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The textile minister assured the local exporters of formulating an action plan within a week after receiving proposals from the organizations in the textile sector, to support the exporters in facing the impact of global recession.
   ‘I expect that all textile sector organizations will come up with specific proposals, not typical reports, within the next two or three days and then the government will prepare its action plan in a week,’ the minister, Abdul Latif Siddiqui said on Saturday.
   He was addressing a seminar styled ‘effective development of the relations between the African cotton exporters and the Bangladeshi spinners’ at the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association auditorium in the capital.
   Later talking with New Age, Siddiqui said he would immediately sit with the prime minister along with other concerned ministers to discuss the proposals and decide on government’s support measures for the exporters.
   Meanwhile, sources said that the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association had agreed to three proposals on their demands.
   According to the agreement, the organizations will urge the government to provide 10 per cent cash incentives instead of the existing five per cent.
   Their other two demands include establishment of funds to offer 6 per cent research and development incentives against export performances and extension of time for payment of the long-term project loans by two years.
   ‘We will submit the proposals to the government in a day or two,’ a top leader of one of those organizations told New Age.
   The textile associations argued that rapid cuts on the prices of garments by the recession-hit global importers were hampering the business of the local exporters. Moreover, depreciations in the currencies of some major apparel exporting counties have put Bangladeshi exporters into difficulty as Bangladesh’s currency has remained quite stable for a long time.
   The minister and the textile industry leaders said at the seminar that the African countries could make Bangladesh a lucrative destination for their cotton produces.
   The Geneva-based International Trade Centre has sponsored a visit to Dhaka by a delegation of Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi cotton producers for meeting the local buyers.
   The BTMA president, Abdul Hai Sarker and the BGMEA acting president, Abdus Salam spoke at the seminar.

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Saturday ruled out the possibility of further downward adjustment of fuel prices pointing to the need for keeping the value of taka stable at a time when the value of other global currencies are on stiff decline.
   He said keeping the value of taka stable was a big challenge now as the global economic crisis was eroding the value of all major currencies. He said the value of taka was still better here than many other currencies and the question was how long it could be protected from external impacts.
   The minister said the government had passed a resolution in the parliament to try the war criminals and its legal process would begin now.
   Muhith told reporters after visiting the grave of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He came to Tungipara with a delegation of newly elected members of parliament from Sylhet division to pay homage to the founding president of Bangladesh.
   They placed wreaths and offered prayers. The delegation included parliament members Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, Hafiz Majumder, Imran Ahmed, Md Shahabuddin, Mahmud Samad Chowdhury Kowes, Muhibur Rahman Manik, Abdul Mannan and Abdul Majid Khan.
   Sylhet city Awami League general secretary Mejbahuddin Siraj, organising secretary Biswajit Chowdhury, Gopalganj district Awami League president Mohammad Ali Khan, general secretary Imdadul Haque Chowdhury, joint secretary Mahbub Ali Khan and local leaders were present on the occasion.
   BSS reports, Muhith said some projects taken by the previous Awami League government and later cancelled or shelved by the past BNP government had been reintroduced.
   ‘The rest of the projects will also be reintroduced on the basis of their merit and importance,’ he said.

Speakers at a meeting demanded that ethnic minority people should be provided primary education in their mother tongue and there should be quota for them in education and job.
   They also demanded a constitutional recognition of the ethnic minority people. The demand was made at a meeting on ‘Amra Matribhashay Parte Chai’ (We want to study in our mother tongue) on Saturday.
   Jatiya Adivasi Parishad organised the programme at the Rajshahi Shilpakala Academy.
   Litterateur Hasan Azizul Haque said the ethnic minority people were the citizens of the country who are deprived of most of the citizen’s rights. He said they had right to education in their mother tongue.
   He urged the government to take steps so that ethnic minority people could get all the facilities a Bangladesh citizen is entitled to.
   The Rajshahi mayor, AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, was chief guest of the programme. City Awami League leader Shafiqur Rahman Badsha chaired the meeting.

The government must come out of the system where ‘winners take all’ and take the opposition political parties in confidence in the greater interest of the country, said jurists, retired bureaucrats and former advisers at a discussion on Saturday.
   ‘The newly elected government, which has come [to power] with an overwhelming mandate, has the responsibility to take measures so that democracy does not falter again,’ former adviser to the caretaker government Wahiduddin Mahmud said at the launch of a book in Dhaka. ‘In a multi-party democracy, you must take them [opposition] on board.’
   ‘A system without giving room for the opposition will become unstable… reversals will be there… and it is possible,’ he said.
   Mahmud, a professor of economics, wondered whether stories behind the recurrent shifting of stances by the interim government would have surfaced. ‘The caretaker government was not monolithic. It changed its colours time and again. I do not understand why it happened,’ he said.
   The University Press Limited organised the programme to review the book, Democracy in Crisis, by the prime minister’s adviser Mashiur Rahman at the National Press Club.
   Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Emajuddin Ahamed said, ‘Democracy did not work well in the past, and it is not working well as the opposition is not taken into confidence.’
   Dhaka University pro-vice chancellor Harun-or-Rashid said, ‘“Only majority” rule must not be there.’
   ‘Opposition parties must not be taken as political enemies. They must be taken into confidence. The country will, otherwise, be in trouble,’ he said.
   Barrister Amirul Islam asked the parliament to make the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, accountable.
   ‘It is an obligation of the parliament to make the president accountable… He [Iajuddin] is the one who needs to be accountable for the happenings before January 11, 2007,’ he said. ‘The nation must know what prompted the president to make a number of decisions in those days.’
   ‘Whoever becomes president has no accountability. [Former presidents Khandakar] Mushtaq [Ahmed], Ziaur Rahman and [HM] Ershad were not accountable to anybody… If this parliament fails to make Iajuddin accountable, the same thing will be repeated in future,’ he said. ‘There will be another Iajuddin and [Abdul] Aziz to repeat the mistakes.’
   He also stressed the need for publishing thorough reports on the activities and failures of the chief adviser to the immediate-past caretaker government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, and the incumbent Election Commission.
   ‘If we [nation] fail to make them accountable and strengthen the institutions…, we will be continuing to blame the politicians,’ he said.
   Syed Abdus Samad, former principal secretary to the Awami League-led 1996–2000 government, said, ‘It is fashionable to blame politicians, but politicians alone cannot fail.’
   He said failure was not autonomous, it was induced, with a purpose.
   Almost all the discussants praised Mashiur Rahman, also a retired civil bureaucrat, for presenting an ‘objective analysis’ of the political events of the past two years.
   Mashiur Rahman said, ‘There is a discernible pattern of institutional failure. The organisations of the government and the republic fail, and instead of penalising the office-holders, their failure is used to justify the curtailment or confiscation of the citizen’s rights.’
   ‘The logic is perverse — The office-holders are right and the citizens are wrong,’ he said.

Jamaat-e-Islami-backed Islami Chhatra Shibir activists have threatened to kill the Rajshahi Medical College dental unit chief over the formation of the students’ council.
   The Shibir activists on Saturday also threatened to suspend all activities on the college campus if the council could not be dissolved in 48 hours.
   The college’s dental unit chief, Sirajul Islam Patwari, has lodged a complaint in this regard with the principal.
   Campus sources said the college authorities had formed the dental unit students’ council on January 28 in the presence of the students of the unit.
   On Friday night, a group of Chhatra Shibir activists, reportedly led by Al Amin Sarker, went to Sirajul’s house at Lakshmipur. The Shibir activists pressured Sirajul Islam to dissolve the council claiming that it was illegal.
   Sirajul told reporters the Shibir activists had threatened to kill him and the students’ council members as he refused to dissolve the council.
   The Shibir activists also threatened to stop all activities of the college by enforcing a strike for an indefinite period.
   ‘I along with my family members are passing a hard time after receiving the threat by the Shibir activists,’ Sirajul told reporters. ‘It was for the first time I was threatened in my 32 years in service.’
   Sirajul said he had taken up the matter with the college principal, T Alam, on Saturday.
   The principal said they would take action against the students responsible for it after investigation.
   The students’ council president, Rezaul Karim Roky, and the general secretary, Hasanul Arefin Limon, in a joint statement on Saturday demanded immediate arrest of Shibir activists responsible for the threat.

A group of the Bangladesh Nationalist party activists allegedly cut down four fingers of the right hand and uprooted five teeth of a Jatiya Party local leader, Abdul Quader in Lalmonirhat Thursday night.
   Quader is now undergoing treatment at Rangpur Medical College Hospital.
   A case was filed with the sadar police station against five BNP activists on Saturday.
   The accused are Dulal Hossain, 35, Nazrul Islam, 42, Babu Kosai, 25, Mansur Ali, 33, and Ekramul Haque, 28.
   According to the case, JP union leader, Abdul Quader had campaigned for the AL-led alliance candidate and current civil aviation and tourism minister, Golam Muhammad Quader MP, also a JP presidium member, in the national polls and for the upazila chairman candidate from the AL-led alliance, Motiar Rahaman, also an AL leader during the upazila polls. He also organised a roadside meeting at Barobari Bazar Thursday noon, where the minister, GM Quader addressed as chief guest. For these reasons, the supporters of former deputy minister Dulu attacked Quader at midnight when he was alone at his shallow machine house. The BNP activists tortured him, cut down four fingers of his right hand and uprooted his five teeth, the case said. Locals rescued him in an unconscious state and took him to the RMCH.
   The officer-in-charge of the Lalmonirhat sadar police station, Foyezur Rahaman confirmed the incident, saying that they had launched a drive to arrest the culprits.

Saraswati Puja, one of the main religious festivals of the Hindu community, was celebrated across the country on Saturday amid religious fervour and festivity.
   As Saraswati is the goddess of wisdom and knowledge, Hindu devotees, especially students, celebrated the puja in different educational institutions and temples.
   In the capital, the puja was arranged at Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University, DU girls’ dormitories, Dhaka College, Eden Girls’ College, Dhakeswari Temple, Siddheswari Temple, Ramkrishna Mission and temples in Tantibazar, Shankharibazar, Banglabazar, Mohakhali and Farmgate areas in the city.
   The puja is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the bright fortnight of the month of Magh, as goddess Saraswati was born on this day.

Mahbubur Rahman Rousseau, a senior journalist and former assistant editor of now-defunct Bangladesh Times newspaper, died of a cardiac arrest at United Hospital in Dhaka Friday night at the age of 63.
   He is survived by his wife and a son.
   Rousseau was the third son of late principal BM Rahman of Bikrampur. Among eight brothers, Mizanur Rahman Shelly, a former minister and well-acclaimed researcher in the country, is his eldest brother.
   He started his carrier in the now-defunct Eastern News Agency and later joined the Daily People before the independence of Bangladesh. After independence, Rousseau joined Bangladesh Times. He also served The New Nation, The Financial Express and The Independent.
   Rousseau’s first janaza was held on the National Press Club premises and the second one at his paternal residence on Green Road in the city. He was buried after asr prayers at New Graveyard of Azimpur.
    Prime minister Sheikh Hasina condoled the death of Rousseau.
   National Press Club president Shawkat Mahmud and general secretary Kamal Uddin Sabuj expressed shock at his death.

Five hundred and one persons were killed across the country in January in different incidents, including 24 in political violence, says a monthly crime-watch report.
   The Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights revealed the figures Saturday in its survey report based on newspaper reports and reports and documentation of the organisation.
   According to the survey, 136 people were killed in various social violence while 239 in accidents.
   Another 126 people were killed in incidents like ‘crossfire’, mysterious death, doctors’ negligence, death in jail custody, dowry, and mass beating.
   Besides, 902 people were arrested by law-enforcers while 88 kidnapped, three of them by Indian Border Security Force personnel.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited efforts to provide commercial broadband internet connections may be delayed as only one organisation submitted a tender for the process, said a senior BTCL official on Saturday.
   ‘BTCL is evaluating if it would be appropriate to take into consideration the tender of only one company,’ evaluation committee head of BTCL Habibur Rahman told Bdnews24.com.
   The company asked for tenders on December 12, 2008, with last date of submission on January 11, 2009.
   ‘A full evaluation of the tender will be completed in the next week,’ said Habibur.
   BTCL managing director Ashraful Alim told the news agency, ‘Efforts are underway to provide commercial broadband connections as soon as possible.’
   The conditions of the tender barred internet service providers from applying and said the tender winner would offer internet services to subscribers on behalf of the BTCL.
   The MM Systems was the only company to submit a tender, said BTCL officials.
   They added that if the sole tender was not picked then the process would be delayed.
   BTCL said its broadband internet connections would be provided in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Rajshahi, Bogra and other district towns.
   Connections will use ADCL technology, which allows the subscriber to operate both telephone and Internet using the same line, and a modem costing about Tk 5,000.
   BTCL currently provides dial-up internet connections, without a connection fee and charging Tk 0.10 (off-peak) and Tk 0.15 (peak) per minute, or an hourly payment of Tk 6 and Tk 9.
   BTCL also provides broadband internet connections and digital data network to selected areas and organisations.
   At present there are about 8,00,000 internet connections throughout the country, with the number of ISP subscribers standing at more than 1,00,000. BTCL has 30,000 subscribers and mobile and PSTN operators are providing services to 5,00,000 subscribers using EDGE and GPRS technology.
   One hundred and seventy organisations have been given licence to provide internet connections in the private sector.

River transport workers at Mongla port have demanded increase of food allowance and threatened to go on indefinite strike from today if their demand was not met.
   Abul Kashem Master, president of river transport workers’ federation, on Saturday said some 750 people were engaged in about 250 cargo vessels and coasters that carried goods and commodities to and from adjacent Indian river ports.
   Tk 30 is given to the workers per day as food allowance which is quite inadequate, he said adding this should be raised to Tk 100.
   Port sources most of the government-imported five lakh tonnes of rice from India came in cargo vessels to the Mongla port.
   Cargo vessel owners turned down the demand for raising the food allowance.

A housewife was strangulated to death allegedly by her husband for dowry at Char Maitha village of Sadar upazila in Barguna Wednesday night.
   The victim was Lucky Begum, 23, wife of Solaiman of the village.
   Local people said Solaiman used to torture Lucky for dowry since their marriage two years back.
   On the night, he beat up and strangulated her to death as she failed to bring Tk 50,000 as dowry from her parents.
   Local people caught Solaiman and handed him over to the police.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee, the highest policymaking body of the party, will sit this evening to devise ways and means to streamline the party in the aftermath of the party’s debacle in the December 29 elections.
   ‘The standing committee will meet tomorrow [Sunday] evening to discuss issues relating to reorganisation and discipline,’ BNP spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan told New Age Saturday.
   The party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, will preside over the meeting at her Gulshan office.
   She announced in Comilla on January 9 that all the committees of all tiers of the party and its associate bodies would be dissolved from the grassroots level and reorganised through elections.
   As part of the move, presidents and secretaries general of the district and upazila units have been summoned to Dhaka to have discussions with the party chairperson from February 3.

The Workers Party of Bangladesh faces another split on ideological ground as some of the central leaders formed a separate central committee with a different party name on Friday.
   The six-member central committee of the Workers’ Party of Bangladesh (Reorganised) was formed with the party’s politburo member, Haider Akbar Khan Rano as convener.
   The decision was taken at an extended committee meeting on Friday at the new party’s temporary office at Dhamondi with its central leader, Principal Afsar Ali in the chair.
   The name of the new party will be the Workers Party of Bangladesh (Reorganised), a press statement said.
   The resolution of the central committee meeting said that some of the leaders of the party had deviated from the communist ideals of the party.
   They took part in the last parliamentary elections as candidates of the Awami League-led alliance with the symbol boat, violating the party’s central committee and politburo’s decisions, the reformist leaders said.
   The new party will follow the ideology of socialism and work to strengthen the left alternative political forces, resisting the influences of the two big political parties, the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the resolution of the meeting said.
   The party will work to establish rights of the workers, farmers and the middle class people to save the country from the attacks of the imperialist countries, and follow the ideals of secularism to stabilise democracy in the country, the resolution added.
   The other members of the central committee of the new party are Azizur Rahman, Abdus Satter, Afsar Ali, Habibur Rahman and Shahrier Muhammad Firoj.
   The Workers Party was formed in 1992 on the basis of the communist ideals to strengthen the left alternative political forces.
   It faced the first split in 2004 with the emergence of the new left political party, the Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh led by the party’s central leaders, Khandaker Ali Abbas and Saiful Huq.

Mahbubur Rahman Rousseau, former assistant editor of now-defunct the Bangladesh Times, died of a cardiac arrest at United Hospital in Dhaka Friday night at the age of 63.
   He is survived by his wife and a son.
   National Press Club president Shawkat Mahmud and general secretary Kamal Uddin Sabuj expressed deep shock at the death of Rousseau.
   They prayed for salvation of the departed soul and conveyed sympathy to the members of the bereaved family.
   Members of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha also expressed profound shock at the death of Rousseau and paid respect to his memory by observing one minute silence.

Security personnel denied reporters from different national dailies and electronic media access to the parliament building Saturday upon a ‘special order’ of the speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad.
   ‘We have a special order from the speaker that no journalists will be allowed inside the parliament building unless the parliament is in session,’ deputy sergeant at arms Asadullah Chowdhury, said when a group of journalists tried to get inside parliament showing their seasonal passes and accreditation cards issued by the government’s Press Information Department.
   The security man insisted that he had talked to the speaker repeatedly and that he could in no way allow the journalists inside parliament, where two meetings of the special committee and the house committee were in progress in the afternoon.
   But at the same time more than 50 people, who identified themselves as members of Hossainpur upazila unit of Awami League, were allowed to get in without any entry-pass.
   On his election to the post of the speaker, Abdul Hamid earlier sought cooperation from the press to make parliamentary functions transparent.
   He could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

The 100th anniversary of birth of late professor MU Ahmed will be observed today.
   He was the founder of Clinical Psychology Movement in the subcontinent. Professor Ahmed developed ‘Medistic’ Psychotherapy, the oriental method of drugless treatment for mental patients.
   He is the author of several ‘case history’ books.