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The posts of headmaster in 27 high schools of the total 95 in five upazilas of Lalmonirhat have been lying vacant for several years, according to the district education office sources.
   The institutions are facing various difficulties in operation as there is no one to oversee their administrative as well as academic activities.
   The upazila-wise vacant posts of headmaster are as follow: Five in Lalmonirhat sadar, five in Aditmari, four in Kaligonj, seven in Hatibandha, and six in Patgram, the DEO sources said.
   Taking opportunity of the absence of headmaster, a few staff in the institutions indulge in different types of corruption and irregularities.
   These schools are run by so-called acting headmasters who actually have no necessary qualification for the top post.
   They get the post of head teacher by managing the governing body members, most of whom are politically influential.
   Most of these acting headmasters have no expertise for running an institution.
   Nor do they have any idea about rules and regulations of the education board.
   There is an allegation that many of them misappropriate money from coaching fees, TC fees, SSC examination fees and from many other sources that are not known to the managing committee members, general teachers or their teachers representatives.
   Requesting not to be named, some teachers of a number of schools alleged that when anyone of the teachers came to power as an acting headmaster he or she did not exercise power as per the actual rules.
   They rather do a lot of things according to their whim.
   On condition of anonymity, a teacher of Gobda High School at Aditmari told this correspondent that assistant teachers or their representatives did not dare to open mouth if any irregularity by the headmaster came to light as they feared that the headmaster might trap them in some complication by managing the governing body members.
   Ahamed Ali, Salam Miah, Dibendra Nath and some other guardians at Gobda village said that if a teacher managed to get the post of headmaster somehow he or she tried to cling to it until the end of his job life.
   The Lalmonirhat DEO, Alauddin Al Azad, told this correspondent that his office was continuing to give pressure to the managing committees to start process for recruiting headmasters for their respective schools to bring back their smooth operation.
   All the vacant posts will be fulfilled in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, he hoped.

Two telephone exchanges in Nilphamari have remained out of order for the last one week after a thunderbolt damaged the radio link of the Domar exchange on May 25.
   According to sources in the Domar telephone exchange office, Domar and Dimla exchanges have remained out of order as Dimla telephone exchange is also operated by the radio link from Domar exchange which was damaged by the lightening strike.
   Domar telephone exchange receives radio link from Nilphamari telephone exchange first then transmits it to Dimla.
   As a result, thousand of people at Dimla and Domar have been suffering a lot because they do not have access to the telephone network.
   There are 356 subscribers in Domar upazila and 137 in Dimla upazila. They are out of national and international telecommunication accessibility.
   People of both upazilas are not able to use phone, fax and internet.
   The local people urged the authority concerned to take immediate steps to remove their sufferings.
   When contacted, sub-assistant engineer of Nilphamari telephone exchange said that they were working to repair the radio link and hoped that the telecommunication in the two upazilas could be restored very soon.

Several hundred people in Sirajganj town on Sunday demanded exemplary punishment for the killing of Ansob Ali who was murdered by some local hoodlums a week ago over previous enmity.
   They placed the demand at a human chain programme held in front of the collectorate building in the Dhanbandhi area under Sirajganj municipality, that continued from 10:00am to 11:00am.
   They also submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner seeking immediate actions against the persons responsible for the killing.
   They also demanded investigation into the murder by the CID as the accused in the case are very much influential.
   The culprits are threatening relatives of the victim for withdrawing the case, they said.

Over 700 dwelling houses went into the gorge of the river Jamuna as erosion by the river has taken a serious turn at five upazilas in Sirajganj for the last few weeks.
   The swelling river has also devoured vast tracts of cropland and large number of trees.
   The erosion has rendered many families homeless at Maijbari, Char Shuvogasa, Natun Meghai, Dhekuria, Polashpur, Bilchattar, Natuar Para, Nischintapur of Kazipur upazila, Char Bhatpiar, Char Kawacola, Mesrar Char, Katangachar, Madhyachar, Chargasabari, Char Mohonpur and Bhatirchar of Sadar upazila and the char areas in Belkuchi, Chouhali and Shahjadpur upazilas.
   Many people have shifted to safer places like embankments and high land.
   Local people alleged that Water Development Board did not take any measure to check the erosion.
   WDB officials said work on a permanent embankment has been progressing fast in the district involving Tk 250 crore which is likely to be finished by next 2/3 months.

Ganasanghati Andolan on Sunday called upon the government to send adequate relief for the Aila-affected people in the south western districts of the country.
   The party formed a human chain in Muktangan in the capital, where its coordinator Zonayed Saki said the Aila-affected people were suffering due to inadequate supply of relief materials.
   The scarcity of drinking water in the affected areas has also taken a serious turn, Saki said.
   He called upon the government to take immediate measures to save the affected people and send adequate relief materials there.
   The central leaders of the party Abul Hasan Rubel, Taslima Akhter, Hasan Maruf and others took part in the human chain.

A group of Bangladesh Chhatra League activists in Patuakhali town drove out the students and teachers from the Abdul Karim Mridha College campus after locking the room of the college principal Sunday morning.
   Eyewitnesses said the BCL activists, led by Kamal and Nizam, entered the college campus at about 9:00am and locked the room of the principal, demanding his removal.
   Saiful Majid Bahauddin, principal of the college, said a group of Awami League-supported teachers, led by assistant professor Harunur Rashid Shikdar and Shanu Mia, instigated the troublemakers in violation of the case pending in the High Court on the appointment of the principal.
    The local AL lawmaker and state minister for religious affairs and the deputy commissioner, who is chairman of the managing committee, have been informed of the situation, and they have assured the aggrieved parties that they would solve the problem immediately according to the verdict of the court, said the principal.
   Riaz Ahmed, the deputy commissioner of Patuakhali, said that the incident took place due to grouping of the teachers and so far as he knew the room of the principal was locked but the students were not disturbed.
   ‘However, I will look into the matter as soon as pressure of relief and rehabilitation work eases in the Aila-hit areas,’ the DC said.

The police seized 152 RCC blocks, meant for the construction work of Agunmukha river bank, raiding the house of a union parishad member in Patuakhali Sunday evening.

Two persons were killed and two others injured in a road accident on the Mahila Road at Keshabnagar in the Faridpur district headquarters Sunday morning.