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THE people in Patuakhali char (shoal) areas have found farming of Australian Sweet Jumbo variety grass profitable that might help them largely to reduce poverty.
   The Australian hybrid grass is mainly cultivated in the sandy char areas of Agunmukha, Ramnabad, Kajol and Tetulia rivers.
   Farming of the grass has already made a good number of people economically self-reliant side by side getting increased milk production and fattening their own cattle in the poverty-ridden shoal areas.
   Five non-government organisations under the government’s ongoing Char Livelihood Programme have been providing support to the char people for farming of the grass in seven upazilas of the district since 2008.
   Taking lessons from the success last year, the NGOs took up a massive programme for farming of the hybrid grass on 1,000 acres of land this season under the CLP to reduce poverty in the disaster-prone char areas.
   Enterprise Supervisor of Patuakhali Rural Development Service Md Mostafijur Rahman, who is in-charge of the grass farming programme in Galachipa, Dashmina and Bauphal upazilas and its Market Development Officer for Bauphal upazila, Md Mokhlesur Rahman, informed New Age about the success.
   The two PRDS officials, who are directly involved in expansion of the grass farming programme of the CLP, told the New Age that they started the farming last year with a view to reducing poverty through promoting animal husbandry.
   The Pacific Seed Company first imported seeds of the grass from Australia and the CLP authorities arranged distribution of the same among the char people through the district level seed distributors and the NGOs last year.
   Each pack of 300 gram seeds costs Tk 85 that can be sowed on 10 decimals of land and per acre production cost of the grass is Tk 4,500 to 5,000.
   The first harvest can be got after one month of sowing seeds and there might be a total of eight harvests from the same land annually.
   A farmer can earn a net profit of around Tk 50,000 per acre annually after meeting the demand for his own cattle more or less.
   Farmer Shahjahan Ali, 35, of Char Montaj under Galachipa upazila, told this correspondent that he sowed his 17 decimals of land with Sweet Jumbo Grass seeds three months ago.
   After meeting the total fodder demand for his seven cows he sold grass of Tk 17,000 in two harvests.
   Faridul Islam, 35, of village Dhankhali under Kalapara upazila, Abdul Baten, 45, of Char Borhan under Dashmina upazila, and Saidur Rahman, 38, of Char Wadel village in Bauphal upazila, said that they cultivated the grass on some 20 decimals of land each.
   They sold grass of around Tk 18,000 each after meeting own demand for seven to eight cows during the past two months and were expecting more profit in the next harvests.
   Mintu Mian, 40, of village Alipura under Dashmina upazila, sold grass of Tk 18,000 from his 50 decimals of land after feeding his own eight cows during the same period.

The Rajshahi district unit of Bangladesh Nationalist Party has demanded immediate resignation of foreign minister Dipu Moni and water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen for their recent false statements of receiving the agreed share of the Ganges water through Farakka barrage in India.
   They also demanded immediate expulsion of the Indian high commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakrabarty from the country for making an offended statement about the protests made by the countrymen against construction of the Tipaimukh dam by India.
   They made the demand at a press conference arranged on the bank of the river Padma on Monday asking India to provide Bangladesh with her agreed share of the Ganges water as per the treaty signed between the two countries.
   Mizanur Rahman Minu, former mayor of the Rajshahi City Corporation and convenor of the Rajshahi city unit of BNP, read out a written statement in the press briefing, which was attended by Rajshahi district unit BNP convenor Azizur Rahman, city unit joint convenor Shahin Shawkat, and local leaders Elahi Box Mondal, Alauddin Ahmed, Sayeed Hasan and Abu Sayeed Chand.
   The BNP leaders said Bangladesh was deprived of her share of the Ganges water as per the water sharing treaty struck with India by the former Awami League government in 1996, resulting in drying up of the river Padma in the dry season.
   They alleged that the foreign minister Dipu Moni and water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen had served the purpose of India by making the false statement of receiving the agreed share of the Ganges water.
   They demanded immediate resignation of Dipu Moni and Ramesh Chandra Sen for making statements ignoring the interest of the country and her people.
   They demanded ousting of Pinak Ranjan Chakrabarty from the country for his offended statement about the Bangladeshis’ opposition of constructing the Tipaimukh dam by India, which also raised the voices of the human rights activists in India.
   Pinak Ranjan made the statement at a seminar on regional connectivity which was organised by the Bangladesh-India Friendship Society at a city hotel on Sunday.
   He said, ‘There is no international law that can stop New Delhi from implementing the Tipaimukh dam project.’

Thirty-eight alleged activists of the banned Islamist militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh have been sued for torturing a man at Bagmara upazila in Rajshahi.
   One Amir Ali Pramanik of village Maddhyajhina of the upazila filed the case with the judicial magistrate court in Rajshahi on Sunday.
   The JMB activists include Abdus Sattar, a JMB adviser, Lutfar Rahman, close aide to executed JMB operations commander Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, Mostafizur Rahman alias 'Killer Mostaque', Mahtab Khamaru, Mamunur Rashid, Enamul Haque, Siddikur Rahman, Azadul Islam, Aminul, Abdul Kuddus, Abdus Sobhan Pramanik, Abdul Barik, Abu Taher Shah, Shamsuddin, Riazuddin, Ajimuddin Master, Abdul Mannan, Azahar Ali, Majibar Rahman, Mamun Pramanik, Abdul Gani, Golam Mostafa Bablu, SM Mokhlesur Rahman, Zakaria, Sattar Moulavi, Gafur Pramanik, Morshed, DM Fazlur Rahman, Habibur Rahman, Saheb, Mohammed Manju, Towhidul Islam, Rafiqul Islam, Aiyub Ali, Jinnat and Anwar Hossain.
   The complainant in the case statement said that the JMB activists, equipped with firearms, swooped on his house in the evening of April 7, 2004.
   They set afire some of his land documents and looted gold ornaments, mobile phone sets and cash.
   They picked him up to Bangla Bhai's torture
   camp in Ramjan Kaya's house at village Hamirkutsha of the upazila and demanded
   Tk 1 lakh from him as toll.
   'As I refused to pay the money, the JMB men beat me with iron rods and hockey sticks and hacked me in front of a huge crowd,' said Amir.
   'I lost my leg,' he said.
   The judge ordered the Bagmara police station officer-in-charge to take necessary action after proper investigation of the complaint.

Goods worth over Tk 3 crore were burned in a fire at a Benapole port warehouse Monday morning.
   At least 12 labourers were also injured while they were trying to put out the blaze.
   The port sources said the fire originated from a spark in a shed of the warehouse.
   Port labourers said they had seen the fire in the shed at around 10:00am which soon engulfed the whole shed.
   The labourers tried to control the fire. Fire service people put out the fire after two hours.
   The Benapole port traffic director, Shyam Kishore Roy, said some 49 consignments of goods were burnt in the fire. Of them, 33 consignments were fully damaged.
   A five member committee was formed to investigate the incident.

At least 20 people were injured in a clash between two groups of villagers at Taras upazila in Sirajganj on Monday over fishing in Chalanbeel.
   The police said a group of villagers led by Tofazzal Master and Entaz Ali of village Magura-Mukunda locked in a clash with the neighbours at about 6:00am.
   The Tofazzal group also vandalised and looted at least 20 houses, the villagers alleged. They also beat and injured at least 20 villagers.
   The injured include Magura Binod union chairman Habibar Rahman Habi, freedom fighter Sobahan Ali, Alim, Gias, Akkas Ali, Shah Alam and Ayesha Siddika Hawa, a student of Class IX of Taras Girls High School.
   The police went to the spot and tried for five hours to control the situation, said the Taras police officer-in-charge, Mokhlesur Rahman.
   Chairman Habi filed a case, accusing 20 people.

Armed miscreants shot at a leader of the Rangamati district unit of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti at his house at Balukhali under sadar upazila on Monday.
   Family members took Aungsu Maan Chakma, 37, to Rangamati General Hospital in a critical condition and the hospital authorities referred
   him to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said sources in the hospital and police.
   The unidentified gunmen fled away immediately after the shootout, the police said quoting the villagers.
   The army strengthened patrol in the area after the incident.
   A case was filed with the Kotowali police in this connection.

A woman was electrocuted at Itakhola union under Nilphamari sadar upazila on Monday.
   The deceased is Firoza Begum, 32, wife of Moksedul Haque of village Kanial Khata Porapara under the upazila.
   Family members said Firoza met the accident as she switched on a fan in her bedroom. She was taken to Nilphamari General Hospital where she died.

The Rapid Action Battalion and the police in a joint operation arrested two persons and recovered a gun and three bombs from their possession in Jhenaidah Sunday night.
   The Sailkupa police station officer-in-charge, Anwar Hossain, said the battalion, on a tip-off, raided the house of Monwar Hossain at village Khandak Baria in Sailkupa upazila and arrested Monirul and Razu.