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Massive changes and contractual appointments in civil administration have caused frustration and anxiety among many officials holding back smooth functions of bureaucracy, according to officials.
   ‘Frequent transfers have created an atmosphere of uncertainty in the administration affecting officials’ concentration on delivering responsibilities…The government must have a plan as to how the bureaucracy should be rearranged effectively,’ said a senior bureaucrat who had been made an officer on special duty by the government of Awami League.
   About the reported ‘sluggishness in the administration’, he said most officers were in fear of transfer while many of the secretaries were new in the present positions which was apparently affecting civil bureaucracy. ‘A large number of officials have been replaced within a short span of time while many efficient officials are languishing as officers on special duty which hinder overall functioning of the administration,’ the official added.
   Talking to New Age, a number of officials at different levels said that frequent reshuffle since the new government assumed office had caused panic in the administration.
   ‘I cannot concentrate on work fearing I can be transferred or dumped as an officer on special duty anytime…Many of my colleagues were either made OSDs or transferred for reasons not clear to us,’ said a joint secretary.
   But prime minister Sheikh Hasina on March 29 defended the changes in the civil service as one necessary for the government to deliver on its promises and priorities. She told top media managers at a meeting at her office on the day that many of the transfers were necessitated by the officers’ failure to carry out government instructions in critical circumstances such as the BDR rebellion.
   In the second week of March, Hasina resented the inertia in the administration saying her government could not deliver services to the people with ‘required speed’ as expected.
   The prime minister has recently expressed concern that the ministries are not performing with required speed,’ said the secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, Molla Waheeduzzman, in a letter to secretaries of all ministries issued on March 12.
   When asked for comments on the issue, former adviser to the caretaker government Dhiraj Kumar Nath said transfers should be made on the basis of a career planning.
   He, however, said that contractual appointments always created scope for favouritism and politicisation of administration.
   ‘There should be no contractual appointments in the civil administration as it makes room for favouritism and politicisation. The government should rather extend the service age to 60 years from 57 without any LPR (leave preparatory to retirement) facilities,’ Dhiraj Kumar, also a retired secretary, told New Age Saturday.
   Later on March 24, secretaries to the government at a meeting attributed the ‘sluggishness in civil bureaucracy’ to massive reshuffle in the administration within a short span of time.
   After assuming office on January, 6, 2009, the government of Awami League has transferred around 400 officials at various levels, including home secretary, establishment secretary, communications secretary, information secretary and education secretary, among others, and made 50 others officers on special duty – 10 of them secretaries – to reshuffle the civil bureaucracy.
   Among the contractual appointees, retired army official major MM Iqbal has been made chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation, retired navy official commodore Md Khorshed Alam has been made additional secretary to foreign affairs ministry, retired brigadier general Manzur Ahmed has been appointed director general of the National Security Intelligence and retried additional chief engineer Nurul Huda has been made chairman of Rajdhani Unnyan Kartripakkha.

The government, to expedite the war crimes trial, will appoint on April 8 a chief investigation officer and an investigation agency to probe the atrocities committed during the 1971 liberation war.
   The state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Quamrul Islam, told reporters on Sunday, ‘The government will appoint a chief investigation officer and form a probe team at an inter-ministry meeting on April 8 to begin the investigation into the war crimes committed by the local collaborators of the Pakistani occupation army in the 1971 War of Independence.’
   The state minister said that this would be the first step in holding the trial of war criminals. ‘No suspected war criminals will be allowed to flee the country…The next meeting will also decide the nature of the war crimes tribunals.’
   He said this while briefing reporters after a meeting of home minister Sahara Khatun and law minister Shafique Ahmed with the United Nations’ resident coordinator, Renata Lok Dessallien, at the law ministry.
   Dessallien said that the United Nations is ready send specialists to help Bangladesh to hold war crimes trial of international standard.
   ‘The UN resident coordinator has offered to the provide experts with experience in dealing with war crimes tribunals…We will consider the proposal and hope to hold more meetings with them in this regard,’ Quamrul Islam told reporters after the meeting.
   ‘We have proposed to bring specialists here so that the trial process meets international standards…The experts will share their experiences to help Bangladesh to avoid mistakes,’ said Dessallien, adding that mistakes had been committed in some other countries which had conducted trial of war criminals.
   She said trial of war criminals is a complex and delicate issue.
   When asked whether the government had a list of suspected war criminals, Quamrul Islam did not answer the question. ‘The government will take similar action against anyone inside the Awami League who is suspected of being a war criminal,’ he said in reply to another query.
   According to historians, some three million unarmed people were killed during Bangladesh’s War of Independence by Pakistani forces and their collaborators in 1971. About 2,00,000 women were violated and tens of thousands of homes were torched.
   An early initiative to prosecute war criminals was called off after the 1975 political changeover following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of Bangladesh’s independence.
   The Bangladesh Sector Commanders’ Forum, a group of 1971 war veterans, revealed last year that 11,000 indicted war criminals were released from jail a few months after Mujib’s assassination on August 15, 1975.

The long-overdue elections to the Dhaka City Corporation is likely to be further deferred to the end of this year as the city corporation ordinances promulgated by the interim government have not yet been enacted as laws.
   ‘I do not see any possibility of holding the DCC polls in July as the proposed new laws have not reached our hands. If the DCC polls are not held in June then they will have to be deferred for a long time,’ Election Commissioner M Sakhawat told reporters on Sunday.
   He feared that if the parliament takes more time to pass the proposed ordinances, the EC will have to hold the DCC polls after the rainy season. He said that after the month of July the country would face rain and maybe a natural calamity, making electioneering activities difficult for the people concerned.
   ‘After June, there is the rainy season and communications in some of low-lying areas of the territory under the DCC are difficult even after the monsoon,’ he added.
   When he was asked to give a tentative time for the polls, the commissioner said, ‘The holding of the DCC elections is wholly dependent on the ordinances that are waiting to be enacted as laws by the parliament. We will be able to specify the time after the first session of the parliament is over.’
   The present DCC administration’s five-year tenure expired on May 14, 2007.
   When his attention was drawn to the posters of some aspirant DCC candidates seen in the city, Sakhawat said the EC would issue a notification and also send letters to the law enforcing agencies to take action against the persons responsible for such posters.
   He said the EC would request the political parties not to support the people who are displaying posters prematurely. ‘The EC will also take note of such persons.’
   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on February 18 told reporters, ‘We want to hold the Dhaka City Corporation elections in April. The EC will send a proposal to the local government ministry in this regard.’
   Sources in the EC secretariat said the EC had earlier decided to hold the DCC polls by July without updating the electoral roll or redrawing the boundaries of the wards.
   ‘If the polls are not held in July then we will update the voters’ list before the polls,’ Sakhawat said.
   The EC on January 14 decided to begin updating the electoral roll after May or June on completion of the DCC polls, the municipalities and the union councils, said sources.

Bangladesh deserves and needs to demand aid without any condition to funnel resources to development activities and meet budgetary exigencies arising out of the global recession, say opinion leaders, referring to the $1.1 trillion assistance package offered by the rich countries.
   The government is, however, yet to know how much share it will have of the global package as it may take time to make the stimulus fund operational for recipient countries such as Bangladesh, said the officials concerned.
   The latest issue of Bangladesh’s stake in the trillion-dollar-package is hardly likely to come up for concrete a discussion when the government sits with the Local Consultative Group, a platform of bilateral donors and multilateral lenders working in Bangladesh, on April 8 to discuss funding options and priorities of the new government.
   The finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, who has already sought higher foreign aid for the next financial year, is expected to attend the meeting and explain the government’s position on development programmes, priorities, revenue situation and probable demand for aid.
   ‘We will now discuss the priorities of the new government with the LCG,’ the Economic Relations Division secretary, M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, also the co-chair of the group, told New Age on Saturday.
   Asked about the latest package, he said the government would take an initiative to cash in on the global package at a later point when ‘its modalities will be made available to us.’
   Economist Atiur Rahman felt the government should seek budgetary support in the view of probable contraction in revenue earning and funds for skills development of workers, infrastructure projects, attaining the Millennium Development Goals and overcoming climate change effects.
   ‘I believe this is the time to raise civil society voice to demand debt cancellation. If the Sub-Saharan countries can be entitled to debt cancellation facilities, the government should take up the demand with the international community,’ he said when he was asked about the government’s priority areas for access to the global funding package.
   ‘We have not yet been able to make assessment of requirements of money and estimated revenue earning. We do not really know how much foreign aid we need to prepare the stimulus package to overcome impacts of the recession,’ economist Deba-priya Bhattacharya, who recently resigned as Bangla-desh ambassador to the WTO headquarters in Geneva, told a television channel.
   Rights organisation VOICE executive director Ahmed Swapon Mahmud said the government should set up a special fund to support the people who would be affected by the recession and also pursue the demand for debt cancellation. ‘The government should aggressively negotiate securing aid without any condition and get rid of undue burden of loans.’
   The leaders at the G20 summit in London in the past week also agreed to negotiate a speedy conclusion of the Doha trade round and put some $250 billion more into trade finance which are believed to be upholding the cause of the least developed countries such as Bangladesh.
   ‘An additional $700 million to $800 million in external assistance will be helpful for the country, to stimulate higher domestic demands [as a means to face up to global crisis],’ the finance minister said at a recent conference. The finance and planning adviser to the interim government there proposed an export stabilisation fund to face the recession.
   At the meeting with consultative group, the government is likely to seek in all Tk 13,500 crore for conventional spending particularly on project implementation in the next financial year, said sources in the Economic Relations Division.
   The said project aid, if endorsed, would be in addition to the required funding for the proposed Padma Bridge at an estimated cost of around Tk 10,500 crore, said the sources.
   The World Bank, as co-chair of the group, has been communicated to finalise the estimated amount of project aid for the financial year so that the government could make an outlay of resources.

Chhatra League leaders on Sunday termed unfortunate the stepping down of the ruling Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, as the organisational leader of the party’s associate body of students while former leaders welcomed the decision.
   Hasina, also the prime minister, at an emergency meeting of the Awami League presidium on Saturday made the decision amid the ongoing violence resulting from factional feud of the Chhatra League.
   After the Awami League had assumed office in January, two student leaders were killed, more than 1,000 students injured and about 25 educational institutions were closed over clashes by and within the Chhatra League.
   The Chhatra League activists clashed with rivals within the organisation or outside for stranglehold on the campus and in residence halls.
   After 26 years, Hasina stepped down as the organisational leader of the Chhatra League. In 1983, when Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin was president and AKM Jahangir general secretary of the organisation, the Chhatra League made Hasina its organisational leader as daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of the country.
   In late 2008, the Awami League made provisional amendments to its constitution making all of its front organisations, including the Chhatra League, associate bodies to be eligible for registration with the Election Commission in accordance with the amended Representation of the People Order.
   According to the amended party constitution and the Representation of the People Order, there is no scope for Hasina to retain the position of organisational leader of the Chhatra League
   The Chhatra League president, Mahmud Hasan Ripon, on Sunday told New Age Hasina’s decision was unfortunate and unexpected. He also urged Hasina to reconsider her decision.
   ‘She is the heart of the organisation and the activities of the organisation will continue under her directive. We, therefore, request her to reconsider her decision,’ he said.
   Mahmud Hasan brushed aside the comment of the Awami League’s spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam that weakness in top leadership of the organisation had been responsible for the campus violence to some extent.
   The Chhatra League president said he had talked with Hasina Saturday night and she asked them to hold conference of the district units were council sessions were yet to be held.
   The Chhatra League’s general secretary Mahfuzul Haider Choudhury Roton urged Hasina to reconsider her decision and said they had already directed the presidents and secretaries of all units of the organisation to take tough action against the activists involved in campus violence.
   ‘We urge the law enforcement agencies to take tough action against the people involved in the any violence in educational institutions,’ he said.
   The Chhatra League’s Dhaka University unit president, Sohel Rana Tipu, while talking with New Age, requested Hasina to reconsider her decision and asked the party leadership to take action against the people involved in campus violence.
   Former Chhatra League president Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin said he did not know what compelled Hasina to step down as the Chhatra League’s organisational leader, but it would bring no good for the organisation.
   Former Chhatra League general secretary AKM Jahangir said Hasina had made the right decision.
   ‘Chhatra League activists are now involved in anti-political activities. They are involved in violence and crimes. Why will she take shoulder the responsibility for the Chhatra League’s misdeeds?’ Jahangir said.
   Another former general secretary, Ajoy Kar Khokon, termed Hasina’s decision wise. He, however, said the Chhatra League would need to face difficulties as Hasina stepped down as the organisational leader.
   The party constitution amendment and the Representation of the People Order are among the reasons for which Hasina had made the decision, he said.
   According to Article 90A of the order, every political party needs to have specific provisions in its constitution to prohibit formation of any organisation or body as its affiliated body consisting of the teachers or students of any educational institution or the employees or labourers of any financial, commercial or industrial institution or establishment or the members of any other profession.

North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Sunday, defying months of pressure from the US and its allies over what they said was an illegal missile test and jangling nerves across the region.
   The US president, Barack Obama, called for a strong international response, with the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting later in the day, while South Korea denounced it as a ‘reckless’ threat to world security.
   For several tense minutes, the rocket flew through the airspace of Japan, which had given its military authority to shoot down any threat to its soil — something the North Koreans had warned would be seen as an act of war.
   But Japan said the booster rockets fell harmlessly into the water, while the United States and Seoul said the launch had failed to get its payload into orbit.
   Pyongyang, which for weeks insisted on its right to the peaceful use of space, said it put a communications satellite into orbit that was broadcasting ‘immortal revolutionary songs’ and anthems praising leader Kim Jong-Il.
   ‘The launch vehicle and satellite, developed by our own technology, is a proud fruit of our struggle,’ the official KCNA news agency said hours after the 0230 GMT launch.
   But the US North American Aerospace Defence Command and the US Northern Command denied the secretive communist regime’s claim. ‘Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan,’ also known as the East Sea, they said.
   ‘The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean,’ they said. ‘No object entered orbit.’
   The South Korean defence minister, Lee Sang-Hee, also said the North had failed, telling parliament that ‘all three stages of the rocket fell into the sea.’
   Ultimately what concerned the US and its allies was less the payload than the rocket carrying it, which Obama said was a Taepodong-2 — the North’s longest-range missile, capable in theory of reaching US soil in Alaska or Hawaii.
   The US president appealed to the world to send Pyongyang a strong response, including at a Security Council meeting set for later in the day (1900 GMT).
   ‘This action demands a response from the international community, including from the United Nations Security Council to demonstrate that its resolution cannot be defied with impunity,’ he said.
   The European Union, Britain, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand joined the chorus of condemnation.
   The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, called on governments to unite and punish a regime.
   The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean, said: ‘Given the volatility in the region, as well as a stalemate in interaction among the concerned parties, such a launch is not conducive to efforts to promote dialogue, regional peace and stability.’
   The North tested the Taepodong-2, which has an estimated range of 4,100 miles, and an atomic bomb in 2006, during six-nation disarmament talks.
   The Security Council then passed Resolution 1718, which imposed sanctions on the North, and warned against further nuclear or missile tests.
   The foreign minister of China, North Korea’s closest ally, on Sunday urged restraint to avoid further tension.
   Japan was expected to toughen its own sanctions against North Korea but analysts said they suspected the Security Council would not do so because of China and Russia, which both have veto power on the Council.
   The United States and North Korea have decades of hostility between them, dating back to the 1950-1953 Korean war which ended without a peace treaty, and Pyongyang’s regime has often worried its neighbours.
   The other five nations in the disarmament talks had all called on North Korea to refrain from the launch, including China.

The government has decided to discontinue the 100-day employment generation programme in the monga-prone areas during the current fiscal year as the ‘faulty scheme’ needs more review, said the food minister, Abdur Razzaq, on Sunday.
   ‘The programme has been suspended as it faced criticism and its transparency and accountability have been questioned,’ the minister told reporters after attending a workshop on the scheme launched in October 2008 in all 64 districts.
   The workshop, co-organised by the World Bank and the food ministry, stressed good governance and transparency for optimum benefit from the employment generation scheme.
   Razzaq, however, said that a new scheme would start from October–November in the next fiscal.
   ‘The next scheme will not only be funded by the government … donor agencies like the World Bank will also provide funds for the projects,’ he added.
   Earlier on March 19, the food minister said the government was probing into alleged irregularities and ambiguities in the scheme and four allegations had already been proved.
   The interim government initiated the programme in the last budget, allocating Tk 2000 crore for employing 20 lakh unemployed rural poor under the Social Safety Net Scheme.
   The minister on Sunday informed that Tk 900 crore, out of the Tk 1200-crore-fund made available, had been spent in the first phase of the scheme running for a total of 52 days through the months of October and November.
   ‘The remaining Tk 300 crore would be allocated for ‘Food for Work’ programme,’ he said in reply to another question.
   He made it clear that the ongoing fiscal year would not see anymore spending on the 100-day employment generation programme.
   A recent evaluation by FAO and BRAC research group says the scheme is reaching the extreme poor and having a positive effect but there are some areas in the design that need attention to further boost its performance.
   In his deliberation at the workshop, Razzaq took a swipe at the donors, saying only 44,000 tonnes of food came in aid during the food crisis against an expected 4,00,000 tonnes.
   The WB country director, Xian Zhu, in his deliberation said it was necessary to ensure transparency for the safety net programmes to prevent leakage and assured more financial and technical support to expand social safety nets.
   ‘World Bank is ready to help the government in introducing digital technology which can help improve transparency,’ he added.
   The opening session of the workshop was also addressed by food secretary Mokhlesur Rahman, WB official Mansoora Rashid, FAO’s socio-economist Marie Jo A Cortijo and the WB’s human development specialist Qaiser M Khan .

Muslim worshippers at about 200 old mosques in Makkah have been praying in the wrong direction for decades because the mosques were not built correctly, a Saudi newspaper said on Sunday.
   The mosques were not built precisely based on the qibla, the official alignment with the holy Kaaba shrine at the centre of Makkah’s Al-Haram mosque, according to the report in the Saudi Gazette.
   Hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world are bound to orient their daily prayers toward the ancient Kaaba, and mosques everywhere are built to face the black-shrouded cubic building, or have indicators of its direction.
   The discrepancy was only realised after looking at the old mosques, some built more than 50 years ago, from atop the new skyscrapers being constructed in Islam’s holiest city in western Saudi Arabia, the report said.
   According to the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, Islamic affairs ministry deputy secretary Tawfik al-Sudairy downplayed the problem.
   ‘There are no major errors, but corrections have been made for some old mosques, thanks to modern techniques. In any case, it does not affect the prayers,’ the newspaper quoted Sudairy as saying in its Saturday edition.
   Makkah residents and experts have suggested that the errant mosques install inside a correct indicator of the qibla, or orient their prayer rugs more exactly in the direction of the Kaaba, the Saudi Gazette said.
   Another suggestion is that laser beams be installed in the tall minarets of the Al-Haram mosque built around the Kaaba to help mosques and worshippers establish the correct qibla direction.

Elections to five upazila parishads, out of six where polls were suspended due to irregularities, are scheduled to take place today amid questions over legality of holding such polls under the upazila parishad election rules which are no longer valid.
   The five upazilas in which elections were suspended following allegations of irregularities, including snatching of ballot papers and capture of polling centres, are – Dighinala of Khagrachhari, Belkuchi in Sirajganj, Sadar in Brahmanbaria, Ramganj in Lakshmipur and Barura in Comilla. The Election Commission on April 2 once again suspended polls in Ukhia upazila at Cox’s Bazar.
   With the expiry of the Local Government (Upazila Parishad) Ordinance on February 25, the upazila parishad election rules, made under the ordinance, ceased to have effect.
   The commission is, however, exercising authority under the void rules in conducting the postponed polls in five upazilas, arguing that it was completing the process which began when the set of rules was valid.
   Legal experts said the ongoing activities to hold the suspended polls under the rules were illegal as there was no provision for giving any protection to holding the elections under the rules.
   As there are no rules, holding of the elections to the five upazila parishads is illegal, a Supreme Court lawyer told New Age on Saturday.
   Addressing a training programme of district election officers in the city on Sunday, election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain said, ‘Although there are no laws and rules at the moment, we are going to conduct the upazila polls.’ He admitted that it would be questionable.
   Senior Supreme Court lawyer Rafique-ul Huq also told New Age, ‘There are some technical problems, but it is not a big problem as the commission is not holding fresh elections.’
   Election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said that all preparations for holding the postponed elections in five upazilas had already been completed. He hoped that there would be no repetition of what had forced the suspension of the polling.
   Sakhawat urged distinguished personalities, particularly the members of parliament, not to visit the upazilas concerned on the polling day to keep the local elections free from any influence.
   ‘It will be good for all if the distinguished people, especially the MPs, do not visit the election areas,’ he said.
   The commissioner said it would be embarrassing if the MPs visit the election areas. ‘We hope, they [MPs] will not cause any embarrassment by visiting the [polling] areas,’ he added.
   About polls in Ukhia upazila, Sakhawat said it would be held later as the law and order situation was not conducive for holding the polls there right now.
   The EC held elections to all 481 functional upazilas on January 22, but polling in four upazila parishads was suspended mid-way and elections to two of them were postponed before the voting began.
   The EC during polling hours suspended elections to four upazilas – sadar in Brahmanbaria, Ramganj in Lakshmipur, Barura in Comilla and Belkuchi in Sirajganj.
   Eight hours before the polling on January 22, the EC postponed elections to Ukhia upazila parishad in Cox’s Bazar, because of snatching of ballot boxes and ballot papers. On January 15 it suspended elections to Dighinala upazila parishad in Khagrachari as an aspirant for chairmanship was forced to withdraw his candidature.

Election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain on Sunday warned of cancelling the results of upazila elections if anyone would obstruct or try to influence the judicial investigation of irregularities in connection with the January 22 polls in 16 upazilas.
   He urged all the people concerned to cooperate with the investigation teams so that the inquiry could be completed in time as ‘the commission had found some quarters to be impeding the investigation in some places.’
   The judicial inquiry committees investigating the alleged irregularities in the January 22 polls in the 16 upazilas, missed the report submission deadline as they could not work properly in the face of threat, influence and violence by the ruling Awami League-backed candidates in upazila polls.
   ‘The independent inquiry is being launched there. If anyone tries to influence investigations in any place, the elections will be cancelled and re-polling held,’ Sakhawat said as he talked with reporters in his office.
   According to EC secretariat officials, the commission is planning to extend the report submission deadline as no single committee has submitted the report to the commission.
   The commission early March launched investigation in 20 upazilas where the commission was compelled to suspend the results of the polls held on January 22. Of the 20 upazilas, judicial investigations were launched in 16 upazilas by district and sessions judges and in the rest by the commission officials.
   According to judicial magistrates and EC officials, a number of allegations that the local ruling party leaders and their candidates had created obstruction to the inquiries reached the commission secretariat.
   In some places, the ruling party candidates gave threats to the rival candidates asking them not to go to the judicial committee to give depositions.
   The deadline for the submission of reports by the candidates who participated in the December 29, 2008 general elections on their election expenses expired two months ago, but the commission or its secretariat is yet to come up with any statement on how many candidates are yet to submit polls expense documents.
   Asked how many candidates have failed to submit the documents, Sakhawat said ‘I am not certain about the number. But we asked the returning officers to file cases against the defaulters and report to the commission.’
   Laws make it mandatory for every contestant — winner and loser — to submit their polls expense documents in 30 days after the results are gazetted. The 30-day deadline expired on January 31.
   According to laws, contestants might be liable to two to seven years’ imprisonment for their failure to submit the expense report in time.
   The returning officers can file criminal cases against such offenders and they do not need the permission of the Election Commission to do so.

The Jahangirnagar University syndicate at a special meeting on Sunday expelled six students, activists of the Palash-Regan Group of the university unit Chhatra League, for their involvement in the April 3 clash in the Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall.
   The expelled are Batch 34 student Shafiul Mahmud of statistics, Batch 37 student Sazidur Rahman and Batch 36 student Arif Iqbal Hossain of history, Batch 36 student Khan Md Abu Saeer Al Arabee, Batch 36 student KM Taifur Siddique of geography and Batch 35 student Zihan Hossain of government and politics.
   The syndicate decided to amend the university’s proctorial rules and formed a five-member committee with pro-vice-chancellor Farhad Hossain as chairman. The committee has been asked to submit the revised proctorial rules within the shortest possible time.
   The syndicate made the decisions after the clash resulting from factional feud of the Chhatra League in the Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall.
   Ten students, mostly activists of the Pritam-Sabbir Group were injured and mobiles and money were looted by the activists of the Palash-Regan Group. Witnesses said there were a number of outsiders when the Palash-Regan Group attacked the Pritam-Sabbir Group activists.
   In three months, Chhatra League factions clashed on five occasions on the campus in which at least 100 activists of several factions and some general students were injured. More than a hundred activists of different factions of the Chhatra League and Chhatra Dal are staying outside the campus fearing reprisal.
   After the December 29, 2008 elections, grouping and infighting in the university unit Chhatra League have increased eying illegal benefits during the tenure of the Awami League in the government.
   On January 10, 2008 when the interim government was in power, a Chhatra League group led by Adnan Bhuiyan Ayan and Azibur Rahman, backed by Chhatra Dal and disguised Chhatra Shibir, beat up Sohel Parvez and Mahmud Naser Jony, the then president and general secretary of the Chhatra League and drove their supporters out of the campus.
   On January 14, 2009, the activists loyal to the president-secretary group captured the Kamaluddin Hall and beat up four activists of the Ayan-Azibur Group.
   Only after two days, on January 16, a clash began between the two factions when 25 gunshots were traded and 30 activists of both the groups were injured.
   The central Chhatra League committee at an emergency meeting on January 18 suspended all Chhatra League activities on the university campus for a month.
   The police raided the halls and failed to find out any firearms. A few firearms were later recovered by the police from different places of the campus.
   On February 16, the two groups clashed again, in which 35 activists were injured.
   The leaders of the president-secretary group condemned the then vice-chancellor and the proctor for siding with the other group and demanded their resignation.
   The central Chhatra League committee on February 17 disbanded the university unit committee for an indefinite period and with the help of the police, the president-secretary group captured the Bangabandhu Hall and Bhashani Hall the same day, driving away the activists of the Ayan-Azibur group.
   As there is no committee of the Chhatra League in the university, senior and junior leaders in all the halls are organising groups on their own. Chhatra League insiders said at least 20 such groups are now active on the campus.
   Mahfuzur Rahman, joint secretary of the disbanded Chhatra League committee, told New Age, ‘The main reason for this grouping is the absence of chain of command. A committee should be formed immediately to tackle the situation.’
   ‘The latest committee that was disbanded was formed three years ago. A number of activists had become prominent on the campus since then, but they were not given the chance to lead the organisation,’ Jahid Parvez Khan Pulok, another joint secretary of the disbanded committee, told New Age.

The first session of the ninth parliament is likely to be prorogued tomorrow, according to the speaker Abdul Hamid.
   The parliament is likely to adopt a resolution thanking the immediate-past president Iajuddin Ahmed for his address to the house, chief whip Abdus Shahid said.
   The new parliament went into its first session on January 25 and the then president Iajuddin Ahmed addressed the house to open the session.
   Iajuddin read out the address approved by the new cabinet led by prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina.
   Lawmakers of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party boycotted president’s speech accusing him of violating the constitution by failing to hold the general elections in 90 days even after assuming the office of the chief adviser to the caretaker government.
   Almost all of the 180 lawmakers present in the house from both treasury and opposition benches expressed their unwillingness to thank the president for his address, till filing of this report at 9:00pm Sunday.
   The first session of the ninth parliament is likely to be prorogued Tuesday, the speaker told reporters.
   He said, ‘Sunday was set for adopting a motion thanking the president for his address to the house in consultation with the treasury and opposition benches. I was told today [Sunday] the leader of the opposition would not be able to participate in the discussion on the president’s address today due to her preoccupation with other work. The treasury bench has also preferred to defer adopting the motion.’
   Parliament sources said the treasury bench wanted the deferral for ‘strategic reasons’.
   ‘If we [treasury bench] adopt the motion today [Sunday], the lawmakers of the opposition and their leader would find an excuse to criticise us. We do not want to give them [opposition] the chance…,’ a treasury bench whip said.
   Chief whip Abdus Shahid said, ‘We have preferred deferral of adoption of the motion so that the opposition leader can participate in the discussion.’
   The first session is expected to be prorogued Tuesday, he said.
   Shahid said the leader of the house and prime minister Sheikh Hasina would deliver her valedictory speech to conclude the session.
   Opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque told New Age that the leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia would address the house on the concluding day of the first session.
   According to Article 73 (2) of the constitution, at the commencement of the first session after a general election and at the commencement of the first session each year the president shall address parliament.
   Article 73 (3) says, parliament shall, after the presentation of an address by the president, or the receipt of a message from him, discuss the matter referred to in such address or massage.
   According to Article 48(3), excepting appointment of the prime minister and the chief justice, the president shall act in accordance with the advice of the prime minister.
   Chief whip Abdus Shahid said the treasury bench members are expected to support passage of the motion thanking the president for his speech. ‘It’s a parliamentary custom,’ he said.
   When asked about the criticism of Iajuddin Ahmed by lawmakers, the chief whip said the lawmakers were free to express their opinions while participating in the discussion on the president’s speech.
   to Article 70 of the constitution, a person elected as a member of parliament in an election in which he was nominated as a candidate by a political party, shall vacate his seat if he resigns from that party or votes in parliament against that party.
   In an explanation, the constitution says, if a member of parliament, being present in the house, abstains from voting…ignoring the directive of the party, which nominated him as a candidate in the election, not to do so, he shall be deemed to have voted against that party.
   Ruling Awami League lawmakers Rawshan Jahan Sathi, Parveen Talukder, Cheman Ara and Asma Jereen, opposition BNP lawmakers Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papiya, Shammi Akhter and Nilufer Chowdhury Moni and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Hamidur Rahman Azad participated in the discussion on the motion Sunday evening.

Pakistani and Afghan officials were Sunday preparing to send home the bodies of 46 Afghans found crammed into a truck container believed to have been bound for Iran, officials said.
   The container carrying around 110 people was found about 20 kilometres south of Quetta, capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province which borders Afghanistan and Iran, the police said.
   ‘The death toll is 46,’ the police official Ghulam Dastagir said from the southwestern province after the bodies were found Saturday.
   ‘(Another) 45 people were unconscious and have been admitted to hospital,’ the official added.
   A probe into the matter had been handed over to Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency which deals with immigration matters.
   ‘We are investigating the matter and have contacted the Afghan consulate in Quetta, who have visited the hospital,’ FIA director Shahab Azeem said.
   ‘According to initial investigations the survivors have told us that they boarded the container at Chaman border and had to come to Quetta for onward journey to Iran,’ Azeem said.
   The official said a case had been registered against an Afghan national, Gul Agha, who according to survivors charged 30,000 rupees (375 dollars) each to take them to Iran.
   Pakistan’s private Edhi welfare trust charity said it had put the victims’ bodies in coffins and that they would be returned to Afghanistan on Monday morning.
   ‘Now we have been informed by Afghan officials that a plane will come on Monday morning to transport the bodies and other victims to Afghanistan,’ Edhi official Mohammad Babul said.
   Afghanistan’s counsel general in Quetta, Mohammad Daud Mohsini, said the president, Hamid Karzai, had ordered authorities to send a special plane to fly the victims home.
   Karzai’s office in Kabul said he was saddened by the deaths and warned against illegal migration.
   ‘We have been able to talk to some of the people who were trapped in the container. They were all Afghans in the container and the container was going to Iran,’ senior police official in Quetta, Wazir Khan Nasir, said earlier.
   ‘When the condition of people inside the container deteriorated, the driver fled, leaving the container’ and the truck, Nasir said.
   Survivor Nizar Ahmed, 15, said from hospital that he came from the province of Paktia in eastern Afghanistan.
   ‘We have all come from Afghanistan and we were going to Iran,’ he said. without being able to explain why they were bound for the Islamic republic or when they left home.
   The police official Mohammad Zaman Karim said that around 110 people were crammed into the container, adding that the driver and his assistant apparently fled on foot after suspecting that people inside the container had died.
   Three of the dead were teenagers aged between 13 and 15, he added.
   Local inhabitants and the police realised there were people inside when they heard sounds coming from within the container, the police said.
   Thousands of Afghans sneak abroad every year to find work, with jobs scarce in their impoverished homeland.

The government will soon declare ‘deserters’ some 1,800 Bangladesh Rifles soldiers who went into hiding after the February 25-26 rebellion at the Pilkhana that left 81 people killed, most of them army officers deputed to the BDR.
   ‘The identities of all the absconding soldiers along with their photographs will be published by the end of this month [April], and the list will be sent to lawmen across the country for legal measures against them,’ commerce minister Faruk
   Khan, who coordinates the three probes into the BDR carnage, told a press conference on Sunday.
   Any member of the defence forces can be declared a ‘deserter’ if he remains absent from his workplace for more than 60 days without information, said the minister adding that the same rule would be followed in the case of about 1,800 BDR soldiers who did not report to the headquarters defying a government order.
   The minister was briefing the press after the fourth coordination meeting he chaired at the BDR headquarters. He informed newsmen about the progress in investigation, proposed reconstitution of the border force and mode of prosecution of the BDR soldiers involved in the bloody mutiny.
   The minister expressed his satisfaction at the progress of investigation saying that the probe being conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department of police was progressing satisfactorily.
   A total of 841 BDR soldiers were arrested, over 1,200 items seized as evidence and 66 places of occurrence were identified, he said adding that a number of soldiers had confessed to their involvement in the incidents before the court.
   Their confessions will help find out the mystery behind the carnage, he added.
   When asked whether the two ruling party lawmakers, who reportedly had discussion with the BDR soldiers about their demands before the February 25-26 rebellion, would be interrogated, the minister said, ‘The CID has been entrusted with the investigation of the carnage and it will question whoever it thinks should be interrogated.’
   To a question about the mode of trial of the rebels, the minister said that the trial would be completed as quickly as possible. They may face court martial or the prosecution may take place under the existing law or under BDR rules.
   The mode will be determined only after the investigation is completed, he said.
   About reconstitution of the BDR, he said that the sub-committee headed by major general Mainul Islam, director general of the border force, was studying the organograms of border guards of different neighbouring countries and upon its report a modern border force would be constituted. The report is expected soon.
   To another query, he said that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation did not submit any written report to the government but they said that the CID investigation was on the right track and made some technical suggestions.
   Meanwhile, five more BDR soldiers made confessional statements before the chief metropolitan magistrate court, Dhaka on Sunday.
   The CID produced the five soldiers – havilder Yusuf Ali, havilder Abu Taher, sepoy Nafiul Kazi, sepoy Alim Reza and sepoy Shafiul Azam – before the court in the afternoon after they had agreed in custody to confess to their crimes.
   After recording their statements, the metropolitan magistrates AM Zulfiqar Hayat, Tofael Hassan and Mohammad Abdur Rahim sent the five soldiers to jail.
   With them, a total of 19 BDR soldiers have so far made confessional statements before the CMM court.
   The court of metropolitan magistrate Faysal Atiq bin Kader granted five days’ remand for 25 BDR soldiers on Sunday afternoon.
   The investigation officer of the case, senior ASP of CID Abdul Kahhar Akand sought a 10-day remand after producing the 25 BDR soldiers from the jail

The government is planning to introduce daylight saving time by advancing the clock by one hour from June to save electricity during the evening hours.
   An inter-ministry meeting headed by the adviser to the prime minister, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, on Sunday discussed the system and its possible implications during the summer when electricity shortage will be severe.
   Representatives of various ministries like education, health, information, communications, religious affairs, food and disaster mitigation, civil aviation and the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, however, were divided over the introduction of such a system in Bangladesh.
   Some of the representatives said that if the clock is advanced by one hour, the afternoons will have more daylight and around 150MW-200MW of electricity can be saved.
   Many representatives, however, said that such a system would create confusion among people about the timing of their prayers, office and school timing, bus, launch and flight times.
   They said that as the illiteracy rate of the country was high, many people, especially in rural areas, might not understand the system.
   Others said that as many rural people depend on the position of the sun to guess the time, advancing the clock would not create confusion among them.
   The meeting was told that if the government introduces such a system, it will do so in June as the Higher Secondary School Certificate examinations will last till May 28.
   Tawfiq asked all the representatives to submit their written opinions by Thursday.
   The interim government first planned to introduced the DST system in April 2007 but later backtracked because of the complexities surrounding it.
   This system of ‘advancing’ the time is used in the USA, UK and many European countries which adjust clocks forward by one hour in spring and summer and adjust them backward by one hour in autumn and winter in order to do more work in the daylight.
   India introduced the system during the times of war, but dropped it later. Pakistan introduced the system in 2008.
   According to the online encyclopaedia, www.wikipedia.com, DST is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less.
   It, however, says that the practice is controversial. ‘Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun,’ it says.
   It also says although an early goal of the DST was to reduce the use of electricity in the evening, research about how DST currently affects the use of energy is limited and often contradictory.
   It points out that the DST’s occasional clock shifts present other challenges. They complicate timekeeping and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, record-keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment and sleep patterns.

Dhaka has sought financial and technical assistance from Beijing to expand the railway network up to Ramu in Cox’s Bazar district as part of a move to develop infrastructure for linking Myanmar.
   Bangladesh government has already sent a letter to the China government seeking the assistance for setting up a 128km railway track from Dohazari in Chittagong to Ramu, said communication ministry officials.
   Communication minister Syed Abul Hossain has beefed up the government effort with China aiming at getting the assistance for setting up the railway line following the instruction of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
   After assuming office in last January, it is the first move of the coalition government, led by Awami League, to enhance bilateral cooperation with the major Asian economic power in the area of communication.
   ‘The response from Beijing to provide financial and technical assistance is expected to be positive,’ a senior official of the ministry said, adding China was interested in establishing communication network between its Kunming and Chittagong seaport via Myanmar.
   The setting up of a railway track from Dohajari of Chittagong to Gundum in Myanmar via Ramu in Cox’s Bazaar is a part of the Trans-Asian Railway agreement, which Bangladesh had signed on November 9, 2007.
   The present government is attaching priority to the Cox’s Bazaar-Teknaf railway line setting up project as it will pave the way for connecting Bangladesh with Myanmar later, the officials said.
   The military-ruled Myanmar is a party of the 28 nations Trans-Asian Railway, sponsored by the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
   Bangladesh has long been trying to strengthen communication network with Myanmar to bolster trade and commerce with the east-Asians countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
   The country has already struck a deal with Myanmar to establish road network between the two neighbouring countries and agreed to construct a 20km road inside Myanmar at its own cost.
   The Bangladesh Railway, which will implement the railway line project, has already sought Tk 1,400 crore and will acquire 1,200 acres of land to make the railway track.
   At present, there is a railway line up to Dohazari in Chittagong.
   The Trans-Asian Railway would link Bangladesh with six countries of the east Asia — Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore — as well as with the European countries via Turkey.
   The Trans-Asian Railway will connect Bangladesh with India at two points and Myanmar at one point.

Prominent Members of Parliament from the Awami League-led alliance have called for announcing a higher procurement price of Boro rice to encourage farmers, and urged the government to give the highest priority to agriculture in the next budget to maintain a healthy economic growth.
   The chairmen of the parliamentary standing committees, except the ones headed by BNP lawmakers, at a pre-budget consultation with the finance minister, Abdul Maal Abdul Muhith, on Sunday recommended cash incentives for expatriate workers to encourage them to remit foreign currencies.
   They also suggested provision of stimulus packages to people such as industrial workers who will be really affected by the current global recession, apart from giving fiscal support to the entrepreneurs. The MPs further emphasised the importance of political stability for economic development, and preparation of the budget in line with the AL’s election manifesto, Muhith told newsmen.
   ‘Farmers’ stocks of grain should be considered to be godowns for official procurement of rice when there is lack of storage capacity. Farmers should also be provided with inputs,’ said Rashed Khan Menon, who heads the standing committee on the education ministry.
   The government can store only 15 lakh tonnes of rice, whereas any bumper crop may make it necessary to procure a much higher quantity of rice after the harvest.
   The chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry, Suranjit Sengupta, opined that the country’s gross domestic product will not be affected if there is a bumper Boro harvest this year, no matter how bleak are the pictures painted by the international agencies.
   In view of agriculture’s contribution to the economy and society, Jatiya Party lawmaker Anisul Islam Mahmud, who is the chairman of standing committee on expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry, said that the procurement price of rice per kilogram should be fixed at least at Tk 25 so that the farmers are encouraged to grow rice next year as well.
   Both Menon and Anisul suggested that the expatriate workers should be provided with more cash incentives on top of giving them more than the existing exchange rate for dollars or any other currencies.
   When asked about the possibility of a dual exchange rate in this regard, the finance minister ruled it out, saying that it was unlikely. ‘However, the MPs have not touched the issue of black money,’ he said.
   When asked about it, Menon said, ‘I am personally against providing such an immoral opportunity for unscrupulous people to whiten their ill-gotten money.’
   Referring to the quality of education, he maintained that it would be impossible to break the deadlock in the sector unless there was enhanced budgetary allocation.
   Dwelling on political stability, Anisul said, ‘I think our political stability will not be hampered despite the recent carnage in the BDR headquarters and the strife among the students.’
   The chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the women’s and children’s affairs ministry, Meher Afroze Chumki, suggested the launching of pilot projects for the unemployed men and women who would be given technical training in the rural areas.
   Another MP told the meeting that the government should consider giving land transit to India for earning revenue and also should materialise Bangladesh’s potential of becoming a regional commercial hub, said a source.

At least 30 workers were sent back from Malaysia on Sunday after being cheated by both the Bangladeshi and Malaysian recruiting agencies.
   A flight of the Bangladesh’s GMG airlines arrived at the Zia International Airport in Dhaka, carrying the workers Sunday morning.
   ‘A Bangladeshi recruiting agency called Tangail Overseas and owned by Mohammad Karim sent us to Malaysia in March 2007, with a three year work permit. Though the recruiting agency told us we would be working at a carton factory in Malaysia, we had to work with a different company,’ Rafiqul, one of the 30 workers, told New Age at the Zia International Airport.
   He said, ‘After working for only one month and five days, the Malaysian company told us that they would not be able to allow us to work with their company as our papers were not legal.’
   ‘Later, we managed to secure jobs in a different company, paying a handsome amount of money to a Malaysian outsourcing agency. But they too deceived us,’ he said.
   ‘Even after repeated communications with the Bangladeshi recruiting agency and the high commission, they did not extend any cooperation to us. We had to lead a miserable life during our stay in Malaysia,’ he said.
   Another worker said after failing to get jobs they had to surrender to the Malaysian authorities.
   ‘After paying some 2000 Ringgit as fines to the Malaysian authorities we have returned from Malaysia,’ he said.
   More workers from different countries including Singapore and the Maldives have also returned home recently.
   The Malaysian government recently cancelled visas of more than 55,000 Bangladeshi jobseekers, which were approved back in 2007.
   After a ten-year ban, Malaysia began to hire Bangladeshi workers in August 2006, recruiting around four lakh workers since then. The workers have made allegations about abuse, poor pay and non-payment by their employers in Malaysia.

The government has no mining agreement with Asia Energy for Phulbari coal field in Dinajpur, said adviser to the prime minister, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury.
   ‘As far as I have learnt, there is no mining agreement with Asia Energy [for Phulbari coal field]. The issue of Asia Energy will be dealt with after the finalisation of the coal policy,’ Tawfiq told reporters on Thursday, replying to a query about what steps the new government would take on the Asia Energy issue.
   Different rights and professional groups including the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port and the Bangladesh Economic Association have been demanding ouster of the controversial UK based company, which submitted a development scheme to the government in 2005 for operating an open pit mine at Phulbari.
   Three persons were killed and many others were injured in August 2006 when law enforcers opened fire on protesters at Phulbari, who were protesting against the planned open-pit mine of the company saying that the environment of the area would be destroyed and they would lose their livelihoods and homes if the open-pit mine was operated.
   Although the energy officials have claimed that the controversial UK-based company was only given the coal exploration licence and any decision on awarding the mining licence would depend on the government, Asia energy claimed that it was given the coal mining lease for ‘B area’ of the coal field in 2004.
   The company has been waiting for a government decision on its coal field development plan, which was submitted in 2005 as the successive government failed to take any decision, although an expert committee, formed by the government, found in 2006 that the company’s agreement with the government was ‘illegal’ and that it would not be viable to operate the company’s planned open-pit mine.
   The company’s chairman, Gary Lye on November 30, 2007, at a meeting with the members of the advisory committee to finalise the coal policy, claimed that after the mining lease was granted by the government, Asia Energy carried out a full scale exploratory drilling and conducted a feasibility study including the assessments of its impact on the environment and the society before submitting the development scheme.
   ‘There is the contract which contains an investment agreement and we have already invested a lot. The contract also covers the mining issue,’ he said.
   The company claimed that it had submitted an application for the mining licence for ‘B area’ which contains 1921 hectares of land, in November 15, 2000 and got the licence on April 1, 2004, when it was given 24 months of time to submit a development scheme after completing the feasibility study.
   The company said it also held the exploration licence for G area with 1447 hectares and H area with 2112 hectares of land. It had applied for the mining licence for G and H areas along with I area with 10,371 hectares, T area 1775 hectares and U area with 286 hectares of land, the company said.
   Members of the expert committee which evaluated Asia Energy’s development scheme, however, said that the company wanted around 6500 hectares of land in total for coal mining.
   ‘There is vagueness in the letter which the government gave to Asia Energy in 2004 to allow it to conduct the feasibility study. The letter basically says that it would be given mining licence if its development plan was accepted. So if its development scheme is not accepted, the government can say “no” to Asia Energy,’ said a member.
   As per the committee report, Asia energy’s Phulbari coal field development scheme should not be approved on any account — legal, technological, financial, environmental and institutional.

The government on Sunday appointed more persons on contractual basis, bringing further changes in the civil administration.
   Kamal Lohani has been appointed director general of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy with the status of additional secretary on a two-year contract, Rashid Haider has been made executive director of the Nazrul Academy with the status of joint secretary for a two-year term and Rabindra Gop has been appointed director of the Bangladesh Folk Art and Crafts Foundation with the status of deputy secretary on a two-year contract.
   Mahadev Saha has been appointed director of the National Book Centre with the status of deputy secretary for two years and documentation officer at the Bangladesh Consulate General in New York, Chowdhury Sultana Parvin has been made second secretary of the consulate for three-years.
   The establishment ministry issued separate gazette notifications to the effect on the day.
   Joint secretary, Md Yusuf has been made additional director general of the water development board, project director of the secondary school education quality and access enhancement project, Md Sirajul Islam has been transferred to the BIAM Foundation as director general, and director general of the Press Institute of Bangladesh, Md Nazrul Islam has been sent to the Rural Development Academy as director general while BRTC chairman, Safizuddin Ahmed and refugee, relief and rehabilitation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, SM Shamsher Zakaria Bhuiyan have been made officers on special duty.

Dhaka Medical College will be re-opened by the end of the week and all the hostels will be re-opened before the classes start, said the health minister, AFM Ruhal Haque, on Sunday.
   The college was closed March 31 for an indefinite period after clash between two fractions of the Awami League’s associate body of students Bangladesh Chhatra League in which the college unit general secretary was killed and 25 others were injured.
   The health minister had a meeting behind closed doors with the college principal, Quazi Deen Mohammad, in the principal’s room for two hours on Sunday on resolving campus problems.
   After the meeting with the Dhaka Medical College principal, the health minister met the principals of medical colleges and directors of medical college hospitals in the ministry’s conference room and told reporters, ‘I will visit Dhaka Medical College regularly and sit there from April 7 onwards to improve the quality of hospital services.’
   A three-member investigation committee with ENT Professor Dr Mahiuddin Ahmed, psychiatry professor Dr Abdullah Al Mamun and medicine’s Associate Professor Dr Billal Alam was formed soon after the clash at the college. The report is expected on
   April 7.
   Sources in the ministry, however, said the go-
   vernment was planning to slap a ban on student politics in public medical
   colleges.
   High officials of the Directorate General of Health Services said they had recommended such a ban for certain period.

The remittance sent by the Bangladeshi expatriates in March stood at US $881.31 million, surpassing the previous monthly high of $859 million, recorded in last January.
   The record remittance in March pushed up the inflow of remittance at $7029.51 million in the first nine months of the fiscal year, compared to the $5649.23 million in the same period of the last fiscal year, according to the central bank officials.
   The country received $7.9 billion in remittance in the last fiscal year and was expecting $10 billion in the current fiscal.
   The inflow of remittance, however, has slowed down because of global financial meltdown, said the officials.
   The growth was nearly 30 per cent in the first six months of the fiscal year that has slowed down to almost 25 per cent in the nine months.