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Opportunism, corruption, undue political interference, workers’ disunity and the ideological divide between the leaders have stalled the trade union movement in Bangladesh for decades, which has allowed the workers’ rights to be trampled across the country, said analysts and activists.
   The absence of constructive unionism has imperilled the workers in both formal and informal sectors as most industrial workers have been deprived of the right to form trade unions.
   They lack the basic rights of a national minimum wage, appropriate working atmosphere, safety, health facilities, leave and mechanism for dispute settlement.
   Many of them are forced to work in risky circumstances and labour overtime without pay, admitted the union leaders who blamed the successive governments for being indifferent to workers’ causes and rights.
   ‘Wholesale privatisation of state-owned industries in line with international lender’s prescriptions has increased disunity among the labours,’ said Wajedul Islam Khan, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Trade Union Centre.
   He believes that the trade union movement is passing through a transitional stage now. ‘The bad times will go someday,’ he said hopefully.
   According to statistics, farm labourers constitute more than 40 per cent of the total population of the country, but they are not recognised as formal workers. They have neither fixed wages nor the assurance of employment throughout the year. They remain unemployed for nearly six months in a year and have to depend on the government’s so-called social security net for survival.
   Workers in the construction sector, which involves many people due to its backward linkage, are also in the same disarray. Their workplaces are still considered to be death traps and the frequency of accidents is unacceptably high.
   In the garments sector, which earns the lion’s share of the country’s foreign exchange, workers have hardly any right to form unions. More than two million workers, mostly women, get the lowest ages in the world and cannot even buy enough food. Moreover they have to work in dangerous conditions since most factories do not take even the most basic safety measures. Their ruthless exploitation has sometimes led to violent unrest, which the unrepentant factory owners term ‘a conspiracy’ against the sector.
   The scenario in other industrial sectors is more or less similar although there are some 6,777 registered trade unions with 21,12,929 members working in various sectors across Bangladesh. This may be due to the political affiliation of the unions with the Awami League and the BNP, the two major political parties. The union leaders, in order to toe the line of their parties, neglect the rights and problems of the workers whom they are supposed to protect. Most of them are too busy enriching themselves to do any work for the unions.
   The country’s political leaders do not seem to realise that an active and constructive role played by trade unions is good for industrial growth.
   ‘Industrial unrest would have been lessened if there were constructive bargaining agents free of political influence,’ said economist Zaid Bakht. In other countries, trade unions promote better management of industries, and such sound trade union activism would also help Bangladesh to grow, he added.
   Mujibur Rahman, general secretary of Bangladesh Mukta Sramik Federation, blamed political division among the trade unionists and union leaders’ opportunism for the state of inertia in the trade union movement.
   He said that the labour fronts of the mainstream political parties prioritise the party’s interest instead of the workers’ rights. ‘This practice should be stopped.’
   The so-called movements have failed to realise a reasonable minimum wage for workers when neighbouring India, Sri Lanka and Nepal have implemented minimum wages worth between Tk 4,000 and Tk 5,000 per month.
   Mujibur urged the Awami League, which had promised to introduce a national minimum wage for the workers and ensure their rights if voted to power, to act quickly to fulfil its pledge.
   Abdul Matin Master, the president of the Jatiya Sramik League which is the labour front of the AL, neither admitted nor denied the opportunism of trade union leaders.
   He blamed the suspension of labour rights during the two-year rule of the military-backed government of Fakhruddin Ahmed for lack of trade union movement.
   He accused the BNP-led alliance government of allowing its labour leaders to indulge in anti-worker activities.
   Matin opined that the new government, which promised a permanent wage commission for the workers, removal of discrepancy in laws and a wage structure for the informal labourers, should be allowed time to implement its promises.
   ‘We will help the government to do this. If it fails to do so, we will launch a united movement to realise the workers’ rights,’ said the Sramik League leader.
   Nazrul Islam Khan, the president of the Bangladesh Sramik Dal which is the labour front of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said that the trade union movement across the globe has been passing through a transitional phase, and Bangladesh is no exception. He said that the movement to protect the workers’ right is continuing but its form has changed.
   Nazrul echoed Matin, saying that the new government should be allowed more time to ensure the workers’ rights after two years of suspension of trade union activities.
   He denied the allegation of pervasive opportunism and corruption in the trade union movement. ‘There will always be some rotten apples in a bucketful of apples.’
   Wajed-ul Islam Khan also blamed the widespread privatisation of state-owned enterprises by the successive governments, in compliance with international lenders’ prescription, for the inactivity of the trade unions.
   The number of workers in the state-owned industries has come down to 57,000 from 10,00,000 over the past years.
   The wholesale divestment of industries has shattered the workers’ unity and weakened the trade union movement throughout Bangladesh.
   He observed that an ‘upstart’ section sheltered by the mainstream political forces has emerged in the trade unions, which has slowed down the movement. ‘These persons don’t believe in the ideology of trade unionism, rather they always think of the benefits they will get by exploiting the workers.’
   The trade union movements in this part of the world were led mainly by the progressive and leftist politicians, but the movement has ground to a halt due to the ‘derailment’ of many of the leftist leaders and their cooperation with the major parties.
   ‘Such deviations are considered betrayal of the workers and their rights,’ said the Ganatantrik Biplobi Party’s general secretary, Mushrefa Mishu, who has been working for garment factory workers.
   Mishu criticised the leaders of the Sramik Krishak Oikya Parisad, an alliance of labour organisations, for not playing their due role in persuading the authorities concerned to fulfil the workers’ basic demands.
   Lax enforcement of the existing laws that protect the workers’ rights is also responsible for their sorry plight.
   There are as many as 50 laws on workers’ wages and benefits, employment, trade unionism, resolution of industrial disputes, social security, leave, working hours, working environment and labour administration, but they are more or less ignored.

International Labour Day, traditionally known as May Day, will be observed across the country and around the world today to commemorate the uprising of the working class people who fought for their rights.
   The day has been observed in memory of workers who had died in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 3, 1886 as the US police opened fire on workers rallying for reduced working hours, from 12 hours a day to 8 hours.
   May 1 was adopted as International Labour Day by socialist delegates in Paris in 1889. More than 400 delegates met in Paris on the centenary of the French revolution at the Marxist International Socialist Congress, the founding meeting of the Second International.
   The 1889 resolution called for a one-time demonstration, but it became an annual event in course of time. May Day was celebrated in Russia, Brazil and Ireland first in 1891.
   This year May Day comes in Bangladesh at a time when an elected government assumed office after two years’ emergency rule during which certain rights had been suspended.
   The day is a public holiday in most of the countries.
   In separate messages, the president, Zillur Rahman, the prime minister, Sheikh, Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president, the leader of the opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson, and the BNP’s secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, the Communist Party of Bangladesh president, Manzurul Ahsan Khan, and the general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, the Workers Party of Bangladesh president, Rashed Khan Menon, and the general secretary, Bimal Biswas, also greeted the workers on the occasion.
   The Workers’ Alliance for Living Wage on Thursday formed a human chain and began a signature campaign to press home the demand for a living wage for garment factory workers.
   They demanded disbursement of five per cent of the factory profits among the workers. They also wanted a women-friendly working environment in garment factories as 80 per cent of the workers are women.
   Various organisations have chalked up programmes for today and tomorrow to mark the occasion.
   The Jatiya Sramik League, associate body of labourers of the ruling Awami League, will hold a rally in Paltan Maidan this afternoon. Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to address the rally.
   Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad will hold a rally in Muktangan at 10:30am, Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal a discussion at the Bhasani Auditorium at 10:00am, Karmajibi Nari a rally in Muktangan at 4:30pm, Bangladesh Revolutionary Workers Federation a rally and a procession in the Paltan crossing at 10:30am, National Garment Workers Federation a red flag procession in the Paltan crossing at 10:00am, Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust a discussion in the Osmani Memorial Hall auditorium at 3:00pm, Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Goshthi a cultural programme in the Nabisco crossing at Tejgaon, Dhaka Union of Journalists faction a discussion in its office at 10:00am, Dhaka Sub-Editor’s Council a discussion at the National Press Club at 10:00am, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association a discussion in the Osmani Memorial Hall auditorium at 10:00am, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal a procession at Jatrabari at 4:30pm, Hazaribagh Tannery Workers’ Union a rally and a procession in its office at 4:00pm, Bangladesh Trade Union Federation a rally in front of the National Press Club at 9:00am, and Islamic Constitution Movement a rally in front of the HBFC office at 4:30pm.
   Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, an associate organisation of labourers of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, will hold a rally in Paltan Maidan Saturday afternoon to mark occasion. The BNP’s chairperson Khaleda Zia is scheduled to address the rally.
   Television channels will air special programmes and national daily newspapers will bring out special supplements today.

People employed as labourers in the agriculture sector are yet to be recognised as labourers as they have no minimum wages and face seasonal joblessness, though they depend on their daily labour for a living.
   Talking to New Age, some agricultural labourers in three divisions said that they had no idea about ‘May Day’, minimum wage and their rights as labourers. They only sought works for a living throughout the year.
   ‘38 years have passed after the independence of the country, which is one of the signatories of the ILO convention. But the successive governments did not formulate any agricultural labour law to recognise farm labourers as workers and ensure their welfare,’ Saiful Huq, general secretary of Bangladesh Khetmojur Union faction, told New Age.
   Samsuzzaman Selim, president of the farm labourers’ wing of Bangladesh Khetmajur Samiti, said there were about 6 crore farm labourers in the country and they remained jobless for about 150 days a year.
   The farm labourers and marginal farmers face acute food shortage during the lean period of the year — from early October to mid-November — when there is little or no job in the cropland after sowing aman paddy. The period lingers as conventional aman crop takes 145-148 days to become ripe.
   ‘What we have earned during the cultivation and harvesting of the crop is not sufficient to meet our needs during the lean period as the quantity of paddy or its cash equivalent in exchange for labour is very nominal,’ Ekramul Huq, a farm labourer of Nachole upazila in Chapainawabganj district, told New Age on Wednesday.
   He said this time the landowners had preferred to give paddy instead of cash in exchange for labour to harvest Boro because of lower price of paddy.
   ‘I reached an agreement to harvest each bigha of paddy, which required at least six labourers, for Tk 800,’ said another farm labourer of the upazila.
   ‘This time we are getting 8 kg of paddy for harvesting boro,’ said a farmer of Lalmonirhat.
   The wages of the farm labourers vary. The lowest wages were reported from the northern region of the country. At this moment there is no minimum wage for farm labourers. The wage depends on the whim of the landowners and farmers.
   In 1984, the Agricultural Labour Ordinance set the minimum daily wage for agricultural labour at 3.28 kg of rice or its cash equivalent. But it was not implemented.
   ‘The farm labourers have a master-servant relationship with their employers,’ said an agriculture officer in Rangpur.
   There is gender discrimination in the farm labour. ‘I was hired for Tk 120 while my male counterpart was hired for Tk 250 for the same task of harvesting,’ Nurunnahar, a woman farm labourer of Asulia, told New Age.
   The labour and employment minister, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain last month at a discussion said the government would take steps to formulate the agricultural labour law to give proper recognition to farmers and ensure their welfare.
   ‘Eighty percent labourers, including farmers, do not come within the purview of the definition of ‘labourer’ as their jobs fall under a sector defined as ‘informal’. This system needs to be changed as informal sector is the main sector of Bangladesh,’ the minister said.

Most of the journalists and workers in print and electronic media continued to be deprived of their minimum legal rights and wages, according to their leaders.
   They called for restoration of the Newspaper Employees Services Condition Act, 1974, with necessary amendments to make it compatible with the present times, to maintain the distinction and dignity of the profession as well as to uphold the rights of journalists and media workers.
   They also demanded that the government should put pressure on the owners of media houses for full implementation of the 7th Wage Board awards in respective institutions.
   ‘Most of the journalists and workers in both print and electronic media are denied their minimum legal rights and wages,’ Bangladesh Federal Journalists Union faction president Ruhul Amin Gazi told New Age Thursday.
   At least 20,000 journalists and workers are at present working in the media industry, he said.
   ‘Only eight newspapers and two news agencies, out of several hundred media houses, are paying salaries to their staff members according to the latest wage board awards,’ he said adding that some other media houses implemented the awards partially.
   Implementation of the wage board awards, which is prepared by a quasi-judicial body and subsequently announced by the government in an official gazette, is mandatory for media houses, he said.
   ‘The government is supposed to ensure that wage board awards have been fully implemented by the owners. But, unfortunately, it is not persuading the owners of media houses to implement the awards as it apparently does not want to make them hostile,’ he said.
   The journalists’ leader said the government had scrapped the Newspaper Employees Services Condition Act, 1974, when Aman Ullah Aman was in-charge of the labour ministry in the BNP-led government, and amalgamated journalism with other professions in the labour law.
   ‘It was a wrong decision as journalism could not be compared with other professions,’ he said. ‘Journalists face new situation everyday. They face threat to their lives, risks of being unemployed and uncertainty…’
   Altaf Mahmud, secretary general of another faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, echoed him.
   ‘None of the media houses has fully implemented the wage board awards,’ he said. ‘Many media houses cheat their staff members by paying less than the amount mentioned in the pay slip.’
   Owners are supposed to pay income taxes against the salaries of the journalists, he said. ‘But in most of the cases they [owners] do not pay taxes for the journalists.’
   Both Gazi and Altaf said the journalists’ organisations would launch a joint movement if the government failed to fulfil their demands.
   When asked if the division between journalists’ organisations was hindering the movement, the two leaders said that all organisations had formed a common platform called Sangbadik-Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad to protect the rights of the people employed in the industry.
   Someday the journalists’ organisations, which are now politically divided, will unite, they hoped.

Recruitment of female workers in formal and non-formal industrial sectors continues as it is easier to pay them relatively lower wages for they protest less against deprivations and violations of rights by the employers.
   Despite better performances and dedication, around 10 million women workers, constituting about 24.4 per cent of the country’s labour force, are deprived of gender-sensitive rights by their employers, said labour leaders, activists and researchers.
   Although 80 per cent workers in readymade garment stitching units in Bangladesh are women, a recent random survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies shows that women are being increasingly recruited in the backward linkage textile units.
   ‘More and more women are being employed in spinning and weaving units, in some cases they are replacing the males,’ said Nazma Yesmin, programme officer of BILS’s women worker development project.
   Pointing out that demand for female workers was increasing as they were available at lower wages, Nazma said, ‘Female workers are unlikely to protest much against deprivations.’
   A senior executive of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, who could not recall the names of even five women in a hundred workers in the backward linkage textile units a decade ago, said, ‘Around 50 percent workers in the spinning units and 25 percent in the weaving units are women now.’
   More than 300 spinning units and higher number of weaving units now employ more than 0.8 million workers.
   ‘Really they are relatively peaceful,’ the official said. However, he disagreed that the textile units deprived female workers of living wages.
   Nazama Akter, the president of Awaj Foundation, said scopes of jobs for women in the garment and textile sectors were available, but facilities were not provided according to rules. ‘Bangladeshi women workers receive very few facilities when common facilities of the workers across the world are taken into consideration.’
   A survey, released last week, by a rights advocacy organization, Karmajibi Nari, also revealed the sorry state of facilities for women workers.
   The survey, which was conducted on more than a hundred factories in and outside the capital, revealed that 41 percent female garment workers faced discriminations in wages, 60 percent faced discriminations in getting promotions, 39 percent did not get maternity leave with payments.
   Some 75 percent garment workers face verbal abuses at their work places and 46 percent face physical abuses by their supervisors or managers.
   There are a good number of women workers in the garment and textile units, rice mills, shrimp processing zones, restaurants and construction works but still the highest number of female workers are to be found in the primary agriculture sector.
   Mahmud Ul Ala, a researcher at the Institute of Bangladesh Studies in the University of Rajshahi, said that the state of women rights was deplorable at workplaces in remote areas in the country especially in the non-formal sector.
   Visiting several rice mills in different northern districts, Ala talked with women workers most of whom, he found, ignorant about their rights.
   ‘Resting facilities, special care to pregnant workers, maternity leave and job security are totally absent from the rice mills,’ said the researcher.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia and her two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman on Thursday filed separate applications seeking withdrawal of the all 20 cases lodged against them during the military-backed interim government’s rule.
   AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, a counsel for the family, submitted the applications to Dhaka deputy commissioner Zillar Rahman, also the district magistrate, on behalf of the BNP chief and her two sons.
   Tarique and Arafat are now staying overseas for treatment.
   ‘In the applications, the three said that the cases filed against them were politically motivated and aimed at harassment and that the High Court had earlier stayed the proceedings of all the cases’, Mahbub told reporters after filing the applications.
   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 interim government, which detained nearly 200 politicians, including Khaleda, also former prime minister, and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, the present prime minister.
   Hasina on March 24 submitted similar petitions to the deputy commissioner for withdrawal of 10 cases filed against her during the interim administration and the previous BNP-led four party alliance government. Five of the cases – two for ‘graft’ and three for ‘extortion’– were filed by the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   Soon after assuming office, the Awami League-led alliance government established a committee to review the ‘politically motivated’ charges brought during the BNP-led alliance government and the military-backed administration’s terms.
   The committee headed by state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs Quamrul Islam is to review the appeals seeking withdrawal of the charges.
   The government is to receive such applications until May 17.
   As many as 3,000 such applications had been received by Wednesday from across the country, including 639 in Dhaka, from both sides of the political divide, court sources said.
   The persons, who have filed petitions in Dhaka for withdrawal of cases, include former law minister Moudud Ahmed, Khaleda’s younger brother Shamim Iskander, Arafat’s two brothers-in-law Mostakim Reza and Mostakin Reza.
   Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association secretary SM Rezaul Karim filed two petitions with the ministries of law and home affairs seeking withdrawal of two separate cases lodged against renowned lawyers including, Dr Kamal Hossain, Rokanuddin Mahmud, M Amirul Islam, Tania Amir, Khasruzzaman, Subrata Saha, Sheikh Awsafur Rahman and Subrata Chowdhury, for the vandalism that took place on the Supreme Court premises on November 30, 2006.
   Two cases – one filed by the court keeper Rafiqul Islam on December 5, 2006, and the other by lawyer Omar Sadat on December 4, 2006, with the Shahbagh police station – in relation to the vandalism that took place after the chief justice, in an unprecedented move, stayed the proceedings of three writ petitions challenging former president Iajuddin Ahmed’s assumption of the office as head of the caretaker government just before the High Court was going to issue a rule against Iajuddin.

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Thursday defended the government move to cut the jobs of 10 per cent public servants, terming it a logical decision to stop wastage of resources.
   ‘The government takes the decision on jobs cut prompted by the logic of saving the public resources,’ he told the reporters after attending an award giving ceremony of the multinational bank HSBC at a city hotel.
   The jobs cut scheme is targeted the public servants who work, get paid, but produce nothing, added the finance minister.
   Muhith pointed out that it was imperative for a developing country like Bangladesh to ensure proper use of its resources through undertaking various austerity measures.
   He ruled out that the decision on jobs cut would contradict the government steps to augment employment.
   Muhith, however, made it clear that none of the government employees would lose his job, saying that only fresh appointment to the vacant posts would be cut by 10 per cent.
   The jobs will be managed by the existing employees as 10 per cent of the vacant posts in the government offices will not be filled up, he added.
   The government on Wednesday asked the ministries and divisions to be prepared for shedding at least 10 per cent posts of their workforce for an interim period.
   The sudden move was taken as part of the government’s austerity measures in the backdrop of the ongoing global financial meltdown.
   The finance ministry has also asked the ministries and divisions to slap a ban on the use of luxury cars of 1,600CC and above.
   Over 1.2 million government officials and employees were working in more than 50 ministries and divisions, including different directorates and departments.
   The government’s austerity measures also include, fixation of entertainment cost for each official entitled to it at Tk 12 per day and a 10 per cent cut in fuel cost.
   Muhith said that the next fiscal year’s annual development programme of around TK 30,000 crore was manageable as the government expected to achieve 10 per cent growth in revenue collection and increased flow of foreign aid.
   The original size of the ADP for the current fiscal year was Tk 25,600 crore which was trimmed down to Tk 23,000 crore.

The government on Thursday decided to distribute textbooks among all the 70 lakh secondary students free from the academic year 2010, the education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, told New Age.
   ‘The decision was made at a meeting attended by the finance minister and the chairman and members of the parliamentary standing committee on education ministry,’ said the minister who also attended the meeting.
   ‘About Tk 283 crore will be spent on printing, publishing and distribution of textbooks for students in a year and the finance minister has agreed to release the fund,’ the standing committee chairman, Rashed Khan Menon, said after the meeting.
   According to an education ministry assessment, Tk 236.5 crore will be spent on books for about 58 lakh students of schools in a year and Tk 39.15 crore for books on about 11.25 lakh students of madrassahs.
   About Tk 7.6 crore has been earmarked for the students of technical educational institutions, but the ministry is yet to estimate the number of students to be given textbooks free.
   ‘The ruling party in its election manifesto pledged to provide education free for students up to bachelor’s level. And the decision on free textbook distribution among students of Class VI to X is a step forward towards fulfilling the electoral pledges,’ Menon said.
   ‘The free distribution of textbooks will help to increase enrolment rate for secondary education and to contain dropout rate. Traders in textbooks will not get any more chance to create any artificial crisis regarding textbook distribution,’ said another member, who also attended the meeting. ‘The students will get textbooks on time.’
   In its report submitted to the government on April 16, the 15-member expert committee also recommended that the government should distribute secondary textbooks free as part of a permanent solution to textbook crisis.
   Against the backdrop of acute supply shortage, the government on March 9 formed the committee headed by Dhaka University history professor M Aktaruzzaman and asked the committee to submit recommendations to the government so that secondary students could get textbooks on time.
   All the primary schoolchildren, except for the students of kindergartens, English-medium schools and some specialised schools, are given textbooks free by the government.

Millions cast their votes in the third wave of India’s month-long elections Thursday, with security tight as the staggered polls took in the volatile Kashmir Valley and the financial capital Mumbai.
   The Indian police and paramilitary forces imposed a lockdown on Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar after two days of violent anti-poll protests and placed key separatist leaders under house arrest.
   Nearly 145 million people were eligible to vote in phrase three of the five-stage election which is widely expected to result in a shaky coalition government that will have to steer the country through an economic slump.
   The third round saw India’s two main parties, the ruling Congress and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, go head to head in a number of key states which will have a major bearing on the national outcome.
   In Kashmir, all eyes were on the number of voters. A strong turnout would deal a blow to separatist groups who have called for a poll boycott to reinforce opposition to Indian rule in the Muslim-majority region.
   ‘I am voting for development. Separatists need to de-link elections from the struggle for freedom,’ said Kashmir businessman Iqbal Dar, 49.
   But the boycott appeared to have an effect with election officials reporting a low turnout after polling stations closed.
   There were many more voters out in India’s financial and entertainment capital of Mumbai, where Islamist militant attacks in November killed 172 people.
   ‘Security is the only issue. It’s the only reason people are stepping out to vote, especially in this area. We have seen it, we have felt it and we know all about it,’ Chintan Sakariya said after voting in south Mumbai.
   Sakariya, 29, cast his ballot a stone’s throw from the Nariman House complex of the ultra-orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubovitch movement which was stormed by the Islamist gunmen.
   The jeweller was trapped with his wife and family in their third-floor flat opposite, unable to leave as the gunmen fired and threw grenades at anyone they saw. His friend’s parents were killed as they tried to flee.
   But national security is not a priority issue everywhere, with the bulk of India’s 714 million voters likely to cast their ballots on local issues or according to their caste and religion.
   Among other states voting Thursday were parts of impoverished Bihar and populous Uttar Pradesh in the north, Gujarat in the west, the southern rural state of Karnataka, and leftist-dominated West Bengal in the east.
   The month-long ballot — the world’s largest democratic exercise — wraps up on May 13, with the final results expected three days later.
   With a lot of support going to local and regional parties, there is no chance of either the incumbent Congress-led alliance or the bloc led by the BJP securing an absolute majority.
   Who actually ends up governing India’s 1.1 billion people will be decided in what observers are calling the election’s ‘sixth phase’ — a period of intense political horse-trading that will follow the expected fractured result.
   Voting in Gujarat was given an extra touch of tension after India’s Supreme Court ordered an inquiry into the role played by the state’s chief minister, Narendra Modi, in anti-Muslim riots that swept the state in 2002.
   A fiery orator with strong support among influential hardline Hindu organisations, Modi, 58, is the frontrunner to eventually succeed the BJP’s current candidate for prime minister, 81-year-old LK Advani.
   The allegation of complicity in the riots has dogged Modi for years and tainted his success in turning Gujarat into an economic powerhouse.
   ‘I’m voting to ensure that Narendra Modi is arrested and is punished for all the crimes he has committed against Muslims,’ said Yusuf Ansari, 55, a trader whose house was burned to the ground in 2002.

The health minister, AFM Ruhul Huq, said Thursday the government was on alert after Mexican officials confirmed one of eight people who died of swine flu there was from Bangladesh, according to Agence France-Presse news agency.
   Mexico’s National Epidemiological Centre said on Wednesday the only foreign national among the dead was a Bangladeshi man who had been in the country just six months working as a street vendor.
   Ruhul Huq told the agency that Bangladeshi officials were working closely with the World Health Organisation as officials in Mexico work to pin down the origin of the H1N1 swine flu.
   ‘This news is with me and we are trying to confirm it with the WHO and other sources. We’re monitoring this very seriously and preparing ourselves to tackle this all the way,’ Huq said, adding Bangladesh had a good stock of flu medicine.
   The minister said Bangladesh was prepared for a possible swine flu outbreak because of its experience with the H5N1 bird flu virus in February 2007 when more than one million birds were slaughtered.
   The WHO has raised its flu alert to phase five out of six, signalling that a pandemic is ‘imminent’ following the swine flu outbreak that is believed to have killed more than 80 people globally.
   Miguel Angel Lezana, director of Mexico’s National Epidemiological Centre, said the background of the Bangladeshi man who died was being looked at for clues as to the path of the virus.
   ‘A short time before becoming ill, he met one of his brothers who had come from Bangladesh or Pakistan — we haven’t confirmed which yet — and who spent a few days here before leaving the country,’ Lezana said.
   He was not able to say when that occurred, but added a search had been mounted for the brother who was suspected of being sick.

Another soldier of the Bangladesh Rifles died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Wednesday night.
   The authorities said that the soldier, Kabir Uddin, 53, a speedboat driver of Rangamati sector headquarters, was undergoing treatment at the DMCH for kidney disease and he breathed his last at about 10:40pm on Wednesday.
   He was admitted to the BDR Hospital on February 2 after he fell sick when he was on leave at his village home.
   He was transferred to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital on February 8 for better treatment and brought back to the BDR Hospital after the BSMMU released him on March 15.
   Kabir was shifted to the DMCH when his condition deteriorated on March 17 and he died there, said a BDR release on Thursday.
   With Kabir, a total of 18 BDR soldiers have so far died after the February 25-26 rebellion in the Pilkhana that killed 75 people, most of the army officers.
   Kabir, who hailed from Dargram under Saturia upazila in Manikganj, joined the BDR on September 15, 1979.
   Meanwhile, a Dhaka court remanded 37 soldiers and two civilians in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department on Thursday.
   The CID, assigned to investigate the BDR carnage case, appealed for a 10-day remand after producing the 39 persons before the court of metropolitan magistrate Faisal Atiq bin Kader on Thursday afternoon.
   After the hearing, the court granted seven days of remand for 36 soldiers and five days for the civilians, shop owner Mazharul Haque, sweeper Abdul Majed, along with soldier Zillur Rahman.
   The lawmen arrested the civilians from Hazaribagh near Gate No-5 for leading a procession in support of the BDR rebels, said the police.
   The police also brought five other soldiers before the court on Thursday after the end of their remand, and the court sent them to the jail.
   The family members of BDR soldiers continued taking their belongings out of their quarters, and nine families vacated the Pilkhana quarters on Thursday, raising the total number of quarters vacated so far to 498.

Retired bureaucrat Golam Rahman has been appointed the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
   The Cabinet Division issued a gazette to this effect on Thursday.
   Before being made the ACC chief, Golam Rahman was serving as chairman of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission.
   Earlier on April 2, former army chief and adviser to caretaker government Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury resigned as ACC chairman on ‘personal grounds’.
   Golam Rahman, a retired secretary, is the third head of the anti-graft watchdog since it was set up as an independent body in November, 2004.
   The five-member search committee, formed on April 12 in line with the ACC Act 2004, and headed by Justice MA Matin, earlier named Golam Rahman and Badiuzaman, another former bureaucrat, in its recommendation to the president of the republic for appointment of one of them as chairman.
   A retired High Court judge, Sultan Hossain Khan was the first chairman of the ACC, who was replaced by Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury in early 2007 during the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   Mashud stepped down saying the anti-graft watchdog required a new leadership to bring dynamism in its activities.
   After assuming office in January, prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the opening session of the ninth parliament in early February said that the ACC should be ‘reconstituted’ to ensure its accountability.
   At present, the ACC’s drive against corruption is absent reportedly for regime change as well as in absence of a chairman although the ruling Awami League during its election campaigns had promised vigorous anti-corruption drives to root out the vices.
   Mashuud’s anti-graft actions during the two-year rule of the unelected administration had drawn criticism as the drive mainly targeted the politicians.
   As many as 200 politicians, including Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, were detained during the massive anti-corruption drive led by the army-led joint forces.
   The last boss of the ACC admitted at a press conference that he was pressured by certain quarters while discharging his duties under the military-backed administration.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is schedule to address a workers’ rally at Paltan Maidan today marking the International Labour Day or May Day.
   The leader of the opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, will also address another rally at the same venue on the occasion on May 2.
   Jatiya Sramik League and Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, associate bodies respectively of the Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, will organise the rallies.
   Both the ruling AL and opposition BNP continued hectic preparations for assembling as many people at their respective May Day rallies as possible.
   The law enforcing agencies have taken tight security measures for the rallies.
   The police, Rapid Action Battalion, armed police and dog squad will be deployed at Paltan Maidan and its surroundings today.
   More than 2,000 members of law enforcers will be on guard around the Paltan ground and security archways will be set up at the entry points.
   Closed-circuit television cameras will be installed at different points.
   The May 2 rally will be the first in Dhaka to be addressed by Khaleda Zia after the party’s debacle in the December 29, 2008, general elections.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, will meet the US president Barack Obama during her forthcoming visit to the United States and Canada provided the latter gives her an appointment, sources said.
   The US ambassador James F Moriarty was approached by the Prime Minister’s Office in this regard when he called on Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Jamuna on Wednesday, a close aide of the prime minister told New Age.
   Sources said, if Hasina gets an appointment with Obama, she might change her itinerary and travel to Washington first instead of Ottawa.
   She is expected to leave Dhaka on May 6 on a two-week tour of North America, but the visit could be deferred by a few days, sources added.
   Before leaving the United States for Canada, Hasina, also the ruling Awami League president, will visit John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland for follow-up treatment of her hearing complications resulted from the August 21, 2004 grenade attacks on an Awami League rally in Dhaka.
   The prime minister will visit Canada to meet her only daughter, Saima Wazed Putul, who gave birth to a daughter, her fourth child, in Toronto on April 23.
   During her trip to Canada, Hasina is likely to meet Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, state minister for foreign affairs Hasan Mahmud told New Age on Sunday. She is also expected to make a two-day stopover in London of her way back home.

The government is getting prepared for legal battle as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia is set to file a writ petition on Sunday challenging the notice asking her to vacate the Dhaka Cantonment house.
   Attorney general Mahbubey Alam along with additional attorney generals held a meeting with law minister Shafique Ahmed at the ministry Thursday to examine the legal points to be used to counter a possible legal move by the BNP chairperson for cancellation of the eviction notice.
   ‘We have examined documents and legal points, including the allotment of the cantonment house to Khaleda Zia,’ Mahbubey Alam told reporters as Shafique Ahmed refused comments after the meeting.
   He said the government’s response depended on how Khaleda would make her argument. ‘We will decide how to respond after we get a copy of her writ petition,’ he told a questioner.
   Earlier on Wednesday, BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed said the party had decided to file a writ petition with the High Court on Sunday seeking cancellation of the notice served on Khaleda Zia as ‘it is against the law, constitution and several verdicts of the court.’
   ‘If they go to court, the government’s law officers will face them there. The office of the attorney general has already been instructed accordingly,’ the law minister told reporters on Wednesday evening.
   He said the government, by a decision of the cabinet to cancel the lease on the house, had served the notice after properly analysing the laws. When asked about Moudud’s claims, Shafique Ahmed said the authorities who really owned the land issued the notice and nobody could claim the right to have a cantonment property, on the basis of a deed which had no authentication.
   Khaleda on April 23, served a demand of justice notice to persons concerned in the government to withdraw the notice, issued on her to vacate her house.
   The Directorate of Military Lands and Cantonments on April 20 served a notice on Khaleda Zia to vacate within 15 days, the 6 Mainul Road house at the Dhaka Cantonment, where she has been living for past 28 years on lease in perpetuity. The cabinet on April 8 decided to cancel the lease of the house.

Point-to-point inflation stood at 5.04 per cent in March, the lowest in five years.
   In August 2003, point-to-point inflation was 5.03 per cent, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
   The agency said food inflation in March was recorded at 4.49 per cent and non-food inflation at 6.11 per cent.
   The record fall in inflation has been due to a steep decline in rice prices, said Zaid Bakth, research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. ‘This is good sign for the economy although it has put farmers in trouble.’
   The demand for consumer goods will go up and it will cause an increase in business activities. Falling rice prices, however, may continue to affect the profitability of growers, he said.
   A kilogram of rice now sells for Tk 18 and the price was Tk 35 in the past year.
   Rural inflation in March recorded at 5.06 per cent and urban inflation at 5 per cent

Pakistan pounded Taliban hideouts for a third consecutive day Thursday and said troops killed 14 insurgents in 24 hours as the president urged the nation to unite behind the offensive.
   Faced with grave US concerns that rebels threaten Pakistan’s very existence, fighter jets, attack helicopter and tanks this week opened three fronts after armed Taliban seized control of districts 100 kilometres from Islamabad.
   The fighters captured Lower Dir and Buner districts despite a government deal to enforce sharia law in those areas in a bid to end a Taliban insurgency, which alarmed Pakistan’s allies in the White House and the West.
   Operation Black Thunder was launched under intense pressure from the United States, which warned that the Taliban’s advance from its insurgency hub in the Swat Valley was posing a severe threat to Islamabad’s authority.
   The military said Thursday 14 militants had been killed in the last 24 hours of operations and that insurgent positions had been wiped out under fierce resistance across eight kilometres of mountain tops in Buner.
   Pakistan said around 70 militants and 10 soldiers were killed in Lower Dir. On Wednesday, the military said special forces dropped by helicopter re-took Dagar, the main town in Buner, and killed up to 50 Taliban fighters.
   Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the military was verifying an overall death toll and much of the district of Buner, where around one million people live, remained in Taliban hands.
   Abbas said the militants had taken over police stations in three villages and were holding 52 police officers and paramilitary soldiers hostage.
   Residents in one village said Thursday that militants were putting up stiff resistance and had blown up two unmanned police checkpoints.
   The president, Asif Ali Zardari, said the country was facing a ‘critical hour’ in its fight against militants linked to al-Qaeda.
   ‘Time has come for the entire nation to give pause to their political differences and rise to the occasion and give full support to our security forces,’ he said in a statement.
   ‘This is the only way to demonstrate our will, to keep Pakistan as a moderate, modern and democratic state.’
   In February, the government acknowledged it had largely ceded control of the scenic Swat Valley and agreed that Islamic law could be enforced in a deal to end two years of a bloody rebellion led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
   But the Taliban failed to disarm and earlier this month up to 500 Taliban militants pushed into Lower Dir and Buner, terrorising the local population.
   The Taliban suspended peace talks with the government Monday after the military launched it latest offensive, and the longevity of February’s deal was unclear.
   Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad, who helped negotiate the deal, Thursday emerged from days of hiding to address a gathering of about 1,000 people.
   ‘Negotiations with the government will be started only when it stops the military operation,’ Mohammad said in one village.
   The US president, Barack Obama, has expressed concern that Pakistan’s civilian government may be struggling to control the situation.

Law enforcers arrested a man at Dania Rasulpur of Jatrabari in Dhaka city Wednesday night and seized 2,200kg of ‘gunpowder’ in his possession.
   The arrested is identified as Abdus Sobhan, 50, a resident at Dania Rasulpur under Jatrabari police station.
   Police sources said on a tip-off, a police team led by sub-inspector Sirajul Islam had raided the rented house of Sobhan at around 9:00pm and arrested him.
   Later, based on his statement the police seized the ‘gunpowder’ in eight gunny bags and 36 plastic bags, each weighing about 50 kgs from a room.
   Sobhan, however, claimed that the seized materials are not gunpowder, saying he had imported them from India. They are used as ingredients for making anti-mosquito products, he added.
   The police officer, Sirajul Islam, said experts would examine the seized materials to determine whether they are gunpowder.
   A case was filed with Jatrabari police.

The residents of Monaffer Mor on Thursday staged demonstrations, demanding the arrest and
   punishment of the Bangladesh Chhatra League activists who allegedly assaulted two youths of the area some days ago.
   The residents were backed by the businessmen of the locality, who observed a half-day strike to underscore the same demand.
   According to local sources, BCL activists Antu, Shahi and Raj called Khaled and his younger brother Pinku from their home
   and accused them of snatching a bicycle on Monday.
   They beat up the two youths and vandalised a hotel.
   Locals rescued them and admitted Pinku to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
   The BCL activists reportedly filed a case on Wednesday against Khaled, Pinku, their elder brother Rashed and hotel-owner Bashar for stealing the bicycle.
   Sources said that the businessmen observed the half-day strike from 6.00am to 12.00pm, demanding the arrest and punishment of the BCL activists.
   Both men and women came out of their homes and staged demonstrations on the streets to press home the same demand.
   Locals as well as
   businessmen have threatened to continue their protest against the administration if the BCL activists are not arrested immediately.
   They also urged the city’s mayor, AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, to take appropriate action against the BCL activists.
   On the other hand, the BCL activists threatened to kill NTV cameraman Raju Ahmed Rubel over the mobile phone for covering and broadcasting the demonstrations and strike by businessmen, Rubel alleged.
   Rubel was preparing to file a general dairy against the BCL activists with the Boalia Model thana till the filing of this report at about 7.00pm on Thursday.