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Promotions to the rank of additional secretary, mostly from the BCS ’82 special batch (those recruited as thana magistrates), by ‘superseding officials of the regular batch’ has sparked off indignant reactions in the bureaucracy.
   Many senior officials opined that the bureaucracy would gradually weaken if less competent people got promoted and posted to important positions in the administration. ‘These newly promoted additional secretaries will very soon be made acting secretaries and ultimately become secretaries, holders of the highest rank in the administration…Many of them do not deserve the rank and are not capable of negotiating policy matters, nor can they represent the government in any forum,’ said a joint secretary. He said efficiency, honesty and seniority should be the benchmark for promotions.
   A different note was struck by another top bureaucrat. ‘Those who deserve promotions have got promoted to higher positions this time…This has also brought an end to deprivation,’ said establishment secretary Iqbal Mahmood on Tuesday. When asked about promotions in excess of vacant positions, the secretary lamely told New Age that the government had given promotions as it was necessary.
   ‘It is not correct that the promotions have been given in excess of vacancies…The government has promoted the officials to the higher ranks as they were needed for carrying on its activities,’ Iqbal added.
   The government on Monday promoted 494 officials, mostly from the administrative cadre, to the levels of deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary, in excess of vacant positions which is a violation of the organogram.
   All the newly-promoted officials — 271 deputy secretaries, 163 joint secretaries and 60 additional secretaries — have been made officers on special duty. Of them, 17 newly promoted joint secretaries on Tuesday were asked to remain in situ as deputy commissioners in the field.
   A total number of 526 officials at various levels were deprived of promotion, according to an
   official.
   ‘Many such officials will remain in situ as there are no vacant positions in the administration…There are a good number of additional secretaries who were dumped earlier as officers on special duty as the authorities could not give them postings,’ said an official. Out of 60 new additional secretaries, 44 are from the administrative cadre, mostly belonging to the ’82 BCS special batch, and 16 are from other cadres of the Bangladesh Civil Service, according to the notifications.
   ‘Around 57 joint secretaries from various batches have been deprived of promotion this time while 40 officials from the BCS ’82 special batch and only four from the ’82 regular batch have got promoted to the rank of additional secretary,’ said a joint secretary.
   There were 126 additional secretaries against 108 posts, 250 joint secretaries against 355 posts and 1,330 deputy secretaries against 830 posts, in clear violation of the organogram.
   As per rules, the government should give promotions against vacant positions only, said a number of senior officials.
   In mid-August, Sheikh Hasina’s government took the move to give promotions to all levels in the administration, giving priority to those officials who were ‘denied promotion’ by the previous governments. The government has a massive reshuffle plan in view, according to official sources.

The information minister, Abul Kalam Azad, on Tuesday told parliament that the government is going to issue new licenses to some private television channels.
   He, however, declined to mention the number of the private TV channels that would get license.
   The minister said this replying to a question raised by ruling party lawmaker Israfil Alam during question-answer session of the House with the speaker, Abdul Hamid, in the chair.
   Responding to a question from AL lawmaker Waresat Hossain Belal about controversial comments on religious and other matters in television talk shows, Azad said there was a policy but it was not effective in checking such controversial comments.
   ‘I have met the owners of private TV channels and requested them to be alert against such remarks,’ he told the House.
   Responding to a star-marked question raised by Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury about controlling irritating advertisement telecast through the TV channels, the information minister said there is no guideline for airing advertisements through private TV channels.
   ‘There is a guideline titled ‘TV Code of Advertising Standards and Practices’ but it is only applicable for state-owned BTV,’ he said, adding that an initiative has been taken to update the guideline for telecasting advertisements through TV.
   He said the updated guideline would have provision for taking legal action against irritating TV advertisements.
   Replying to a question by AL lawmaker Faridunnahar Laily about passing provocative remarks against the government in TV talk shows, Azad said there is a cell to monitor the programmes broadcast by private television channels and action can be taken against the channels on the basis of reports of the monitoring cell.
   Responding to a question by Shahiduzzaman Sarkar, the minister said the country has no national broadcasting policy, but formulation of a broadcasting policy is now under consideration of the government.
   ‘The proposed policy will have provisions for taking action against private satellite television channels for airing irritating advertisements and provocative remarks,’ the minister said.
   Responding to another question from AL lawmaker Aslamul Huq Aslam, Azad said implementation of the `Right to Information Act-2009’ would ensure free flow of news through both print and electronic media.

The offshore gas exploration issue could be discussed in the parliamentary committee if needed, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources said in Jatiya Sangsad Tuesday.
   ‘Our government has no reservation about holding discussion on it. A briefing could be arranged if the parliamentary standing committee wants,’ Mohammad Enamul Haq said in reply to a question from a ruling alliance lawmaker.
   But there needs to be a decision reached on it beforehand, he added.
   Mainuddin Khan Badal MP of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, a partner in the Awami League-led coalition government, asked why the government was not bringing the issue of leasing out gas blocks for discussion in parliament.
   The government’s decision to award three gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal to two international oil companies sparked off street protests with police swooping on a peaceful procession of a left-dominated conservationists’ platform which opposes a provision of gas export in model production sharing contract. Professor of economics Anu Muhammad and left politician Saiful Huq were among scores of demonstrators injured in police beating on September 2.
    ‘Why cannot we discuss the matter? What secrets do the deals contain?’ Badal said.
   The leftist lawmaker also asked the government for discussing the long-standing maritime boundary disputes that involve India and Myanmar.
    The cabinet committee on economic affairs on August 24 approved awarding of three offshore blocks to international companies with a provision that would allow the companies to export gas in liquefied form.
   Under the provision, the foreign oil companies would be allowed to export up to 80 per cent of the gas discovered in their respective blocks.
   The energy ministry will now ask Petrobangla to sign production sharing contract with the companies as soon as it gets minutes of the cabinet committee meeting.
   The government’s high level decision is needed to send the issue for parliamentary debate since prime minister Sheikh Hasian, who also holds the energy portfolio, gave the decision to send the gas block issue to the cabinet committee.

The national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports on Tuesday had staged a sit-in in Muktangan in Dhaka for four hours demanding trial of the people who attacked on its rally on September 2.
   Politicians, academics and cultural activists during the demonstrations called on the government to cancel the plan for three offshore gals block lease to international oil companies.
   The police on September 2 attacked a rally of the committee at Bijoynagar where the committee’s member secretary Anu Muhammad and 50 others were wounded.
   They also called on the people to make the march in protest at the gas block lease plan scheduled for Thursday towards the Prime Minister’s Office successful.
   The committee convener, Sheikh Muhammad Shaheedullah, said the model production sharing contract 2008 was against national interests as it has a provision for export of 80 per cent of the gas extracted by the IOCs.
   He demanded formulation of a new product sharing contract keeping a provision for extracted gas to be used in the country.
   The sit-in was held between 11:00am and 3:00pm. Left leader Bimal Biswas, Tipu Biswas, Abdus Salam, Ruhin Hossain Prince, Azizur Rahman, Razequzza-man Ratan, Mushrefa Mishu, Banhnishikha Jamili, Zonay-ed Saki and Ragib Hasan Munna and academics MM Akash and Pias Karim and others spoke. The programme was followed by a session of songs and poetry recitation.
   The national committee will hold two rallies in front of Bahadur Shah Park in Old Town of Dhaka and in front of the Mohammadpur Town Hall today.

Narsingdi poultry farmers, teamed up as the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association, blocked the Dhaka–Sylhet Highway on Tuesday in protest at government decision on import of eggs from India.
   The poultry farmers blocked the highway at Bhelanagar at noon and continued with the blockade till 2:30pm. Several hundred vehicles got stuck.
   The Poultry Industries Association’s Narsingdi chapter president Tajul Islam and general secretary Hasanuddin Sarkar said the district alone met 25 per cent of the country’s total demand for eggs.
   The New Age correspondent in Barisal said the divisional branch of the Poultry Industries Association formed a human chain in the city in the morning in protest at egg import.
   The programme held in front of the Ashwini Kumar Town Hall. The divisional chapter president MS Doha and the secretary Aminur Rahman Jhanda also spoke.
   They demanded an immediate reduction in the prices of poultry feeds, medicine, chickens, energy and fuel.

Not only the people in education ministry but also those in the non-government organisations working on education are involved in corruption, the TIB executive director, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, said Tuesday.
   ‘People in education ministry as well as the NGOs working on education are involved in corruption which seriously hampers the mass literacy movement of the country,’ Iftekharuzzaman told journalists at a seminar.
   The Institute of Education and Research of Dhaka University and the Transparency International Bangladesh jointly organised the seminar, ‘Role of literacy to resist corruption: Bangladesh perspectives’, marking International Literacy Day 2009.
   Professor Masuduzzaman of IER presented the keynote paper at the seminar held with acting director of IER Professor Siddiqure Rahman in the chair. IER teachers Professor Abdul Malek and Professor Masuduzzaman, among others, spoke on the occasion.
   The TIB executive director urged the education ministry to ensure ‘public-private partnership’ in the anti-corruption body it formed to deal with corruption in the education sector.
   Addressing as the key speaker, Iftekharuzzaman said, ‘The country’s GDP would be as high as 9 per cent if the corruption level could be brought down to a tolerable limit.’
   The government should properly use the money allotted in the education sector and monitor it to check corruption in the sector, he added.
   Referring to a TIB report, the TIB executive director said a total of 39.2 per cent households became victims of corruption in the education sector as a total Tk 117 crore exchanged in bribe from January to June 2007.
   ‘Had there been no corruption our country would have prospered more. The new generation is determined to resist corruption,’ he added.
   Professor Masuduzzaman, in his presentation, said there were still six crore illiterate people in the country.
   He said irregularities in the education sector were related to admissions, distribution of stipends, delays in holding exams and keeping students dependent on private tutoring. ‘The seed of honesty should be sowed in the hearts of the youth. The society should be changed through their innovation and creativity,’ Professor Masuduzzaman said.
   Meanwhile, Campaign for Good Governance, which formed a human chain in the city, urged the government to recognise education as fundamental rights of the people in the constitution.
   The CGG formed the human chain at the city’s Shahbagh marking International Literary Day.
   They also stressed the need for community-based schooling to ensure cent per cent literacy to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
   The CGG also formed human chains in 35 districts of the country.

The government has cancelled the ‘Human Rights Defenders Training and Advocacy Programme’ project of rights organisation Odhikar without giving any reasons, drawing concerns and sharp reaction of different international rights watchdogs.
   The NGO Affairs Bureau approved the project and allowed Odhikar to use for the project a fund of Tk 23.18 lakh provided by the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims in Denmark on April 28, about five months after Odhikar had submitted the project on November 20, 2008.
   The bureau on August 17 issued a letter, received by Odhikar on August 31, cancelling the project halfway.
   Without giving any specific reasons, the letter said the project had been cancelled as the home ministry had objection to it.
   The aims of the project are to educate human rights defenders in the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol and highlight the fact that the persisting acts of torture by law enforcement agencies go against both national and international laws.
   It appears from the cancellation of the project that the present government does not want to do away with the practice of torture and has stopped Odhikar from exposing the perpetrators of such human rights violation, Odhikar’s general secretary Adilur Rahman Khan told New Age on Monday.
   Different rights watchdogs across the world have sent letters to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, other government leaders, including the home minister, Sahara Khatun, and UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, expressing their concerns about the cancellation of the project.
   Dublin-based international rights organisation Front Line, Observatory of the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, International Federation for Human Rights, International Commission of Jurists and Asian Human Rights Commission sent separate letters to Hasina, Sahara and others in the past week asking them to revoke the project cancellation.
   Asian rights watchdogs — Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Asian Human Rights Commission, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha of India, Informal Service Sector Centre, Pax Romana, People’s Watch, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, Pilipina Legal Resource Centre, Programme Against Custodial Torture and Impunity, Resource Integration Centre and Rural Development Society — sent a joint letter to Hasina and Sahara.
   The international and regional rights groups in the letters appealed for revocation of the cancellation of the project.
   The cancellation of the project will send out a wrong signal to international community that the government does not wish to do away with the practice of torture, commonly known to exist among law enforcement officials in Bangladesh, the rights watchdogs said in their letters.
   Local rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra executive director Sultana Kamal, in a statement issued on Tuesday, also condemned the government for cancelling the project.

Cultural activists and leftist leaders on Monday at a rally demanded that the government immediately scrap the decision to award three offshore blocks to two international oil companies.
   They also urged cultural activists and general people to join the march towards the Prime Minister’s Office on September 10 in protest against the decision to award the blocks to the IOCs and allow gas export. The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources Power and Port has called for the march.
   The Gono Sangskriti Front, an alliance of cultural organisations, organised the rally on the Dhaka University campus.
   Professor Pias Karim of BRAC University, the front’s co-convenor Nazrul Islam, vice-president Kamruddin Afsar, central leader Tahera Begum Jolly, and leftist leaders Rajekuzzaman Ratan and Junaid Saki spoke on the occasion, along with others.
   Speakers blasted the Awami League-led government for instigating the police to attack the leaders and activists of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port on September 2 at Bijoynagar when they were marching towards Petrobangla’s headquarters to protest against the decision to award the offshore blocks to the IOCs.
   Terming the government as the agent of the imperialists, they said that the police attack was launched on the leaders, including Professor Anu Muhammad, to create panic among the people who were demonstrating to protect the natural resources of the country.
   They said that the present government, like the previous four-party BNP-led government, was installed by the imperialists so that it could serve the interest of the international oil companies.
   The leaders said that they would resist the move to award the offshore blocks and allow export of gas from the country.
   Cultural activists recited poems and sang patriotic songs on the occasion in support of the movement to protect the country’s natural resources.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party at a commemorative meeting on Tuesday paid tributes to M Saifur Rahman, who was a member of the party’s standing committee and the longest-serving finance minister, recalling his contributions to establish the base of the country’s economy.
   The party leaders also lamented the government’s failure in showing due honour to the veteran politician despite an appeal to hold Saifur’s funeral with state honours.
   The party secretary general, Khandakder Delwar Hossain, said Saifur was a visionary economist and introduced the new mode of taxation — value added tax. ‘Many among our party leaders including me had opposed the idea. But Saifur stood his ground and ultimately proved it to be the major source of revenue,’ he said.
   ‘Many of his close associates and our party leaders were not happy with him as he refused to meet their “interests” for the greater good of the nation,’ Delwar said, adding, ‘He believed in democracy but always spoke straight forward’.
   The BNP concluded its three-day mourning programme through the discussion and prayer session at Mahanagar Natya Mancha in the city.
   Delwar said every nation has some valiant sons who leave contributions to the nation and they should be recognised and evaluated. ‘If we fail to honour them nobody in future would be inspired to work for the nation,’ he said.
   Party joint secretary general Abdullah Al Noman said though the government failed to honour him, thousands of people paid their tributes to Saifur Rahman after his death. ‘They did not forget to honour the great son,’ he said.
   Gayeshwar Roy, another joint secretary general, blasted the prime minister for not issuing a condolence note. Gayeshwar said Saifur’s political career was slightly tainted in his last years due some military officers, including former army chief Moeen U Ahmed. ‘Moeen needs to be punished for his acts.’
   BNP standing committee member Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain, former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Maniruzzaman Miah, BNP vice-chairman Sarwari Rahman, Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal president Barkatullah Bulu, general secretary Moazzem Hossain Alal and BNP student affairs secretary Fazlul Huq Milan also spoke at the discussion meeting.

Religious scholars of different faiths on Tuesday suggested dialogue among people of different faiths is an essential tool for ensuring a religiously pluralistic society to live in peace, justice, reconciliation and coexistence.
   They stressed on developing commitment to respect and value other faiths and traditions as genuine contributions to human life, promoting positive relationships among adherents of different faiths to ensure living, working and celebrating together.
   They also called for improving relations among religious and ethnic communities through holding together interfaith dialogue.
   The scholars from home and abroad were speaking at the opening session of a three-day international conference on ‘Consultation on Interfaith Diapraxis: Building Communities of Solidarity and Mutual Interest Across Faith Boundaries’ at BRAC centre for Development Management at Rajendrapur in Gazipur.
   The Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Department for Mission and Development (DMD) in cooperation of with RDRS Bangladesh, Bangladesh Lutheran Church (BLC) and Bangladesh Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (BNELC) organized the conference attended by more than 50 participants from Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Indonesia, Jordan, Korea, Thailand, Israel as well as from different parts of Bangladesh.
   The opening session of the conference was addressed, among others, by LWF vice president Bishop Munib Younan, the LWF deputy general secretary Reverend Chandran Paul Martin, LWF Regional Expression Coordinator for Asia Sally Sock Lee Lim, LWF study secretary Reverend Martin Lukito Sinaga and RDRS Bangladesh executive director Kamaluddin Akbar.
   Reverend Chandran Paul Martin presented the key note speech on the opening day of the three-day conference while South East University vice chancellor and renowned Islamic scholar Dr M Shamsher Ali, Leprosy Mission Bangladesh director Reverend Martin Adhikary, Indian scholar Dr Prabhakar Bhattacharyya and Thailand’s Mahidol University assistant professor Dr Parichart Suwanbubbha also spoke on the first day of the conference.
   Describing the objectives of the conference, Munib Younan said holding interfaith dialogue is essential for living in a religiously pluralistic context to ensure peace, justice, reconciliation and coexistence.
   Prof Shamsher Ali said tolerance in Islam towards other religions is rooted in the holy Quran.

The state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, Mohammad Enamul Haq, on Tuesday told the parliament that there would be ‘no load-shedding’ by next year.
   Responding to a query by Awami League lawmaker Mohammad Shahabuddin, he said the government is working to bring about a ‘no load-shedding’ situation and the supply of power would become adequate within this year.
   He was replying to queries at the House during the question-answer session with the speaker, Abdul Hamid, in the chair.
   In reply to a question by Sadhana Haldar, Enamul said that the government has adopted a plan to produce electricity through coal- and oil-based power plants to tackle the power crisis.
   He said the government is planning to set up coal-based power plants for producing 2,000MW of electricity.
   ‘A plan is also under process to set up the third unit of the power plant at Barapukuria coalmine in June 2014 to produce 125MW of electricity,’ the state minister told the House.
   He said that under a new plan several coal-based power plants would be set up in Khulna with capacity of 500MW, fuel-driven power plant at Bheramara with 100MW capacity, in Jessore with 100MW and Barisal with 50MW capacity within 2014.
   Responding to a query by Jatiya Party lawmaker Salma Islam, Enamul said the government has decided in principle not to increase the number of areas which have access to gas.
   He said in reply to a query by Shamsul Huq Chowdhury that there is a plan to set up coal-based power plants with 2,000MW capacity within 2014 and the power projects would be implemented through independent power plants (IPP) and the public and private participation (PPP) system. The power generation companies would be responsible for importing coal, possibly from Indonesia, Australia and other countries.
   Replying to a question raised by Awami League lawmaker Benazir Ahmad, the state minister said that the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party-Jamaat government extended electricity lines by 3,199.114 kilometres on 57,648 electric poles at a cost of Tk 69.51 crore, but no power connection was given to even a single consumer.
   He added that the BNP-Jamaat government had also spent Tk 18.31 crore only to put up 15,178 electric poles on a stretch of 842.767 kilometres.
   Enamul, responding to a question by Nazim Uddin Ahmed, said the government suffered a loss of Tk 450 crore in the 2008-09 fiscal year due to ‘system loss’ of electricity. He informed the House that some initiatives have been taken to reduce system loss, including the installation of meters for all consumers, replacement of analogue meters with digital meters, introduction of pre-paid meters and computerized billing system.

Politicians and journalists on Tuesday commemorated the late Comrade Abdus Shaheed at a programme at the National Press Club in Dhaka.
   Abdus Shaheed Sangsad organised the programme, marking the 13th anniversary of death of the noted politician, writer and journalist.
   Chaired by language movement hero Bahauddin Chowdhury, lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy director general Kamal Lohani, Democratic Revolutionary Party general secretary Mushrefa Mishu, Jatiya Gana Front convener Tipu Biswas, Garib Mukti Andolan president Shamsuzzaman Milon, among others, spoke on his life and works.
   The speakers alleged that the incumbent government wanted to demolish the house of Shaheed although it had pledged to ensure the security of the people.
   ‘We strongly condemn the move by the government,’ said Mishu who was injured in police action on procession brought out to protest at the government’s plan to lease three offshore gas blocks to international oil companies.
   She also criticised the government for not taking steps to demolish the building of the BGMEA which has been made violating the government rule.
   ‘The BGMEA building is still in the heart of the Hatirjheel Project but the government keeps its eyes shut on it,’ she said.
   The speakers said they would launch a movement if the house of Abdus Shaheed is demolished before the demolition of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association building. Commemorating Shaheed, Menon said, ‘Though Shaheed is not with us, his ideals are with us.’
   Talking about the much-talked about house, he said, ‘Despite our attempts, we are yet to be successful to protect the house.’

   The 37th death anniversary of politician and parliamentarian Alhaj AKM Fazlul Kabir Chowdhury will be observed today.
   On the occasion, Qur’an khwani and milad mahfil will be held at his village home at Gohira of Raozan thana in Chittagong.
   Fazlul Kabir died of a cardiac arrest in Dhaka in 1972. He was the opposition leader in the then East Pakistan Provincial Council.
   He was born at Gohira village of Raozan thana in Chittagong on November 1 in 1917.
   The chairman of parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of housing and public works ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury is the son of Alhaj AKM Fazlul Kabir Chowdhury.

The government is likely to utilise the Japan Debt Cancellation Fund in implementing the road sector reform programme as the World Bank has decided to stop funding the project amid allegations of mass corruption, official sources said.
   ‘We have already convinced the Finance Division and Economic Relations Division to release money from JDCF for the RSR project,’ communications minister Syed Abul Hossain told New Age Sunday.
   He said about $200 million would be available each year from the Japanese fund for the four-year project.
   The country’s largest bilateral donor Japan has offered a waiver of all the debts it gave to Bangladesh between 1974 and June 1987, and put the amount under ‘Japan Debt Cancellation Fund’ to support development projects. The special fund was kept open for use since 2004.
   The government has allocated about Tk45 billion for 80 different development projects and road repair and maintenance works from the JDCF in the last five years.
   The final decision on using JDCF money in the road sector reform programme will be taken at the next meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs scheduled for tomorrow [Wednesday].
   Earlier, the World Bank stopped providing support to a major road development project due to what they said ‘massive graft and shady deals’ in some of the on-going and previous schemes of the Roads and Highways Department.
   The WB’s country director in a letter to the ERD secretary said the lending agency had decided to stop preparatory work on the $253 million ‘Bangladesh Road Sector Reform Project’ due to reported massive corruption in the past and ongoing road sector projects in Bangladesh.
   The lending agency chief, however, said the WB would rethink of its future funding to the public sector road authority, R&HD.

The acting US deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs Michael S Owen arrives in Dhaka today on a two-day visit to Bangladesh.
   Owen will meet government officials, lawmakers, businesspeople and civil society actors to discuss a range of regional and bilateral issues, said a US embassy release on Tuesday.
   This is Owen’s first visit to Bangladesh.

The opposition BNP lawmaker, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, was Tuesday sued on treason and defamation charges in Magura and Thakurgaon for his alleged subversive comments.
   In both the cases he was charged with ‘anti-state role’ during the country’s liberation war in 1971 and his ‘derogatory remarks’ about the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.
   Magura district Juba League convener Enamul Haque Hirok and Sheikh Farid, president of Freedom Fighters Organisation and Thakurgaon Nagarik Committee, filed the cases with their district chief judicial magistrate courts.

Bangladesh should ask industrialised countries for ‘preferential migrant status’ for climate refugees as river erosions and tidal surges render one lakh people without homes and jobs every year and send them to urban slums, an environmental rights group said.
   Prolonged water-logging and intrusion of saline water in croplands would force another 45,000 people to leave villages and seek fortunes in towns and cities, it estimated.
   ‘There is hardly any alternative to international migration for the people who are forced by climate stresses to migrate from their ancestral homes. Bangladesh should raise the issue at the global negotiations on climate change,’ Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of Centre for Global Change, said.
   The issue of migration is mentioned in the draft document of ongoing global negotiations on climate change and Dhaka must not miss out on the parleys for reaching a favourable agreement at the Copenhagen meet in December this year, he said.
   ‘Who will negotiate for us if we fail to tell the world how vulnerable we are to climate changes?’ Ahsan asked Tuesday as he launched a study styled ‘climate change, loss of livelihood and forced displacements in Bangladesh: whither facilitated international migration?’ at National Press Club.
   He said many poor households faced severe constraints towards maintaining livelihoods and were eventually displaced from their ancestral villages due to riverbank erosion, salinity, cyclonic storm surge and rough sea events — all having their roots to climate changes.
   According to the study, erosion in both coastal and riverine areas is likely to force about 60 thousand people to migrate from their ancestral lands every year. Migration is also becoming inevitable where there are repeated embankment failures. Embankment erosion and subsequent crop loss forced people to out-migrate.
   Rough sea events have increased significantly both in intensity and frequency in recent decades. Storm surge is likely to force about 40 thousand people out of homes every year.
   Aggravated economic hardship due to water-logging would force about 30 thousand people to migrate from villages while crop failures due to salinity would send about 15 thousand farmers to towns every year, the study estimates.
   Ziaul Hoque Mukta, acting country representative of global charity Oxfam, said climate change will add additional elements of vulnerability of livelihoods especially for the poorer section of the society.

Academic, development activists, lawyers, environment and human rights activists and artists on Tuesday strongly condemned the police attack on Professor Anu Muhammad and other leaders and activists of the national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and port.
   More than 50 people of the national committee were injured when police charged into marchers heading for Petrobangla headquarters in the capital on September 2 in protest at the government’s plan to lease three offshore gas blocks to international oil companies.
   In a statement signed by over 50 people from different professional groups, said the police attack on the national committee leaders was as per a plan.
   Those who signed the statement are Omor Tareque Chowdhury, Khusi Kabir, Shirin Huq, Shahdeen Malik, Manosh Chowdhury, Dr Zaforullah Chowdhury, Lamia Karim, Samia Afrin, Shanaz Ahmed, Sipra Bose, Farida Yasmin and Himel Barkat.