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Although Bangladesh is one of the major rice-producing countries in the world, lack of policy support for farmers and adverse climate change are the main barriers to ensuring food security, said the officials and the agriculturists while addressing the press briefing ahead of World Food Day 2008.
   Bangladesh ranks fourth, after China, India and Indonesia, in rice production, but lack of a land reform policy and suitable technology transfer at the field level has prevented it from increasing the production of rice, they said at the programme held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity on Wednesday.
   The theme of the programme, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture to observe the 32nd World Food Day, was ‘World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bio-Energy’.
   The country is losing one per cent of its agricultural land every year. Moreover the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture and soaring food and input prices are posing extra challenges to the survival of millions of the landless and marginal farmers whose livelihood almost entirely depends on agriculture.
   The widespread creation of awareness on ways to increase agricultural production and improve livelihood security can be ensured by more intensive research and extension and adoption of technologies resilient to climate change. The timely supply of agricultural inputs and the development of rural infrastructure including irrigation, processing and marketing facilities are priority issues that need immediate attention.
   ‘The government’s continued efforts to feed its current population of 145 million people — and with two million new mouths to feed every year from a limited supply of agricultural land with access as low as 0.06 hectare per person — is praiseworthy and highly acclaimed globally,’ said the country representative of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Ad Spijkers.
   The programme was also attended by Anwar Faruque, the director-general of the seed wing under the Ministry of Agriculture, and Nur-E-Elahi, DG of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, and M Shamsul Alam, DG of the Department of Agricultural Extension.
   The government has staged various programmes like children’s art competition, rallies, seminars, cultural programmes and agricultural fairs in the city to mark the World Food Day.
   A group of think-tanks also emphasised the need for a regional strategy to be undertaken by the member countries of the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation to tackle the food crisis collectively, at a programme jointly organised by the Media Foundation for Trade and Development, Equity and Justice Working Group and Rupantar to observe the World Food Day and the Rural Women Day.
   The food-bank which was established by the SAARC countries during the summit in New Delhi decided to store about 2,41,560 tonnes of food-grains for meeting emergencies, but the quantity is not sufficient to ensure food security of the member countries, they said.
   They also urged the SAARC countries to take into consideration the interest of the small farmers while formulating the SAARC Agricultural Development Policy 2020.

For the first time in the country, the government has given permission to launch nine medical assistant training schools at the private level.
   Besides, approval was given to introduce some medical educational institutions at different levels and new courses and increase the number of seats.
   The health and family welfare ministry gave the permission at a meeting in Dhaka on Tuesday. The health adviser, AMM Shawkat Ali, presided over the meeting.
   The nine medical assistant training schools which were given approval are Sike Institute of Medical Assistant Training and Dhaka Assistant Medical Training School at Mirpur in Dhaka, Sumana Medical Assistant Training School at Sadarghat in Dhaka, Rampura Medical Assistant Training School in Dhaka, Rajshahi Medical Assistant Training School and Udayan Medical Assistant Training School in Rajshahi, Prime Medical Assistant Training School and Green International Medical Training School in Rangpur and TMSS Medical Assistant Training School in Bogra.
   At the meeting, Ad-dwin Women Medical College at Maghbazar in Dhaka and Community Medical College got permission to launch their activities. Besides, two unani medical college and hospitals — one at Dhaka and another at Lakshmipur — were given approval.
   Endorsement was given to launch six post-graduate courses at Institute of Health Science at Mirpur in Dhaka set up under the Diabetic Hospital Project.
   The meeting took decision to increase seats at four medical colleges. The medical colleges are Sahabuddin Medical College at Gulshan in Dhaka, Enam Medical College at Savar in Dhaka, Mother and Child Medical College Hospital in Chittagong and Rangpur Dental College in Rangpur.
   Approval was also given to set up an institute of health technology at private level in Chittagong. Besides, the number of seats has been raised at six institutes of health technologies at Mirpur in Dhaka, Bogra, Rajshahi and Rangpur.
   Health secretary AMM Nasiruddin and other officials concerned were present at the meeting.

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port on Wednesday announced protest programmes for a week against the government move to award international oil companies nine offshore blocks and to formulate the coal
   policy.
   The committee will be going out on demonstrations for a week and be holding protest rallies in universities from October 22 and exchange opinions with university teachers on October 22 against the government moves, said the committee convener
   Sheikh Md Shahidullah at a briefing at Pragati Milanayatan.
   The committee will also form human chains across the country and hold rallies, including in Muktangon in Dhaka, against the ‘evil moves’ of the government, he said.
   The committee leaders said the interim government was trying to award IOCs the blocks hurriedly and to formulate the coal policy by changing the policy draft finalised by a committee of former BUET vice-chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari ‘in the interest of the imperialists.’
   They claimed the policy draft of the Patwari committee more or less reflected people’s interest and dashed the interest of multinational companies.
   They observed the government had amended the Patwari committee draft to destroy the country.
   The leaders also criticised the government for its move to sign production-sharing contracts which would allow ‘export of 80 per cent of the gas in the form of LNG.’
   Justice Golam Rabbani, Bimal Biswas, MM Akash, Shamsul Alam, Syed Abul Maksud, Nur Mohammad and Ruhin Hossain Price also attended the briefing. district.

About five lakh small and marginal farmers of 115 upazilas in 22 districts will get Tk 27 crore to overcome the losses, caused by the damage of crops in the recent flooding, sources in the agricultural ministry said.
   The government has allocated the money under the agricultural rehabilitation programme, they added saying that it is for the first time the flood-hit farmers are getting cash support.
   More than 6 lakh farmers were affected and aman crops on some 1.63 lakh hectares of land damaged by the July-August flood, they said.
   Under the rehab programme, farmers having a maximum of 7.5 bighas of land will be eligible for receiving the support and the government will provide support for the crop loss of maximum 2.5 bighas of land.
   The government will provide Tk 600 for crop-damage in each bigha land and a farmer will get a maximum of Tk 1,500 for the damage of crops in 2.5 bighas of land.
   Union-level agricultural committees have already prepared the lists of the affected farmers and the lists would be sent to the upazila agricultural committees and then to the district agricultural committees, headed by the deputy commissioners, said a ministry official.
   The district committees will approve the lists and then the government will handover the money to the upazila committee for disbursement, said the official. The government has already sent the money to the deputy commissioners of the flood affected districts.
   The recent flood caused an estimated loss of Tk 1700-Tk 1800 crore by damaging aman crops on some 1.63 hectares of land, the official said.
   The director general of the Department of Agricultural Extension, M Shamsul Alam, said ‘This is for the first time, the farmers are being provided with cash support to overcome the losses they had suffered due to the flood.’
   The direct cash support will be helpful for the farmers as most of them had transplanted aman seedlings by lending money, said the DG.
   The flood affected districts are Dhaka, Gazipur, Tangail, Faridpur, Narsingdi, Manikganj, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Kurigram, Sirajganj, Brahmanbaria, Sylhet, Moulvi-bazar, Sunamganj, Chapainawab-ganj, Bogra, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Rajbari, Sathkhira, Comilla and Shariatpur.

The University Grants Commission chairman, Professor Nazrul Islam, on Wednesday said the commission would finalise the draft of ‘Sexual Harassment and Repression Policy-2008’ in the first week of November to check sexual abuse in higher educational institutions across the country.
   ‘The UGC is determined to formulate the policy as part of the commission’s new duty. With the enforcement of the proposed policy, I firmly believe that any sort of sexual harassment would not be occurred in the country’s higher educational institutions, ‘ he said at an exchange of views on the draft policy.
   To formulate the policy, he said, a committee has been formed headed by member of the UGC Professor AHM Jehadul Karim incorporating 17-member comprising educationist, teachers, women activists and civil society members.
   The UGC chairman said cancellation of certificate and punishments like sacking from profession were under the purview of the policy.
   Women activists Ayesha Khanom said the policy would work as a guideline to check any type of unethical practices in the educational institutions of the country. She suggested measures for ensuring safety of the complainant in any immoral incident.

A month-long painting exhibition of Bangladeshi painters will begin at the National Art Gallery in the capital of Pakistan in December to project rich culture and image of Bangladesh.
   Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad in association with Pakistan National Council of the Arts will organise the exhibition during the first week of December. The exhibition will also be held in Karachi.
   A number of renowned Bangladeshi painters will be present in the inauguration ceremony of the exhibition, where about 100 paintings are expected to be displayed.
   The painters will also organise a workshop there for the art-loving people and students of the find arts institutions in Islamabad to familiarise them with the forms of aesthetic and utilitarian values of art and culture of Bangladesh and contribute to people to people contact.
   Interested Bangladesh painters have been requested to contact for submission of their painting works to the press counsellor of Bangladesh High Commission, Islamabad (Phone: 00923032181960, e-mail: bdhcisb@dsl.net.pk, fax: 0092-51-2279266) by October 25.

The Cable Operators’ Association of Bangladesh on Wednesday urged the government to allow downlink to at least 30 free-to-air channels by reducing the number of pay channels.
   COAB at a news conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity said free-to-air facilities of some good channels, including sports channel SS-1 to SS-8, had been suspended following a government order.
   ‘The government should reduce the number of pay channels to the maximum of 25 to save foreign currency. At present, the government allows downlink to 44 pay-channels and 26 free-to-air channels,’ COAB president SM Anwar Parvez said demanding more free-to-air channels, mostly sports and news channels.
   Reading out a statement, COAB secretary general Nizam Uddin Masud demanded that the government should monitor the pay-channel distributors to ensure that they ran their business abiding by the Cable TV Network Operating Act, 2006.
   The COAB leaders also stressed the need for steps by the government to allow transmission of Bangladeshi channels in neighbouring India as between 50 and 60 Indian channels are allowed in Bangladesh.
   The government fixed up the monthly subscription charge at Tk 300 for per subscriber in the Dhaka city with the condition that the cable operators should have at least 30 pay channels. However, most of the operators do not have 30 pay channels.
   Cable TV Viewers’ Forum President Erfanul Haq Nahid and other COAB leaders were present at the conference.

A man and his son were killed by their rivals over a land dispute at Kaliganj upazila in Gazipur Wednesday evening.
   The deceased were Mohamm-ad Mollah, 50, and Majed Mollah, 25, residents of the Nayabazar area of Boktarpur union.
   Quoting local people the police said Mohammad Mollah and Majed were struck by sharp weapons by their rivals as they went to a disputed land to cut down a tree in the evening, leaving them seriously injured.
   They were taken to Kaliganj Upazila Health Complex where doctors declared them dead. A case was filed.

The High Court on Wednesday extended for six months its earlier bail order for Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil in a corruption case.
   The bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui issued the extension order after hearing a petition filed by Jalil.
   Earlier on September 9, the High Court granted the Awami League leader bail till October 20 in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission on December 18, 2007.
   The latest extension will allow him to stay free until April 20 next year.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Jalil, also a former commerce minister, on May 28, 2007 under emergency powers rules.
   The ACC later charged him with amassing illegal wealth
   of Tk 35.08 lakh and concealing information of assets worth Tk 36.04 lakh from the authorities.
    He was paroled on March 3 for treatment in Singapore, where he stayed until his return home on August 31 this year.

Seventy-six sacks of Indian diammonium phosphate fertiliser were seized from a farmer at Singra in Natore and Tk 25,000 was realised in fines from the farmer for keeping the fertiliser illegally.
   The Singra agriculture office said a search was conducted in the house of the farmer, Abdul Jabbar, a resident of Bahadurpur Kandipara at Ghamari of Singra Tuesday afternoon. And the fertiliser worth an estimated Tk 2.25 lakh was seized.
   The upazila nirbahi officer, Hamidur Rahman, realised Tk 25,000 in fines from the farmer under the Fertiliser Ordinance Act.
   Upazila assistant agriculture officer Rais Uddin said cheap and low-quality fertiliser was smuggled into Bangladesh from India and was sold for higher prices claiming it to be triple super phosphate.

In a bid to ease the city’s vexing traffic jam, the education ministry has asked the authorities of all educational institutions in the capital to start their classes at 7:30am.
   The educational institutions have been asked to comply with the directive regardless of their single or double shifts, said a handout on Wednesday. Twelve vigilance teams, led by 12 deputy secretaries of the ministry, have been formed to strictly enforce the directive.