Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

With an apparent air of impunity, smoking in public places goes on with more people getting into the bad habit than those who quit it every year as the authorities concerned seem reluctant to implement the anti-tobacco laws.
   Four years have elapsed after the enactment of the law, but the people saw little enforcement of it, which encouraged the smokers in public spots, said people campaigning against smoking.
   Taifur Raman, a researcher of Unnanyan Shamannay, told New Age, ‘The number of smokers is increasing every year.’
   ‘According to the Bangladesh Statistical Bureau,’ he said, ‘Total number of cigarette sticks sold in 2007-2008 fiscal was 2,500 crore which is almost five per cent higher compared with the previous year.’
   The government is yet to enforce provisions enshrined in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organisation although Bangladesh ratified the convention in 2004.
   Work for Better Bangladesh researcher Syed Mahbubul Alam alleged, ‘We never saw the authorities concerned to conduct any drive to stop smoking in public places.’
   ‘It is very unfortunate that the FCTC provision of having pictorial warnings on tobacco packets is yet to be implemented. Though the cigarette packets contain a written message of warning, none of the packets of bidi (handmade tobacco stick) contain any warnings,’ he added.
   According to the FCTC, each packet and carton of tobacco products, their outer coverings and labels must also carry health warnings describing the harmful effects of tobacco use. These warnings and messages shall be large, clear, visible and legible and should cover 50 per cent or more of the principal display areas but shall be no less than 30 per cent of the principal display areas and the warnings may be in the form of pictures or pictograms.
   ‘The police cannot punish or fine the violators as the anti-smoking law does not give us any authority to do anything,’ the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, AKM Shahidul Haque, told New Age.
   The Smoking and Tobacco Product Usage (Control) Act 2005, which came into force in March 2005, prohibits smoking in public places and in covered vehicles. The law has a provision for a fine of Tk 50 in case of violations.
   Giving the government a suggestion to increase the amount of fine from Tk 50 to Tk 100, magistrate Rokanuddowlah said, ‘The process described in the anti-smoking law is complicated. Any person arrested needs to be produced in a magistrate’s court within 24 hours of his or her arrest. But, according to the anti-smoking law, no magistrate can take cognisance of any offence without a written complaint from an authorised officer.’
   Farida Aktar, executive director of Ubinig, said tobacco is cultivated in some 80,000 hectares of land every year in Bangladesh and fertility of these lands is gradually diminishing alarmingly owing to excessive use of pesticides in tobacco cultivation.
   Asking the government to amend the anti-smoking law, she said, ‘Article 12 of the law stipulates that the farmers who cultivate tobacco will be given subsidy and loans on easy condition if they give up tobacco cultivation. But it is applicable only for the five years after the enactment of the law meaning the farmers will have only one year to enjoy such incentives. The government should amend the law to let the farmers enjoy the incentive for ever.’
   According to the World Health Organisation, Bangladesh is among the top ten tobacco consumers in the world and some 57,000 people died of complications caused by tobacco consumption every year while some 3,82,000 people became physically disabled by consuming tobacco.

The main opposition BNP and its associate bodies on Saturday observed the 28th anniversary of death of the party founder and former president, Ziaur Rahman, across the country.
   The party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, also widow of Zia, along with the party leaders and supporters, paid tribute at the grave of her husband at Sher-e-Banglanagar in the morning.
   The party secretary-general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, standing committee members RA Gani, Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain and M Shamsul Islam, party chairperson’s adviser ASM Hannan Shah and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, vice-chairmen MK Anawar, Sarwari Rahman, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, joint secretary-general Mirza Abbas, Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, party leaders Rafiqul Islam Mia and Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, among others, accompanied her.
   She placed a wreath on the grave and stood in silence for a while and then offered fateha. Leaders of different units of the party and associate bodies also placed wreaths at the grave.
   Khaleda attended a prayer session organised by Jatiytabadi Olema Dal at the graveside. She also inaugurated a voluntary blood-donation programme organised by Zia Sangskritik Sangstha.
   She later visited different places in the city to distribute foods among the destitute at about 45 places, including Mohammadpur town hall, Tajmahal Road, Satmasjid Road Kala Bagan, Nayabazar, Nawabpur, Jatrabai, Motijheel, Naya Paltan and Tejgaon areas.
   Marking the death anniversary of Zia, the party central unit started a three-day programme on Friday beginning with a discussion meeting at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital. The programmes will end today with a discussion at the Institution of Diploma Engineers.
   The party, its associate bodies and a number of social, youths’, labourers’ and professionals’ organisations arranged programmes and published and hung up separate posters on the occasion.
   Party flags were at half-mast along with black flags atop the party’s central office and numerous offices in the city and across the country on Saturday.
   The programmes also included discussions, seminars on Zia’s life and work, special prayers, feeding of the destitute and seeking of divine blessings.
   A group of army officers assassinated Zia in the Chittagong Circuit House on May 30, 1981, five years after he had assumed state power amid political turmoil.
   Reports from Barisal and Bhola said local units of the BNP and its associate bodies organised peaceful programmes, marking the death anniversary of the late president under police protection.

Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, a combine of labour rights organisations, on Saturday expressed dissatisfaction over the move of the Privatisation Commission for disinvestment of twelve nationalised industries.
   Referring to the press report quoting the commission chairman, Mirza Abdul Jalil, as saying that the commission would denationalise twelve nationalised industries, the SKOP leaders said it was contrary to the announced industrial policy of the government.
   The leaders in a press statement said the Awami League-led government was committed not to denationalise any nationalised mills and factories and the industries minister, Dilip Barua, announced that they would strengthen the nationalised sector.
   The labourers will not accept the anti-people step of disinvestment of nationalised mills and factories in a bid to hand them over to private owners.
   The signatories of the statement are labour leaders Roy Ramesh Chandra, Shah Mohammad Abu Zafar, Wajedul Islam Khan, Safiuddin Ahmed, Abdul Kader Hawlader, Shafiqur Rahman Majumder, Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, Abdullah Sarker and others.

The Rapid Action Battalion personnel arrested five people on Friday, suspecting their involvement in the killing of government employee Aminul Islam Khadem alias Anis Khadem at Malibagh in the capital on May 3.
   The arrested included the mastermind of the killing, Saidur Rahman Khadem alias Minu Khadeum alias Mama Khadem, 50, who reportedly misappropriated crores of taka of the shrine of Kalla Shah at Akhaura in Brahmanbaria when he was secretary of the shrine executive committee up to 2002.
   The other arrested are Sheikh Shamim alias Chartered Accountant Shamim alias Shikkhita Shamim, 28, Mahbub Alam Liton alias Jail Liton, 25, Mohammad Biplob, 35, and Sohel alias Khuinya Sohel, 25.
   The battalion said after 2002, Anis Khadem was elected secretary of the committee and Minu was sentenced to jail for misappropriating money of the shrine. Before that, he was terminated from the National Bank Limited for misappropriation of Tk 14 lakh in 1984.
   During his stay at the jail in 2007-9, Minu Khadem came in close contact with criminal Honda Babu of the Khilgaon police station area. Babu was in jail after being arrested by RAB in a double murder case in 2008.
   Talking to newsmen at the RAB-3 headquarters at Tikatuli, Minu admitted that he had hired the Honda Babu gang members to shoot at Anis Khadem and not for killing but the assailants had killed Anis in May 3. The other target, Abul Khair Khadem, is still alive.
   Rest of the suspects were associated with the criminal gang of Honda Babu. All the four members of the gang were wanted in a number of criminal cases and served jail for several terms, the battalion claimed.
   The RAB-3 commanding officer said upon instruction of Honda Babu, Shahmim planned to kill Anis Khadem. The instruction was given when Babu was taken to the court for appearance. His gang men met him at the gate of Dhaka Central Jail at different times. Minu Khadem also went into jail so that none can suspect his involvement in the killing, the RAB-3 CO said.
   As per the plan, Sohel and Shamim called Anis, an administrative officer of the Dhaka Divisional Commissioner office, over telephone to Malibagh intersection in the name to giving a huge sum of donation for the Kalla Shah shrine on May 3.
   Upon his arrival, the two took him in a rickshaw to Shahi Mosque at Malibagh where the other assailants, including Biplob, Moniruzzaman, Liton shot Anis leaving him dead on the spot.

World No Tobacco Day 2009 will be observed today in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the world with the theme ‘tobacco health warnings.’
   Different socio-cultural organisations chalked up programmes to mark the day.
   The Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance held a discussion meeting on tobacco control activities in the city. The discussants urged the government to strengthen the anti-tobacco cell and task forces at the district and upazila levels.
   Greenvoice formed a human in front of Raju Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus from where they demanded that the government enforce the Smoking and Tobacco Product Usage (Control) Act 2005 completely.
   They asked the authorities concerned to make the tobacco companies to attach pictorial warnings on the tobacco packets to make the smoker aware of the consequence of smoking.
   A discussion on World No Tobacco Day will be held at the National Press Club today. ADHUNIK and the World Health Organisation will jointly organise the discussion.
   The information minister, Abul Kalam Azad, will attend the discussion as chief guest while TIB chairman Professor Muzaffer Ahmad as guest of honour.
   M Mostafa Zaman, national professional officer of WHO, and Nawazish Ali Khan, adviser (programme) of ATN Bangla, will be present as special guests.
   In observance of the day, ADHUNIK will also bring out a procession from the press club at 8:00am.
   The Consumers Association of Bangladesh will form a human chain on Sunday from Farmgate to Shahbag to create awareness among the people about the dire consequences of smoking.
   Pratyasha, an anti-drug club, will bring out a colourful procession of chariots from Shahbagh today.
   MANAS will organise a discussion at Begum Sufia Kamal Auditorium of the Bangladesh National Museum in the capital. A number of personalities will be awarded for their contributions to the anti-tobacco movement.

At least 10 people were injured as activists of the ruling Awami League and the main opposition BNP clashed over fishing in village Banshbaria under Moheshpur in Jhenidah Saturday noon.
   Conditions of four of the injured were stated to be critical, the police said, adding they were taken to local health complex.
   The police and locals said the two rival groups, led by vice-president of Moheshpur BNP and also former union parishad chairman Abdul Latif and Juba League leader Intadul Haque, fought each other over catching fish. Both the groups used machetes and spikes.
   Critically injured Nowsher, Faruque, Razzaque and Nazmul were sent to the Jessore General Hospital while Saidul and his brother Mahibul were taken to Moheshpur Health Complex.
   The Moheshpur police officer-in-charge, Abdul Khaleque Hawlader, said no case was recorded and none was arrested till 6:00pm.

The Awami Juba League on Saturday decided to accord a reception to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, for her ‘peaceful resolution of the BDR rebellion and salvaging the country from an imminent civil war.’
   The decision was made at the Juba League presidium meeting with its chairman Jahangir Kabir Nanak, also the state minister for LGRD and cooperatives, in the chair.
   The reception will also be accorded to Nanak and the Juba League general secretary, Mirza Azam, also a lawmaker, for playing a ‘courageous role’ in the process.
   The meeting at the Juba League central office on Bangabandhu Avenue expressed strong resentment over the attempts of the leader of the opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, at ‘creating an unstable situation and continued conspiracy’ exploiting the issue of the BDR rebellion.
   The meeting also expressed deep concerns about the reports about the ‘conspiracy of mafia don Daud Ibrahim to set
   up a base of international terrorism in Bangladesh’ and urged the government to eliminate at any
   cost the quarters involved in it.
   The meeting decided to send a relief team to the south which were inundated by tidal surges as cyclone Aila ripped through India on May 25.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh will strengthen lawful mass movements against the Awami League government’s tilt towards imperialism, lootings and communalism.
   The CPB central committee at the end of a two-day meeting in its central office in the capital on Saturday decided that the party would organise movements to press home the justified demands of the people.
   The central committee has finalised three-month programmes, including a fortnight-long organisational mass campaign at the upazila levels from June 1 to 14, month-long party member collection drive from June 15 to July 15 and mass contact programmes from July 1 to 15.
   The party president, Monzurul Ahsan Khan, chaired the meeting and its general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim, Shahidullah Chowdhury, Mohammad Shah Alam and others took part in the meeting, said a CPB press release.

Three out of four panellists at Bangladesh Sanglap organised by BBC Bangla in the capital on Saturday suggested that the government should try all possible means to prevent India from implementing the Tipaimukh twin dams project on the River Barak, which poses a serious threat to ecology and food security of Bangladesh.
   Jatiya Sangsad’s chief whip Abdus Shahid, the fourth panellist, assured the audience that the government would definitely look into the matter to protect the interest of the country.
   To a query from the audience as to why the government was not taking the Tipaimukh project issue to regional and international forums, the AL lawmaker argued that river water was a bilateral issue and ‘it has to be resolved through bilateral discussions.’ It is difficult to take it to regional or international forums for a solution.
   ‘The government will take a decision on the matter in the cabinet to protect the country’s interest,’ he said.
   Former director general of Bangladesh Rifles, retired major general ALM Fazlur Rahman said the consequences of the Tipaimukh dam would be more disastrous than that of the Farakka barrage built on the Ganges.
   ‘Indian aggression on waters is more dangerous than nuclear bombs,’ the retired army official said.
   The River Barak divides into two rivers – Surma and Kushiara flowing across the borders into Sylhet district.
   New Age editor Nurul Kabir said that the government should raise the issue at bilateral, regional and international levels to mobilise public opinion against the twin dams project undertaken by India to construct a dam at Tipaimukh and a hydro-electricity generation plant at Phuleltal on the trans-boundary river.
   ‘The government should go for all means to stop India from implementing the project which will adversely impact on Bangladesh’s ecology and food security,’ Nurul Kabir said.
   Chief whip of the opposition in the parliament, Zainul Abdin Faruk called for immediate response from the government to the Tipaimukh dam issue to save the people of the country.
   As asked by the audience, the panellists also discussed the government’s steps to find out the masterminds behind the February 25-26 BDR rebellion and relief operation in the cyclone Aila-affected areas.
   Nurul Kabir said the perpetrators of the BDR rebellion should be identified so that such incidents did not take place in the future. ‘People need to know who were behind the mutiny….Trial should be conducted in an open court as per the BDR laws.’
   BNP lawmaker Zainul Abdin said the trial should be conducted as per the existing laws while AL chief whip said everything would be done in keeping with the constitution after submission of the Criminal Investigation Department’s report.
   He hoped that CID report would identify the masterminds behind the bloody incidents at the BDR headquarters.

Journalists, rights activists and development workers on Saturday demanded adequate allocation in the forthcoming national budget to ensure proper implementation of Right to Information Act 2009.
   While addressing a workshop, they stressed the importance of using information as a development tool, which, according to their view, would help eradication of poverty rather than making it a prerogative of the media.
   The Management and Resources Development Initiative organised the workshop on ‘the role and potentials of media to implement RTI in a pro-poor approach’ at the BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka.
   The most of the participants urged the government for taking quick initiatives to implement the act and said only adequate allocation could make it possible as the required infrastructure for its implementation was missing while the act would be enforced from July 1 this year.
   ‘Infrastructure like information commission is yet to be formed for the enforcement of the act though we have very little time to spare. Adequate allocation is essential to form the commission,’ National Press Club president Showkat Mahmud said.
   ‘If people could get information about funds for development work such as construction of bridges, culverts, schools, roads and other works, they could make the implementation authorities accountable,’ Manusher Janya Foundation executive director Shaheen Anam explained. ‘By ensuring proper utilisation of fund, people can help reduce corruption and misuse of funds,’ she added while reading out the keynote paper.
   The Financial Express editor, AHM Moazzem Hossain, told the workshop, ‘People-centred development depends on ensuring people’s right to information.’
   They said the act has loopholes and vowed to work to bring about effective change in it to achieve the best outcome. They stressed the role of media in making people aware of their rights to information.
   Amir Khasru, Bangladesh correspondent of the Voice of America, was very critical of certain provisions of the law, especially the ones which exempt security intelligence agencies from the compulsion of entertaining questions by the public.
   D-Net executive director Ananya Raihan said, ‘The examples of RTI Act implementation in different countries make us hopeful about development. But there are obstacles. The media and techno-institutes like us have to play a great role to overcome them.’
   Daily Sangbad executive editor Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Bhorer Kagoj editor Shyamol Dutta, MRDI executive director Hasibur Rahman, and Daily Kalyan editor Ekram Ud Doula spoke among others.

The residence halls of Rajshahi University were reopened on Saturday amid tight security after 79 days’ unscheduled closure.
   The university was closed on March 13 for an indefinite period over clashes between Islami Chhatra Shibir and Bangladesh Chhatra League in which the university unit Shibr general secretary, Sharifuzzaman Nomani, was killed and at least 50 others were injured.
   The classes and examinations will resume on June 1. The students were on Saturday returning to the halls after they were reopened at 9:00am.
   Four hundred lawmen have been deployed on the campus to guard against further troubles, the police said.
   The law enforcers and the authorities concerned let the students in the halls after checking their identity cards. Lawmen also frisked teachers, students, and others entering the campus.
   The authorities have asked the students to carry with them the identity cards during their stay on the campus.
   Pickets of police were set up in places on the campus.
   The students who will fail to produce their identity cards will face action, the proctor, Professor Chowdhury Mohammed Zakaria, said.
   Only residential students were let in the halls of residences and no guest or non-residential students will be allowed there, he said.
   The university administration said the proctorial committee also directed the owners of student messes and privately-owned hostels around the campus to provide the authorities with the
   photographs and details of students and other dwellers.
   The proctor said closed-circuit television cameras had been installed on the campus, especially in the halls for male students, to check against the entry of outsiders.

The agriculture minister, Matia Chowdhury, has called upon the businessmen to lower prices of solar panels and bio-gas plants so that the country’s rural people especially farmers can utilise the alternative sources of energy.
   Urging the businessmen not to go for profitmongering, she said the government had been providing Tk 9,000 as subsidy for construction of a bio-gas plant and waiving of tax on import of raw materials of solar panel was now under consideration.
   The minister said these while inaugurating a bio-gas plant on the premises of Kutikura High School at Tikuria village under Haluaghat upazila in Mymensingh.
   Infrastructure Development Company Limited declared Tikupara as a bio-gas village with over 20 bio-gas plants marking the Bio-Gas Week-2009 on Friday.
   Economic Relations Division secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan chaired the inaugural function.
   Promad Mankin, a local MP, spoke at the function as special guest while another lawmaker Hayatur Rahman Khan attended.
   Matia said constructing a bio-gas plant investing Tk 21,000 was hardly affordable for farmers as two to three cows and a poultry farm are required to run such a plant.
   She criticised the higher prices of solar panels and said not even a well to do farmer would be able to buy a solar panel investing Tk 1.20 lakh.
   The agriculture minister advised the local people to launch a campaign for massive gardening particularly on schoolyards and assured of her government’s support to build brick-boundaries around every school in the district.
   The IDCOL, a state-run company, is implementing the national domestic bio-gas and manure programme involving 14.9 million euros.

The Bangladesh Bank has decided to extend the deadline for the banks to issue Magnetic Ink Character Recognition coded cheque books to their clients by one month to June 30 following requests from different commercial banks.
   The central bank earlier asked the commercial banks to replace the existing ordinary cheque books with the new ones by May 30 to facilitate Bangladesh Bank launch the live Bangladesh Automated Cheque Processing System at the expanded Dhaka clearing region on August 3.
   Different commercial banks have already notified their clients to collect their MICR cheque books.
   ‘We’ve decided to extend all the preparatory phases of launching the live BACPS by one month with a target to launch it in the first week of November,’ Bangladesh Bank executive director Chowdhury Mohidul Haque, who is the project director, told UNB.
   He said a circular in this regard is likely to be issued today [Sunday].
   Chowdhury said the central bank had decided to extend the deadline amid requests from many banks, which could not take preparations to issue the new coded cheque books to their clients.
   He said 22 commercial banks had so far said that they had completed necessary preparations to issue the new cheque books.
   The central bank sources said detailed system specifications and operational configurations are being defined and calculated with a target of going on live operation at expanded Dhaka Clearing Region with more than 1,050 bank branches of 49 banks in and around the capital.
   The new cheque books will be standardised across all banks, making it faster and easier to clear funds through the automated clearing house.

The month-long National Tree Plantation Movement and Tree Fair-2009 will begin today at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
   The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, will inaugurate the fair at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre at 10:00am today.
   The state minister for environment and forest, Mostafizur Rahman, said this while addressing a press conference at the Press Information Department at in Dhaka.
   He said coverage of forest in a country should be at least 25 per cent of the total land for maintaining the balance of environment while Bangladesh has only 15 per cent.
   The government has taken initiatives to plant trees around homesteads and fallow land for safeguarding the environment as well as to meet the demand of the people, he said.
   Secretary-in-charge of the environment and forest ministry Mihir Kanti Majumder, principal information officer Iftekhar Hossain and acting chief conservator of forest Abdul Motaleb, among others, were present.
   Mostafiz said the government had decided to give national awards in 16 categories this year.
   The first prize will carry Tk 20,000 while the second prize Tk 15,000 and third prize Tk 10,000 and each of the award winners would be given a certificate.
   The state minister said the prime minister would hand over the awards among the winners.
   Mostafiz said the government had taken steps to plant 12 lakh saplings this year.

Azimuddin Chowdhury, son of late advocate Ashrafuddin Chowdhury, died of pancreatic cancer in Dhaka on May 26. He was 69.
   He is survived by his wife, one son, two daughters and two grandchildren.
   He was buried at the graveyard on the premises of Hazrat Shahjalal Shrine in Sylhet on the same day after two janajas — one in Dhaka and another in Sylhet.
   Azimuddin served the government in different capacities and went into retirement as a senior executive of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation.
   A prayer session will be held at his Dhanmandi residence in Dhaka after asr prayers on June 5.

The 36th death anniversary of former lawmaker AFM Nurul Huq Hawlader, also an organiser of the war of independence, will be observed today.
   To mark the day, Shaheed Sangsad Sadasya Nurul Huq Foundation will arrange various programmes including Qur’an khwani, feeding to the destitute, prayer session and discussion.
   Amra Muktijoddhar Santan will also organise discussion and prayer session on the occasion.
   Nurul Huq was elected a member of parliament from Naria constituency in Shariatpur on Awami League ticket in 1973.
   Father of Zubaida Huq Ajanta, presidium member of Amra Muktijoddhar Santan, he was shot dead by assailants in his residence at village Shaladha of Naria upazila of the district on May 31 the same year.

The head office employees of non-governmental organisation Proshika on Saturday greeted the new executive committee of the organisation in a programme on the office premises in Dhaka.
   Proshika employees across the country agitated for about a month, demanding resignation of its founding chairman Qazi Faruque Ahmed over corruption charges, nepotism and politicisation.
   On Saturday, several hundred employees of the second largest non-governmental organisation, including Sayeed Kajal, Emarat Hossain, Nurul Islam, Mohammad Alauddin, Omar Mandal, Mobarak Hossain, Naheed Parvin and Rowshan Ara Begum, among others, spoke welcoming the new executive committee.
   Proshika director Abdul Hakim presided over the programme, said a press release.
   The speakers praised the governing body members for solving the problem that continued for a month.
   The governing board in a meeting on May 24 removed Qazi Faruque Ahmed to rid the organisation from corruption, nepotism and politicisation.
   The highest policy-making body of the organisation unanimously appointed Md Abdul Wadud its new chairman and Mahbub Ul-Karim as chief executive officer.

A Union Information Centre was installed at Shilmaria Union Parishad under Puthia upazila in Rajshahi on Saturday, first ever in the greater Rajshahi.
   The local Awami League lawmaker, Kazi Abdul Wadud Dara, inaugurated the centre financed by the UNDP.
   Before inauguration of the UIC, the Union Parishad chairman, Sazzad Hossain Mukul, announced about Tk 70 lakh budget for the 2009-10 fiscal.

The 21st anniversary of the death of Jamil Akter Ratan, former president of Bangladesh Chhatra Moitri of the Rajshahi Medical College unit, will be observed today.
   Jamaat-Shibir activists hacked Jamil Akter to death on the day in 1988 during a demonstration against the state-religion bill by the Ershad government.
   Bangladesh Chhatra Moitri and some other organisations will hold various programmes across the country in observance of the day.
   The programmes include hoisting black flag, holding black badge, placing floral wreath at the Central Shaheed Minar at 9:00am, and discussion on his life and works at the central office at 4:00pm, a press release said on Saturday.

The state-owned Bangla-desh Shipping Corporation has earned Tk 46.68 crore as net profit in 2007-08.
   This was disclosed at the 31st annual general meeting of the corporation at its head office in Dhaka on Saturday with chairman of its board of directors, Mohammad Afsarul Amin, also the shipping minister, in the chair.
   The AGM also announced 10 per cent profit for the shareholders of the BSC against each share of Tk 100.
   Secretary of the shipping ministry Masud Elahi, managing director of the corporation Mohammad Ali Mostafa Chowdhury, director general (monitoring cell) of the finance ministry Chowdhury Saleh Ahmed, senior officials of the BSC and shareholders were present at the AGM.
   Addressing the meeting, the minister emphasised expanding existing fleet of the BSC adding modern ships as maritime communications have played an important role in the country’s export-import trade.

An advocacy meeting on pictorial health warning on cigarette and bidi packet was held in Dhaka on Saturday.
   The Centre for Cancer Prevention and Research organised the meeting at Dhaka Reporters Unity marking World No Tobacco Day 2009.
   Mahbubul Alam, editor of The Independent and former adviser to the caretaker government, addressed the meeting as the chief guest while Bangladesh Observer editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury was present as special guest.
   Mahbubul Alam called for joint efforts of the government and other professional bodies and NGOs to launch a nationwide campaign for creating awareness of the harmful effect of tobacco.
   Md Habibullah Talukder, head of the department of Cancer Epidemiology, National Cancer Research Institute and Hospital, read out the keynote paper at the meeting.