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The vice chairmen of the upazila parishads on Tuesday threatened to go for street agitations if they are not given due status and authority immediately in running the recently-formed upazila parishad.
   They issued the threat at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity under the banner of Bangladesh Upazila Vice Chairmen Association (proposed).
   They also demanded cancellation of the government notification on the guidelines for the newly-elected representatives of the upazila parishad and enforcement of the Upazila Parishad Act-2009.
   ‘The reformation of the upazila parisahd will really strengthen the local government system, but we are heart-broken as the government has issued a circular weakening the people’s representatives of the parishads, especially the vice chairmen,’ said M Zahangir Alam, coordinator of the proposed association of the vice chairmen.
   Zahangir Alam, also the vice chairman of the Gazipur sadar upazila parishad, alleged that the development works had been hampering as the vice chairmen were given no authority.
   ‘We have been elected by the same voters, who have elected the upazila chairmen and in many cases the vice chairmen bag more votes than the chairmen,’ said Abul Kashem, vice chairman of the Sirajdikhan upazila in Munshiganj district.
   ‘There posts of vice chairmen should not be mere ornamental ones at the upazila parishads. We need due status and works; otherwise we will launch vigorous movements on the streets,’ Abul Kashem threatened.
   Anwar Hossain Mollah, vice chairman of the Kalihati upazila in Tangail district, said that although the government gave some authority to the upazila chairmen to work, the vice chairmen was not given any job.
   Calling upon the government to implement the provisions stipulated in the Upazila Parishad Act-2009, Mollah said, ‘We are yet to get any job although about four months have elapsed after our election.’
   ‘It is our just and constitutional right to get the responsibility at the parishad,’ he added.
   They put forward a seven-point demand: Defining of the status and specific responsibility of the vice-chairmen in line with the warrant of precedence, empowering the vice chairmen with the authority of discharging the responsibility of the chairmen in their absence, providing vehicles to the vice chairmen, passing of all files to the chairmen through the tables of vice chairmen, keeping of the upazila nirbahi officers out of the policymaking, allowing the vice-chairmen to preside over the committee meeting of the parishad, and run of the upazila parishad fund jointly by the chairmen and the vice-chairmen, instead of the UNOs.
   Around 50 to 60 upazila vice chairmen attended the press conference.

The chief election commissioner has said the Election Commission plans to hold the municipal and union parishad elections in November and December.
   All election and national ID-related activities required to stage the local government vote may be completed by splitting the country into 10 zones and setting up a server station in each upazila, ATM Shamsul Huda told reporters on Tuesday.
   Travelling by road from Dhaka, the CEC inspected the proposed venue for the server station at Goalunda Upazila Parishad compound.
   The EC had initially thought that the elections might be held in June, but the ordinance made by the caretaker government for the purpose has not been passed by the parliament, he said. It led to the restoration and enforcement of the old law, Huda added.
   Neither the EC nor the government would like to hold elections under the old law, he said. That is why, the proposals for certain reforms such as barring the same person from contesting for more than one positions have been made, the election chief added.
   The Rajbarhi deputy commissioner, Fayez Ahmed, the Dhaka division deputy election commissioner, Lutfar Rahman, and the upazila nirbahi officer, Md Nasir Uddin, accompanied the chief election commissioner.
   He saw the proposed sites for Rajbarhi district headquarters, Pangsha and Baliakandi server stations and visited three more sites in Faridpur district in the afternoon.

Dhaka should appoint at least three ambassadors assigned with the mission to promote and pursue climate change issues for protecting Bangladesh’s interests on the global stage, some renowned environmental experts have recommended.
   They told a discussion on the country’s climate change diplomacy in the city on Tuesday that the government should immediately set up cells in each of the all ministries concerned and work out an integrated mechanism to deal with the issue efficiently.
   ‘Bangladesh needs at least three dedicated ambassadors to deal with climate change issues and those diplomats should not be transferred before 5 to 10 years,’ A Atiq Rahman, one of the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the meeting.
   He said that the government will have bring together a strong team of experts well conversant with environmental issues… and they must have negotiating skills to deal at the global level to secure maximum benefit for the nation.
   Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies organised the discussion on ‘Climate Change and Bangladesh’s diplomacy’ at its auditorium in the city.
   Atiq, a winner of the Champions of the Earth award, a prestigious environment award, stressed the need for taking an integrated approach to deal with the climate issues in the days ahead.
   ‘If we can strengthen ourselves, money will come to us to help us fight the challenge of climate change,’ he said.
   Referring to a recently published report, Atiq, executive director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, said that the Obama administration took up the climate change issue seriously as it has been termed the ‘greatest strategic threat’ for United States.
   Asaduzzaman, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), deplored the fact that the current global mechanism to fight the adverse effects of climate change has been still very fragile.
   He said, ‘We need to have a different kind of multilateral architecture. We have to have good preparation and must have legal experts in our team.’
   Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman of Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad, stressed on the robust analyses for climate change negotiations.
   Initiating the discussion, Ainun Nishat, country representative of International Union for Conservation of Nature, said Bangladesh should focus on preparing itself for Copenhagen conference on climate change and beyond.
   He said, ‘We have five task forces to deal with the climate change issues and we [the experts] have requested to expanded those framework and have better coordination among ministries such as agriculture, water resources and foreign affairs.’
   Major General Sheikh Md Monirul Islam, director general of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, also spoke at the discussion meeting.

Politicians, lawyers and journalists at a roundtable discussion denounced India for completing all its preparation to construct a dam on the river Barak, which will deprive all the major rivers in the greater Sylhet region of water and eventually result in their drying up.
   The Nagarik Forum organised the seminar — ‘Farakka-Tipaimukh Dam: Bangladesh under Indian Aggression — at the National Press Club.
   If the barrage is constructed, the rivers Surma, Kushiara and Meghna will dry up and about 3 crore people of 15 districts will be deprived of water, said the speakers.
   The people of the country are suffering from deep anxiety as the entire region will turn into a desert, said the speakers, who urged the government to take immediate steps to stop India from making the dam.
   They also criticised the water resources minister, Ramesh Chandra Sen, for making irrelevant comments on the issue.
   ‘India basically has declared war against Bangladesh,’ said noted journalist Sadek Khan, urging everyone to stand up and protest against such a decision.
   ‘There are many alien forces working to make Bangladesh a failed state,’ he said. ‘We have to be politically united to resist such aggression.’
   Jahangirnagar University’s Professor Jasim Ahmed feared that the country would become a desert within 30 years if the dam were erected.
   ‘We have to compel the government to take all the steps within its power for saving the country. If necessary, the government should go to the United Nations and the international court for justice,’ he said.
   The speakers also said the dam would be more dangerous than an atomic attack. They urged all the political leaders, prominent members of the civil society and media to save the nation from disaster.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s vice-chairman Nazmul Huda, chief whip of the opposition Zainul Abdin Farooque, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party’s chief Shafiul Alam Prodhan and Abed Raza, along with others, spoke on the subject.

A BNP activist was hacked to death by his political opponents at Banargati Bazaar in Khulna city Tuesday afternoon.
   The victim was Jahangir Sheikh, 48 of the same area.
   Witnesses said Jahangir was taking tea in a stall at about 3:00pm when a small group of people attacked him with sharp weapon. They hacked him indiscriminately leaving fatally wounded.
   He was taken to Khulna Medical College Hospital where the doctors declared him dead.
   None was arrested till the evening.

Several hundred employees of Proshika, a non-governmental organisation, on Tuesday put up a resistance to a group of outsiders who were trying to enter the head office in Dhaka.
   The employees got locked in scuffles with them when some outsiders tried to get into the office, the police and witnesses said.
   The employees have been observing a sit-in and work abstention programme for more than three weeks, demanding resignation of its chairman, Qazi Faruque Ahmed over corruption charges.
   The employees said that Qazi Rubayet Ahmed, executive of Proshika Computer System, was trying to create unrest in the office with his hired goons.
   He also influenced issuing of false appointments to some people, violating the rules and procedures of the organisation to turn the situation in his favour, they alleged.
   The protesters said that Rubayet had helped about 100 persons from different shanties enter the premises at 7:30am in the name of holding a workshop.
   As the employees challenged them at about 9:00am, they were locked in a chase and counter chase situation.
   The police brought the situation under control by driving away the outsiders from the premises.
   The protesters vowed to continue their programme till their key-demand ‘resignation of Qazi Faruque’ was met.
   ‘We are holding our programmes to save the 33-year-old organisation which has been riddled with corruption, nepotism and politicisation,’ said a director, Abdur Rab.
   The protestors also criticised the comment made by Qazi Faruque on Saturday that some employees had a link with the militants.
   When contacted, Qazi Rubayet Ahmed admitted that a tussle had taken place and it had lasted for about 30 minutes.
   He said some outsiders had fuelled the agitation.
   When asked about the employees’ agitation, he said he hoped that it would come to an end soon.

Joint secretary of the Planning Division Kabir Uddin Ahmed has been transferred to the Private Teachers’ Registration Authority as chairman and former member-secretary (joint secretary) of the National Pay Commission Md Hasan Imam has been made national project director of the climate victim rehabilitation project.
   The establishment ministry issued a gazette notification to the effect on Monday.

The CARE Bangladesh has got a combined research grant amount of Great Britain Pound 67,430 for three years from Oxford University and CARE, the United Kingdom, CARE Bangladesh said in a release.
   The fund will be used in conducting qualitative and quantitative research on key areas of CARE’s economic development work, private sector engagement, supply chain compliance interventions, women & girls empowerment work, effects of sanitary pad distribution and development of M&E system, the release said.
   The identified projects of research are rural sales programme, rug making, assemble markets, information boat, strengthening dairy value chain, Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative and sanitary pads.
   The probable geographic areas for research are Rangpur, Gaibandha, Nilphamari and Sunamganj. Case studies will be published in the esteemed Harvard Business Review and in different academic and non-academic journals.

A woman, earlier beaten allegedly by neighbours over fishing in a disputed pond in village Kawar Char of Kalapara in Patuakhali, died on Tuesday.
   The deceased was Nurunnesa Begum, 26, a resident of Kawar Char.
   The police and local people said the deceased’s husband Jahangir went to a pond with his wife for fishing Friday morning. Neighbour Mosharef Hossain and his associates told him not to fish in the pond. At one stage, they were locked in an altercation. Mosharef and his men beat up Nurunnesa Begum.
   Nurunnesa was admitted to Chapli community Health Complex in a critical condition. She was advised to be shifted to Barisal by the physicians as her condition deteriorated. Jahangir could not take Nurunnesa to Barisal as he could not afford the expense. Nurunnesa died four days later on Tuesday.
   The Kalapara police sent the body to the Patuakhali morgue. Jahangir filed a case but the police could not arrest anyone.

The Khulna additional district and sessions judge’s court 3 on Tuesday deferred till May 28 its verdict in the case of the killing of New Age correspondent Manik Chandra Saha, also a BBC Bangla service stringer.
   The sources said the court earlier on May 10 posted for May 19 its verdict in the case.
   Also a former president of the Khulna Press Club and the Khulna Union of Journalists, Manik was bombed to death at Chhota Mirzapur, a few yards off the club, in the city on January 15, 2004 at about 1:25pm on his way to his house on Ahsan Ahmed Road.

The committee formed by the army to investigate the February 25-26 BDR carnage at its headquarters submitted its report to the army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, on May 10, said an ISPR release issued Tuesday that dispelled ‘confusing’ news reposts about the findings.
   The ISPR release deplored that though the findings of the investigation were not disclosed to the mass media, some news media published speculative news reports on it.
   ‘Such speculative news centring a sensitive national issue created concern and doubt in people’s mind,’ it said.
   The army headquarters hoped that the media would exercise more responsibility in making report on the issue, the ISPR release said.

The foreign minister of Thailand, Kasit Piromya, will visit Bangladesh next month to discuss matters of bilateral interest between the two countries.
   It was disclosed when the vice-minister for Thai foreign affairs, Panich Vikitsreth, made a courtesy call on the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, at Suvarnabhuni International Airport of Bangkok on Sunday evening as she transited through Bangkok from Yangon, according to a message received in Dhaka Tuesday.
   During the meeting, the Thai vice-minister handed over a letter addressed to Dipu Moni by the Thai foreign minister.
   The vice-minister also proposed an official visit to Bangladesh of the Thai foreign minister next month.
   Dipu Moni welcomed the proposed visit of the Thai foreign minister to Dhaka, saying that mutually convenient dates would soon be worked out through diplomatic channels.
   During the call at Suvarnabhumi Airport, a number of topics of mutual interest were discussed, which included bilateral trade and investment, upcoming 7th Joint Commission meeting between Bangladesh and Thailand, consular issues, connectivity through land and sea ports, promotion of tourism and Rohingya refugees.
   Both sides felt the need of holding the Joint Commission meeting at an early date.
   The last Joint Commission meeting between Bangladesh and Thailand was held in Bangkok in November 1999.
   The Bangladesh side also requested Thailand to revive the on-arrival visa procedure for diplomatic and official passport holders of Bangladesh, which remained closed since 1997.
   The Thai minister assured that his government would consider the matter positively.
   During the one-hour meeting, the Thai ,minister was accompanied by counsellor of the Thai foreign ministry while the Bangladesh foreign minister was accompanied by ambassador of Bangladesh to Thailand Mostafa Kamal, director general of the Southeast Asia Wing Enayet Hossain and embassy officials.