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The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority with its around one and a half lakh illegal connections, which is more than half of the legal connections, is losing Tk 50 crore a year.
   ‘Though it is believed that there are around one lakh illegal water connections, in reality it would be around one and a half lakh,’ a top official of the utility agency told New Age on Sunday.
   According to the DWASA statistics, there are about 2,46,977 legal connections in Dhaka and Narayanganj, of which 2,37,288 are residential, 6,032 commercial, 1,667 industrial, 1,212 service-oriented and 777 for offices. Of the connections, 10,000 are in Narayanganj.
   ‘How can the number of legal connections be around two and a half lakh when there are around 1.4 crore people in the capital city? Where do the others get water from?’ aksed Raihanul Abedin, managing director of the agency.
   Asked how many illegal connections the WASA might have, the managing director said, ‘It is difficult to say exactly right at this moment.’
   ‘We have requested the army through the LGRD ministry to conduct a customer survey and then we will know the exact number of illegal connections,’ Abedin said, adding, ‘The army has consented to help us and the survey will start soon after the December 18 national elections.’
   The authorities will carry out the survey to identify the genuine consumers, illegal connections and deep tube-wells as well as meter tampering.
   Besides, the agency with the assistance of the law enforcing agencies will resume its regular drive today to disconnect illegal connections and to realise outstanding bills including fines.
   The drive will continue till November 27 at Dhanmondi, Mohammadpur, New Market, Hazaribagh, Mirpur, Pallabi, Shah Ali, Tejgaon, Gulshan, Badda, Shyampur, Sutrapur, Jatrabari, Motijheel, kotwali, Lalbagh, Khilgaon and Sabujbagh.
   At present, WASA is producing over 170 crore litres of water per day against the demand for more than 210 crore litres, the official said.
   The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority has 497 deep tube wells while more than 1,000 deep tube wells across the capital city are running without permission from WASA, causing a huge financial loss to the agency, sources in the agency said.
   A WASA official said though the systems loss of the agency as per the official estimate is 34 per cent, WASA in reality loses around Tk 45 to Tk 50 crore a year because of 40 to 45 per cent systems loss caused mainly by illegal connections, cracks in supply lines and underhand dealings of unscrupulous officials.
   WASA is deprived of Tk 1 crore a year for 1 per cent systems loss, said an official of the organisation, he added.
   The underhand dealings between the WASA officials and employees and customers are another reason for the systems loss.
   These WASA officials take bribes from the customers and temper the bills, thus depriving the government of huge revenue, said an official, adding, ‘We will take action against the officials and employees found guilty of any irregularity.’

Barisal City Corporation will launch drive to collect water bills from next week as different government organisations and individuals owe Tk 2 crore to the city corporation.
   BCC will also set up two water treatment plants this fiscal year aiming to deal with water crisis, sources in BCC’s water supply section said.
   BCC has been supplying water to 11 thousand customers and about 50 per cent of the customers pay water bills regularly, the sources added, saying that different public sector organisations owe the lion’s share of the bills to BCC.
   At present, BCC provides about 36 lakh gallons of water as against the demand of around one crore galloons of water.
   It has identified 152 illegal water connections. Of them, 43 illegal water connections have already been disconnected, the sources said, adding that they will launch drive against the rests of illegal connections within a short time.
   According to the sources, BCC has 26 deep tube wells but 7 of them have remained inoperative for a long time. The 19 deep tube wells can lift maximum 1.8 lakh gallons of water per hour due to low voltage, load-shedding and decline in underground water level.
   Water crisis has deepened since Barisal Municipality has been upgraded to Barisal City Corporation in 2003 with increasing the number of wards from 10 to 30.
   Barisal mayor Shawkat Hossain Hiron said it would not be possible to supply water in 10 new wards immediately due to shortage of budget and lack of adequate deep tube wells and water supply lines.
   BCC will install two water treatment plants this fiscal year at cost of Tk 27 crore. The plants will collect water from the River Kirtankhola as the underground water level does not fall.

Speakers at a discussion on Sunday urged the authorities concerned to find out solutions to traffic congestion in the Dhaka city and suggested reducing the number of motorised vehicles.
   Increase in the number of private cars was the main cause for the parking crisis in the city and it would not be possible to address the problem only by the government with allocating roads and footpaths for private vehicles, they said at the discussion titled ‘What is to be done to resolve the parking crisis’ organised by Save the Environment Movement and WBB Trust.
   The speakers also demanded formulation of a policy to resolve the parking crisis with the provision that the government can collect fees from the owners of private vehicles according to space and parking duration and collect congestion charge from the private vehicles while they use the busiest roads of the city.
   They said that though parking system in the buildings is minimising the parking crisis, it is a temporary solution.
   Journalist Kamal Lohani presided over the meeting while Maruf Rahman, project officer of WBB Trust, read out the keynote paper. Shafiqur Rahman of Jahangirnagar University, Sharif Mohammad Tariquzzaman, planner of urban planning department, and Abu Naser Khan, chairman of Save the Environment Movement, were also present at the meeting.

At least five students of Asian University of Bangladesh of Rajshahi campus were injured after local goons, allegedly led the son of the university deputy vice-chancellor, attacked a students’ demonstration for removal of the deputy vice-chancellor.
   Following the incident, the university authorities closed the campus till November 20.
   The campus sources said a group of local goons, led by deputy vice-chancellor Professor Jaidur Rahman’s son Rajib, attacked the agitating students by hockey sticks and bricks when they started their demonstration in the morning.
   A chase and counter-chase took place between the agitating students and the attackers. At least five students, including Rabbi, Adnan, Rokon and Moslem, were injured during the clashes.
   Informed, police brought the situation under control at about 1:30pm, when the attackers fled, the sources said. Police also arrested three agitating students — Rabbi, Rokon and Adnan — from the campus for holding demonstrations on the campus.
   An argent meeting held in the conference room of the university at noon and presided over by vice-chancellor Professor Abul Hossain Mohammed Sadeque, decided to close the campus till on November 20.
   They also sent Professor Jaidur Rahman on leave for an indefinite period, said the sources.
   Students of the campus at Talaimari in the city had been agitating for the removal of the deputy vice-chancellor as he had put various restrictions on the students, hampering academic environment of the campus.
   A pro-Jamaat teacher, Professor Jaidur Rahman appointed Jamaat activists as teachers and used to misbehave with the students, the students alleged. When contacted, Professor Jaidur Rahman could not be reached over telephone.

The Dhaka City Corporation will hold a workshop at Osmani Udyan today on ‘cleaners’ safety and sanitation’ to raise awareness among cleaners about prevention of injuries and sicknesses related to waste management.
   Sessions have been planned to explain the importance of using safety gears, mask
   and safety shows, and to give clear guidance to the
   DCC cleaners for appro-
   priately using first aid
   kit to prevent work-related sickness and injury, said a press release.
   Cleaner’s manual and safety gears will also be distributed at the workshop organised by the city corporation in assistance with Japan International Cooperation Agency.
   A safety and sanitation
   committee, comprising conservancy officers, supervising inspectors, inspectors, and representatives of cleaners, will be formed during the workshop.
   The committee will investigate and identify issues
   related to safety and sanitation of the cleaners, working environment, and implement measures to improve the present safety and sanitation situation.
   The DCC since 2000 with assistance from JICA has been working to improve the overall solid waste management of the Dhaka city.
   A ‘Clean Dhaka Master
   Plan’ with target year of 2015 was formulated in 2005, encompassing every aspect
   of solid waste such as
   raising public awareness,
   identifying primary collection, secondary collection and
   final disposal sites. Following the Master Plan, the Clean Dhaka Project was initiated in 2007.

Students of al-fiqh department under the law and shariah faculty at Islamic University in Kushtia formed a human chain in front of the university arts faculty building on Sunday, demanding regular classes and timely examinations.
   The students later staged a rally in front of the building at about 12:30pm.
   Sources said the law and shariah faculty members in a meeting on November 8 decided to send a proposal to the academic council meeting of the university to rename the al-fiqh department as law and Islamic justice.
   But the authorities are indifferent to hold the AC meeting allegedly for opposition of some Jammat-backed teachers who are for continuing with the old name of th department ignoring the students’ demand, a source inside the department said preferring anonymity.

Armed robbers looted ornaments and valuables from a residence at Masterpara in the Rajshahi city Saturday night.
   Local people said a group of armed robbers entered the residence of one Nabakumar Ghosh, a sweetmeat trader in the city, at about 9:00pm when the female members of the residence were watching television.
   The robbers snatched golden chains and other ornaments from Joshna Ghosh, sister of the house owner, and Kanika Ghosh, the owner’s wife. They also looted three mobile phone sets. The robbers, however, could not break the almirah as the family members started creaming.
   At a stage, the family members chased the robbers, and with the help of local people caught a robber identified as Ariful Islam alias Toyen along with arms.

Weather is likely to remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky over the country in the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Night temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, Met Office said.
   The country’s highest temperature, 31.0 degrees Celsius, was recorded on Sunday at Cox’s Bazar and the lowest, 14.4 degrees Celsius, at Srimangal.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:12pm and rises tomorrow at 6:16am.

Equity and Justice Working Group censured leaders of G20 countries for not including developing countries in Sunday’s anti-crisis meeting in Washington to devise strategies to overcome economic meltdown.
   The leaders of the social platform, working with policy issues and poverty reduction programmes, at a news conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity said the developed countries at the meeting, chaired by US president George Bush, had discussed ways to overcome the crisis keeping the developing countries in the dark.
   ‘There is an initiative for reforms to the global financial governance by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who has formed a committee headed by prominent economist Joesph Stiglitz, but Bush convened the meeting bypassing the UN chief’s initiative,’ convenor of the group Rezaul Karim told the press conference.
   They also slated the police for not allowing them to form a human chain in front of the High Court building to protest at the holding of the meeting by the G20 nations.
   About one-year of the cyclone SIDR that devastated the coastal region of the country, they said Sidr, according to the assessment of the lenders, had caused Bangladesh a loss of $1.7billion, but the country had so far received only $350 million, about 20 percent of the total damage.
   They also demanded publication of a white paper from the government, non-governmental and UN organisations on the use of aid money under the post-Sidr rehabilitation programmes.
   The group leaders demanded compensation as ecological debt from the developed countries like USA and EU. Developed countries are responsible for climate change and Bangladesh is the worst sufferers of its effect.
   The group’s secretary general Shamsuddoha, Shahadat Hossain Mintoo and Zaid Iqbal, among others, addressed the press conference.

The authorities concerned on Sunday served show cause notice to six more students of dramatics department at Jahangirnagar University in connection with the assault on department chairman Sanwar Hossain on October 21.
   The students are Asif Martuza Piyal, Mouri, Antora Islam, Lopa, Tuba and Nahida Islam Mishu.
   Earlier, the authorities issued show cause notice to six students of the department on October 21 and seven other students on November 12.
   Jahangirnagar University Teachers’ Association, however, continued its strike for the tenth consecutive day on Sunday. Classes were held at most of the departments.
   The teachers said they would continue with their strike till November 23 and take decision on the strike at its general meeting later.
   Dramatics department chair Sanwar Hossain was assaulted by his students on October 21 when he went to the department to join as the chairman. He was accused of sexually harassing some of his girl students. Later, the syndicate on September 13 acquitted him of all the charges as ‘no allegation was proved beyond doubt’.
   Students of dramatics department and left-leaning student organisations termed the syndicate’s decision ‘unacceptable’ and declared Sanwar persona non grata.

Journalists in Faridpur will Monday commemorate their colleague Goutam Das, former bureau chief of Bangla daily Samakal and renew their demand for bringing his killers to book.
   Goutam was murdered in his office on the Mujib Sarak in the district town on November 17, 2005. The Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 in Dhaka could not deliver its verdict in three years as the High Court issued stay orders for six times, the latest being on November 13.
   Local journalists and members of different social organisations will wear black badges to protest the delay in justice delivery and demand punishment of the killers in the district and Goutam’s hometown of Bhanga on the third anniversary of his murder Monday.
   Black flags will be hoisted at the Faridpur Press Chub and Faridpur Sangbadik Samity premises in the morning.
   Goutam Smriti Parisad, Samakal Surid Samabesh and Prothom Alo Bandhu Sava will organise separate programmes in Faridpur and Bhanga.
   Samakal editor Abed Khan will address a memorial meeting at the Bhanga Upazila Complex and visit the slain journalist’s home at Chandidasdi village. Samakal Surid Samabesh will also bring out a rally in Faridpur town. Separate discussion meetings will be organised jointly by Goutam Smriti Parishad and Faridpur Press Club.
   Before joining Samakal in 1995, Goutam worked in Bangla dailies Bhorer Kagoj and Prothom Alo, and was revered among the colleagues for his good manners, courage and professional spirit.

Workers of a garment factory on Sunday went out on demonstrations at Chandana in the Gazipur district headquarters in protest at the closure of the factory.
   Several hundred workers of the Pandora Sweater Factory gathered at the Chandana High School at around 9:00am to protest at the closure of the factory.
   They later blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway at Telipara and vandalised more than 20 vehicles.
   The police then charged at the workers with truncheons. At least 24 workers were injured. The injured were taken to local clinics.
   Several hundred vehicles remained stranded on the road for half an hour.
   The authorities on Saturday closed the factory for an indefinite period in the face of workers’ unrest, which had continued for a few days demanding increased wages. As the wages were not increased, the workers locked up the factory gate and confined some management people Saturday afternoon. The police later rescued them after about three hours in the evening.
   After the incident, the authorities closed the factory and hung a notice on the gate.
   When the workers went to the factory Sunday morning, they found the notice and started gathering in front of the factory.
   The Joydevpur police officer-in-charge, Abdur Rashid, told New Age that the workers had first tried to hold a rally in front of the factory, but the police stopped them from doing so.
   Another garment factory, Tendy Sweater Factory at Bhogra in the district headquarters was closed on Thursday.
   The authorities at a meeting on Sunday decided to reopen the factory today.

A seven-day rag celebration, traditional education completion ceremony, for the students of 32nd batch of the university began on Sunday.
   JU vice-chancellor Professor Mohammed Muniruzzaman inaugurated the weeklong programme by releasing pigeons and balloons at the foot of Amar Ekushey.
   The opening function followed a colourful procession with the enthusiastic participation of out- going students. King and queen on carriage were the main attraction of the procession.
   The grand seven-day programme included rally, and campfire on the opening day, mehedi festival and cultural function on November 17, blood donation and concert on November 18, sport and rag adda on November 19, excursion to Nandan Park and musical show on November 20, tree plantation and dinner on November 21.

Polls to IU employees’ assoc today
Election to the executive committee of the Islamic University Class IV Employees’ Association will be held from 9:00am to 1:00pm today at the university club. Abdul Mannan, an officer in registrar’s office, will act as the election commissioner. A total of 315 voters will cast their votes in the election. Three panels, backed by Awami League, BNP and Jamaat, will contest the election.
— New Age

Aga Khan Award for Architecture holds seminar today
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture will hold a seminar today at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre to present the 2007 winning projects to the professional community and architectural students in Bangladesh. Commerce and education adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman will be the chief guest at the seminar. The participants will include architects and academics from Bangladesh, and international guests. On November 20, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture will hold a ceremony at Rudrapur village in Dinajpur to celebrate the School in Rudrapur, winner of the 2007 Aga Khan Award, a release of the Aga Khan Foundation said. The celebration will focus on the contributions made to the success of the project by the community of Rudrapur and NGO Dipshikha. The chief architect of the housing and public works ministry and architects of the project Ms Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag, among others, will be present.
— UNB