THE Bangladesh Rifles personnel rescued 29 people, including 11 children, foiling a trafficking bid in the Godagari border area of Rajshahi on Tuesday.
   The rescued are Hamid Sheikh, Rabeya, Shyamoli, Nadira, Sanjera, Felu Munshi of Narail, Khairul Islam, Mohsin, Yeadul, Eesa Sheikh, Mostafa Mollah, Rikta, Kalpana, Rozina, Parul, Sarezan, Jannatul, twelve-year-old Jewel Mian, four-month-old Monir, one-year-
   old Ahmed, two-year-old Tamanna, two-and-a-half-
   year-old Subarna, six-year-old Sagar, two-year-old Munni, nine-year-old Sonia, six-year-old Morsaleen, three-year-old Sawrad and one-year-old Talib of Narail.
   Tipped off, the BDR members raided the house of UP member Hannan at Char Asaridaha at about 11:00am on Tuesday and rescued the people who were waiting there to be migrated to India through the Manikchar border of Godagari, BDR officials said.
   The border guards also
   arrested alleged trafficker Asaduzzaman.
   Rescued Kalpana said one Dalil Uddin Sheikh of village Dighalia in Khulna had lured them there promising better jobs in India.
   A case was filed with the Godagari police station in this connection.

THE Kaptai Pulpwood Plantation Division has raised pulpwood plantation over an area of 1,170 hectares of land to meet the demand of raw materials consumed in the Karnaphuli Paper Mills, the largest paper manufacturing plant in the south-east Asia.
   The KPM requires 27 lakh tonnes of softwood to convert into pulp for manufacturing of paper annually, said sources in the KPPD.
   The KPPD has got a stock of 50 lakh tonnes of pulpwood in its plantation against the KPM’s demand for 27 lakh tonnes for the current fiscal year, said the divisional forest officer of KPPD, Jahidul Kabir.
   It supplied eight lakh tonnes of pulpwood to the KPM in the last fiscal year, he said.
   The KPM authorities have, meanwhile, engaged contractors to extract pulpwood from the coops, leased out to it, to ensure ceaseless production of paper, the sources said.
   The KPM, an industrial unit of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, also consume bamboo for making pulp, extracting from reserved forests of the Rangamati forest circle.
   As the procurement position of pulpwood is apparently satisfactory, the KPM is likely to earn a profit of Tk 10 crore in the current fiscal year, officials in the KPM said.
   The KPPD, a unit of Rangamati forest circle established in 1973 to meet the demand of pulpwood of the KPM, has been raising plantation of softwood to ensure undisturbed supply.

A JHENAIDAH court on Monday sentenced a rapist to life-term imprisonment.
   Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal judge Rokeya Begum also fined him Tk 1 lakh.
   According to the prosecution, Rashid Sheikh of village Bardah under Sailkupa upazila raped the victim in his betel leaf plot on June 28, 2005.
   The victim went to the police to file a case against Rashid. But the duty officer of the police station denied recording any case in this connection. Later, on July 16, the victim filed the case with the court.
   The Chapainawabganj correspondent adds: A district court Tuesday jailed a drug peddler for 10 years.
   The court also fined the convict, Moktar Hossain, Tk 5,000.
   The prosecution said the police recovered 200 bottles of Phensidyl from the house of Moktar at Arambag Notunpara under Chapainawabganj municipality on September 3, 2006.

A NUMBER of contractors of Rangpur demanded allocation of additional fund for the construction of infrastructures and establishments undertaken before December 2007 by different government departments.
   They in a press conference at a community centre in Rangpur town Monday said construction works of about Tk 1,000 crore in Rangpur remained suspended for about one year due to the price hike of construction materials.
   They will incur huge loss if they construct the infrastructures and establishments of which they were given work order, they said.
   They also criticised the government for the circular regarding compensation against construction projects under different departments.
   According to the circular, the government has targeted the construction projects undertaken in between December 31, 2007 to April 15, 2008 for compensation.
   The contractors said the construction projects of about Tk 1,000 crore undertaken before 2007-2008 financial year in the district that were yet to be completed had been excluded from the compensation.
   Rafiqul Islam Dulal read out the written statement in the press conference on behalf of the constructors. Leaders of the contractors’ association Moaz-zem Hossain Lovelu, and Khorsed Alam also spoke in the conference. As many as 200 contractors of different departments were present.
   The contractors demanded that the government should immediately include all government construction projects of 2005-2007 financial year under the compensation scheme.