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Road accidents have become rampant in the Khulna city as many of the speed breakers in the city either have no marks or their marks have faded beyond recognition allegedly because of the negligence of the authorities concerned.
   If there is no marking on the speed breakers, the drivers fail to slow their vehicles, risking fatal accidents, said sources in the Khulna Metropolitan Police and the Roads and Highways Division.
   They said there are nine speed breakers between Goalkhali and Phulbarigate on the Khulna-Jessore Jighway, including two at Goalkhali, three at BL College intersection, two at Kulibagan and two at Phulbarigate but there is no marking on the speed breakers at Kulibagan intersection and Phulbarigate while the colours of two speed breakers at BL College intersection have absolutely faded.
   There are seven speed breakers on the Sonadanga-Notunrasta Highway, including three at BDR Sector Headquarters, two in front of Abu Naser Specialised Hospital and two in front of Khulna Metropolitan Police Lines and all of them are marked finely, they said.
   The KMP sources said small accidents are taking place almost every day at Kulibagan, Phulbarigate and at BL College intersections but information about them do not reach the police. They also said accidents are rare at the speed breakers where they are well-marked.
   They said in the past one month and a half, three fatal accidents took place at the Kulibagan intersection that claimed three lives as there is no marks on the speed breaker at the spot.
   Firoz Mamun, a small trader at Kulibagan intersection on the Khulna-Jessore highway, told New Age that the speed breaker at the intersection was made one and a half month ago but there is no mark on it.
   Besides, small accidents are taking place almost every day while five big accidents took place at the spot, killing three persons, he said and demanded immediate colouring of the speed breaker.
   M Babul Hawlader, vice-president of the Khulna district unit of Nirapad Sarak Chai, while taking to New Age blamed negligence of the Roads and Highways Department for not marking some of the speed breakers and not colouring the faded ones.
   A KMP traffic department official said they have issued several letters to the Khulna RHD for marking the speed breakers with white and yellow colours at some places this year but they are yet to get any response.
   A highly placed Khulna RHD department official, preferring anonymity, told New Age that they have made speed breakers at different points in the face of local demand but to mark and colour the speed breakers is the responsibility of the local people.
   ‘We could not mark a few of them and colour the faded marks on the speed breakers because of both fund and manpower crisis,’ he said, adding that they would immediately mark the speed breakers as early as possible.

Century-old Rajshahi Sonali Bank building remains in a poor state, putting the life of officials and employees at risk.
   Bank sources said Sonali Bank Corporate Branch has been continuing its activities in the old building in Shaheb Bazar area since 1973. But the authorities concerned have yet to start construction work of the new building on the site following a dispute over land, they added.
   The Rajshahi City Corporation, Rajshahi Development Authority and Public Works Department have recently identified the building as risky.
   The district administration in 1978 sanctioned Tk 2.24 lakh to buy one bigha of land after the bank authorities had sought funds in this regard. Later the deputy commissioner and the finance ministry in 1994 asked the bank authorities to build the bank building.
   The authorities concerned put forward a proposal to the Rajshahi Development Authority in 1994 after they had designed a plan for the building, the sources said, adding that the RDA stopped the proposal due to dispute over the land.
   The then deputy commissioner submitted an investigation report on September 1, 1996 following an order issued by the land ministry. But the authorities have not been allowed to start construction work of the bank building, officials alleged.
   ‘We have to work amid fears as the building is very old,’ a high official of the bank told New Age on Sunday.
   Mamtaz Parvin, general manager of Sonali Bank Rajshahi Corporate Branch, said the century-old building was in a very poor condition, putting the life of officials and employees at risk. ‘It may collapse at anytime,’ she added.

A mobile court on Sunday realised Tk 1.77 lakh in fines from seven eateries in the city’s Topkhana, Bijoynagar and Bayley Road areas for selling substandard iftar items.
   A team of the Rapid Action Battalion raided New Café Jheel, Kari House Restaurant, Super Star Hotel, Kabir Hotel and Restaurant, Paradise Food, Pitha Ghar and Shahi Mama Pianju.
   The team, led by magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha and Major Saiful Islam, first conducted drive in Topkhana and Bijoynagar areas and realised Tk 92,000 in fines from five eateries.
   The team later realised Tk 65,000 from Pitha Ghar on Bayley Road for making the iftar items at dirty place and Tk 20,000 from Shahi Mama Pianju.
   The court asked the owners to cover the iftar items before selling them to people. ‘We are trying to raise awareness among the shopkeepers as some dishonest traders sell substandard iftar items,’ said Anwar Pasha.
   ‘We also advise them to cover the iftar items in a bid to protect them from dust and viruses,’ he said, adding that the drives would help people not to buy such items

Local traders and civil society members on Sunday urged the Rajshahi University authorities to reopen the institution immediately.
   They made the call at a meeting held at the office of Binodpur Traders’ Association with its president Rabban Ali in the chair.
   The university was closed for an indefinite period on August 20 following a clash between the students and local traders that left 60 people injured.
   The traders at the meeting said several hundred small traders, day labourers and rickshaw-pullers on the campus and its adjacent areas had been leading inhuman life with their family members due to unscheduled closure of the university.
   They also demanded neutral investigation into the August 20 incident and urged the university authorities to immediately withdraw the case filed against 400 people and traders.
   They demanded compensation to the affected traders and exemplary punishment for the persons responsible for the incident.
   Abu Bakkar Molla, general secretary of the association, civil society members and traders of Binodpur and Kazla areas were also present.
   When contacted, RU vice-chancellor Professor Mamnunul Kerammat said the authorities were going to take necessary steps for reopening of the university soon.

A five-day celebration of Sharadiya Durga Puja, the greatest religious festival of the Hindu community, will begin on October 6 at 412 mandaps in Barisal, including 27 ones in the city.
   According to Barisal district unit of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, the number of puja mandaps in the district would be increased by 11 comparing to the previous year while two more mandaps would be added to the last year’s list in the city.
   The parishad district unit president Rakhal Chandra Dey and secretary Manik Mukherjee Kudu said they would curtail expenditures on decorations, gates, illuminations and cultural functions this year and donate the saved money to the relief funds for the flood-affected people.
   Preparations for Durga Puja and making of idols of the deities were continuing smoothly in the puja mandaps, they said.
   Authorities concerned were also asked to ensure undisrupted electricity supply and maintain law and order in puja mandaps during the festival. Generators for emergency power supply and volunteers for maintaining discipline would also be arranged by the committee, the parishad leaders added.

Leaders of the Coalition of Local NGOs, Bangladesh on Sunday urged the government to launch an effective literacy campaign at the national level aiming to increase the literacy rate in the country.
   They made the call at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity auditorium. They also demanded that books of at least one subject in the curriculum should be in the language of the ethnic minority people.
   CLNB chairman Harunur Rashid, its executive chairman Syed Saidur Rahman, joint general secretary of Bangladesh Sanjukta Sramik Federation Mohasinul Kabir and others were present at the press conference.

Women and children affairs adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury Sunday stressed the need for improving the standard of Bangladeshi handicraft products to get an aggressive access in the global market.
   ‘Without improving the quality of our products it will not be possible to compete in global market,’ the adviser said after inaugurating a 6-day 5th Women Entrepreneur Trade Expo-2008 at the National Shooting Complex.
   The fair was organised by Pakistan high commission, Jobs Group Bangladesh, Women Entrepreneurs’ Association Bangladesh and SME Foundation with assistance from Bank Al Falah.
   Some 80 stalls have been set up by women entrepreneurs from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the fair to showcase their products to the consumers.

A student of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology was critically injured as he fell from a university bus on Sunday.
   Campus sources said Shah Alam, a third-year student of the public administration department, fell from a city-bound bus of the university at about 3:30pm when he was trying to get on the bus on the campus.
   Witnesses said one of his legs had been smashed by the bus. Shah Alam was taken to Ragib-Rabeya Medical College Hospital in the city. The university proctor, Professor GA Haydar Chowdhury, said in the afternoon that the condition of the injured student was not out of danger.

Students of physiotherapy department of the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation continued demonstrations at Dhaka University on Sunday, demanding exemplary punishment for the persons involved in Thursday’s attack on them.
   Students, teachers and guardians at a rally at Aparajeya Bangla expressed solidarity with the agitating students’ demand of immediate implementation of an independent physiotherapy college and withdrawal of the cases filed against the students and teachers.
   Professor Ajay Roy, Professor Akmal Hossain, Professor Shahidul Islam, and playwright Mamunur Rashid attended the rally and extended their support to the students’ demands. They called for establishing a separate college of physiotherapy at the earliest and demanded punishment for the people involved with the attack.
   ‘The government should identify the persons who attacked the students and even molested the girls’, Ajay Roy said.
   The students said the physicians of orthopaedic hospital, led by Arif Anwar, who attacked them, were denying them entry into the campus and had decided not to give classes and examinations and hold admission tests, which would seriously hamper the academic life of the students.
   Leaders of different student organisations also addressed the rally and demanded immediate investigation of the incident and punishment for the persons responsible for the attack.
   The Physiotherapy Association of Gana Bishwavidyalaya, Peoples University of Bangladesh, State College of Health Science, Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, the Private Practitioners’ Forum, and Bangladesh Chhatra League expressed solidarity with the agitating students.

The Chittagong Metropolitan Police on Sunday arrested 12 fraudsters from in front of the Chittagong passport office in possession of 320 passports, 40 under-process passports and different elements of forgery.
   The arrested are Mohammed Shekandar, Shahed, Mohammed Milon, Ashish Biswas, Sumon Sheel, Abdul Mannan, Shyamol Gupta, Zahir Uddin, Rajan Dev, Milon Mehedi, Zafar Ahmed and Sumon Sinha.
   CMP sources said the detective branch conducted a raid in the passport office area of Panchlaish at about 3:00pm and arrested the fraudsters who had been engaged in cheating the passport seekers. The police said they had seized stamps of a number of government officials, passport forms, blank nationality certificates of different local government bodies alongside the passports.

Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely at a few places over all the six divisions in the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Moderately heavy rainfalls are also likely at places during the period, Met Office said. The day temperature may rise slightly over the country, it added.
   The country’s highest temperature, 35.4 degrees Celsius, was recorded on Sunday in Jessore and the lowest, 23.0 degrees Celsius, at Rangpur.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:10pm and rises tomorrow at 5:42am.

A Rangpur court on Sunday acquitted 18 Islami Chhatra Shibir leaders and activists of the charge of February 6 vandalism on the Carmichael College that resulted in the closure of the college for about two months.
   Senior judicial magistrate Mahabubul Islam acquitted the Shibir men after examining 33 witnesses and other documents.
   A group of students set fire to the house of a teacher and ransacked the library, some classrooms and the residence of the principal, Deep Kendra Nath Das, on February 6 demanding that the college should be upgraded into a full-fledged university.
   The authorities closed the institution for an indefinite period and it was reopened on March 25. The principal filed a case a group of Shibir leaders and activists for the vandalism on the campus.
   The police arrested 15 Shibir leaders and activists, who were sent to jail after presented before the court of chief judicial magistrate. The police also submitted the charge sheet against 18 Shibir men, including the 15 in custody.
   The case was later transferred to the court of senior judicial magistrate, who handed down the verdict with a large number of police deployed on the court premises to avoid any untoward incident.
   The principal declined to make any comment on the verdict.

Navigation on both the river and sea routes in the southern region becomes disrupted as shoals have emerged in many of the waterways and buoys, beacons and other indicators often remain out of order.
   The buoys float away due to the strong current under the water and deposited silt coming from the upstream causes the emergence of the shoals. These factors are hampering the navigation.
   The water transport operators are demanding regular monitoring, installation of updated signals and dredging of the silt but the BIWTA authorities are advising them to operate the vessels cautiously.
   Khorshed Alam, vice-chairman of the Barisal Launch Owners Association, said the local Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authorities claimed to have safe navigation on the twenty out of forty regional routes. But vessels run only on seven routes amid high risks, and transportations on the rest 33 routes are remaining disrupted for long due to the silt deposit, he added.
   Stations on the Barisal-Matbaria, Barisal-Hularhut, Barisal-Mohipur, Barisal-Goma and Barisal-Galachipa routes are already closed and plying of vessels on the Barisal-Bhola, Bhola-Laxmipur and Barisal-Dhaka routes are often disrupted due to the emergence of shoals, Khorshed said.
   Navigation through Bamirchar and Vashanchar channel on the Barisal-Dhaka route involves risks because of absence of buoys, beacons and other equipment for indicating the emergence of new shoals, he added.
   Amir Hossain, master of the triple decked launch MV Sundarbon-7, plying on the Barisal-Dhaka-Barisal route, said, ‘At least five buoys are required for the Koilarkhal-Nalbunia route and in their absence we are driving vessels amid high risks in the dark.
   Rasha Ranjan Mia, master of a BIWTC sea truck Khizir-8 plying on the Barisal-Bhola-Laxmipur coastal route, said in absence of signals it was difficult to move on the route.
   Water transports are forced to wait before crossing the Ilisha-Bongarchar channel because of the high tide, he added.
   Md Jahir, a BIWTA pilot of the Barisal-Chittagong coastal route, said it was hazardous to operate water transports over the unmarked shoals at night.
   Rafikul Islam, BIWTA port official in Barisal, said there were 107 tower beacons and six buoys installed in the region.
   Fishermen often break these instruments when their nets get enmeshed with these and sometimes the installed solar panels are stolen, sources said.
   Besides, monitoring of navigation is being hampered as 12 posts of pilots out of 32 and eight posts of marksmen out of 25 are lying vacant now.
   About dredging, the port officials said dredging in the downstream during monsoon was costly and risky because of the strong current from the upstream.
   Seven old dredgers of the BIWTA fleet are not sufficient for maintaining navigability on the river routes, he added.

The National Alliance for Election Monitoring, a new forum of eight organisations, on Sunday, launched its journey, at the National Press Club, in a bid to monitor the total electoral process in the country.
   The aim of the alliance is to monitor the election related activities that include preparation of the voters’ roll, demarcation of the constituencies, making adequate number of voting centres in accordance with the number of voters, logistic support, activities of the political parties, and application of reforms on the polls, the alliance members said.
   The alliance is constituted of eight organisations–– Brotee, Unnayan Shamannay, Bangladesh Nari Progoti Shangha, Unnayan Dhara, Power, Participation and Research Centre (PPRC), Nagorik Uddyog, Indigenous People’s Development Services (IPDS) and Save the Underprivileged and Needy.
   Sharmeen Murshid, the Alliance secretary, and also the chief executive officer of Brotee, read out the key-note paper at the ceremony.
   Considering the immediate past elections to the four City Corporations and nine municipalities, Sharmeen said, ‘The elections were held successfully but under abnormal conditions.’ There were ‘a large number of candidates with criminal records,’ she added.
   The alliance will work to create a pluralistic society to ensure a democratic environment by monitoring the election process neutrally, Sharmeen said.
   It will focus on the methods of inquiry applied in monitoring polls to ensure neutrality of the system, and strengthen the capacity of monitoring polls at all levels, she said.
   The Brotee chief said they wanted polls to be held in a free and natural environment with the participation of able and honest candidates.
   The task of the Alliance, now, is to watch how the Election Commission, the political parties and the government hold the polls, she said.
   Nagorik Uddyog chief executive, Zakir Hossain, IPDS president, Sanjeeb Drong, PPRC director, Syed Ziauddin Ahmed, Unnayan Shamannay director, M Waliul Islam and Unnayan Dhara executive director, Aminur Rasul, among others, attended the function.

Six faculty members of the school of liberal arts and social sciences of the Independent University, Bangladesh have been accepted by the reputed universities in the UK, USA and Canada for higher studies in different fields.
   The members are Samina Lutfa (for PhD in Oxford University, UK), Abantee Harun (for PhD in Oxford University, UK), Hossain Sharif Rabbi (for Master's at Canton University, Canada), Musharrat Hossain (Fulbright Scholar for FLT, Rutgers University, USA), Farhana Afroze (for Master's at Southern Illinois University, USA) and Nazia Hossain (for Master's at London School of Economics, UK). They have left Bangladesh to join their respective courses, said a press release.

The 12th anniversary of death of eminent politician and journalist Abdus Shahid will be observed today.
   Different socio-political organisations have chalked up programmes to mark the occasion.
   A discussion on the life of Abdus Shahid, also a left leader, will be held at the Taxes Bar Association auditorium in the Dhaka city at 4:00pm.

The importers of the Nawapara industrial town are selling the fertilisers of different brands, stocked at the warehouses of the town earlier, at high prices.
   The town has the largest fertiliser market in the country.
   Sources said businessmen of Nawapara were selling chemical fertilisers to the dealers of the southern and northern districts of the country. About 80 per cent of the fertilisers are being sold to the dealers of these districts from this market. The government reduced the subsidy on fertilisers to 15 per cent in 2007 from 25 per cent in 2005. As the government cut the rate of subsidy, the importers at Nawapara refused to take it and stocked triple super phosphate and muriate of phosphate in different warehouses of the town, buying them at low prices. The dealers imported TSP at $450-500 per tonne in November, 2007, and at $650-700 in January, 2008, and stocked it in their warehouses. The importers are selling it out to the dealers of the districts at revised rates when the price of TSP has risen to $1065 per tonne. They are selling TSP at Tk 3,800 and MOP at Tk 2,300 per 50kg sack. Dealers in the districts alleged that the poor quality of sacks substantiated the fact that the importers were selling at revised rates the fertilisers imported earlier.
   Sources said that an importer had imported some two lakh sacks of fertiliser earlier which was now being sold at the current rate.
   Rafiqul Islam, an importer, however, refused the allegation.  Farmer Basir Uddin at Abhaynagar upazila in Jessore told New Age that  he had bought TSP for Tk 3,800 per 50kg sack this year, while the price was about half in the last year.

The medical board formed to treat recently freed Awami League joint general secretary Obaidul Kader has advised him to go abroad for treatment.
   The head of the medical board Dr Anisul Huq told the news agency Sunday: ‘Both of [Obaidul Kader’s] arms are wasting away due to a neurological disorder.’
   ‘He needs to go abroad for better investigation and treatment into the complaint.’
   Kader’s lawyer AKM Amin Uddin Manik said the four-member medical board, led by Dr Anisul Huq of BSMMU hospital’s neuromedicine department, has advised him to go to a country where he can have a metal-friendly MRI scan for the neurological complaint.
   The board has advised him to go to Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, India, as he still has fragments of shrapnel in his body following the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an AL rally.
   It has also advised three weeks’ bed rest.
   Kader was arrested on March 9 last year on charges of corruption. He was admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital after being released on bail Friday.

Prisoner dies in BSMCH
A prisoner serving life-term rigorous imprisonment at Barisal Central Jail died at Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital on Saturday night. The man was identified as Obaidul Huq, 65. His body was handed over to his relative on Sunday after post-mortem examination. Jail, police and hospital sources said Obaidul was sentenced to life-term imprisonment for murder by a Pirojpur court on September 30, 1985. He as sent from Pirojpur district jail to Barisal central jail on April 21, 1998 and was admitted to Barisal SBMCH by the jail authorities on May 19, 2008, following heart and chest trouble.
— New Age

Over 100 patients treated free in BIRDEM
Over 100 heart patients have received free consultations at ‘Free Heart Camp’ at BIRDEM Hospital in the city on Saturday. Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital and Research Institute of the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetic Endocrine and Metabolic Disorder organised the medical camp for heart patients, said a press release on Sunday. Chief executive officer of the hospital Professor M Maksudul Haque, senior consultants, nurses and technicians took part in the medical camp.
— BSS