Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The government is planning to undertake an agriculture rehabilitation programme after evaluating the damage done to the crops in the flood-stricken districts throughout the country.
   ‘The government will take into consideration the launching of an agriculture rehabilitation programme in the flood-hit regions after assessing crop damage,’ said the agriculture adviser, Chowdhury Sajjadul Karim.
   Under the programme, the government after assessment will provide assistance to the small farmers, said the agriculture adviser.
   The Directorate of Agricultural Extension has already directed the sub-assistant agricultural officials working at the grassroots level to make a rough and preliminary assessment of the amount of crop lost just by taking a look, said the director-general of the DAE, M Shamsul Alam.
   The DAE has already appointed some forty-five officials at the field-level to monitor the crop situation throughout the 64 districts.
   We have a buffer-stock of seedlings on some 40.5 hectares of land which can be transplanted on more than 800 hectares of land, and also have excess seedlings on 22,000 hectares of land in the flood-hit areas, said the DAE high official.
   The official pointed out that the crop situation is better than that of last year as some 14 lakh hectares were flooded last year while this year less than two lakh hectares have been inundated.
   There is time for the transplantation of seedlings in the flood-hit areas if the floodwater does not return, as aman seedlings can be transplanted up to September 30.
   A sub-assistant agricultural officer of Kanaipur in Faridpur district said, ‘The crop loss is almost 60 to 100 per cent in most of the areas due to total submergence of the rice plants.’
   The crop loss during the aman season is likely to decrease drastically if the government commercially releases the variety of rice that can survive submergence by water as early as possible. The so-called ‘submergence variety’ has already been released commercially in India and Indonesia this year, said the IRRI’s liaison scientist for Bangladesh, MA Hamid Mia.
   Different standing crops including transplanted aman on some 1.70 lakh hectares out of the total standing crops of some 16.25 lakh hectares have been inundated in 21 flooded districts.
   The flood-hit districts are Bogra, Sirajganj, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Rajbari, Faridpur, Dhaka, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Tangail, Manikganj, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Brahmanbaria, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Chapainawabganj and Cox’s Bazar.

A citizen’s group has called on the government to devise and undertake at least a two-decade-long comprehensive action plan to tackle the emerging challenges of global warming and climate change, the adverse effects of which may jeopardise the lives and livelihoods of most people in Bangladesh.
   ‘The government must have a strategy of least two decades’ duration before it seeks funds from the international community,’ said Khorshed Alam, one of the members of the Climate Change Development Forum, Bangladesh, a coalition of a few non-governmental organisations, at a press conference in the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity’s auditorium on Tuesday, a day ahead of Bangladesh-UK climate conference in London.
   Bangladesh has prepared a 10-year plan on climate change and will seek $5 billion dollars for its five-year programme at the London conference. But the experts say the country will need much more money to face the challenges.
   The group’s leaders urged the people concerned to reach a common understanding and raise their voices to promote ‘de-carbonised process of development’ in Bangladesh to reduce the adverse effects of climate change.
   Climate change will exert new pressure on the governments and the governance structures and breed new security challenges in both the poor and the rich countries.
   No part of the planet is free from this danger and climate change issue must be addressed now, said the CCDF,B’s leaders.
   The organisation — comprising members of the civil society, representatives of NGOs and international development partners — has come up with an 11-point charter of demands. The main demand is that the UK and other industrialised countries must recognise the adverse impacts of their emissions on other nations, and compensate the poorest and most vulnerable countries to enable them to survive climate change. They must also facilitate the implementation of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action — which ensure the right to food, water, shelter, health, livelihood and culture — in the least developed countries.
   The CCDF,B’s leaders, Zakir Hossain, Anwara Begum Shelly, Dwijen Mallik and Abdul Alim, along with others, also spoke at the press conference.

A small portion of households owns the biggest share of Bangladesh’s total cultivable land, pushing the majority of the population of the agrarian nation into destitution and creating dire social and economic disparity.
   The country’s top 20 per cent households own over 60 per cent of its total cultivable while the rest 80 per cent own very little land, revealed a research conducted by a Dhaka University teacher on ‘Access to Land and Other Natural Resources by the Rural Poor: The Case of Bangladesh’.
   The grossly uneven land distribution pattern, said researcher Selim Raihan who teaches economics, denies a huge number of landless peasants their right of access to land.
   ‘The poor farmers have to be provided with a comprehensive package of support services before access to land can be translated into productivity and growth, and into food security and freedom from poverty,’ the researcher told a discussion organised by the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific at its headquarters in Dhaka.
   According to the study, Bangla-desh has 37.4 million acres of total land area, of which 22.2 million ac-res are being used for cultivation.
   Land experts, economists, leaders of the indigenous communities and representatives of the peasants’ associations, who attended the discussion, asked for massive reforms in the land management system. They also called for a compatible land use policy as the country was losing a huge arable landmass every year due to construction of uncontrolled settlements to accommodate the ever increasing population.
   Presided over by Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud, a senior teacher of economics at Dhaka University and a former adviser to the caretaker government, the discussion was addressed, among others, by the secretary to the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division of the LGRD ministry, ATM Fazlul Karim, the director-general of CIRDAP, Durga P Paudyal, research director of CIRDAP, Nasreen Khundker, Professor MM Akash, peasants’ representative Shamsuzzaman and SM Fazle Ali.
   Wahiduddin blamed lack of good governance for the great disparity in the ownership of land. He said that agriculture’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product has shown an increasing trend, but the fate of people involved in production has not changed.
   He stressed the need for the implementation of the existing laws and further enactment of new and relevant laws, if needed, to solve the problems. He also called for immediate action to prevent abuse of land and other natural resources, so that the huge number of poor can be benefited instead of a privileged few.

The workers and employees of state-owned jute mills across the country on Tuesday formed human chains on mill premises to push for their 10-point demands.
   The Jute, Yarn and Textile Mill Workers and Employees’ Action Council announced the programme to press home their demands which include a 20 per cent dearness allowance, payment of all their dues and salaries and fund allocation for mills to buy raw jute.
   The workers of Latif Bawani Jute Mills at Demra formed a human chain on the mill premises between 2:30pm and 4:00pm and of the Karim Jute Mills between 2:00pm and 4:00pm.
   Labour leader Shahidullah Chowdhury led the human chain programme in the Demra region.
   The action council’s convener Abul Bashar and joint conveners Shahidullah Chowdhury, Safiuddin Ahmed and Lutfar Rahman thanked the workers for making the human chain successful.
   Labourers of four state-owned jute mills in Khulna and Jessore separately formed human chains between 9:30am and 10:30am to push for their 10-point demands, including payment of dues.
   Several hundred labourers of the Eastern Jute Mills and the Alim Jute Mills at Atra in Khulna formed a human chain along the Khulna–Jessore Highway. The labourers of the Jesssore Jute Industries and the Carpeting Jute Mills at Rajghat in Jessore formed a human chain along a stretch of the highway near the Carpeting Jute Mills.
   The labourers, under the banner of the Khulna-Jessore unit of the Jute, Yarn and Textile Mill Workers and Employees’ Action Council formed human chains to push for their demands which also include a review of the labour law, reinstatement of labourers sacked during labour unrest in the past, fund allocation for mills to buy raw jute and to reopen all the closed mills in Khulna and Jessore, and end to efforts that hinder trade unionism.
   The human chain at Atra was addressed by council leaders Hafizur Rahman Bhuiyan, Hamid Sardar, Mozammel Haque, Amirul Islam, Abdus Salam, Humayun Kabir, Md Alauddin and Zakir Hossain.
   The leaders said the labourers who retired or had been sacked even several years ago were yet to be paid their dues.
   The authorities are yet to pay the weekly wages and monthly salaries of the labourers and workers, they said.
   The leaders threatened tougher agitation programme if their demands were not met immediately.
   The labourers of three state-owned jute mills at Khalishpur in Khulna continued with their agitation programmes under the banner of the state-owned jute mill labourers development committee to press home their eight-point demands, including payment of dues.
   The committee on Sunday snapped power and water connections to the administrative buildings and the colonies of senior officers. They also brought out a procession on Monday, carrying symbolic coffins and wearing shrouds.
   The committee threatened self-immolation in front of the Crescent Jute Mills administrative building on September 15 if all their demands were not met by the day before.
   The workers of the state-owned jute mills in Chittagong also held similar programmes.

The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and launch owners at a meeting on Tuesday decided to offer special services before Eid-ul-Fitr and streamline river vessel operation during busy hours for safe and better journey for passengers.
   The authorities asked the owners to make sure the launches would not be overloaded and in no way anchored mid-river.
   The meeting reached 21 decisions in all including the operation of the coordination committee at each station to ensure monitoring and the issuance of letter to the power supply authority for uninterrupted power supply between 6:00pm and 9:00pm.
   It was decided volunteers would be deployed at Sadarghat in Dhaka to keep order, according to a release issued by the transport authorities.
   The BIWTA chairman, Abdul Mannan Hawlader, presided over the meeting at BIWTA Bhaban in Dhaka. The director general of the Directorate of Shipping, AKM Shafiullah, among others, attended the meeting.
   No launch will wait for any VIPs beyond the schedule, according to the meeting decisions. Moreover, the meeting also decided to evict hawkers from the pontoons, said the release.
   The owners agreed with the authorities that they would fence the top of the launches with barbed ware to check overloading and they would not anchor their launches mid-river.

At least ten people, including a couple, were killed and ten others injured in two road accidents in Rajshai and Comilla on Tuesday and Monday, according to the reports from New Age district correspondents.
   Our Rajshahi correspondent reports: Six persons were killed and four others were injured in a road accident at Bhangra in Puthia upazila of Rajshahi on Tuesday.
   The deceased were human hauler driver Mansur Ali, Shamim Hossain, Mahabbat Ali, Sharmin, and Susmita while the identity of another deceased could not be ascertained immediately.
   The police quoting the locals said the accident had occurred at about 10.45 am when a Rajshahi-bound bus collided head-on with a CNG-run human hauler, killing four passengers of the human hauler and its driver on the spot and injuring five others. Locals took the injured to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. One of the injured died from his injuries at the hospital.
   The police sent the bodies to the RMCH for post-mortem examinations.
   The police detained the bus and the human hauler while the bus driver and helper managed to get away. A case was filed with the Puthia police station in this connection.
   Our Comilla correspondent reports: Four persons were killed and six others were injured in a road accident on the Dhaka-Chittgong Highway at Kowratola in Comilla sadar upazila Monday evening.
   Three of the deceased were Monindra Chandra Sarker, his wife Usha Rani Sarker, and Abdur Rahim, while another one’s identity could not be known immediately.
   The police said the accident had occurred when a Dhaka-bound passenger bus collided head-on with a Comilla- bound CNG-run auto-rickshaw on the Dhaka-Chittgong Highway, killing the four on the spot and injuring six others.
   The severely injured were admitted to the Chouddagram Upazila Health Complex.
   A case was filed with the police in this connection and the bodies were sent to the Comilla Medical College Hospital morgue for post-mortem examinations.

Bangla daily newspaper Prothom Alo on Sunday issued a legal notice to the acting and advisory editor of another Bangla daily, Amar Desh, publisher Hasmat Ali and a correspondent asking them to withdraw a report the newspaper published on September 3, make unconditional public apology and print in full the rejoinder given by Prothom Alo in three days.
   Law firm Kamal Hossain and Associates served the legal notice on behalf of the Daily Star editor and publisher, Mahfuz Anam, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman and Transcom Group chairman and managing director Latifur Rahman.
   Amar Desh on September 3 published a report headlined ‘ULFA’s investment in Bangladesh media’ which said ULFA had invested in Prothom Alo, the Daily Star and weeklies Saptahik 2000 and Anandadhara.
   In the legal notice, the law firm said their clients had sent a rejoinder to Amar Desh on September 3 and 4. Amar Desh on September 5 published the rejoinder after abridgement and instead of withdrawing the report or apologising for it, the newspaper added a ‘correspondent’s reply’ saying no false and distorted information was given deliberately.
   ‘In both instances, no attempt was made to seek or obtain any communications from our clients regarding any of the allegations made therein,’ the legal notice said.
   The notice concluded by saying the three demands should be met in three days. It said appropriate legal action would be taken against Amar Desh in case of any failure to meet the demand in three days.

The interim government on Tuesday transferred five joint secretary-level officials. The establishment ministry issued separate gazette notifications to the effect.
   MAN Siddique, secondary education sector development project director, has been sent to the Chief Adviser’s Office as director general and AHM Mostain Billah, joint secretary of the Economic Relations Division, to the environment and forests ministry as joint secretary to replace Mohammad Kamar Munir, who has been made an officer on special duty and attached to the home ministry for posting to the National Identity Registration Authority as member.
   Md Shaheduzzaman, director of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, has been sent to the labour directorate a director while Ayubur Rahman, joint secretary of the health and family welfare ministry, has been sent to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority as a director.

The Chittagong divisional speedy trial tribunal on Tuesday sentenced an activist of the banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment in a case filed in connection with the series of bombings on August 17, 2005.
   The judge, Shifiqul Karim, sentenced Jabed Iqbal alias Mohammed, regional commander of Jamaatul Mujahideen, in the case filed with the Khulshi police for exploding bombs in the GEC crossing.
   The court also fined Mohammed Tk 5,000 or in default to suffer one more year in prison. The court acquitted two others — Delwar Hossain Jahid and Abu Jar.
   Mohammed and Abu Jar were present in the dock as the verdict was pronounced. Delwar is in hiding.
   The police filed eight cases with different police stations in Chittagong in connection with the bombings. Two of the cases were disposed of; six others are pending trial.

The police recovered the body of a school girl at Purba Chandra under Kaliakoir upazila in Gazipur Tuesday morning.
   The deceased was identified as Sanwara, 18, a Class X student of Shaturia Girls School and daughter of one Mader Ali of village Patailla Para of Baraid union in Manikganj.
   The police suspected
   that miscreants strangled her after rape and left the body there.
   Monwara, elder sister of Sanwara, said Sanwara married one Sabuj, son of Joynal Matbor of village Bara Paila, about one year ago.
   On Monday, Sabuj along with Jashim, a local official of Destiny, called out Sanwara telling that they would go to Dhaka.
   Sanwara was missing then.

Former AL state minister for land Rashed Mosharraf and a resident of Savar were sued on Tuesday on charge of land grabbing.
   Syed Amir Ali, a resident of Salimullah Road in the capital, filed the case with the Dhaka district judge’s court. The other accused is Mohammad Ali of Savar. The court summoned both the accused to appear in court.
   According to the case details, the accused grabbed five kathas of the plaintiff’s land in the Jinjira area of Savar.
   Amir Ali claimed that he had bought the land in 1980 from Janapath Housing Ltd, Savar.
   Rashed Mosharraf became chairman of Janapath Housing Ltd shortly after the Awami League came to power in 1996 and drove the plaintiff away from his land, he claimed.

Some Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders, known as reformists, were manhandled by their fellow party members at a meeting in Sylhet city on Tuesday afternoon.
   Leaders of the district and city units of the BNP and its front organisations held the meeting at about 3:30am in the residence of Abdul Qaiyum Jalai Pankhi, a senior member of the convening committee of the district unit.
   At one point, the leaders of the party and its front organisations attacked some leaders present at the meeting, terming them ‘reformists’, said sources present at the meeting.
   The reformist leaders, numbering 5 to 6, were forced to run away from the meeting to save themselves from the attack, despite interference by the senior leaders to cool down the mainstream group’s leaders and activists, the sources added.
   When contacted, Abdul Quaiyum Jalali Pankhi admitted that the incident had taken place, but refused to name the leaders who were manhandled. ‘Though a chaotic situation surfaced during the meeting, it was immediately brought under control by the senior leaders,’ he added.
    The meeting, chaired by advocate Abdul Gaffar, was addressed, among others, by Maksud Ali, Saiful Islam, Ali Ahmed, Misbahul Kadir Fahim, Mahbubur Rab Faisal, Abul Kalam, Tareq Ahmed Chowdhury, Abdul Ahad Khan Jamal and Hasan Patwari Ripon.  

The police and the Rapid Action Battalion in Rajshahi separately
   arrested two persons including a high official of the Rajshahi Krishi
   Unnayan Bank Monday night.
   The police arrested Abdul Motaleb, deputy general manager of the
   Rajshahi Krishi Unnauan Bank, at his Baharampur residence in the city on charge of violating his domestic help.
   According to the police, Motaleb raped his 12-year old domestic help in the absence of his wife and children.
   She managed to escape from his residence and informed the Rajpara police of the incident Monday night with the help of the Action on Disability and Development, an NGO.
   The police arrested the RAKUB official the same night.
   The maid filed a case with the Rajpara police station against the official in this connection.
   The police on Tuesday produced the arrested in the court which sent him to jail.
   The RAB members arrested Abdul Kuddus, the acting mayor of Bagha Municipality, in Rajshahi on charge of offering bribe to a doctor for concealing an incident of rape.
   According to the sources, Abdul Kuddus offered Tk 50,000 to Dr Mojahar Hossain Bulbul, coordinator of one stop crises centre of the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital to conceal the incident.
   On getting information, the RAB members arrested him with the money and handed him over to the Rajpara police station Monday night.
   A case was filed with the Rajpara police against him in this connection.
   The police on Tuesday produced him in the court which sent him to jail.  

Jon Danilowicz, political and economic affairs counselor of the US embassy in Dhaka, called on Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid at the party headquarters Tuesday.
   In a press statement signed by Jamaat’s publicity secretary Mohammad Tasnim Alam said Danilowicz discussed ‘various issues’.
   The statement did not provide any further details on what ‘various issues’ came up at the meeting with the leader of Jamaat, which recently skipped a scheduled dialogue on election issues with the Election Commission.
   Kathryn W Bonday, an official with political and economic section of the US embassy, accompanied Danilowicz to the meeting with the former social welfare minister of the regime of Khaleda Zia.