Main Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The government has decided to increase the price of land four times in a bid to increase non-tax revenue income, sources in the Prime Minister’s Office told New Age on Sunday.
   An official of the PMO said that the increased rate would come into effect from the first of September.
   On the other hand, the government will reduce the registration fee by 6 to 8 per cent from September I, said the official. ‘Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved the decision to increase the land price on Saturday.’
   ‘The proposal will be included the upcoming budget speech. The government has failed to increase the revenue income from the land registration fee as the fee is higher compared to India’s,’ said a senior official of the finance ministry.
   He also said that land buyers usually show lower prices of land on paper to avoid paying the full registration fee and to also conceal their real income.
   In line with the proposal, the government has increased the price of the land on the ‘mauza’ basis. The price of land in the Dhaka and Chittagong City Corporation has been increased four times.
   Per bigha (20 katha) of land in Dhanmondi residential area cost Tk 80 lakh as per the government price fixed in 1993.
   In the Gulshan residential area the official price of per bigha of land was Tk 2 crore, while the present market price of per katha of land in the area is Tk 1 crore to Tk 1.5 crore.
   The price of land in Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal city corporations has also increased by three times. In Chittagong city, the price of per acre [three bighas almost] of land was set at Tk 1.50 crore. In Rajshahi city, the official price of per bigha is Tk 20 lakh now and in Khulna city Tk 2.60 crore now.
   The official land prices were last fixed some 15 years back, and they were much lower than the present prices.
   The prices of the lands in the upazilas of the districts of Bogra, Narayanganj, Gazipur, Tongi, Savar and Keraniganj have also increased three times.
   Land prices in districts across the country have increased 2.5 times according to the existing mauza price.
   The land ministry should immediately settle the pending case and bring the land registration directorate under the jurisdiction of the land ministry, according to the proposal.
   One-stop service should be introduced in the land registration directorate and land survey, recording and land management process should be computerised immediately.
   According to the proposal, land registration fee will be reduced by 8 per cent in urban areas and 6 per cent in the rural areas.
   The registration-related cases will be resolved within 45 days in Dhaka and Savar and in the rest of the country in only 15 days.
   Stamp tariff will be reduced to 3 per cent from existing 5 per cent of the land price in the urban areas and to 2 per cent from the existing 5 per cent in the rural areas.
   The registration fee will be decreased to 2 per cent from 2.5 per cent of the land price in both the urban and rural areas.
   Local government tax will be reduced to 1 per cent from 2 per cent of the land price in the urban and rural areas.
   Besides, the tax deducted at source will be reduced to 2 per cent from 5 per cent of the land price in urban areas and in the rural areas to 1 per cent from 5 per cent. This will also be applicable to non-farming lands whose price is Tk 1,00,000 or lower.
   Land secretary Delwar Hossain told reporters on Sunday that the government would earn more revenue from land registration fees because landowners will be eager to pay the fee to the national exchequer as it has been brought down to a rational level.
   The International Monetary Fund had earlier asked the government to raise the base price for land in the city’s posh areas.

The National Human Rights Commission on Sunday demanded ‘independent inquiries’ into every incident of extra-judicial killing and publication of the reports.
   The commission also expressed grave concern at the news of extra-judicial killings in the country, especially the recent death of two students of the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute at the hands of the personnel of the Rapid Action Battalion.
   The commission, established in 2008 to safeguard the people’s human rights, made the above-mentioned demand because the law enforcers have continued to kill people in so-called incidents of ‘crossfire’ despite the government’s repeated promises to stop such killing and widespread criticism by various rights bodies of the national and international level.
   Foreign ministry officials said that the European Union would want to ascertain Bangladesh’s position on extra-judicial killing, with particular reference to at least eight cases, during the EU Troika’s visit to the capital on June 7 and 8.
   When asked whether the commission would conduct an inquiry into the extra-judicial killings, its chairman Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury said, ‘We cannot conduct such an inquiry since we do not have adequate manpower and logistical support.’
   The government should investigate every extra-judicial killing and make the reports public, said the former Supreme Court judge.
   Once the reports of those investigations are made public, the people can understand the ‘real situation’ and the perpetrators can be brought to book, which eventually can put an end to the extra-judicial killing, he said.
   A three-member EU Troika delegation, led by Helena Bamsova, a Czech deputy minister for Asian affairs, is scheduled to visit Dhaka on June 7 and 8 to hold discussions with officials and other stakeholders for assessing the status of democracy and human rights situation in Bangladesh.
   According to foreign ministry officials the European Union, alleging flagrant violation of human rights, had asked Bangladesh about the government’s position on the killing of Kabirul Islam Dulal (died in custody of the navy), Colesh Richil (died in army custody), Mohammad Farid (died in navy custody), Md Zakaria (died in police custody), Jahangir Alam (died in navy custody), Moshiul Alam Sentu (died in RAB custody) and Mizanur Rahman Tutul (died in RAB custody).
   Although the Awami League in its election manifesto pledged to stop such killing, at least 28 persons have been killed by the law enforcers in ‘crossfire’ since the present government assumed office in early January.
   Admitting that extra-judicial killings have not stopped, foreign minister Dipu Moni on Friday told reporters, ‘We cannot change the culture of extra-judicial killing overnight as it has developed over a period of time.’
   ‘We are trying to stop it and will henceforth not let the perpetrators enjoy impunity,’ she assured a press briefing when she was asked whether the government had control over the law enforcers who have continued to kill people in ‘crossfire’ despite her commitment to show zero tolerance to extra-judicial killing at the review meeting on human rights in the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 4.
   However law minister Shafique Ahmed, at the Bangladesh Sanglap organised by BBC Bangla on May 30, claimed that the number of deaths in the so-called crossfire incidents had shrunk in comparison with that in the tenure of the BNP.
   He also said the home affairs ministry had formed a committee for inquiry into the deaths in the ‘crossfire’ incidents.
   Human rights defenders have observed that ‘crossfire’ deaths continue to take place as the government has failed to remove the culture of impunity that protects the perpetrators of such killing.
   They also felt that extra-judicial killing was going on as the ministers continue to make contradictory statements on the one hand, and the government has initiated no investigation into such killings on the other.

The cabinet in its scheduled meeting today is likely to give green light to continuation of tax holiday and the facility to whiten black money despite abuses of the schemes in the past which caused huge revenue losses to the government.
   Officials of the finance ministry said settlement of the issues was important as they would be incorporated in the forthcoming budget.
   In the past, the finance ministry took the decision on its own but this time it has sent the proposals to the cabinet to avoid ‘controversies’.
   Besides, the ministry has also sought a cabinet decision on the ‘controversial’ pre-shipment inspection system and pay hike for public servants.
   An official of the National Board of Revenue told New Age that the government had little scope to discontinue the tax holiday facility, under which industrial units of local and foreign entrepreneurs enjoy income tax and duty exemption for a certain period of time.
   The government can only decide not to bring any new sector under the tax holiday facility, he said.
   At present 18 industrial sectors such as textile, jute goods, pharmaceuticals, melamine, plastic products, ceramics, sanitary ware, fertilisers, sea or river ports, container terminals, internal container depots, gas pipelines and flyovers are entitled to enjoy tax holiday until 2011.
   Some 352 newly set up industrial units have received tax holiday facility in the last four fiscal years causing a revenue loss of nearly Tk 500 crore to the NBR.
   A recent NBR survey revealed that 90 per cent industrial units which enjoyed tax holiday since mid-1990s, abused it as they showed ‘no profit’ after expiry of the facility.
   Another survey conducted by NBR in 2005 found that 902 companies had enjoyed tax holiday between 2000 and 2004 which led to revenue losses of Tk 847 crore to the government.
   Successive governments tried to suspend the facility, but failed to so because of pressure and lobbying from the industrialists.
   Former finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said there was no justification for continuing tax holiday as it was widely used as a tool to evade taxes.
   Finance minister AMA Muhith termed the tax holiday as a big hurdle to expanding the country’s income tax base. ‘There should not be cent percent tax waiver,’ he said.
   Opposing the finance minister’s view, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on finance, AHM Mostafa Kamal, said businessmen still needed the facility to continue the process of industrialization.
   Annisul Haq, president of the country’s apex trade body FBCCI, said the government should take stringent measures to curb the abuses of the incentive. Suspension of the facility is not an answer, he said.
   Businessmen are also pressing for continuation of the facility for whitening black money.
   Today’s cabinet meeting will select the sectors like toys, shoes, pharmaceutical, cement and real estate in which investment of black money is likely to be allowed in the next fiscal year.
   The government provided black money whitening facility several times for a total period of 11 years over the last 36 years. Some Tk 8,908 crore in black money was injected into the formal economy during the period.

The government feels foreign aid is essential to cope with the damage in the south caused by inundation and storm associated with cyclone Aila of May 25, said the minister for food and disaster management on Sunday.
   Abdur Razzak, the minister, said this as he talked with the media after an inter-ministerial meeting Sunday evening to asses the damage caused by the inundation.
   He said the government had already consulted donor agencies, who assured the government of extending cooperation in facing the aftermath of the disaster.
   The cyclone, which ripped through India, whipped up tidal surges inundating Bangladesh’s south in which 168 people died till Sunday.
   Three died of diarrhoea in Khulna on Sunday. Eight people earlier died of the disease in Patuakhali.
   About 5,000 people contracted diarrhoea in Satkhira, Khulna and Patuakhali, according to sources in hospital and the offices of civil surgeons, for want of drinking water.
   People in the affected areas on Sunday said although relief materials had reached the places, relief efforts were still inadequate. People in some remote areas said they were yet to receive any relief goods.
   Eight days after the incident, the government was yet to establish the extent of damage and it was yet to calculate the amount of money to be needed for the rehabilitation of the people and the infrastructure, Razzak told the media at the briefing in the evening.
   The government has allocated Tk 249 crore for relief and rehabilitation operations, he said, urging all political parties and civic forums to extend support for the affected people.
   He said shortage of drinking water and food was acute in remote areas. He said Tk 10 crore more would be allocated for food and drinking water.
   The meeting also decided to allocate Tk 20 crore more for the rehabilitation of the affected people and house rebuilding and Tk 116 crore for repairs to the damaged embankment.
   The meeting also decided to deploy the military for embankment repairs at Assassuni, and Shyamnagar in Satkhira and Sarankhola in Bagerhat. The embankments damaged elsewhere will be repaired by the Water Development Board, the minister said.
   According to an LGRD and cooperatives ministry estimate, 736km stretches of road were completely damaged and the repairs would cost Tk 103 crore.
   Dacope upazila vice-chairman Joyanti Rani Sardar said three persons died in the upazila of diarrhoea.
   She said thousands of people had contracted the disease in the upazila and they were not getting the required health services.
   The Khulna civil surgeon, Md Lutfor Rahman, confirmed the news of two deaths at Kamarkhola at Dacope. He said more than 2,500 diarrhoea-affected people were treated on Sunday.
   The Satkhira civil surgeon, Ebadullah, said more than 2,000 diarrhoea patients were treated on Sunday. He said a child drowned at Shyamnagar.
   Reports from Patuakhali said 54 people were admitted to hospital with complaints of diarrhoea on Sunday and 60 in Barguna, according to the offices of the civil surgeons.

Residents of 11 villages in Patuakhali and Barguna have been without electricity since May 25, when cyclone Aila ripped through India, whipping up tidal surges as high as 13 feet inundating Bangladesh’s south, as power supply could not be restored to the places.
   The villages are Kachipara, Pakdal, Shingherakathi and Baherchar of Bauphal, Alipura and Rangopaldi of Dashmina, and Dhankhali and Debpur of Kalapara in Patuakhali and Gamurbunia, Neoapara and Dakkhin Amragachia in Barguna, according to local residents.
   Md Rafiqul Islam Talukder, a subscriber of Palli Bidyut Samiti in Patuakhali and resident of Kachipara, said electric poles in the areas were torn up when high tidal surges fell over the land.
   He said the villagers had informed Palli Bidyut Samiti’s assistant general manager at Bauphal, but the authorities were yet to do anything in this regard.
   ‘We have been without power for seven days now. Students making preparations for the Higher Secondary Certificate exams have become the worst suffers in such a situation. The incidents of theft have also increased,’ he said.
   ‘We cannot produce ice in our plants for want of power and the situation has put fishermen and fish traders in trouble,’ said Md Taiyab Ali Shikder, who owns an ice plant at Baherchar of Bauphal.
   The Patuakhali Palli Bidyut Samiti general manager, Rabindra Nath Das, said they were working to restore power supply to the areas.
   Power supply has been restored to almost whole of the Barguna town, all upazila headquarters and neighbouring areas, Kuakata tourism spot, Mahipur-Alipur fish landing station and other important areas, he said.
   ‘We cannot restore power supply without surveying the distribution system. I hope all the subscribers will get power supply in a day or two,’ he said.

The detective police are trying to extract from Indian mafia operative Abdul Rauf alias Daud Merchant and his two accomplices, arrested on May 27, on what mission he has come to Bangladesh and who are their local patrons and accomplices.
   On the first day of his eight-day remand on Sunday, Merchant, convicted of murder in India and nephew of the Dubai-based
   Indian underworld don Daud Ibrahim, and his two accomplices were interrogated extensively at the headquarters of the Detective Branch police in the capital.
   The investigators also wanted to know from Merchant why the dreaded Daud Ibrahim mafia had made Bangladesh a target to expand their network.
   The police are also trying to know the names of the local influentials and underworld operatives who were connected with them.
   In an overnight raid Tuesday, the DB police arrested Daud Merchant and Zahid [Mujahid], his fellow countryman and mafia operative, from a house at South Murali in Brahmanbaria. The police also arrested their local accomplice Kamal Mia who had sheltered them.
   Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque at a press conference on Saturday confirmed their capture. All three have been remanded in DB police custody for eight days for interrogation.
   An official of the DB police told New Age, ‘We are questioning Merchant and Muzahid extensively about their network in the country, their shelter providers here and the purpose of their coming to Bangladesh.
   He said, ‘Names of some politicians and businessmen came up during the interrogation and they have been kept under surveillance.’ But he declined to disclose the names for the sake of investigation.
   ‘We have found some names of their Bangladeshi and Indian accomplices after examining the call records on their four mobile sets. Two SIMs of Airtel Company of India have also been seized,’ he said.
   The DB official said that Merchant had regularly maintained contact with Chhota Shakil, right-hand man of Daud Ibrahim.
   ‘We are preparing a list of the addresses where Muzahid lived during his eight-year stay in Bangladesh,’ he said adding that the police would conduct a search at the Geneva Camp at Mohammdpur in the city.
   When asked if the police believed that Daud Ibrahim and Chhota Shakil had visited Bangladesh or if any of them were hiding here, he said, ‘We primarily confirmed from intelligence sources that none of them visited Bangladesh.’
   Replying to a query about Merchant and Zahid’s possible links to the April 2004 smuggling of arms to Chittagong, he said, ‘We have not yet questioned them about the arms smuggling.’
   Merchant, who was jailed for life by an Indian court for killing Mumbai’s music baron Gulshan Kumar, fled after being furloughed in April to visit his family, and crossed illegally into Bangladesh through Akhaura border in the first week of May.

The Dhaka deputy commissioner’s office alone received 2,550 applications seeking withdrawal of ‘politically-motivated cases,’ of which only 214 have so far been recommended to be withdrawn, as the deadline for filing such appeals with the district administration across the country expired on Sunday.
   The Dhaka district committee has so far sorted out the applications filed mostly by the ruling Awami League leaders, including the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, for withdrawal of the cases filed against them allegedly with political motives, said official sources.
   The ministerial committee led by the state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, will hold a meeting on June 10 to review the applications forwarded by the district committees.
   ‘We have prepared the list of cases for withdrawal after scrutiny by the public prosecutor… Two hundred and fourteen applications have so far been sent to the home ministry with recommendation for withdrawal of the cases as the deadline for submission of appeals expires today,’ the Dhaka deputy commissioner, Zillar Rahman, told New Age on Sunday.
   The district committee examined, among others, 11 cases against Sheikh Hasina and recommended them to be withdrawn, he said.
   A number of cases against other Awami League leaders, including Tofail Ahmed, Sajeda Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana, have also been recommended for withdrawal.
   Asked whether any cases against the leader of the opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, and her party colleagues have been recommended for withdrawal, the deputy commissioner said they were still being examined by the public prosecutor.
   The government on February 22 formed a ministerial committee and other committees in districts, led by the district magistrates who are deputy commissioners, seeking applications by April 15 for the withdrawal of the politically-motivated cases filed during the previous governments. The deadline was, however, earlier extended twice.
   According to sources in the home ministry, several thousand applications have already been filed from across the country seeking withdrawal of cases, including 379 in Rajshahi and 1,200 in Chittagong.
   ‘It will take two more months, June and July, to complete the process for the withdrawal of the politically-motivated cases… I have convened a meeting of the ministerial committee for June 10 to review the cases recommended by the district committees,’ the state minister for law said on Sunday.
   The BNP-led government earlier set up a similar committee to review politically-motivated cases and it withdrew 5,888 cases filed during the 1996–01 Awami League government against about 17,000 people, mostly political leaders and activists.
   Immediately after assuming office on January 6, the Awami League-led government decided to withdraw the cases filed mainly against politicians and activists with political motives during the tenures of previous governments.
   The 10-member review committee, led by the law minister Shafique Ahmed, was formed accordingly.
   Other members on the national committee include the home minister, Sahara Khatun, LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam, state minister for law Quamrul Islam and state minister for home affairs Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj.

Nepal’s ruling coalition partners failed to decide the names to be included in the country’s new cabinet headed by the prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, further delaying its expansion nearly a week after it was sworn in.
   The four major political parties, who are members of the new government, Sunday held discussions on the issues relating to Common Minimum Programme and portfolio distribution, but failed to give complete shape to the new government.
   Unable to break the deadlock on crucial issues of power sharing, the CPN-UML led 22-party alliance had earlier this week agreed to form a ‘task force’ to sort out the modalities to expand the three member Nepal-led cabinet.
   The major parties had tentatively set Sunday as date for expansion of the cabinet that was sworn in on May 25.
   The meeting was attended by Nepal, Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, Madhesi People’s Rights Forum chairman Upendra Yadav and Terai Madhes Democratic Party chairman Mahanta Thakur.
   ‘Leaders of the major parties held extensive discussions on issues relating to CMP, shape and size of the government and portfolio distribution among the members of the ruling party alliance,’ said CPN-UML secretary Shanker Pokharel.
   The key parties, including NC and MPRF, have not yet finalised the list of members to be included in the cabinet from their parties, sources said.
   Meanwhile, CPN-Maoist party has decided to launch a nationwide protest after parliament speaker rejected their motion against president’s move to block the sacking of Army chief by Prachanda.
   The Maoists’ central secretariat has decided to launch a fresh agitation on June 3 & 4 and to continue disrupting the parliament proceedings to press for the acceptance of the motion.
   The Maoists will stage a sit-in at all the district administration offices throughout the country on June 3 and hold rallies across the country on June 4.
   The Maoists said they will hold peaceful protests and block the parliament proceedings indefinitely unless Yadav apologises for his move or withdraws the decision to reinstate the Army chief, Maoists sources said.
   The Parliament speaker, Subhas Nembang, had Saturday refused to allow a motion tabled by Prachanda-led party. The speaker’s decision came after almost all other political parties opposed it, terming it as unconstitutional.
   They maintained that such a motion cannot be brought against the president.
   Prachanda had resigned from the top post after he had differences with the president over the issue of sacking Army Chief Rukmangad Katawal.

The government, because of the serious lack of coordination at almost all levels of the administration, has been contemplating a ministry-wise action plan to bring about an efficient, productive and result-oriented public administration, a parliamentary panel was told on Sunday.
   ‘Lack of coordination in the administration is a serious problem,’ said a report placed at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Establishment on Sunday. There has been no coordination between the ministers and the secretaries, the secretaries and the officials of the ministries, and the ministry and the field administration.
   Reviewing the performance of the civil bureaucracy, the parliamentary committee also suggested immediate implementation of the proposed action plan to be prepared by the secretaries of the ministries under the supervision of their ministers.
   ‘The parliamentary committee suggested that the ministries and the divisions should have their individual action plans and set certain targets,’ Khandakar Asaduzzaman, the chairman of the committee, told reporters after the meeting.
   The development programme and the government’s sectorial priorities should be reflected in the plans, he added.
   The report, placed by the ministry at the meeting, in addition to suggesting measures for producing an effective public administration also mentioned a number of systemic drawbacks in bureaucracy. The report was submitted to the prime minister earlier.
   It observed that the administration lacks accountability and the officials are not clearly aware of their responsibilities. Senior officials, including the secretaries and equivalent officials, are mostly incapable of providing leadership because they lack discipline and are not very interested in learning through work. Supervision by the senior officials is nominal and a state of impunity gives rise to more irresponsibility.
   The report mentioned that the government officials and employees work only four to five hours and internal supervision is completely absent.
   Although the present Awami League-led government advocates a digital society, the officials are unwilling to use digital equipment. The attendance book for the officials and the employees should be computerised, suggested the ministry’s report.
   The meeting attended, along with other members, by deputy leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, chief whip Abdus Shahid and ABM Golam Mostafa, also suggested gradation of non-cadre officials as per their pay structures.
   The prime minister’s adviser on the establishment ministry and administrative affairs, HT Imam, attended the meeting on special invitation.

The Criminal Investigation Department, probing the Chittagong arms haul case, on Sunday said that it had started an investigation of whether Indian fugitive convict and underworld operative Daud Merchant and the Daud Ibrahim-led mafia had links to the April 2004 smuggling of the large consignment of weapons meant for the Indian insurgent group ULFA.
   ‘We are seriously looking for possible leads about the suspected involvement of Daud Merchant in the arms smuggling. If we get the leads, Daud Merchant will be shown arrested in the 10-truck arms haul case and brought to Chittagong for questioning,’ said investigation officer Mohammad Moniruzzaman, also ASP of the CID.
   ‘The arrest of Daud Merchant is a new development…,’ he added.
   Sources here said that CID suspected Daud Merchant’s links to the arms smuggling as his uncle, dreaded underworld don Daud Ibrahim, was involved with the ARY group in Dubai.
   About the interrogation of retired major Liakat Hossain, the arrested former deputy director of NSI, the investigation officer said that his [Liakat] statement carried leads similar to what the two arrested former NSI chiefs, retired brigadier general Abdur Rahim and retired wing commander Shahabuddin Ahmed, had revealed in their confessional statements.
   Liakat will be produced in the court here today as his four-day remand ended on Sunday, he added.

Villagers beat to death five alleged cattle lifters while they were stuffing beef into sacks after slaughtering three cows at Chanderpara of Dharmapur under Satkania in Chittagong Sunday morning.
   The dead are Sayad Alam, 30, Zubair, 30, and Sumon, 30, residents at Chakaria upazila in Cox’s Bazar, and Mohammed Ripon alias Bara Mia, 35, and Bashir Ahmed, 32, siblings from Barisal.
   The police and local people said a gang of seven thieves lifted two cows of Nurul Alam and one of Abdus Sabur from the Kaliaish area and slaughtered them at Pathanipul on the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Road.
   Ashraf Hossain, officer-in-charge of the local police station, said a local resident, Bashir Ahmed, found the gang stuffing beef into sacks at about 6:00am and raised alarm.
   Responding to the alarm, local people captured five of the thieves at Chanderpara, the OC said, adding that the mob had beaten up the five, leaving all of them dead on the spot.
   Local sources, quoting one of the thieves Sumon before he died, said they used to sell the beef to one Jalil Sawdagar at Bus Terminal in Cox’s Bazar lifting cattle from different areas regularly.
   The police recovered the bodies of the deceased and seized two light guns and four cartridges from the spot after the incident.
   Ashraf said two cases — one for the lynching and other regarding recovery of arms and ammunitions — were filed with the Satkania police.

The parliamentary probe body investigating corruption allegations against former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar will submit its findings to parliament in the upcoming budget session, said the committee’s chairman Fazle Rabbi Mian on Sunday.
   The Mian committee met on Sunday and decided to shift the date for inviting Sircar, his former deputy Akhter Hamid Siddiqui and former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain to defend themselves against graft charges.
   The committee earlier decided to ask them to appear before the committee on June 10.
   The budget session starts on June 4.
   ‘We cannot hear from Sircar and others on June 10 as the parliament secretariat is making huge preparations for placing of the national budget on June 11,’ Mian told reporters after the meeting at parliament building.
   ‘But, we will prepare the report and submit the same in the budget session,’ he said.
   Meanwhile, the sub-committee, formed by the standing committee to probe the expenditure on parliament’s different purchases, submitted its findings to the main committee.
   ‘The report is with the main committee which will meet soon to fix the date for hearing from Sircar and others,’ Shajahan Khan said.
   Speaker Abdul Hamid, in the face of strong demand from the MPs, formed an 11-member probe body on March 19 to investigate allegations of corruption and irregularities by the speaker of the 8th parliament Sircar and other high officials.
   The standing committee formed three sub-committees to thoroughly probe the allegations.

Barely two days after she assumed charge as water resources minister in the new government, Meira Kumar was picked by the Congress high command for the position of Lok Sabha speaker, reports Indian Express on Sunday.
   As the Congress core committee, headed by Sonia Gandhi, met at the prime minister’s residence Sunday evening, the initial favourite V Kishore Chandra Deo lost out to two women in the final round, the other being Girija Vyas.
   Deo had earned a reputation for his diligence as the chairman of the Privileges Committee and won from Araku in Andhra Pradesh.
   Party leaders felt that by naming a woman who if elected, will be the first woman in the Chair of the House and a Dalit for the post, they would send a powerful political message.
   The Congress has included eight Dalits from within its ranks in the
   new ministry with five in the cabinet and three as ministers of state, including one with independent charge.

Writer and poet Kamala Das, known for her frank discussion of female sexuality in conservative India, died in hospital on Sunday, the Press Trust of India reported. She was 75.
   Das died in the western city of Pune after a long illness. She suffered from diabetes and was recently hospitalised with pneumonia. The end came in a private hospital, a family source said in Thiruvananthapuram.
   Das was born into a family of writers and wrote poems and short stories in English and Malayalam, the language of her southern home state of Kerala.
   She was one of the first Indian writers to explore sexual themes in her work, and her 1976 autobiography, My Story, was a candid recollection of her own sexual coming of age that was translated into 15 languages.
   Das converted to Islam in 1999 and took the name Kamala Surayya, but later appeared to regret it, saying ‘God has no connection with any religion. There is no respect for women anywhere.’
   She also dabbled in politics, launching the Lok Seva Party but failing to win a seat in parliament.
   Das is survived by two sons.

The chief whip of the Jatiya Sangsad, Abdus Shahid, on Sunday said that he would return the money he had drawn from Parliament Members’ Club during the tenure of the eight parliament.
   ‘If necessary, I’ll return the money that I had taken as my privilege,’ the chief whip told a press briefing, referring to last week’s press reports that he had drawn Tk 1,00,000 from the fund of the MPs’ club.
   A parliamentary investigation revealed that Shahid, while being chief whip of the opposition, took the money. It should be mentioned that the president of the club, former chief whip Khandakar Delwar Hossain, took Tk 18,00,000, and its president, whip Wahidul Alam, took Tk 4,00,000.
   The constitution of the Parliament Member’s Club stipulates that its members are entitled to take the money if they are in crying need, especially for medical treatment.
   The club earned Tk 64,00,000 during the eighth parliament’s tenure from different sources that included rent of the LD Hall of the MPs’ hostel, leasing of the parliament’s lake for fishing and donations.
   But the MPs ate up the whole sum of Tk 64,00,000.
   Abdus Shahid claimed that it was his privilege to draw money from the club as per the constitution.
   Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Jewel, the joint secretary of the club, said it was common practice for the lawmakers take money from the club’s fund. ‘But the former president and secretary took a huge amount, causing public criticism.’

A young man was injured in a bomb attack by unnamed miscreants in village Charmuraridaha of Jhenidah municipality Saturday night.
   The injured is Abdur Razzak, 26, a resident of Charmuraridaha.
   Villagers said Razzak and his friends were bombed by miscreants while they were gossiping near the house of one Abdur Rahim of the village at around 11:00pm. Razzak was taken to Jhenidah General Hospital.