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The government has no plan to suspend open market sale of rice in Ramadan despite poor response by the consumers, food and disaster management adviser AMM Shawkat Ali said on Wednesday.
   ‘Although the average sale
   of rice under the OMS programme has declined by almost 40 per cent in some regions,
   we will continue it at least
   during the month of Ramadan,’ he said.
   The adviser, however, said the government had already asked the food department to reduce allocation to the dealers, who could not sell the current allocation.
   ‘OMS influenced markets at different places where rice is being sold at a price lower than the government fixed rate of Tk 28 per kilogram,’ he claimed. ‘Per kilogram of rice is currently selling for Tk 27 in Sylhet and Rangpur regions while Tk 27.91 in Rajshahi division.’
   Mohammad Badiuzzaman Tokon, an OMS dealer at Mirpur Section 10, Messrs Zaman Traders, said sale of OMS rice had declined at some places in the city, but it should continue to check rice price hike.
   ‘If the government suspends open market sale right at the moment, rice price will go up again,’ he asserted.
   The retail price of per kilogram coarse rice in the city markets is Tk 31-32, medium variety Tk 34-36 and the fine variety of rice is Tk 43-44, he said.
   Food department director (supply, distribution and marketing) M Badrul Hasan said OMS operation had influenced the market positively. ‘The price of rice has fallen by Tk 1 per kilogram as the impact of its sale in open market.’
   The price of per kg coarse rice was Tk 31.84 in Dhaka in the last month and it has come down to Tk 30.84, he said.
   The government has appointed some 6,560 dealers, including 208 outlets of the Bangladesh Rifles, in six divisional headquarters of the country and 55,749 tonnes of rice had so far been sold under the OMS programme, according to a report of the food department.
   The latest OMS operation began on August 20 and it is scheduled to continue till October 31.

Road communications in the southern region and Chittagong have been disrupted after the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation announced suspension of ferry services on the Bhola-Lakshmipur route on Meghna River since Monday morning.
   Officials of the BIWTC and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority confirmed the report after being asked by reporters.
   BIWTC and BIWTA sources said that the decision was taken after ‘Ketoki’ and ‘Kamini’, two K-type ferries loaded with numerous vehicles and passengers, got stuck because of shoals in the Bongar Char channel of the Meghna River some time between 7:00 to 8:00pm on Sunday night.
   After lots of effort the two ferries were freed at 9:30am on Monday morning after being stuck for more than 12 hours in mid-river, at which time they were vulnerable to various types of danger, sources added.
   Muhammad Ali, director of commercial operations of the BIWTC, and Emanuel Huq, director of conservancy of the BIWTA, told the journalists that the Bongar Char channel is losing navigability because its depth has decreased to only 5 feet while the ferries need at least 10 feet of water to ply the channel.
   It will be very risky to operate the ferry service through this channel by manually measuring the depth of water with plumb lines or bamboo poles, even at high tide, they said.
   When he was asked why the channel was not being immediate dredged, the BIWTA’s director of conservancy said that it is not possible until the pressure of the current from upstream decreases.
   Road transport and ferry workers said that the Ramdaspur channel, which is adjacent to the Bongar Char channel, is fifty feet wide and 40 feet deep and is now being used by 35-feet-wide sea trucks and other watercraft, and the ferries can use that channel if it is widened.
   The Ramdaspur channel could be usable for the plying of 60-feet-wide ferries if it is widened by more than 20 feet for about 2.5 kilometres. If the BIWTC and BIWTA regularly scan the hydrological surveys, then new and alternate channels can be easily found downstream, they opined.
   Local businessmen warned that long suspension of ferry services, that link many places with business hub Chittagong, may have a very bad impact on regional business, Ramadan and the Eid market.

The High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former communications minister Nazmul Huda, former public works minister Mirza Abbas, former state minister for civil aviation Mir Nasiruddin, former state minister for planning Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, former state minister for land Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu and former lawmaker Mosaddak Ali Falu in separate corruption cases.
   The High Court vacation bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Mamnoon Rahman passed the orders after hearing separate petitions filed by them seeking bail.
   Huda obtained interim bail for three months in the cases involving extortion of Tk 1 lakh, snatching mobile and corruption in the allotment of land to the Bangladesh Society for Enforcement of Human Rights.
   Ayub Ali, an Awami League leader from Dohar in Munshiganj, filed a case against Nazmul Huda on March 3, 2007 accusing him of extorting
   Tk 1 lakh.
   Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Shahabuddin Ahmed had filed the case involving snatching of a mobile.
   The Anti-Corruption Commission sued him for allotting railway land to the BSEHR, a rights organisation led by his wife Sigma Huda.
   Huda’s lawyer Adilur Rahman Khan told reporters there were a total of 20 cases against Huda and he had so far obtained bail in six cases.
   The court granted interim bail for three months to Mirza Abbas in a case that charges him with amassing illegal wealth.
   Awami League leader Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir obtained interim bail for three months in an extortion case.
   The court granted bail for three months each to Nasiruddin and Mosaddak in tax evasion cases.
   The High Court also granted bail for three months to Dulu in a corruption case involving allotment of 18 government houses.

People of Shewrapara area in the city staged violent protests damaging a passenger bus and halting traffic after a bus knocked down and killed a minor boy on Rokeya Sarani on Wednesday afternoon.
   Several hundred locals took to the streets and staged protests at the killing in the road accident.
   Police and witnesses said an inter-city bus of Bikalpa Paribahan bound for Malibagh ran over seven-year-old Rabbi, son of Abdul Haque, on east Rokeya Sarani when he was crossing the road at about 4:45pm. The boy died on the spot.
   As the locals went on a rampage following the accident, police and members of the Rapid Action Battalion went to the scene and brought the situation under control.
   Traffic remained suspended on the busy Shewrapara-Mirpur road for about 45 minutes.
   Police sent the body to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for post-mortem examinations.
   A case was filed with Kafrul police station in this connection.

A Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML-Janajuddha) activist was on Wednesday killed in a shootout between his associates and the police at Paglakanai in Jhenaidah.
   The deceased was Siraj Uddin, 35.
   A group of 12 party outfits held a meeting Tuesday night and they gathered at the place on Wednesday night. The police said they had raided the area after being tipped off.
   As the lawmen approached, the party outfits started firing, forcing the lawmen to fire back.
   Siraj was caught in the firing and died on the spot, the police said. His associates, however, managed to get away.
   After the gunfight, the lawmen recovered a firearm along with four bullets from the place.
   ‘Siraj was wanted in murder and other criminal cases filed with the Jhenaidah police,’ the Jhenai-dah superintendent of police, Jahangir Hossain Matabbar, said.

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal brought out a procession and held a rally on the Dhaka University campus midday Tuesday demanding unconditional release of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia.
   At the rally held in front of Arts Faculty building, the JCD leaders said they would wage a movement if the government did not release Khaleda Zia immediately.
   JCD general secretary Shafiul Bari Babu said that the government had arrested Khaleda Zia ‘illegally’ and ‘the Chhatra Dal will launch a tough movement’ to secure her unconditional release.
   JCD president Azizul Bari Helal and senior vice-president Sultan Salah Uddin Tuku were present at the rally.

Liberal Democratic Party president Oli Ahmed on Wednesday demanded general elections before the upazila election or both on the same date.
   ‘Upazila election can be held after 15 to 30 days of the general elections or on the same day,’ he said addressing an iftar party at a community center in the port city.
   He also said no party or alliance would be able to form government after the next general elections without the support of LDP.
   Expressing his stance against corruption, Oli said the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would not face such a situation had the former prime minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia paid heed to him.
   Wahid Asgar Chowdhury, a businessman in the city, joined the LDP at the function addressed, among others, by Kafil Uddin, Afroza Afsana, Faizul Amin and Sayed Kamal Uddin.

Former city councillors Kamal Hossain Sharif for Ward 3 and Nizamul Islam Nizam for Ward 17, who also contested the August 4 Barisal city polls and lost, filed separate cases with the election tribunal in Barisal.
   The cases were registered Sunday afternoon and the tribunal judge, Wahiduzaman Sikdar, after hearing on Monday passed the order to issue summonses to 10 of their opponents to appear in court on September 17, when the next hearing was scheduled.
   Court sources said Kamal Sharif alleged as a part of a planned election engineering, newly elected councillor for Ward 3 Jahangir Hossain Mridha, rival candidates Syed Habibur Rahman Faruk, Salek Howladar, Delwar Hossain, Murad Ahmed Rintu and Sultan Ahmed, and presiding officer of the Puranpara primary polling centre Mehdi Hassan had rigged the polls in favour of Jahangir.
   In his petition Nizamul Nizam accused new councillor for Ward 17 Aktaruzzaman and rival candidates Kazi Rokanuddin and Mir Imran had concealed the fact of receiving financial benefits from the corporation by taking a stall at the BCC Super Market on lease.

Two Bangladeshi Nationals were shot dead by the Border Security Force of India in Thakurgaon and Dianjupr.
   A Bangladeshi cattle trader was shot dead by the BSF along Haripur border in Thakurgaon early Wednesday.
   The deceased was Rahidul Islam, 40, of Chandail village in Haripur upazila.
   BDR sources said the BSF troops of Basantipur camp opened fire on 7/8 Bangladeshi cattle traders at about 4:00am when they were entering into Bangladesh from India with their cattlehead.
   Rahidul received bullets on his body and died on the spot while the others managed to flee.
   BDR 2 rifle battalion authority, however, sent a letter to the BSF for returning the victim’s body.
   Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi young man was shot dead by the BSF on Sundara border in South Kotwali thana in Dianjpur Tuesday night.
   The deceased was Moksed Ali, 35, son of Amir Uddin of Mohabbatpur village in Sadar upazila of the district.
   Local people said the BSF troops opened fire on Moksed at about 8:00pm while he was returning along with Phensidyl from India. He died on the spot.
   Later, the BSF men took away the body. Bangladesh Rifles confirmed the incident.

Dhaka urged European and Dutch business houses to invest in Bangladesh taking advantage of the ‘market-friendly liberalised rules.’
   The foreign affairs adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, made the request as he spoke at the Hague Chamber of Commerce at an event well attended by European and Dutch business representatives Tuesday evening.
   He said, ‘Bangladesh is one of the most attractive investment destinations in the region today.’
   Iftekhar said, ‘We have liberalised our economy in a way that has surpassed many of our neighbours. We offer attractive incentives to foreign investors, legal protection against nationalization, generous tax holidays and unrestricted repatriation of capital and profits. Also we are home to inexpensive, productive and easily trainable labour force.’
   He also said investors should take the advantage of increased regional cooperation in economic fields in South Asia which would provide their industries, in Bangladesh, with a huge market, according to a message received in Dhaka on Wednesday.
   Earlier in the day, he met the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, and the development cooperation minister, Bert Koenders.
   The adviser was also guest of honour at a dinner by the Bangladesh-Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Amsterdam.

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday filed separate cases against a senior government official and a former CBA leader of Titas Gas for earning illegal wealth and hiding information about it.
   The ACC assistant director, Helaluddin Sharif, filed the first information report with Ramna police station against joint secretary Rafiqul E Mohamed, now OSD at establishment ministry, for acquiring illegal wealth worth Tk 30.16 lakh and hiding information about assets worth Tk 5.56 lakh.
   The case was filed under sections 26(2) and 27(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004 and section 15 of the Emergency Powers Rules, 2007.
   A case was lodged with the same police station against Habibur Rahman, a former CBA leader of TItas Gas, for acquiring Tk 76 lakh beyond his known sources of income and concealment of information about assets worth Tk 4 lakh.
   The ACC deputy director, Shirin Pervin, filed the case under section 26(2) and
   27(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004.

The Awami League joint general secretary, Obaidul Kader, an accused in a number of corruption, extortion cases but set free on bail, will soon go to India for treatment.
   A party press release said Kader would undergo treatment in Apollo Hospital in New Delhi.