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The country’s foreign exchange reserve is likely to cross $7 billion, even after making of the regular bimonthly payment to Asian Clearing Union in next week, due to robust growth in remittance despite global meltdown.
   The country’s forex reserve stood at $7.42 billion on Thursday.
   ‘After making of the ACU payment, the forex reserve will cross $7 billion,’ a senior official of Bangladesh Bank said, adding that it would remain at a range between $7.01 billion and $7.02 billion.
   The central bank is likely to make the ACU payment of $400 million in next week curbing the forex reserve, another Bangladesh Bank official told the New Age on Thursday.
   Bangladesh received remittance of $9.67 billion in the just concluded 2008-09 fiscal year as expatriate Bangladeshis were now sending their money through legal channels.
   The amount of remittance had increased by $67 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year against its target of $9.00 billion, according to BB statistics.
   The remittance amount increased by $1.75 billion in the last fiscal year compared to its figure of $7.91 billion in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
   Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, earlier, apprehended that the flow of remittance might be shaken owing to the global recession. But the robust growth in remittance proved it a conservative apprehension.
   The remittance will cross $9.5 billion in the current fiscal year as expatriate Bangladeshis are now sending their money through formal channels, the BB chief expected.
   Zaid Bakht, a research director of Bangladesh Development Studies, told New Age that it would bring no good to the country’s economy if the foreign exchange increased due to reduction in the import cost.
   ‘We know the price of the capital machinery and petroleum products have declined in the international market over the last one year because of the global recession resulting in reduction in the total import cost,’ he added.
   ‘The reserve of huge forex will not be good for the country if it fails to draw a good amount of foreign investment,’ he noted.
   He also observed that the current forex reserve was not enough to meet the country’s import cost for three months.
   The remittance flow may come down as the number of expatriate workers had declined in the last one-and-half-year because of the global meltdown, Bakht said.
   The BB sources said the country’s forex reserve stood at $3.7 billion at the end of 2007 and $6 billion at the end of 2008.

The parliament will pass an ordinance before July 9 to arm the National Human Rights Commission with judicial powers to address violation of human rights of Bangladeshis both at home and abroad, the chief of a parliamentary watchdog said on Friday.
   ‘We want to constitute an active and effective Human Rights Commission to deal with all human rights violation cases — they committed in the country or abroad,’ said Suranjit Sengupta, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry.
   ‘The commission will be vested with necessary judicial authority too so that the damages can be redressed,’ Suranjit said at a seminar on the second day of the ‘First NRB Manpower Development and Opportunities Conference 2009’ at Hotel Sheraton.
   The national HR watchdog will have its district chapters too, who will receive complaints on violations, carry out primary investigation and commission necessary trials, he added.
   On June 17, HRC member Muneera Khan after meeting with law minister Shafiq Ahmed told reporters that the hands and feet of the HRC were tied because of a lack of necessary rules and regulations.
   Suranjit said: ‘In the name of a Human Rights Commission , we sure would not want another club for the retired bureaucrats or judges.’
   ‘The chairman would be someone possessing adequate knowledge and thorough understanding of the human rights issues.’
   The caretaker government on September 1, 2008 constituted the HRC as per Section 3(1) of the National Human Rights Ordinance 2007.
   On December 1, 2008 the government appointed former justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury as the chairman and Muneera Khan and Niru K Chakma as commissioners to the HRC.
   Chaired by Suranjit, the seminar saw a paper titled ‘Institutionalising non-resident workers’ human rights and dealing with cheats at home and abroad’ presented by Dr Abdul Momen, coordinator, Scholars Bangladesh.
   Momen highlighted a few incidents of violation of human rights of NRBs working in a number of countries.
   ‘Because of lack of education and ignorance, the NRBs cannot seek any redress to the human rights violations they are subjected to, whereas laws in those countries mostly ensure people’s protection in such cases.’
   He presented a number of recommendations to overcome such problems including learning appropriate foreign languages and orientation about the relevant legal regimes.
   He also suggested that Bangladesh embassies in the countries recruiting Bangladeshi workers should establish press wings, install hotlines and legal wings and start work on databases.
   Though the law minister was scheduled to be present at the event as the chief guest and labour and employment state minister Munnujan Sufian as the special guest, none turned up.

The department of food will get back soon the central storage depot at Halishahar in the port city of Chittagong for strengthening the food security in the country.
   The process is underway to quickly hand over the facility to the department of food from the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority.
   The seven-member sub-committee formed to evaluate the current state of the CSD has recommended taking the CSD back to the Department of Food under the ministry of food.
   The sub-committee headed by additional chief Engineer of public works department SM Abdul Kader in its report submitted recently to the high ups after inspecting the establishment.
   The CSD, one of the country’s largest food storage facilities owned by the food department built at Halishahar on 59.28 acres of land, was handed over to the BEPZA for only Taka one during the previous BNP-led four-party alliance government in a bid to turn the place as an exclusive export-oriented industrial zone.
   Following the government decision, a big portion of the establishment was either restructured or flattened to pave the way for setting up industries and a number of industries were set up by some local and foreign investors in the meantime.
   In the backdrop of changed global scenario, the past caretaker government took the decision to take back the place to its original owner for ensuring the food security and developing adequate food storage facility in the country.
   Convener of the sub-committee Abdul Kader told the news agency that they sent the report to the main committee mentioning the present conditions inside entire CSD areas, boundary and security walls, manpower for ensuring safety and security, necessary utility services and construction of residential facilities for officers and employees.
   The sub-committee included representatives from PWD, LGED, KEPZ, food department and investors.
   Abdul Kader said the food storage capacity of the CSD at Halishahar has come down to 46,000 tonnes from the previous level of nearly one lakh tonnes after the BEPZA demolished its 59 godowns out of 94 for preparing the areas for setting up industries.
   The BEPZA is now claming around Tk 150 crore as compensation from the food department as it spent the money for reshaping the areas for establishing industrial units, SM Kaiser Ali, Regional Controller of Food in Chittagong, said adding that they have a plan to repair the still intact 35 godowns and construct 91 more after receiving the place from the BEPZA.
   The total storage capacity of the CSD would be around 1.5 lakh tonnes in 126 godowns on completion of the construction of 91 more new godowns.
   Sources at the food department said the process for bringing back the CSD from the BEPZA got a pace shortly after the present government of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, took over power as part of its priority to building the food security in the country.

A housewife was killed allegedly by strangulation at Uttara in Dhaka Thursday night and the police on Friday arrested three people in this connection.
   The victim, Afroza Parveen, 24, was pronounced dead after she had been taken to Uttara Crescent Hospital at about 9:00pm Thursday.
   She was taken to the hospital by her husband, Touhidul Alam, who immediately left the place and started living in his parental home near Sector 9 after locking his rented house on Road 19 in Sector 13.
   Being informed, Afroza’s mother Papiya Begum and other relatives reached the hospital.
   Papiya lodged a case with the Uttara police accusing Touhidul, his brothers Rafiqul Islam and Shafiqul Islam, Touhid’s business partner Arif and Arif’s associate Sayem.
   The police Friday morning sent the body to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   The police said there were scars around the neck, in the chin and in the back.
   The police arrested three of the accused — Touhid, Shafiqul and Rafiqul — at their house in the morning.
   Papiya said Afroza was married to Touhidul a year ago and it was Afroza’s second marriage. Her only son, five-year-old Rudra, also lived with the couple.
   After marriage, Touhidul realised Tk 89,000 in the name of investing in a business. He had recently pressured Afroza for Tk 2 lakh more. Papiya said Afroza might have been killed as she refused to arrange the money.

Establishing of democratic society is not possible without establishing the democratic rights of the workers.
   The speakers said this at the opening session of the 4th central council of Samajtantrik Sramik Front, the labour wing of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, at the city’s Muktangan on Friday.
   Addressing the opening session, Khalequzzaman, convenor of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, said that the rights of workers were ignored in the national budget for the current fiscal year, which was pssed on Tuesday.
   He observed that the government of grand alliance, led by Awami League, had made no allocation in the budget for increasing the wage of the workers.
   The BSD leader demanded minimum wage of Tk 7,000 per month for the workers taking into account the high price of essential commodities.
   He also demanded making of the existing Labour Act-2006 into a democratic one bringing about necessary changes in it.
   Referring to the recent workers’ unrests in the garment factories at Ashulia, labour leaders speaking on the occasion said the apparel workers were not responsible for the riots.
   The long deprivation of workers by the owners of garment factories and the trading of apparel wastages are responsible for the violent unrests, they observed.
   They demanded allowing of trade union rights of workers at the garment factories and adequate allocation of money for saving the country’s potential jute sector from ruination.
   With Samajtantrik Sramik Front president Abdullah Sarker in the chair, the opening session was also addressed by BSD central leaders Shuvrangshu Chakrabarty, Bazlur Rashid Firoj and Razequzzaman Ratan, and Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad leaders Abdul Kader Hawlader and Mesbahuddin Ahmed.
   The newly elected 23-member central committee of the organisation were introduced at the opening session.

The police arrested an operative of the ultra-left outfit Purba Banglar Communist Party (Red Flag) in Sirajganj early Friday for his suspected involvement in the killing of the outfit leader Salim.
   The police said they had arrested Bahadur Ali, 36, a resident of Kaibartaganti at Ullapara in the district.
   The Ullapara police officer-in-charge, Md Abu Bakkar, said some outfit operatives, including Bahadur, might have killed Salim on Tuesday over an internal feud.

Advocate Manzill Murshid on Friday regretted his statement to the media, in which he said that the High Court on Thursday had termed former communications minister Nazmul Huda and Jamaat-e-Islami’s assistant secretary general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman ‘wrongheaded’ and ‘worthless’.
   ‘I apologise for my incautious misinterpretation of the July 2 court verdict while speaking to the media as a counsel of the contempt petitioner,’ said advocate Manzill Murshid at a press release on Friday.
   He also said that after hearing the contempt of court petition filed against Nazmul Huda and Kamaruzzaman, the High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice M Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed had not termed the defendants ‘wrongheaded’ or ‘worthless’.
   ‘In its order, the court disposed of the contempt case, saying the defendants don’t qualify to be issued a rule and may Allah bless them,’ Manzill quoted the court as saying.
   Manzill also regretted the newspaper reports which used his quotation.
   Supreme Court lawyer Zafar Sadik on Wednesday sued Huda and Kamaruzzaman for criticising the July 21 High Court verdict that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had proclaimed Bangladesh’s independence. The two had termed the verdict the ‘personal judgement’ of the judges concerned at a discussion meeting.
   The matter came up for hearing in the High Court on Thursday.

The anniversary of death of Shah Sufi Sayed Muhammed Moinuddin Hasan Sanjeri, founder of Chishtiya school of spiritual thoughts, was observed at Azimpur Dayera Sharif in the city on Monday.
   The day’s programmes included Qur’an khwani, khatme ambia, salatul ajkar, fateha khwani, milad mahfil and discussion on the life and teachings of the great spiritual teacher.
   The programmes concluded through a prayer session conducted by the incumbent spiritual leader of Dayera Sharif Syed Ahmad Ullah Zubair.
   The devotees sought blessings of Almighty Allah for peace and progress of Bangladesh and greater unity among the Muslim Ummah, said a press release.

Gold ornaments and other valuables were stolen from a flat of a multi-storey building at Pachim Rampura in the Dhaka city on Friday.
   The Khilgaon police said the theft was committed in the rented house of New Age joint news editor Abu Jar M Akkas on the fourth floor of the four-storey building at 404, Pashchim Rampura, sometime between 3:00pm and 4:00pm. No family members were at home when the theft was committed.
   The thieves broke in the house and took away gold ornaments weighing a tola and Tk 3,000 in cash.
   A general diary was filed with the Khilgaon police in this connection.