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Patients at the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital suffer a lot as the government has recently increased treatment fees at the public hospitals in the country.
   The hike in the treatment fees has come as a blow to the people, particularly the poor, who come to the public hospitals for low-cost treatment, some patients at the hospital said.
   The government has introduced users’ fee that increased healthcare charges caring little about the interests of country’s poor people, who are generally deprived of health services, they said.
   Abrupt increase in fees leads to frequent altercations between patients and employees of the hospital, hampering overall services.
   Patients and their attendants criticised the present government for raising the treatment fees that came into effect from October 5.
   According to the increased fees, a patient now needs Tk 65 for admission at the hospital including ticket fee, gate pass fee and admission form cost.
   Ticket fee has been increased to Tk 10 from Tk 6, admission form charge to Tk 15 from Tk 11 and gate pass fee to Tk 40 from Tk 20.
   As per the increased fees, a paying bed patient who needs to stay for a week at the hospital needs Tk 1,575 against previous Tk 795 for the same duration, according to hospital sources.
   Besides, charges for all pathological tests have been increased at the public hospitals.
   Charges for routine tests like TC, DC, ES, SR and haemoglobin has been increased to Tk 50 from Tk 41, blood sugar test to Tk 60 from Tk 22, platelet count to Tk 30 from Tk 11, malaria fever (MP test) to Tk 20 from Tk 10, urine test to Tk 20 from Tk 11, stool test to Tk 20 from Tk 11, pregnancy test to Tk 80 from Tk 60, DT/C.T test to Tk 30 from Tk 8.30, blood urea test to Tk 50 from Tk 28, bilorobin test to Tk 50 from Tk 44, cholesterol test to Tk 50 from Tk 44, kidney test to Tk 50 from Tk 30, typhoid to Tk 80 from Tk 55, TCE to Tk 20 from Tk 11, BDRL test to Tk 50 from Tk 28 and semen analysis to Tk 50 from at Tk 44.
   ‘We are poor people. It is not possible for us to bear the additional treatment cost,’ said Sonaton Baddyakar, who came to the hospital from Pabna for treatment for son.
   ‘It is the responsibility of the government to ensure treatment of all people in the country,’ said Salina Parvin, an attendant of a patient from Dinajpur.
   Many patients and their attendants came down heavily on the present Awami League-led alliance government for increasing the treatment fees.
   The Awami League in its polls pledge said if voted to power, they would ensure treatment for all people in the country, said a Rajshahi University teacher.’
   ‘But after assuming power, it has broken the pledge by increasing the treatment fees,’ he added.
   Dider Rasul, an administrative officer of the hospital, said they have nothing to do with it. ‘We are compelled to go by the government’s decision.’
   The Rajshahi city unit of the Communist Party of Bangladesh on Sunday protested at the increase in treatment fees at the public hospitals.
   Abul Kalam Azad, president, and Asit Saha, general secretary of the CPB city unit in a joint statement called on the government to the reduce treatment fees.

Speakers at a roundtable discussion meeting at the Islamic University in Kushta on Monday urged the government to make the proposed national education policy people-oriented so that people of every quarter can be benefited by it.
   They said the policy should be formulated to create opportunity of education for all citizens irrespective of their economic status in society as well as minimum education for every man and woman.
   They also stressed the need for implementing an education policy for generating efficient, competent and patriotic manpower resources in the country. The policymakers should give attention to issues like access of people to education, quality of education and its affordability while implementing education policy, they opined.
   The discussion titled ‘National Education Policy: a review and proposition’, organised under the banner of ‘Shacheton Shikkhok Somaj’, was held in the conference room at the arts faculty building.
   Professor Abdu Latif of history and culture department presented the key proposal in the roundtable discussion meeting chaired by ‘Shacheton Shikkhok Somaj’ convener Professor Afaz Uddin. Among others, former student adviser Professor Ahsanulah, Professor Abul Kalam Patwari, Professor Yahiar Rahaman, Professor Motinur Rahaman, Professor AKM Waliulah, Professor Abdur Rahaman Anwari, Professor Nasir Uddin Mizhi and Professor Abdullah Jahangir spoke at the roundtable meeting.

The authorities started taking of photographs of new voters within the Dhaka City Corporation areas on Monday for updating the electoral roll.
   On the first day, registration and photograph taking kicked off at 15 wards and similar tasks will begin later in other wards.
   According to the schedule, the registration and photograph taking would continue till November 10 at some 91 centres set up at every ward within the jurisdiction of the city corporation.
   The enumerators have completed data collection on October 10. But a number of people alleged none visited their respective houses to collect information from them for their registration as voters.
   Election commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain admitted to the allegation and said that the commission was planning to publish advertisements with phone numbers so that those who were left out during the door-to-door visit for voters’ registration could contact with the people running the registration work.
   ‘It is true that enumerators did not visit some households. So we are going to publish advertisement for the registration of those who were left out during enumeration,’ Sohul told a group of reporters at his office on Monday.
   The EC had earlier extended the time for collecting data by five more days from October 5 to make door-to-door visit for updating of the voters’ roll in the six city corporation areas as enumerators could not visit most of the households within the stipulated time.
   The distribution of undistributed national ID cards, meanwhile, will begin on October 18 and continue till October 24 between 10:00am and 5:00pm at some designated places.
   The ID cards for the people living under Lalbagh, Mohammadpur and Dhanmondi police stations would be distributed from BCSIR Officers Club (Science Lab), cards for people under Motijheel, Sabujbagh, Sutrapur, Demra and Kotwali will be distributed from Basabo Community Centre, cards for people under Uttara, Gulshan, Tejgaon, Ramna and Cantonment will be distributed from College of Textile Engineering and Technology at Tejgaon while cards of Mirpur and Pallabi will be distributed from Section 10 community centre.
   The EC expects that it would be able to publish the draft countrywide voters’ list in January and the final list by the middle of January next year. The EC started the countrywide voters’ list updating on June 15 and already registered a total of 38,43,699 new voters, except in the city areas.

Teachers and students of mass communication and journalism department at Dhaka University on Monday demanded proper investigation into the death of Mafruda Haq Sutopa, student of the department.
   They made the demand a human chain programme held at the foot of Aparajeya Bangla on the campus.
   Students of other departments, residents of Samsun Nahar Hall participated in the human chain to press for the demand.
   Sutopa, a master’s examinee and a resident of Samsun Nahar Hall, was found dead in her in-law’s house at Mirpur in Dhaka on Septemper 19. The in-laws claimed that Sutopa committed suicide.
   Sabrina Sultana Chowdhury, a teacher of the department, said some quarters were trying to divert the killing of Sutopa into suicide incident.
   ‘We will resist any move of those who are trying to create obstacle to the investigation into the killing of Sutopa’.
   Ayesha Siddika, Sutopa’s elder sister said, ‘we have got some evidences that prove that my sister was killed by members of her in-laws’s family.
   ‘I know my sister well. She cannot commit suicide,’ she claimed.
   The family members also demanded proper investigation and trial of the person, responsible for Sutopa’s death.
   Sohel Rana Tipu, DU unit president of the Bangladesh Chhatra League and Nasir Uddin Nasir of the yatabadi Chhatar Dal also joined the human chain.
   The department chair Geeti Ara Nasrin, and other teachers including Shakhawat Ali Khan, Samsul Mojid Harun, Ahadujjaman Mohammad Ali were present.

Family members of the slain school teacher Akhil Chandra Saha on Monday demanded immediate arrest of and punishment for those involved in the killing.
   They made the demand at a press briefing held at the Metropolitan Press Club in the Rajshahi city.
   The police are yet to arrest anybody involved in the killing of Akhil Chandra even after about three months of the incident, members of the victim’s family said.
   The killers are now issuing death threat to the victim’s family and the Hindu community members of the locality, they alleged.
   Akhil Chandra Saha, assistant teacher of Rawtha High School at Charghat upazila of the district, was killed on the night of June 30 near his house when he was returning to his residence at Mianpara from Charghat Bazar.
   The police filed a murder case with the Charghat police station the same day after receiving the autopsy report.
   They also said all the families of Hindu community at the village are feeling insecure as the killers are threatening to kill them.
   Nikhil Chandra Saha, elder brother of the victim, said ‘the police have not yet taken any initiative to arrest the culprits even after more than three months of the killing.
   He called on the local administration to immediately arrest the culprits and bring them to book..
   Mrinal Kanti Ghosh, a relative of the victim, readout the written statement while Nikhil Chadra Saha, elder brother of the victim, Swapan Kumar Karmaker, a leader of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Oikya Parishad, Sanjit Saha, Ranjit Kabiraj and Saiful Islam, among others, were present.

The Chittagong regional audition round of Lux-Channel i Superstar 2009 contest began in the city on Monday.
   A total of 750 young girls appeared before the judges on the first day of the two-day audition round at the Hotel Peninsula and 19 of them got Yes Card.
   Noted television artistes Tazin Ahmed, Tarin, Shamim Shahed, Farah Ruma, Tushar Khan and Shihab Shahin were the judges for the audition round.
   Farzana Islam, Romana Akter, Tanima Sharmin, Taslima Akter, Nushrat Jahan, Manisha Islam Archi, Bushra Binte Iqbal, Umme Sania Mehjabin, Shawlin Huq, Moushumi Keya Chowdhury, Nur Jahan Nisha, Tamanna Hossain Jyoti, Tajnin Ashraf Tisha, Mantaka Tarannum, Dilruba Begum Akhi, Fatematuj Zohra Pria, Ainun Nahar Archi, Tanjima Tabassum Mishu and Ainun Nahar Tajim got the Yes Card.

Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely to occur at one or two places over all the six divisions till 6:00pm today.
   South-west monsoon has withdrawn from north-western part of Bangladesh and may withdraw from the rest of the country during next 48 hours.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, Met Office said.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 6:34pm and rises tomorrow at 6:56am.
   Country’s highest temperature 35.0 degree Celsius was recorded on Monday at Jessore and lowest 22.4 degrees at Jessore.