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A parliamentary body on Sunday gave the directives to the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution for strengthening the anti-adulteration drive as a shopping binge is now on stream ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest festival of the Muslims.
   The parliamentary standing committee on the industries ministry at a meeting advised the industries ministry to take necessary steps, including recruiting new manpower, for turning the limping BSTI into a modern and effective institution.
   Held at the Sangsad Bhaban, the meeting also requested the establishment ministry to take steps for appointing necessary magistrates for conducting BSTI-led mobile courts to catch the fakers and cheaters who deceive the consumers.
   The activities of the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation also came up at the meeting for discussion.
   Committee members Kamal Ahmed Majumder, Mohammad Meraj Uddin Molla, Muhibur Rahman Manik, Anwarul Ashraf Khan, Jahid Male, SM Abdul Mannan and Sultana Bulbul attended the meeting, which was chaired by the committee chairman Tofail Ahmed.
   The industries minister, Dilip Barua, was present on special invitation.

Councillors of the Khulna City Corporation on Sunday demanded immediate arrest of and punishment for the killers of their colleague Shaheed Iqbal Bithar.
   The councillors under the banner of the KCC councillors’ coordination committee to resist terrorism made the demand in a memorandum submitted to the KMP commissioner.
   KCC panel mayor 1 Ajmol Ahmed Tapan handed over the memorandum to Khhulna Metropolitan Police commissioner Helal Uddin Bodri on behalf of the committee members.
   Councillors Ali Akbor Tipu, Khan Monsur Ali, Md Shawkat Ali, Md Aminul Islam Munna, ZA Mahmud Don, Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, Sheikh Aminul Islam Munna, Mahabub Kaysar and Gias Uddin Boni were present.
   In the memorandum, the committee members said Iqbal Bithar, 24 ward councillor, were killed on July 12 but the killers are yet to be arrested even after two months.
   They also alleged that the city people had been kept in the dark about the investigation into the killing of Iqbal Bithar as they are yet to know about the progress in the case.
   More than a dozen politicians and journalists were killed in the last five years in the city but none were punished for these killings, the memorandum said.
   The KMP commissioner told the committee that the police have yet to unearth the mystery of the killing, said a corporation press release.
   He also claimed that they (police) had already arrested two persons for their alleged involvement in the killing.
   Iqbal Bithar, also a leader of Bangladesh Jubo League, was shot dead by criminals near his residence in the city’s Musalmanpara area on July 12.

Academics and green activists at a seminar on Sunday stressed that growth of private cars should be checked to ease the nagging traffic congestion in the Dhaka city.
   The government should give priority to mass transport and restrict the growth of private cars to bring discipline in the city’s traffic system, they told the seminar at CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
   Transport expert Mahbubul Bari read out the keynote paper at the seminar styled ‘Worsening traffic congestion in Dhaka city’, organised by the Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan.
   Professor ASM Mahmud-un-Nabi, Professor ATM Ruhul Amin and Professor Anwar Hossain, among others, spoke at the programme chaired by Professor Mozaffer Ahmed.
   The speakers said unbridled growth of private cars is one of the main reasons for traffic congestion for which the city people are suffering every day.
   The city roads should be made for hassle-free journey of people by stopping increased use of private cars, they said.
   The speakers also called on the authorities concerned to ensure 100 per cent utilisation of the existing roads and compel the road users to go by traffic rules to stop tailback in the capital.
   Besides, they underscored the need for more awareness campaigns against the city’s traffic congestion.
   ‘The traffic situation continues to worsen in the city due to faulty town planning,’ Nabi said adding that influx of people to the city should be stopped before taking measures against traffic congestion.
   ‘If metro or elevated express way is launched in the capital it will affect the country’s economy. Malaysia, Singapore, Bangkok and India suffer a lot as the service is not economically viable,’ he said.
   He also placed some recommendations including appointment of skilled town planners and bringing the town planning and transportation departments under the same ministry.
   The speakers also stressed that the government should immediately launch more buses in the city and encourage the owners of private cars to use them.
   ‘We could not build the capital city in a planned way. We have to think right now to rebuild the city,’ said Professor Mozaffer.
   ‘To encourage people to travel by buses, the government has to ensure their safety on roads, he added.
   Professor Mozaffer also said that bus owners should launch more modernised buses in the city and do their regular maintenance for smooth journey of the people.

Construction work of the proposed city healthcare centre began at Bagbari in the Sylhet city on Sunday.
   The Sylhet mayor, Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, inaugurated the construction work of the proposed six-storey building of the healthcare centre.
   The healthcare centre is being set up at a cost of Tk 77 lakh under the urban primary healthcare project-II, according to sources at the Sylhet City Corporation.
   The Asian Development Bank is the key financier of the project untaken to provide health services for children, mothers and adolescents.
   The health centre will also give advisory assistance to women victims of repression, their treatment and advice to drug addicts, the sources said.
   A total of 21 medical staff including physicians, paramedics and field-level health workers will be appointed to run the centre, project officials said.
   Initially, three storeys of the six-storey building will built and construction work is scheduled to be completed by one year, corporation sources said.
   Corporation councillors Makhlisur Rahman Kamran, Jebunnahar Shirin and Azadur Rahman Azad, programme manager of the healthcare centre project Dr Sudamoy Mazumdar and project manager Parvej Alam, among others, were present in the inaugural function.

Speakers at a workshop on Sunday urged all to use eco-sanitation toilets to ensure environmentally sound health and free them from various germs and diseases.
   EcoSan toilet is a sustainable sanitation system which keeps people free from diseases and help to reduce water and air pollution, they said, adding that germs and diseases cannot be spread through such toilets.
   The speakers made the observations while addressing the workshop on ecological sanitation organised jointly by Society for People’s Actions in Change and Equity and Japan Association of Drainage and Environment at a city hotel.
   Md Azahar Ali of SPACE and JADE chairperson Professor Akira Sakai presented two keynote papers in the workshop moderated by Advocate Firoz Ahmed.
   It was addressed by president of Khulna divisional press club federation Liakat Ali, superintendent engineer of department of public health engineering Kamal Uddin Ahmed, Professor Abdul Mannan, Professor Rezaul Islam, Professor Md Salequzzaman and EcoSan toilet users Jamal Uddin and Idris Ali Mridha.
   The keynote speakers said use of EcoSan toilets helps ensure environmental health. Human excreta can be converted into fertiliser that can be used in the croplands instead of chemical fertilisers. Thus EcoSan toilets help to increase the fertility of the soil, they added.
   They said EcoSan toilets help reduce the spread of diseases and medical expenses as well as production cost of different crops. Anyone can set up an EcoSan toilet at a cost of between Tk 6,000 and Tk 12,000 and it can be used for 10 to 20 years, they told the workshop.
   Both Jamal Uddin and Idris Ali Mridha who use Eco-San toilets said such toilets don’t send out odour while preserved human excreta can be converted into fertiliser.
   Anyone can collect human excreta for producing fertiliser without any bad smell, they added, saying that no sweeper is needed to remove human excreta from the septic tanks.
   The speakers called on the people to use EcoSan toilets for hygienic sanitation and to ensure environmentally sound health for them.

The admission test for the first year honours courses of Rajshahi University will start on October 12.
   The authorities concerned took the decision at a meeting of the admission test subcommittee held on Saturday night at the vice-chancellor’s lounge. Vice-chancellor Professor Abdus Sobhan presided over the meeting.
   Registrar Professor MA Bari said the admission test for the first year honours courses of the academic session 2009-10 will start on October 12 and continue till October 29.

Barisal Samajik Protirodh Committee formed a human chain in the city on Sunday demanding punishment for the killers of Tamanna Huq Munira, a physician of Mitford Hospital in Dhaka.
   Leaders of the committee also handed over a memorandum to the deputy commissioner to press for their demand.
   They later held a rally in front of Ashwani Kumar Hall in protest at the killing of Dr Tamanna. Chaired by Rabeya Khatun, convener of the committee, it was addressed by Noorjahan Begum, Jibon Krishna Dey, Kajal Gosh, MG Kabir Bhulu, Nigar Sultana Hanufa, Sushanta Gosh, Dr Syed Habibur Rahman, Protima Sarkar, Anwar Zahid, Rahima Sultana Kajal, Shuvangkar Chakrabarty.
   Another protest rally was organised on the campus of BM College. Dr Tamanna was the daughter of a retired professor of the college.
   The speakers at the programmes demanded proper investigation into the death of Dr Tamanna and punishment for the killers. They alleged that Dr Tamanna was killed by her husband and in-laws at her residence at Jatrabari in Dhaka on August 29.

The police recovered the body of a teenage domestic help from the residence of an expatriate at Chashmahill area in the city on Sunday.
   The victim was identified as Taslima Akter, 19, of Chunuti area under Lohagara upazila in the district. She had been working at the rented house of expatriate Ziaul Huq for the past eight years.
   The police said Halima Begum, wife of Ziaul Huq, went to the market along with her two sons. On return, she knocked at the door at about 1:00pm but got no response.
   Later, she unlocked the door with an alternative key and found the body of Taslima hanging from the ceiling, said Mostafa Kamal, sub-inspector of the Panchlaish police station. On information, they recovered the body.
   The police official also said the victim’s body marked no sign of injuries. The cause for the death could be known only after getting the autopsy report, he added.

Moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at many places over Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong divisions and at a few places over Dhaka and Sylhet divisions in next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, Met Office said.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 7:11pm and rises tomorrow at 6:42am.
   Country’s highest temperature 34.0 degrees Celsius was recorded on Sunday at Sylhet and lowest 24.6 degrees at Chuadanga.