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The country’s business confidence declined in the third quarter of the current fiscal year compared to the second quarter, said a report of the Shamunnay, a non-governmental organisation.
   ‘The business confidence increased soon after the national election with an expectation of running the trade and business houses in an atmosphere free from extortion as well as with uninterrupted supply of power and gas to the industrial units, but now the confidence level declined as the scenario is far away from the expectation,’ said economist Selim Raihan of Shamunnay while releasing the report at a press conference in the CIRDAP auditorium on Thursday.
   He observed that the government had not paid proper attention to the country’s garment sector and expatriate Bangladeshis as the two sectors might face steep competition in the international market in the long run in the backdrop of global economic recession.
   As per the report finding, the country’s present index of business status declined to 51.44 percentage point from the 63.62 percentage point in the third quarter compared to the corresponding period in the previous fiscal while the country’s business confidence index plunged to 51 per cent from the 69.65 per cent in the third quarter of the current fiscal year compared to the second quarter.
   ‘Country’s business confidence declined in the third quarter as the government failed to ensure uninterrupted power and gas supply to the industries,’ said BKMEA president Fazlul Haq while speaking on the occasion.
   He regretted that the government had not provided any support to the garment exporters in its stimulus package in the face of the global economic meltdown.
   Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, chairman of Bangladesh Krishi Bank and former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, identified the spread of black money as one of the main culprits for declining the business confidence after the elected government assumed office.
   ‘We can not boost the country’s business confidence without curbing the flow of the black money in the society,’ he added.

Development partners have assured the government of immediate disbursement of $13 million as grants for repairing dams, cross-dams and embankments in the cyclone Aila-ravaged coastal districts, official sources said.
   The assurance came in an inter-ministerial meeting with development partners at the Planning Commission on Thursday.
   ‘Three donors – World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency — have assured the government that they would disburse the amount immediately,’ said a senior official of the Economic Relation Division on Thursday after the meeting.
   The official also said the development partners would not curtail the existing development project amounts because of this fresh assistance.
   Sources said the prime minister’s economic affairs adviser, Mashiur Rahman, presided over the meeting on the possible strategies for mitigating the impact of Cyclone ‘Aila’. The World Bank country director, Xian Zhu, ADB country director Paul J Heytens, JICA representatives and high officials of the water resources ministry also attended the meeting.
   ‘The government has sought fund from the development partners what will be immediately needed for repairs to the damaged dams and embankments,’ Mashiur Rahman told the meeting.
   He also said the long-term and medium-term assistance would be decided in the several consultation meetings with the water resources ministry.
   The meeting sources said the water resources ministry would a hold a meeting with the development partners on Saturday at the secretariat on the long and medium-term assistance for the Aila-affected country’s south-western coast areas.
   According to the meeting, the Water Development Board would need $62.46 million for repairing the water-related infrastructure but the board urgent needs $16.86 million.
   Meanwhile, the finance ministry has already disbursed Tk 116 crore for the Aila-affected areas. Of the amount, Tk 41 crore is meant for repairing the dams and embankments while the rest will be used for food for work programme in.

World Environment Day will be observed in the country as elsewhere in the world today through different programmes with the theme — ‘Your planet needs you’ — to inspire all to take concrete steps toward making the planet greener and cleaner.
   This year, the day coincides with the movement waged by the green activists to save the country’s rivers, compelling the government to launch eviction drives against illegal structures along the banks of the River Turag on Wednesday with the demolition of 59 illegal structures following a High Court order that asked the government to prevent river encroachment and retrieve the rivers from the grabbers.
   World Environment Day was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.
   Commemorated yearly on 5 June, the day is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.
   President Zillur Rahman, prime minister Sheikh Hasina and leader of the opposition in parliament Khaleda Zia gave separate messages on the occasion.
   President Zillur said dependency on carbon fuel have thrown the earth towards catastrophe. ‘In such situation we all will need to work in facing the effect of climate change,’ he said.
   Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said the government has already formed a trust fund to face the challenges of climate change.
   Khaleda Zia called on the green activists to work more to make people aware of the need for conservation of nature. She said her government has taken measures protect nature through massive aforestation programmes, banning two-stroke engines from the streets of the capital and use of polythene products across the country.
   The United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, in a message on the occasion, said the economic and financial turmoil sweeping the globe was a true wake-up call, sounding an alarm about the need to improve upon old patterns of growth and make a transition to a new era of greener, cleaner development
   ‘I encourage all people to take concrete steps toward making the planet greener and cleaner. Switch off the lights. Take public transportation. Recycle. Plant a tree. Clean up your local park. Hold corporations responsible for their environmental practices. And urge your government representatives to Seal the Deal in Copenhagen,’ he said.

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion-6, based in Jhenaidah, in a drive Wednesday night arrested three regional leaders of the ultra-left Purba Banglar Communist Party (ML-Janajuddah) and recovered arms, bombs and bullets from their possession, a RAB official said.
   The arrestees are regional leader Nazim Uddin, of village Hazidanga under sadar upazila, activist Asmot Ali, of village Maidharpur and Montu of the same village. The battalion members recovered four arms, eight powerful bombs and 24 rounds of bullets from their possession.
   Major Tarik, commander of Jhenaidah RAB, told reporters Thursday morning that on a tip-off they arrested Nazim uddin from in front of Naldanga Bhusan Pilot Secondary School Wednesday night. Based on his confessional statement, RAB arrested Asmot from Nagarbathan bus-stand under Jhenaidah sadar and Montu from Tetultala Bazar. The three were in hiding.
   After interrogation, RAB recovered a foreign-made single barrel gun, a shot gun, two Indian-made shutter guns, 24 shot gun cartridges and eight fresh powerful bombs from their possession.
   The arrested have confessed their involvement in murders. There are five cases against them, the RAB officer said.

Food inspectors of the Dhaka City Corporation on Thursday said they were yet to receive any order from the Pure Food Court to collect samples of seasonal fruits, reportedly being sold after being artificially ripened with the application of carbide and formalin.
   The special metropolitan magistrate, Shaikh Nazmul Alam, on Tuesday asked the Dhaka City Corporation’s food inspectors to collect samples of seasonal fruits within 24 hours after receipt of the order.
   Some food inspectors said that they were yet to receive the court’s order.
   Analyst Golam Sarwar, who received the copy of the court’s order on Wednesday, told new Age that no samples were submitted to the laboratory on Thursday.
   The court served the notice after observing that despite repeated allegations from different corners of the society, the DCC’s health inspectors have not yet taken any steps for stopping chemical intervention to preserve and quickly ripen seasonal fruits.
   The court also asked the analyst to mention in his report whether or not the samples were unfit for human consumption.

The activists of ruling Awami League ransacked the party office of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party at Kaliganj Bazar at Mehendiganj upazila in Barisal Wednesday night following an altercation with the BNP workers.
   Witnesses said a group of AL men drove the workers of BNP from their office at Kaliganj Bazar at Gobindaganj union of Mehendiganj at about 9:00pm and ransacked the office, creating a panic in the area.
   Manirul Islam, the officer-in-charge of Mehendiganj police station said he had visited the spot and found the BNP office partly damaged. No complaint was lodged till filing of this report at 6:00pm.

A case was filed against 16 persons in a court in Rajshahi on Thursday for killing a couple during the War of Liberation in 1971.
   One Momena Bibi, daughter of slain freedom fighter Mahiruddin of Balanagar village in Bagmara upazila, lodged the case in the judicial magistrate’s court in Rajshahi.
   The plaintiff alleged that the accused persons, in association with the Pakistani army, entered their residence at night during the war in 1971 and dragged her father Mahiruddin and mother Nurjahan out and took them to a torture camp. They killed her parents after torturing them.
   After accepting the case, the court ordered the officer-in-charge of Bagmara police station to take necessary steps for investigation.

The Grameenphone Ltd launched its environmental and climate change campaign ‘stay green, stay close’ through a press briefing at the Sonargaon Hotel in the capital on Thursday.
   The objective of the campaign is to support a healthier environment by both reducing GP’s carbon footprint through innovative approaches, as well as increasing awareness among different stakeholder groups.
   Speaking on the occasion, the Grameenphone chief executive officer, Oddvar Hesjedal, said, ‘We are contributors to this global crisis and we all need to be the part of the solution.’
   Grameenphone’s chief communication officer Rubaba Doula presented the global and Bangladesh climate context highlighting the acuteness of the problem. Frode Stoldal, chief technology officer of Grameenphone, then highlighted the GP’s current environmental initiatives.
   During the programme, GP also signed power purchase and system procurement agreements for renewable energy with Grameen Shakti Ltd, LM Ericsson Bangladesh Ltd and Huawei Technologies Ltd.
   MA Gofran, consultant of Grameen Shakti, Anneli Ahman, CFO and acting CEO of LM Ericsson Bangladesh, and Tony Hui Zhan, chief executive officer of Huawei, signed the agreements on behalf of their respective organisations.

Civil society members at a roundtable on Thursday criticised the government for imposing surveillance and censorship on Internet access and for the move for re-registration of mobile SIMs by taking details of individual subscribers.
   They also feared that details of individuals, which were stored for the preparing the national identity cards and which were given for re-registration of mobile SIMs, could be abused by the government or any other agencies to undermine democratic values.
   ‘For free flow of information and peoples right to know, no government should impose surveillance and censorship on Internet access and block any websites,’ said former chairman of Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission, Syed Margub Morshed, at the roundtable held at National Press Club.
   VOICE, a right-based activist group, organised the roundtable on ‘Access to Information: Internet Surveillance and Censorship vs People’s Rights Protection’.
   Margub said that it would be a futile exercise if anybody wants to block any website to censor or hide any information.
   He said that the first pressure on BTRC for re-registration was created by different security agencies in 2005. ‘There was no need for such re-registration by taking the details of any individual. How will the government ensure protection of information of the individuals,’ he said.
   Criticising the move on mobile re-registration, Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, executive director of VOICE, in his key-note paper asked, ‘Do we know why we put every details to use the mobile phone or how can we be ensured that the information or data given to a prescribed form will not be leaked out or used for other purposes.’
   He said that the interception of emails is on the rise and surveillance of mobile telephones has become s regular practice.
   Ahmed alleged that over the past two years, RAB members assisted by the officials of BTRC conducted house-to-house searches in different cities pinpointing each and every Internet user.
   He also claimed that a special cell comprising RAB and BTRC officials are collecting user details like name, address, and logging and usage statistics from all the Internet Service Providers to profile internet subscribers in the country
   He also criticised the government for blocking some social websites like youtube on March 9, 2009 after the site hosted a recording of a meeting between the prime minister and military officers.
   Akhtaruzzaman Manju, president of ISP Association, admitted that they were instructed to block some of the websites and some contents were filtered.
   Former secretary Karar Mahmudul Hasan and D.Net executive director Ananya Raihan also spoke on the occasion.

Former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu on Thursday, the first day of his five-day police remand, continued denying his involvement
   in the massacre at the BDR headquarters and in helping the soldiers to escape, said related sources.
   Pintu was being grilled by members of the taskforce interrogation cell in connection with the February 25-26 border guards’ rebellion.
   He told the cell that he went into hiding because of propaganda by his rivals that he assisted the BDR rebels to escape, the sources said.
   Pintu is likely to be questioned face to face with deputy assistant director of BDR Touhidul Alam on Friday. Touhid is under custody of the CID police on a two-day remand which ends Friday.
   It was alleged that many of the escaping BDR rebels took shelter in the residences of Pintu’s followers at Hazaribagh alongside the residence of Awami League leader Torab Ali.
   Meanwhile, six more soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles were shown arrested on Thursday in the February 25-26 carnage case.
   The Criminal Investigation Department of police, assigned to investigate the case, produced the six soldiers in the chief metropolitan magistrate court Thursday afternoon and sought a 10-day remand.
   After hearing, the court of metropolitan magistrate Mominul Hasan granted the police application and remanded them in police custody for five days.
   The six were arrested upon the statements of other soldiers and screening of video footages, police sources said.
   The police earlier produced 39 more soldiers in the same court from the Dhaka Central Jail and sought a 10-day remand for them. The court granted five days.
   Two more soldiers made their confessional statements in the separate metropolitan magistrate courts on Thursday.
   With them, a total of 1,438 people, most of them soldiers, have so far been arrested and 140 of them, inclu- ding three civilians, made their confessional statements to the court in connection with the BDR carnage.

The Democratic Left Alliance, a combine of the left-leaning political parties, has launched countrywide mass contact programmes to urge the people to protest against the undemocratic decisions of the Awami League government.
   The programmes include worker’s meetings at the thana level, and rallies, processions and marches across the country, said the coordinator of the alliance, Bazlur Rashid Firoz, at a press conference on Thursday.
   The combine will stage a rally and bring out a procession in Mirpur on
   June 18, in Rangpur on June 8, Gaibandha on
   June 9 and Chittagong on June 19 to drum up support in favour of its demands.
   The Awami League-led government has failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people in its four months of rule, said Bazlur Rashid.
   The government is ignoring the people’s verdict delivered in the last parliamentary elections and taking undemocratic decisions, he said.
   The demands include scrapping of the Special Powers Act and other black laws, stopping extra-judicial killing, enacting pro-people laws, stopping of extortion by the ruling party’s activists, controlling the price-hikes of essentials, taking steps for solving the many problems in the power, gas and water sectors, increasing the minimum wage of the workers and holding the trials of the war criminals of 1971.
   The combine will work for strengthening the left-leaning alternative political forces that are out of the axis of the two big political parties — Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said Bazlur Rashid.
   Jatiya Gana Front’s coordinator Tipu Biswas, Ganatantrik Mojdur Party’s president Abdus Salam, Revolutionary Workers Party’s general secretary Saiful Huq, Democratic Revolutionary Party’s general secretary Mushrefa Mishu, Ganasanghati Party’s coordinator Zonayed Saki and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Andolon’s convener Hamidul Haque were present at the press conference, along with others.

The High Court on Thursday granted interim bails to eight politicians, including two former state ministers and four former lawmakers, convicted in separate corruption cases during the regime of the military-controlled interim government.
   The High Court bench of Justice MA Wahhab Miah and Justice Marzi-ul-Huq granted bail to seven politicians until disposal of the appeals filed by them against their conviction.
   The seven are former state ministers Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya and Ziaul Haque Zia, lawmakers Haji Mohammad Selim and Mohiuddin Ahmed, Nadim Mostafa, former finance minister M Saifur Rahman’s son Shafiur Rahman Babu and former lawmaker Moqbul Hossain’s son Masudur Rahman.
   The High Court bench of Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and Justice Bazlul Rahman granted bail for three months to former lawmaker Joynal Hazari in connection with two arms cases in which he was convicted.
   The fugitive politicians were convicted in absentia during the interim government’s regime and prayed for bail to the High Court after the Awami League government-led government assumed power on January 6, 2009.
   The High Court in its order on May 3 rejected their bail petitions and directed them to surrender to the concerned trial courts in two weeks.
   The eight convicts were sent to jail after they surrendered to trial courts to seek bail.

Mobile phone users in the cyclone-prone district of Cox’s Bazaar and flood-prone Sirajganj will receive advance disaster warnings over the next six months, in a pilot project that could be expanded countrywide.
   TeleTalk and Grameenphone subscribers in the two districts will see the alerts flashing automatically on their screens warning, said the food and disaster management minister, Abdur Razzak, on Thursday.
   He said, once introduced, the advance warning system would be a milestone in combating disaster in Bangladesh.
   The pilot project agreement was signed Thursday between the Disaster Management Bureau, state-owned TeleTalk and private operator Grameenphone.
   The minister commended the two companies for enacting corporate social responsibility in helping disadvantaged communities living in remote areas, who are most vulnerable to disasters.
   He encouraged all concerned to make the pilot project a success and expand the service countrywide.
   The Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme will eventually take up the project for expansion.
   Farhaduddin, director general of the Disaster Management Bureau, Raihan Shamsi, chief corporate officer of Grameenphone and Mojibar Rahman, managing director of TeleTalk, signed the MoUs for the pilot project.
   The food and disaster management secretary, Mokhlesur Rahman, and Grameenphone CEO Oddver Hesjedal were also present on the occasion.

The government will conduct a national vitamin A plus campaign on Saturday with a view to feeding more than 20 million children aged 1-5 years lifesaving Vitamin A capsule and around 19 million children aged 2-5 years de-worming tablet.
   Addressing a press conference at the Bangladesh Secretariat Thursday the health secretary, Sheikh Altaf Ali, informed that the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, would formally inaugurate the programme today at 9:00am at her official residence at state guesthouse Jamuna.
   The main theme of the National Vitamin A plus campaign this year is ‘Eat Vitamin A, reduce risk of child mortality’.
   The health secretary urged all parents and guardians to take their children to the nearest vaccination centres to feed the Vitamin A plus capsule for making the national campaign a success. He said although child blindness was still not a serious problem in Bangladesh, an estimated 0.04 per cent of the children now suffer from night blindness.
   Referring to a survey report, Altaf said besides resisting the blindness the Vitamin A also helps prevent 34 per cent child mortality. ‘It helps to increase the growth and immune power of the children.’
   He said 400,000 volunteers would take part in the campaign to successfully feed vitamin capsule and anti-helmenthic tablet to children from 140,000 centres — 120,000 fixed vaccination centres and the rest opened at bus stands, launch terminals and railway stations and airports.
   The capsule and anti-helmentic tablets will be fed from all vaccination centres from 8:00am to 4:00pm.
   The director general of health, Professor Shah Monir Hossain, and Professor Fatima Parveen Chowdhury, director of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition, were present at the press conference.
   Replying to a question, Fatima said a total of Tk 140 million (14 crore), which includes the cost of medicine, had been fixed as the budget for conducting the national Vitamin A plus campaign across the country.

A Dhaka court Thursday issued arrest warrant against the Westmont Bangladesh Limited chairman, Kazi Tajul Islam Faruque, on charges of embezzlement of money and forgery.
   Consultant Ali Akkas Nurani of the same company filed the case with the court of metropolitan magistrate Dilara Alo Chandana against the businessman who had sued Sheikh Hasina, now prime minister, on charge of extortion amid the anti-graft drive during the immediate-past interim regime.
   The complainant in his case statement said the accused was to make a payment of one million
   US dollars as consultancy fee to him on Baghabari Barge-mounted Power Plant.
   ‘But, he breached the agreement through not paying the money and also gave me life threat when I asked for the consultancy fee,’ he stated in the case.
   After recording the statement of the complainant, the magistrate issued the arrest warrant.
   In April 2007, Faruque had filed a Tk 3-crore extortion case with Tejgaon thana against Hasina amid military-led crackdown on graft suspects following the January 11, 2007 changeover.

The Public Service Commission has said in a statement that the viva voce of the 27th Bangladesh Civil Service exams does ceases to legally exist.
   The statement says the case at the High Court, filed by some aggrieved candidates against the decision to cancel the viva voce, was dismissed in the verdict. Their appeal was also rejected and so, the oral test does not have any legal existence.
   The written explanation was given to the reporters when they wanted to know about controversial BCS exams from the PSC chairman, Sa’adat Hussain, at a press conference on the 28th BCS exams.
   The PSC cancelled the results of viva voce on government orders after the final results of the 27th BCS exams on January 21, 2007 on allegations of favouritism and anomalies.
   After that, viva voce for those who passed the written test was re-taken, based on which many joined different cadres.
   But, with the results out for a second time, those who passed the cancelled exams but failed in the next started movement in their efforts to force the authorities to take them in.
   Recently, they lost a legal battle in the High Court.
   The incumbent government formed a sub-committee under a parliamentary standing committee to find out ways to take in those who passed the first time but failed in the re-taken viva.
   The prime minister also ordered the PSC to resolve the problems of 27th BCS.
   The 2007-2008 caretaker government had said the interest of the ‘deprived’ candidates would be specially considered.
   The PSC said the government cancelled the exams on serious allegations of corruption and anomalies.
   It retook the viva voce following the High Court order and sent recommendations to the government, which accepted those and absorbed recommended candidates in different cadres.
   The statement said relevant information-date and explanations were sent to the proper authority and the PSC did not have any new comments.
   ‘The 28th BCS exam was held properly and peacefully,’ said the chairman.
   Circular on the 30th BCS exam will be given in January next year on completion of the activities of the 29th BCS this year, he said.
   It will take one month to announce the date for the preliminary test of the 29th BCS, he added.
   PSC member and chairman of the 28th BCS Ehsan Shamim said the preliminary test of the 28th BCS was held on November 28 last year and the results were published on February 1 this year. Written test started on April 30 and ended on June 2. Viva voce will follow soon.
   Other members and officials of the PSC were present at the press conference.

Bangladesh has called upon the world community to support climate change strategies and adapt action plans of the least developed countries for facing the ever increasing adverse impacts of global warming and sea-rise.
   The call came when leader of Bangladesh delegation and environment ministry joint secretary Martuza Ahmed was making a statement at the plenary of UN-sponsored two-week climate change talks in Bonn Wednesday.
   ‘Most of the LDCs have already completed their National Adaptation Programme of Action. We have completed our NAPA in November 2005. NAPA was initiated to address immediate and urgent needs of the LDCs. Unfortunately, three years have gone, and we have just started the implementation of our first NAPA project,’ Mortuza said.
   Further, access to adequate and expedited funding for addressing climate change issues continues to remain the most important concern for the LDCs,’ he told the 180-country negotiation body meet.
   Current donation-based multilateral funding is clearly not adequate to cover the expected adaptation costs for the LDCs compared to the estimated needs, he pointed out.
   Martuza suggested that the countries which have gone beyond very slow progress of NAPA implementation, have developed or will develop National Adaptation Plans or Strategies and Action Plans; should also be fully supported by UNFCCC process to implement those activities or projects in those plans and programmes in addition to NAPA implementation.
   Delegates from the LDCs appealed parties of the developed countries to move faster on an agreement to fight global warming, saying they already are suffering from drought, floods and erratic cyclones brought on by rising temperatures.

The ninth anniversary of the death of Begum Lutfunnessa Ibrahim, wife of the late Justice Mohammed Ibrahim, will be held today.
   On the occasion, a prayer session will take place in the morning in her residence. Food will be distributed among the destitute and wreaths will be placed at her grave in Banani graveyard, said a release on Thursday.

Kenaram Sarker, father of the Daily Star staff reporter Kailas Sarker, died of old age complications Wednesday night in his village home in Madaripur. He was 86.
   He is survived by his wife, four sons and three daughters.
   The body of Kenaram was cremated at the village cremation centre in Madaripur the same day.
   The Dhaka Reporter’s Unity president, Shamim Ahmed, and general secretary Pathik Saha condoled the death of Kailas’s father.

Bangladesh has voiced deep concern over the second nuclear test and the launching of a long-range ballistic missile recently by North Korea.
   ‘Such action is not conducive to maintenance of peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and East Asia in general,’ said a foreign ministry handout.
   It said Bangladesh strongly supports stability and peaceful coexistence
   of neighbours in all regions, and hopes the NNPT, the CTBT and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions would be adhered to by the parties concerned in the Korean peninsula.
   Bangladesh hopes all disputes in the Korean peninsula would be resolved amicably.

One official and six employees of Forest Department were injured in an attack by timber smugglers at Bangapara in Bandarban Sadar uapzila Wednesday night.
   The injured include deputy range officer Mahmudul Haque.
   Sources said the forest staff came under attack by the miscreants as they went to catch them while they were fleeing away with stolen timber by a truck.
   The injured were admitted to Sadar Hospital where condition of three was stated to be critical.
   A case was filed with the local police in this connection.

A trial court in Barisal on Thursday framed charges against the former lawmaker and general secretary of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal, the youth front of opposition BNP, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal for realising tolls from a contractor.
   M Shahidullah, the district and sessions judge of Barisal, after hearing the complaint against Alal took it to cognisance and ordered to begin examination of the witnesses and evidences on June 22.
   The court sources said an allegation of corruption was lodged against Alal, a former lawmaker of Bangladesh Nationalist Party for the Barisal-2 constituency, by contractor Kazi Mahbubul Alam with the Wazirpur police station on April 24, 2007.
   The complainant alleged that Alal had forcibly realised Tk 1,70,00 from him on February 22, 2006 as commission against awarding him works under the post-flood reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.
   He also alleged that Syed Sayeed Hossain, an officer of agriculture department and younger brother of Alal, had controlled the awarding of all construction, repair, development and supply works in the constituency taking 10-15 per cent commission.
   After investigation into the allegation, SI Alauddin of the Wazirpur police station submitted charge-sheet against Alal in the judicial magistrate court in Barisal on April 23, 2009.
   Sharif Mohammad Sanaul Huq, a judicial magistrate of Barisal, accepted the charge sheet and forwarded it to the district and sessions judge court for trial.

Bangladesh Krishak Samity, the peasant organisation of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, on Thursday demanded 10 per cent allocation for the agriculture sector in the forthcoming national budget.
   The left leaning peasant organisation made the demand at a press conference at the CPB office in Dhaka just a week before placing of the budget proposal in the parliament on June 11.
   The samity leaders also demanded formation of a land reform commission to reform the country’s land ownership system and increase agricultural subsidy for the farmers to boost agri-production.
   General secretary of the samity Morshed Ali read out a written statement at the press briefing. Lack of supply of quality seeds and fertilisers at the market in time as well as adequate irrigation to the cultivated land decrease agri-output, he mentioned.
   The governments in the developing nations like Thailand, Vietnam and India provide subsidy to their farmers for irrigation and fertilisers. Thai farmers get supply of water to their farm land free of cost, he cited.
   The samity recommended formation of a cooperative, comprising the small and medium peasants to cultivate land under the cooperative system aiming at increasing production, which would help the government to control the commodity market.
   It also recommended providing of agricultural loan to the members of the cooperative on minimum interest rate.
   Morshed Ali said they will form human chains, and organise rallies and demonstrations across the country on June 10 to press home their demands.
   Organising secretary of the organisation Sajjad Jahir Chandan and its central committee members Abid Hossain and Anirban Shaha, were present at the press briefing.

A schoolgirl was killed and five others injured as a boundary wall of a primary school in Savar municipal area collapsed on them Thursday morning.
   School sources said the old boundary wall of Emandipur Government Primary School fell on the students at about 11:30am, killing Laboni, a student of Class-III, on the spot and injuring five others.

A freedom fighter, also a retired schoolteacher, was stabbed to death by miscreants at Uttar Jaldi of Banskhali in Chittagong on Thursday reportedly over previous enmity.
   The deceased was Makhan Lal Bhattacharyia, 65, a retired teacher of Banskhali Ideal High School and resident of Keyang Mahajanpara of Uttar Jaldi.
   The police arrested six suspected persons for their alleged involvement in the killing. They are Ajay Kishor Bhattacharyia, 50, Shimul Karmakar, 30, Runu Achariya, 30, Kanak Karmakar, 29, Narayan Chakrabarti, 45, and Rakhal Jaladash, 50.
   The police and locals said about eight miscreants beat and stabbed Makhan intercepting him on his way home from a local market on Wednesday at about 11:30pm.
   The miscreants left critically injured Makhan when the villagers went to the spot hearing his scream.
   The villagers took Makhan to the upazila health complex. He died there Thursday 10:30am on his way to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital.
   The Banskhali police officer-in-charge, Babul Banik, said the killing might be a consequence of previous enmity.