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Conservationists on Friday demanded that the government should hand over the Chhatak (Tengratila) gas field to state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company scrapping the agreement with Canada-based Niko Resources.
   ‘We propose that the government hand over the Chhatak gas field to Bapex as Niko has miserably failed to produce gas from the field. Niko rather has caused loss of 115 billion cubic feet of gas in Chhatak gas field,’ Hossain Mansur, a professor of geology at Dhaka University, said at a seminar at the National Press Club.
   The Coalition of Local NGOs organised the seminar titled ‘security and management of mineral and marine resources of Bangladesh under the present context of worldwide energy crisis.’
    Mansur, a former Petrobangla chairman, also recommended that the government should hand over parts of blocks 12, 13 and 14, which were relinquished by the foreign companies, to Bapex.
   ‘The government should make a pay structure for Bapex staff similar to that of the international oil companies and provide the company with sufficient funds for exploration works in onshore areas,’ he said.
   Professor Badrul Imam, another senior teacher of geology at Dhaka University, said that Bapex was turned into a crippled organisation in last 20 years, although India’s state-owned ONGC and Malaysia’s Petronas that began operation at the same time with Bapex now grew into world’s leading oil and gas companies.
   ‘Once 10 gas fields were discovered in 10 years, but in last 20 years the energy sector did not see any major discoveries due to mismanagement,’ he said.
   Convenor of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port, Sheikh M Shahidullah also blamed successive governments for crippling Bapex as part of their mission to appease imperialist forces.
   Speakers also demanded that the government should create a special fund to stop gas leakage in Titas gas field.
   Professor Mansur claimed that gas worth Tk 307.60 crore had so far been leaked from Titas gas field in last two years as everyday around 20 million cubic feet of gas seeps out through different cracks in the field.
   He said although a foreign consultant was appointed at a cost of Tk 63 crore to plug the holes, but the gas leakage at Titas field continued. ‘Titas gas field is a prime example of mismanagement of the government and the company,’ he claimed.
   He regretted that the Anti-Corruption Commission had taken no steps against the irregularities in handing over the Jalalabad gas field, now operated by Chevron, to the US Company Occidental.
   The former Petrobangla chief demanded that the government declare all activities of Asia Energy illegal and implement all recommendations of the advisory committee on the coal policy to extract coal in northern districts.

Different factors including corruption and social offences which create social imbalances are the major challenges for women’s movement in the present situation, women leaders said.
   They said violence against women had assumed a vast proportion now and this needed to be addressed immediately for the protection of women.
   Leaders of the Bangladesh Mohila Parishad highlighted these issues on Friday at a programme styled ‘actions to face challenges of the 21st century for prevention of violence against women’.
   The legal aid sub-committee of the Parishad organised the programme at the Sufia Kamal Bhaban auditorium in the capital to share experiences on this issue with its district committee members.
   The Parishad has 59 legal-aid district committees and of them a total 29 district committee members participated at this programme.
   At the inaugural session of the programme president of the Parishad, Ayesha Khanom, said, ‘we have to address the imbalances and gaps of the society which are obstructing women’s movement and fostering violence against women’.
   She cited examples of social offences like killing of the mother by her addicted son in a planned way and increased women student abuses in the universities.
   Keeping the issues of these social offences in view women activists have to work hard to extend support and legal aid to the women victims, Ayesha said.
   She said the Parishad had been working on the prevention of violence against women since 1980 and now it became a powerful body at the national level.
   The Mohila Parishad works on multidimensional issues in this regard including rescuing the victims and ensuring their protection in legal and other ways, she said.
   ‘Harassment of women has become rampant in the society and it can be averted only with the support of men to our movement’, Maleka Banu, general secretary of the organisation, said.
   Central legal aid secretary of the Mohila Parishad, Sahana Kabir, said the number of incidents of violence against women was increasing according to the report of the legal aid divisions of the Parishad in 59 districts of the country.
   The women right’s activists should think of the type of violence first and then decide whether it should be settled through arbitration or filing a case to protect the victim, she said.
   At the day-long programme district committee members shared their experiences and sought suggestions on the problems relating to legal aid support for the victim women.

Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission has made public the draft regulatory and licensing guidelines on broadband wireless access services and sought opinions from the industry and interested parties as well as individuals on the draft.
   The draft will be available from the web site at www.btrc.gov.bd. The commission requested the stakeholders to send their comments on the draft guidelines for inviting offers in a bid to issue licences for establishing, operating and maintaining broadband wireless access services in Bangladesh, said a press release on Friday.
   The individuals or parties can give their opinions through email by July 9. The email addresses are akhandkar@btrc.gov.bd, rhassan@btrc.gov.bd and aneekrh@btrc.gov.bd.
   After receiving the opinions, the BTRC will formulate the guidelines for mass hearing, the press release added.
   Three licences will be issued for 15 years to provide nationwide broadband services at 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum bands to ensure proper competition.
   The application fees will be Tk 50,000 each while the licence fees have been fixed at 3 crore per annum.
   Mobile operators (CDMA
   and GSM) having the cellular phone licence from BTRC will not be eligible for applying the licences.
   BTRC will allow maximum 60 per cent Foreign Direct Investment or investment from Non-Resident Bangladeshis
   with local entrepreneurs or consortium.
   As part of the plan, the operators will have to set up five BTSs at each of the divisional headquarters and three BTSs at each of the district headquarters within one year during their operation and to bring some 50 upazilas and 20 per cent of rural areas under the service network within next two years.
   Besides, all public and private universities, medical colleges, research institutions, all ministries, departments, boards, corporations and autonomous bodies should be brought under the service network.
   Minimum internet speed of 128 KBS should be ensured for each of the customers.

Fifteen former student leaders in a joint statement on Friday demanded unconditional release of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and proper treatment for her sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman by sending them abroad.
   The former student leaders also expressed concern at deterioration of the health of Tarique and Arafat for ‘torture in custody’.
   They also demanded immediate lifting of the state of emergency for holding of parliamentary elections first and cancellation of the schedule for local government polls.
   Former presidents and general secretaries of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal – Kazi Asaduzzaman, Enamul Karim Shahid, AKM Golam Hossain, Shamsuzzman Dudu, Asaduzzaman Ripon, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Nazimuddin Alam, Ilyas Ali, Sahiduddin Chowdhury Annie, Habibunnabi Khan Sohel, Shahabuddin Laltu and ABM Mosharraf Hossain, former president of Bangladesh Chhatra League Habibur Rahman Habib, former president of Bangladesh Chhatra Union Mostafizur Rahman Babul and former general secretary of Dhaka University Central Students Union Khairul Kabir Khokan signed the statement.

A team of Rapid Action Battalion Unit-8 seized 400 bottles of contraband Phensidyl syrup from the possession two motorcycle riders in Kashipur Chowmatha area of the city Thursday night.
   The two motorcycle riders – Saiful Islam and Fazle Rabbi – were arrested and handed over to the police after interrogation and a case was lodged against them under narcotics control act on Friday.

Convener of the Unity for Political Reform ASM Abdur Rab at a press conference Friday spoke in favour of upazila elections by October, saying all local government polls should be held before national elections in December.
   ‘People’s empowerment has been neglected for the last 36 years for the sake of party, group and family interests.’
   Holding local government elections, including upazila elections, would remedy the situation, Rab said.
   Also speaking at the press conference on local governance, held at the National Press Club, was UPR coordinator Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury.
   Zafarullah urged the major parties to move away from their ‘negative stance’ against holding local polls ahead of national polls.
   ‘The perception that the parliamentary elections would be delayed or hampered if the upazila election was held first is not right. There is no logic behind it,’ he said.
   Member secretary of the organisation MA Gofran read out a written statement at the press conference.
   The statement called on all political parties and organisations to come forward for the upazila elections.
   It said there was no alternative to local government for improving the quality of democracy, eliminating the gap between towns and villages and for balanced development.

Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, called for holding the national election only after lifting of the Emergency Power Rule to hold it in a free and fair manner.
   He said election under the EPR could never be acceptable as it would put the country on the backward track.
   Relaxation of the EPR only for 21 days would never create any favourable atmosphere for a free, fair and impartial election, Memon said, while addressing a meeting of the party members and workers at the Shahid Abdur Rob Serniabat Auditorium of Barisal district Bar Association Friday morning.
   Lifting of the EPR will not create any constitutional or legal crisis for the government to rule the country, he said.
   One-eleven was created not for the restoration of democracy and could never be explained as a positive step for handing over power to any democratic government, Menon explained, adding that it rather stopped the mass movement of the people oppressed under the rule of the corrupt and fundamentalist government.
   Presided over by Professor Abdus Sattar, district president and central presidium member of the WP, the program was addressed, among others, by Professor Nazrul Huq Nilu, Isahuq Sharif, Biswajit Baroi, Bazlur Rahman Master, Shanti Das and other leaders and activists of the party.
   Earlier, while exchanging views with the teachers and employees of non-government educational institutions at the district Workers Party office in Barisal on Thursday, Menon said barring of non-government teachers from competing in the local government polls would amount to violation of the constitution and human
   rights.
   He slammed the decision of stopping payment of salaries of the non-government teachers for bad results in the examinations. This should be looked upon as a tendency of shifting the burden of responsibility to the shoulders of the helpless non-government teachers and staff by the authority, he added.
   The non-government teachers and employees and workers of the WP attended the program.

An uneasy calm griped Fatulla industrial estate Friday after a case had been filed against over 150 workers following Thursday’s attacks on two garment factories.
   Sources said a man, Shahabuddin, filed the case with the Fatulla police Thursday night on behalf of the management of the two damaged factories.
   Additional police, alongside patrol police, have been deployed from Fatulla Post office road to Shibu market area.
   Police super of the district Sarder Nurul Islam said the district administration had taken adequate measures to protect the garment owners. ‘Apart from deploying additional police, 12 platoons of armed battalion police have been called in to restore normalcy in the area,’ he said.
   Unruly workers demanding wage hike attacked Times Sweater and Pacific Sweater factories, subsequently triggering a clash with the police at Fatullah that left about 25 people wounded.
   The BKMEA president, M Fazlul Haque, however, said garment factories of the area would remain closed until punitive measures were taken against those responsible for instigating the attacks.
   Meanwhile, some garment workers alleged that a section of ‘so-called’ leaders of workers were, in fact, harming their interests in the name of movement.
   They said genuine workers also wanted exemplary punishment for the culprits responsible for the anarchy in the garment sector.