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Special assistant to the chief adviser, M Tamim, on Thursday said that the government would take ‘steps’ on Asia Energy’s proposal for an open pit coal mine project at Phulbari after finalisation of the coal policy.
   Asia Energy chief executive officer, Gary Lye and executive director of Asia Energy Bangladesh Private Limited, Nazrul Islam, called on Tamim at his secretariat office for the first time after he was appointed as the chief adviser’s special assistant for power and energy.
   Tamim told New Age after the meeting that the Asia Energy officials briefed him about the company’s activities and how it entered into the country’s coal sector and wanted to know about the progress of its proposal on the Phulbari coal field in Dinajpur.
   ‘I told them that the government will take steps on Asia Energy’s proposal after finalisation of the coal policy,’ he said.
   Gary Lye told New Age that they had a fruitful discussion with Tamim. ‘We look forward to seeing the coal policy finalised and we will continue to work with government of Bangladesh to help progress Bangladesh’s coal sector development and the Phulbari coal project.’
   When asked about the report of a technical committee that found Asia Energy’s agreement with the government illegal and Phulbari coal field not viable for open pit mining, Tamim said, ‘The government will look into the report, once the Asia Energy issue comes up after finalisation of the coal policy.’
   The technical committee, headed by BUET professor Nurul Islam, scrutinised the feasibility study of the controversial Asia Energy project for operating an open-pit mine at Phulbari and recommended against the proposal.
   The government has not yet informed the company about any decision regarding its proposal to operate an open-pit mine since 2005. There is a strong opposition in the country against Asia Energy’s proposed open pit mining as many feel an open pit mine would displace thousands of people from their homes and destroy substantial arable land as well as of the area.
   The Asia Energy proposal triggered violent protests in August 2006 when three people were killed at Phulbari as law enforcers opened fire on a demonstration opposing the open-pit mine project.
   The then government of the BNP-led four-party alliance signed an agreement in August 2006 with the people of Phulbari, to scrap its contract with Asia Energy and oust the company from Bangladesh.
   Tamim said that at present the government was not considering any company’s project. ‘The decision on any coal mine project will be based on the coal policy,’ he said.
   He said that they were working on the coal policy and it would soon be sent to the government for approval. When asked about a specific time line, Tamim said, ‘We are working on it. Let’s see when we can send the draft to the council of advisers.’
   Tamim assured that the draft coal policy would include all the major fundamental issues recommended by an advisory committee, headed by former BUET Vice Chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari.
   Sources in the government, however, told New Age that the interim government was unlikely to take any decision on Asia Energy’s proposal even if the coal policy was approved.

The plaintiff of the barge-mounted power plant case on Thursday conceded during cross-examination by the defence that there was no clarification in the first information report for the delay of more than 10 years in filing the case against detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and seven others.
   The plaintiff, Shabbir Hassan, also an Anti-Corruption Commission deputy director, was cross-examined by Hasina’s counsel Syed Rezaur Rahman for the second day in the special judge’s court 1 set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.
   The cross-examination remained inconclusive and M Firoz Alam, the judge of the court, ordered resumption of the proceedings on Sunday.
   Replying to defence counsel’s query, the plaintiff said that he had started inquiry of the alleged offences on July 26, 2007, but could not remember after how many months of his absorption in the service of the commission the inquiry started.
   He said no complaint was filed before him about the matter and he investigated it after being directed by the commission.
   Shabbir also could not remember whether he had interrogated Hasina, also the Awami League president, and the then energy and power minister Nuruddin Khan, after issuing any notice on them.
   He, however, admitted that he did not bring Nuruddin to book in the legal framework.
   The anti-corruption official denied the defence counsels’ claim that he had inquired the matter and lodged the case after being instructed by powerful quarters outside the commission and for rewards as given to some of his colleagues by the commission.
   He also said that he could not remember the event of rewarding 10 officials by the commission on June 28, 2007.
   Shabbir said that he did not know whether Hasina had gone abroad and returned defying the government’s pressure and restrictions. He, however, said that Hasina was in the country during his inquiry of the case.
   Earlier, on Wednesday, the trial in the power plant case began with the recording of his deposition. Hasina’s counsel Yousuf Hossain Humayun began cross-examining him on the day.
   Hasina and former power and energy secretary Toufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury were on the dock on both the occasions. The rest six accused – former Power Development Board chairman Noor Uddin Mahmud Kamal, Summit Corporation’s managing director Mohammad Aziz Khan and its director Mohammad Farid Khan, United Group chairman Hasan Mahmud Raja and its director Abul Kalam Azad and Bangabandhu Memorial Museum curator Syed Siddiqur Rahman are still in hiding.
   Hasina is facing the trial on charge of taking a ‘gratification’ of Tk 3 crore for awarding two foreign companies and their local partners the contracts for installation of three 100MW barge-mounted power plants in Khulna, Haripur and Shikalbaha.
   The rest seven are facing the charge of helping her in taking the ‘illegal gratification’.

Google Earth users around the world will be able to see how climate change could affect the planet and its people over the next century, along with viewing the loss of Antarctic ice shelves over the last 50 years, thanks to a new project.
   The project, Climate Change in Our World, is the product of a collaboration between Google, the UK government, the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and the British Antarctic Survey to provide two new ‘layers’, or animations, available to all users of Google Earth.
   The project was launched by the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, this week at the Google Zeitgeist conference in Hertfordshire, UK.
   The UK’s Department for International Development and partner NGOs from different countries of the world have provided stories of poor people adversely affected by changes in global weather patients.
   Two of these stories are from Bangladesh. Jahan Ara, a woman aged 35 of Char Baliapara in Sirajganj, has featured in one of them. Jahan Ara had been washed away nine times before her homestead was raised above the flood level with help from the UK’s Chars Livelihoods Programme.
   In another story Mohammad Belal, a boy of 12, is seen singing about cyclone Sidr at the temporary ‘village’ that has become his home. Belal is the inhabitant of north Southkhali, a village on the edge of Sundarban where one in every 12 people died after cyclone Sidr tore through Bangladesh on November 15, 2007 devastating the lives of millions of people. Some of the people hit the hardest in the area were children who lost both parents and everything they and their families owned.
   ‘Climate change is happening and it is the world’s poorest who are facing the greatest threat. Now, for the first time, Google Earth maps allow us to see first hand accounts of poor people coming to terms with everything from floods and droughts to melting glaciers. Amidst the massive impact on the world’s environment, the initiative highlights the personal costs to people least able to withstand the changes,’ said Douglas Alexander, the UK secretary of state for international development.

One of the four convicts who ran away from the Chudanga district jail on Friday got killed in the Rapid Action Battalion crossfire in Kushtia early Thursday.
   The victim was Ashiqur Rahman Tagar, 45, a resident of the housing estate area in Kushtia district town. An activist of the underground Purba Banglar Communist Party and also the chief of the Tagar Bahini in Kushtia, Tagar was sentenced to 50 years’ imprisonment.
   He was first captured from the capital on Wednesday. Then he was shifted to Kushtia.
   A team of the RAB, in Kustia, accompanied by Tagar, launched a drive on Thursday at about 1:35am to capture his two other accomplices. When the team reached Patikabari area of the Kushtia Sadar upazila at around 2:45 am, a gang of miscreants prompted the RAB to open fire, by challenging the contingent of the RAB with fire arms.
   According to the RAB sources, after sustaining bullet injuries in the battle Tagar died.
   The RAB recovered a pistol, three rounds of bullets and five handmade bombs from the spot.
   The four runaway convicts were Ashiqur Rahman Tagar, 45, Akteruzzaman Sohag, 40, an activist of the Purba Banglar Communist Party, and ultra-left leaders Abdul Hamid, 42, and Jurap Ali Bachchu, 43.
   Of them, Abdul Hamid was captured from village Chaighoria in Chuadanga Sadar upazila on May 17. He was sustaining a bullet injury on the leg when he was captured. Other two convicts are still in hiding.

Prince Karim Aga Khan, imam of the Ismaili Muslim community, says enormous misinformation about Islamic civilisation and values largely contributed to myriad undesirable confusion and conflicts across the world and foresees invigoration and embellishment of Islamic values in the days ahead.
   ‘Absence of knowledge tends to create conflicts between Islamic and non-Islamic world and this needs to be reversed,’ he said at a roundtable with a group of editors and senior journalists in Dhaka on Thursday.
   The head of the Ismaili Muslim community, prior to his departure ending a four-day visit to Bangladesh, in this connection said Aga Khan Academy in Dhaka forms a part of a chain of 18 such educational institutions across different continents that would serve the purpose of true knowledge in a variety of areas.
   The 50-million-dollar academy in the Bashundhara area in the city, foundation of which has been laid by Aga Khan during the visit, is the second in South Asia after Hyderabad in India and the first in a Muslim-majority country.
   Explaining the purpose of the academy, he said it would be a non-profit institution where quality of education would be high under a global network. ‘We are seeking to be among the best internationally,’ he said, adding that access to the academy would be on merit while rural talents will get precedence under a search mechanism.
   The Aga Khan said teaching and learning would be of high standard with English as the main language capable of developing links and being competitive in the outside world. The modern curriculum will include Islamic civilisation since this rich history needs to be understood in true perspective.
   The Aga Khan, known for his intellectual excellence and penchant for working for socio-economic progress of the downtrodden and less developed, said people mired in abject poverty are required to be helped as far as possible. He said education at the secondary level in countries like Bangladesh needs to be vastly improved for the sake of overall development.
   Laying emphasis on ‘pluralism’ in approach and ideas for the development of the human being regardless of nations or faiths, he said a happy and healthy society could be built only on sound mind and soul.
   On a philosophical note, the Aga Khan visualises a better world based on economic and social justice and fair play which would help ensure happiness for the larger segment of the vast multitude.
   The Aga Khan left Dhaka Thursday afternoon for home ending his visit to Bangladesh.
   The adviser for foreign affairs, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, saw him off at the VVIP terminal of the Zia International Airport.

Ismaili Muslims leader Prince Karim Aga Khan has shown interest to buy state-owned Rupali Bank, the finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, said on Thursday.
   ‘The Aga Khan wants to invest in the banking sector and was particularly interested in buying Rupali Bank,’ Mirza Aziz told the news agency by phone.
   The adviser said the Aga Khan had expressed his interest at a meeting with him on Tuesday.
   ‘We talked about the economic situation and investment atmosphere in Bangladesh. I briefed him on the current state of Rupali Bank when he showed interest to buy it.’
   On the process of selling Rupali Bank, the adviser said, ‘Fresh bids will be invited. The Privatisation Commission will take necessary steps.’
   A final decision will be made on the matter in talks with the top brass of the government, the adviser said.
   The government decided in principle to turn Rupali Bank into a public limited company after a plan to sell it to Saudi Prince Bandar bin Mohammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud fell apart.
   Since the government decided to privatise the bank in 2003, opening new branches, loan disbursement and recruitment have remained off.
   The government in March scrapped the deal with the Saudi prince on the Rupali Bank as he had dithered over the takeover process for one and half years.
   The Privatisation Commission at that time blamed the Saudi prince for breaching a primary agreement by not signing the sales and purchase deal.

A travel agency owner was arrested on charges of fraudulence from his Kantaban office in on Tuesday. Task Force members arrested Mohammad Ramzan Ali, owner of Zebric Travels, as he took several crores of taka by deceiving 55 Hajj pilgrims last year, said a PID handout.
   It said investigation by the Task Force against other Hajj agencies, accused of fraudulence, was going on.

Former president and Jatiya Party chief, HM Ershad, and five others were on Thursday acquitted of the longstanding Shilpa Bank loan-exemption corruption case.
   Divisional special judge Md Golam Mortuza Majumder passed the acquittal orders.
   The other acquitted persons are former energy minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Firoj Kabir, Borhan Kabir, Jahangir Kabir and Nurunnahar Shelly.
   ‘This is a result of freedom of the judiciary,’ said the former army chief-turned ruler of the country in praise of the recent separation of the judiciary from the executive.
   He went on: ‘I have been appearing in the court for the last 18 years. This is a matter of great regret for me. Give me back the 5 years I have spent in jail.’
   Ershad was put behind bars after he was overthrown from the presidency in the 1990 movement.
   According to the prosecution, Shilpa Bank granted loan amounting to over Tk 20.39 lakh in favour of Three Star Poultry Farm.
   For a long time, they hadn’t paid back the loan and, as a result, the amount more than doubled to Tk 54.86 lakh. Shilpa Bank filed certificate case to realise the money against the farm in the meantime. Nurunnaher Shelly, wife of the MD of the Poultry Farm, approached Ershad for writing off the credit. And Ershad did it by ‘misuse of his power’.
   An anti-corruption officer filed the case on April 22 in 1991 with Motijheel police station.
   During the long-drawn trial, the court examined eight witnesses and pronounced the verdict at long last to the relief of the ex-strongman.

The Subarna Express, which runs on the Dhaka-Chittagong-Dhaka route, will also ply on the weekly holiday today (Friday) to facilitate the movement of the passengers, a press release of the Bangladesh Railway said on Thursday.

A Bangladeshi cattle trader was gunned down by the Border Security Force of India on Roumari frontier of Kurigram early Thursday.
   BDR sources said a BSF patrol team from Kaknipara camp of the Assam province in India opened fire on cattle trader Kafil Uddin, 35, of Bakbanda Beparipara village, when he went to the border pillar No. 1068 killing him on the spot.
   The BSF entered the area and dragged away the body into the Indian territory. The BDR strongly protested the killing and asked the BSF to return the body.
   The BSF also killed another cattle trader on the same frontier five days back. A tense situation is prevailing in the area following the incident.

One person was chopped to death allegedly by in laws on Wednesday night at Tikoil village union under Nachole upazila of Chapainawabganj.
   Police said the victim — Idris — had a quarrel with his wife Faizan Begum. At this there was an arbitration for settling the matter. At one stage, the members of his in laws’ house chopped him the death.