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Scorching hot weather, coupled with frequent power outages, has made the life of city dwellers unbearable as there was no rainfall in Rajshahi for over two weeks.
   Attendance at schools and colleges has fallen drastically while city people feel reluctant to go outside due to extremely and uncomfortably hot weather. City streets look desert at noon with reduction in traffic.
   Country’s highest temperature of 38.3 degrees Celsius and 36.5 degrees Celsius was recorded at Rajshahi on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, Met Office said.
   Old people and children, admitted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, are worst sufferers as power outage continued in the city and the generator at the hospital remained inoperative for years.
   The hospital authorities said charge for repairing the generator is high and they are unable to run the generator due to high price of diesel.
   RMCH sources said at least 400 people, mostly elderly and children, infected with diarrhoea were admitted to the hospital in last week.
   Besides, most water bodies in the area have dried up. The Met Office said it recorded an average rainfall of 1,382mm here in 2001, 1,447mm in 2002, 1,423mm in 2003, 1,794mm in 2004 and 1,400mm in 2005.
   Sources in the Rajshahi City Corporation said there were 4,283 water bodies in Rajshahi in 1961 but the number of water bodies came down to 2,271 in 1981, 1,790 in 1991, 729 in 2000 and 400 in 2003. Filling of water bodies goes on unabated flouting the rules, they added.
   Sources in fire service and civil defence said they were facing water crisis during the time of any fire incidents because many water bodies in the metropolitan area were filled with earth. They also urged the city dwellers to build water reservoirs on their own.
   According to sources in the Department of Public Health Engineering, groundwater level fell in the region drastically due to lifting of excessive water.
   Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal, a professor of geology and mining department at Rajshahi University, said climate change might cause desertification in the region. All concerned should work together to combat desertification, he added

Participants in a discussion on Wednesday underscored the need for media role in creating awareness of bird flu to protect the people from the deadly viral disease.
   The media can play a key role in fighting bird flu by projecting information with necessary advice on the fatal viral disease, the speakers said.
   They made the observation while addressing the discussion titled ‘the role of media in preventing flu’ organised by the UNICEF in Khulna Press Club auditorium.
   The speakers also called on the people to live in a hygienic condition as a preventive measure to protect them from avian flu.
   Local journalists working from different national and local dailies, television channels and NGO representatives attended the programme chaired by journalist Shahabuddin Ahmed.
   UNICEF communication expert Shamsdhuddin Ahmed and journalists Mokbul Hossain Mintu, Shah Alam, Subir Roy and Sohorab Hossain, among others, were also present.
   Bird flu is a more dangerous than any other diseases, the speakers said, adding that no vaccine is yet to be invented to kill the deadly virus.
   Taking preventing measures is the only remedy to avoid being attacked by avian flu, they said and urged the media to play more effective role in creating mass awareness of the disease.
   The speakers said one should wash hands with soap water after returning home from outside and after slaughtering poultry birds and animals, keeping the slaughtering place neat and clean and keeping the children away from poultry birds.
   They also advised people not to touch any dead poultry bird with bare hands and not to slaughter poultry birds attacked with diseases and not to use wastes of sick poultry birds for any purpose.
   Besides, one should use masks while taking care of poultry birds and domestic animals and boil poultry birds and eggs before eating them, they said.

A month-long tree fair, organised by the Chittagong City Corporation, began on the outer stadium premises on Wednesday.
   The Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury inaugurated the fair as the chief guest. Vice-chancellor of Chittagong University Professor Abu Yousuf Alam, vice-chancellor of Premier University Professor Anupam Sen and chairman of the Chittagong Development Authority Abdus Salam attended the function as the special guests.
   The divisional director of Department of Environment Abdus Sobhan, director of Forest Research Institute Abdul Latif and forest conserver Anwar Hossain, among others, addressed the inaugural session.
   The mayor stressed the need for increasing tree plantation for the sake of maintaining ecological balance, saying that environmental imbalance causes natural calamities.
   ‘Tree plantation is necessary to maintain ecological balance as trees play a pivotal role in bringing economic prosperity,’ he said, and urged the people to plant more saplings.
   More than one hundred nurseries and plant sales outlets are taking part in the fair. Students of different schools and colleges, run by the city corporation, will perform everyday in the evening during the fair.

The Rajshahi City Corporation on Wednesday launched a drive against unauthorised rickshaws in the city.
   RCC sources said there are only 16,000 registered rickshaws in the city but about 50,000 rickshaws ply without licence. Most rickshaw-pullers do not go by any rules causing traffic jam in the city, they added.
   Although the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police asked them to use hurricane lamps at night, many rickshaw-pullers do not carry lamps resulting in road accidents.
   RCC in association with the police launched the drive and set up check posts at different places in the city to examine registration numbers of the rickshaws.
   During the drive, at least 250 unauthorised rickshaws were seized till midday on Wednesday and dumped on the premises of RCC’s old building at Sonadighi.
   A RCC official said as a large number of unauthorised rickshaws are plying city roads, the city corporation is being deprived of revenue. ‘We will continue the drive across the city to phase out illegal rickshaw.’
   The corporation authorities also urged rickshaw-pullers to renew their licences. If anybody fails to renew licences, the authorities will take action against them, the official said.
   Rickshaw-pullers, however, expressed their dissatisfaction over the decision about the licence. They said the authorities should inform them of the decision earlier.
   ‘If I cannot pull rickshaw, my family will go without food,’ said Morshed Alam, a rickshaw-puller.

Speakers at a discussion meeting on Wednesday demanded reduction in prices of gas cylinders in the northern region including Rajshahi.
   Most of the people in the region use firewood as they can’t afford to buy gas cylinder, the speakers told the meeting organised by Rajshahi Rakkha Sangram Parishad at its office.
   Chaired by Jamat Khan, convener of RRSP, the meeting was addressed by Liakat Ali, editor of the local daily Sonali Sangbad, Tasiqul Islam Bakul, editor of the local daily Sunshine, Mosharraf Hossain Akhunji, language movement veteran, Professor Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu, student adviser of RU, Professor Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal, Harunur Rashid, director of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Saidur Rahman, general secretary of Rajshahi Press Club, and freedom fighter Mostafizur Rahman Sawdagar.
   The speakers demanded that the government should undertake more afforestation projects to combat desertification in the northern region.
   The people of the northern region were deprived of various facilities, they said, adding that the government should work out a plan for balanced development of all the regions in the country.
   The Rajshahi people are holding rallies and staging demonstrations for gas supply through the pipeline but gas supply is yet to be started, they added, saying that the people in Rajshahi are buying gas cylinder at Tk 900 each.

American International University, Bangladesh and Eastern University will introduce courses on rural marketing from spring 2010 session.
   The BBA and MBA courses are being introduced in collaboration with Katalyst, a development agency working for Bangladesh’s SME sector development.
   A memorandum of understanding on the collaboration with the two universities was signed with Katalyst on Tuesday.
   The AIUB’s vice-chancellor Carmen Z Lamagna, the Eastern University’s VC professor Rahim B Talukdar and Katalyst general manager James Blewett signed the agreement on behalf of their respective institutions and organisation.
   Katalyst and the two universities will support the partnership by developing relevant modules, building capacity of the faculty and facilitating linkages with various other stakeholders, a press release said.
   The collaboration is the first of its kind in Bangladesh, which will enable the students to gain practical insight of the dynamics of rural markets, consumers and businesses in the country.
   The AIUB vice-chancellor said her university has joined the initiatives as ‘it is really the time for the development of rural marketing.

A jackfruit trader was killed and three others were injured as a truck turned turtle near Bangladesh Television Bhaban at Rampura in the city early Wednesday.
   The deceased was identified as Abul Kashem, 35, of Nayanpur village under Bhal-uka upazila in Mymensingh.
   The police said the accident took place at about 4:30am when a group of jackfruit traders were going to the Jatrabari wholesale market.
   The injured Nasiruddin, 32, cousin of Kashem, Aftab Hossain, 50 and Imam Ali, 27 and truck helper Kamal Hossain, 25, were admitted to Dhaka Medical Hospital.
   Traffic on the road resumed after the police removed the truck from the sport in the morning.

A seminar styled ‘Climate Change and Challenge: Your World Needs You’ was held at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology on Wednesday.
   The forestry and environmental science department arranged the seminar at the SUST auditorium marking World Environment Day.
   Chaired by the department head Professor Narayan Saha, the seminar was addressed by vice-chancellor Professor Saleh Uddin, proctor Saiful Islam, Professor Kabir Hossain and Professor Akhtarul Islam.
   Naznin Rayhan, lecturer of forestry department, presented a keynote paper on ‘Impact of Climate Change in Tea Production’ at the seminar.

Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at a few places over Rajshahi, Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet divisions and at one or two places over Khulna and Barisal divisions in next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, Met office said.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:46pm and rises tomorrow at 5:10am.
   Country’s highest temperature 36.5 degrees Celsius was recorded on Wednesday at Rajshahi and lowest 23.3 degrees at Srimongal.