference in the National Press Club, he also pointed out that there were allegations of question paper leakage against some coaching centres.
   The Bangladesh Principals’ Council and Bangladesh College Teachers’ Association jointly organised the conference where they put forward different demands including the establishment of an education service commission for recruiting competent teachers at non-government schools, colleges and madrassahs.
   ‘We demand an end to the discriminatory education system which creates a distance between the rural and urban and government and non-government education systems,’ said Principal Mazharul Hannan, president of the Bangladesh Principals’ Council.
   ‘We demand raising of the house-rent and annual increment for non-government teachers and employees as more than 95 per cent educational institutions are under the non-government management,’ Hannan said.
   Urging the government to stop unplanned establishment of educational institutions, he said they would hold a series of conferences in different parts of the country including Dhaka in the next two months to improve the overall situation of education.
   M Sahriful Islam and Liakat Ali of the association attended the conference, among others.

The Equity and Justice Working Group, an alliance of the NGOs, demanded introduction of a visa-free travelling in the SAARC region to allow the people of this area to work in whichever county they prefer, to offset the debt of climate change.
   They demanded it, on Sunday, observing that countries like Bangladesh were the worst victims of climate change which was substantively the result of greenhouse gas emissions by the developed countries like India.
   ‘According to a report of the World Bank, around two crore and 20 lakh Bangladeshis will become homeless within the next 40 years because of climate change for which they are not responsible. So these people should be allowed to work in the neighbouring developed countries,’ Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, convener of the Group, told a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.
   ‘The group thinks this huge number of people who are in no way responsible for the climate change should be allowed to work in the developed countries which are emitting carbon dioxide,’ he said, adding, ‘victims of this area should be given the work permit by their neighbouring countries as Australia has given the people of Papua New Guinea.’
   Referring to the SAARC ministerial meeting on climate change held recently in Dhaka, Chowdhury said, ‘The SAARC ministerial meeting lacked the analysis of root causes of the climate change and did not formulate any effective plan to prevent the impact of climate change.’
   The organisation put forward a five-point charter of demands to be discussed in the People’s SAARC scheduled to be held from July 18 to 20 in Colombo.
   The charter includes amendment to the SAARC charters so that bilateral talks can be held, ensuring free flow of rivers, ratification of the SAARC Food Bank by all member countries, mitigation of the environmental debts of the countries and establishing a SAARC Development Fund.
   The Group asked the SAARC leaders to raise their voice against formation of a separate Climate Fund by the WB in contravention of the Bali Declaration.
   Among others, Bazlur Rahman, Shahadat Islam Chowdhury, M Kamal Hossain and Sarmin Islam Daizy and members of the organisation were present on the occasion.

Five more persons were killed in two landslides in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday pushing the death toll in flooding and landsides to 20 in the district in a week.
   Of them, four persons were killed in a landslide at Puran Pallan Para village in Teknaf upazila of the district on Sunday. The landslide followed the two incidents one of which had occurred in the same village and another one in Natun Pallan Para village early Thursday claiming nine lives of two families.
   Sources said a heavy chunk of mud had suddenly fallen on Noor Hakim and his family members when they were inside their Puran Pallan Para village house at 12.30 pm. Local people recovered the bodies of Noor Hakim, his wife Madina Khatun, 22, daughter Rehena Khatun, 6, and son Ridwan, 3.
   But his three-month old child and father Kala Mia, 60, miraculously survived. The Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner, Sajjadul Hassan, and the Teknaf upazila nirbahi officer, Altaf Hossen Chowdhry, visited the spot. The DC handed over Tk 16,000 as general aid to Noor Hakim’s father.
   `More than 1,000 people of 200 families have already been evacuated from their houses in the wake of recurring landslides,’ the DC said.
   Yet another landslide incident in Cox’s Bazar municipality area killed one person and injured another one at 2.00 pm the same day.
   Mostake Ahmed, 37, was killed and his wife Halima Begum, 27, injured as a heavy chunk of mud fell on their house at Mohajerpara under the municipality in the afternoon. Injured Halima was admitted to the Cox’s Bazar General Hospital.
   The Cox’s Bazar municipality acting chairman, Sarwar Kamal, said hundreds of houses, shops, and business establishments had gone under three feet water in the town due to heavy rainfall. The submerged areas include Foolbag, Hangarpara, Buddhist Temple, Badyeraghona, Pahartali and Khajamanjil, he added. Local Met office recorded 144 mm rainfall during the last 24 hours till 3.00 pm on Sunday. Moulavi Mostaque Ahmed, president of the Cox’s Bazar Shops Owners’ Association, said hundreds of shops, business centres and houses at Boro Bazar, fish market, rice market, kitchen market and vegetable market were under two to three feet water.
   Shamsul Karim, executive engineer of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Cox’s Bazar, said some flood protection embankments were damaged by tidal waves during the last week.
   Nearly fifty villages under Pekoua, Chakoria, Ramu and Cox’s Bazar sadar upazilas were inundated as sea water entered through breaches of the embankments.

At least five buildings were partially damaged when a mild earthquake was felt in Rajshahi and its adjacent areas on Saturday night.
   Two buildings used as private hostel are located at Moni Chattar in the city and the rest are in different areas in the city and Paba upazila.
   The earthquake, which took place at about 11:00pm and lasted for few seconds, was felt in the Rajshahi city and its adjacent areas including the Bagha, Charghat, Puthia, Godagari, Paba and Bagmara areas.
   The people of these areas got panicked during the earthquake. They came out of their houses and stayed outside for some times to avoid any possible disaster.
   The Met Office in Rajshahi could not give any information about the earthquake as it has no Richter scale.
   News agency bdnews24.com adds: Mainul Islam, a meteorologist of the Met Office in Dhaka, said the quake was recorded at 10:55pm Saturday with its epicentre located 290 kilometres north-northwest of Dhaka.
   The quake was felt in Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi, Natore and Pabna, he said.
   The UNB said: Around 300 university and college students left the private hostel Sunday morning as the six-storey building tilted during Saturday night’s earthquake.
   Haji Hostel, housing 300 students of Rajshahi University, Rajshahi College and other educational institutions, tilted on the night but no one was reported injured.
   Around 20-30 old buildings in the north-western city also developed cracks, but there were no reports of anyone hurt.

At least 15 people were injured as the police charged the activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and journalists with baton at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on Sunday.
   Several hundred leaders and activists gathered on the hospital premises at about 10:30am to see ailing Tarique Rahman, senior joint secretary general of BNP, who was scheduled to be produced in the court at Jatiya Sangsad Complex in a graft case on the day.
   As physicians and police were escorting Tarique to an ambulance at the entrance of Block D of the hospital, JCD men rushed there to see him, witnesses said.
   Tarique was about to fall down from the wheelchair when the lawmen and JCD activists were locked in a scuffle. But on-duty physicians managed to ‘push’ him into the ambulance.
   Later the police charged the activists and journalists with baton in order to disperse them, leaving 15 people, including Dinkal photojournalist Babul Talukder, injured.
   Additional police were deployed at the hospital before taking back Tarique to the hospital from the court at about 1:30pm.
   Several hundred leaders and activists of BNP and its front organisations also gathered at the east end of Jatiya Sangsad Complex.

A special court on Sunday deferred till July 10 the hearing on an appeal by ailing Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim, who seeks exemption from personal appearance in court in the Worldtel scam case.
   Judge Shahed Noor Uddin passed the order following a petition for more time, moved by defence counsel Sheikh Baharul Islam.
   Nasim, a former home minister, is now being treated at LabAid Specialised Hospital after he suffered \ a massive stroke on June 24 at Kashimpur jail in Gazi-pur.
   Nasim filed the application on June 26 as a supplementary to an earlier petition submitted to the government for overseas treatment. Nasim was earlier sentenced to 13 years in jail for amassing wealth beyond the known sources of income.

John Aylieff has assumed office of the country representative of the World Food Programme in Bangladesh, the UN food agency said in a statement on Sunday.
   He earlier served as the emergency coordinator and director of assessment, analysis and preparedness Division in WFP Headquarters in Rome, Italy.
   Aylieff managed WFP’s largest-ever special operation, aimed at providing logistic support to the delivery and monitoring of food across Iraq in 2003 while working at Larnaca, Cyprus.
   From 2003 to 2006, he worked with the WFP Brussels office as director of European Commission Relations Division.
   ‘I am delighted to have been appointed to serve in Bangladesh,’ Aylieff said on his appointment as the WFP country representative.
   ‘Bangladesh is one of the key partners for WFP. With the third-largest number of poor and hungry people in the country, our work here has a great implication for achieving the MDG,’ he said.

The Dhaka city mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, filed a petition with the High Court Sunday to quash a case filed against him on charge of amassing assets beyond his known sources of income and concealing wealth-related information.
   The High Court bench of Justice Sharifuddin Chaklader and Justice Imdadul Haq Azad is set to hear the petition today.
   Anti-Corruption Commission assistant director Shamsul Alam filed the case against the mayor on April 2 with the Ramna police.
   Alam also brought charges against Sadeque’s wife and daughter for abetting him in amassing wealth of Tk 17.57 crore illegally and concealing information about Tk 9.96 crore.
   The case is now pending with a special judge’s court.
   Rafique-ul-Huq, defence counsel, said in court: ‘According to law, the ACC’s investigation has to be completed within 60 days of filing a case.’
   But the investigation overshot the deadline, he said.
   Public prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan, lawyer for the ACC, will present his arguments against the writ petition today.

Eight political parties at a meeting on Saturday evening decided to float a political alliance called National Democratic Alliance.
   The parties are Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, National Democratic Party, Bangladesh Muslim League, National Awami Party, Ganatantrik Sarbahara Party, United People’s Party, Bangladesh Islami Parishad and Bangladesh Gana Sakti Party.
   The party leaders at the meeting in the office the Bangladesh Gana Sakti Party at Banani decided to finalise the political agenda and the structure of the alliance on July 9.
   The meeting was presided over by the acting Bangladesh Muslim League president, AHM Kamruzzaman.