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The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has ordered the authorities concerned to reactivate the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to enable it to intervene effectively in the market by the import and sales of essential commodities whenever necessary.
   ‘The prime minister has directed us to revitalise the ailing TCB to help keep commodity prices at a rational level… Initiatives are also being taken to widen the range of its activities as we cannot allow businessmen to make consumers hostage to their will,’ the food and disaster management minister, Abdur Razzak, told reporters on Tuesday.
   The prime minister issued the directives after a cabinet meeting on Monday, a day after the commerce minister, Faruk Khan, had said repeatedly at a meeting with businessmen and in a television talk-show that the government was not willing to reactivate the TCB, a government machine fashioned for market intervention, shifting from the Awami League’s pre-polls pledge of a ‘multi-pronged approach to control prices and monitor the market.’
   The prime minister took up the issue for discussion with the ministers concerned after the cabinet meeting at the secretariat and decided to widen the TCB’s range of activities to rein in commodity prices.
   The authorities have been asked to take immediate steps to import rice, pulses and edible oils, the food minister said, and quoted the prime minister as saying, ‘You should look into why the local price of pulses is still high although it has fallen on the international market.’
   Making a U-turn from his previous statement, Faruk, the Awami League lawmaker for the Gopalganj 1 constituency and brother of Aziz Khan of the Summit Group, on Tuesday said the government was planning to reactivate the TCB. ‘What I said that day was meant to encourage the businessmen… I did not say that the TCB would not be reactivated.’
   ‘I do not want to reactivate the TCB… The government’s intervention in business will not solve the problems facing businessmen. I want to create a business-friendly atmosphere and instil confidence in the businessmen,’ said the commerce minister at the meeting with business leaders in the ministry on Sunday.
   After assuming office on January 7, Faruk said in a light vein he would not go for reactivation of the TCB if the business community played a responsible role.
   ‘I do not want to control or monitor the market because this results in loss of confidence in market forces. The duty of the commerce ministry is to create a business-friendly environment,’ he said on Sunday.
   Against the backdrop of severe shortage of essential commodities and industrial raw materials after the country’s independence in 1971, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh was established under a presidential order in 1972 to ensure steady supply of commodities to make them available to consumers at reasonable prices.
   Even the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed early 2007 pledged to make the TCB operational again to prevent the local cartels from increased prices at their whim. But no progress had so far been although the TCB was used, in a partial manner, to sell various essential goods from its city outlets. The TCB became dysfunctional after the 1991–1996 BNP government adopted a free market economy.
   Headquartered at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka, the corporation now has only more than 180 members on its staff, as against its approved 235 posts, stationed at its four offices in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi.

Candidates and their supporters put in all their efforts in the last-minute campaigns on Tuesday to seek votes in their favour for upazila elections. Scheduled on Thursday amidst tight security, bringing an end to nearly a month long hustings with a festive touch.
   Electioneering ended midnight past Tuesday, 32 hours before the polling begins at 8:00am on Thursday. The members of the law enforcement agencies, including troops from the army have started patrolling the upazila headquarters and towns to maintain law and order.
   The Election Commission is all set to hold elections in 480 upazilas, out of the total 481. The elections to the Dighinala upazila in Khagrachari has been suspended after the EC found that a chairman candidate was forced to withdraw his candidature.
   Since the campaigning was kicked off after the national polls on December 29, violence was minimum. Only one chairman candidate was murdered and a number of supporters of candidates were hurt in clashes, news reports said.
   Election materials, including ballot boxes, will be sent to polling centres today.
   The people, who could not cast votes in last general election held on December 29 as their names could not be found on the electoral rolls though they carried their national ID cards, may not be able to exercise their voting rights in upazila polls because the commission did not resolve the problems.
   ‘After the national polls we initiated to resolve the problem relating to electoral rolls. But the task was not completed as yet,’ election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told reporters on Tuesday.
   He, however, said that problems relating to the voters list was detected mainly in the city corporation areas that would not create much problems in upazila polls.
   According to a commission release, the EC has imposed restrictions on the plying of motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, taxicabs, microbuses, jeeps, pickups, cars, buses, trucks, human haulers, launches, and all types of mechanised boats between midnight past Wednesday and midnight past Thursday.
   The release said the ban would not be applicable to vehicles plying on the highways.
   The release, however, said the ban would not be applicable to authorised and identified election observers and journalists, employees on election duty, members of the law enforcement agencies, ambulances and the vehicles engaged in electricity, gas, telephone and postal services.
   Out of total 8,131 candidates for the upazila elections, 3,316 are in the race for the posts of chairman, 2,879 for vice-chairman and 1,936 for vice-chairman (reserved for women).
   About 13 lakh people including 5,56,607 polling personnel, five lakh members of law enforcement agencies have been mobilised for the election duties, EC officials said.
   Election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain on Tuesday again expressed frustration over the influence of newly elected lawmakers in the upazila elections.
   ‘Due to high enthusiasm and influence of the Members of Parliament, problems were created in some areas which is not acceptable,’ the commissioner said.
   Sakhawat, however, ruled out any pressures from the new political government in conducting the upazila polls.
   The EC found that the lawmakers of the ruling Awami League were trying to influence the upazila elections in many areas of the country by carrying out electoral campaigns in favour of their party contestants. But the EC is unable to take any action to prevent them from influencing the polls for the lack of electoral rules to impose restriction on the MPs for electioneering in favour of the their party candidates.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board has blacklisted 29 printing houses which have filed to publish and supply primary textbooks in keeping with the schedule.
   The autonomous board is mainly responsible for the renewal, modification and development of curriculum, production and distribution of primary, secondary and higher secondary textbooks.
   ‘As the 29 printing houses have failed to publish textbooks by the deadline, at least 2 per cent of the textbooks for primary and ibtedayi students have not been sent to the district headquarters in time. We have blacklisted such printing houses and we are planning stern action against them,’ the board’s chairman Masir Uddin told New Age on Tuesday. ‘They will not be given chance to print textbooks the next year.’
   The houses on the list are Taiba Printers, Bismillah Printers, Tangail Printers, Adarsha Printers, SR Printing Press Ltd, Promise Printing and Publications, Udayan Printers, Al Amin Press and Publications, New Imran Printing Press, Borak Printers, Al Jahara Printing and Packaging, Mahbuba Printing Press, Modern Printing and Publications, Hasan Printing Press, Monia Art Press, Polash Printing Press, Azizia Printing, Suborna Printers, Sarkar Offset Press, Fatema Offset Press and Publications, Anman New Offset Press, Mannan Printing Press, Monmayuree Offset Press and Publications, Business Printing, Janata Press, Sakhawat Press, Obismaraniyo Printing Press, Hakkani Press and Dewan Printing Press.
   Another board official feared all the 29 houses would participate in the tender bid the next year by changing their name. ‘And thus they will manage to get chance to print textbooks in future.’

The government will take steps to release by seven days all bank accounts of the alleged corruption suspects that were frozen during the tenure of the interim government, said finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith on Tuesday.
   He also said that the government would not give back the money which was confiscated from individuals or organizations during the emergency as part of the anti-graft drive.
   ‘Steps will be taken by seven days to release the bank accounts which were frozen. This (freezing of accounts) was done when (a state of) emergency was in force. Now a political government has taken power. There is no bar to release the accounts,’ Muhith told reporters at the finance ministry.
   ‘We believe the accounts should be allowed to operate while the law takes its own course. They will be allowed to write cheques and transact in seven days,’ he said after a meeting with the visiting Asian Development Bank vice president Xiaoyu Zhao.
   The interim government froze 298 bank accounts of different people and organisations for various allegations like corruption and tax evasion. The government also reportedly retrieved around Tk 1200 crore during the anti-graft drive.
   ‘The money retrieved during the anti-graft drive will not be returned. The money they have deposited either willingly or due to pressure is now in supplementary accounts. It has gone to the government’s fund. It is now the government’s money. If the concerned people decide to move court, the government will fight them legally,’ he Muhit said.
   Asked how the government would spend the Tk 1200 crore in retrieved graft money, he said,‘We will decide very quickly.’
   Reply to a query whether the government was seeking more money from the ADB for the high-priority Padma Bridge project, he said the Manila-based bank was already helping with the Tk 140 crore design project. ‘After completing preliminary works, we will ask for more funds.’

Barack Obama stepped into history, taking the oath of office Tuesday as America’s 44th president — and the country’s first African-American leader.
   Obama placed his hand on a Bible shortly after noon (EST), and promised to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the US constitution.
   Hundreds of thousands of people, bundled up against the cold, packed Washington’s Mall, which stretches 2 miles (3 km) from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial on the Potomac River and along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
   Television pictures showed a sea of people, many waving American flags, in the grassy plain of the Mall as Obama was sworn in taking over from Republican George W Bush, riding a wave of public optimism he will need to tap to deal with the worst economic crisis in 70 years and two wars.
   ‘It is amazing to be here. This is history in the making,’ said Judy Bailey, 42, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
   The inauguration of Obama, 47, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, will be full of ceremony, and full of symbolic meaning for African-Americans, who for generations suffered slavery and then racial segregation that made them second-class citizens.
   Obama took his oath of office with his hand on a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861, standing on the western steps of the capitol, a building that was partly built by black slaves.
   His swearing-in was followed by the US Marine Corps band playing ‘Hail to the Chief’ and a 21-gun salute.
   Some estimates put the number of people packing the Mall and inaugural parade route at more than 2 million. Crowds clogged the city’s metro rail system and thronged the security check-points.
   Polls show widespread support for Obama and optimism about the coming four years of his presidency, despite a deepening recession that has saddled the country with a $1 trillion deficit and 11 million people unemployed.
   Bush, who is also leaving a legacy of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is departing office after two terms having plumbed record lows in his approval ratings.
   Obama, a former Illinois senator who capped a hard-fought election campaign with a comfortable win against Republican John McCain in November, has stressed that the time to party and celebrate will be short-lived.
   On Wednesday he will start shepherding an $825 billion economic stimulus plan through Congress.
   He faces daunting challenges — global economic turmoil, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, global warming, conflict in Gaza and tension between Pakistan and India.
   But analysts say that at least for now, it will be his ability to revive the recession-hit economy that will be the benchmark by which his presidency is judged.
   The Washington Post reported that in one of his first actions as president, Obama planned to name former senator George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy in one of his first actions as the new US president.
   Obama is expected to meet his military commanders on Wednesday to discuss the US troop withdrawal from Iraq, to fulfil a campaign pledge to withdraw all troops within 16 months.
   The inauguration was taking place amid unprecedented security, although authorities say there was no credible threat of an attack. About 8,000 police were deployed and a total of 32,000 military personnel were on duty or on standby.
   Obama and his wife, Michelle, along with his vice-president-elect Joe Biden and his wife attended a church service at St John’s Episcopal Church before going to the White House for coffee with the Bushes and vice-president Dick Cheney and his wife.
   Obama, acclaimed for his stirring oratory, was set to deliver his eagerly anticipated inauguration speech, expected to last about 20 minutes, just after midday.
   ‘He is going to lay out a lot of the challenges we face as a country, but he will also remind ... that America has faced great challenges before,’ his spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN on Tuesday.
   ‘He will talk about responsibility, particularly the great responsibility in the action of government and financial institutions, some of whose actions have got us into the mess we are in now.’
   He played down suggestions that Obama could issue executive orders as early as Tuesday to close the US military prison at for foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay and repeal a ban on overseas funding for clinics or groups which provide abortion services.
   The Guantanamo prison has been a lightning rod for broad world disapproval of many Bush policies in Washington’s declared war on terrorism after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that shook Bush’s presidency early on.
   Gibbs said some announcements would be made later in the week.
   ‘Amid high anticipation the world will be watching the 44th president’s inaugural address for inspiration and a roadmap out of the gloom,’ the Council on Foreign Relations’ Robert McMahon said in a commentary.
   No president has begun his four-year term in office with as much public confidence — a 78 per cent approval rating in the most recent Gallup poll — and a sharp contrast with Bush’s unpopularity.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, and the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, Tuesday congratulated Barack Obama on his assumption of the office of the president of the United States of America.
   In a message, the president said, ‘We, in Bangladesh, as many around the world, see in your leadership a new dawn of hope and we stand ready to extend to you our all-out cooperation.’
   Iajuddin expressed his confidence that Obama’s inspiring and visionary leadership would steer the USA at all times.
   He said Bangladesh and the USA enjoy excellent bilateral relations and ‘I am sure during your tenure our relationship will be further strengthened in its breadth and depth.’
   The new democratically elected government of Bangladesh looks forward to working with you for the greater good of the international community, the president also said.
   In a separate message, Hasina said president Obama’s wisdom, vision and dynamic leadership were sources of pride for his countrymen as they are equally reassuring beyond the limits of his country.
   The prime minister said they had formed a government on January 6 this year on conclusion of a free, fair and credible election, which was indeed a festival of democracy with more than 86 per cent the 80 million voters participating in the polling.
   Expressing her happiness over this happy coincidence, Hasina said ‘As you give the people of the USA a new beginning full of hope, we stand willing to work with you in a spirit of partnership.’
   ‘As you have rekindled American dream, we also reaffirm our commitment to build a decent and democratic country, which would be free from poverty, living in peace within itself and with others and in a climate friendly environment,’ she said.
   The Bangladesh prime minister also reiterated her government’s commitment to closely work with the USA for further strengthening the friendly bilateral relations between the two countries and advance their common objectives.

Rescuers recovered Tuesday bodies of 22 of the victims of Monday’s trawler capsize in the River Meghna, all but one from the same locality.
   Divers of BIWTA, Coast Guard and Fire Service pulled up the bodies from inside a cabin of the sunken trawler in a macabre scene.
   The deceased were Makbul, 45, and his son Ashraf, 22, Zohurul, 30, Masud, 42, Nabin, 30, Akkas, 50, Nayeb, 50, Rabiul, 45, Aminul, 30, Farid, 25, Joynal, 35, Altaf, 30, Monir, 25, Arif, 22, Liton, 25, and four siblings Nuru Miah, 30, Alauddin, 37, Alahaj, 30, and Shah Alam, 30, Atahar, 30, Ripon, 25, and Mizanur, 22.
   All of them, excepting Rabiul, hailed from Chhaikhola village in Chatmohor upazila of Pabna. Rabiul was from Natore.
   The divers were continuing their search operation with a one-hour break from 2:00pm as two more persons of Chhaikhola village — Kader and Rabi — were still missing till the filing of the latest report in the evening.
   The divers located the trawler 50 feet under water in the mighty Meghna, 800 kms from Mohonpur Launch ghat, at about 12:00pm Tuesday.
   BITWA officials said they would start operation for salvaging the trawler after calling off the search for the two more feared dead.
   ‘A rescue ship will reach here soon to salvage the sunken trawler,’ said one of them.
   The UP chairman, Borhanuddin, already reached here from Pabna to receive the bodies. He will return to the haunted village Chhaikhola with the dead at night.
   ‘All the passengers of the trawler might have tried to get out but couldn’t as the door of the trawler was too narrow,’ said a spokesman for the divers.
   Twenty-four people, mostly labourers, were feared drowned as the earth-laden trawler capsized with 50 passengers on board in the confluence of Meghna and Padma rivers near Dashani in Matlab upazila early Monday.
   Another 26 managed to swam ashore while the rest went missing after the fatal ferry accident.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, on Tuesday appointed ruling Awami League lawmaker Abdus Shahid chief whip of parliament, a parliament secretariat official said.
   ‘I will be attending office from tomorrow,’ Shahid, the lawmaker for the Moulvibazar 4 constituency, told New Age on Tuesday, confirming his appointment with the rank of a minister.
   The Moulvibazar unit Awami League president, Shahid, was elected lawmaker to the fifth, the seventh and the eighth parliament.
   He was appointed a whip for the seventh parliament and worked as the chief whip of the opposition in the eighth parliament as his party remained in the opposition bench. Shahid also worked as member of the public accounts committee and the parliamentary standing committees on different ministries.
   Parliament secretariat officials said the president would soon appoint seven other whips of the parliament with the rank of a state minister to run parliamentary affairs for five years.
   The ninth parliament goes into its first session on January 25. The ruling Awami League-led alliance won 262 out of the 300 parliamentary seats in the December 29 general elections.
   The ninth parliament was supposed to come into force in January 2008, but the parliamentary polls, originally scheduled for January 22, 2007, were postponed because of promulgation of a state of emergency against the backdrop of political changeover.

The Bangladesh Bank(BB) authorities wants to upgrade the status of governor from its present equivalent of secretary to the rank of a cabinet secretary, official sources said.
   The central bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed on Monday sent a letter to the finance secretary Mohammad Tareq for taking necessary measures in upgrading the position of the Governor in the Warrant of Precedence.
   ‘We will prepare a proposal to upgrade the position of the Governor of the central bank and the proposal will be placed before the cabinet for approval,’ a senior official of finance ministry said on Tuesday.
   The official said that neighbouring India and Pakistan have already promoted their central bank Governor’s position to that of their cabinet secretary.
    Sources in the finance ministry also said that the past interim government at the beginning of 2007, upgraded the position of the chiefs of three services from secretary to cabinet secretary.
   According to the letter, the BB authorities want to upgrade the Governor’s position from the present 15th to 12th in the government’s warrant of precedence.
   The BB has suggested the status of the Governor made equivalent to the position of cabinet secretary, chiefs of three services and the principle secretary to the prime minister’s office.
   The letter pointed out that the central bank’s Governor, according to an order of 1972, is also the chairman of the board of BB.
   The other three directors of board at present are the finance secretary Mohammad Tareq, planning secretary Jafar Ahmed Chowdhury and internal resource division secretary and chairman of the National Board of Revenue Mohammad Abdul Mazid.
   According to the amendment of Bangladesh Bank order 2003, the position of the governor has been upgraded as the cabinet secretary, but has not been implemented in the warrant of precedence.
   The present governor Salehuddin Ahmed was appointed by the past BNP-led government in 2005, and his contractual appointment ends in the last of March this year.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday paid what he called a ‘heartbreaking’ first visit to the war-battered Gaza Strip where Israeli troops remain deployed on the third day of a ceasefire.
   Hours before the inauguration of US president-elect Barack Obama, the army said a total troop pullout from Gaza was not under discussion although the ceasefire was holding firm.
   ‘For the moment, no one is talking about the total withdrawal of troops,’ said army spokeswoman Avital Liebovich.
   Ban, describing the scenes in post-war Gaza as ‘heartbreaking,’ called for those responsible for the bombing of UN buildings to be held accountable following Israel’s 22-day war on Hamas Islamists.
   ‘It is an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack on the United Nations,’ Ban said, speaking outside the still-smouldering main UN compound in Gaza City.
   ‘There must be a full investigation... there should be accountability through a proper judiciary system.’
   Ban became the first world leader to visit the enclave since Israel halted Sunday the deadliest offensive it has ever launched on the Palestinian territory, which has been ruled by Hamas since June 2007.
   Four UN schools where Gazans were sheltering from the fighting were also hit by Israel. More than 40 people were killed in one such attack, according to medics and UN officials.
   Israel has said it made very effort to prevent civilian deaths and said troops were fired upon from inside or near each of the UN sites in question.
   Ban went on to accuse Israel of using ‘excessive force’ in the conflict, but he also condemned Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel as ‘completely unacceptable.’
   The UN chief was due to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, five kilometres from the Gaza border, that has taken the brunt of the rocket fire since 2000.
   Eight Israeli human rights groups came together Tuesday to demand the state investigate the army’s behaviour in the deadly 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip.
   They urged prosecutor general Menachem Mazuz, who is also the government legal adviser, to act ‘given the scale of the casualties among the civilian population during Operation Cast Lead.’
   A statement said the numbers of children and women killed were ‘terrifying.’
   It quoted Palestinian health ministry figures listing more than 1,300 people dead, including 410 children and about 100 women. Another 5,300 were wounded — 1,855 of them children and 795 women.
   ‘The rules of war seem to have been held in total contempt forcing Israel to open an independent inquiry immediately,’ the groups said.
   ‘We call on the government legal adviser to act now to set up a mechanism for independent investigation.’
   The activists include B’tselem, the main Israeli rights body covering the occupied territories, Doctors for Human Rights, There is Justice and the Public Committee against Torture.
   The groups noted Israeli civilians had been subjected to Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip — ‘a serious violation of international law.’
   Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian farmer in the north of the strip, doctors said.
   An Israeli army spokesman said she could not confirm the report that the man had been killed near the town of Jabaliya by shots fired by troops close to Gaza’s border with Israel.
   And two Palestinian children died in Gaza City when an Israeli shell they had been playing with exploded, doctors said.
   Israel launched its massive assault on December 27 and started to pull out gradually from the territory on Sunday as Hamas and other militant groups pledged a week-long ceasefire.
   Gazans say the tide of global hope that has surged with Obama’s election victory has not washed over their homeland.
   The Palestinian bureau of statistics reported 4,100 homes totally destroyed and 17,000 others damaged in the offensive.
   In Kuwait, an Arab summit ended with aid pledges to help rebuild Gaza, but without a specific fund or political unity on the war.
   Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah called for ‘practical steps to stabilise the ceasefire,’ and Saudi King Abdullah pledged one billion dollars for reconstruction.
   The rebuilding of Gaza looks set to become another battleground with the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, warning Israel did not want Hamas to take control of reconstruction.
   ‘Israel believes that the reconstruction process must be led by international organisations in cooperation with the UN, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority,’ he said.

The Election Commission has sent letters to the political parties having representatives in the parliament urging them to inform the commission by February 2 if they would form any alliance with others for proportionate representation in the 45 reserved seats for women.
   ‘We request you to inform the Election Commission by February 2 whether any independent candidates has joined your party or alliance to facilitate the Election Commission in preparing separate lists of lawmakers belonging to different political parties and alliances for elections to women seats in the parliament,’ read the commission letter, signed by deputy secretary of EC secretariat Mihir Sarwar Morshed.
   The commission Monday evening started sending the letter to the secretaries of political parties concerned. Similar letters were sent to the members of the parliament.
   According to the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Seats for Women) Election Act 2004, the commission will need to conduct elections 90 days inside the publication of the gazette notification on the election results.
   It also needs to publish separate lists of lawmakers belonging to different political parties and alliances, and distribute the 45 reserved seats among them in accordance with the principle of proportional representation, within 30 working days after the publication of the official gazette notification on the election results. The commission published the result by official gazette notification on January 1.
   In keeping with the constitution, the parliament will consist of 300 members to be elected directly by the people in single territorial constituencies, and the 45 seats reserved for women will be allotted to the political parties on the basis of their proportional representation in parliament.
   The Awami League-led alliance, which won the elections to 262 constituencies, will get 39 reserved seats. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance, with win in 32 constituencies — including two of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and one of the Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) — will get five reserved seats. The four independent lawmakers and the Liberal Democratic Party chief, Oli Ahmed, will not get any seat unless they form an alliance.
   After distribution of the seats among the political parties and alliances, the commission will announce the dates for the submission of nomination papers, scrutiny, withdrawal of candidature and the polling.
   The political parties and alliances will select and nominate their candidates. If the number of candidates nominated by a party matches that of its quota, its nominees will be declared elected uncontested.
   But if the numbers of nominations exceed the quota, the commission will go for a single transferable vote for the elections in which only the lawmakers of the party will participate.
   The law also proposes a formula for counting the single transferable vote. If a party nominates candidates fewer than its quota or nominates no candidate, the commission will set another date of election to the seats and all the lawmakers will be allowed to nominate candidates and vote.
   The ninth parliament will have the highest number of female lawmakers — a total of 64, including 19 elected in the December 29 general elections and the other 45 to be elected to the seats reserved for women.
   For the first time, the 19 women candidates contesting for 23 parliamentary seats defeated their male and female rivals by a huge number of votes.

Communications secretary Iqbal Mahmood on Tuesday assured reporters that no important documents had been stolen from the Bangladesh Railway headquarters in Dhaka and its office in Chittagong by burglars who had had broken into the offices on Sunday night.
   ‘No official documents have been found missing in Railway Bhaban. Only a laptop, four mobile phone sets and Tk 92,719 were stolen from the railway headquarters, of which 56 rooms were ransacked,’ asserted the secretary, although the inquiry committees are yet to come up with their reports.
   He added that some old documents were taken away. The burglars broke into Rail Bhaban in Dhaka and BR’s office in Chittagong on Sunday night and took away documents and valuables.
   The secretary said the media reports that ‘important railway documents were stolen’ were worrisome.
   He termed the incidents mysterious, and said it was shameful and sad that the authorities concerned had failed to protect the Railway Bhaban, situated in front of the Bangladesh Secretariat, the country’s administrative headquarters.
   A burglary case was filed with the Shahbagh thana in this connection. When asked about the motive behind the burglary at the railway offices, Iqbal said, ‘Two committees — one formed by the rail authority and the other by the ministry — are probing the incidents. Moreover, a criminal investigation is also in progress, so it will not be wise to make any comment now.’
   He, however, said the authorities concerned cannot evade in any way the responsibility for the incidents.
   The committees are supposed to submit their reports today.
   It is suspected the burglaries might be connected with alleged irregularities in the allocation of the railway’s lands or with the tender process of development projects. The burglars might have wanted to remove the incriminating files and documents.
   At least 56 office rooms of the Railway Bhaban were ransacked.
   The railway authorities on Monday suspended seven security guards who were on duty in two shifts from 4:00pm on Sunday to 8:00am the following day.
   On Monday the communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, said vested interests might have engineered the incidents to create panic and thereby embarrass the government. ‘The railway authorities have been asked to ascertain as quickly as possible if any files relating to the allotment of railway lands by the previous government [2001-06] have been taken away,’ he added.

In the backdrop of a slide in law and order, the government on Tuesday warned the law enforcers of stern actions against any negligence of duties, officials said.
   The home minister, Sahara Khatun, while presiding over law and order review meeting asked the forces to ensure public safety at any cost.
   ‘We want you [the law enforcers] to work professionally. There will be no influence from the government,’ the minister told the meeting calling upon the law enforcers to perform rising above any influence.
   ‘Tough action will be taken if any negligence in duty is found,’ said the state minister for home affairs, Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj.
   The home minister admitted that incidents of criminal activities marked a rise in the recent days and asked the law enforcers to thwart the crimes.
   Sahara also directed them to ensure an atmosphere conducive for peaceful upazila elections, slated for January 22.
   ‘We have directed the law enforcers to ensure holding of the upazila elections in a free, fair and peaceful atmosphere,’the minister told reporters after the meeting.
   The council of ministers at a meeting on Monday asked the home ministry to take good care of the situation as violence erupted at many educational institutions, triggered mostly by the ruling party’s student front, ever-since the parliamentary polls held on December 29 brought a landslide victory of the Awami League.
   The state minister said that the government will not tolerate anyone vitiating the atmosphere at the educational institutions, irrespective of who is the perpetrator of the violence.
   ‘We will go tough against the law breakers without considering their party affiliation as no one is above of law,’ he said adding that they are committed to ensure safety and security of the people.
   A delegation of Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) led by its president Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhury Pervez met with the home minister.
   The garment businessmen sought more police security at their factories as riots erupted in a number of garment factories in Dhaka and elsewhere.

A Chinese company which completed the installation of the 90MW Fenchuganj power plant in October 2008 has ‘switched off’ the plant more than two months ago over a dispute with the Power Development Board over payment of taxes, officials said.
   The Harbin Power Enginee-ring Limited of China completed the test run of the three units of the plant and generated around 105MW electricity in November 2008, they said.
   But the plant has remained shut since then as the company refused to resume operation until the PDB paid Harbin around $5 million which the board had deducted from its bill to pay to the National Board of Revenue as taxes, said the officials.
   The PDB which signed a turnkey contract with the company on September 12, 2005 for installation of the plant at the cost of Tk 524.34 crore has deducted around $5 million from the total bill at a rate of 4 per cent income tax and 4.5 per cent VAT as per the directive of the NBR.
   The company, however, completed installation of the plant in October a year after the scheduled time showing different excuses including ‘lack of funds which resulted from the PDB’s deduction’.
   Although the PDB, Power Division and importantly the NBR concluded that the contractor should pay the income tax and VAT as per the agreement with the PDB, the company claimed that the taxes were not payable by the contractor.
   Following the company’s claim, the Power Division during the interim government’s regime consulted with the NBR several times about the issue and the NBR concluded that the contractor had to pay the taxes as per the agreement.
   Many PDB officials blamed the company for holding the country ‘hostage’ by not bringing the plant into operation to squeeze money at a time when the country was facing a shortage of around 600MW.
   Disgusted with the company’s reluctance to operate the plant, the former power secretary M Fouzul Kabir Khan during the interim government had asked the PDB to take over the power plant to operate it, said power division sources.
   The PDB which has failed to take any action against the company, however, expressed its inability to take over the plant saying that it would not be able to run the plant as the plant was under a two-year guarantee of the contractor.
   The power officials last week informed the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina of the dispute with Harbin. Officials said that they were now waiting for the directives from the government in this regard.
   One of the company’s local agents, however, claimed that it was the PDB which was creating problems by imposing the taxes on the company as Harbin could not pay the bills to its supplier of equipments, GE of the USA.
   ‘No power plant contractor in the history of Bangladesh has paid such taxes. But we have been asked to pay the taxes for mysterious reasons. The Harbin is now unable to pay the GE, which is supposed to run the plant. Once the PDB pays the full bill, Harbin will pay the GE. GE will then start the operation of the plant,’ claimed the agent.
   PDB officials, however, said that it was Harbin’s headache how it would pay its supplier as the PDB had no relation with GE. Besides, Harbin should be able to pay its supplier as the company has already got over $78 million in bills from the PDB.
   The controversial company bagged three power plant deals during the BNP-Jamaat government. It, however, backtracked from implementing the 150MW Chandpur power plant project.

A Chittagong court on Tuesday sentenced the divisional commander of banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in a case filed in connection with the countrywide serial blasts on August 17, 2005.
   The judge of the divisional speedy trial tribunal, Moha-mmad Shafiqul Karim, handed down the punishment to JMB militant Jabed Iqbal alias Mohammad for blasting bombs at Bahadderhat, Murad-pur and OR Nizam Road of the district.
   The court also fined the convict Tk 5,000, in default, six more months in prison.
   The court acquitted another JMB member, Arshadul Alam, of the charge. The court delivered the verdict after hearing 12 witnesses.
   The Rapid Action Batta-lion arrested Mohammad in possession of huge arms and ammunitions from his rented residence at Kattali in the Chittagong city on December 14 in 2005.

The Janakantha editor, Atiqullah Khan Masud, was freed on bail from jail Tuesday evening, a day after the Supreme Court had issued a stricture on a special judge for non-compliance with its order which cleared the way for his release.
   Masud, sentenced to 48 years’ imprisonment in six corruption cases, was released from a prison cell in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital at about 6:15pm, said deputy inspector general (prisons) Shamsul Haider Siddiqui.
   ‘We have received the bail order of the High Court this afternoon and after verification of the document, the jail wardens were withdrawn,’ he said.
   The army-led joint forces arrested Masud, also the chairman of the Globe-Janakantha Shilpa Paribar, on March 7, 2007 during the crackdown on corruption suspects by the caretaker government of Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   He was accused in 42 cases, mostly related to corruption.
   The three-judge bench of the Appellate Division headed by the acting chief justice Fazlul Karim, on a contempt petition along with direction, on Monday also warned the judge, Tanzeena Ismail, of special court 6 at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar to be careful in future with higher court orders.
   Atiqullah’s counsel M Amir-Ul Islam on Monday said the apex court had already cleared the way for his release, either quashing the cases or granting bails.

The police and the Rapid Action Battallion raided six halls in Chittagong university Monday midnight to recover illegal arms and ammunition.
   No firearms and ammunition could be recovered in the raid, the police and campus sources said. The raid began at about midnight and continued for four hours, they said.
   Awami League associate body Chhatra League activist on Tuesday went out on demonstrations in front of the administrative building demanding that the vice-chancellor, Badiul Alam, should resign.
   The university faced a stalemate for two days beginning Saturday after Chhatra League activists had laid siege to the campus to push for resignation of the vice-chancellor.

Bangladesh will send medicine worth $20,000 to Gaza in token of its solidarity with the Palestinians.
   Dhaka on Tuesday gave an assurance of providing the support while Palestinian ambassador in Dhaka, Shaher Mohammad, separately called on the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, and the state minister, Hassan Mahmud, in the ministry.
   Both the ministers told the ambassador Bangladesh demanded ‘full implementation’ of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, 338, 425, 1397, 1435 and the latest 1860 to resolve Palestine issue, said a foreign ministry release.
   Shaher Mohammad appreciated Bangladeshis for standing by their Palestinian brothers and the government’s role and diplomatic approaches to the United States, United Kingdom and China for an immediate halt to the barbaric attacks on the people in Gaza.
   Asked whether Palestinians are satisfied about the role of Organnisation of Islamic Countries in resolving the humanitarian crisis, the ambassador said, ‘We need more unity between the Arabs and Muslim countries.’
   Asked whether he thinks the US policy on the Palestine-Israel issue would be changed with Barack Obama as the new president of the United States, the Palestinian diplomat said so hoped.
   ‘We may see a change next week,’ he said about the Obama presidency that began just as the envoy expressed his note of optimism about a change, the election campaign theme of the first African-American president.

Santosh Kumar Chakma, chairman candidate for Barkal upazila election, was abducted at