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Irregular disposal of wastes by the Chittagong City Corporation authorities is polluting environment and posing a great threat to public health in the port city.
   The dustbins kept at roadsides in different areas of the city remain filled with wastes for days together, causing health hazard for the city people, some residents said.
   Official sources said they cannot remove wastes from the dustbins regularly for acute shortage of garbage trucks.
   Many city dwellers alleged that cleaners of the corporation come to their areas after a gap of several days when wastes have already spilled over into the roads.
   The worst situation was found at Agrabd, Chand-gaon, Dewanhat, Halishahar, Nasirabad, Patherghata, Alkaran, Bakalia, Chawk Bazar, Lalkhan Bazar, Halishahar, Muradpur and Bahadderhat.
   ‘The dustbins in our locality have remained filled with wastes for several days,’ Shahajahan Sarkar, a resident of the city’s Chandgaon area, said.
    ‘We have informed the corporation authorities of the matter but no measures are yet to be taken to permanently solve the problem,’ he added.
   Corporation sources said they have 1,943 cleaners working on daily basis and 80 employees to ensure removal of wastes from 48 garbage containers and 1,245 dustbins in 41 wards of the city.
   The corporation has 50 garbage trucks, six container movers and five tempos for carrying garbage to different dumping grounds, the sources said.
   But 15 trucks, four container movers and all the five tempos have remained out of order for long.
   Most of garbage trucks often go out of order as their longevity time has expired and after some repair work, they are put into operation, the sources said. But repair work of container movers cannot be done as their parts are not available in the country.
   When contacted, the corporation’s chief conservancy officer Saifudding Mahmud Katebi refrained from making any comment, saying they are not allowed to talk to media people without permission from the city mayor.
   An official at the conservancy department said earlier, they had conducted waste dumping work with 40 hired trucks.
   ‘But now we were facing difficulty in regular disposal of wastes as the number of hired trucks has been reduced to only 5 a couple of weeks back,’ he added.
   The corporation sources said although many cleaners remain absent for days but they receive daily payment of Tk 144 through an underhand dealing with a section of conservancy officials.

The Rajshahi mayor, AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, has said collective efforts of all concerned, including city corporation councillors, officials and employees, are badly needed to make the metropolis beautiful, clean and healthy.
   To make the city environmentally sound, habitable and hygienic, he said night-time garbage removal programme had been launched in the city for the first time since beginning of this month and emphasised the need for making the programme successful.
   In this context, he said mosquito eradication and conservancy staffs would be given all requisite facilities and privileges to enhance their activities.
   He made these observations while addressing the sixth annual general meeting of the present council at Nagar Bhaban on Saturday.
   The mayor asked the city corporation officials and employees to discharge their duties with utmost sincerity and honesty so that the city dwellers could derive benefits from the development programmes.
   Referring to various development programmes, he stated that construction work of two long-cherished connecting roads from Fire Brigade Crossing to Naodapara bypass and from Railway Gate to Shaheb Bazar Zero point is likely to be started just after the monsoon.
   To resolve the residential crisis, he mentioned that the RCC would build residential area on its own initiative.
   In addition to hosting city level councillor cup and t-twenty cricket
   tournament, he said national level sports competitions of football, volleyball, basketball and hockey would be arranged for development of the sports sector.
   Tree saplings would be distributed among the students of educational institutions to continue the city’s ecological and greenery programmes, he added, saying that other initiatives were also taken to enhance the city’s internal revenue income.
   RCC panel mayors, councillors, chief executive officer and other officials and employees concerned attended the meeting.

The Khulna City Corporation has designed a master plan aiming to mitigate sufferings of the city dwellers caused mainly by water-logging.
   KCC sources said the project titled 'Excavation of canals and rivers, development of drainage system, building of necessary bridge, culvert and their maintenance to solve water logging problems' aimed to ensure development of the city in all respects.
   KCC's assistant engineer (planning) Abir-ul-Jabber said the city corporation authorities submitted a proposal in 2008 to the local government division to ease water-logging by developing the canals, rivers and drainage system at different parts of the city.
   After the approval of a survey project, it would be implemented in two phases at a cost of Tk 1.97 crore. Ward-wise population, holdings, slum areas, roadside drains, location of dustbins and open fields would come under the proposed survey, the engineer said.
   Khulna mayor Talukder Abdul Khalek said the city corporation had taken this plan to fulfil the election pledges. There is no alternative but to improve the living standard of the city dwellers, he added.

Speakers at a seminar on Sunday urged the government to stop the move of commercialisation of water supply and not to lease out the wetlands for ensuring the rights of the mass people to it.
   They made the call while addressing the seminar titled people’s rights to water and its management jointly organised by Association for Land Reform and Development, Nijera Kari, Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangstha, Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association, Incidin Bangladesh and Nagorik Udyog at the WVA auditorium at Dhanmondi in the capital.
   Addressing the seminar, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the land ministry AKM Mozammel Haque said the government had formulated a new policy for country’s wetlands.
   Under the new policy, nobody except those who are fishermen would be given the lease of the water bodies, he said.
   He held the politicians responsible for bad governance resulting in a mess in water as well as river management.
   ‘The country did have no land use plan. Even the law in this regard is not enforced. Laws are not enforced against all equally,’ Haque said, adding, ‘We the politicians cannot follow rules and regulations because of undue pressure from different quarters. The situation has reached such a stage that no gentleman now does the politics.’
   Executive director of Incidin Bangladesh AKM Masud Ali delivered the keynote speech that asked all to say no to commercialisation of water supply as ‘right to water is a human right’.
   The discussants at the seminar also urged the government not to lease out the wetlands on khas land to ensure the rights of the mass people to it.
   They asked the government to take pragmatic steps to stop construction of any structures, including dam and bridges, on the rivers to ensure free flow of the rivers.
   Ali said, ‘Inconsistent policies regarding to water bodies prompt the land grabbers to occupy wetlands.’
   ‘The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are promoting a covert policy of privatisation. They are using the term ‘decentralisation’ to mask the process of commercialisation of water supply,’ he alleged.
   He also criticised the government for not having any legal protection for livelihoods of fishing communities.
   The keynote speech said worldwide demand for water was doubling every 20 years, twice the rate of population growth and the demand for fresh water is expected to outstrip global supply by 56 per cent by 2025.
   The seminar was moderated by Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kari, and the chairperson of ALRD.

The students of information and communication engineering and computer science and engineering departments at Islamic University on Sunday suspended the sit-in programme after the authorities concerned had assured them of meeting their demand.
   Some 250 students on Saturday started demonstration to press for providing them with engineering degree. They threatened to continue with the agitation if their demand was not met by Monday.
   Campus sources said the university authorities in March formed a seven-member committee, headed by computer science and engineering department chairman Babul Islam, to address the issue.
   Babul Islam told New Age that they would submit the report to the authorities concerned today with suggestions regarding to the demand.

The Rajshahi University will celebrate its 57th founding anniversary today with little festivity because of the on-going restriction on processions and rallies on the campus.
   No significant programmes such as colourful procession and discussion will be held to mark the day due to the restrictions, according to campus sources.
   The vice-chancellor, Professor Abdus Sobhan, will inaugurate celebration of the day by hoisting national and university flags in front of the administrative building at 8.00am.
   The day will mainly feature an amity meeting to be held at the Senate Bhaban of the university 6.00pm.
   No other programmes will be held on the occasion, said a press release issued by the university authorities on Sunday.
   Many teachers and students while talking to New Age expressed their anguish over the university authorities' decision not to observe the day with elaborate programmes.
   The general secretary of RU unit of Chhatra Union, Shipon Ahmed, also a student of fine arts department, said, 'the university authorities have no right to control practice of the democratic rights of the students'.
   The Rajshahi University which started its journey on July 6, 1953 is the second largest university in the country and the highest seat of learning in the northern region.

A young man was stabbed to death allegedly by his wife at Jurain in the city Sunday.
   Family members said Sumon Mahmud Hasan, 25, of Muradpur Road, was locked in an altercation with wife Mollika over a family feud at his shop 'Maa Music' at about 2:30pm.
   Mollika picked up a piece of glass and stabbed Sumon in his belly and chest, leaving him critically injured. Mollika ran away after the incident.
   Sumon was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he died from stab wounds at about 4:00pm.

Light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at a few places over Chittagong, Barisal, Dhaka and Sylhet divisions and at one or two places over Rajshahi and Khulna divisions with moderately heavy falls at places over Chittagong and Barisal divisions in next 24 hours till 6pm today.
   Day temperature may rise by 1-2 degree Celsius over the country, Met Office said.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 7:50pm and rises tomorrow at 6:17am.
   Country’s highest temperature 35.5 degrees Celsius was recorded on Sunday at Rajshahi and lowest 25.0 degrees at Rangamati.