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The government on Wednesday introduced a Bill in the Parliament seeking National Identity Cards for all eligible citizens which will be necessary if they want to avail themselves of certain services and privileges.
   The law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, Shafique Ahmed, piloted the Bill, styled National Identification Registration Bill 2009, as an almost similar Ordinance promulgated by the previous military-backed government had lapsed due to its non-ratification by the House within 30 days.
   Every voter is eligible to get the National Identity Card for 15 years, which will be renewed by the Election Commission for a certain fee to be fixed by the authorities concerned, said the provision of the proposed law.
   The Election Commission has been assigned to prepare, distribute and do other work related to the National Identity Cards, according to the Bill which was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry for further scrutiny.
   The card holders will obtain certain state services, to be published in the official gazette. But this condition will not be applied unless the distribution of cards is completed throughout the country, and no citizen can be deprived of his/her rights if s/he does not have the card.
   The proposed law suggests maximum punishment of seven years of imprisonment and financial penalty of Tk 1,00,000 for making false cards or carrying such cards. The same punishment is applicable for assisting those who fabricate the card.
   If any citizen knowingly carries two or more National Identity Cards, s/he will be punished with one year of imprisonment and financial penalty of Tk 20,000.
   The previous army-backed government of Fakhruddin Ahmed had taken up the National Identity Card project [with photographs] while preparing the voters’ list for the ninth parliamentary elections.
   The Election Commission distributed National Identity Cards to most of the eligible citizens though some of them were not on the voters’ list, and the interim administration promulgated an Ordinance to constitute a National Identity Registration Authority. The Ordinance lapsed as the ninth Parliament did not ratify it in the stipulated time.
   The government floated the Bill to enable the Election Commission to preserve the data on citizens and issue National Identity Cards.
   The Parliament resumed its session on Wednesday afternoon after a two-week recess. The MPs dealt with the prime minister’s weekly half-an-hour question-answer session, the regular question-answer session and disposed of three call attention notices.
   The chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry, Suranjit Sengupta, placed the committee’s report on Representation of the People (Second Amendment) Bill 2009 after scrutiny.

The country would require external assistance of at least $10 billion or Tk 70,000 crore to take immediate measures for adapting to climate change effects, according to the latest estimate by the environment and forest ministry.
   Terming response to Bangladesh’s urge for international assistance ‘enthusiastic’, the state minister for environment and forest, Hasan Mahmud, on Wednesday signalled a note of caution about the disbursement of foreign aid pledged by various donors.
   ‘We being the most vulnerable country in all respects deserve assistance, but I am not sure how far the assurance would come through,’ he told newsmen at his ministry while briefing on the prime minister’s participation at the just-concluded climate change conference in Sweden.
   The country would need some Tk 35,000 core for dredging the rivers to augment their water flow as part of climate change adaptation programmes, the state minister pointed out.
   Experts said an approximately $3 billion or Tk 21,000 crore would be needed for rehabilitation of coastal embankments and drainage system.
   ‘More resources would be required than what we anticipated earlier. We are going to Copenhagen and elsewhere with the demand for compensation and grants for fighting the climate change for which we are not responsible,’ the minister said after his meeting with experts including Ainun Nishat and M Asaduzzaman.
   As Bangladesh is intensively involved in international climate change negotiations, the state minister expressed the hope that Dhaka’s views would be heard and would be taken into consideration and that the country would be able to access external assistance for climate change adaptation.
   The state minister told a questioner that the arrangement for spending Tk 700 crore trust fund, earmarked in the current budget, would be completed within next one month.
   Asked how the prime minister made wrong statements on employing resources for fighting climate change effects, Mahmud regretted that the amount mentioned at $45 million was in fact the allocation in the previous budget. ‘We inquired about it and it was a typing mistake,’ he said.

Members of the RAB-4 held four human traffickers and rescued four teenage girls from their clutches from a house at Shah Ali thana in the Dhaka city Tuesday night.
   Being tipped-off, the battalion raided the 3rd floor flat of the seven-storied house, Turag City, at about 8:00pm and caught the traffickers along with the four girls — Joya, 16, Khadiza Khatun, 16, Reshmi, 17, and Asma Khatun, 18.
   The arrested human traffickers were Jannat Bibi, Sabina, Mohammad Raja and Abdul Malek.
   The organised gang of traffickers kept the four girls at the flat for trafficking them, said a release of the RAB.

At least 10 activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League were injured in factional clash at Khulna Polytechnic Institute Wednesday noon over establishing supremacy.
   Among the injured, Sujon, Pradyut, Shanta, Bibek, Ratul and Sajib were treated at different local clinics.
   Campus sources said although the institute unit BCL committee was dissolved, BCL activists on the campus were divided into two groups — one led by Mamun and the other by Shaheen.
   They said that the KPI authorities recently decided to transfer four students, reportedly belonging to Mamun group, allegedly for assaulting teachers.
   At around 12:30pm on Wednesday, the Mamun group students told Sujon, an activist of Shaheen group, to work for them to organize the movement but he denied working for them. At this, supporters of Mamun assaulted Sujon, injuring him badly.
   As the news spread over the campus, both the groups, armed with sticks, chased each other and were locked in clash at around 12:30pm, leaving at least 10 students injured.

The acting editor, the publisher, the chief reporter and the reporter concerned of the Daily Amar Desh have been summoned to appear before a metropolitan court on November 30 in a defamation suit filed Wednesday by the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Regulatory Commi-ssion over a news report.
   Judge AM Zulfikar Hayat of the chief metropolitan magistrate court issued the summons upon acting editor Mahmudur Rahman, publisher Alhaj M Hasmat Ali, chief reporter Syed Abdal Ahmed and reporter Oliullah Noman of the vernacular daily.
   Tarique Hasan Siddiqui, deputy director of the BTRC, filed the case against them for publishing a ‘defamatory’ news report on October 2.
   In his complaint, Tarique said the Daily Amar Desh tarnished the image of the BTRC by running the story headlined ‘BTRC in the clutches of Indian citizens’.
   He said the daily wrote that five Indian nationals have been appointed advisers to the BTRC, creating scope for leaking confidential information out of the country.
   Terming the story ‘false’, the BTRC deputy director said the commission did not appoint them. ‘Instead, the World Bank appointed them under a project.’
   After hearing, the court ordered the accused to appear before it.

AT LEAST two passengers were found missing when a engine-boat capsized in the Kaptai Lake near Burighat under Naniarchor upazila in Rangamati at about 10:00am on Wednesday.
   The boat was bound for Naniarchor Bazaar from Chengikhalpara of the same upazila with 50 passengers, said the police quoting the survivors.
   Two persons, found missing till Wednesday afternoon, are Subal Chakma, 10 and Benguni Chakma, 45, said the police said.

The prime minister’s adviser on establishment ministry and administrative affairs, HT Imam said on Wednesday that incompetent officers in the civil service usually got involved in party politics for personal gains.
   He said that overall efficiency in the bureaucracy had degenerated.
   ‘The administration could be rid of politicisation if the civil servants were competent and honest…Inefficient officers do party politics for personal gains,’ the adviser said after inaugurating a workshop on mission, vision, values, role and renaming of the establishment ministry, jointly organised by the government of Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Programme in the city.
   Asked about the administrative reforms, HT Imam, also a former cabinet secretary, said the government’s initiatives in collaboration with UNDP to change the name of the establishment ministry and redefine its role were part the reforms.
   He said the establishment ministry’s vision and mission would be redefined in keeping with the spirit of the liberation war to face the challenges ahead.
   The establishment ministry at different times in the past had to cater to the governments in power under tremendous pressure from the military, the career bureaucrat-turned politician mentioned.
   He said the administration would be reformed in order to improve its efficiency and make the bureaucracy pro-people and service-oriented.
   ‘We will now work out the ministry’s values, vision and mission in the light of the spirit of our liberation war keeping in view the government’s vision 2021,’ the adviser said, adding that the very name of the ministry was confusing to the foreigners and locals as well since the word establishment had different connotations.
   He said the name should be meaningful and reflect its responsibilities.
   About the recent resignation of Akbar Ali Khan as chairman of the Regulatory Reforms Commission for alleged non-cooperation from the government, HT Imam said the commission was not tasked with civil service reforms.
   ‘Akbar Ali Khan’s responsibility was a small part of the total administrative reforms…He was asked to work in specific areas. A commission cannot stand for a person only,’ he said.
   UNDP country director Stefan Priesner, among others, spoke at the opening session with establishment secretary Iqbal Mahmood in the chair.
   An inter-ministry meeting on August 18 picked four names out of a total of 252 proposals from senior officials of different ministries. The proposed names are ‘ministry of public administration and organisation management’, ‘ministry of public administration’, ‘ministry of civil service affairs’ and ‘ministry of public personnel management’.

At least 20 students were injured in a clash between the rival activists of the Chhatra League and Chhatra Dal at Jagannath University Wednesday.
   The clash ensued at about 12:30pm when the university-unit BCL president, Kamrul Islam Ripon, and his supporters attacked a group of JCD leaders and activists.
   Ripon and his men launched attack when the JCD group, led by its convenor Golam Mawla Shaheen, went to the room of VC Mesbah Uddin Ahmed for distributing sweets on the occasion of formation of a new JCD committee.
   Some 20 students, including Chhatra Dal leaders and activists, were injured in the campus rioting that ensued following the attack.
   Eight of the injured, including the JCD convenor Shaheen, were admitted to the National Hospital.
   During the hour-long fighting between the pro-government and pro-opposition student groups, angry Chhatra Dal workers damaged five passenger buses and three auto-rickshaws in front of Victoria Park nearby.
   The police filed two cases with the Sutrapur and Kotwali thanas. A Chhatra Dal activist was arrested in connection with the clash.
   Additional police were deployed to fend off further violence.

The state minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque Tuku, on Wednesday said the Awami League-led government would uproot militancy and terrorism from the country at any cost.
   He said the law enforcement agencies had been asked to remain watchful about the activities of various organisations suspected of having links with militancy.
   ‘The law enforcement agencies have been asked to closely watch the operation of various outfits across the country… The government will go tough if any organisation is found to have been involved in subversive activities,’ Shamsul said after presiding over the third meeting of the national committee on resistance against militancy at the home affairs ministry.
   Law enforcers have, so far, arrested 1,925 people for alleged involvement in militant activities. Of them, 1324 were members of the banned Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, said an official who attended the meeting.
   Asked whether the government would ban more organisations after it had banned the operation of international militant outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir, Shamsul said, ‘Any organisation posing threat to the country’s independence and sovereignty and found to have militant links will be banned.’
   The government on Thursday banned Hizb ut-Tahrir operation on security grounds. Four militant outfits — Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Shahadat-e al-Hikma — were banned.
   Asked why the law enforcers still could not arrest the people who attacked ruling Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Shamsul said, ‘The matter is under investigation. Law enforcers are sincere in their efforts in this regard.’
   The meeting sent a proposal to the education ministry for incorporation of articles against militancy in school and college textbooks. It also suggested that films should be made to create mass awareness of the menace.
   The state minister said religious leaders, socio-political organisations and religious institutions were being engaged in campaigns against militancy.
   He said the authorities concerned were directed to ensure that any one suspected of having militancy connection should not get passports.
   Senior officials of the ministries concerned and the law enforcement agencies attended the meeting.

At least nine people were injured in a clash between two groups of the Chhatra League activists at Kushtia Government College on Wednesday.
   The clash erupted between the supporters of college unit BCL president Nurul Amin Rajan and general secretary Abdullah Al Mamun in the morning.
   Mamun and his supporters were holding a meeting with vice-principal Hasanuzzaman in his room over paying their unpaid admission fee. At that time, Rajan and his followers entered the room, creating agitation.
   Both the groups then locked into altercation, brought out separate processions on the campus and got locked in a clash, leaving five injured including Rajan.
   The injured were taken to Kushtia General Hospital and other local hospitals.
   On information, the police went to the spot and brought the situation under control.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday allowed an Indian, suspected of having link with Jiban Singh, chief of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation of Assam who is suspected to have stolen the Nobel prize medal of poet Rabindranath Tagore, to be remanded in custody for interrogation for two days after his arrest at Hazaribagh.
   The court allowed Tapan Patwari, also known as Pushna and Palash Das, 30, to be remanded in custody after he had been produced in court in the afternoon.
   Tapan was produced in the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court seeking him to be remanded in custody for five days.
   The Detective Branch, which arrested Tapan, said he was a ranking leader of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, which is fighting for a separate state for the Rajbangshis to the north of West Bengal.
   With his arrest, seven Indian citizens, including three leaders of the Pakistan-based militant organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba and three associates of the mafia don Daud Ibrahim, have so far been arrested at places in Bangladesh in five months after May.
   Senior assistant commissioner Shaymal Mukharjee of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police media cell said, ‘A Detective Branch team arrested Tapan at Hazaribagh in the capital about 1:45pm.’
   He was a resident of Okharee at Kumaram Duara in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, in India.
   He had stayed at Bairatepara in the Rangpur district headquarters after illegally entering Bangladesh.
   A case was filed against him Wednesday afternoon under the passport and foreigners acts with the Hazaribagh police.
   A high Detective Branch told New Age, ‘Tapan is wanted in India as he is one of the top leaders of the outlawed KLO and associate of Jiban Singh, chairman of the organisation and prime suspect of the Tagore Nobel medal theft case.’

Speakers at a commemorative discussion on Wednesday said the dream of youth leader Russell Ahmed Khan, a central leader of Juba Maitree ‘killed in the firing of Jamaat-Shibir activists’ at Purana Paltan in 2006, would be fulfilled if ‘we can establish an oppression-free, non-communal, democratic Bangladesh.’
   The Workers Party of Bangladesh youth front Juba Maitree organised the meeting at the Tajul Auditorium in Dhaka to mark the third anniversary of his death.
   The Workers Party president, Rashed Khan Menon, said Russell had a dream of establishing an oppression-free, non communal Bangladesh and the people unanimously supported the Awami League-led alliance in the 2008 general elections to show respect to the sacrifice of Russell.
   ‘Now it is our duty to establish an oppression-free, democratic country to fulfil his dreams,’ Menon said.
   The party’s general secretary Bimal Biswas said the Workers Party would continue with its movements to establish non-communal democratic Bangladesh.
   Chaired by the Juba Maitree president, Sadakat Hossain Khan, the meeting was also attended by the Workers Party’s city unit secretary Quamrul Ahsan, Samyabadi Dal city unit secretary Haroon Chowdhury, Bangladesh Juba Union president Abdul Kafi Ratan, labour leader Abul Hossain and Juba Maitree general secretary Mostafa Alamgir Ratan.
   Leaders of various political parties and organisations earlier placed flowers at Russell’s portrait.

The 38th death anniversary of Bir Shreshtha Hamidur Rahman was observed on Wednesday with the state honours at Bir Shrestha Sepoy Hamidur Rahman Smriti Jadughar and Library in the village home of the martyr at Hamidnagar under Mohespur in Jhenaidah.  
   Chaired by the principal of Bir Shreshtha Hamidur Rahman College, Rafi Uddin, the function was attended by deputy commissioner Roma Rani Roy as chief guest.
   Superintendent of police Rezaul Islam, ADC AKM Rafikul Islam, upazila nirbahi officer Oziur Rahman were special guests.  
   The guests along with local people paid rich tributes to Bir Shrestha Hamidur Rahman by terming him as the pride of the nation for his supreme sacrifice for the liberation of the country.
   Bir Shrestaha Hamidur Rahman Degree College and the family members of Hamidur organised the martyrdom anniversary. 
   Placing floral wreaths at Hamidur Rahman’s portrait, the chief guest said the government would try to preserve the memory of the great hero.  
   During service with the then East Bengal Regiment in 1971, Hamidur Rahman joined the liberation war and embraced martyrdom during a fierce battle with the occupation forces at Dhalie frontier in Sylhet on October 24 of the same year.  
   Recitation from the Qur’an, prayer session and destitute feeding were also held, where a number of journalists, teachers, students, freedom fighters and people from all walks of life were present.

A female student of the law department at Chittagong University has not been going to her classes for about a month to avoid being harassed by one ZM Hasan-ud-Daula Minar, an employee at the institute of computer technology at Chawkbazar in the city.
   The second year law student on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the university authorities and sought security as she wanted to continue her study.
   In her written complaint she said Minar always heckled her on her way to the university and threatened to marry her by force. Earlier the student made a general diary with Panchlaish police station seeking security.
   Mohammed Kamal, elder brother of the student, told New Age that the family was not allowing her to go to the university fearing she could be harmed by the heckler. ‘We are worried about my sister’s security…We want that the culprit be brought to book.’
   When contacted over Minar’s mobile number, a person identifying himself as his father claimed that his son had married the university student. ‘We can show the marriage certificate.’

The government will provide one crore families with 10 kilograms of rice each under the Vulnerable Group Feeding programme before Eid-ul-Azha, according to an official announcement on Wednesday.
   The food and disaster management ministry has allotted one lakh tonnes of rice to deputy commissioners for distribution to the extremely poor, who are entitled to such assistance, in 481 upazilas across the country.
   The deputy commissioners have been asked to draw the allotted rice by November 15 and keep the Members of Parliament of the nearby constituencies informed, said an official order issued by the food ministry.
   The government will also provide many families 25 kgs of rice each in the Aila-affected and monga-prone areas of the country in December.

The police on Wednesday recovered the body of an ethnic minority leader at Godagari upazila in Rajshahi.
   The deceased was identified as Kartik Kisku, 65, who was a leader of a Jatiya Adibashi Parishad, a resident of village Joyda Adarpara under Gogram of Godagari.
   The police said the villagers of Joyda Adarpara found the body of Kartik Kisku in a nearby ditch at about 9:30pm. Informed, the police recovered the body.
   Anwar Hossain Tuhin, acting officer-in-charge of Godagari police station, said there were marks of injury in the chest and back of the body.
   Kartik might be killed anytime last night, the police official said, adding, ‘Land dispute might be behind the killing.’