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Energy experts, academics and rights activists on Wednesday observed that multinational energy companies had increased their ‘evil activities’ in recent times with the help of the energy ministry.
   ‘Companies like Asia Energy, Cairn Energy, Chevron and Premier Minerals have become very active in recent times to push their proposals with an aim to grab more natural resources of the country,’ said professor Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University at a seminar on ‘a people-oriented and environment-friendly integrated energy policy: perspective – mitigating energy crisis.
   Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon organised the seminar to mark the World Environment Day 2009 at the Planning and Development Academy in the city.
   He said that the controversial Asia Energy of UK had revamped its activities by taking a larger office in Bangladesh and changing its management and was lobbying hard to push its open-pit mining project at Phulbari coalfield.
   Anu Muhammad said that Cairn Energy was pushing for increasing the price of gas or selling gas directly to a third party by stopping gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal holding the country ‘hostage’.
   Besides, Chevron is trying to take an additional 75 square kilometres area adjacent to Jalalabad gas field while Singapore-Australian company, Premier Mineral, was active to mine and export valuable minerals from Cox’s Bazar sea beach.
   ‘It has been proven that the hands of these multinational companies are very long. Although the energy ministry is supposed to safeguard the interest of the country, it helps the companies realise their interests. This government has to explain who run the country – these companies or the government. These proposals are a test case for the government to prove who runs the country,’ Anu said.
   Professor Nurul Islam of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology asked the government to take lessons from the past, especially in formulating an energy policy.
   He blasted successive governments for ‘crippling’ the country’s energy companies by not paying them reasonable price for energy like gas. ‘It is a shame that the government pays only Tk 7 per unit of gas to state-run companies while international oil companies get more than Tk 200,’ he said.
   ‘When a state-run company seeks tax exemption they never get it while the government is eager to exempt IOCs from tax,’ he said.
   Professor Islam, who was head of a government committee to scrutinise Asia Energy’s proposal for open-pit mining at Phulbari, said the company’s proposal should never be accepted as its agreement with the government was ‘corruption ridden’ and ‘illegal’.
   He recommended that the government should formulate an integrated energy policy without going for separate policy on coal and renewable energy.
   Professor Shamsul Alam of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology presented the key-note paper while National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port, Sheikh Md Shahidullah, spoke on the occasion.

Commissioning of the planned Tipaimukh dam by India will escalate socio-economic and political tension in India’s north-eastern states and also Bangladesh, and imperil the ecology of the region, green campaigners said.
   After sounding this note of caution, a leading environmentalist on Wednesday demanded that New Delhi must make public all the documents on the Tipaimukh hydro-electric project and Dhaka should raise its voice against such an ecologically destructive project in the country’s interest.
   ‘We will definitely protest against it in collaboration with the rights groups in India. If the construction of this dam is allowed, it will instigate insurgents like ULFA as we have seen in the past,’ said Muzaffar Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Paribesh Abdolon, on the sidelines of a roundtable on climate change at the office of the Communist Party of Bangladesh.
   Referring to widespread resentment in Manipur and other states of north-eastern India caused by the planned mega-project, he warned that Bangladesh might be a victim of the socio-economic repercussions of the dam.
   ‘I talked to Medha Patkar [environmental campaigner] who has called for resistance against such a dangerous project through people-to-people contact,’ said Muzaffar, adding that the Indian civil society organisations would extend their support to those who oppose the building of the dam.
   Citing the example of the Farakka Barrage that has deprived Bangladesh its due share of water, he predicted that the Tipaimukh dam would allow hardly any flow of water during the dry season and eject excess water during the rainy season, leading to drought and flood respectively.
   ‘We have had a bitter experience with regard to the Kaptai Dam project that created a social crisis and led to displacement of the ethnic minority people. Whatever profit India wants to make by generating 50,000 megawatts of electricity will eventually result in devastating consequences for the people in this part of the world,’ said Muzaffar.
   The meeting, presided over by CPB’s president Manjurul Ahsan Khan, called for preparation of a people’s charter incorporating various aspects of the effects of climate change and the measures to mitigate them.
   ‘Political parties should play an enhanced role in promoting the country’s cause in an issue which is a question of life and death for us. But it is solvable,’ he said.

The foreign minister, Dipu Moni, has called upon non-resident Bangladeshis not to indulge in infighting over narrow interests in the name of political activities abroad that portray the country negatively to the international community.
   ‘Everyone has the right to express political views, but we should keep in mind that there should be no tussle over party leadership abroad,’ the foreign minister told a discussion on the eve of announcement of the dates for the second non-resident Bangladeshi conference 2009 in Dhaka.
   She admitted that there are reports of infighting over party leadership among the activists and leaders of the major political parties abroad – particularly Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League.
   Arranged by Scholar Bangladesh, an organisation working for the non-resident Bangladeshis, the discussion focused on how the NRB‘s could contribute in different sectors of nation building.
   In her speech, the foreign minister said the non-resident Bangladeshis and expatriate Bangladeshi workers are contributing a lot for the country. She mentioned a number of government steps for facilitating the expatriates to contribute more for Bangladesh.
   She said that the government has been trying to introduce hassle-free systems at every step and improve the standard of services in line with the Awami League’s charter for change.
   She also urged the NRBs to contribute their talents for further progress of the country. ‘The government alone is not enough to bring the change, everyone should join the endeavour for change,’ she added.
   Scholars Bangladesh proposed a conference of NRB in early July and another in December, said ME Chowdhury Shameem, the president of the organisation.
   The immediate conference will take place on July 2-4 with a proposed theme on NRB manpower development and opportunities while the other conference, second Non-Resident Bangladesh Conference 2009, is scheduled for December 27, 28 and 29.
   The conference is expected to discuss education, agriculture, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), health, energy, environment, transport, second generation NRBs, foreign investment, disaster management and governance and leadership.
   The first conference of the non-resident Bangladeshis was held in 2007 after the take over of a military-backed government, which moved a massive de-politicisation scheme.
   This time round, with the return of a political government, the forum now plans to introduce awards to certain persons in the name of Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. There are also a few other awards to be announced.

Former chief of the National Security Intelligence, Major General (retd) Rezzaqul Haider, and former deputy director, Major (retd) Liakat Hossain, on Wednesday did not provide any new information to interrogators at the Task Force Interrogation Cell.
   A high official of the Rapid Action Battalion, also a member of the TFI Cell told New Age, ‘We brought them to Dhaka to interrogate them and will do so as soon as Wing Commander (retd) Shahab Uddin is brought to Dhaka today or tomorrow. We want to interrogate them together.’
   ‘We are trying to extract information on the origin, destination, buyers and financers of the 10 truckloads of arms and ammunition,’ he continued.
   Our Chittagong correspondent reports that Shahabuddin was taken on a four-day remand on Wednesday after police produced him before the court of metropolitan magistrate Abu Hannan, seeking a 10-day remand.
   Defence lawyer Zahurul Islam opposed the remand prayer, saying that his client had been on a three-day remand in Chittagong and a six-day remand at the Task Force Interrogation Cell in Dhaka already.
   ‘He has made his confessional statement before the court under Section 164 and there is no provision to place an accused on remand after he has done so,’ he added.

The Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, a platform of the industrial workers’ and employees’ organisations, on Wednesday termed the denationalisation policy of the Privatisation Commission as anti-people and warned of waging vigorous movements against privatisation of the state-owned industries.
   The warning was given at a protest rally, organised by the SKOP, in front of the Privatisation Commission in Dhaka. Addressing the rally, leaders of the platform called upon the commission to refrain from executing its plan for privatising 12 state-owned industries.
   They said that privatisation policy of the commission was contrary to the workers’ interest and anti-people. The workers community will not allow the commission to privatise the state-owned industries.
   They submitted a memorandum to the chairman of the Privatisation Commission, Mirza Abdul Jalil, who received the memorandum and assured the SKOP leaders of considering their demands.
   The memorandum said that the decision taken by the commission for privatising the state-owned mills and factories was contrary to the industry policy of the Awami League-led coalition government.
   It added that industry minister Dilip Barua recently said that the government would not privatise any more state-owned industry.
   The rally was addressed, among others, by acting president of Sramik League Faroq Khan, president of Garment Sramik Karmachari Federation Safiuddin Ahmed and SKOP coordinator Wajedul Islam Khan.

The National Domestic Workers Union on Wednesday demanded allocation of fund for the domestic workers in the upcoming budget.
   The leaders of the organisation, at a press conference in Asad Auditorium, said that the domestic workers have been deprived of their rights due to the lack of any laws to protect their interest.
   They demanded the enacting of labour laws for the domestic workers and fund allocation from the social safety net programme of the budget.
   The union’s leader, Zobaida Parvin, demanded declaration of a minimum wage for the domestic workers and enactment of laws in line with the draft of a proposal handed over to the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on labour and employment.
   Labour leader Abul Hossain, the organisation’s adviser, and its leaders Keya Rahman, Kazi Rukhsana Rita, Simu Akhtar and others were present at the press conference.

TeleTalk, the state-run mobile operator, has got $211 million loans from the Chinese government for its modernisation and expansion of network.
   ‘We have got $211 million loans from the Chinese government and now we will spend the money for modernising TeleTalk and expanding its network to provide 3G (third-generation) technology,’ TeleTalk managing director Mujibur Rahman told New Age on Wednesday.
   He said a project has been taken in which the state-run mobile operator aims to have 15 lakh 3G customers and expand broadband network to the upazila level. ‘TeleTalk will adopt 3G technology to enhance multimedia usability in all popular modes and broad bandwidth with high speed,’ said the TeleTalk MD.
   ‘We are committed to provide better service to our customers and for this we will expend our network in the rural areas,’ he said.
   In the six-operator mobile market, TeleTalk is stuck at the bottom with 11 lakh subscribers. Mujibur Rahman said the operator would increase its subscriber base to 30 lakh within a year.
   The Teletalk Bangladesh Limited was incorporated on December 26, 2004 as the only government-sponsored mobile telephone company, which has already established its network in 64 districts, 402 upazilas and most of the highways.
   Admitting poor network coverage, he said, ‘We had expanded our network in the 15, among 17, hilly upazilas and would widen the network to every upazila of the country.’

Workers’ organisation Jago Bangladesh on Wednesday called on the government to ensure better treatment for politician and journalist Nirmal Sen. They put out the call at a briefing in Muktangan in Dhaka.
   The organising secretary of the organisation, Bahrane Sultan Bahar, also president of Jago Bangladesh Garment Sramik Federation, mentioned that the ailing politician was fighting for survival without any proper treatment and medicine.
   Baharane Sultan said, ‘Nirmal Sen has been suffering from paralysis since 2003. He could move in a wheel chair but now he is bedridden and cannot speak.’
   Nirmal Sen, leader of Ganatantrik Biplabi Party, also a trade union leader, started his career as a journalist with the Daily Ittefaq as its assistant editor in 1959. Later, he worked with many newspapers along with Dainik Bangla. He was the one of the founders of the Press Institute of Bangladesh in 1976.
   The leaders of the organisation also called on the people to extend financial help for Nirmal Sen individually.
   They announced they would collect mass signature in front of the National Press Club from 10:00am to 5:00pm on June 6 and submit a memorandum to the prime minister on June 11.
   If the government does not meet their demand, they will go for token hunger strike at the Central Shahid Minar on 15 June.

The government will recruit about 3,000 workers for the postal department to make it more efficient so that it can provide better service to the people.
   ‘We want to upgrade the postal department so that people can get better service from it and for this reason the government will recruit some 3,000 workers for the department,’ the posts and telecommunications minister, Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, told New Age on Wednesday.
   He said that recruitment would begin in July after the new budget is finalised.
   Postal department sources said some 3,585 posts at different levels are lying vacant and in the last five years the department has not recruited any manpower.
   Raju said the government is trying to provide better service to bring the post office to people’s doorsteps. ‘If the courier service companies can provide better service, then why can’t we do so?’
   There are over 9,800 post offices in Bangladesh that are suffering from shortage of manpower, which is one of the reasons why the department cannot ensure better service. This is the biggest problem faced by the Bangladesh Post Office, one of the oldest government organisations in the country.
   The urban people hardly need to write letters because of the advent of digital technology, and thus the popularity of the postal department has been decreasing day by day. There has been a sharp decline in its services because of the appearance of cellular phones, emails and courier services.
   But postal communication is still the only means of communication for millions living in remote areas.
   Due to its failure to adopt the latest postal technology, the department has failed to hold on to its customers and attract the new generation. Sources said the postal department has lost over Tk 7 crore in the last six years.
   Raju said that to make Bangladesh digital, as pledged by the Awami League, there was no alternative but to modernize the postal department, and his ministry was working to that end and would install modern services like e-post and e-money order.

Two deputy inspectors general and two additional DIGs are among the 14 senior police officers who have been transferred in the latest reshuffle in the police administration.
   A circular in this regard was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday.
   Of the two DIGs, Nazmul Haque, was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department from the police headquarters while acting DIG Benazir Ahmed was posted at the police headquarters upon his return from the UN headquarters where he was chief of mission management and support section.
   Additional DIG Jasim Uddin, who was joint commissioner (traffic) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, was made commandant of the Police Training Centre in Tangail. He has replaced Manjur Kader Khan who was transferred to the DMP as joint commissioner.
   The rest of the police officers who were transferred are of the rank of police superintendent except two of them who are additional SPs.
   The additional SP of Bhola, SM Fazlur Rahman, was posted as SP of Narail while additional SP of the Special Branch, BM Harun-or Rashid, was made SP of Thakurgaon.
   Of the rest, Alamgir Alam was posted to the police headquarters as an assistant inspector general, Akkas Uddin Bhuiyan of DMP was made SP of Habiganj, Rezaul Karim of the Special Branch was sent to Jhenaidah as SP, and the acting SP of Narail, Kamrul Ahsan, was sent to Bandarban as acting SP.
   The SP of Thakurgaon, Abu Saleh Mohammad Golam Mahmud, was transferred to the Highway Police as an AIG; the commandant of the Range Reserve Force of Barisal, Shahabuddin Khan, was made SP of Kushtia; and SM Mahfuzul Haque Nuruzzaman was made SP of Gazipur while Abdul Baten of Gazipur was transferred to Chuadanga as SP.

A case was filed on Tuesday night with the Panchlaish police station in connection with a clash between two rival groups of the Chittagong University unit Chhatra League in which four BCL men were injured.
   Mohammed Alamgir Tipu, a Chhatra League activist of the ‘sixty-nine’ group, also a student of economics department, Tuesday night filed the case against 16 named activists of the ‘akakar’ group and 10 to 12 unnamed activists.
   The named activists are Jitu, Farhad, Roman, Mamun, Pallab, Jewel, Mahfuj, Tanjim, Mehadi, Tushar, Sahel, Jonny, Sumon, Tanvir, Ratan, and Khaled.
   On Tuesday, a group of Chhatra league men, known on the campus as ‘sixty-nine’ group, got into a clash with another group, known as the ‘akakar’ group, at about 2:45pm at the Sholoshahar Railway Station when BCL activists of ‘akakar’ group Mansur, Barshan, Samir and Hafiz were injured.
   The clash ensued when members of ‘sixty-nine’ group teased a female student who is a friend of one of the ‘akakar’ group men in the compartment of a city-bound train which left the university railway station at 2:00pm.

The High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former state minister for law, Shahjahan Omar, and secretary general of the Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh, AZM Zahid Hossain, both of whom were convicted in separate corruption cases during the regime of the interim government.
   The High Court bench of Justice MA Wahhab Miah and Justice M Marzi-ul-Huq granted them bail till disposal of the appeals that they had filed against their conviction.
   A special judges’ court on May 14, 2008 sentenced Shahjahan to 13 years of imprisonment, in his absence, on charge of amassing illegal wealth and hiding assets in the wealth statement submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   On May 6, AK Arifur Rahman, the judge of the special judge’s court-9 of Dhaka, rejected Shahjahan’s petition for bail and ordered him to be sent to jail after he surrendered following an order issued by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on April 23.
   On January 14, the High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Muzammel Hossain and Justice Afzal Hossain Ahmed granted bail to Shahjahan for three months, but the Appellate Division cancelled Shahjahan’s bail and ordered him to surrender to the trial court in two weeks after hearing an appeal filed by the ACC.
   On May 13 Dr Zahid was sent to jail after he surrendered to the trial court in the corruption case in which he was sentenced to 13 years’ rigorous imprisonment in absentia.
   A special court on May 25, 2008 convicted Zahid of amassing wealth illegally and concealing information in the wealth statement submitted to the ACC.
   Senior lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain appeared for Shahjahan while Ahsanul Karim moved for Zahid’s bail.

Different civic rights and environmental organisations on Wednesday demanded formation of a high-power river commission to save the country’s rivers with normal flows.
   The activists of the organisations including, Safe Environment Movement, Jana Udyug, IUD, BNPS, CLNB and Nirapad Foundation, also demanded immediate government steps to protect the navigability at rivers and water bodies, and solve disputes on sharing the waters of cross-boundary rivers as well as construction of Tipaimukh Dam by India.
   They, under the banner of Safe Environment Movement, formed a human chain, staged a sit-in programme and arranged performance of folk songs as part of the ‘save the river movement’ at Motijheel.
   Addressing the sit-in programme, the leading activists of the organisations said that the waters of the rivers had become polluted across the country for random construction of embankments in the name of river control, construction of roads, unplanned urbanisation, and dumping of industrial and domestic wastes on the rivers.
   They observed that not only the private organisations, the government agencies were also responsible for destroying the country’s rivers.
   They urged all to wage a united movement against the rivers grabbing and pollution immediately.
   With chairman of the Save Environment Movement, Abu Naser Raijib in the chair, senior journalist Abul Moksud, executive director of the IED, Numan Ahammad Khan, and secretary general of the Peace, Ifma Hossain, spoke on the occasion.

The management of Grameenphone Ltd on Wednesday claimed that all the dues of the former employees, currently engaged in a ‘hunger-strike until death’ and demanding their jobs back, have been settled.
   The GP, in a press release, said that it has fully settled all the dues of the former employees, as per the law of the land, at the time of their departure.
   There is no opportunity for their reinstatement since the jobs no longer exist within the organization, the release added.
   However the GP’s management has met the former employees on several occasions and told them that they were free to apply for other jobs within the organization, provided they had the necessary qualifications.
   Between June and November last year, 338 contractual employees were relieved of their jobs on expiry of their respective contracts with the GP, and subsequently in March this year the management invited them to apply for new positions that were being created.
   The former employees were assured that the new vacancies were open exclusively to them, subject to their fulfillment of the required qualifications for the new role, said the release.
   A total of 321 former employees applied for the new positions, but only 122 of them successfully passed the screening process.
   The employees who were not selected were even given individual feedback on their test results and told why they were not selected and in which areas they should improve their performance.
   Despite all that, currently about 12 former employees have begun a ‘fast unto death’ in front of the company’s headquarters, demanding that they be reinstated in their jobs, the release pointed out.

The additional secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, M Ehsanul Haq, has been appointed chairman of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, replacing Quamrul Hasan of the same rank, who has been placed at the establishment ministry as an officer on special duty.
   The establishment ministry issued a notification to this effect on Wednesday.
   In another order, Shamima Parvin has been appointed second secretary in the Bangladesh mission in Australia on a three-year contract.

A thief was beaten to death and another was severely injured by a mob at Dumuria of Agailjhara in Barisal early Wednesday.
   The deceased was identified as Kamrul Hassan Mridha, 28, of village Mridharhut under Kalkini upazila of Madaripur district.
   The injured, Abul Bashar Mirdha, 22, is from the same village and also a cousin of Kamrul.
   Bashar claimed that he was a student of Class X of Miarhut School and they had two associates named Kawsar and Nurul Alam of the same village in their gang, who had managed to escape.
   Four tolas of gold and Tk 50,000, which they had stolen, were recovered from them. 
   Ashok Kumar Nandi, officer-in-charge of the Agailjhara police station, said the spot is in between the borders of Agailjhara and Gaurnadi police stations of Barisal and the Kalkini police station of Madaripur.
   They were caught by people when the family members of a house belonging to an expatriate Nur Uddin Bepari, who works in Oman, raised alarm after becoming aware of the presence of the thieves who had entered the house by cutting a hole on a sidewall at about 2:30am and stole the valuables.
   The neighbours rushed to the spot and caught Kamrul and Bashar and gave them a mass beating.
   Kamrul later died on way to hospital and Bashar was admitted to Agoiljhara Upazila Health Complex.
   The police sent the body of Kamrul to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital morgue.

The chief judicial magistrate court in Rajshahi on Wednesday rejected the bail prayers of 93 BDR soldiers, who were produced in the court.
   They were arrested earlier on May 18 for their involvement in the BDR rebellion at their sector headquarters and battalion on February 26.
   The court sources said police produced the Bangladesh Rifles jawans before the court and the judge Moshiur Rahman ordered to send them to jail rejecting their bail prayers.
   Meanwhile, the law enforcing agencies arrested the 93 BDR jawans from the sector headquarters and 37 rifle battalion in Rajshahi on May 18 after filing of the case against them by the officer-in-charge of Boalia police station.
   The family members of the arrested BDR jawans crowded the court premises.

The Southeast Bank, a leading private bank, has dismissed a dozen of officers of the bank for submitting forged certificates of their educational qualifications during appointment, the bank sources said.
   Some more officers and employees of the bank may also lose jobs on the same charge as the process of verifying the certificates of their educational qualifications was going on, the sources added.
   Shahid Hossain, head of human resource division of the Southeast Bank, said that the process of verifying the certificates of the officers and employees working with the bank was going on.
   He confirmed the dismissal of 12 officers and employees so far from different branches of the Southeast Bank, established in 1995.
   ‘More officers and employees may face dismissal as our process to verify their educational certificates continues,’ he said.
   ‘Those who lost jobs mostly submitted forged certificates of their graduations. But it is difficult to identify the fake certificates until those are verified with the concerned universities,’ he added saying that the process of verification of the educational certificates began as per the decision of the bank management taken in 2008.
   ‘I had been asked to implement the decision of the bank board. I faced various problems including, threats from anonymous callers over telephone while executing the instruction,’ he said.
   He told New Age that the fake certificate holding officers and employees had managed jobs in the bank with recommendations from high ups of the society.
   But he ducked when he was asked about appointment of some officials and employees in the bank recommended by its directors as candidates of their choice or relatives.
   After launching operation of the private bank, many candidates had secured jobs with the blessings of the bank directors and their certificates were hardly verified at the initial stage, the sources said.
   Even several officers of the bank having forged certificate of their educational qualifications were promoted to senior level and posted as branch managers.
   They left the bank voluntarily with the service benefits sensing the action in advance after the bank launched the certificate verification process.

The department of public health engineering has cancelled leave of all its officials and employees in the cyclone Aila-affected areas until further notice to start rehabilitation works, with only exemption in case of illness, as the government geared up post-cyclone operations.
   Meanwhile, the department withdrew the officials from unaffected regions — Chittagong, Barisal and Khulna — and sent them to the affected areas to work under two-or three-member teams.
   Officials said they had already started field-level work to rehabilitate the cyclone-affected people. They have so far set up three temporary tube-wells and 72 latrines at different cyclone shelters.
   Water reservoirs have also been distributed in the affected areas to provide safe drinking water to the affected people, officials said.
   The chief engineer, the superintending engineer (Planning Circle) and the additional chief engineer are ‘monitoring the entire operations in the affected areas’, said an official announcement.