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The Awami League-led government is going to present its first budget for 2009-10 fiscal today with an expected annual outlay of nearly Tk 114,000 crore incorporating some of the party’s pre-polls pledges into budgetary measures.
   This will be the first national budget by an elected government after the military-controlled interim government had prepared two budgets between 2007 and 2008.
   The national budget for 2009-10 which the finance minister, AMA Muhith, is scheduled to place in parliament this afternoon is likely to depend heavily on borrowings to meet ‘ambitious’ expenditures against stagnant revenue incomes. Muhit authored his first budget in 1982-83 when he was finance minister under the martial law regime of Lt General H M Ershad.
   However, finance ministry sources said, the gap between the government’s income and expenditure, technically called budget deficit, is likely to be, for the first time, as high as 5 per cent of the gross domestic product which is estimated to be nearly Tk 6,86,730 crore or US$ 98.1 billion the next fiscal year.
   Domestic and foreign borrowings together are shown in the draft budget at Tk 34,358 crore which is slightly over 30 per cent of the total outlay [Tk 113 819 crore] — quite an expansionary budget that the finance minister has already authored to accommodate the AL election manifesto as well as measures to address the global recession.
   In view of urgent needs for increasing both public and private investments, a new head styled Public-Private Partnership with an allocation of Tk 2,100 crore is likely to be added to the new national budget, which, officials said, is aimed at attracting higher private investments alongside public sector spending in critical sectors like power, infrastructures and human resources development.
   The finance minister is likely to raise the total development expenditure to Tk 33,059 crore, inclusive of already finalised outlay of annual development programme worth Tk 30,500 crore, from the revised figure of Tk 24,712 crore in the current fiscal, despite the government’s failure to implement the budget time and again.
   Muhith is likely to propose in parliament a projected revenue receipt of Tk 79,461 crore for 2009-10, as against the current year’s estimated revenue earning of Tk 69,180 crore, making only 14.86 per cent increase.
   Faced with a compulsion to generate domestic demands for coping with the fallouts of the current recession, the finance minister will relay on a number of sources for deficit financing. The government is likely to borrow Tk 16,755 crore from banking sources at home and a net amount of Tk 8,573 crore in foreign loans.
   A projected amount of Tk 23,570 crore will be spent on proposed pay hike for public servants and Tk 18,208 crore on employment generation and poverty alleviation schemes and social safety net programmes.
   An amount of Tk 10,080 crore is likely to be earmarked to meet various kinds of subsidies for agriculture, food, petroleum, power and exports.
   In the new budget, the government will have to bear a load of an aggregated amount of Tk 15,808 crore for payment of interests on loans — Tk 14,471 crore for domestic loans and Tk 1,337 crore for foreign debts. The percentage of interest payment in proportion to the draft budget outlay stands at 13.88, compared to 12.6 per cent in the outgoing fiscal.
   The combined allocation for two key sectors — health and education — is set to be around 21 per cent in the total budget, as against 19.2 per cent in the current fiscal.
   In an apparent move to keep fiscal option to meet unexpected expenditure in a year of political transition and economic recession, the government has already kept an amount of Tk 1,500 crore as controversial block allocation under unidentified projects in the next annual development programme, which will be a part of the annual budget with its passage by the parliament on June 30.
   The finance minister, who had projected a revenue target of only Tk 2,170 crore in his first budget amounting to Tk 4,738 crore way back in 1982-83, is expected to bring no major changes in income tax rates for the taxpayers in the coming fiscal.
   In a rather populist approach, he is set to announce measures such as continuation of tax holiday and provision for whitening black money.
   Retaining the lowest income tax exemption limit to Tk 1,65,000, the finance minister is expected to focus in the next fiscal year on widening existing income tax base by including additional 3,00,000 new taxpayers into the tax net.
   Muhith is going to deliver a long budget speech, much longer than the two delivered by former finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam, as the text is set to be almost double.

The government on Wednesday decided to recommend withdrawal of 62 cases, including 12 against prime minister Sheikh Hasina, filed during the BNP-led alliance government and the immediate past military-controlled interim government.
   The meeting of the inter-ministerial review committee on withdrawal of politically motivated cases, however, did not recommend withdrawal of any cases filed against the opposition leaders and activities, including leader of the opposition, Khaleda Zia.
   After the meeting at the home ministry, state minister for law Quamrul Islam, also chairman of the committee, told reporters that the committee had reviewed 113 cases out of 824 applications, filed by different people and forwarded to the committee by district review committees.
   The committee also sent back 43 applications to the district review committees concerned for further scrutiny, he said adding that the rest eight applications were rejected.
   The rejected applications include four seeking withdrawal of as many cases against former chief whip Abul Hasnat Abdullah.
   Of the 62 cases, 36 were filed on criminal charges and the rest 26 on corruption charges filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   The 62 cases, recommended for withdrawal, include 12 against Sheikh Hasina, nine against Awami League presidium member Tofail Ahmed, two against presidium member Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, 13 against party lawmaker Kamal Ahmed Majumder, four against Swechchhasebak League president Bahauddin Nasim, one against state minister for housing Abdul Mannan Khan, one against former AL minister Engineer Mosharaf Hossain, six against Abul Hasnat Abdullah and one against former AL lawmaker Makbul Hossain.
   Quamrul said the committee would request the home ministry to withdraw the criminal cases and the ACC to withdraw the graft cases.
   He said the decision taken by the review committee would be executed soon.
   The committee also recommended further extension of the deadline by June 30 for filing applications seeking withdrawal of politically motivated cases.
   Replying to a query, Quamrul said no appeal for withdrawal of the cases against opposition leaders had yet been placed before the committee.
   ‘When we receive the applications of the opposition leaders, we will consider them,’ he said adding that the review committee was not considering political identities for recommending withdrawal of the politically motivated cases.
   He said some 5,000 applications were submitted to district level committees across the country.
   Quamrul said the committee was alert so that no offenders could avail of the opportunity.
   Of the 12 cases against Hasina, recommended for withdrawal, eight were filed during the previous BNP-led alliance rule and the rest during the tenure of the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led interim government.
   The cases include those filed by the BNP-led government during its 2001-2006 tenure for alleged graft in the purchase of MiG-29 warplanes and a naval frigate, in the construction of Bangabandhu Planetarium, and awarding contract for Meghnaghat Power Plant and for ‘illegal entry’ in Dhaka Cantonment area to visit writer Humayun Azad at the combined military hospital.
   Of the cases filed during the interim government’s tenure, two are on graft charges and one on extortion.
   Earlier on May 17, Mozammel Hossain, the judge in-charge of the Special Judge’s Court-5 acquitted Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and their cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim of the charges in the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case, filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury in September 2007.
   The court passed the order after hearing a petition filed by metropolitan public prosecutor for exonerating the three from prosecution in the case under Section 494 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
   This was the first case against Hasina, which was withdrawn by the government.
   The BNP chairperson, Khaleda, Zia and her two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, filed applications on April 30 seeking withdrawal of all 20 cases lodged against them during the interim government’s rule.
   Four graft cases against Khaleda, 11 against her eldest son Tarique and five others against youngest son Arafat were filed during the two-year rule of the interim government, which detained nearly 200 politicians, including Hasina and Khaleda.
   The government on February 17 set up the inter-ministry committee to review the ‘politically motivated’ cases, especially those filed against politicians, during the regimes of the BNP-led alliance government and the interim administration.
   The BNP-led government earlier set up a similar committee to review the politically-motivated cases and withdrew 5,888 cases filed during the 1996-01 Awami League government against about 17,000 people, mostly political leaders and activists.
   The next meeting of the review committee is scheduled for June 16.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the government would not take the World Bank’s fund, earmarked to help Bangladesh to tackle the adverse impacts of global warming, if it does not agree with conditions imposed by the global lender.
   She said the government would take up a plan for dredging the major rivers, including the Padma, Meghna, Jamuna and Brahmaputra.
   ‘We will not take the fund from the World Bank if we have to accept their conditions,’ said the prime minister in reply to a question in the parliament. ‘They will have to give us the fund as per our terms.’
   She said that Bangladesh would get enough funds to face the adverse impacts of global warming.
   As the developed countries are responsible for global warming, they will give Bangladesh funds to face the climatic catastrophes, said Sheikh Hasina.
   She said the government would propose allocation of Tk 300 crore in the new fiscal year’s budget to initiate adaptation measures to face the impacts of global warming.
   ‘A guideline titled Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan has been formulated to face the probable disasters caused by climate change. A cabinet committee is working to finalise the action plan. Another cabinet committee is finalising the formation of the Climate Change Trust Fund with budgetary allocation,’ she informed the House.
   Sheikh Hasina said the government plans to dredge the major rivers in order to prevent desertification and facilitate flood control and land reclamation.
   ‘I myself will head the committee to be manned by ministers for some related ministries including finance, planning and agriculture. It will require a huge amount of money for dredging the rivers, but we will do it,’ she said. ‘Regular maintenance dredging will also be continued.’
   She said the government had already started discussion with the World Bank, the Netherlands and other lenders to get assistance for river dredging.
   ‘In the past the lenders were unwilling to provide funds for dredging, but now they are responding to our requirements. I signed a file today to send a representative to the World Bank to discuss various programmes including dredging of the rivers,’ said the prime minister.
   Answering another question raised by independent lawmaker Mohammad Fazlul Azim, the prime minister said the government had a plan to form marine police as part of the existing police force to root out pirates and forest bandits in the deep sea and Sunderban.
   ‘There is also a plan to increase the manpower of thana police and provide speedy vessels to them for the same purpose,’ she said.
   The prime minister said the law enforcement agencies under the home ministry were carrying out their responsibilities with utmost sincerity and integrity to ensure safety and security on river routes, and check smuggling in coastal areas, piracy, trawler robbery and abduction of fishermen.
   ‘These agencies like Coast Guard, BDR, RAB and police are engaged in checking smuggling and piracy and also ensuring safety of the fishermen,’ she said.
   Hasina said the present government had undertaken steps to further strengthen the Coast Guard and make it more effective.
   She said the river patrol teams of police were active in eliminating pirates, forest and land robbers in the rivers and char areas of the coastal districts.
   She also told the house that setting up of river police outposts and investigation centres in coastal char areas was under process. ‘Security of life and property of the people there will be ensured if the outposts and investigation centres are established,’ she said.

The Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad, Abdul Hamid, rejected five notices of the opposition lawmakers seeking discussion on certain issues, including the February rebellion at Bangladesh Rifles headquarters, after adjournment of the regular parliamentary sitting.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s lawmakers, who have been abstaining from parliamentary proceedings apparently because of the row over the seating arrangement in the House, also raised the issue of relief distribution in the cyclone-stricken areas, and whether the things allegedly taken away by the speaker of the seventh parliament, Humayun Rashid Chowdhury, from the Sangsad had been duly returned and what kind of privileges the chief whip of the same parliament, Abul Hasnat Abdullah, had enjoyed.
   The speaker argued that the BDR rebellion was still under investigation, so there was no scope to discuss it.
   The notice was brought in by Syeda Asifa Asrafi Papia, a BNP lawmaker in the women’s reserved seat, seeking discussion on the matter after adjourning the session.
   Ashraf Uddin Nizam, a BNP lawmaker from the coastal Lakshmipur district, asked for discussion on relief distribution while Nilufar Ashraf Moni wanted discussion on the speaker and the chief whip of the seventh parliament, when the Awami League was in office.
   The speaker said that the parliament secretariat takes care of matters related to the speaker and the chief whip.
   Presently a parliamentary panel is investigating alleged corruption and abuse of power by the speaker of the eighth parliament, Jamiruddin Sircar.

The parliament on Wednesday approved two bills, including extension of the tenure of a controversial law, while the mainstream opposition parties abstained from parliamentary proceedings.
   The House approved the Law and Order Infringement (Speedy Trial) (Amendment) Bill 2009 by voice vote after extension of the law for two more years was sought to prosecute the criminals in speedy trials in a bid to combat the crimes that threaten public safety.
   The crimes include mugging, extortion, terrorising and vandalising.
   The home affairs minister, Sahara Khatun, piloted the bill — which was originally approved by the military-backed interim administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed and published in the official gazette as an ordinance — in the House on March 3, 2009.
   The law was first enacted by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance government in 2002 in spite of protest by the Awami League which was then in the opposition, and which itself is now proposing its extension. The AL had feared that the then government might use the law to cow and harass its political opponents.
   But the AL-led alliance government did not ratify the ordinance, forcing the law to expire on January 25 with a number of cases pending under the act. The government said that 159 cases were under investigation while 1,246 others were under trial until March 3, 2009.
   In such a circumstance, the home affairs minister sought a two-year extension to keep the law alive until April 6, 2010 with retrospective effect.
   The parliamentary standing committee on the home affairs ministry had earlier cleared the bill, suggesting its passage exactly as it was proposed by the ministry.
   The House also passed the Public Procurement (Amendment) Bill 2009. The bill sought supremacy of the Public Procurement Law in case of any agreement with a foreign country, development partner or any international agency over the terms and conditions of any loan, donation or service under any agreement.
   Planning minister AK Khandker sought passage of the bill on Wednesday. He placed the bill in the House on March 29, 2009. A parliamentary panel also suggested passage of the bill without any changes.
   The opposition lawmakers gave notices seeking public opinion on the bills, but due to their absence the bills were passed without any discussion.

A judicial inquiry commission is set to be formed soon to investigate the corruption that has taken place between 2001 and 2008 in five public universities, law ministry officials told New Age on Wednesday.
   ‘The chief justice has nominated Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, a High Court judge, for the one-member judicial commission in line with Section 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act 1956,’ said a law ministry official.
   ‘The gazette notification on the formation of the commission will be issued in a day or two and the commission will then start functioning formally. The commission will submit its report to the law ministry in three months,’ he said.
   The terms of reference of the commission are to investigate financial and administrative corruption that has taken place between 2001 and 2008 in Rajshahi University, National University, Open University, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Maulana Bhasani University. The commission will also make recommendations on other relevant issues.
   The University Grants Commission will provide transport facilities for Justice Muzammel, his honorarium, and supporting manpower regarding the investigation. The grants commission secretary or an official equivalent to rank of secretary will discharge secretarial duties of the inquiry commission.
   ‘Violating the relevant rules during the immediate past BNP-Jammat rule, nearly 2,500 teachers and employees were recruited in the five public universities. Most of the manpower is unnecessary, but they are taking salaries regularly,’ said an education ministry official.
   ‘Citizens were aware of widespread corruption and irregularities taking place in public universities. Some newspapers published reports on corruption in the past,’ the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, said. ‘We want to mete out punishment to the people involved in the corruption,’ the minister said.
   Professor Mamatazuddin Patwari, a teacher of the Bangladesh Open University, on Wednesday welcomed the government decision on the formation of the judicial commission.
   ‘Not only five universities, there are some other public universities where corruption took place during the period and the commission should also launch investigation there,’ he said.
   There are 31 public universities in Bangladesh.

A late night attempt by a group of armed men to occupy a house, owned by a retired civil servant in the city’s posh Gulshan area, fell through Wednesday after influential persons close to the ruling party high-ups intervened and forced the police to act.
   According to witnesses, armed men numbering 25-30 intruded into the house built on 14 katha at 69, Gulshan Avenue at around 1:30am Wednesday and tried to force the owners – an octogenarian couple – from the house.
   The armed men, who came in several microbuses with their faces wrapped with black cloths, jumped over the main gate, broke open the doors and entered the house, a security guard of the house, who was present during the incident, told New Age.
   ‘The miscreants asked landlord Abdul Qayyum to come out shouting, ‘The house is owned by the ATN Bangla [a private television channel] authorities’ and at one stage they took Qayyum into a microbus parked on the driveway in an attempt to kidnap him ,’ a witness said.
   Hearing the din, neighbours and security guards on duty in the area arrived at the scene to confront the attackers and chased some of them down.
   Four of the attackers, who, in a bid to flee the scene, scaled the wall and landed on the compound of the next house belonging to businessman Abdul Awal Mintoo, were caught by the security guards.
   Though the landlord informed the nearby police station just half a kilometre from the house, police were reluctant to respond, the guards alleged.
   ‘How can a group of armed intruders enter a house breaking open the doors and try to grab the house where a retired civil servant has been living for decades? It is a glaring example of lawlessness in the country,’ said Abdul Awal Mintoo.
   Gulshan thana police came to the spot and arrested the miscreants after businessman Salman F Rahman talked to the high officials of police asking them to intervene, sources said.
   Officer-in-charge of Gulshan thana, Kamrul Alam Mollah, however, denied the police had been reluctant to act.
   ‘Our force rushed to the spot as soon as they were informed about the incident though it is true that at first they were a bit hesitant to act as they saw a signboard of ATN Bangla there,’ he said.
   ‘The miscreants brandishing guns, iron rod and machetes forcibly took me into their microbus,’ said Abdul Qayyum, 90, who retired as the chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation, and has been living in the house, along with his wife Mahbuba Qayyum, 82, and their daughter, since 1974.
   The landlord said, ‘When we contacted Salman F Rahman, who happens to be my relative, and our neighbour Abdul Awal Mintoo, who has bought a part of the plot from me, they came to the spot.’
   ‘The attackers came with a huge signboard of ATN Bangla,’ Qayyum said, adding, ‘ATN Bangla chairman Mahfuzur Rahman, with the help of some brokers, is trying to evict me from this house I got from DIT in 1969.’
   ‘Mahfuzur Rahman lodged a false complaint with the Gulshan thana a few days back claiming that I have been living in the house on rent and that I am not paying the rent,’ Qayyum, also a freedom fighter, said.
   Police seized the signboard and took it to Gulshan thana as a case was filed in this connection.
   When contacted, ATN Bangla chairman Mahfuzur Rahman said the incident seemed to be an attempt at robbery and accused rival Ekushey Television authorities of trying to defame him over the incident.
   ‘It seems to be a simple case of robbery. Ekushey Television authorities have falsely branded the incident as an attempt by the ATN Bangla to grab the property,’ Mahfuz said.
   He could not make any comments when his attention was drawn to the seizure of ATN Bangla’s signboard from the spot.
   He said, ‘I bought the house from one Abdur Rashid, a man from Chittagong, via brokers for Tk 20 crore and I got the registration documents of the house in March. I suspect the brokers may have a hand in the incident as I have been frequently reminding Abdur Rashid to hand over the possession of the house to me.’
   Mahfuz alleged that Qayyum had long been occupying the house illegally. ‘I have all the documents of the house, which I will show on my TV channel soon.’
   He also alleged that Salman F Rahman and Abdul Awal Mintoo were trying to buy the house and ‘that’s why they are backing Abdul Qayyum.’
   ‘Why Salman F Rahman went to the spot at the dead of night? What is his interest,’ Mahfuz asked.
   When his attention was drawn to the house owner’s claim that Salman F Rahman was his relative, the ATN Bangla chairman said, ‘It is sheer nonsense.’

Rescuers have pulled 18 bodies from the rubble of a luxury hotel in northwest Pakistan hit by a suicide car bomb, as blame fell Wednesday on Taliban rebels avenging a military push.
   Two United Nations employees were among the dead and more aid workers were wounded in the massive blast that devastated the Pearl Continental in Peshawar late Tuesday, in what the senior UN official branded a ‘heinous attack.’
   A top provincial official said the blast was likely the latest in a string of attacks by Islamist militants seeking to extract revenge for a six-week offensive against them in swathes of the northwest.
   The police hunting for the dead moved from room to room in the five-star hotel, large parts of which were reduced to rubble when three attackers shot security guards and then slammed an explosives-laden truck into the building.
   ‘The blast is a reaction to the army offensive in Swat and Malakand. The possibility of this type of terrorist attack cannot be ruled out in future,’ North West Frontier Province information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.
   He said the death toll had risen to 18, as police and rescue workers continued to pull people from the wreckage of Peshawar’s ritziest hotel.
   ‘I fear that eight to 10 people or maybe even more are still trapped under the debris,’ said Shafiullah Khan, a police officer at the scene.
   The police investigator Abdul Ghafoor Afridi said that 57 people were injured, including foreigners.
   The United Nations said the dead included two of its employees — Serbian national Aleksandar Vorkapic, who worked for the refugee agency UNHCR, and Perseveranda So of the Philippines, who worked for children’s agency UNICEF.
   ‘On behalf of the United Nations community in Pakistan, I strongly condemn this heinous attack,’ said Fikret Akcura, UN resident coordinator in Pakistan, adding that four UN employees were also wounded.
   ‘No cause can justify the killing and injuring of humanitarian workers and innocent civilians.’
   Afridi said that three attackers in two vehicles shot their way through a security barrier and into the hotel compound, where they managed to detonate about 500 kilograms of explosives packed in a small truck.
   Grainy CCTV footage broadcast on Pakistani television channels showed a car driving quickly through a security post, swiftly followed by the truck.
   No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
   About a dozen aid workers were staying at the hotel before heading out to refugee camps in North West Frontier Province, where Pakistan launched military action in three districts on April 26 to try to crush Taliban rebels.
   The air and ground assault in Swat, Lower Dir and Buner has sent up to two million people fleeing their homes.
   About 155 people have been killed in similar attacks across Pakistan since the anti-Taliban military offensive began, and Tuesday’s bombing was the seventh deadly blast in Peshawar in a month.
   Mutahir Ahmed, professor of international relations at Karachi University, said that the surge in recent attacks was a typical tactic of guerrilla fighters trying to counter a fully-scale state offensive.
   ‘(The militants) know very well where to strike to inflict the most damage,’ he said.
   In late May, 24 people were killed in a similar gun and suicide car bomb attack on a police building in eastern Lahore city — an attack claimed by Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Taliban, which warned of more ‘massive attacks.’
   The military launched the Swat campaign when Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad, flouting a deal to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace.
   The offensive has the backing of the United States and enjoys broad popular support among Pakistanis exasperated by worsening Taliban-linked attacks, which have killed more than 1,960 people since July 2007.
   Military officials said Wednesday they had also launched operations in northwest Bannu district bordering the lawless tribal Waziristan region, where the US alleges al-Qaeda militants are holed up, plotting attacks on the West.

The health minister, AFM Ruhal Huq, on Wednesday said the government would disclose the finding of the committee formed to investigate children’s death and illness related to Vitamin A capsules and deworming tablets.
   ‘The investigation is going on and the report is expected within 24 hours. The report is expected to be made public tomorrow,’ he told reporters Wednesday morning after the health minister had laid the foundation stone for Bangladesh College of Physiotherapy at Mohakhali in Dhaka.
   He also said, ‘After getting the report, we will hold a news briefing to inform you of the findings.’
   The five-member committee, which began investigation on Tuesday, visited Faridpur Medical College Hospital, Bhanga, Sadarpur and Charbhadrasan health complexes in Faridpur and talked with the local residents and upazila chairmen and upazila nirbahi officers on Wednesday.
   The committee is likely to submit its report today, the committee chief, ABM Jahangir Alam, also the primary healthcare services director, told New Age on Wednesday.
   Following the visits and talks, the committee found the situation had become almost normal by this time, he said.
   ‘Even incidence of diarrhoea this year is lower than that of the previous year, according to hospital records,’ he said.
   The Faridpur deputy commissioner also formed a three-member committee to find out the people responsible for spreading panic among the people by making announcement on PA system.
   ‘Although it was a national programme scheduled for June 6, the programme was launched two days ago at Char Shalipur and Char Hazar Bigah of Charbhadrasan as they are hard-to-reach areas. We will investigate the matter. It may have violated the programme schedule, but it has nothing to do with illness,’ said.

The law enforcers on early Wednesday arrested two activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in connection with the killing of a shop’s employee by the Sultanganj Union Parishad’s chairman, Munir Hossain, at Ashrafabad in Kamrangir-char on Tuesday afternoon.
   Kamrangirchar thana unit Swechchhasebak League’s president, Mohammad Mawla Reza, filed a case with Kamrangirchar police late at night on Tuesday, accusing 18 persons, including UP chairman Munir Hossain and his two brothers, of killing, looting and vandalising.
   Munir Hossain on Wednesday afternoon sprayed bullets on a crowd at Ashrafabad after being chased and intercepted by angry local Awami League activists, leaving the employee of a timber shop, Hasan, dead on the spot, and injuring and Sumon.
   The furious people attacked his residence and set fire to his garage and Nissan SUV.
   Sub-inspector Mohammad Abdul Jalil, the investigation officer of the case, told New Age, ‘We have arrested two suspects, Mohammad Hashem (Hashu) and Nazim Uddin, a councillor (member) of Ward 6, in connection with the killing.’
   The police produced them before the chief metropolitan magistrate and sought a seven-day remand on Wednesday. However magistrate Tofael Hasan granted only a two-day remand for interrogation.
   The body of the deceased was handed over to his family members after completion of the post-mortem on Wednesday, and they took the corpse to their village home for burial on Wednesday noon.
   The officer-in-charge of Kamrangirchar police station, Mohammad Nazrul Islam, told New Age, ‘We raided several places to nab the prime suspect but could not find Munir who went into hiding after the incident.’
   The family members of the UP chairman told New Age, ‘Munir was forced to fire since he was being attacked by local Awami League leaders and activists.’
   Local people alleged that the shooting was a sequel to a dispute on Monday’s meeting of the Ashrafabad High School committee in which some Awami League (AL) men blamed Munir for misappropriating money from the school fund.
   Some elderly people said Munir was a sidekick of detained former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu. During the tenure of the four-party alliance, Munir proposed to Pintu that they occupy over 200 acres of government land behind Ashrafabad High School on the bank of the Buriganga after constructing a playground, educational institution and hospital for local people, but Pintu wanted to grab the land for himself alone, which caused conflict between them.
   After the election, local AL leaders Solayman, Motiur Rahman and Shah Alam tried to occupy the land but Munir tried to resist them, which triggered conflict between Munir and local AL leaders.
   Another source said the incident took place because of a dispute over Tk 20 lakh. They said that the Sultanganj Union Development Committee was formed, headed by Munir, and Tk 20 lakh was allotted for development, but distribution of the money led to a conflict between Munir and AL leaders.
   Sonia Akhtar Maya, Munir’s sister-in-law, told New Age, ‘The AL leaders and activists attacked our house and looted our valuables right in front of policemen.’
   A large contingent of police and RAB were patrolling the area to prevent further violence.
   Local people and shopkeepers staged a rally, demanding immediate arrest and punishment of Munir.

Climate change will force millions of people to leave their homes to flee rising seas and drought over the coming decades, requiring a new plan for mass migration, said a report published on Wednesday.
   Funds were needed to help migrants escape natural disasters which will worsen, threatening political stability, said the report published by the UN University, CARE International and Columbia University.
   ‘Environmentally induced migration and displacement has the potential to become an unprecedented phenomenon — both in terms of scale and scope,’ the study said.
   ‘In coming decades, climate change will motivate or force millions of people to leave their homes in search of viable livelihoods and safety.’
   The report said that the science of climate change was too new to forecast exact projected numbers of migrants, but it cited an International Organisation for Migration estimate of 200 million environmentally induced migrants by 2050.
   Wednesday’s study highlighted especially vulnerable regions of the world including: island states such as Tuvalu and the Maldives, dry areas such as Africa’s Sahel and in Mexico, and delta regions in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Egypt.
   ‘In the densely populated Ganges, Mekong, and Nile River deltas, a sea level rise of 1 meter could affect 23.5 million people and reduce the land currently under intensive agriculture by at least 1.5 million hectares,’ it said.
   Climate scientists say sea levels could rise by at least a meter this century.
   The world needed to invest to make poor communities and countries more resilient to climate change, the report said.
   ‘These funds must be new and additional to existing commitments, such as those for Official Development Assistance,’ said the report ‘In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement.’
   For example, investment in irrigation would make farmers less dependent on rains. Education would also help — for example tilling the soil less leaves a protective mulch, which preserves moisture.
   Migrants from climate disasters may need new rights, the report said. ‘Those displaced by the chronic impacts of climate change will require permanent resettlement. At present, people who move due to gradually worsening living conditions may be categorised as voluntary economic migrants and denied recognition of their special protection needs.’
   UN-led talks to extend the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 are taking place in Bonn, and struggling with rich-poor splits on how to share the cost of preparing for and curbing climate change.

The government has decided to cancel the allotment of 28 abandoned houses allotted ‘unlawfully’ in Gulshan, Banani, Dhanmondi, Elephant Road, Eskaton and Shantinagar areas during the previous BNP rule.
   Talking to the news agency Wednesday the state minister for housing and public works, Abdul Mannan Khan, said the government had already initiated legal process to take back the houses under government holding.
   ‘We have seen the limitless corrupt practice, nepotism and favouritism in all spheres in the past that had become a part of culture,’ Mannan said, adding that the present government wants to get rid of such rot as soon as possible.
   Mannan, office secretary of the ruling Awami League, said he would be playing fair in such matters. ‘No matter how powerful leader or influential person one may be, the government will not give any allotment without following the prescribed rules and law,’ he said.
   Referring to Rajuk’s allotment of housing plots in Uttara and Purbachal projects, Mannan said, so far, 1.65 lakh applications have been submitted against over 6,000 plots.
   ‘We will complete the difficult task with utmost transparency,’ he said.
   The minister said no policy had been finalised yet on allotment of the plots. The policy would be adopted after exchange of views with all.

The opposition leader and BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, is being provided security as much as she deserves in accordance with the law, the home minister said on Wednesday.
   ‘The opposition leader is being provided security as per the law. It won’t be changed in the future,’ Sahara Khatun told reporters at the secretariat, a day after the BNP had alleged that the government had withdrawn police deployed for her security.
   Sahara also said security had been beefed up on all court premises across the country fearing the terrorist and militant attacks.
   She referred to the series bomb attack in 63 districts including court premises in 2005.
   ‘That’s why we have taken the precaution on being alerted to possible attacks,’ she said.
   The minister called on all to watch out for the militants and hand them to the law enforcers.
   She said the investigation agency would be formed as soon as possible to speed up the process for the trial for war crimes.
   The home, law and foreign ministries will take joint measures to this end, she added.
   The law ministry had previously said formation of tribunal, investigation agency and appointment of lawyers would be finalised by June 30.
   Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bushahi met with the home minister at her office.
   ‘We have discussed sending trained workers to Saudi Arabia, providing facilities to the Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims and ensuring facilities for the Bangladeshi workers there,’ Sahara said.

The government is going to purchase two British-made ship-borne helicopters at a cost of Tk 32.28 crore for the naval frigate Bangabandhu powering the warship to be three-dimensional for safeguarding the country’s maritime boundary.
   The multi-purpose anti-aircraft, anti-surface and anti-submarine frigate purchased at a cost of US $100 million lacked adequate number of choppers for overhead patrol, said officials at the ministries of defence and finance.
   The purchase of Augusta Westland’s Euro version marine type helicopters will meet the need, making the number of choppers to three.
   It is part of a plan to bolster the strength of the Bangladesh Navy after tension escalated between Dhaka and Yangon last year over the maritime boundary, added the officials.
   They said the defense ministry has already sent proposals to the finance ministry seeking approval to settle the purchase deal without ‘disclosing the name of the supplying agency’.
   The advance payments will be cleared in the outgoing fiscal while the other installments will be paid in phases until 2012-2013 fiscal year, according to the proposals.
   The previous BNP-led coalition in 2004 had unveiled plans to purchase the warships and other outfits at a cost of Tk 1,911 crore, including four submarines costing Tk 1,200 crore.
   The then minister in-charge of defence in parliament, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed had told the House that missiles, torpedo counter-measure system, long-range surface to air missiles and helicopters that can operate from ships would be procured to increase the combat-power of the existing ships of Bangladesh Navy.
   The Bangabandhu frigate, formerly known as Khalid Bin Walid, is said to be the most modern in the region.
   Built by Daewoo of South Korea, the frigate was ordered in 1999 and was commissioned on June 20 in 2001 as BNS Bangabandhu.
   Later, the ship was decommissioned for various warranty repair works and placed in reserved class-III as DW 2000-H frigate on February 13, 2002.
   It was re-commissioned on July 13, 2007 for active service in Bangladesh Navy as BNS Khalid Bin Walid and was renamed BNS Bangabandhu after the present government came to power.

Tender for expansion of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway to four lanes is being floated in a week and the project involving Tk 2,000 crore will complete in four years, the communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, said.
   He said the government had a plan to expand two more highways to four lanes — one is Dhaka-Mymensingh and the other Faridpur-Barisal-Kuakata.
   The Dhaka-Mymensingh project is in the advanced stage. The government is to complete some conditions of World Bank that will finance the project, he added while speaking at a seminar on ‘Problems of Bangladesh’s road safety and measures to prevent accidents’ in the city’s Sarak Bhaban Wednesday.
   The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority organised the seminar, which was participated by Shahjahan Khan MP, private transport leader Faruq Talukdar Sohel and senior officials. The BRTA chairman, Kamrul Hassan, chaired the daylong seminar.
   About Faridpur-Kuakata road expansion project, the minister said it was in the primary stage. The World Bank has agreed to assist. Consultant for the project will be appointed shortly.
   Referring to frequent and fatal accidents on the highways resulting in deaths of people the communications minister said they had planned to reform Bangladesh Road Transport Authority. The Motor Vehicles Act will also be modernised.
   ‘All organisations related to road transport and traffic management are required to work together to reduce the road accidents,’ he said.
   Shahjahan Khan informed that a new law was in the offing for protecting the transport sector from extortion, now rampant across the country.
   The Dhaka Transport Coordination Board executive director, Abu Bakar Md Shahjahan, in his keynote paper said more than 4,000 people died of road accidents every year, 22 per cent of them were children. The loss is estimated at about Tk 5,000 crore.
   The number of accidents is higher in rural areas than urban areas.
   Faruq Talukdar Sohel observed that narrow and bad-shaped road and weak infrastructures were the main causes of the road accidents.
   Stressing on fitness of the vehicles, he urged the government to compel the transportation owners to set up safety frame and laminated glasses for the vehicles to reduce casualties.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillekeratne Dilshan hammered an opening stand of 124 as Sri Lanka beat the West Indies by 15 runs in the World Twenty20 here on Wednesday.
   The duo lifted Sri Lanka to 192-5, a total the West Indies chased bravely despite the absence of explosive opener and captain Chris Gayle, who missed the Group C match due to a knee injury.
   The West Indians ended at 177-5, fired by a spectacular counter-attack by Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan, who put on 77 off 59 balls for the fifth wicket.
   Bravo hit a 38-ball 51 that included five fours and two sixes, while Sarwan remained unbeaten on 28.
   The match, watched by a sell-out crowd at Trent Bridge, held only academic interest since both teams had already qualified for the Super Eights at Australia’s expense.
   Sri Lanka, who thumped Australia by six wickets in their first match, are hot favourites to make the semi-finals from Super Eights Group F which includes Pakistan, Ireland and New Zealand.
   The West Indies are drawn in the tougher Group E which also has defending champions India, South Africa and hosts England.
   Two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals.
   Left-handed Jayasuriya, at 39 the oldest player in the 12-nation tournament, smashed 81 off 47 balls that was studded with 10 boundaries and three sixes.
   Dilshan, who contributed just 38 in the century partnership, went on to make 74 off 47 balls before he became one of seamer Lendl Simmons’ four victims.
   All-rounder Kieron Pollard bore the brunt of the Sri Lankan assault, conceding 45 runs from his three overs.
   The West Indies made a spirited reply, reaching 70-1 by the seventh over before losing three wickets in the space of as many runs.
   Two of those wickets fell in one over from spinner Ajantha Mendis, who had Xavier Marshall caught in the deep before bowling danger man Shivnarine Chanderpaul for one.

The president, Zillur Rahman, has urged journalists to disseminate news giving the highest priority to national interests as he said the present government believes in independence of the mass media and free flow of information.
   He noted that the government had passed the Right to Information Act and consequently the responsibility of the journalists also increased as regards propagating information through the mass media.
   The president particularly urged the media men to act more responsibly while discussing or making remarks on sensitive issues, including country’s sovereignty and national interests.
   He made the suggestion during a meeting with Dhaka Reporters Unity executive committee at Bangabhaban. The DRU president, Shamim Ahmad, and the general secretary, Pathik Saha, led the delegation.
   He said powerful writings of the journalists are contributing to the advancement of democracy and establishing the rule of law and human rights.
   He expected that the journalist community would always stand beside the people in establishing justice and truth in national interest.
   Referring to prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s declaration of the charter of change, the president hoped that the present government would be able to implement its election pledges by building a poverty-and-hunger-free Bangladesh based on science and information technology.

The Pakistan high commission in Dhaka on Wednesday said a comment by a Pakistan foreign ministry official that war crimes trials in Bangladesh might lead to strained relations between the two countries was misconstrued and out of context.
   Bdnews24.com on Monday, quoting Masood Khalid, Pakistan’s additional secretary for Asia Pacific wing of the foreign ministry, reported that war crimes trials in Bangladesh could ‘hamper ties’ and ‘cast a shadow between the two countries’.
   He told the visiting Bangladeshi journalists in Islamabad on Saturday that Pakistan hoped that noting would be done to slow bilateral ties.
   Law minister Shafiq Ahmed, on Sunday said that the trial of the 1971 war criminals is an internal matter and Pakistan should refrain from making negative comments about it.
   Pakistan high commission in its release said, ‘Remarks attributed to an official of the Pakistani foreign ministry have
   evidently been misconstrued and quoted out of context.’
   ‘Pakistan enjoys good, friendly and brotherly relations with Bangladesh. It is determined to further strengthen these relations on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,’ said the release.