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The district administration has taken up a project to plant environment-friendly trees along the Cox’s Bazar sea beach with a view to attracting more tourists in the world’s longest sandy sea beach.
   Under the project, saplings of various kinds of trees including coconut, date and palm will be planted along the sea beach, sources at the deputy commissioner’s office, Cox’s Bazar, said.
   Saplings will be planted in five rows along the 110-kilometre-long sea beach from Nazirartek to Teknaf in the western side of Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf marine drive road, the sources said.
   The district administration has already sent a letter to the prime minister’s secretariat, asking for Tk 3 crore to implement the project also aimed at checking erosion of Cox’s Bazar coast by tidal surges.
   The deputy commissioner, Giasuddin Ahmed, told New Age that the government in principle had given a nod to the project for promoting the county’s tourism sector.
   Taking opinions from experts, the district administration has decided to plant coconut, date and other fruit-bearing trees along the sea beach, he said.
   Implementation work of the project is expected to start in the next monsoon (April-May 2010) subject to the availability of fund, he added saying,.`Once implemented, the project will add to the beauty of the Cox’s Bazar sea beach and attract more tourists.’
   A report sent to the ministry concerned said Zhau trees are easily washed away by high tide as their roots are very soft and not resistant to sea waves.
   Several thousand Zhau trees along 3km stretch sea beach from Nazirartek to Sea Gall Hotel point and 10 km stretch from Himchhari to Inane point have been washed away by high tide during the last monsoon, the report added.
   Mohammad Sukur Ali, additional deputy commissioner (revenue), said Zhau trees are not environment-friendly and that they also obstruct sea view from different hotels and motels.
   Abdul Karim, chief secretary of prime minister’s secretariat, has recently visited Cox’s Bazar to see the feasibility of the sea beach plantation project.
   At least 10,000 Zhau trees have been cut down land gravers at Sahaporirdip under Teknaf in August.

The biennial conference of the Raujan and municipal BNP committees scheduled for Tuesday was postponed because of alleged interception by the ruling Awami League men.
   Professor Nurul Amin, convener of the upazila unit BNP, at a briefing at the Chittagong Press Club in the afternoon, claimed nine of their activists were injured in an attack on them by Chhatra League activists.
   ‘Chhatra League activists attacked the motorcade of a district (north) unit BNP leader at Sattarghat when they were heading for the conference. Nine of the activists were injured in the attack’ he said, without identifying the injured.
   He also said Chhatra League and Awami League activists announced to hold a rally at a place near the conference venue in protest against the attack on lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh to foil their BNP programme.
   ‘We shifted the conference venue to the house Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury from the Shalima Quader Chowdhury Community Centre to avoid any untoward incidents,’ he said, adding Chhatra League and the Awami League activists had also stopped participants from entering the new venue.
   He said the situation forced them to postpone the conference and the district (north) unit BNP would at a meeting on Wednesday make a decision on the next date for the conference.
   BNP leaders Abu Ahmed Hassan, also chairman of the Raujan upazila council, and Aslam Chowdhury attended the briefing.

Officials of the district administration and forest department visited Ashar Char of Amtali upazila in Barguna on Tuesday following reports that 1,000 trees in the char area have been felled by influential quarters.
   Two teams - one led by assistant conservator of forest department, Barguna, MA Awal and another by by assistant commissioner (land) of Amtali upazila Abu Nesar Bhuiyan visited the area.
   During the visit, they assured the local people that they would take necessary steps against the offenders.
   At least 1,000 Kewra trees have been felled by fish merchants in Ashar Char area in the last two weeks, according to reports published in different newspapers recently.
   At least two-kilometre stretch area of Ashar Char now stand denuded following felling of the trees.
   Locals said after cutting down the trees, several concrete platforms have been built in the char area for drying up fishes.
   They also alleged that local Baro Bogia union parisad chairman Dulal Farazi was involved in cutting down of the trees.
   When contacted, Dulal denied the allegation saying, ‘I hired a group of fishermen for collecting fishes.’
   The UP chairman also said he had to pay Tk 2,000 to the forest staffs for using a plot of 1,000 square feet area for drying fish there.
   Taltali Coastal Forest Range officer Balaram Saha said they could not protect the Kewra forest for shortage of manpower.
   A large number of trees has been attacked with unknown diseases in the char area for chemicals used in drying fish and deposition of sand on the open beach, locals said.

Four persons, including two teachers, were killed and four others injured in a road accident at Kalakachua under Burichong upazila on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway Tuesday night.
   Highway police said the mishap occurred as one of the front wheels of a truck deflated and then hit a microbus coming from opposite direction, leaving eight microbus passengers injured at about 9pm.
   The injured were taken to Comilla Combined Military Hospital where three died same night while another unidentified man died this morning.
   Three of the deceased were identified as Oliul Haque Chowdhury, 42, lecturer of Al Amin Academy, Feni, Abul Yusuf, 35, principal of the academy, and microbus driver Belal.
   The microbus, which was hired on rental basis, was going to Feni from the capital.
   A case was filed with local police station in this connection.

Bangladesh Mahila Pari-shad district unit at a press briefing at Barguna Press Club on Monday protested at the killing of Munmun and demanded exemplary punishment for the killers.
   The protestors also demanded a fair investigation into the murder of Munmun so that the actual culprits cannot escape trial.
   They alleged the body of Afroza Akhter Munmun, 22, a third year honours student of the management department of Barguna Government College, had been hanged by her husband and in-laws after the killing at their residence on the Collage Road in the town on November 7, 2009.
   The press briefing was attended, among others, by Baby Dash, vice-president, Khadiza Begum, secretary, Shikha Chakroborty and Salina Akter of Mahila Parishad.

Thieves on Monday night burgled into a Grameenphone showroom and service centre in Jaipurhat and took away mobiles and some money.
   The police and the showroom in-charge said the employees had closed the showroom on Monday as usual and a cleaner, who came to the shop early next morning, found the door broken.
   The employees said thieves had broken into the room and took away more some cash and mobiles worth an estimated Tk 10 lakh.