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Severe power outages coupled with sweltering summer heat has made life measurable in Sylhet.
   The district is now experiencing load shedding for more than 10 hours every day causing immense sufferings to the people, local sources said.
   According to information available with the Power Development Board, Sylhet, the region receives only 130 to 150 MW a day against the demand for 250 to 270 MW.
   The chief engineer of PDB, Sylhet, Abdul Wahab Khan, told New Age that and power crisis will no go soon unless the government sets up new power plants.
   The situation has turned severe in the villages of the division as the Palli Bidyut samities, organisations to supply power to the rural areas, get only 20 per cent of the total demand every day from the national grid, sources concerned said.
   Sylhet Palli Bidyut Samaiti-1 receives only 12mw against the demand for 50mw, while SPBS-2 receives only 2 to 3mw while the demand is 10mw, the sources said.
   ‘We are totally unable to satisfy the huge number of consumers with so meager amount of power allotted by the PDB, Mushfiqur Rahman, general manager of SPBS-2, said.
   Activities of the tea processing plants in the region are also being hampered due to severe power outage and erratic power supply, according to sources at different tea gardens.
   Manager of a state-owned Lakkatura Tea Garden, Emdadul Haq, said tea leaves being processed in the plants are damaged very often due to power outages.
   Manager of Malni Chhara Tea Garden, the oldest tea garden in the country, said the government should consider the issue sincerely and on priority basis to protect tea industry, a most potential source of earning foreign currency.
   The authorities of the cold storages in the region are forced to run power generators as the heat goes beyond the specific level due to frequent load shedding, sources said.
   ‘Fruits which have been preserved for a short time in the cold storages are being damaged,’ said Ataur Rahman, manager of Sylhet Cold Storage.
   Official sources at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital said they were facing difficulties in operating different medical equipment including radio-therapy machine due to power outages.
   ‘Children and elderly patients at the hospital are the worst sufferers due to frequent power outages,’ a physician at the pediatric department said.
   The SOMCH director, Brigadier General Ismail Hossain, said, the lone power generator at the hospital remains inoperative most of time due to technical fault.
   Frequent power outages are badly affecting students of different educational institutions, some guardians and teachers said.
   The candidates of the ongoing HSC examinations cannot study due to night-time load-shedding,’ Professor Shamsunnahar, acting principal of Sylhet MC College, said.

Students of Jahangirnagar University went on the rampage on the campus on Sunday, protesting at acute shortage of shuttle buses for them.
   Campus sources said a group of students went violent in the morning after they had failed to get on buses at the transport pool of the university.
   The agitating students vandalised the windowpanes of the univer-
   sity’s transport office
   and damaged some buses, the sources said, adding that they also blocked movement of university transport for about one hour.
   The university authorities recently have got five double-decker buses from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority as per a contract.
   The five double-deckers, meant for only newly admitted 1st year students, have added to the fleet of four university buses.
   Of the five buses, three come from Gulistan, one from Mirpur and another from Uttara in Dhaka at 7:00am and they leave the campus at 1:30pm.
   Only first year students are allowed to get on
   these buses while the majority students have to depend on only four buses, campus sources said.
   The transport in-charge Professor Shahedur Rashid and assistant proctor Professor Abdullahel Kafi went to the spot at around 3:00pm and calmed down the students after assuring them of addressing the bus crisis soon.

The country’s 52.49 per cent people aged seven years and above are illiterate, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics report 2008.
   The 55.77 per cent male and 49.11 per cent female aged seven years and above are illiterate, the director general of Non-formal Education Bureau, Rezaul Qader, told a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday.
   He made the disclosure while reading out the keynote paper at the seminar titled ‘education for all’ organised by Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO in cooperation with UNESCO Dhaka Office at the NAEM auditorium.
   The education minister, Nurul Islam Naheed, addressed the seminar as the chief guest while educationist Professor Anisuzzaman addressed it as the special guest.
   Chaired by additional secretary of the education ministry Ujjal Bikash Dutta, the function was addressed, among others, by eminent litterateur Selina Rahman, UNESCO representative to Bangladesh Malama Meleisea and director general of Bangla Academy Professor Md Shahed Ahmed.
   Naheed said all children would have to be brought under primary education programme to achieve 100 percent literacy rate.
   Referring to the election manifesto of the present government for reaching all children to school by 2011, he said the government is committed to make the country illiteracy-free by 2017.
   The minister said there is no alternative to enhancing efficiency of teachers by providing training and other facilities for ensuring quality primary education.
   He said the government would take necessary steps to increase the number of skilled teachers to achieve the goal of illiteracy-free country.
   Naheed said nearly 91 per cent children go to school of which 48 percent children drop out before completing primary education.
   He said, ‘We have already identified some areas of the country where drop out rate is high, and we will take necessary measures to check it.’
   Describing corruption as an obstacle to ensuring education for all, the education minister said, ‘We have to root out corruption and stop misuse in education sector.’
   Naheed underscored the need for vocational and technical education to turn the people as human resources to accelerate the pace of economic progress of the country.
   Professor Anisuzzaman said, ‘We have to give importance to primary education in our inclusive education system for ensuring education for all.’

Bangladesh Mahila Parishad on Sunday demanded reinstatement of a law to stop eve-teasing and take stern action against woman and child abusers.
   The parishad in a press release expressed concern over eve-teasing that led a college girl to commit
   suicide. It also deman- ded proper investigation of the incident and immediate legal action against perpetrators.
   The organisation made the demand after college girl Sumi had committed suicide at Agailjhara upazila in Barisal recently.
   Sumi, daughter of a poor farmer Premananda Sarker of Nagar village, was a student of Ideal College at Jola union.
   A group of young men, led by Ripon Baroi and Ashok Bishwas, used to harass Sumi on way to her college. They went to her residence on April 20 and gave an offer of marriage, the release said.
   On refusal, the guys misbehaved with Sumi’s family members and warned that they would have to face dire consequences for refusal, the release added.
   The organisation demanded that the government should restore the law to stop such incident and ensure security of girls and women.
   They also urged the government to ensure security of the victim’s family.

The results of admission test for MBA (evening, 16th batch) under business studies faculty of University of Dhaka were published on Sunday.
   The results are available on the notice board of the faculty, according to a university press release.
   Successful candidates have been requested to appear for an interview for to be held on April 29, 30 at 7:00pm.

Classes resumed at Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology on Sunday after closure for 43 days.
   Attendance of students at classrooms was thin on the day, campus sources said.
   Almost all the students of the university had already returned to their halls of residence which reopened on Saturday. The hall authorities allowed the residential students into their dormitories after checking identity cards.
   RUET was closed for an indefinite period on March 13 following a clash between Bangladesh Chhatra League and Islami Chhatra Shibir on the Rajshahi University campus that left a Shibir leader killed and 50 others injured.
   The authorities concerned at an emergency meeting on April 19 decided to reopen the dormitories on April 25 and the university on April 26.
   The meeting also decided to impose restrictions on rallies, processions and political activities on the campus for an indefinite period.
   The authorities asked teachers, students, officials and employees of the university to keep their identity cards with them during their stay at RUET, the sources said, adding that additional police were deployed on the campus to ensure security.
   The vice-chancellor had also sought cooperation from all concerned to ensure congenial academic atmosphere on the campus. He hoped that rests of the students would attend their classes within a couple of days.

Bangladesh lags behind in tourism sector despite having all potentials for development of the sector, participants in a programme said on Sunday.
   The observation came at the freshers’ reception for the 2nd batch of Evening MBA students of the tourism and hospitality department at Dhaka University.
   The civil aviation and tourism minister, GM Qader and the DU vice-chancellor, AAMS Arefin Siddique, among others, spoke at the programme presided over by department chair M Ashraful Islam Choudhury.
   Speaking on the occasion, the minister said Bangladesh can earn huge foreign currencies from tourism sector by properly developing the sector.
   He also called on the tourism students to put in their best efforts to develop the potential sector by projecting the rich cultural heritage of the country.
   The vice-chancellor in his speech said Bangladesh lagged behind in its tourism sector though it has rich elements that can attract huge number of tourists.
   Abbas Ali Khan, dean of business administration faculty and HM Hakim Ali, president of Bangladesh International Hotel Association were also present in the programme.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion arrested a suspected drug trader and seized 1,030 bottles of Phensidyl from an auto-rickshaw at Dumuria upazila in Khulna on Sunday.
   Acting on a tip-off, RAB sources said, a special team of RAB–6 searched the auto-rickshaw on Khulna-Satkhira Highway near Dumuria Hospital at around 8:00am and seized the contraband drug.
   Later, they arrested drug trader Masum, 30, son of Abul Hossain, of Gabtoli village under sadar upazila in Barguna.
   A case was lodged with the police station in this connection.

Weather is likely to remain dry with temporary partly cloudy sky over the country having chances of rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind at one or two places over Chittagong division in next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Moderate to severe heat wave sweeping over Khulna division and the regions of Dhaka, Faridpur, Madaripur, Patuakhali, Rajshahi and Ishwardi and mild to moderate heat wave over the regions of Tangail, Sandwip, Sitakunda, Comilla, Chandpur, Feni, Rangamati and the rests of Rajshahi and Barisal divisions may continue, Met Office said.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country during the period, it said.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:26pm and rises tomorrow at 5:26am.
   Country’s highest temperature 42.2 degrees Celsius was recorded on Sunday at Jessore and lowest 22.2 degrees at Srimongal.