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The Barisal City Corporation on Tuesday announced a budget of Tk 272.77 crore for fiscal year 2009-2010 without imposing any new tax.
   The Barisal mayor, Shawkat Hossain Hiron, announced the budget at the conference room of Nagar Bhaban in the presence of ward commissioners, BCC officials and journalists.
   He also placed a revised budget of Tk 72.23 crore for the outgoing fiscal year.
   Of the total budget, Tk 50.09 crore will come as revenue income and over Tk 222.67 crore as grant.
   In his budget speech, the mayor urged the city dwellers to cooperate with them in achieving the goals set by the city corporation.
   He hoped that they would be able to ensure better services for the city dwellers and earn Tk 50.09 crore as revenue income if the city dwellers pay their holding taxes and other taxes regularly.
   Hiron also stressed on development of roads and infrastructures as well as improvement of sanitation, sewerage and water supply system, city bus service, health service, education, amusement and beautification of the city.
   The mayor vowed to maintain transparency and accountability in the activities of the city corporation, saying that they have a plan to develop the education sector.
   However, the budgetary allocation for education and cultural sector is only Tk 25 lakh, which is 0.09 per cent of the proposed budget.
   The major sources of revenue income are holding taxes, utility service bills, building construction and reconstruction fees, renting or leasing the corporation’s assets, compensation for digging the city roads and sales of tender schedules.
   Of development budget, Tk 78.5 crore will be spent for development of infrastructures, Tk 43.41 crore for rehabilitation of Sidr, Aila and flood-affected infrastructures, Tk 50 crore for implementation of development programmes, Tk 20 crore for construction and repair of bus and truck terminals, Tk 15 crore for water supply and setting up of water treatment plant, Tk 15 crore for repair and reconstruction of roads and drains and Tk 5 crore for construction of BCC building.

Seventy-five per cent of the city hospitals do not follow the waste management system, alleged the Dhaka City Corporation officials.
   ‘More than 900 hospitals are not following the waste management system,’ said a DCC official.
   According to the city corporation officials about 1,200 registered hospitals are providing treatment in the city.
   All major hospitals were supposed to come under the system by June last year, they said.
   The Dhaka City Corporation, Prism Bangladesh, World Health Organisation and Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank initiated the waste management project in 2004 to remove the wastes from hospitals to avoid health hazard.
   To make the project a success, the DCC also provided one acre of land at Matuail under Demra where a burning and recycling plant was also set up.
   A national committee on medical wastes collection, transportation and management at a meeting in 2007 decided to bring all the hospitals under the project by June 2008.
   ‘One year has already passed but majority of the hospitals are yet to come under the system,’ said an official of Prism.
   Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, BIRDEM, Chest Disease Hospital, ZH Shikder Medical College Hospital, Shahabuddin Hospital, Suhrawardy Hospital, Orthopaedic Hospital, National Institute of Cardiovascular Deceases Hospital, Kidney Hospital, Dhaka Shishu Hospital and other top hospitals are yet to come under the project.
   Tonnes of medical wastes are produced everyday and the authorities dump these wastes haphazardly, posing serious threat to public health, they said.
   The medical wastes includes blood, body fluids, tissues, organs, body parts, sharps needles, blades, syringes, scalpels, saws, broken glass, nails, used syringe, saline packet and pipe, bottles of medicine, bottles of injection, cotton, gauze, plaster, bandage and many items.
   ‘All hospitals in the capital will come under the project within the next two months,’ AKM Saidur Rahman, medical officer (hospital and clinic department) of the Directorate General of Health Services told New Age on Monday.
   Prism, with the assistance of DCC, departments of health and environment, also sent letters to all medical institutions for registration.
   Prism coordinator Tarit Kanti Biswas told New Age that they had been trying to bring all hospitals under the coverage.
   ‘We have urged the authorities concerned of the hospitals to join the programme but they are yet to respond to our proposal,’ he said.

The government on Tuesday set up a formalin-identification centre at the city’s Karwan Bazar to ensure formalin-free fish for the city-dwellers.
   The fisheries and livestock minister, Abdul Latif Biswas, inaugurated the centre from where formalin-identification activities would be conducted with the kit made by BCSIR.
   Addressing the function, the minister said both fish customers and sellers would be able to remove the confusion by examining whether their fishes are treated with the toxic preservative or not.
   He also stressed the need for creating awareness among the people, particularly the fish traders, about the harmful effects of the formalin chemicals rather than performing the task coercively.
   ‘We don’t want to do the task in policing way. If the fish traders can understand that formalin is not only harmful for the consumers but also for themselves, then we can hope for formalin-free fish.’
   He said more similar identification centres in city’s other markets would gradually be set up to stop the sale of formalin-treated fishes-one of many health hazards mindlessly created through massive use of chemical preservatives in food items for lax administration and supervision.
   Describing formalin-mixed fish as a cause of harms for consumers and sellers, the minister warned that people could be affected with stomach, lunch and respiratory cancers after taking such contaminated fishes. ‘Not only taking but also through inhaling formalin, people can fall in various illnesses such as headache and respiratory complications.’
   He said government officials and other stakeholders should build a social movement against food adulteration.
   The fisheries and livestock ministry will hold a series of view-exchange meetings where representatives from importers, wholesalers, retail trade bodies and bazar committees will be present, he hoped.
   He urged the businessmen to refrain from increasing the prices of essential goods during Ramadan. ‘I have already issued directives to the authorities concerned to take necessary measures for ensuring abundant fishes in the city markets and requested the businessmen to keep the prices of daily necessaries at tolerable level.’
   The minister also called upon the fisheries department and Dhaka City Corporation to set up more formalin-testing booths in different city markets. ‘We need to work out a plan to stop the sales of formalin-treated fish in the country,’ he said.

The Rajshahi mayor, AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, on Tuesday urged the city dwellers to pay their taxes regularly to run the activities of the organisation properly.
   ‘If we do not get taxes regularly, we will not be able to provide the city dwellers with proper services,’ the mayor told a programme organised to award efficient employees of the RCC’s taxation department.
   He said the corporation was planning to introduce ‘monthly-method system’ of collecting taxes and to take legal action against tax defaulters.
   The mayor also called upon the officials and staffs of the taxation department to encourage the people in paying their taxes regularly.
   Chaired by Abdul Hamid Sarker Tekon, the chairman of the standing committee on financial affairs, the function was also addressed by Sariful Islam, panel mayor-1 and Sazzad Hossain, panel mayor-2.
   Ward commissioners Abul Hasnat, Nizamul Azim, Abdus Sobhan and Shahidul Islam Pintu, the RCC’s chief revenue officer Syeda Hebinnesa and chief executive official Akbar Hossain also spoke on the occasion.

The police recovered the body of a young man from Sobhanighat area in the Sylhet city on Tuesday morning.
   The deceased was identified as Kamal Hossain, 20, son of Nabi Hossain, of Sobhanighat.
   A team of Kotwali police recovered the body from a canal at about 10:30am and sent it to the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy, the police said.
   Family members said Kamal had been suffering from mental disorders for several months. A case was filed with the police station in this regard.

Unidentified criminals shot at a caretaker of an under-construction building and a construction worker in the city’s Mirpur area on Monday night, leaving them injured.
   The victims were identified as Belal, caretaker, and Mizan, construction worker of the house at Senpara in Mirpur.
   The police and local people said a gang of extortionists entered the under-construction building at night and opened fire on Belal and Mizan as the owner of the building refused to pay them Tk 2 lakh as extortion.
   On information, the police went to the spot and sent the injured to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   Besides, a gang of muggers robbed a young man after stabbing him at Zinzira under South Keraniganj police station on the outskirts of the city on Monday night.
   The police said the criminals stabbed one Masum and snatched a phone set and Tk 3,000 in cash from his possession.

The academic activities of Chittagong University will resume tomorrow after one-month vacation.
   Campus sources said residential students have started coming to their dormitories.
   Sufficient number of police will also be deployed on the campus to avoid any untoward incidents.
   The authorities on Tuesday extended again the order to prohibit all sorts of political activities on the campus for an indefinite period.
   Earlier in March, the authorities imposed the ban on political activities including processions, rallies and human chain on the campus fearing violation of law and order.
   Vice-chancellor Abu Yousuf Alam said the decision to extend the ban on political activities has been taken for the sake of maintaining peace and congenial academic atmosphere on the campus.

The Khulna City Corporation has decided to realise fines from encroachers as it has spent a certain amount of money for carrying out the demolition drive on the canals in and around the city.
   The KCC also decided to lodge cases against them. The decisions were taken at a meeting held on Tuesday with Khulna mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque in the chair.
   Sources said the meeting also decided to strengthen the ongoing drive to demolish illegal structures on the canals of the city aiming to resolve the water-logging problems.
   As part of the decision, a demolition drive will be carried out tomorrow on city’s Gorar canal.
   The KCC authorities started the demolition drive on July 3.

Moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at most places over all the six divisions in the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Moderately heavy to heavy falls are also likely at places over Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong divisions, Met Office said. It also said day temperature may fall by 1-2 degree Celsius over the country.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 7:49pm and rises tomorrow at 6:20am.
   Country’s highest temperature 34.0 degrees Celsius was recorded on Tuesday at Rajshahi and Syedpur and lowest 24.5 degrees at Rangamati.