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Different social, professional and cultural organisations have demanded immediate introduction of city bus service in the metropolitan area to make the journey of city dwellers easier.
   Barisal Bar Association president Abdul Mamun Akand and general secretary Shahidul Islam in a statement demanded immediate introduction of city bus service. All the development works of the roads will yield no result without city bus service, they added.
   Barisal Nagarik Parishad secretary Mintu Bose and Nagarik Samaj secretary Dr Mizanur Rahman said it is very difficult for the middle class people to cope with rising rickshaw fares.
   Barisal Reporters Unity secretary Kamal Masudur Rahman and Barisal Metropolitan Journalists Union secretary Swapan Khandakar also demanded immediate introduction of city bus service. Some roads are spacious enough for running regular bus service while minibuses can easily ply other roads, they said.
   Awlad Hossain Dilu, mayor in-charge of the Barisal City Corporation, blamed local administration and law enforcing agencies for their failure in introducing city bus service and executing rickshaw fare charts.
   Fare of rickshaw has been increasing day by day as rickshaw-pullers do not follow the fare chart, local people alleged, saying that it is really difficult for them to pay for travelling by rickshaws.
   Rickshaws plying city streets charge too high and these vehicles are not convenient for long journey in the city, they said. Patients, students, service-holders and women are the worst sufferers.
   Some tempos and auto-rickshaws also ply in and outside the city but they follow only a few routes and remain mostly on the routes outside the city, local people said.
   Nasima Khanam, a student of BM College, said she has to spend Tk 50 every day as fare rickshaw which her parents can hardly afford. ‘There is no alternative but to travel by rickshaw.’
   The Barisal city has an area of 45 square miles with a population of more than 5 lakh. This figure does not include thousands of floating people who come to the city every day and leave after evening.
   The district was upgraded to a division comprising six districts and the municipality upgraded to City Corporation in March 2003. But the city has only rickshaw service for public transportation with a few numbers of two-stroke tempos and auto-rickshaws that are polluting environment.
   The Barisal City Corporation has made attempts to control rickshaw fare but failed. Besides, attempts to introduce city bus service by the bus owners’ association was also foiled due to agitation and protests by the rickshaw-pullers and tempo-drivers’ associations.
   Abdur Razzak, licensing officer of the BCC, however, failed to give the exact figure of rickshaws plying the city roads. Unofficial sources said it would be more than 10,000.

LGRD and cooperatives adviser M Anwarul Iqbal on Saturday said the government would withdraw 30,000 children from hazardous jobs by making alternative arrangements for them.
   ‘Parents of these children would get micro credits. The draft policy for elimination of child labour would soon be forwarded to the council of advisers for approval,’ he said while addressing the publication ceremony of a policy paper on ‘Role of Local Government in Early Childhood Care and Development’ in the city.
   Jointly organised by Power and Partnership Research Centre, Unnayan Samanway, and Plan Bangladesh, the function was attended by education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman as the special guest while Unnayan Samanway president and eminent economist Atiur Rahman was in the chair.
   Plan Bangladesh country director Edward Thomas Espe, and PPRC executive director KM Ehsanul Haq, among others, addressed the function. PPRS fellow Khandaker Sakhawat Ali presented the main findings of the research.
   The LGRD adviser said the importance and necessity of pre-primary education is increasing day by day as part of Early Childhood Care and Development activities.
   Stressing the need for community based initiative for spreading pre-primary education, he said the local government bodies can play an important role in this regard.
   The woman vice-chairman of the proposed upazila council and women members in reserved seats can be given the responsibility of coordination to carry forward these activities, he added.
   Anwarul Iqbal said it may be considered whether the country’s 11,000 community clinics can provide infrastructure facilities for pre-primary education along with their own activities.
   Education adviser Hossain Zillur said high rate of enrolment in schools, particularly of the girls, has brought international acclamation for the country.
   The role of pre-primary education is immense to stop dropout of students. But, pre-primary education is yet to be integrated with the mainstream of education in the country, he added.
   In his address, Atiur Rahman demanded more allocation for children. Referring to the feeding programme for 5 lakh primary school students in three monga-prone districts, he said the new budget has proposed expansion of the programme in 10 more districts in six divisions of the country.
   He demanded introduction of school feeding programme for all primary school students across the country.
   Atiur also demanded reduction of duty on drawing books for children. Besides, he demanded special allocations for food, education and health security of children in shoal, hill, haor and coastal areas.
   According to the policy paper presented in the function, the rate of enrolment in pre-primary class in Bangladesh is the lowest in Asian countries.

Green activists and politicians at a discussion meeting in Dhaka on Saturday stressed the need for taking up pedestrian-friendly development plans for the Dhaka city to check the rise of private cars.
   The speakers underscored the need for rapid-transit buses for a better public transport system in the city.
   They also suggested keeping more footpaths for pedestrians, space for bicycles and rickshaws as a study for the Strategic Transport Plan showed 76 per cent trips in Dhaka are short, and the people either walk or use rickshaw and bicycles for the trips.
   The Citizens’ Rights Movement organised the discussion on immediate steps to be taken to make Dhaka a traffic jam-free city of international standard at the National Press Club.
   The speakers also put importance on decentralisation and deindustrialisation of Dhaka to reduce the rush of the people in the capital.
   Citizens’ Rights Movement secretary general Tusher Rehman presented the keynote paper at the programme presided over by Syed Marghub Morshed, the chief adviser to the movement.
   Former chief engineer of Dhaka WASA Kazi M Sheesh, columnist Syed Abul Moksud, Save the Environment Movement convenor Abu Naser Khan, politician ASM Abdur Rob, Communist Party of Bangladesh leader Ruhin Hossain Prince, environment activist Mahbubuzzaman, Mahbubur Rahman and WBB Trust official Maruf Rahman spoke on the occasion.
   In his paper, Tushar suggested that the government should take measures to shift the garment industries from the capital, construct the eastern bypass road as early as possible, shift the Hazaribagh tannery soon, and make all the industries along the rivers Buriganga, Sitalakhya, Turag and Balu to use effluent treatment plant compulsorily.
   He said only 5 per cent people of the capital own private cars that occupy 65 per cent road space of the city while 95 per cent people use only 35 per cent road space.
   He also suggested the government to introduce 1,000 double-deckers in the city for the 95 per cent people.
   Abu Naser Khan urged the government to develop the capital city as a people-friendly city, not as a car-friendly one.
   Mahbubur Rahman stressed the need for a national consensus and political will to save Dhaka from ruins.
   He also advocated for decentralisation to reduce pressure on the city.
   Maruf Rahman of the WBB Trust said 93 per cent of the Tk 37,000 crore Strategic Transport Plan project has been suggested to be spent for underground rail, which will carry only 8 per cent passengers, and elevated expressways or flyovers, which is mainly for private cars. The allocation has ignored the pedestrians’ needs and important mass-oriented fields, he added.

Inter-University Math Olympiad-2008, organised by East West University, was held on its campus here on Saturday.
   Pro-Vice Chancellor of East West University Professor Dr Mohammad Kamrul Hasan inaugurated the math Olympiad.
   Professor Muhammad Jafar Iqbal of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology was present as the head of panel of judges in the competition.
   Talking to journalists, Jafar Iqbal said the Math Olympiad will inspire students to science education.
   At present, he said, students are less interested in studying science, seen as a problem in our education.
   Jafar Iqbal observed lack of competent teachers and scarce job market for science students have been attributed to their losing interest in science education.
   He urged the government to take necessary measures to expand science education for future advancement of the country.
   Students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology secured the first, second and third position in this competition.
   A total of 61 students from 13 public and private universities took part in the three-hour long math Olympiad.
   President of Board of Directors of East West University Jalaluddin Ahmed was present as the chief guest in the prize giving ceremony of the competition.
   Speaking on the occasion, Jalaluddin Ahmed laid emphasis on organising such competitions for flourishing latent talent of students.

A two-day seminar titled ‘English for Today’ organised by Department of English concluded at the seminar room of Jahangir-nagar University Saturday.
   The seminar was inaugurated by the University Grants Commission chairman Professor Nazrul Islam. Jahangirnagar University vice-chancellor Professor M Muniruzzaman was present as special guest.
   The seminar included two panel discussions. A discussion on Overseas Cultural and Resource Centres was held on the concluding day. Dr Fakrul Alam from Dhaka University, Professor Shafi Ahmed and Ahmed Reza from JU, Syed Manjurul Islam, Professor Arifa Rahman and June Rollinson attended the concluding session.

The law enforcers recovered the bloodstained body of an unidentified young man from Khilgaon in Dhaka Saturday morning.
   The police said, on information, a team of the Khilgaon police recovered the body of the young man from the Noyapara Balurmath area in Khilgaon at around 8:30am. The man, aged about 30, was wearing black pant and pink shirt
   The body had multiple marks of injuries, a scarf was found tied around his neck and blood was oozing out of his mouth.
   The police suspected that unidentified assailants might have strangulated him to death at anytime Friday night, and dumped the body there.
   The body was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy. A case was filed with the Khilgaon police station. The police, however, could not arrest anybody in this connection till Saturday evening.

The Motihar police on Saturday arrested a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activist at Talaimari adjacent to Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology for his alleged involvement in Wednesday night’s attack on Bangladesh Chhatra League activists.
   The arrested was identified as Sharif. Earlier, two cases were filed against 18 JCD activists with the Motihar police station Friday night. Al Amin of Shaheed Lieutenant Selim Residential Hall, and Ahsanul Haque Russell of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Hall filed the cases. Mahedi Hasan, a BCL activist, also filed a general diary against JCD cadres.

A four-member committee, formed by the University Grants Commission, concluded its investigation into the alleged corruption and irregularities at Islamic University in Kushtia on Saturday.
   The team, headed by UGC member Professor AHM Zehadul Karim, started the investigation at the university on Thursday. The team interviewed more than 50 teachers, officials and local journalists including vice-chancellor, treasurer and registrar of the university, committee sources said.
   ‘We will submit report to the chairman of the UGC as soon as possible and he will submit it to the education ministry,’ Zehadul Karim told the journalists on Saturday. The ministry will take measures against the offenders, he added.

Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely at a few places over all the six divisions in the 24-hour period till 6:00pm today.
   Moderately heavy falls may occur at one or two places, Met Office said, predicting slight rise in day temperature over the country.
   Country’s highest temperature 33.5 degrees Celsius was recorded on Saturday at Jessore and lowest 22.2 degrees at Sandwip.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:49pm and rises tomorrow at 5:12am.

Quality primary education a must for achieving national development, speakers said at a seminar in Rajshahi on Saturday.
   They laid stress on a concerted effort of all quarters particularly the teachers, guardians and elite for making the primary education up to the mark. Otherwise, they said, the prevailing dissatisfactory situation could bring any debacle in the whole education system, as it is the foundation of all higher education.
   The city unit of Conscious Citizens Committee, a grassroots organisation of the Transparency International Bangladesh, arranged the seminar styled ‘role of headmaster, school managing committee and administration in quality development of primary education’ at the conference hall of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
   District primary education officer Yousuf Ali, Professor Imam Mehedi Beg and Boalia upazila education officer Shameem Ahmed Khan addressed the seminar as the resource persons with Conscious Citizens Committee local unit convener Golam Arif Tipu in the chair.
   One hundred and thirty-five persons including headmasters and school managing committee presidents of 47 schools in the city and others concerned attended the seminar and gave their views on how to improve the quality of education.
   The speakers said quality primary education was the demand of time and therefore, utmost efforts should be given to reaching a sound and quality education by improving coordination among all concerned.
   They, however, said quantity development along with gender parity had been attained and expected that the quality development would be achieved soon.
   To make this effort a success, they said, the field level teachers and officials should be more sincere and accountable to the nation.

Speakers at a seminar in Rangamati on Saturday underscored the need for raising awareness among people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of HIV/AIDS.
   They said raising mass awareness among the remote CHT people are necessary were to ward off the killer disease.
   The speakers advised the people particularly youths to be very conscious and disseminate well-informed knowledge as part of a social movement about the disease.
   Jagat Jyoti Chakma, chairman of Rangamati Hill District Council, was chief guest at the seminar held at the auditorium of Ashika, a local NGO with Mahabubuddin Chowdhury, with secretary general of the National Association of UNESCO Clubs in Bangladesh in the chair.
   Health workers engaged to develop health system with the help of UNDP in remote areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts attended from the three hill district councils. They were instructed specially to make their all-out effort so that the villagers could be fully aware of dreadfulness of the killer disease, the chief guest told the audience.
   Participants opined that authorities concerned should notice Rangamati as a tourist area so that the deadly disease could not spread there.
   Guru Gobinda Roy, principal of the Rangamati Government College, was special guest at the daylong seminar-cum open discussion titled ‘Awareness Raising on HIV/AIDS for Youth in Bangladesh.’
   Banchita Chakma, principal of the Rangamati Government Woman College, Sunil Kanti Dey, CHT correspondent of the daily Sangbad, Anjulika Kisha, former district education officer also spoke. Dr Snaha Kanti Chakma, Rangamati sadar upazila health and family planning officer, presented the keynote paper.
   The seminar was organised in cooperation with the Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO, Ministry of Education and UNESCO, National Association of UNESCO clubs in Bangladesh.
   A procession carrying festoons and posters decorated with different slogans against the killer disease also paraded streets of the hilly district town beginning from the seminar place and ending on the premises of district commissioner’s office.
   About one hundred participants from different sections including government and non-government officials, journalists, college students took part at the seminar.

The Canadian high commissioner in Dhaka, Barbara Richardson, has said Bangladesh stands at a crossroad and the choice of the road forward is certainly in the hands of politicians and most importantly in the hands of the people of this country.
   ‘They are allies in one of the great ongoing struggles of the Bangladesh experience — the struggle for the soul of democracy, for a government that represents not itself, not the interest of the members of the government, but the interest of the people,’ she said at a reception on Canada Day at the Canadian Embassy in Dhaka on Friday.
   Richardson said, ‘The pursuit of democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, its heroic possibilities and perhaps less heroic achievement.’
   Reflecting on multiculturalism embedded in Canadian constitution, she said they had learned the lesson of accommodation and compromise. ‘Not pursuit of personal interests, not pursuit of one province or one group or one political belief, but the interest of our great country and its future.’
   Richardson, who is leaving Bangladesh completing her almost three-year tenure as the high commissioner, said although Canada and Bangladesh were different in many respects, ‘we are a people who share the same dreams for our children and our futures who share common values and who believe in the ability to build our countries to support these dreams and values.’
   She said Canada was a country of immigrants and Canadians had built Canada on the ‘strength and determination of the cultures, beliefs and commitments.’
   The special assistant to chief adviser for energy, M Tamim, was guest of honour at the ceremony attended, among others, by politicians, diplomats, editors and high civil and military officials.

Speakers at an advocacy workshop on Saturday called for holding the forthcoming election to Rajshahi City Corporation successfully.
   The Election Commission wants to make the RCC election free, fair and acceptable to all, they said while addressing the workshop arranged with an objective of disseminating ideas on the Electoral Rules and Code of Conducts 2008.
   Support to the Electoral Process in Bangladesh Project and Deputy Election Commission Office jointly arranged workshop at Rajshahi Medical College auditorium ahead of the forthcoming City Corporation Election 2008.
   A few hundred people including the mayor in-charge of RCC, ward commissioners and aspirants attended the meeting.
   Deputy Election Commissioner Syed Muhammad Musa gave an overview of the newly published electoral rules and code of conducts.
   With Commissioner of Rajshahi division Hafizur Rahman Bhuiyan in the chair, EC joint secretary and project director Rafiqul Islam, deputy commissioner of Rajshahi Ibrahim Khalil and deputy commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Zillur Rahman addressed the opening session.
   Speakers urged the aspirants to make them well-informed about the new electoral rules and its code of conducts for the sake of making the election a total success and asked them to follow the rules and regulations strictly.
   Ignorance about the rules and regulations could not be any excuse, they said, adding that candidature might be cancelled for any violation of rules.

Small traders on Saturday sought intervention of the chief adviser to the caretaker government and the inspector general of police in stopping toll collection at their kitchen market in Islambagh area.
   Nobody can run business without paying toll to Saij Uddin Saju alias Tepa Saju, the traders of Methu Miah and Alim Uddin Lillah Waqf Estate Kitchen Market said at a press conference held at Dhaka Reporters Unity.
   ‘We have been running our business since 1989 after constructing the market on our own expenses,’ said secretary of the market association Mobarak Hossain Sardar. ‘We have taken possession of our shops paying Tk 45,000 each,’ he added.
   There are about 100 shops at the market, said the members of the market association. A waqf board takes care of the market on 26 decimals of land.
   As the previous waqf board misappropriated money, the government made it dysfunctional, the businessmen said.
   On January 8, Saju along with his associates looted the shops of Nasir Miah, Nannu Miah, Sultan, Bazlu and Ali Akbar.
   The Lalbagh police arrested Saju and three others on charge of robbery after a case filed by Ali Akbar, they added, saying that Saju was released on bail after two months. He claimed himself as the custodian of
   the waqf estate, the businessmen said.
   President of the association Badrul Islam, Akkas Ali, Anwar Hossain Nannu, Idris Miah, Sunil Sarkar and Ahid Miah attended the briefing.

The Rapid Action Battalion recovered an AK-47 rifle and ammunition from Fatehabad at Hathazari in Chittagong early Saturday.
   The battalion said its members raided the KI Society Primary School area where some gangsters gathered at about 2:30am.
   As the lawmen approached, the gangsters left the place. The battalion recovered the rifle, 23 bullet and two magazines left abandoned at the place.

The Council for Conserving the Killing Grounds of 1971 on Saturday observed a daylong token hunger strike at the Chittagong Press Club demanding conservation of all killing grounds, including that of Foy’s Lake.
   Muntasir Mamun, vice-president of the Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Moslem Uddin Ahmed, Chittagong district (south) unit general secretary of the Awami League, MA Salam, district (north) unit AL general secretary, Mrinal Chowdhury, district unit president of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Ibrahim Hossain Babul, former president of the Chittagong Bar Association, Workers Party leader Abu Hanif and National Awami Party leader Santosh Chowdhury took part in the hunger strike programme presided over by Dr Gazi Saleh Uddin.
   Speakers at the programme demanded taking necessary measures for conserving all the killing grounds of ‘71 evicting the encroachers and urged the pro-liberation forces to get united in this regard.

Leaders of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and Dhaka Union of Journalists on Saturday demanded of the government to publish the probe report on the attack on the journalists at the National Press Club on June 21, 1992.
   Neither the probe report on that attack was published nor did the victim journalists get justice due to ill-motive of the then government, said the journalist leaders.
   They said the present government was trying the accused persons involved in killing, corruption and other irregularities. But no initiative has so far been taken to bring the killers of journalists to book, they regretted.
   Chaired by former DUJ president Altaf Mahmud, the discussion, marking ‘Journalist Repr-ession Day’, was also addressed by BFUJ president Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, its former president Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, present secretary general Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, DUJ president Shah Alamgir, general secretary Omar Faruque, former DUJ president M Shahjahan Miah and former general secretary Azizul Islam Bhuiyan.
   They also urged all the owners of newspapers and news agencies to implement Seventh Wage Board Award immediately.

Two persons were killed and four others injured in a road accident at Chandra on Dhaka-Tangail Highway under Kaliakoir upazila in the district on Saturday.
   Witnesses said the accident took place when the driver of a wheat-laden truck lost control over the steering and the vehicle fell into a road side ditch. The dead were identified as Biplob and Wasit.
   After the accident, local people rushed to the spot, rescued the injured and took them to nearby hospital. On information, the police recovered the bodies and sent them to Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Leaders of Dhaka city unit of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction led by Noor Alam Ziku on Saturday called on the government to announce schedule for elections to the Dhaka city corporation after upgrading it into a metropolitan government.
   Welcoming the announcement of the schedule for polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities, the JSD leaders said that they had no objection to holding local government elections before parliamentary polls if it did not stand in the way of implementing the roadmap announced by the Election Commission by December.
   Abul Khayer Sajjad, Sharif Mohammad Khan and Abdur Rashid addressed the meeting chaired by the party’s Dhaka city unit president Nurul Akhter.

Abdul Khaleque Hawlader, father of Abdus Satter, a central leader of Workers Party of Bangladesh, died at Barisal Sadar Hospital Thursday night at the age of 95.
   Khaleque Hawlader, who was suffering from old-age complications, is survived by three sons, said a press release issued by Workers Party.
   He was buried at his village home at Karnakhathi under sadar upazila in Barisal on Friday.
   The Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashed Khan Menon and general secretary Bimal Biwas in a condolence message expressed deep shock at the death of Khaleque and prayed for the salvation of the departed soul.

One killed in
road accident
A 60-year-old man was killed as a bus ran over him at Malibagh crossing in the city Saturday morning. The deceased was identified as Joynal Abedin, accountant of Mabs coaching centre in Mouchak area and a resident of Azimpur New Paltan area. Witnesses said a bus of S Alam Paribahan ran over Joynal when he was standing on the road, killing him on the spot at about 7:00am. The police seized the bus and arrested the driver.
— UNB

Girl sustains
acid burns
A teenage girl sustained burn injuries as a youth threw acid on her at Charghat in Rajshahi on Friday night. The victim was identified as Priya Khatun, 15, daughter of Ahsan Ali, of Jhikra village under Charghat upazila. The police said an unidentified youth aged about 20 threw acid on Priya when she was asleep at her bedroom at about 9:30pm. She was admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital in a critical condition. The young man fell in love with Priya recently but she rejected the proposal, family members said. A case was filed with the police station.
— New Age