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High prices limit the poor people’s access to food and put the food security at stake despite a good harvest of crops, speakers said at a seminar Thursday.
   About one crore people of 25 lakh families became poor afresh in Bangladesh during the period of 2005-08 mainly because of high food prices, the seminar on food security was told.
   Though rice production increased 3 to 5 times than the pre-independence level, malnourishment increased as the poor and marginal people had limited access to food.
   Former food minister Matia Chowdhury said thoughtless privatisation of agricultural related services led the farming costs to go out of control of farmers.
   The Awami League government [1996-2001] took initiatives to revive the state-owned Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, but the following government abandoned the plan and further expedited commercialisation of agricultural inputs, she said.
   Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon said more investment was needed in agriculture and modern farming, while the government must ensure supply of all inputs on time and fair prices to farmers if the country was to achieve food security.
   Exorbitant prices of all agricultural inputs like seed, fertiliser and pesticide and growing control of the private sector over the farm input supplies made crop production too expensive for small and marginal farmers, said Uttam Kumar Dev, a researcher at the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
   President of Bangladesh Krishak Samity Morshed Ali said the government should fix administered prices for all fertilisers as farmers were not benefited by the current system of fertiliser subsidy.
   INCIDIN Bangladesh, Wave Foundation, NRDS and Angikar Bangladesh jointly organised the seminar on ‘Food Security: the perspective of globalization and trade in agriculture’ on the occasion of World Food Day.
   Former vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University Abdul Bayes, deputy editor of Bangla daily Samakal Mozammel Hossain Manzu, INCIDIN Bangladesh executive AKM Masud Ali, Angikar Bangladesh executive Muhammad Hilaluddin and Wave Foundation executive Mohsin Ali also spoke.

The Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL) on Thursday suggested certain reforms in the agricultural sector to support the marginal farmers and thus ensure the food security of the nation.
   A set of recommendations was made at the roundtable, organised by the CSRL at the Institute of Engineers, to discuss several study papers that had analysed food security issues in Bangladesh and global perspectives.
   The roundtable, chaired by the CSRL’s chairman Shirin Akhtar, was addressed, among others, by Hasanul Haque Inu, president of the JSD, and Manzur Ahmed, adviser to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Ziaul Haque Mukta, the member secretary of the CSRL, submitted the list of recommendations
   ‘An agriculture reforms programme should be planned and implemented as a whole by coordinating all the national policies to save agriculture and farmers and ensure food security,’ said Mukta.
   He suggested increased food procurement by the government, spending more for agriculture and strong market monitoring to prevent all forms of syndication and manipulation.
   The CSRL’s recommendations sought a wider social safety net, laws to protect agricultural labour, rationing system for low-income rural and urban people and increased wages, adjusted with price hikes of food items, for the workers.
   The capacity of the people at the grassroots level should be developed to enable them to cope with the dire effects of climate change, said the CSRL. It suggested that public awareness should be creating
   for reducing dependence on cereals.
   Hasanul Haque Inu said mismanagement and lack of knowledge are mainly responsible for the food crisis and price-hikes of food items.
   He demanded that marginal farmers should get adequate monetary support and should be helped to market their produce because they have the potential to raise agricultural production and ensure food security.
   ‘The political parties should make it clear in their election manifestoes exactly how they will tackle the food crisis,’ said Inu.
   Manzur Ahmed said farmers should be helped to get a bigger share of the profits that are made because of the high prices of food items.
   Sharifa Khan, the deputy director at the WTO cell of the commerce ministry, and AMM Badrul Ahsan, the former economic minister at the Geneva mission of Bangladesh, presented study papers at the roundtable.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has decided to charge sheet former state minister Salahuddin Ahmed, ex-lawmaker Reza Ahmed Bachchu, Awami League leader MK Alamgir’s two sons and 20 others in seven graft cases.
   The ACC director general (admin), Colonel Hanif Iqbal, told the commission’s regular briefing on Thursday that the anti-graft watchdog had approved the submission of charge sheets in these cases.
   Former state minister for communications Salahuddin and 15 others will be charge-sheeted in the case filed for grabbing land of others through abuse of power.
   The ACC will press charges against ex-lawmaker Bachchu for corruption relating to CI sheet while AL leader Alamgir’s sons Jalal Alamgir and Joy Alamgir will be charge-sheeted in separate cases filed for not submitting their wealth statements in due time.
   Patuakhali municipal mayor Moshtaque Ahmed Pinu and sub-assistant engineer Abdul Latif Khan will be charge-sheeted for misappropriating about Tk 1.02 crore.
   Charge-sheets will be submitted in two more cases against another three individuals for misappropriation of money.
   Meanwhile, the ACC is going to issue notices to eight individuals, including detained former minister and BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain’s two sons and Chittagong city mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury’s wife, directing them to submit their wealth statements.
   Colonel Hanif said the ACC had approved the issuance of notices to Mosharraf’s sons Khandaker Mahabub Hossain and Maruf Hossain, Mohiuddin’s wife Hasina Mohiuddin and five others.
   The others who are going to receive ACC notices are Syed Abdul Malek, former private secretary to ex-home minister and Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim, former acting superintending engineer of Chittagong Development Authority Noor Hossain, his wife Monjil Ara, CDA assistant engineer Mohammad Ilyas and his wife Zannatul Maowa.
   After receiving the notices, these individuals will have seven working days to submit their wealth statements to the commission.
   Colonel Hanif also informed the briefing that the ACC had so far referred 128 names to the Truth and Accountability Commission for considering their clemency applications and another 14 applications are under process.
   district.

The visiting German first lady, Eva Luise Koehler, on Thursday said the government needed to concentrate more on education of underprivileged children as they were eager to go to school.
   ‘Children have a very strong urge for education though they are hungry and don’t have enough food to eat. It’s the responsibility of the government to ensure their education,’ she told a press briefing in Dhaka after visiting a number of UNICEF projects.
   Koehler, also patroness of the National Committee for UNICEF in Germany, visited the UNICEF projects taken for slum children and a school for working children supported by UNICEF in the city’s Mirpur area, a sanitation project at Belabo upazila of Narsingdi and Arsenic project at Sarail upazila of Brahmanbaria.
   The German first lady along with chairman of UNICEF National Committee in Germany Juergen Heraeus arrived in Dhaka Monday to see the UNICEF projects on child education and sanitation.
   ‘I’m impressed seeing the franklyness and energy of Bangladeshi people who are making their livelihoods despite many difficulties,’ Koehler told the journalists describing her experience during the visit.
   Narrating the miserable living condition of the people in rice-husking mills in Narsingdi, she said, ‘I’m surprised how they organise their lives and make livelihoods in this condition.’
   Eva Luise said UNICEF wanted Bangladesh’s quick and fast development. Juergen who also visited the projects said, ‘We find many positive things happening here what can’t understand from Germany as international media reflect Bangladesh as a natural catastrophe-hit country and focus on its negative news.’
   He lauded the activities and programmes of UNICEF and other non-governmental organisations for raising awareness of the people about many social problems, including poverty, AIDS, arsenic and sanitation.
   Expressing surprise as a female acid victim did not get justice even after four years of the heinous attack on her, Juergen said media and law-enforcers needed to play a more active role in bringing the attackers to book.

Amid fresh bird-flu worries, the director general of the Department of Livestock Services has stressed the need for a multi-sectoral approach to make people aware about the risks of the disease that rattled the country’s poultry industry last year.
   ‘We are in fresh risk of avian influenza, so we have to create awareness among the people,’ Sunil Chandra Ghosh told the closing ceremony of a three-day workshop on ‘Avian Influenza NGO Network Orientation’ in Dhaka Thursday.
   CARE Bangladesh organised the workshop participated by more than 100 people from different NGOs across the country. The USAID and the AI.COMM sponsored the programme.
   The sudden outbreak of bird flu detected in a Naogaon farm on September 29 alerted the authorities about the comeback of the disease after a five months’ break since the last case found on May 18 in Tangail.
   The government has brought some changes in the disease management, now limiting the drive of stamping out fowls to 500 metres around an infected farm instead of previous one kilometer.
   The first outbreak of avian influenza was detected on February 22 in 2007 and the virus affected 288 farms under 47 districts, leading to culling of 16,37,606 chickens in 548 farms.
   The bird flu scare threw hundreds of small and marginal poultry farms out of business in two years and caused a total loss of around Tk 4,500 crore to the sector, industry sources said.
   Massive culling of fowls led to short supply and subsequent price hike of poultry products.

Nearly 400 teachers of non-government primary schools on Thursday went on a token hunger strike for two hours at the Central Shaheed Minar to press home their demands, including job nationalisation.
   The teachers teamed up as the National Primary Teachers’ Coordination Council observed the programme between 2:00pm and 4:00pm.
   ‘We demand cancellation of the BRAC-sponsored training for teachers in the schools in 30 upazilas. We also demand introduction of primary education cadre service under the primary and mass education ministry,’ said Mohammad Shamsul Alam, member secretary of the council.
   ‘We also demand nationalisation of our jobs,’ he told reporters after the programme.
   There are 77,113 teachers in 19,605 registered non-government primary schools across the country and such teachers get salary partially from the state exchequer in the form of monthly pay order.

An activist of an underground party was killed in a gunfight between the police and extremists at Alampur Seven Mile under Kushtia sadar upazila early Thursday.
   The deceased was Abul Kashem alias Saddam, 50, chief of killing mission of Ganomukti Fouj, military wing of the extremist outfit Sramajibi Mukti Andolon.
   The police said a police team raided the area after receiving information that some extremists were holding a secret meeting there at about 2:00am.
   Sensing the presence of policemen, the criminals fired at the law-enforcers who also returned the fire that killed Saddam.
   Sub-inspector of the sadar police Masud Parvez was injured in the gun battle. The police recovered one shutter gun and four bullets from the spot.
   The body was sent to the Kushtia General Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   Saddam, who came from of Alampur Noapara under sadar upazila, was wanted by the police in 12 cases, including three of murders.

A three day Lalan Fair, marking the 118th death anniversary of mystic singer Lalan Fakir, began at his hermitage at Seuria under Kushtia sadar upazila on Thursday.
   Cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder inaugurated the fair. Different shops were also set up in the fair organised by local administration.
   The authorities took tightened security measures to maintain law and order in the fair.

A Juba Dal activist was beaten to death at Adamdighi in Bogra early Thursday following a conflict between two groups of transport workers.
   A group of bus workers attacked Rafiqul Islam of Hauspur village and the owner of a three-wheeler trolley,
   as he protested against collection of tolls from trolley workers by bus workers, local people said.
   Rafiqul was beaten severely at Chapapur Tinmatha and taken to the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital where he died.
   The death angered trolley workers, who attacked bus workers’ association office, damaged shops and set fire to a motorbike.
   All the shops in the area remained closed until the evening Thursday.
   Adamdighi police, along with local union parishad chairman Yunus Ali Dulal, reached the spot and brought the situation under control.
   Officer-in-charge of Adamdighi police Mozammel Haque said Rafiqul was killed in a clash between two groups of addicts.

Rokon Ud-Doula, deputy director of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institutions who earned fame by conduction mobile courts against food adulteration, has been appointed magistrate (executive) at Rajdhani Unnyan Kartripakkha.
   The establishment ministry issued a gazette notification to the effect on Thursday.
   Rokon, who was made an officer on special duty on October 30, 2007, was posted to the BSTI on July 27, 2008.
   He was earlier withdrawn from magistracy at the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court of Dhaka on October 23, 2007 after his remarks at a seminar at the Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management where he opposed the separation of the judiciary from the executive, which came into force on November 1, 2007.
   Rokon Ud-Doula joined the administration cadre in the ninth Bangladesh Civil Service batch.
   He was posted to the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on March 12, 2005 and he soon became popular for his mobile court drives against adulteration of food and other commodities.

Economists, academicians and cooperative activists said credit unions are most reliable financial organisations to serve low-income group people.
   At a discussion, held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity, on the World Credit Union Day on Thursday, they blamed the government for not regulating and patronising credit unions.
   ‘It is very unfortunate that cooperative movement has weakened in Bangladesh despite its huge potentials,’ economist Professor Abu Ahmed said at the discussion, organised by the Cooperative Cre-dit Union League of Bangladesh.
   Professor Tofael Ahmed, a former teacher of Chittagong University, said proper regulation could make cooperatives the efficient engine of the country’s financial sector. ‘Cooperatives should be allowed to operate banks,’ he demanded.
   Quazi Faruque, chairman of the Sampriti Cooperative Credit Union Limited and general secretary of Consumer Association of Bangladesh, Borhan Ahmed, executive editor of the daily Janakantha, Iqbal Ahmed, joint registrar of Department of Cooperatives, John F Rodrigues, chairman of CCULB, it secretary Emdad Hossain and general manager Ratan F Costa also spoke at the discussion.