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Mosquito menace has turned acute in the Rajshahi city due to absence of anti-mosquito drive during the last nine and a half months.
   An official of mosquito department under the Rajshahi City Corporation said that they couldn’t carry out the anti-mosquito drive during the period due to fund constraints.
   The city corporation authorities began an anti-mosquito drive on January 22 at 30 wards but they had to suspend it after one week as insecticides and fuel were finished by the time. The drive was carried out with 16 fogger machines.
   The official said mosquito menace can be reduced to some extent if ward commissioners extend support to spray larvicide in their respective areas.
   An employee of mosquito department said former mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu had procured 43 fogger machines and 37 of them had gone out of order. Some sprayers had also been lying idle for several months, he added.
   Sheikh Mohammed Mamun Dollar, chief conservancy official of the RCC, told New Age that they have recently invited tender to buy insecticides. They were planning to buy insecticides worth Tk 2 lakh, he said.
   ‘We are also trying to utilise all available resources to save city dwellers from the mosquito menace by cleaning the drains,’ he added.
   Local residents said mosquito menace has increased at different parts of the city, causing immense sufferings to them.
   Tanjirul Islam, a student of Rajshahi College living in the Laxmipur area, said it is not possible to stay inside the room without mosquito net after evening. Mosquitoes also bite at daytime, he added.
   Mirza Shakil Ahmed, a resident of the Sadhur crossing area, said mosquitoes enter the houses in the evening from drains and start biting them.
   Rawnok Jahan, a housewife of the Shalbagan area, was worried about her daughter, a class VIII student of Government PN Girls High School, as she cannot concentrate on her study due to mosquito nuisance although her final examination is going on.
   Abdul Jabbar, councillor of ward 7, told New Age that local residents go to his office every day and urges him to save them from mosquito menace.
   ‘The residents call for launching anti-mosquito drive but we cannot due to lack of insecticides,’ he said.
   Mosquito menace has also increased alarmingly in kitchen markets of the city. Traders said the drains are ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes as they are not cleaned by the RCC employees.

Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday urged the authorities concerned to ensure safe food for all in the country.
   It is the responsibility of the government as well as the businessmen to ensure safe food for all in the country, they told the seminar.
   A section of traders mix adulterated ingredients in food items to make windfall profit. As adulterated foods are harmful to human health, these traders should be punished, the speakers added.
   Food Safety Programme of the Institute of Public Health in association with the World Health Organisation and Sylhet City Corporation arranged the seminar on ‘ensuring safe food for all’ at the conference hall of SCC.
   Sylhet mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran addressed the seminar as the chief guest and district civil surgeon M Fayez Ahmed as the special guest. Mahfuzur Rahman and SM Talha presented the keynote papers at the seminar.
   Chaired by SCC’s chief health officer Sudhamoy Mazumdar, the seminar was also addressed by IPH officials Rezaul Karim and Abdur Razzak Miah, SCC’s secretary Harunur Rashid Mollah, district bar association president Dewan Golam Rabbani, agronomist Anwar Hosen and engineer Md Rezaul Karim.

Students and teachers of Barisal Zila School formed a human chain in front of the institution on Tuesday demanding immediate arrest and punishment for killers of Istiar Khan Sourav.
   Sourav, 13, a class VII student of the institution, was found dead in a pond at West Kawnia in the city on Monday five days after he went missing.
   The police arrested three suspected youths at noon on Tuesday in this connection with the killing. The arrested are Shakil, Rahmat and Sampad.
   The students and teachers also brought out a procession on the school compound demanding punishment for the killers of Sourav. Sabina Yasmin, headmistress of the school, led the procession.
   The officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station, Shaheduzzaman, said victim’s father filed a murder case in this connection Monday night.
   The police recovered the body of Sourav from the pond near his house and handed over the body to the family members after autopsy carried out at the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital morgue Monday night.

Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Abdul Hamid on Tuesday said ICT education is a must for people of all strata living in urban and rural areas to build ‘Digital Bangladesh’.
   ‘Digitisation of the Jatiya Sangsad will be done in phases so that the public representatives as well as all the people get its benefit,’ he said while inaugurating a five-day fair BCS ICT World 2009 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.
   Theme of the fair is ‘Way to Digital Bangladesh’.
   Commerce Minister Faruq Khan, State Minister for Science and Information and Communication Technology Yeafes Osman, Grameenphone Chief Executive Officer Oddavar Hesjedal, among others, spoke on the occasion while Bangladesh Computer Samity President Mustafa Jabbar chaired the function.
   A total of 108 stalls are displaying computers, laptops and digital accessories in the fair, which took a festive look.
   After the inaugural ceremony, the speaker and the ministers went round different stalls in the fair.
   About digitisation of the Jatiya Sangsad, the speaker said laptops will be allowed in the house and steps will be taken so that common people can ask question to the elected representatives through email.
   He said questions of the lawmakers are now being scrutinised in digital manner and steps will be taken to digitize debate in parliament and increase internet facilities to the lawmakers.
   Terming the present government a technology-friendly one, Abdul Hamid said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her previous tenure had withdrawn duty and VAT from computer and broke the monopoly in mobile phone business.
   As a result, the people are now enjoying the facility of buying computers and mobile phone at a cheaper rate, he added.
   He said the government wants to build a Digital Bangladesh by 2021 with introducing IT facilities everywhere and introducing e-governance, e-commerce, e-health and others.
   Referring to increasing number of educated unemployed youths in the country, Hamid said digitised education is must to create skilled manpower.
   Faruk Khan urged the new generation to equip themselves with ICT to enter the global information superhighway.
   ICT is a priority sector of the government, he said, adding that the commerce ministry is working to give registration to different companies within shortest possible of time through IT.
   Yeafes Osman said IT facilities should reach the farmers and poorer section of the society so that they can change their lot.
   The IT organisations must update themselves to provide best services to the customers.
   Mostafa Jabbar said, ‘We want a digital Jatiya Sangsad before building a digital Bangladesh. Every lawmaker should carry a laptop in his or her hand to provide best services to the voters.’
   ‘Through digital Bangladesh, we can build Sonar Bangla as dreamt by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.’

The North South University on Tuesday emerged as the champion in Battle of Minds 2009, a real-life business case solving competition.
   The American International University of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology teams became first and second runner-up respectively for 2009 edition of the competition held at a city hotel.
   The British American Tobacco Bangladesh organised the event. One hundred and eighty-six participants from 12 universities from across the country participated in this year’s event, involving business case idea generation, market visit, research and presentation.
   This year’s Battle of Minds competition continued over a period of one month. The other teams that made to the finals were from the Institute of Business Administration of University of Dhaka, East West University and Chittagong Unviersity, said a press release.
   Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of Policy Research Institute, was the chief guest at the final event.
   Speaking at the function, Mansur lauded BAT Bangladesh’s role for providing university students with a unique opportunity to interact with corporate world.
   This is a different kind of competition in Bangladesh context and it is highly motivational for the young minds, Mansur added.
   Alan Davy, managing director of BAT Bangladesh, said the Battle of Minds was truly the showcase competition of graduating students of Bangladesh, providing the aspiring future leaders with a platform to showcase their entrepreneurial acumen.
   ‘Since 2004, every year we have been hosting this event for final year students from various universities. This competition is now replicated in other BAT companies in South Korea, Malaysia and Pakistan,’ Davy added.
   Among others, Syed Imtiaz Faruque, head of HR, BAT Bangladesh, Golam Mainuddin, chairman of BAT Bangladesh, also attended the function.
   Ziaul Karim, editor of Ice Today, Shama R Alam, group finance director of Duncan Brothers (Bangladesh) Ltd, Akku Chowdhury, executive director of Transcom Foods Ltd, and Syed Imtiaz Faruque were the judges for the final event.

Four-day workshop on mime-acting, directed by world renowned Paris-based Bangla-deshi mime artiste Partha Pratim Majumder, ended in Barisal Tuesday evening.
   The workshop was jointly arranged by Shabdabali Group Theatre of Barisal and Natukey Dhaka at the Studio-Theatre hall of Shabdaboli and attended by 20 trainees.
   The closing session of the workshop was presided over by Syed Dulal, president of Shabdaboli, while certificates were distributed by Partha Pratim Majumdar.

Light rain or drizzle may occur at one or two places over all the six divisions till 6:00pm today.
   Light to moderate fog may occur over the river basins of the country during late night till morning, Met Office said.
   It said night temperature may remain nearly unchan-ged over the country.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:12pm and rises tomorrow at 7:16am.
   Country’s highest temperature 32.5 degrees Celsius was recorded on Tuesday at Cox’s Bazar and lowest 20.6 degrees at Syedpur.