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Many Awami League lawmakers and cabinet ministers believe that the proposed dam at Tipaimukh across the Barak River might cause ecological disaster in downstream Bangladesh.
   A number of lawmakers and ministers of the Awami League-led coalition government said on Friday that the government would uphold the country’s interest in any bilateral dialogue on the dam and equitable sharing of the common rivers’ waters.
   A parliamentary delegation, which will be assisted by leading water experts of the country, is expected to leave for India to assess the ecological impact of the Indian project, conceived in 2003, by visiting the site.
   The finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, opined that the project, if implemented, would be harmful for the lower riparian country.
   ‘The proposed dam is not good for our nation as it is against the environment and nature,’ said the minister, adding that when they were in opposition they launched a movement, but the then Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government ignored their protest despite the fact that India had completed the design of the dam and floated an international tender during the BNP-Jamaat regime.
   Muhith, however, urged all concerned to wait until the Bangladesh delegation submits its report after visiting the project site.
   ‘As India has invited us to send a delegation to visit the site, we should make our decision after it submits its report,’ he added.
   The agriculture minister, Matia Chowdhury, told New Age that the problems raised by the Tipaimukh dam should be resolved through consultation. ‘The government will take a decision in the highest interest of the country,’ she said reassuringly.
   Textile and jute minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui, who a week ago expressed ignorance of the project at a discussion, said the proposed Tipaimukh dam would destroy the environmental balance in the region.
   ‘The dam is being constructed in an earthquake-prone area and after its completion millions of cusecs of water will be kept in reserve at the site, so if there is an earthquake the whole eastern part of Bangladesh will go under water,’ he said.
   ‘It won’t be good neighbourly behaviour if India constructs the dam without consulting Bangladesh,’ said Latif.
   The water resources minister, Ramesh Chandra Sen, on April 14 said that India had assured Bangladesh that the Tipaimukh dam project was not aimed at diverting water from the Barak River.
   ‘We have come to know from diplomatic sources that the proposed dam is a hydro-electricity generation project. The Indian authorities have assured us that they will not divert water elsewhere through the dam,’ the minister told a number of lawmakers who had questioned him.
   Commerce minister Faruk Khan on May 26 said the government would not oppose construction of the Tipaimukh dam by India if Bangladesh gets certain benefits, such as the chance to import some of the electricity produced by the dam.
   ‘I think those who are talking too much against construction of the dam are talking without knowing anything about the dam,’ said Faruk.
   Foreign minister Dipu Moni said that Bangladesh had demanded a meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission, which was formed to discuss water issues between Bangladesh and India. ‘We will raise the issue at the next JRC meeting,’ she said.
   Dipu said the government would send the parliamentary standing committee on the water resources ministry to visit the dam’s site for analysing its effects on Bangladesh. ‘If the data on the Tipaimukh dam show that it will be harmful to Bangladesh, we will do whatever is needed to protect our interest,’ she said.
   Industries minister Dilip Barua on Wednesday said Tipaimukh will cause environmental disaster not only in Bangladesh but also in the north-eastern states of India. ‘The dam is being constructed in an earthquake-prone area. If there is an earthquake after construction of the Tipaimukh dam, the whole of Bangladesh will disappear,’ he claimed.
   The government has already decided that the all-party parliamentary standing committee on the water resources ministry led by chairman Abdur Razzak, along with experts, will visit the project site and submit their report to the parliament after due assessment.
   Razzak blamed the BNP for ‘agreeing’ to let India construct the Tipaimukh dam. ‘We have come to know that the hydro-electric project went ahead as per the discussion and the resolutions of a meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission in New Delhi in 2003,’ he said on June 16.
   Razzak, former water resources minister of the last AL government, observed that Bangladeshi experts who have been holding forth in the talk shows in television channels have little knowledge of the project, but still talk a lot about it. ‘I request all to refrain from talking on the issue without studying it thoroughly,’ he added.
   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on June 24 called on the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party to take an initiative on their own to send a separate delegation of water experts to India’s Tipaimukh dam site and submit a report, and the government would go through the two reports and take a decision in the best interest of the country.
   Responding to Hasina’s call, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on June 29 sent a letter to her, seeking official help to enable a seven-member team of experts, nominated by the BNP, to visit the site of the dam.
   Workers Party’s president Rashed Khan Menon said India must stop construction of the dam because it will bring about disaster in both the countries. However, he favoured solving the problem by holding bilateral talks instead of resorting to international negotiations.
   Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal’s president Hasanul Haque Inu, also a lawmaker of the ruling alliance, said the government must take political measures to stop construction of the dam right at this moment. It is a national issue therefore it must be solved in a national manner.
   AL lawmaker Mahmud-Us Samad Chowdhury termed the Tipaimukh dam a ‘death trap’ for Bangladesh and said that its construction cannot be allowed. ‘The Surma and Kushiyara will dry up if the dam is built.’
   Abu Zahir, ruling alliance lawmaker from Habiganj-3, told New Age that the problem should be solved through bilateral talks and the government should not take any decision against of the country’s interest.
   AL lawmaker MA Mannan from Sunamganj expressed concern over the proposed Tipaimukh dam, saying that it would create many problems for the country. ‘But I think the issue should be resolved through bilateral talks with India,’ he said.

Lack of proper enforcement of traffic laws and the road users’ reluctance to go by the rules put Dhaka’s streets in a state of total chaos, making the commuters’ life miserable on weekdays.
   Officials at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority said they were helpless as the department concerned of the government lacked manpower to handle over 10,00,000 motorised and non-motorised vehicles plying the city roads, lanes and by-lanes.
   ‘The capacity of roads should be increased to tackle the situation, which is worsening day by day,’ BRTA director Rafiqul Islam told New Age.
   He also suggested intensifying the law enforcement to check the movement of unfit and unregistered vehicles on the city roads.
   Illegal parking, erratic passenger lifting and dropping, poor driving sense, illicit competition and rapid lane changing without any signal cause congestion that kills the working hours of tens of thousands of people every day, he said, identifying major irregularities in the city road communication.
   The Accident Research Centre director, Shamsul Hoque, said indiscipline takes place on roads as the owners of vehicles, especially the bus owners, run their vehicles on a contract basis.
   ‘This contract leads the drivers to unfair competition to pick up passengers in a hurry. Besides, all the bus drivers take stoppage at the intersections instead of bus bays or other comparatively less busy place,’ he said.
   ‘If it is possible to introduce company-based bus service, indiscipline on roads will come down significantly,’ he said, adding that the traffic police should also be more active to keep the traffic in order.
   According to the Dhaka City Corporation, the total road network of the city is around 2,200 kilometres, including main roads, lanes and by-lanes and only 210km of them is main streets.
   Over 4.7 lakh motorised vehicles including car, jeep, microbus, taxicab, CNG-auto-rickshaw, bus, minibuses, truck and human haulers were registered with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority in Dhaka till 2008, according to BRTA statistics.
   Of them, there are over two lakh cars, jeeps, microbuses and station wagons and over 15,000 public buses and minibuses.
   The statistics also shows that nearly two lakh motor-cycles, 27 thousand trucks and 25 thousands human haulers are plying the city roads.
   Over five lakh illegal rickshaws also ply the city streets, intensifying the traffic congestion, the Dhaka City Corporation sources said.
   While asked about the traffic management, the joint commissioner of traffic police Manzur Kader Khan said, ‘The government should increase the amount of fine and modify the existing traffic rules.’
   ‘If we can charge more than the existing fine, the violation of traffic rules may come down,’ he said.

The central leadership of the Awami League and its associate bodies as well as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have demanded a probe into the serving of ‘poisoned food’ to the two top leaders of the country, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.
   They all said that proper investigation should be conducted to unearth the truth and punish the offenders.
   The Awami League’s general secretary, Abdul Jalil, on Thursday alleged that the evil force which was then in power wanted to expel the two major leaders from politics and establish a new trend in politics.
   ‘As part of that design, they wanted to kill my leader by poisoning her food while she was in jail,’ he said, and demanded proper investigation into the matter and exemplary punishment of the perpetrators so that no evil force would again dare to try to remove political leaders in such a way in the future.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s standing committee member, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, on Sunday said that they had also suspected that ‘poisoned food’ had been served to Khaleda Zia, and demanded proper investigation.
   The issue came to light after the deputy leader of the House, Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, on June 27 claimed that ‘poison-mixed food’ was served to Sheikh Hasina when she was in detention during the army-backed interim government’s tenure, for which her mouth was swollen and she had fallen sick.
   The Awami League’s presidium member, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, also told New Age that proper investigation should be conducted into the attempt to poison Hasina and the perpetrators should be brought to book. ‘When we were in jail we heard that Sheikh Hasina was being slow-poisoned,’ he said.
   Dr Modasser Ali, medical adviser to the prime minister, on Friday suspected that Hasina was served poisoned food in the sub-jail. ‘During the days when Hasina was in prison I had several times tried to collect her blood sample for diagnosis, but I was barred from doing so,’ he told reporters after attending a programme on the National Birth Registration Day 2009 in Dhaka.
   LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Thursday said investigation was going on in this regard. ‘Steps will be taken after the probe is completed,’ he added.
   The BNP’s joint secretary general, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, also demanded investigation. ‘Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain is a prudent leader and I think his demand is very reasonable,’ he said.
   The AL’s joint general secretary, Mukul Bose, said that he believes that Sajeda Chowdhury’s allegation is far from groundless. He demanded exemplary punishment of the offenders after a proper investigation.
   The party’s central committee member, Habibur Rahman Khan, said that Sajeda’s accusation might be true as the interim government was responsible for many irregularities. ‘Of course investigation of the allegations should be carried out,’ he said firmly.
   AL lawmaker Khaled Mahmud Chowdhury said they had suspected slow-poisoning of Sheikh Hasina as she had very often fallen sick in the sub-jail. He demanded investigation of the allegation raised by Sajeda Chowdhury.
   The Jubo League’s acting chairman, Harun-or-Rashid, told New Age that the allegation was not baseless as the deputy leader of the House had raised it, and proper investigation should be conducted to dig out the facts.
   The Awami Swechchhasebak League’s president, Bahauddin Nasim, echoed Sajeda Chowdhury and demanded proper investigation. ‘Our leader Sheikh Hasina herself had raised such an allegation earlier,’ he said.
   The Swechchhasebak League’s general secretary, Pankaj Devnath, told New Age that the interim government wanted to implement the ‘minus two formula’ and thus the attempt to slow-poison Hasina might have been made. He also demanded proper investigation of the incident.
   The Jubo Mohila League’s general secretary, Apu Ukil, said that a move had been made to kill Sheikh Hasina, but had fortunately failed. ‘They wanted another August 15 [murder of Sheikh Mujib],’ she said and demanded proper investigation.
   The Chhatra League’s president, Mahmud Hasan Ripon, also demanded investigation of the allegation.

Low-lying areas in several districts in the north and the south have been inundated in flash floods amid downpour for a few days and onrush of water down the hills across the border.
   New Age correspondents on Friday said the low-lying areas of northeastern districts of Netrakona, Sunamganj and Sylhet, southern districts of Barisal and Feni were flooded for the heavy falls.
   The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre on Friday said ‘heavy to very heavy rainfall’ continued over the northeast and the southeast and adjoining Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura and the situation was likely to slightly deteriorate as the Met Office forecast further heavy rainfall over the regions.
   River heights were on the increase at 49 points out of 73 monitoring stations, and fell at 13 stations. Rivers were flowing above danger mark at three points.
   The Surma was flowing 36cm above danger mark at the Sunamganj point while the Muhuri 45cm at Parshuram and the Kangsa 35cm at Jariajhanjail.
   The New Age correspondent in Nilphamari said the Teesta was rising sharply, forcing the authorities to open all the 44 gates of the Teesta Barrage to release the additional water.
   The Water Development Board issued red alert across the Teesta Barrage flood fuse area. The authorities asked the people to move to safe places. Thousands of people at Dimla and Jaldhaka in Nilphamari have been already been marooned.
   The board’s assistant executive engineer Mayeen Uddin Mondal said two spars of the Teesta project at the Dowabari point of Jaldhaka was slightly damaged and the dyke of flood bypass fuse near the barrage was also damaged because of the heavy Teesta current.
   Flash flood inundated more low-lying areas in five unions of Durgapur, four of Kalmakanda and one union in the district headquarters.
   The correspondent in Barisal said heavy rainfall in 48 hours till Friday morning made life strenuous in the city and inundated more low-lying areas in the district. Meteorologists recorded 80.3mm rainfall on Wednesday and 76.5mm on Thursday.
   Sudden onrush of water upstream also triggered flash flood and erosion in other southern districts.
   Rain water inundated the low-lying areas at Palashpur, Balur Math, Port Road, Bandh Road, Dapdapia of the city and its outskirts.
   The Kirtankhola was flowing only 8cm below danger mark on Friday. Erosion of the river took a serious turn because of strong current.
   Incessant rainfall in past three days inundated villages in Merung and Boalkhali union council in Dighinala of Khagrachari, report the correspondent in Rangamati.
   Local Water Development Board said the River Maini had been flowing above danger mark since Wednesday forcing evacuation of at least 400 families.
   Road communications between Merung and Dighinala has been snapped as chest-high water has been flowing on the road since Wednesday noon.
   The Dighinala upazila nirbahi officer, Maniruzzaman Miah, said they had evacuated at least 400 families of a few villages of Merung and sent them to six shelters. A few more hundred families at Kobakhali and Boalkhali were also marooned.
   The flood situation in Bandarban started improving on Friday.
   Road communications in the district with other parts of the country was disrupted as the Bandarban–Keranihat Road was submerged.
   Some houses of Eden Para and Betel Para in the district headquarters were damaged because of landslide. Local farmers said vegetables were also damaged by the flash flood.

The prices of spices, onions and other vegetables increased last week and egg prices continued to show an increasing trend, as found by New Age after visiting various markets in the city on Friday.
   Consumers became annoyed at the price-hikes of many perishables, but shop-keepers said it was the ‘monsoon effect’ — rains disrupt the supply of commodities and cause scarcity, which raises the prices.
   Onion prices increased by up to Tk 6 per kilogram over the week, with imported Indian onions costing between Tk 22 and Tk 24 on Friday.
   The local variety of onions, regarded as being superior in quality, cost between Tk 34 and Tk 36 a kilogram.
   Cucumbers cost between Tk 24 and Tk 28 per kilogram against Tk 20 and Tk 22 a week back, while green chili cost between Tk 48 and Tk 60 against Tk 32 and Tk 40 some time ago.
   The price hike is the impact of the beginning of monsoon, claimed traders at Karwanbazar, one of the largest wholesale markets in the capital for perishables, especially meat, fish, spices and vegetables.
   ‘The early monsoon rains submerge the low-lying fields of vegetables including green chilli and cucumber, so every year prices rise in this time of the year,’ said Lal Mian, a greengrocer of Karwanbazar.
   A wholesaler said onion prices have increased as the importers, after the monsoon rains started, reduced procurement of Indian onions, while supply from domestic sources has also decreased.
   ‘Rains damage the stock of onions, so the amount traded traditionally falls in this period of every year, resulting in scarcity and hike of prices,’ said Abdul Mannan, a bulk wholesaler of onions at Shyam Bazaar wholesale market.
   Prices of the local variety of garlic and dried chilli also increased by Tk 5 to Tk 10 a kilogram, which was attributed to the monsoon effect.
   The price of ‘farm eggs’, which are being sold at exorbitant rates already, increased by Tk 6 per dozen in the week as, according to market sources, demand increased due to the high prices of vegetables and fish. Eggs per dozen cost between Tk 90 and Tk 96 on Friday in Mahakhali.
   ‘In rainy days many customers prefer eggs bought from corner shops rather than take the trouble of going to the kitchen markets, so high demand pushes up egg prices,’ said an egg wholesaler at Tejgaon.
   Lentils became costlier in the week as, according to traders, prices of imported pulses increased.
   The inferior quality of imported red lentils, higher this week by Tk 4 per kilogram, cost between 90 and Tk 96.
   The prices of sugar, edible oil and flour, however, remained more or less unchanged this week.

Activists of different units of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, associate body of students of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, continued protests against its new committee for the second straight day Friday and threatened to resign en masse if the controversial committee was not dissolved within seven days.
   To calm the dissidents, the BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain pledged that sincere and devoted leaders would be accommodated while forming the full-fledged committee of the JCD.
   ‘There may be reservations about the new committee. The [BNP] chairperson [Khaleda Zia] approved the committee after consulting the party leaders. Now all have to be united in the interest of the party. Sincere and devoted leaders who had made tremendous sacrifices for the party will be accommodated,’ he said after placing flowers at the grave of the party founder Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
   ‘The new leadership will strengthen the organisation [JCD] starting from grassroots. It will also evaluate the contributions of leaders and activists [who feel deprived],’ he said.
   The new JCD leaders gathered at the graveside at about midday and took oath. The BNP’s student affairs secretary, Fazlul Haque Milon, administered the oath.
   The five newly selected top leaders of Chhatra Dal, accompanied by Khandaker Delwar, placed flowers at Ziaur Rahman’s grave when dissident activists of different units of JCD were staging demonstrations at Dhaka University and in front of the BNP’s central office at Naya Paltan.
   The protesters demanded cancellation of JCD’s newly formed central committee.
   Leaders and activists of most of the DU hall units joined the protest march and chanted slogans against the new president and general secretary of the JCD. They said the university students would not accept any ‘non-students’ who had ‘links with militants’ as their leaders.
   The BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, shortly before midnight Wednesday approved a five-member central committee for the JCD with Sultan Salauddin Tuku and Amirul Islam Khan Alim as president and general secretary respectively and asked them to form a full committee in next 10 days. The new committee will continue till next January.
   Shahidul Islam Babul has been chosen as senior vice-president, Amiruzzaman Khan Shimul as joint secretary, and Anisur Rahman Khokan as organising secretary in the committee.
   At a rally in front of the DUCSU building, the dissidents said that the members of the new committee were loyal to lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, also an adviser of the BNP chief, and they were given the posts as rewards for serving a vested quarter in the BNP.
   The vested group misled Khaleda Zia and kept her in the dark about what was going on inside Chhatra Dal and about the leaders and activists who had suffered a lot during the period of the military-backed government and the present Awami League rule, the dissidents said.
   Akramuzzaman Hasan, joint secretary of the organisation’s DU unit, Sadiul Kabir Nirab, member of the university unit, and Danesul Islam, president of Salimullah Hall unit addressed the rally.
   Activists from different thana and college units gathered in front of the BNP central office and chanted slogans against the patrons of the new committee.
   They said ‘patrons of Jamaat-e-Islami and militants’ had floated the committee which was not acceptable to the Chhatra Dal activists.
   They said that Khaleda Zia was surrounded by a quarter who did not want Chhatra Dal to grow stronger. They slammed BNP organising secretary Amanullah Aman and Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, a member of Khaleda’s personal staff.

The Bangladesh Rifles troops are to get back their weapons ‘soon’ as situation becomes normal gradually and the process was underway to try the culprits of February 25-26 carnage ‘expectedly under the Army Act’.
   ‘The BDR soldiers at the battalion and sector headquarters across the country will get back their weapons soon with gradual return of normalcy,’ the BDR chief, Major General Mainul Islam, told the news agency.
   But, Islam said, he expected the normalcy to return in the paramilitary troops once the trial of the rebellious soldiers was completed to ‘de-stigmatise’ the ‘morally shattered’ innocent BDR men.
   The BDR chief said the paramilitary force recently sent a letter to government authorities concerned with request for staging the trial under the Army Act since the ‘offenders and victims’ of the rebellion belonged to ‘disciplined armed forces’.
   BDR officials said although the border guards at the frontline border outposts retained their weapons to guard the borders, a process was initiated to return the weapons to the ‘innocent soldiers’ as their chief continued to visit the battalion headquarters to boost the moral of the paramilitary force.
   Asked if the trial of the rebellious soldiers under Army Act would be compatible with the ongoing investigation under the civil Criminal Procedure Code, the BDR chief said there would be no contradiction under the principle of ‘concurrent jurisdiction’ of the law.
   He said the BDR law was not suitable for the trial of the rebellious soldiers’ as it did not have any provision for such trial while the section 5 of the Army Act allowed the government to try members of any disciplined force under the military law in court marshal.
   The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, earlier said there was no bar in trying the suspected rebel BDR soldiers under the Army Act while the BDR Act only dealt with the routine affairs of the paramilitary troops.
   The Criminal Investigation Department was carrying out the routine police investigations into the carnage while a high-powered government committee headed by a retired secretary and a high-level military probe body earlier completed their investigations into the rebellion.
   CID’s main investigation officer of the case Abdul Kahhar Akand, meanwhile, told the news agency that 1543 BDR soldiers and nearly 30 civilians including a former BNP lawmaker were arrested so far for their suspected involvement in the mutiny in the paramilitary force’s Peelkhana headquarters in Dhaka.
   He said 225 of them including a key-planner of the mutiny junior BDR officer Touhid Alam and soldier Habibur Rahman, who reportedly shot dead the paramilitary force’s chief, Major General Shakeel Ahmed, admitted their role in the rebellion, already gave their confessional statements before judicial magistrates.
   ‘The investigations are underway but I can’t tell you certainly when it is expected to be completed,’ Akand said.
   Another 1,723 BDR soldiers were detained in 29 frontier districts for staging mutiny, breaking in arsenals and looting weapons as the rebellion broke out in Peelkhana headquarters in Dhaka.
   The government committee report said a certain quarter staged the mutiny using a sense of deprivation of the ordinary BDR soldiers but only a few BDR men knew about killing plot while it bluntly admitted ‘without hesitation that the real causes and objectives of the gruesome incident could not be ascertained clearly and it requires further investigations.’

Former lawmaker Nazim Kamran Choudhury, husband of Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, a former advisor of the military-backed interim government, and his close relatives who were arrested on Thursday night on charge of forcible occupation of a house in Gulshan, were released on bail on Friday.
   The police arrested Nazim, his younger brother Mukim Kamran Choudhury, and his son-in-law Adit Bhagat as they were among the 11 accused in the case filed by Mahbubul Islam — a teacher of a US university — with the Gulshan police station on Thursday night. The others accused in the case were Geetiara Shafiya Choudhury, their daughter Nazim Farhana Choudhury, Abu Rushd Tareq, Shamsunnahar Tareq, Sakhawat Hossain (Shahadat), Ripon Chandra Saha, Bipul Hossain and Yar Ali.
   The police, after arresting the three men, kept them in the lock-up of the Cantonment police station at night and took them to the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on Friday afternoon.
   They produced the three men before the court of metropolitan magistrate Konika Biswas at about 3:30pm.
   Former BNP lawmaker Barrister Ziaur Rahman, along with the Dhaka Bar Association’s president Mokhlesur Rahman Badal and general secretary Gazi Shah Alam, defended Nazim and his two relatives and submitted a bail petition to the court.
   Assistant public prosecutor Shah Alam and Sana Miah moved the case on behalf of the state and opposed the bail petition.
   After hearing the arguments of both the sides, the court granted the three men bail.
   Police were looking for Geetiara, who was industries adviser to the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led interim government and one of four advisers who had to leave the cabinet after one year.
   ‘We have raided some places to catch Geetiara but failed to trace her,’ said the investigation officer of the case, sub-inspector Masud Karim.
   He said that they were looking not only for Geetiara but for all the accused named in the case.
   According to the case, tenant Nazim and the other accused had been forcibly occupying the property since the expiry of a five-year rental agreement.
   The accused forcibly brought a generator into the premises in July 2008, ignoring the house owner’s objections.
   The case also alleges that the accused had physically assaulted the house owner, Farhana Islam, and issued death threats against the couple.
   Farhana Islam had filed a similar case with the Dhaka district and sessions judge’s Court in November 2007, accusing three companies belonging to the Choudhurys, including advertising firm Adcomm, of illegal occupation.
   But the court quashed the case on January 25, 2008, on the basis of a report by the then investigating officer saying the allegation was ‘not proved’.
   The IO of the case, Masud Karim of Gulshan police station, quoting the FIR said on Thursday that Islam and his wife had filed their complaint again under the new government as Geetiara had been a powerful figure when they had filed their previous case.

A powerful Iranian cleric said on Friday local British embassy staff arrested for allegedly stoking post-election unrest will be put on trial, a move set to plunge already strained ties to a new low.
   ‘In these incidents, their embassy had a presence, some people were arrested. Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions,’ Ahmad Jannati, the head of Iran’s Guardians Council, said at Friday prayers.
   A total of nine local staff were initially arrested late last month but the British government said seven have now been released, while Iranian state television has said only one remains in custody.
   ‘We are concerned and we are checking the reports,’ a spokeswoman said. ‘Allegations that our staff were fomenting unrest are wholly without foundation.
   ‘We will be seeking an urgent explanation from the Iranians.’
   Iran accused the embassy employees of instigating riots in the unrest that erupted over the disputed re-election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which his rivals said was fraudulent and marred by widespread irregularities.
   Jannati, who is close to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a strong Ahmadinejad supporter, said the country]s ‘enemies’ had been plotting a ‘velvet revolution’ in the Islamic republic.
   He said the Foreign Office had predicted ‘street riots’ around the June 12 election and that it had warned its nationals to stay away from public places.
   He did not say how many would go on trial or disclose the charges.
   Khamenei has described Britain, which has long had turbulent relations with Iran and a long history of mistrust, as the ‘most evil’ of its enemies.
   EU governments called in Iranian envoys in protest at the action against the British embassy staff, a European diplomat said.
   ‘They’ve summoned the Iranian diplomats. It’s happening during the day, some have already summoned the envoy,’ the diplomat said.
   Iran lashed out at the West for ‘meddling’ after an international outcry over the election and the repression of opposition protests, in the most serious crisis since the 1979 revolution.
   At least 20 people were killed in street violence and many hundreds rounded up by the authorities.
   Britain appears to have replaced the United States, often dubbed ‘the Great Satan,’ by Iranian leaders, as Tehran’s top foe in the wake of the election.
   Last month, the foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said Iran may downgrade ties with Britain, after the two governments expelled each other’s diplomats. Tehran has also expelled the BBC correspondent and arrested a British-Greek reporter.
   Iranian officials have been particularly angered by the launch of the BBC’s Persian satellite channel this year, which they accuse of fanning the flames in the election dispute.
   The roots of mutual distrust date back to the 1800s when Iran, then Persia, was trapped in the colonial rivalry between Russia and Britain.
   In 1953, nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in a CIA-organised coup with support from British operatives after he nationalised the Anglo-Iranian oil company, the forerunner to British Petroleum.
   Diplomatic relations were severed when the British mission in Tehran was closed in 1980 after British special forces stormed the Iranian embassy in London to end a hostage siege.
   A 1989 fatwa by Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against British writer Salman Rushdie sparked a new rupture in ties that were only restored in 1999.
   In 2007, Iran seized 15 British navy personnel on patrol in waters between Iraq and Iran and held them for 12 days.
   Britain is also among the strongest opponents of Iran’s nuclear drive, which London and Washington say is aimed at developing atomic weapons, a claim rejected by Tehran.
   The Guardians Council, made up of 12 unelected jurists and clerics, is one of the most powerful bodies in Iran. It has the authority to interpret the constitution, holds veto power over legislation passed in parliament and ratifies election results.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha will need at least two more months to complete the process of allotment of plots under Purbachal New Town Project and Uttara Model Town Third Phase leaving thousands of applicants in deeper uncertainty.
   ‘Though the Rajuk is supposed to complete the process of distributing plots by July, it seems that it will take more time – at least two months – as the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology is working very slowly,’ an official of the estate department of Rajuk told New Age on Thursday.
   The BUET has been given the responsibility for sorting out around 1.57 lakh applications submitted against over 6,800 plots in Purbachhal and Uttara till April 30.
    The guidelines for allotting the plots are awaiting government approval for over three months.
   State minister for housing and public works, Abdul Mannan Khan, on different occasions
   said that the process of distributing the plots would be completed by June, 2009.
   When asked exactly how much time would be required to complete the process of allotment, Rajuk chairman Nurul Huda said, ‘We do not know exactly when the process will be completed.’
   On November 25, 2008, Rajuk sought applications in 12 categories including MP, judge, journalist, government service holder, autonomous body, Armed Forces, artist/sportsman, businessman and private service holder, for allotment of plots. The authorities later extended the time twice – the last one ended on April 30.
   Meanwhile, uncertainty over timeline for allotment of the plots has caused frustration among over 1.5 lakh applicants.
   ‘Can you tell me exactly when the Rajuk will hold lottery to distribute the plots,’ an anxious applicant, Manirul Azad, told New Age over phone on Thursday.
   ‘If I had put in the bank the money I have deposited against my application for the plot, I could have earned at least Tk 5,000 in the form of interest in the last six months,’ the applicant said.
   Rajuk is getting full benefits from the huge amount of money in the form of interest while the plot seekers are counting losses.
   About Tk 1,500 crore has been deposited by the applicants with Rajuk’s bank account, said an official.
   With payment of
   Tk 1,000 for each application form, each local aspirant had to submit a bank draft or pay order of Tk 75,000 to Tk 2 lakh depending on the size of the plots ranging from three to 10 kathas in favour of the city development authorities.
   A Rajuk official said some 42,600 plot seekers were expatriates who had submitted bank drafts of $1,500 to $3,500 while most of the applications were submitted for five katha plots for which the applicants had to deposit Tk 1 lakh each.
   On the other hand, Rajuk has already earned Tk 20 crore by selling about two lakh application forms.

After a prolonged hot spell, continual rain since late Wednesday disrupted normal life and economic activities in the capital as elsewhere in the country, causing immense sufferings to the people.
   Although a sort of respite from the sweltering head has come in the life of the people because of the rain, the sufferings due to the rain have exceeded the relief, however.
   Many city streets were flooded for lack of proper drainage system while many low-lying areas went under water.
   In the past two days, traffic movement were badly affected because of water logging in many parts of the capital when hundreds of cars and buses were seen stuck on different city streets, including Khilgaon, Basabo, Mugda, Badda, Dania, Jatrabari, Jurain and Malibagh.
   The office-goers and students were the worst suffers as there were few vehicles on the roads. Among the vehicles, rickshaws were in great demand as there were few motorised vehicles amid the continual rain.
   Water entered into the exhaust pipes of many motorised vehicles, especially the CNG-run auto-rickshaws, causing them to go out of order and create tailbacks on the arterial roads.
   On Thursday night, the eastern parts of the city experienced serious traffic congestion as hundreds of vehicles were seen standing for hours.
   Exhausted and disgusted, many commuters were seen getting down from vehicles and walking along the footpath to their destinations. They termed the situation a total collapse of the city traffic system.
   People’s sufferings due to tailbacks were worst in the Malibagh, Mouchak, Shantinagar, Rajarbagh, Motijheel, Fakirapool, Komalpur, Gopibagh, Arambagh, Shahjahanpur areas inside the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra dam and most parts of the Old Town of Dhaka.
   The day-labourers were badly affected because of the rain. Many of them could not manage even the day’s meal as they could not join their works.
   Besides, many business houses and shops remained closed for the past two days. In some areas, rainwater flowing over the pavement also entered into shops and market places.
   Last two days’ rain or drizzle severely affected shopping at makeshift shops on the city’s footpath as the street vendors could hardly arrange their shops.
   ‘Normal life and economic activities in the city are seriously disrupted during every monsoon because of water logging triggered by rain but the Dhaka City Corporation seems not to have any plan to solve the problems,’ said a city commuter living at Jurain.
   Sohel Rana, a resident of Dania, an area inside the DND embankment, said, ‘Approximately 15 lakh people live inside the DND dam. They have to undergo tremendous sufferings in every monsoon due to water logging caused by rainfall, but no permanent steps have been taken by the government to resolve the problem.’
   The Met Office sources said they recorded 46mm of rainfall in last 30 hours in the capital and predict continuous rainfall and thunderstorms over Dhaka, Sylhet with most parts of the country facing squally weather.

Cut in corporate tax on financial institutions was not a crying need for banks as most of them made profit belying fear of global recession fallouts and still kept interest rate spread wide, banking experts said.
   A 2.5 per cent cut in corporate tax on financial institutions was among a series of revisions made to the tax proposals in the 2009-10 fiscal year’s budget in response to demands from lobbies before it was passed on June 30. Banks and other financial institutions are now subject to 42.5 per cent tax.
   Half-yearly data available from the banking sector suggested that out of 29 local private commercial banks, at least 15 including Islami, Jamuna, AB, Dhaka, Mutual Trust and Brac banks posted higher operating profit compared with their year-ago figures.
   Experts said 2.5 per cent tax cut would be an added advantage for commercial banks and swell their net profit further at the end of the year.
   The operating profit earned by banks in six months to June indicates that banks had not faced any adverse impact of the global financial recession, said former Bangladesh Bank deputy governor Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled.
   ‘I don’t see any justification of such tax cut for the banks,’ he said, adding that existing rate of spread (difference between lending and deposit rates) was more than 5 per cent, highest in the sub-continent.
   Bankers’ association leaders, however, said cut in corporate tax was justified as the operating profit of the banks would erode in the rest half of the year due to persisting slowdown in export and import trades.
   Association of Banks Bangladesh president Mahmood Sattar said the present rosy picture of operating profit would not remain the same.
   ‘It will go down due to slowdown in export and import’, he said.
   Former central bank chief economist MK Mujeri, however, ruled out such observation saying that domestic economic activities will gain pace in the coming days.
   He believed that business confidence would improve under the present elected government and investment would see a turnaround.
   The country’s export recorded over 12 per cent growth in the first eleven months, but imports contracted by 8 per cent mainly because of falling global commodity prices.
   Mujeri suggested that the government should strictly monitor the utilization of the reduced corporate tax so that the people and the economy also share the benefit of tax incentive.
   Banks need to reduce spread rate and various charges as well as their operating costs, he said.

The government will ask the Bangladesh missions abroad to identify the ‘godfathers’ and persons harmful to the country’s overseas job market so that it can take action against them locally and internationally, foreign minister Dipu Moni said Friday.
   Representatives of expatriate Bangladeshis said the government should take immediate measures to ease the process of sending remittances by Bangladeshis working in different countries, including Saudi Arabia, where more than
   40 per cent of them were working.
   The government will examine the entire processes of manpower export and sending of remittances, Dipu Moni told a seminar held as a part of ‘the first NRB manpower development and opportunities conference-2009’ at a city hotel.
   Suranjit Sengupta, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on law ministry, stressed that measures should be taken to protect human rights of expatriate workers and the persons intending to go abroad for job.
   ‘The persons, who not only keep our economy running, but also helps the country’s politics, trade and social work, are subjected to sufferings and harassment at airports in the country and quite often fall victim to frauds at home and abroad. It is unfortunate,’ he said.
   ‘We must give them due honour at the airports as well as in all spheres of the society,’ he said.
   At a separate seminar on the occasion at the same venue, Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman said the postal department, a strong network of 10,000 post offices, was planning to start ‘rural money transfer system’ through mobile phone and ATM (automated teller machine).
   Suggesting that postal department should include a bank in the ‘rural money transfer system’, the central bank government said rural money transfer system would be an unique example of applying technology and leadership that would ultimately help expatriate Bangladeshis to reach their money to their families in remote villages of the country in a low cost and hassle-free system.
   Tasnim Siddiqui, research director of RMMRU, said curbing the influence of local and foreign middlemen in manpower export was a must for reducing expenditure in getting jobs abroad.
   Several speakers including AHM Mostafa Kamal, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry, said the government should provide financial support, including loan, so that people seeking jobs overseas were not forced to sell their property and lands for going abroad.
   Dr Arifur Rahman, who has been living in Saudi Arabia for 27 years, said many Bangladeshis did not send remittances through banks due to stringent banking system there. ‘Many Bangladeshis could not have sent money home but for the hundi system,’ he told a seminar. Most of the speakers stressed the need for sending remittances through banking channels.
   ‘There are some 50,000 Bangladeshis doing business in Saudi Arabia. You will not be able to understand by the clothes they wear how wealthy they are,’ he said. ‘Most of them are illiterate…They put millions of dollars in banks. But when they attempt to send the money home through the banks, they are hauled up by the Saudi secret police on charges of money laundering.’
   He said the workers living in the cities had the facility to send money through banking channels, but those working in remote areas [of Saudi Arabia] had little chances.
   State minister for foreign affairs Hasan Mahmud said expatriate Bangladeshis had remitted over $9 billion in 2008 through official channels. ‘More than $3 billion comes through hundi.’
   Ambassador-designate of Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia Dr Abdul Momen, Dhaka University professor MM Akash, CMES executive director professor Muhammad Ibrahim, Western Union country manager Syed Mohammad Kamal and Shafiul Azam of Moneygram Bangladesh, among others, participated in the discussion at different seminars.
   They stressed the need for technical education for workers going abroad as well as language training and orientation on culture and values of the countries they intend to go.

Suspected US missiles struck a training facility allegedly operated by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and a militant hide-out Friday, killing 15 people and wounding 27 others, intelligence officials said.
   The two attacks by drone aircraft took place in South Waziristan, a Mehsud stronghold close to the Afghan border, two officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
   They were the latest in more than 40 such strikes by the United States against militant targets in the border area since last August. Washington does not directly acknowledge being responsible for the attacks, which kill civilians as well as militants.
   The strikes came as the Pakistani military prepares for its own offensive in South Waziristan to eliminate Mehsud, who has been blamed for a string of deadly suicide attacks across the country that have killed more than 100 people in the past month.
   One attack targeted an abandoned seminary in the village of Mantoi that was allegedly being used by militants from Mehsud’s group for training, said the officials.

The ferry service on Paturia-Daulatdia route is being disrupted due to an abnormal rise in water of the River Padma creating traffic congestion on both sides of the river.
   BIWTC sources said the service was hampered as the existing pontoons at the terminals required uplifting due to the rapid rise in the water level.
   BIWTC Aricha sector general manger Md Ashraf Ullah told the news agency Friday that the water in the Padma was increased by 30-cm in the last 48 hours.
   The sources said shortage of ferries was another cause of the disruption. Only five Ro-Ro ferries are now operating on the route out of the total 12.

Four members of a family, including children, were burned to death in a fierce fire at Telirchar village under Ramgati upazila is Lakshmi-pur Thursday midnight.
   The victims were Fatema, 75, mother-in-law of Badiul Alam, and his daughters Swapna, 12, and Yanur, 9, and son Badsha, 7.
   The police said the fire originated from an oven at the kitchen of Badiul and engulfed adjacent rooms, killing the four in sleep.
   Badiul’s elder son also suffered severe burn injuries in the fire.

Rights watchdog Amnesty on Friday urged Malaysia to abolish caning, saying that tens of thousands of migrants had received the ‘inhuman and degrading’ punishment in recent years.
   Amnesty cited a statement in Malaysian parliament last week that said local authorities had caned at least 34,923 migrants between 2002 and 2008, 60 percent of them from neighbouring Indonesia.
   ‘Amnesty International urges the Malaysian government to rid the country of this cruel punishment,’ the London-based group said in a statement.
   ‘Whipping someone with a cane is cruel, inhuman and degrading, and international standards make clear that such treatment constitutes torture.’
   Apart from Indonesians, those caned were also from Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand.
   Malaysia, Southeast Asia’s third largest economy, has 2.2 million migrant workers in Malaysia, who are the mainstay of the plantation and manufacturing sectors.
   The caning sentence was added to Malaysian immigration laws since 2002, amid concern over the ramifications of having a large migrant workforce.
   Under the laws, those staying in Malaysia illegally are subject to a mandatory whipping of up to six strokes of the cane, fines and up to five years in jail.

Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano was narrowly elected the next head of the UN atomic watchdog Thursday and he vowed to tackle rich-poor tensions weakening the fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
   Challenges for the holder of the sensitive post include Iran’s expanding uranium enrichment programme, blocked investigations into alleged military nuclear activity in Iran and Syria, and North Korea’s atomic tests.
   Amano, supported largely by industrialised nations, defeated South Africa’s Abdul Samad Minty in a sixth round of balloting after five inconclusive votes. It was his second try for the top job at the International Atomic Energy Agency following an election stalemate in March.
   He succeeds Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, who retires in November after 12 turbulent years.
   Amano, 62, managed to win the required 2/3rds majority of the governing board members who expressed a preference, with 23 votes and one crucial abstention in the 35-nation meeting.