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Formulation of an all-inclusive health policy keeping people’s minimum requirement in mind is a must for reaching quality health services to their doorsteps, experts have said.
   They stressed the need for strengthening ‘public-public partnership’ among as many as 20 ministries, including health, agriculture, food, industry, environment and commerce ministries, to ensure efficient healthcare services.
   Human resources development in the sector is much more important than construction of buildings and procurement of equipment for providing people with quality health services, they said.
   They expressed the views at a two-day national seminar on ‘Contributing to national health policy: towards peoples’ healthcare system’, organised by Shasthya Andolan, a forum of health workers from government and non-government institutions.
   ‘The physicians unwilling to go to rural areas must change their mindset,’ national professor Dr Nurul Islam said. ‘Staying in rural areas for one or two years should be made compulsory for physicians.’
   He suggested that the government should revise the existing health policy taking people’s requirements into consideration, prepare a new list of essential drugs and make changes in the drug control committee. He also said essential drugs must be safe, affordable and available in all areas.
   Ganashasthya Kendra trusty Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said the new health policy must be prepared with an aim to reduce disparity between urban and rural areas.
   He advised the government not to depend heavily on lending countries and agencies about any matter. ‘It is also necessary to observe what type of research the foreign agencies are doing here.’
   Shasthya Adhikar Andolan president Professor Rashid-e-Mahboob stressed the need for building an effective ‘public-public partnership’.
   ‘You can prepare a policy… by keeping as many as 20 ministries out of the process. But it will never be a health policy.’
   Professor Naila Zaman Khan, joint coordinator of Shasthya Andolan, stressed the need for giving neonatal health services proper importance in the health policy. ‘It is a matter of do-or-die for the nation,’ she said.
   Naila Zaman, also a teacher at Dhaka Shishu Hospital, said improvement of antenatal care, safe delivery, emergency obstetric care, postnatal care, adolescent healthcare, positive parenting, speech communication and school sports were important for preventing disability in the children.
   She warned that the number of patients in mental health departments of the hospitals were on the rise.
   She observed that clinical laboratories were mushrooming across the country when radiology and biomedical departments of medical colleges and upazila hospitals remained unutilised.
   Prime minister’s adviser professor Syed Mudasser Ali was the chief guest at the seminar. He said a government could not be considered a people’s government unless it presented a pro-people health policy. ‘It cannot be a people’s health policy unless it reflects people’s expectations.’
   Ubinig managing director Farhad Mazhar and Dhaka Community Hospital Trust coordinator Professor Mahmudur Rahman presided over the inaugural and first working sessions respectively.
   Mahmudur Rahman said the health policy should be flexible to enable it to adapt to changes the sector over time.
   Farhad Mazhar said the health services needed a massive overhaul for making the system truly functional.
   He advised the government to prepare an operational concept document to materialise the targets for the health sector. ‘No person should be kept out of the health service.’
   National Drug Control Board member Professor Dr Arup Ratan Chowdhury, Shasthya Andolan joint convener Farida Akhter and health system management specialist Dr AM Zakir Hossain, among others, participated in the discussion.

Politicians, experts and local representatives at a seminar on Saturday demanded direct budgetary allocation for local bodies for strengthening the local government system.
   They said that the local government must be free of interference from both lawmakers and the bureaucracy and, on the other hand, enjoy financial and administrative authorities for local development with introduction of auditing system at the local level.
   The Bangladesh Union Parisad Forum organised the national seminar on local government policy reform issues in the city with support from USAID and PROGATI, a non-governmental organisation.
   Speaking at the seminar, lawmakers Rashed Khan Menon and Hasanul Haque Inu underlined the need for financial and administrative empowerment of the local government bodies for their effective functioning.
   ‘The Union Parisad should be the focal point of the local government. And the government should allocate funds straight to the local government bodies,’ said Menon.
   He alleged that the local government institutions were always distorted by the military rules in the past and the great distortion to the local government was made by the immediate past caretaker government which, according to him, depoliticised the system by rehabilitating bureaucracy.
   Addressing as chief guest, former adviser to the caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman said, the expectations from the budget could not be achieved without active participation of the local government bodies.
   He said that the Members of Parliament should not intervene into the activities of the local government bodies.
   ‘The MPs are bypassing the local representatives in initiating development work in their localities,’ Hossain Zillur, also an economist, alleged.
   Hasanul Haque said it was a great challenge for the government to free local government of dual-administration.
   Referring to the clarification of the finance minister on the proposed scope for whitening black money, the lawmaker said, people wanted to know who compelled the government to give the chance for whitening the black money since neither the prime minister nor the finance minister did support it.
   He said the government should make specific budgetary allocations for local government bodies.
   Hasanul Haque demanded further amendment to the Upazila Parisad Act, terming the present law incomplete.
   Lawmaker Shawkat Momen Shajahan, former lawmaker Ali Reza Razu and general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh Mujahidul Islam Selim spoke among others while Dhaka University professor Salahuddin M Aminuzzaman presented the keynote paper at the seminar moderated by former member of the now-defunct Local Government Commission Tofail Ahmed.
   Tofail said the new budget like the previous ones do not specify budgetary allocations for the local government.
   Shawkat Momen claimed that MPs were not interfering into the activities of the local government, but the statement was vehemently protested by the local government representatives who were present at the seminar.
   He promised that he would raise the grievances of the local representatives, mostly Union Parisad chairmen and Upazila Parisad chairmen, to the government.
   Mujahidul Islam said that the government should allocate one-third of the local budget to the local government institutions and abolish the local government ministry to keep the local government outside any bureaucratic control.
   Aminuzzaman in his keynote paper underscored the need for enacting an integrated local government code/law and reviving the local government commission.
   He observed that military rulers always did something in favour the local government, whatever motive they had behind the moves.
   BUPF president Mahbubur Rahman and secretary general Ataharul Islam also spoke at the seminar. They demanded that the government should restore union parisads’ control over local resources and stop interference of MPs and issuance of any notifications that go against the autonomy of the Union Parisad.

Lawmakers, educationists, rights activists and social workers in a discussion on Saturday stressed the importance of training for the teachers of all primary and secondary educational institutes to build a minority-friendly environment.
   Human rights organisation Odhikar organised
   the discussion on ‘Training for primary and secondary level education and human right’ at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
   The discussion placed 10 draft training manuals for the teachers of all types of primary and secondary level educational institutes including madrassah, English medium and vocational schools.
   The speakers said the training manuals might help the capacity building of the teachers in reducing discrimina-tion against the ethnic and religious minority students.
   They said they had prepared the manuals for school management committee, guardians, headmasters and teachers of primary schools, secondary schools and madrassah, teachers of English medium, secondary school teachers of English medium and teachers of non-formal schools.
   Jatiya Smajtantrik Dal president and lawmaker Hasanul Haq Inu said the teachers should be provided with training first, otherwise it would not be possible to change their mindset about the minority students.
   Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Maniruzzaman Miah said the government should take initiative to ensure human rights of minority students and instruct the schools.
   Researchers said though education about religion was mandatory, the government failed to ensure enough teachers for the minority students. Sometimes, the teachers from different religious background teach them.
   Dhaka University law department teacher Mizanur Rahman presided over the discussion.

The Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority will set up effluent treatment plants at end-points of all canals to stop pollution of the rivers surrounding the capital, said the Dhaka WASA managing director.
   MM Shahjahan Ali Mollah, the Dhaka WASA managing director, said this as he visited Kalyanpur Regulatory Pond on Saturday, according to a WASA release.
   The project to set up the treatment plants at a cost of Tk 1,000 crore will be implemented on World Bank funding under the Dhaka Integrated Environmental and Water Management Project.
   The feasibility study for the project has been under way to selected places where the plants will be set up. Shahjahan the project will be implemented in four to five years.
   He said two water pumps would be set up at the Kalyanpur Regulatory Pond to address the problem water stagnation in the area. Three pumps are now flushing out water from the pond, which retains waters flowing down from four canals.
   He later visited the Hazaribagh canal where he was joined in by local lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh.
   The High Court on June 8 asked the Dhaka WASA to install treatment plants to treat the sewage before it is dumped into the rivers.

The government tomorrow begins the four-day brainstorming workshop at Jamuna Resort in Tangail to review the eighth draft coal policy with the participation of a number of local and expatriate Bangladeshi ‘experts’ some of whom have campaigned in favour of open-pit mining.
   The coal policy was first drafted in 2005 but successive governments failed to finalise it after making changes for seven times in a debate over fixing the mining method and royalty rate.
   A team of around 40 people including prime minister’s adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and state minister for power and energy Shamsul Haque Tuku and 11 local and expatriate ‘experts’ will attend the workshop and visit coal fields in Dinajpur for gathering first-hand data before making any recommendations on the coal policy.
   Meanwhile, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port, the Bangladesh Economic Association and a number of eminent teachers of different public universities have criticised the government move to get the coal policy reviewed by the ‘so-called experts’.
   The entourage will also include state minister for forest and environment, Mustafizur Rahman, six members of parliamentary standing committee on power and energy, five parliament members from the coal field areas, energy and power secretaries, Petrobangla and Power Development Board chairmen, Department of Environment and Geological Survey of Bangladesh director generals and other officials of energy division, Petrobangla, Bureau of Mineral Development and Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited.
   The ‘experts’ will review the latest draft of the coal policy, which was changed by the interim government amid criticism after an advisory committee, headed by the BUET’s former vice-chancellor Abdul Matin Patwari, finalised the draft.
   Sources in Petrobangla said three local ‘experts’ — Professor Ijaz Hossain from BUET, Professor Hossain Mansur from Dhaka University and Professor Kamruzzaman of Rajshahi University — have been invited to attend the programme.
   The expatriate ‘experts’ include Dr Nasif Ahmed, Masud Hossain, Abu Salek Sufi and Sultana Nasrin from Australia and Dr Khalequzzaman, Dr Sad Andalib and Dr Sarwat Chowdhury from the USA.
   Sources in Petrobangla said some of the local and expatriate ‘experts’ have campaigned in favour of open-pit mining in last few years while some of them are from business studies background.
   They said a German organisation that has sponsored a number of roundtables and seminars to promote open-pit mining and the controversial Asia Energy’s Phulbari project would provide funds for the programme.
   Although Petrobangla initially estimated that around Tk 80 lakh would be needed, the latest estimate of the corporation showed that the expenditure of the programme would be between Tk 30 lakh and Tk 40 lakh.
   The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port, the Bangladesh Economic Association and a number of eminent teachers of different public universities, meanwhile, also alleged that the government was trying to legitimise the open-pit mining and allow the controversial UK-based Asia Energy to operate open-pit mining at Phulbari coal field by reviewing the draft.
   They demanded that the government should approve the draft of the coal policy finalised by the Patwari committee and ban open-pit mining in the country.

Judges, judicial magistrates and law enforcers at a meeting on Saturday stressed the need for increased manpower, and salaries and other benefits to ensure access to justice for all.
   The speakers raised the issue at a workshop on ‘Impediments to access to justice and remedies: Bangladesh perspective,’ organised by the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights in the BIAM auditorium in Dhaka.
   ‘There are about 1,200 judges in the lower judiciary…. But there are more than 14 crore people in the country. How can access to justice for all be ensured?’ said district and sessions judge of Dhaka Abdul Gafur in his speech.
   The police officials attending the meeting subscribed to Gafur’s view.
   ‘The police have 1.24 lakh personnel. But the number of our investigation officers is less than the police personnel who escort the ministers,’ said deputy police commissioner of Wari Zone in Dhaka Towfiq Mahbub Chowdhury. ‘Many investigation officers cannot visit the places of occurrence for want of vehicles.’
   ‘If a policeman gets Tk 1,000 in salary, a Rapid Action Battalion man gets Tk 3,000. In such a situation, who will provide better services?’ said Towfiq. ‘The battalion has been modernised more than the Bangladesh Police.’
   The BSEHR findings presented at the meeting are: no policemen have made inquest reports at the places of occurrence, juvenile accused in some cases are kept in jail with the adult in violation of the Children Act 1974, investigations are hampered for lack of experience of the officers, no separate safe custody is there in jails women and children; the number of policemen is not adequate, the police show negative attitude towards filing of cases, the police are involved in corruption for lack of facilities, unavailability of evidence for delay in examination of rape victims, the forensic department does not remain open all the time, and justice to victims is disrupted for lack of medical facilities for victims in upazilas.
   The BSEHR executive director, Alina Khan, moderated the workshop while the organisation’s coordinator Omar Faruk read out the keynote paper.
   The suggests floated at the meeting to address the problems are amendment of the family law so that women can get a half of the bridal money through appeals court when estranged husband will files an appeal for divorce, quick disposal of the fatwa case appeal now pending with the Appellate Division, and a change in behaviour of on-duty policemen at desk.

The home ministry has formed a three-member probe body to investigate Friday’s dispute over a meeting of the Water Transport Coordination Cell at Agrabad in Chittagong, a home ministry spokesperson said.
   ‘The home minister Sahara Khatun at a meeting on Saturday morning has decided to form a probe body to investigate the WTCC conflict and asked the body to submit its report within seven days,’ home ministry public relations officer Shahinoor Miah Shahin told bdnews24.com on Saturday.
   The WTCC began operations on Friday after dropping MP and CCCI president Mohammed Abdul Latif from the post of adviser and convenor, leading to a ‘scuffle’ between the MP and the police when he tried to force his way into the meeting.
   The shipping minister, Afsarul Amin, and the Chittagong city corporation mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, attended the launching programme.
   The WTCC was formed in 2005 in association with the Coastal Ship Owners’ Association and Bangladesh Cargo Owners’ Vessel Owners’ Association.
   It was stipulated at the time that the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president and senior most vice-president would hold the post of adviser and convenor respectively.
   But Latif, the Awami League MP from Chittagong-10, allegedly thrust himself into the post of both adviser and convenor on being elected CCCI chief eight months back.
   The aggrieved ship owners sat with the shipping minister who on June 3 directed senior vice president of the chamber Mohammed Abdus Salam to take the charge of convenor.
   Ignoring the minister’s directives, Latif expressed his desire to retain the convenor’s post and got related papers signed by the chamber directors.
   He decided to launch WTCC operations without intermediaries of the ship owners’ association, while the latter went ahead with Friday’s meeting without the MP.
   Around 10:00am on Friday when Latif, accompanied by some hundred supporters, attempted entering the WTCC office, the police stopped them and an altercation arose.
   Rebuffed by the police, the MP reportedly manhandled both Nirmalendu Bikash Chakravarti, an assistant police commissioner, and the local police chief, AKM Manjurul Haque.
   Latif, who sustained minor injuries, alleged, ‘Shipping minister Afsarul Amin and Chittagong mayor ABM mohiuddin Chowdhury set the police to stop me entering the WTCC office.’
   The probe body, headed by additional secretary for home Golam Hossain, includes deputy inspector general of the Chittagong police headquarters, Mainul Rahman Chowdhury, and deputy secretary for home, Zakir Hossain.

Another soldier of the Bangladesh Rifles gave a confessional statement in the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on Saturday in connection with the February 25-26 rebellion at the Pilkhana in the capital that left 75 people killed, 57 of them army officers deputed to the border guards.
   The Criminal Investigation Department of police, investigating the case, produced the soldier, sepoy Caching Marma, in the court of metropolitan magistrate Dilara Alo Chandana at around midday Saturday and the court sent him to the jail in the evening after recording his statement.
   The police also produced 14 other BDR soldiers in the same court on the day after the end of their remand periods of time and sought a fresh 5-day remand for each of them. After hearing, the court remanded all the 14 soldiers in police custody for two days each.
   The court also asked the police to interrogate the soldiers with caution.
   With the latest, a total of 1,487 people, most of them BDR soldiers, have been arrested and 153 of them, including three civilians, made confessional statements in the court in connection with the BDR carnage case.
   Outside the capital, a total of 1,723 soldiers have so far been arrested in 30 districts for their suspected involvement in the rebellion on the second day at their respective battalion and sector headquarters.
   Meanwhile, the police seized a grenade and eight bullets from beside a drain at Hazaribagh on Saturday.
   The grenade and ammunition were found abandoned at Birban Kachra.
   On information, Hazaribagh thana police, led by sub-inspector Mahmudul Hasan, went to the spot and seized the grenade and ammunition.
   Police suspect that the grenade and ammunition might have been looted from the armoury of the BDR headquarters during the February 25-26 carnage.

The communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, Saturday said double line would be set up on the Dhaka - Narayanganj rail route for the convenience of passengers.
   The minister said this while inaugurating Turag Express, a commuter service from Narayanganj to Joydevpur, at the Narayanganj Rail Station.
   Local MP Nasim Osman also spoke on the occasion. Narayanganj Pourasabha mayor Selina Hayat Ivy and the Bangladesh Railway director general, Belayet Hossain, were present.
   The minister said the new train service has been introduced so that local passengers can go to Dhaka and Joydevpur easily avoiding road traffic jam.
   Train fare from Narayanganj to Joydevpur has been fixed at Tk 13 while it is Tk 6 from Narayanganj to Dhaka.
   Abul Hossain said the government has undertaken a masterplan for
   development of the railway sector. Additional amount has been allocated in the budget for railway, which is comparatively higher than in last seven years.
   He said, meanwhile, tender has been floated for Dhaka - Chittagong four-lane road. He hoped its construction would begin at the end of this year and it would be completed within the tenure of the present government.

The government formed a ten-member committee headed by the prime minister’s education, social development and political affairs adviser Alauddin Ahmed for formulating a concrete policy for MPO allocation and enlistment of new educational institutions.
   An official announcement Saturday said the committee would review the existing policy for providing Monthly Payment Order to private educational institutions and formulate a draft policy for the inclusion of new educational institutions in the MPO list.
   The other members of the committee are chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on education ministry, Rashed Khan Menon, its member Shah Alam, directors-general of the secondary and higher secondary education directorate and technical education directorate, the chairman of Bangladesh Madrassah education board, joint secretary (college) of education ministry, Kazi Faruk and Abdul Awal Siddiqui of teachers associations and director of Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics.

Former National Security Intelligence director retired wing commander Shahabuddin Ahmed gave a statement in the Chittagong chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on Saturday in connection with another case related to the 2004 arms and ammunition haul.
   The police produced him in the court of metropolitan magistrate Mahbubur Rahman in the afternoon. The statement was recorded in connection with the arms smuggling case.
   Shahabuddin earlier gave his statement in court on May 15 in connection with the arms recovery case.
   Court sources said Shahabuddin had named many important persons involved, but the details could not be disclosed in the interest of investigation.
   The Criminal Investigation Department arrested Shahabuddin at a place in Dhaka on May 2 based on the statement of Akbar Hossain, a field officer of the National Security Intelligence.
   The CID produced him in the court of the metropolitan magistrate in Chittagong and sought him to be remanded for five days on May 4. The court, however, granted three days’ remand.
   The court allowed him to be remanded for six more days on completion of the earlier remand and the CID sent him to the Task Force Interrogation cell in Dhaka for interrogation.
   The police recovered 4,930 firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2,000 grenade-launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets when they were being loaded into 10 trucks from two engine boats at the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd jetty on April 2, 2004.

The standing committee of the main opposition BNP Saturday night sat at a meeting after a month’s recess to review the latest political developments.
   The meeting began at around 9:00pm with the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, in the chair. It was expected to discuss issues such as the party’s joining the parliament session, dipping law and order and the effects of India’s Tipaimukh dam plan.
   The standing committee is likely to ask the BNP parliamentary party to decide whether to join the budget session, senior leaders had said before the meeting began.
   The opposition BNP has been abstaining from the budget session of the parliament over seat row.
   The standing committee earlier had a meeting on May 18 where it formed convening committees of 71 out of 75 district-level units, disbanding the past committees.
   All the members on the committee but Saifur Rahman and Abdul Matin Chowdhury were present at Saturday’s meeting, which was going on till 11:000pm.

At least three people were killed and 20 others injured in a road accident on the Dhaka–Jamuna road at Mirzapur in Tangail about at 7:30am.
   The Mirzapur police officer-in-charge, Md Habibullah, and witnesses said the accident had taken place when a Jhatika Paribahan bus headed for Dhaka from Tangail skidded off the road into a roadside ditch at the place.
   Three passengers died on the spot and 20 others were injured. Five of the passengers, who were critically injured, were admitted to Mirzapur Kumudini Medical College Hospital. Fifteen others were given first-aid treatment.

The Jatiya Party faction, led by Anwar Hossain Manju, will hold its central council on October 24 in Dhaka.
   The decision was made in a party presidium meeting at a city hotel on Saturday.
   The meeting approved 51-member central convening committee of the Jatiya Juba Sanghati, the associated youth organisation of the party, with MA Quayum as convener and Nazrul Islam as member secretary.
   The party presidium termed the proposed budget for fiscal 2009-10 as pro-people. It would help to eradicate poverty and establish good governance, it said, adding it would also increase investments and create jobs.
   Chaired by the party chairman, Anwar Hossain Manju, the meeting was also addressed by its secretary general Sheikh Shahidul Islam, presidium members Abdur Rahim, Shah Rafiqul Bari Chowdhury, Amena Bari and Sadek Siddique.

The Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leather goods and Footwear Exporters’ Association has termed the proposed budget an employment-generating and investment-friendly one but it criticised the government for not mentioning anything about the already announced stimulus package in the budget.
   ‘The government has failed to provide the leather goods and footwear exporters with 17.50 per cent export assistance as it has not yet executed its stimulus package to face global recession,’ the association said in a written statement on Saturday .
   The leather exporters’ body said the leather sector was in deep trouble as its exports fell by 40 per cent recently.
   It feared ‘if the recession deepens, the survival of the industry would be at stake’.
   The association also demanded special allocation for tannery businessmen for the transfer of Hazaribagh tannery industries to Savar.

Bangladesh Farm Labourers’ Union on Saturday said the budget proposed for the 2009–2010 financial year had no direction on rural economy reconstruction and rural poverty reduction and demanded increased allocation for the purposes.
   The organisation president, Saiful Huq, and the general secretary, Nasiruddin Nasu, in a statement said although the proposed budget had expanded the social safety net coverage, it had no indication about job creation for farm labourers.
   The demand for the establishment of agro-based industries and introduction of food rationing for the poor has also been ignored in the proposal, the leaders said.
   The proposed budget has also ignored the demand for ensuring a minimum of 120 working days for farm labourers and the poor with the payment of Tk 150 a day.
   The total allocation for agriculture sector is 14 per cent less than in the previous budget which might hamper the agricultural production, the leaders said.
   Leaders of farm labourers called on the government and the finance minister, AMA Muhith, to increase allocation for agriculture and rural economy.

The 10th anniversary of death of Chowdhury Mohiuddin Ahmed (Tara Mia) will be observed today.
   A former police officer and sportsman Mohiuddin died on this day of old age complications.
   A prayer session will be held at Dattapara Jam-e-Masjid in Madaripur after the asr prayers, a family press release said.

Two Bangladesh Chhatra League activists of the Brajamohan College unit in Barisal were injured in a factional clash Saturday afternoon.
   Additional police were deployed on the campus to avoid further clash, said Nuruzzaman Chowdhury, officer-in-charge of the Barisal Kotwali police.
   Witnesses said Saturday was the last date for changing subject and department for honours students.
   Rafiq Serniabat, joint-convener of the college unit BCL, with his associates tried to control the rush and do the work through their channel while Mustafizur Rahman Rinku and Nur Pavel, both loyal to the rival Faisal group, protested at this at about 12:30pm.
   Their altercation later changed into clashes between the two groups.
   The police with the help of teachers controlled the situation at about 1:30pm and academic activities ended properly, said the college principal, Professor Nani Gopal Das.

Disgruntled depositors of Jubok observed a token hunger strike on Saturday to press their demands for return of their dues and end to harassment.
   The depositors under the banner of ‘Forum of Cheated Depositors of Jubok,’ observed the hour-long token hunger strike from 10:00am on the National Press Club premises before being asked to leave the place by the police, the forum leaders said.
   The depositors alleged that an evil clique was lobbying with the government to create a smokescreen so that the depositors did not get back their money.
   They also alleged that in the name of saving Jubok, the clique was gathering known criminals and absconding people, who had embezzled money of the Jubok depositors across the country.
   Convener of the forum Mostafizur Rahman claimed that they have been threatened by elements related with the absconding Jubok management with dire consequences and that that they would not get their money back.
   He said they [depositors] have welcomed the government initiative of forming a task force on the Jubok issue but demanded that the task force should work without being influenced any quarter.
   He also demanded that the government should include at least three representatives from the depositors in the task force.
   Among others, member-secretary of the forum Dhali Aminul Islam Ripon, joint convener (Chittagong) Yasmin Ara Begum and central leader Azizur Rahman joined the token hunger strike.

Economists and environmentalists in a seminar on Saturday called on the government to make the Haor Development Board functional to ensure better service for about two million people.
   They also demanded that the government should ensure haor people’s access to the water resources of about 395 haors in about 20,022 square kilometre areas at 48 upazilas in seven districts.
   Professor Muinul Islam of the Chittagong University economics department read out the keynote paper styled ‘Access of poor women and men to water resources and land in haor areas and their vulnerability’ at CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
   The haors are natural habitats to a large variety of fresh water fish, aquatic plants, migratory birds, wild fowls and ducks, natural wetland vegetation and water resistant trees like hijol and koroch, said Muinul.
   But the haor people do not get access to these resources over years as the government lease them out to the vested quarters, said the speakers.
   Bangladesh Economic Association president Kazi Kholiquzzaman, IUCN country representative Ainun Nishat, Bimal Kumar, Abul Hossain and BELA’s Bahrin Khan spoke on the keynote paper.
   The Association for Land Reform and Development organised the seminar.

The Noagaon-3 MP, Akram Hossain Chowdhury, his wife and four other people were injured seriously as the jeep carrying them plunged into a ditch at Shahjahanpur on the Dhaka-Bogra Highway Saturday.
   The accident occurred when Akram was going to his constituency in Noagaon from the capital along with his wife and four other people.
   Witnesses said the jeep of the MP fell into a roadside ditch after a tyre of the jeep deflated, leaving all six injured at about 6:00am.
   The injured were taken to Bogra Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital.