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The people in Patuakhali town has been suffering for long due to poor utility services.
    The Patuakhali municipality was upgraded into class one in 1985, but the town people are still deprived of getting better utility services, some residents said.
   Shabby roads, poor sanitation system, load shedding, inadequate water supply and mosquito menace feature the municipality, they said.
   Most of the roads in the municipality area have remained in a bad shape for long but the authorities have no headache in repairing them, the town people alleged.
   Almost all the roads have developed big holes, making traffic risky and causing travel by the town people hazardous, they said.
   The roads that lied in worst condition are Centrepara road, Adalatpara road, Nawabpara road, Puran Bazar Sarak, Bank road, Post Office road, Sher-e-Bangla road, Thanapara road, Hospital road, PTI road, SDO road, Munsefpara road, Ankhrabari road, Fishport road, Sadar road, Baro
   masjid road, Lake road, Jubilee School road, Latif School road, Charpara road, Gonoudyog road, Kazibari road, Jail road and College road.
   Besides, there lies heaps of garbage haphazardly at roadsides, and as a result the people feel uncomfortable due to stinking smell.
   The roads remain filthy as sweepers at the municipality do not clean them regularly, town people alleged.
   Water logging is another major problem facing the people in the municipality, they said.
   Every monsoon, many areas in the town get clogged with water even after light rainfall due to absence of sufficient drains.
   Mosquito menace turns severe in all the areas under the municipality. The town people suffer from mosquito bite every day.
   Road-side ditches filled with water hyacinths have become the ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, town people said.
   ‘We have urged the municipality authorities to take proper measures to save the town people from mosquito menace but they have not yet taken any step to ease our sufferings,’ a resident said.
   Sources at the municipality office said they could not conduct anti-mosquito drive regularly due to shortage of four spray machines.
   The municipality has four spray machines and three of them remain out of order, the sources added.
   All the markets in the town are also in a deplorable condition. People have to go the markets and buy essential goods in an unhygienic condition.
   The New Market in the town is not an exception. It also presents a sorry state. The meat shops lie in most unhygienic condition as thy have been set up haphazardly in the town.
   Poor supply of drinking water is one of the major problems the town people suffer most.
   The municipality authorities have the capacity to supply only 10 thousand gallons of water against the total demand for 75,000 gallons.
   Most of the town dwellers are compelled to use river water for their domestic use.
   Some town people while talking to New Age said the municipality officials are only busy collecting taxes instead of taking any measures to ease the sufferings of the town people.
   When contacted, the municipality mayor Md Mostak Ahmed Pinu said a development project by the DANIDA, an NGO, was being implemented for improving the service for town people.
   He, however, acknowledged that the municipality is not yet capable providing its dwellers with better services.
   ‘It will take a few more years to ensure improved services for the town people,’ he added.
   Established in 1892, the Patuakhali municipality was upgraded into a first class one in 1985.

A man strangled his daughter and also tried to kill his wife at Kutubpur under Gournadi upazila in Barisal Thursday night.
   The police said Hanif Khan along with his wife Anjana Begum and nine-month old daughter Sharmin was going to his village home at Kalkini of Madaripur.
   He (Hanif) boarded a launch along with his wife and daughter from Sadarghat launch terminal in Dhaka Wednesday evening to go to his village home.
   They came to Gouranadi Thursday morning and after a stay for several hours here, they reached the Kutubpur ferry ghat in a boat at 9:00pm.
   At one stage, Hanif snatched his daughter from the lap of Anjana and strangled her. After the killing, he threw the body into the local Palardi river.
   He also tried to strangle Anjana. Hearing screams, local people came to the spot and rescued her in an unconscious condition and recovered the body of her daughter from the river.
   Later, Anjana and the body of her daughter were to Gournadi police early Friday.
   Anjana, a resident of Gachahar Sahapara under Dinajpur, works in a garment factory in Dhaka. She married Hanif, also a garment worker, of Kalkini in Madaripur following love affairs one year ago.
   Anjana told the police that she was being taken to her father-in-law’s house according to a heinous plan to kill her and daughter.
   Anjana was admitted to Gournadi Upazila Health Complex in a critical condition and the body was handed over to the relatives after autopsy.
   She filed a murder case with the Gournadi police station, police said.

A seven-day children fair began on the premises of Udayan Women’s College at Putimari under Shaghata upazila in Gaibandha on Tuesday.
   The upazila administration, different non-governmental organisations and academic institutions arranged the fair on the occasion of Child Rights Week-08..
   The deputy commissioner Abu Muhammad Yousuf inaugurated the fair as the chief guest while upazila nirbahi officer of Shaghata upazila Gullai Singh and UNO of Fulchhari upazila Dewan M Abdus Samad were present as special guests.
   The executive director of Uddyan Shabolambee Sangstha, M Shahadat Hossain Mondal, presided over the function.

Speakers at a reception ceremony on Friday said no nation can prosper without educating its citizens.
   To keep the nation on track of the faster global development trend, there is no alternative to flourishing talents of our students, they told the reception according to meritorious students.
   Dinajpur Dakshinanchal Unnayan Forum organised the reception at Hakimpur Degree College auditorium to honour meritorious students four southern upazilas in Dinajpur.
   Chaired by President of the organisation Azizur Rahman, the ceremony was attended by Prof Dr Nazrul Islam as the chief guest.
   Vice-president of DDUF and Prof of Dhaka University Dr Mahfuzur Rahman, its General Secretary and director of the Manpower Development Bureau Feroz Kabir and UNO of Hakimpur upazila Aknur Rahman were present as the special guests.
   Vice president of Dinajpur Ainjibi Samity Advocate Moula Box, social worker Akram Hossain Mandal, Prof Abdul Mannan, Prof Mamunur Rashid, Dr Moshiur Rahman, Engineer Shahinur Reza, headmaster Rakib Uddin Mandal, addressed, among others.
   A total of 170 students who got GPA-5 in the SSC, HSC, Dakhil and Alim examinations this year from different educational institutions of Hakimpur, Ghoraghat, Nababganj and Birampur upazilas in Dinajpur were accorded receptions.
   The speakers urged the teachers, students, guardians and all concerned to play their due role in further upgrading education standard and to properly flourish talents of the students, who are the future leaders of the nation.
   Later, the students were given medals, crests and certificates. The organisers announced that two meritorious students from each of these four upazilas will get stipends from Dr Mostak Ali Khan Memorial Fund every year from this year.

The Detective Branch of police arrested eight gamblers red-handed and seized cash money andgambling equipment from a hotel in Rangpur town on Friday.
   Acting on secret information, a special DB police team conducted a raid at hotel ‘Diamond’ in Modern Mour area of the townand arrested the gamblers while gambling inside a room.
   The police also seized Tk 10,660 in cash and equipments for gambling from the spot during the raid.
   The arrested gamblers were identified as- Rafikul Islam, 25, Raju Ahmed, 22, Rabiul Islam, 25, Jahurul Haque, 35, Jahangir Alam, 23, Harunur Rashid, 25, Bipul Chandra, 22, and Aiyub Ali, 35.
   The gabblers are the inhabitants of different villages in Pirgachha and Mithapukur upazilas of Rangpur and Polashbari upazila in Gaibandha district.
   The group comes to the hotel almost every day for gambling. police said.
   The DB police filed a case against the arrested gamblers with Kotwali police station and later they were sent to jail hajat after police produced them before a Rangpur court today, the sources said.