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Students of the Cox’s Bazar Medical College have demanded that the authority should immediately solve various problems of the institution including teacher shortage.
   They placed the demand at a press conference at the Cox’s Bazar Press Club on Wednesday. The students also threatened to launch a movement including human chain and hunger strike programmes if their demand was not met soon.
   They told the press conference that their institution where fifty students are now receiving education are gripped with various problems including shortage of teaching and other staff and a few residential problems.
   The medical college which is now running with only four teachers including principal has no librarian and lab technologists.
   Anwarul Islam, a first year student of the collage, read out a statement at the conference, attended by fourty-five other students.
   Cox’s Bazar Medical Collage started operation in January this year with 50 students.
   Four assistant professors and a principle were appointed first for the departments of anatomy, physiology, bio-chemistry and community medicine. Classes began on February 7.
   Later two of the teachers were transferred and another replaced one of them. The collage was temporary established in a part of the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital.
   At present, there is no teacher for the department of bio-chemistry.
   For absence of residential hall, the students are living in rented rooms where they themselves have to do cooking of their food, ultimately hampering their academic activities.
   The students said that they had earlier informed the deputy commissioner and civil surgeon of the district of the problems, but to no effect.
   The secretary of the ministry of health and family planning and director general of directorate of health during their visit to the collage in February assured of solving the problems soon. But no steps have been seen in this regard so far,’ they lamented.
   The students gave the authority a June-20 ultimatum to take initiative to solve their problems. Otherwise, they will launch a programme to realise their demand.
   Schedule of the programme will be announced later, they said.

A Barisal judge on Wednesday awarded life-term imprisonment to two activists of Sarbahara Party (Kamrul group) for murdering an activist of rival Zia group at Gauranadi upazila in Barisal.
   The two accused, Nasir Pramanik and Lokman Bepari, were present on the dock during pronouncement of the sentence.
   Siddikul Arefin Chowdhury, first additional district judge of Barisal, after examining nine, out of 13 witnesses, and other evidence, announced the verdict and also fined each of the convicts Tk 5,000 or three more months in jail in default.
   Another accused, Fakrul Islam Faku, a leader of their group, was acquitted of the charge as he died in ‘crossfire’ with law enforcers on October 31, 2004.
   Prosecution said a group of activists of Sarbahara Party’s Kamrul group, led by Faku, attacked the house of Khokan Sardar, 31, an activist of the rival Zia group of the party, on June 4, 2004.
   They shot Khokan to death in front his house and left the spot by chanting slogans. Mansur Ali Sardar, father of the victim, lodged a murder case in this connection with the Gournadi police station the same night.
   Sub-inspector Enamul Khan, investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet against the two accused on January 14, 2005.

Farmers in Lalmonirhat are compelled to sell their boro paddy to local traders at lower prices than government fixed prices as the local food department is reluctant to buy paddy from them terming it low quality.
   Many farmers alleged while talking to New Age that they were frustrated as they had to sell their produce below the production cost. The government has fixed paddy price at Tk 14 per kg in its four-month long procurement drive which started on May 1.
   According to sources in Lalmonirhat Food Department office, the government has set a target to procure 1,456 tonnes of paddy and 15,838 tonnes of rice from five upazilas in the district at the price of per kg rice at Tk 22 and paddy at Tk 14.
   But only 1,500 tonnes of rice and 150 tonnes paddy have been procured in the district in the last one month. As a result, the government’s food procurement drive is set to suffer a failure in the district this year.
   The farmers alleged that although the government had fixed the paddy price at Tk 14 per kg, they were compelled to sell it at Tk 7 to Tk 8 per kg to the local traders after being refused by the food department.
   Local food department refuses to buy paddy from growers terming it low quality, they added.
   ‘I sold paddy at Tk 7.5 per kg against the production cost of Tk 8’, said Azibar Rahaman, 50, a farmer at village Durgapur in Aditmari upazila.
   A farmer from village Uttar Gobdha under Aditmari upazila who came with four maunds (37.42 kilogram) of paddy at Durar Kuti Hat Tuesday morning said, ‘I went to Teesta Food Godown and the authority did not receive my paddy saying its quality was not up to the mark.
   Sahidar Rahaman, 48, a farmer at village Mohendra Nagar in sadar upazila said, ‘I have incurred loss of Tk 8,000 from cultivation of paddy on 10 bighas of land this year while my neighbour Taleb Ali made a profit of Tk 20,000 by cultivating tobacco on his three bighas of land only.’
   Boro farming in the district faced a setback as the supply of seedlings was not adequate this year.
   Many farmers of the area failed to cultivate boro because of the high price of fertiliser.
   Contacted, the deputy food controller of Lalmonirhat, Abdus Samad, denying the allegation, said that the farmers came back from godown without selling paddy as they wanted to sell it without maintaining standard of drying and moisture and so they were refused by the food procurement department.

For the first time in the history of the country’s medical science, tissue valve has been transplanted in the heart of a female patient at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital recently.
   Amena Khatun, 20, whose AORJC valve was completely damaged, had to undergo the tissue valve transplant operation.
   With transplantation of the valve in her heart, Amena Khan will now be able to give birth to a child.
   Tissue valve is transplanted into the patients whose age is more than 50 and those who are newly married and want to have child.
   The operation was performed by a team led by Dr Rezwanul Haque Bulbul, Associate Professor of Cardiac Surgery Department at BSMMU hospital with the assistance of Dr Anwarul Islam Sagor, Sabrina Hussain Misti and anesthesiologist Dr Nuruzzaman.
   It took for hours to complete the operation. Condition of the patient, who is still in the hospital, is reportedly well.

The Ukiah police arrested two fake traffic sergeants along with a stolen motorcycle and snatched cash and mobile phone set at Rajo point on the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive Road early Tuesday.
   The police also seized two pistols from their possession.
   The arrested were Kazi Salauddin Romel, 30, son of Kazi Gias Uddin of village Kazipara under Rajapalong union of Ukhia upazila, and Md Noman, 27, son of Nurul Kabir of the same area.
   Md Mizanur Rahman, assistant superintendent of police (Ukiah circle), Cox’s Bazar said that the two had gone to the Himchari police outpost at around 12: 00 pm on Monday by a motorcycle. Identifying themselves as traffic sergeants, they asked the on-duty policemen there to entertain them.
   Later, the two went to the mouth of the river Rajo at Sonarpara point on the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive Road where they snatched one mobile phone set and cash Tk 2,800 from a passenger of a CNG-run taxi. The passenger informed it to the Himchari police who waylaid the two criminals.
   Later, informed, a team of the Ukiah police, led by officer-in-charge, Prodip Das, rushed to the spot and arrested Romel and Noman in possession of a stolen motorcycle, the snatched mobile phone set and cash Tk 2800.

Members of Bangladesh Rifles seized a huge quantity of contraband, suspected of being smuggled from India, on the Nababgonj-Ghoraghat Highway under Nababgonj upazila in Dinajpur on Thursday.
   Tipped off, a BDR team intercepted a truck and seized a huge quantity of Indian fertiliser, 1,013 bottles of Phensidyl syrup (codeine) and 340 kilograms of cumin.