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

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Autonomy for state-run electronic media, one of the key pledges made by three political alliances in their joint declaration on November 19, 1990 when the movement against the then military dictator HM Ershad reached its climax, still remains a far cry.
   Clause 2(d) of the declaration says, ‘Mass media, including radio and television, will have to be made independent and autonomous so that they become completely neutral...’
   A Jatiya Sangsad panel has observed the state-run Bangladesh Television still remains the government’s propaganda machine and it must improve its news standard to compete with private channels.
   ‘News presentation of state-owned television looks more like advertisement of government activities. Such a public perception is not good for democracy,’ chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on information ministry Obaidul Kader said after a meeting of the committee on October 27.
   The parliamentary panel’s observation demonstrates that the state-run Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television are yet to become neutral, as they have not been given autonomy even after about two decades of the joint declaration of the three alliances of 1990s.
   Against this backdrop, the High Court on Monday asked the government to submit in the court by December 8 all documents of the sub-committee, formed on May 25, 1999 for the implementation of Radio-TV Autonomy Commission recommendations, regarding the functioning of the committee and progress made.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury also ordered the government to submit its reply by December 8 to the rule issued in 2000 to explain why it would not be directed to implement Radio-TV Autonomy Commission recommendations to give autonomy to state-run Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television.
   The court passed the orders during the hearing in the rule issued on November 19, 2000.
   The court set December 9 for the next hearing in the case.
   The orders came as deputy attorney general Nazrul Islam sought a two-week time for submitting the government’s reply to the rule issued nine years back in response to a public interest litigation writ petition filed by rights organisation Odhikar.
   The petitioner’s counsels Adilur Rahman Khan argued on Monday that the rule needed an expeditious hearing and the government should not be allowed to make any more delay in replying as it had already spent nine years.
   Before the 1991 elections, both the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League pledged in their manifestos that autonomy for radio and television would be ensured in line with the joint declaration. But, after winning the elections, the BNP government did not bother to implement its election pledge during its 1991-1996 tenure.
   Being voted to power in 1996, the AL government instituted a commission to frame rules and regulations for the autonomy of Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television (Radio-TV Autonomy Commission) on September 9, 1996.
   The commission submitted its report to the government on June 30, 1997, but the Awami League government towards the end of its five-year tenure approved two bills on May 7, 2000 seeking enactment of two laws granting autonomy to the state-run electronic media.
   The bills proposed establishment of separate authority for Radio and BTV, formation of a board of five members selected by the government with a chairman as its head, telecasting news and programmes in accordance with the National Broadcasting Policy and empowering the government to dissolve the authority.
   This move of the AL government to give ‘autonomy’ to the state-run electronic media bypassing substantial recommendations of the government-appointed commission, evoked sharp criticism from civil society organisations and prompted Odhikar to file the writ petition in November 2000.
   No subsequent government has so far bothered to reply the rule issued a decade back.
   Returning to power in 2001, the BNP-led alliance government had taken no significant move to give autonomy to the state-run electronic media during its 2001-2006 tenure despite repeating its pledge in election manifesto.
   The Awami League-led alliance, which was voted to power again in December 2008 elections, is yet to take any initiative to give autonomy to the Betar and BTV.

The long-awaited conference of the Chittagong city unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was marred by clashes between the followers of two rival local leaders that left about 20 people injured on Monday, police and witnesses said.
   Witnesses and party sources said that the trouble began at about 11:00am when supporters of BNP’s Chittagong chapter convener Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and activists loyal to the party’s local stalwart Abdullah Al Noman started hurling abuses and chairs at each other.
   A large contingent of police was deployed in and around the Engineers Institute, the venue of the council, as tension mounted in the port city over past few days over the conference.
   The clashes broke out when Noman’s cohorts who went to the venue in a procession were stopped at the entrance to the hall by Khasru loyalists. Khasru was already sitting in the front row, witnesses and party sources said.
   The officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, Mohiuddin Mahmud said that a few people from both the factions had sustained minor injuries during the clashes which continued for about half an hour.
   ‘The fight started when Noman’s supporters tried to force their way into the hall after being stopped by the supporters of Amir Khasru. The rival groups then started throwing chairs at each other. Amid chase and counter chase, both the groups raced to take control of the stage,’ he said adding that the police quickly intervened and brought the situation under control.
   The council session resumed soon afterwards.
   Both the factions blamed each other for the trouble at the party’s city unit council that ended without formation of a new committee.
   BNP’s central leaders Hannan Shah, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Barkatullah Bulu and local stalwarts including M Morshed Khan, Abdullah Al Noman, Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury were present in the hall during the clashes but escaped unhurt.
    When contacted, Amir Khasru said, ‘Some of our party men, backed by a group of terrorists, stormed into the hall and pounced on the people who were attending the peaceful council session.’
   ‘I don’t want to name the troublemakers as everybody knows them. You also know it very well,’ he said.
   ‘But we did not ask the police to go into action as it could have worsened the situation,’ he said.
   The situation calmed soon afterwards and we resumed the session… I chaired the session myself. Central and local leaders, who were present, addressed it,’ Khasru said.
   ‘The committee will be formed sometime later…The party’s high command will take the decision in this regard,’ he said.
   Witnesses said that there were shouts and slogans and counter slogans when Khasru and Noman were addressing the audience.
   Abdullah Al Noman also declined to hold any leader responsible for the trouble. He claimed that the situation turned a little chaotic amid slogans and counter slogans when the party activists, who came in a procession, were stopped at the entrance to the hall.
   ‘In fact, the chaos took place as the meeting was organised in a restricted way in the name of “council”. As per the decision of the high command against the backdrop of local feuds, an open meeting was supposed to be held, so that general party activists could attend it,’ he said.
   Former general secretary of the party’s Chittagong chapter, Dastagir Chowdhury, who is believed be a supporter of Khasru, said, ‘People loyal to Mannan Bhuiyan created the trouble.’
   ‘We want an immediate investigation into this incident and punitive action against the people responsible,’ he said.
   City BNP’s joint convener Ershad Ullah, who backs Noman, described the incident as an ‘outburst of pent-up resentment of the dedicated party activists.’
   He blamed Amir Khasru for forming some ‘pocket’ committees at thana and ward levels.
   Amir Khasru denied the allegation.

The council session of Faridpur district unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was postponed in the face of factional feuds which forced the election commissioner to put the election process on hold.
   The rival factions led by former district BNP president Shahjada Mia and former lawmaker Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf at separate press conferences accused each other for disrupting the election process.
   Election commissioner Shah Mohammad Abu Zafar told New Age that some activists loyal to Kamal Yusuf had forced their way into the election venue at Ambika Hall in the town at about 6:00pm, attacked the supporters of Shahjada Mia, convener of the district BNP, and ransacked furniture. He postponed the council in order to avoid farther trouble.
   Cohorts of Kamal Yusuf at a press conference at Faridpur press club alleged that they had protested at bringing in ‘fake’ voters from the designated upazilas by the supporters of Shahjada Mia.
   In the first session of the council held in the morning, supporters of Kamal Yusuf attacked Selimuzzaman, president of the district unit of Chhatra Dal, who has been admitted to Faridpur general hospital.

The education ministry has transferred about 400 officials of the Bangladesh Civil Service (Education) in violation of the rules that the ministry had formulated, education officials told New Age on Monday.
   Besides, the ministry on November 10 issued transfer orders to seven officials of the Directorate of Inspection Audit for alleged involvement in irregularities, but the order was cancelled on November 12.
   An education ministry’s circular, issued in November 2008, stipulated that only the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education will have the authority to issue transfer orders to lecturers and assistant professors outside Dhaka, but it is the ministry which has been doing that for the last few weeks.
   A powerful syndicate, led by the assistant private secretary to education minister Nurul Islam Nahid, has allegedly played the key role in issuance of the transfer and posting orders in total violation of the rules set by the ministry on 6 November, 2008,’ said ministry officials.
   When asked about allegations of the frequent taking of bribes for the transfer and posting of education cadre officials, Nahid on Thursday told newsmen that he would look into the matter.
   The ministry on Sunday transferred a lecturer of Bangla, M Abdur Rashid, of the Government Bangabandhu College in Gopalganj to KC College in Jhenaidah. The same order also transferred Netai Jibon Nandi, an assistant professor of history in Barisal Government College, to the Higher Secondary Teachers’ Training Institute as its assistant director.
   The order issued on Sunday also transferred nearly 160 lecturers and assistant professors to various colleges and offices outside Dhaka.
   Likewise, in violation of the rules, the ministry on Thursday issued a transfer order to nearly 170 lecturers and assistant professors of colleges and offices outside Dhaka.
   An official of the DSHE on Monday said that there are some government colleges which suffer from shortage of teachers. ‘Only we have the information about which college is short of teachers and where education is being hampered, so the ministry’s abrupt transfer orders have created a chaotic situation in some colleges and hampered the smooth discharge of the DSHE’s duties too,’ he said.
   Quoting Sunday’s order, an official of the education ministry said, ‘Sangjukta Pal Chaitali, a lecturer of English at Chittagong Government City College, has been transferred to the Government Music College in Dhaka to a post of that deals with folksongs. Such an order is a clear violation of the rules on the posting of cadre officials.’
   ‘The music college has too many teachers against too few posts. Not only Sangjukta Pal but also more than 50 such lecturers and assistant professors have been posted to some colleges inside and outside Dhaka where actually there were no vacant posts,’ he said.
   According to Sunday’s transfer order the DSHE’s assistant director [administration], M Kawsar Ali, has been made deputy director [administration] of the National Academy for Educational Management in violation of the rules. Kawsar Ali is a newly promoted associate professor of Islamic Studies but the rules require getting good results in foundation training and having MPhil or PhD for getting the post.
   ‘Kawsar, who was serving in different offices in Dhaka since 1996, only a few months ago managed to be posted to the DSHE. He is also facing a probe by the Anti-Corruption Commission for alleged corruption and irregularities committed during his job in the Directorate of Inspection and Audit under the ministry,’ said the official.
   When asked the justification of posting Kawsar to a position he is not qualified to hold, the education minister said that would carry out a probe before approving Kawsar’s posting.
   Manmath Ranjan Baroi, assistant private secretary to the education minister, told New Age on Monday that at least three ministers have requested him to make Kawsar a deputy director. Baroi is alleged to have played the key role in postings and transfers.
   When asked about the posting of lecturer Bijoy Kumar Ghosh as a deputy director of the Education Engineering Department, Manmath said, ‘An official of the Prime Minister’s Office had strongly requested us to promote Bijoy to the new post.’
   ‘A powerful minister requested my minister to cancel the transfer orders of seven officials of the DIA who were accused of corruption,’ he said. ‘Actually I had nothing to do with all this.’
   When the education minister was asked about allegations of corruption against his private secretary, he replied, ‘I have heard too many allegations from different quarters in the last few months.’
   There are more than 14,000 officers of the Bangladesh Civil Service (Education) who are employed in government colleges, 10 education boards and are also occupying different positions in some directorates under the education ministry.

Dhaka plans to raise its concerns at the WTO meet against giving any special facility to developing countries that could erode Bangladesh’s trade preferences amid declines in export shipments, trade diplomats hinted.
   The country’s old demand for duty-free, quota-free access to developed markets will be reiterated at the Geneva meeting of the World Trade Organisation, given the twin challenges of global financial crisis and climate change effects.
   In view of the vulnerability to food security, Dhaka may also demand restriction on imposing ban on exports of food-grains including rice at time of crisis by any WTO member which has surplus rice, trade diplomats said.
   Commerce minister Faruk Khan will highlight the key demands during his scheduled three-minute speech at the WTO trade ministerial meeting in Geneva on December 1.
   Recent declines in exports will give the minister a strong point to argue in favour of Dhaka’s demand for duty-free market access for all products.
   Issues like assistance for developing trade capacity as well as special and differential treatment for least developed countries such as Bangladesh may be raised at the WTO conference, said sources at the commerce ministry.
   ‘Major demands should be well articulated in the brief time allocated equally for each of the WTO members. Both experts and officials concerned are making exercises to prepare a concise speech for the minister,’ an informed source told New Age.
   A preparatory meeting has been convened at the commerce ministry today ahead of the WTO ministerial meet scheduled for November 30-December 2. The commerce minister and selected members of the 17-member delegation for the WTO meet will attend the meeting to firm up the country’s position on the Doha Development Round negotiations.
   Dhaka thinks the Doha Round talks would come to a successful conclusion only if the interests of the LDCs such as Bangladesh are duly taken care of, sources in the commerce ministry said. ‘Dhaka is not in favour of hurried conclusion of Doha talks at the cost of LDCs’ interests,’ said a source.
   Bangladesh may also request the WTO members to give special priority to LDCs through a waiver option in negotiations on the service sector.

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has urged the global leadership to create an equitable food-governance system both at national and international levels to make food available and accessible to the down-and-outs, as over a billion people go
   hungry across the world.
   ‘Only production of food alone cannot guarantee food security. Available food must be accessible, particularly to the marginalised and the vulnerable, for which a fair and equitable food-governance system is required at both national and international levels,’ she said.
   The prime minister mooted the proposal while addressing the World Summit on Food Security at the Food and Agriculture Organisation Headquarters in the Italian capital at 4:00pm (local time) Monday.
   With the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi in the chair, the opening session was also addressed by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and the president of Italian Senate, Renato Schifani. Mayor of Rome Giovanni Alemanno delivered the welcome massage.
   Hasina in her speech also depicted the disastrous link between the global climate change and food production in the globe.
   ‘Indeed, food security is also directly related to climate change. Bangladesh stands out as a stark example where agricultural production has become hostage to frequent and erratic natural disasters, thereby adversely affecting food production,’ she told the global summit meet.
   Hasina mentioned that significantly, the demands for meeting the adverse effects of climate change were diverting funds allocated for sensitive social sectors as health, education, energy etc.
   ‘Shortage of funds has also severely restricted our research efforts in agriculture, particularly in food production. Further breakthrough on high yielding rice or agro-based products could be developed, though the growing need for discovering varieties resistant to salinity, drought, and water submergence has become urgent.’
   She added: ‘The picture we see now is a cruel one for a world where one-sixth of its population, or over a billion, are faced with the spectre of hunger.’
   The prime minister noted that the vast majority of these people reside in least developed countries are facing food shortages, negation of development gains, and erosion of Millennium Development Goals.
   ‘This is truly a sad and depressing sight, in an age of scientific and technological advancement.’
   She observed that the threat to food security seemed now to be more than ever before, against the backdrop of sudden scarcity of food and its price spiral in 2007-2008, the recent worldwide financial meltdown, and the looming impacts of climate change.
   Indeed, the unprecedented increase in food prices during the last two years aggravated further the predicament of the LDCs, already reeling under declined remittances, reduced export earnings, credit crunch, and unemployment at home and abroad, due to the global recession.
   She said the increased costs of seed and fertiliser, paucity of water and energy also added to the difficulties. These were further compounded by the barriers posed for the entry of products to developed countries’ markets.
   Hasina informed the assembly world leaders that her government on assumption of power got confronted with all these challenges.
   As a first step, she said, the Bangladesh government began implementing the agricultural policies which, ‘during our previous tenure from 1996 to 2001, helped us attain food autarky and won us FAO’s prestigious Ceres Award’.
   She said: ‘We also reduced substantially the prices of fertilisers, and ensured water supply for irrigation with uninterrupted power supply. We are also striving for fair prices for farmers, and removing bottlenecks in the marketing chain.’
   The government has, once again, resurrected agricultural research to find flood, drought, and salinity-resistant food and cash crops, and ensure access of small farmers to sustainable agricultural technologies, social entrepreneurship, and financial credit.
   ‘We have also revived diversification of crop varieties; building food grain storage capacities to ensure sustained supply of food around the year; putting in place social safety nets like cash and food transfers; and other poverty-alleviation programmes,’ the prime minister told her audience.
   Among many measures, she said, the government adopted in May 2009 a National Food Policy Plan of Action under which all national development partners’ efforts and resources would be harmonised for ensuring inclusive food security.
   The prime minister further informed the international meet that her government’s efforts had also taken cognizance of certain principles that underpin an aligned response to reducing hunger while increasing sustainable levels of food security.
   These principles include homespun plans that are sustainable, technically sound, and have the political and financial backing of partner-country governments and other donors and stakeholders, comprehensive approach to food security, including resources for agricultural development assistance, nutrition, humanitarian food assistance, and risk-mitigation tools, strategic coordination of assistance at the local, regional, and global levels to make sure that resources are delivered effectively. The principles also include sustained and accountable commitment of financial resources.
   Hasina stressed the need for implementation of the Rome Declaration provisions covering sustainable agricultural policies, transfer of technology, equitable and fair trade rules for food and agricultural products with special and preferential treatment for LDCs, under a reinvigorated FAO with the director general, Jacques Diouf.
   She said the Summit Declaration provided scope for strengthening global governance on food security, including enhanced role of the Committee on Food Security.
   She viewed that a better coordination amongst FAO, IFAD and WFP would ‘definitely contribute to our goal of attaining food security’.
   Clearly, for implementing the provisions of the Declaration, a substantial fund is essential, Hasina said to substantiate her proposition for a bailout package for the down-and-outs hardest hit by the crises in food crop as well as financial sectors.
   ‘If developed countries could provide trillions of dollars to save collapsed financial markets, should they not feel any obligation to feed the starving millions?’ She put the question.
   In this context, she said, the recent G-8 decision in L’Aquilla to mobilise $20 billion over three years for small farmers in food-deficit developing countries is encouraging.
   However, she noted that the amount is insufficient. Additional funds would be available if only the developed countries fulfil their ODA commitment of 0.7 per cent of their Gross National Income to developing countries, and 0.2 per cent to the LDCs by 2010, as affirmed in the Brussels Programme of Action.
   The prime minister said the Summit Declaration summed up the threats facing food security, as well as suggested remedial measures.
   ‘It is now for us to abide by the Declaration in our bid to save future generations from the scourge of hunger and poverty,’ she said about the common resolve of the time that should be.
   Hasina told her international audience that her government would indeed be guided by the Declaration in its endeavour to attain food security, the basis for a decent and dignified life, which Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dreamt for the people of his ‘Sonar Bangladesh’.

The government has taken some initiatives to update the Bangladesh National Building Code 1993 to keep pace with the latest advances in engineering and technology and the changed socio-environmental scenario.
   The government has already formed a 25-member committee with ASM Ismail, chief architect of the Department of Architecture, as the convener to review and revise the out-dated building code.
   Representatives of various ministries, the Housing and Building Research Institute, BUET, Bangladesh Civil Defence and Fire Service, army, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute and several professional bodies like the Institute of Engineers Bangladesh have been included in the committee.
   The Bangladesh National Building Code was prepared in 1993 under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to ensure a minimum standard of construction in the country.
   The government promulgated the BNBC, which specifies safe and acceptable practices in all aspects of design and construction, and made it legally binding on all concerned by issuing an SRO in 2006.
   Compliance with the BNBC under The Building Construction Act 1952 was made mandatory in the construction of any building to ensure accountability in the management of over-all construction and safety of the buildings.
   'The main objective of the project is to revise and update the provisions of the Bangladesh National Building Code to keep pace with contemporary requirements,' ASM Ismail told New Age.
   The need to upgrade the code has become essential, especially because the building code is now no more a reference document only but the law of the land, he added.
   He said that review, revision and updating of the BNBC was aimed at bringing it in line with the present state-of-the-art technology and for taking into due consideration the local needs and practices.
   Besides, he said, sufficient attention was not given to the aspect of disaster management and ensuring physically disabled people-friendly structures.
   When asked what aspect the committee would emphasise in upgrading the code, he said it would examine how maximum use of land could be ensured as the size of the country's empty and arable land is shrinking rapidly.
   Referring to the progress in their task, the convener said the committee had decided to give BUET the onus of upgrading the building code.
   'We had thought that the task would be given to some private consultant, but no firm has shown any interest to do the job even after we floated tenders twice,' said Ismail.
   The work-order of the task is likely to be issued this month and the committee is hopeful of getting the task done within one year, he said.

The UN Hunger Summit on Monday vowed 'urgent action' to combat food shortages but drew fire for failing to pledge new funds or set a timetable to beat the scourge affecting more than one billion people.
   As Pope Benedict XVI slammed the 'greed' of grain speculators, participants in the summit in Rome declared hunger was 'an unacceptable blight on the lives, livelihoods and dignity of one-sixth of the world's population.'
   Their joint final declaration - which was rolled out on the first day of the three-day summit - also outlined five 'principles' including 'direct action' to help the most vulnerable.
   But no new financial commitments were contained in the document, which calls on wealthy nations to honour pledges of 20 billion dollars (13.3 billion euros) in aid over the next three years made at a Group of Eight summit in July.
   The final declaration also omitted any mention of a UN 2025 deadline for the eradication of world hunger, prompting an angry response from campaigners.
   Matt Grainger of the humanitarian group Oxfam slammed the declaration as 'completely uncosted, unfunded and unaccountable.'
   'They really had a chance here to come up with some really concrete,' Grainger said, calling the three-day summit a 'massive wasted opportunity.'
   Some 60 heads of state and government are attending the World Summit on Food Security at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation's Rome headquarters, but leaders of the world's wealthiest countries are conspicuous by their absence.
   The summit delegates said they 'commit to substantially increase' the percentage of development aid spent on agriculture and food security.
   They vowed a 'twin-track approach' to food security comprising direct action for the most vulnerable and sustainable 'medium and long-term programmes to eliminate the root causes of hunger and poverty.'
   Opening the summit, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, calling for a 'single global vision' to address the plight of the world's hungry, said 'the food crisis of today is a wake-up call for tomorrow.'
   By the time the world population reaches some nine billion in 2050, 'we know we will need to grow 70 per cent more food, yet weather is becoming more extreme and more unpredictable,' he said.
   The UN chief added that the issues of climate change and food security are interlinked. 'There can be no food security without climate security.'
   Pope Benedict XVI, for his part, lamented 'greed which causes speculation to rear its head even in the marketing of cereals, as if food were to be treated just like any other commodity.'
   To help create a sense of urgency ahead of the summit, FAO chief Jacques Diouf went on a 24-hour fast on Saturday, and Ban followed suit on Sunday.
   The Libyan leader, Moamer Gaddafi, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and his controversial Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe were among the some 60 heads of state and government taking part.

At least nine people were killed and fifty others injured in a road accident on Dhaka-Jamuna Highway at Kadhimdholla of Mirzapur upazila in Tangail Monday afternoon.
   Among the dead, four were identified as two-year-old Rifat, Sanwar, 26, Refaz or Dhola, 45, Rafiqul Islam, 40, of Pustokamary of Mirzapur. The identity of the rest could not be known immediately.
   Quoting witnesses, the police said the accident took place at about 3:30pm at Kadimdhalla of the upazila when a Dhaka-bound bus collided with another bus from Jamalpur.
   Officer-in-charge of Mirzapur police station Habibullah Sarkar told New Age that a Dhaka-bound bus of RK Paribahan collided with Jamalpur-bound bus of Shibu Paribahan, leaving five persons dead on the spot. Four more persons died after being taken to Mirzapur Kumudhiny Medical College Hospital.
   Dr Dulal Poddar, director of the hospital, told New Age that 40 injured people were admitted to the hospital. Of them, condition of at least 15 people was stated to be critical. The other injured were admitted to local clinics.
   Following the accident, traffic movement on the highway remained halted for at least two hours. On information, the police and fire brigade and civil defence officials rushed to spot and brought the situation under control.

A marathon and risky operation to separate Bangladeshi twins joined at the head, which they have only a one in four chance of both surviving, was going well Monday, surgeons said.
   The 16-strong team was on 'tenterhooks' over the delicate bid to separate Trishna and Krishna, aged two, which will take about 16 hours, plastic surgeon Tony Holmes told reporters at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital.
   'It is a stressful time for any group of surgeons with this sort of case. They only come along really once in a lifetime and I think everybody has been on tenterhooks,' he said.
   Doctors began at 10:00am (2300 GMT Sunday) by cutting through the bone which joins the girls via the top of the head and were working to separate the connected section of brain and blood vessels.
   'The unknown... is what actually happens when you separate finally the cerebral circulations, because that is a change in haemodynamics (blood movement) so the pressures will be different in each twin,' Holmes said.
   'It's over those few early minutes when the pressures equilibrate in the brain, they're the things that we're worried about.
   'But the children are prepared as well as could possibly be and we're cautiously optimistic that everything is going particularly well.'
   By late afternoon the girls were still joined at the brain and at a bone bridge between their skulls, but the hospital's head of surgery, Leo Donnan, said he was pleased with the progress.
   'I think everything is going really very well at the moment,' he said.
   'Separation is still some way off. It's a long process of dividing the girls' brains so that they have their own tissue and their own identity.
   'The girls' brain is going to be separated and then there is work that needs to be done on the bony structures around the brain.
   'Then the girls will be physically separated at that point.'
   The whole procedure is expected to finish at around midnight.
   The girls, who were placed in a Dhaka orphanage at birth, were close to death when they arrived in Australia two years ago but both are now thriving after undergoing a series of preparatory operations.
   The Children First Foundation flew the girls to Australia because of poor separation survival rates in Bangladesh, where only two children have survived four operations in recent years.
   Holmes said the children's legal guardian, Moira Kelly, looked 'relatively distressed' as Trishna and Krishna were wheeled into the operation.
   'When the children went into the operating theatre... Moira was there giving them, you know, a farewell kiss and good luck,' he said.
   'She was relatively distressed as one would be if it was your child. The kids were fine, okay, they looked as healthy and happy as anything but they were sedated.'
   Separating conjoined twins is a notoriously difficult procedure, with attempts in Britain and Bangladesh both failing over the past year, although Saudi doctors successfully divided a pair of Egyptian brothers in February.
   In one of the best known cases, Singapore doctors in 2003 failed in an attempt to separate adult twins - Iranian law graduates Laleh and Ladan Bijani, 29 - who died from severe blood loss after 52 hours of surgery.

Finance minister AMA Muhith has turned down the proposal for restoring the banking division in the finance ministry as the number of the government-run banks has diminished in the last few years and the ministry does not need to have much of a say in their affairs and operation, said officials.
   'The finance minister rejected the proposal last week,' said a senior official on Monday, adding that in a note he ruled out the necessity of a separate banking division in the finance ministry under the present circumstances.
   'The government has already given full autonomy to the Bangladesh Bank for supervising the country's banking sector,' he pointed out.
   The Prime Minister's Office last August sent a letter to the finance ministry to look into the necessity of setting up separate banking division.
   The Awami League government abolished the separate banking division under the finance ministry when its came to power in 1996.
   Later, as advocated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a council was formed on 10 March, 2003, by amending the Bangladesh Bank Order of 1972, to look into the various issues of the banks.
   The amended Order provided the BB limited autonomy and assigned the council the responsibility of coordinating and looking into the fiscal issues between the central bank and the government for taking corrective measures whenever necessary.

The Border Security Force of India shot and wounded two Bangladeshi cattle traders along Boroachra border at Benapole early Monday.
   The injured were Saheb Ali, 20, son of Sohrab Sardar and Abu Sayeed, 18, son of Munshi Bepari of Bhober Ber village.

The 33rd anniversary of the death of national leader Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani will be observed today.
   Different political parties and socio-cultural organisations have chalked up elaborate programmes to pay homage to the great leader, who had won the hearts of the people by his struggle for emancipation of the downtrodden.
   Born in 1880 at Dhangara in Tangail, Bhasani was a popular political leader in Pakistan and Bangladesh, particularly among the peasants. He was the son of Haji Sharafat Ali Khan.
   Owing to his Maoist inclinations, he was nicknamed 'Red Maulana'. He was one of the founding members and president of the National Awami Party. He fought against colonialism, both British and Pakistani. His decision to boycott the 1970 Pakistan general elections effectively led to the electoral sweep by erstwhile opponent Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Bhasani died on November 17, 1976 in Dhaka and was buried at Santosh in Tangail.
   Political leaders and socio-cultural personalities will place wraths at his grave at Santosh this morning and hold a rally there.
   Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani Parishad will organise photo exhibition at the Central Shaheed Minar today from 12 noon to 5:00pm and a rally at 4:00pm. Deshpremik Janaganer Mancha will hold an open discussion on contribution of Maulana Bhasani at 3:00pm at Gana Sangskriti Kendra, Shahbagh. Bhasani Smriti Sangsad will hold a discussion meeting tomorrow at Jatiya Press Club at 3:00pm.
   In a message, Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister, expressed her respect to the legendary leader. Recalling his contribution to the national politics, Khaleda said Bhasani had taught the political activists how to fight against repression.
   'Inspired by his teaching, we need to continue with the fight for the re-establishment of democracy and the rights of people,' she said.