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Delay in building the much awaited Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover and changes in the design escalated the cost to Tk 1,337 crore from 500 crore.
   The Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government had taken the initiative in 2003, to build the flyover, to link Gulistan with Jatrabari, on build-own-operate-transfer basis, to ease the city's traffic congestion.
   Accordingly, the city corporation signed the contract with Dubai based joint venture firm, Belhasa-Acom JV, in June 2005, for building the flyover at a cost of Taka 500 crore.
   Scheduled to be completed in three years, the construction began on June 5, 2006, after former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had laid the flyover foundation stone.
   The contract, required Belhasa to bear the entire cost of designing, construction, operation as well as the maintenance of the flyover during the concession period of 24 years, when the builders would have the right to collect tolls, said the city corporation chief engineer Mohammad Abdul Qadir.
   But the two-year military-controlled emergency caretaker government scrapped the contract over the allegation that the builders had submitted a fake bank guarantee to get the work.
   Cost escalation due to delay together with the changes in the design became issues of contention between the city corporation and the builders.
   After the Awami League-led government took office in 2009, the city corporation, keen on starting the work, appointed an international consultant to sort out the issues with Belhasa.
   Disagreement over terms and conditions between the Dhaka City Corporation and the construction firm, Belhasa-Acom JV, once again delayed the work, set to begin on April 25.
   It could take at least two more weeks to sort out the differences and start the work, expects the city corporation.
   According to the city corporation sources, the negotiations with the Belhasa-Acom remain stuck over a number of issues including the duration of the concessionary period, originally set at 24 years, when the construction cost was Tk500 crore.
   After the construction cost escalated to 1,337 from Tk 500, Belhasa is asking for a longer concessionary period, Qadir said. The city corporation, he said, appointed an international consultant to determine how to renew the contact, sorting out the differences with Belhasa.
   He also said that the city corporation expects to finalise everything soon.
   Asked why the contract was scrapped, he said, 'A panel of lawyers of the corporation is looking into the matter. The problem will be resolved soon.'
   Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was scheduled to lay the corner stone on April 25.
   The city corporation expects the construction to start as soon as the issues, including changes in the flyover design, are resolved with the builders.
   BUET experts, assigned to scrutinise the flyover design in April 2007, suggested for dropping five out of 13 ramps and adding two new down ramps, one near the Rajdhani Super Market, and the second one at the Gulistan end, to facilitate smoother traffic movement.
   The flyover length, under the changed design would be over nine kilometres, and not eight kilometres, as in the original design.

Three left political parties, Jatiya Mukti Council, Naya Ganatantrik Ganomorcha and Jatiya Ganatantrik Ganamanch on Saturday called for a united movement against what they described as the Awami League-led government's 'misrule.'
   At a workers' conference held at the National Press Club auditorium they said that the people were tired of cosmetic changes that follow the replacement of one government with another of the same character.
   Jatiya Mukti Council president Badruddin Umar, who chaired the session, said that the people do not want a mere change in government, they want and end of rule by the corrupt.
   He said that the people were fed up with the ruling class, representing looters, terrorists and the corrupt.
   He said that the left parties should bank on the people's aspirations for a genuine change to put up a united resistance to fascist rule by a ruling class, which serves the hegemony of India and US imperialism.
   Nayaganatantrik Ganamorcha convener Shibli Quyum read out the declaration for a united movement of the people.
   Jatiya Ganatantrik Ganama-ncha member-secretary Raatul Bari conducted the session.
   The central leaders of the organisations, Faizul Hakim, Zafar Hossain, Sanjib Roy, Farhad Hossain, among others spoke. Later, the leaders and workers of the three organisations held demonstrations at different city points.

Political as well as social organisations on Friday observed the Khapra Ward Day in the capital city and Rajshahi to recall the brutal killings of seven detained communist leaders in the Rajshahi Central Jail in 1950.
   The day commemorates the communist leaders, shot dead by on duty jail police in the Khapra Ward of the jail when they protested the inhuman treatment of the detainees by the jail authorities.
   Speakers said that the government should take initiative to make the seven slain leaders, Kamporam Singh of Dinajpur, Delwar Hossain of Kushtia, Sudhin Dhar of Nawabganj, Hanif Sheikh of Kushtia, Bijon Sen of Khulna, Sukhendu Bhattacharia of Mymensingh and Anwar Hossain of Khulna, known to the people.
   In observance of the day, the leaders of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, the Communist Party of Bangladesh and the National Awami Party placed wreaths at the Shaheed Minar in front of the Khapra Ward inside the jail.
   They also observed one minute's silence to show respect to the slain leaders.
   Bangladesh Workers’ Party hosted a discussion at the Asad auditorium.
   The leaders urged the party activists to be unified to ensure the effective democracy and independence in the country.
   Abdus Shahid Sangsad hosted a discussion at National Press Club to mark the day.

The education ministry has asked the authorities concerned to include anti-militancy essays in the syllabuses of schools, colleges and universities in order to create awareness against the menace.
   'Essays and stories to be composed by noted educationists and all field-level education officers will arrange rallies where teachers and students of schools, colleges and universities will participate,' said the ministry letter issued in the past week.
   The ministry letter sent to the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, University Grants Commission and chairmen of all education boards asking them to take necessary steps to compose essays and verify their quality.
   The ministry officials said that the decision had been taken in line with the recommendations of the home ministry and intelligence agencies.
   Officials of some education boards and the textbook board told New Age that they had received the ministry letter and would take steps accordingly.

Unknown miscreant shot and injured two ethnic minority youths in Chakrapara area in Rangamati town Friday night.
   Hospital sources said Joyti Chakma, 19, and Rupayan Chakma, 18, were admitted to sadar hospital when they received bullet wound.
   Later, Joyti was shifted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital at night as his condition deteriorated.
   Local people said anti-peace treaty miscreants might have launched the attack.

The Border Security Force of India kidnapped a Bangladeshi young man from Baradi border in Damurhuda upazila of Chuadanga on Saturday.
   BSF jawans of Gede camp kidnapped Shaheen Alam, 18, at about 7:00am when he went there for tending cattle.
   Local BDR authorities sent a letter to BSF authorities protesting at the abduction of Bangladeshi and demanding his return immediately.

At least 50 people were injured in a fierce clash between two rival groups over harvesting paddy in a char under Matlab north upazila of Chandpur on Friday.
   The police and locals said there was a longstanding feud over the ownership of the Diara char between the two rival groups - one led by Nurul Haque Prodhan and another by Ukil Dhali.
   They said an altercation ensued when the farmers of Prodhan group tried to harvest paddy in the morning. Later, both the groups equipped with lethal weapons attacked each other leaving 50 people injured from both sides.
   Seriously injured eight farmers were admitted to the upazila health complex.

The chief justice, Mohammad Fazlul Karim, has urged all concerned to work jointly to keep parliamentary democracy alive.
   'It is not the time for blaming each other. We have to strengthen the culture of accountability and must seat together to find out the way to resolve the national issues,' he said while inaugurating a seminar on 'Accountability in parliamentary democracy: A Bangladesh perspective' at CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Monthly Legal Aid, a journal based on legal issues organised the seminar with its editor Khawja Golam Murshed in the chair.
   Former Chief Justice Mahmudul Amin Choudhury, former adviser to the caretaker government AF Hassan Ariff, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Abdul Baset Mojumder also addressed the inaugural session.
   Justice Choudhury in his speech expressed his dissatisfaction over the role of the lawmakers of the current parliament saying they are not performing their duties that can inspire the people.
   'We saw in the television screen that the lawmakers engage in using filthy words against each other and they are not at all concerned about people's expectation,' he said.
   He accused the lawmakers of the current parliament for not discussing the acts of the previous 'so called' caretaker government's role and action.
   'They at least could have move a condemn motion for unlawful acts of the caretaker government,' he observed.
   The former chief justice also strongly criticised the role of the judiciary especially the higher judiciary saying they failed to fulfil the need of the people.
   He said judiciary should play vital role in the parliamentary democracy but the people saw that the judges observed their boycott programme on an issue, which is absolutely contradictory to their ethics.
   'A judge of the lower judiciary is granting remand to an accused for several days on an undefined prayer, which is dropping the judiciary in an undesired atmosphere,' he said.
   He stressed the need for appointment of a judicial ombudsman to look after the accountability of the judiciary, though once everyone believed that the judges are accountable to their own conscious not to any other.
   'The judiciary is now in a glass room. If the persons concerned do not prepare themselves to protect the image of the judiciary than they would be considered as associate for destroying the last resort of the common people,' he observed.

The BNP candidate in the Bhola 3 by-election, M Hafizuddin Ahmed, on Saturday demanded cancellation of the day's ballot and resignation of the Election Commission saying 'no fair election can be held under this commission.'
   Hafiz also demanded security for the leaders and activists of BNP staying in Lalmohan and Tajumuddin by deploying any forces but police and Rapid Action Battalion.
   Hafiz said more than 400 of his supporters were injured in attacks by Awami League activists in past few days and that his house had turned into a hospital 'as the BNP men are not safe even in the local hospital.'
   'The Awami League with the help of Election Commission and administration ousted my agents from polling centres and stuffed ballot boxes. The election has been reduced to a farce,' he told a jam-packed briefing at his house in the afternoon.
   Hafiz said he and his party had warned the people beforehand about what was going to happen [in Bhola]. 'The commission has cheated us…It is a breach of commitment…The vote rigging and violence unleashed by Awami League today has buried democracy in Bangladesh…,' he said.
   He said in the first minute of polling, his agents had been ousted from 16 centres. 'More than 50 per cent votes had been cast at Bheduria Serajia Madrassah centre by 11:00am,' he said.
   He said he had informed the Chief Election Commissioner aboutwhat was going on but he had ruled it out. 'But later he [CEC] suspended polling at nine centres. Had I been able to visit all the centres and record on a camera what happened there, polling at all the rest centres might have been suspended.'
   'We apprehended it before…The rationale for a caretaker government has been proved once again. No fair polls can be held under a partisan government,' he added.
   Awami League advisory committee member Tofail Ahmed told reporters that sensing its certain defeat the BNP was trying to make an issue out of the Bhola by-election by demanding cancellation of the ballot.
   'It is an extraordinary election in the history of Lalmohon,' Tofail claimed.
   To avoid untoward incidents, RAB ordered closure of all shops and did not allow gathering at any point in the constituency even after the polls on Saturday.

Every year, thousands of people are affected by malaria in the country with millions of others being at high-risk of the disease as Bangladesh, like other countries, observes the World Malaria Day today.
   Malaria is one of the major public health concerns in Bangladesh as 13 frontier districts in the east and northeast belong to the high-risk malaria zone, health experts said.
   ‘Around 39,000 people were affected with malaria in 2009 while around 48,000 were affected with the disease in 2007 in the country,’ said Muktadir Kabir, programme specialist of BRAC’s Malaria programme.
   He said around 500 malaria patients were killed in 2007 while a total of 47 deaths were reported in 2009 in the country.
   United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon in his message on the occasion of the World Malaria Day 2010 said, ‘The global campaign against malaria has shown what is possible when the international community joins forces on multiple fronts to tackle a disease that takes its heaviest toll on poor and underprivileged populations.’
   ‘Strong commitment has sparked innovation: creative initiatives have facilitated the delivery of massive numbers of mosquito nets, ground-breaking partnership are developing new malaria medicines and making exciting medicine more accessible and affordable,’ he said.
   Experts identified some 70 Upazilas in the country’s 13 malaria-prone districts under risk, which are Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Rangamati, Chittagong, Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Netrakona, Mymensingh, Sherpur and Kurigram.
   ‘But three hill tracts districts are at great risk of malaria as more than 80 per cent of total cases and death are reported from this area,’ Mohammad Jahirul Karim, programme manager of government’s malaria control programme told New Age on Saturday.
   Physicians emphasised on early diagnosis and prompt treatment and selective vector control.
   The health experts
   said there are three types of malaria— uncomplicated malaria, treatment failure malaria and severe malaria.
   Muktadir said the patients should take drugs of malaria for 3 to 14 days based on the types of malaria.
   ‘For easy and rapid diagnosis we provide disease identification device to the community health providers,’ he said.
   Health experts advised people to regularly use insecticide-tinged curtains while sleeping to contain this disease, take appropriate treatment when affected through genuine diagnosis, to clean places around houses and public places so that malaria germs can be prevented.
   Bangladesh government and BRAC on Sunday will organise a rally, a discussion meeting and folk play at Tribal Cultural Institute and will arrange a heath camp at Camelong Union in Bandarban to mark the day.

The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president, Hasanul Haq Inu, on Saturday said the government must hold trial of the war crimes committed during the country's war of independence in 1971.
   There was no scope for stepping back from the trial of the war criminals as the government is pledge-bound to put them to book, Innu said.
   Innu was addressing the working committee meeting of the party at its central office on the Bangabandhu Avenue in the Dhaka city.
   He called on the government to strengthen the international crimes tribunal with more workforce, funding and authority.
   The JSD presiden also stressed that the government should take effective steps to resolve power, gas and water crises the people facing across the country.
   He also urged the ruling Awami League to reactivate its alliance warning the governing that its policy of going it alone would be suicidal.
   Party general secretary Sharif Nurul Ambia placed the political and organisational report at the meeting addressed by party leaders Syed Zafar Sazzad, Rabiul Alam, Nazmul Haq Prodhan, M Khaled, Nurul Akter and Abdullahil Kaiyum.

The Chittagong University unit Chhatra League on Saturday announced to continue with the strike pushing for their demands for the arrest of the killers of university M Asaduzzaman and the resignation of the vice-chancellor, proctor and the students' adviser for their 'failure in ensuring security of students.'
   The Chhatra League unit general secretary, Mohammed Ershad Hossain, said there was scope for negotiation with the university authorities and the strike would continue until the demands would be met.
   No classes and examinations were held in the university on Saturday, the 5th day of the strike, as the shuttle trains and buses could not run between the city and the campus.
   A group of neighbouring villagers stabbed accounting student M Asaduzzaman, a BCL activist, on April 15 centring on an altercation during Pahela Baishakh celebrations. He died the next afternoon in Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
   The death prompted the university authorities on February 16 to suspend academic activities for three days.
   The Chhatra League enforced the strike for an indefinite period at the end of three-day suspension of academic activities.
   The Chhatra League men on Wednesday abducted two drivers of a university shuttle train and released them after three hours.
   Earlier, political science student AFM Mohiuddin was hacked to death at the Sholashahar railway station on February 11 and marketing student Harun-ar-Rashid Kaiser was found dead with the throat slit at Baradighirpar of Hathazari on March 28.

Those who helped war criminals integrate into mainstream society will also be tried for offences, the state minister for home, Shamsul Huq Tuku, said on Saturday.
   According to Tuku, it was the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami who rehabilitated war criminals in this country.
   He said this at discussion on the trial of the
   war criminals and their rehabilitators. It was organised by Bangaban-dhu Academy at Dhaka Reporter's Unity.
   'The BNP and Jamaat's comments regarding the trial procedure for those prosecuted for crimes during the 1971 war, will be countered both politically and socially,' he said at the discussion.
   Tuku claimed that, 'Ziaur Rahman and the BNP assisted the perpetrators of 1971.
   'That's why the BNP with the Jamaat are threatening to thwart the trial.'
   The state minister for law, Quamrul Islam, said, 'Ziaur Rahman re-established the Razakars and Al-Badrs in Bangladesh.
   'After the killing of Bangabandhu, there was an attempt to establish a fundamentalist state with the help of the 1971 war criminals.'
   Quamrul termed Zia, the commander of 'Z' force during the war, an 'intruder', adding that: 'He (Zia) participated in the war as a Pakistan spy.'
   He alleged that the BNP-Jamaat-led lawyers were trying to create confusion about the tribunal.
   Senior Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta said, 'The BNP and the Jamaat are the part of the same body.'
   He said they were so integrated that an impact on one affects another.
   Suranjit, the head of parliamentary watchdog on the law ministry, said, 'When the Jamaat gets cold, the BNP sneezes.
   'This is why, the BNP is conspiring to foil the trial,' he claimed.

Jatiya Party chairman and former dictator HM Ershad has returned to his Baridhara home on Saturday following five days in hospital.
   Kazi Firoz Rashid, one of the party’s presidium members, told bdnews24.com that he returned home at 9:30am.
   He had been admitted to United Hospital in Gulshan on April 19 following complications that are said to have arisen from piles.
   Throughout this period Ershad was kept in the intensive care unit during which time rumours of his death abounded in Dhaka.

An old man was stabbed to death allegedly by his drug addict son at their residence in the Haji Mohsin Road area of the Khulna city early Saturday.
   The deceased was identified as Hasan Muhammad Shahidullah, 72.
   The police, quoting the family, said Badrul Hasan, 30, had stabbed his father Shahidullah around 5:00pm when he was asleep in a first-floor room of the two-storey building. Shahidullah died on the spot.
   After the killing, Badrul woke up his sister-in-law living on the ground floor and told her that their father's condition was serious and immediately fled the scene, they said.
   Badrul was a drug addict and he often asked his father to give him money for doing business, the family was quoted as saying.
   On information, the police came to the spot, recovered the body and sent it to the Khulna Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.
   The family said they handed over Badrul after he tried to kill his father last year.
   After release from police custody, he started putting pressure on his father to give him money.

The police on Friday night arrested a Bhajahari Saha Street resident, Ahmed Ali, suspected to be involved in the killing of Bangshal police station sub inspector Gautam Roy in the early hours of April 20.
   Gautam was shot dead by unknown assailants near the Mohiuddin Market at Dholaikhal after he challenged the offenders before the Mohiuddin Market at Dholaikha. He was returning to his residence at Wari, in a jeep, with two of his friends, after doing his night duty.
   Produced at a news briefing at the Dhaka Metropolitan Police headquarters, Ahmed Ali alias Haider alias Hadi, son of Sukkur Ali, recounted the story of the killing of the police officer.
   According to his story, he had gone to Dholaikhal Tyre Potti, on his way home, at 2 AM on April 20, to meet Kaila Zakir alias Battya Zakir and Mohammad Manik, being asked by Kaila Zakir.
    He said that Zakir told him that he would be there at the rendezvous.
   He said that sub inspector Gautam, who intercepted them before the market, demanded to know, 'What are you doing here at the dead of night?'
   'When Gautam started searching me, Zakir shot at him,' said Ahmed Ali.
   The additional police commissioner, Abul Quasem, present there, said that it seems 'not to be a pre-meditated killing'.
   'Perhaps, the assailants shot Gautam to save themselves. We have identified them by scanning the cell phone call list. We expect that pretty soon we will be able to arrest Zakir and Manik, the prime suspects,' he said.
   He said that Zakir is wanted by a number of police stations in the capital city, for his involvement in several crimes, including killings and extortions.
   Zakir, he said, was in jail for six years for the possession of illegal firearms.
   He described Zakir as 'a notorious criminal' in the Dholaikhal area.
   'We have already collected enough information about his whereabouts. He will be arrested soon,' he said.
   DMP deputy commissioner for the Wari zone, Towfiq Mahbub Chowdhury, said the police arrested Ahmed Ali from Tipu Sultan Road.
   Sutrapur police station sub inspector Jahangir Kabir filed a murder case with the police station Tuesday night.

At least 20 rooms of a mess house were burnt in a fire that broke at Narsinghapur of Ashulia in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Witnesses said the fire originated in a room of the mess house owned by one Bipul Gosh at around 10:20am.
   The fire also partially gutted an adjacent shop Shahida General Store, they added.
   On information, five fire-fighting vehicles from Gazipur, Savar and Dhaka Export Processing Zone came to the spot and put out the flames after one hour’s frantic efforts around 11:35am.
   Officials of the Fire Service and Civil Defence said the cause of fire and the extent could not be known immediately.
   No casualty was, however, reported in the incident. The loss is estimated at about Tk 10 lakh, police said.

Three local election observers have come up with mixed reaction to the Bhola-3 by-polls won by the ruling Awami League's candidate Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon on Saturday.
   Democracywatch, a development and educational institution working to promote and strengthen democracy and good
   governance, said in a press statement that the Bhola 3 by-election had been marred by violence, mismanagement, low turnout of voters and intimidation.
   'Voter turnout at the polling stations would be around 55 per cent in the by-election which was marked by violence, intimidation and mismanagement…,' the press statement read.
   The organisation will soon publish its final report on the election observation.
   Brotee, another local election observer, however, in its interim report termed the Bhola 3 by-polls free and fair.
   'No major untoward incidents took place at the polling centres where voter turnout was noticeable. Women and minority voters in their large numbers cast votes without fear,' the interim report said.
   Although both the parties [AL and BNP] made some deviations from the Election Commission instructions prior to the polls, they reportedly abided by the regulations during the polls, the report said.
   The report also said that members of law enforcement agencies were found playing a neutral role for holding a peaceful election.
   The National Election Observer Council reported clashes between supporters of the two rival candidates in different places. But it did not say whether the election was fair.
   'Polling agents of the candidate of the opposition BNP, Hafizuddin Ahmed, remained absent from different polling centres after 11:00am on the polling day.'
   The NEOC said supporters of the ruling Awami League's candidate, Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon, were seen providing rickshaws to voters to go to the polling stations.

Zahirul Islam Tipu, news editor of Bhorer Kagoj, died of heart attack at Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital in Dhaka at around 12:30am on Saturday. He was 47.
   Tipu left his office at around 11:00pm after completing the day's work on Friday and returned to his residence at about 11:30pm.
   Suddenly, he complained of chest pain and was immediately taken to hospital where he breathed his last at around 12:30am.
   He is survived by his wife, one son and one daughter.
   Tipu had also served Amader Somoy, Somokal and Destiny in various capacities.
   He was buried beside his father's grave at Barkatpur graveyard at East Badda in the city after four namaj-e-janazas at Bhorer Kagoj complex, National Press Club, Destiny complex and Sailarteq Baitul Jannat Jame Mosque in East Badda.
   He was born on August 5, 1963 at Amlitola under Madarganj in Jamalpur and started his career as a journalist with the now-defunct Ajker Kagoj.
   President of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and general general Altaf Mahmud expressed deep shock at the death of Tipu.
   Dhaka Union of Journalists president Shah Alamgir and general secretary Abu Zafar Surjo also condoled the death of Tipu and expressed sympathy to the bereaved family.

About two crore people are still drinking arsenic-contaminated water in Bangladesh, while only 53 per cent of its population has access to improved sanitation facilities.
   However, the practice of open defecation has been significantly reduced to seven per cent from 33 per cent in 1990, UNICEF said on the occasion of the first annual high-level meeting of a New Global Partnership, Sanitation and Water for All, that began in Washington on Saturday.
   It also said at least 2.5 billion cases of diarrhoea occur in children under five years of age every year in the world and an estimated 1.5 million children die from it annually.
   ‘Huge savings in health care costs and gains in productive days can be realised by improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene - amounting to some 2 per cent to over 7 per cent of gross domestic product, depending on the region,’ UNICEF said in a release issued simultaneously from Washington and Dhaka.
   With only five years remaining to reach the 2015 Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people living without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, the meeting has been convened to stimulate urgent action towards ensuring that access to sanitation and safe drinking water becomes a reality for the billions who still live without it.
   ‘Safe drinking water, basic sanitation and hygiene are essential for the health and welfare of individuals as well as nations. Countries cannot make progress if millions of working days and school days are lost due to diseases caused by contaminated water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene, and if children are still dying from preventable causes such as diarrhoea,’ said Clarissa Brocklehurst, UNICEF chief of water sanitation and hygiene.
   Hosted by UNICEF, the high-level meeting is bringing together 35 ministers from developing countries, donors and development agencies for the united goal of achieving universal and sustainable access to sanitation and drinking water.
   A high level delegation including finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and LGRD and cooperatives minister Syed Ashraful Islam will represent Bangladesh in the meeting.
   Although Bangladesh is on track to achieve the MDG target for access to safe drinking water, arsenic contamination, increased salinity in groundwater in the coastal belt, declining groundwater levels, susceptibility to the impact of natural disasters posed significant risks to the availability of safe drinking water.
   ‘Bangladesh has to deal with very particular challenges undermining safe water and sanitation for all. However, the government is committed to providing safe water to all citizens by 2011,’ said Monzur Hossain, secretary of the Local Government Division.
   He said a special fund of $200 million would be created to provide arsenic safe water. The sector development plan is being revised to provide clearer directions with the corresponding funding requirement, he added.
   According to the current estimate, the sector requires $1.9 billion investment for the period of 2010-2015, with a funding gaps of $600 million.
   At the meeting, Bangladesh will pledge to take necessary steps to reform service delivery, build the capacity of sector institutions and reduce the water supply and sanitation financing gap by at least one third.
   ‘Investing in improved sanitation and access to safe drinking water helps alleviate poverty disease and malnutrition, promotes universal primary education and reduces child mortality, all resulting in high economic returns or benefits, the UNICEF said.
   It said improved sanitation and water in developing countries yield an average of about $9 for every one dollar spent, resulting in huge savings in health care costs and gains in productive days. By this measure, meeting the MDG target on sanitation and drinking water in the countries that are not on track could have an annual economic benefit of $38 billion.

The Bangladesh Diploma Pharmacist Association on Saturday announced its 37-member central committee at a news briefing at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the city.
   A total of 37 nomination papers were submitted to the election commission of BDPA Central Committee Election 2010 against 37 posts and the committee members were elected unopposed, said AKM Shahadat Hossain, chief election commissioner.
   M Shaficul Islam was elected president while Sarwar Hossain Hawlader, Mannan Mollah and Dilip Kumar Debnath elected vice presidents of the committee.
   Mir Abdur Razzak, returning officer of BDPA Central Committee Election, AKM Farid, deputy chief election commissioner and the newly elected committee members were present.

Trial of the BDR rebels of 10 Rifles battalion began at the BDR Special Court-4 in Satkania
   upazila of Chittagong Saturday.
   The trial began at the special court at Baitul Ijjat Rifles Training Centre in the upazila.
   As the court headed by outgoing BDR chief Major General Mainul Islam sat at 9:00am, prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Rabiul Alam, Captain of 10 Rifles Battalion placed allegations of mutiny against
   35 BDR men and requested the court to take the allegations into cognizance.
   Prosecutor Rabiul Alam narrated the allegations against the accused and also stated the situation of Boromadok Border Observation Post, Balipara, Bandarban rear headquarters while the mutineers expressed
   their solidarity with the mutiny staged by
   their colleagues in
   BDR headquarters in Dhaka February 25-26 last year.
   The court instructed to place 35 accused under shown arrest and send them to jail.
   The court was adjourned till October 10 for charge framing against the accused.

The government has ordered all the public offices related to power generation, transmission and distribution to remain open on Saturdays until further notice.
   Weekly holidays of all these offices are cut to one day on Friday, ostensibly with the intention of giving more dedication to mitigate the problems of power crisis.
   In compliance with the order, all the offices under Power Distribution Board, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd in the city and other offices outside the capital remained open on Saturday.
   ‘We received an order from Power Division on Thursday last and accordingly we are doing our offices Saturday like the other working days,’ a top official at DPDC told UNB.
   Official sources said the order came from the government in the wake of nagging power crisis across the country. But it’s not clear if such order will really bring any positive change in the power supply situation.
   All the relevant offices responsible for power generation, transmission and distribution, are normally remain open round-the-clock throughout the week. The officers and employees do their duties on rotation as power supply service is treated an emergency service.
   ‘Power stations run round-the-clock without any intervention. Similarly, all field level transmission and distribution outlets keep open throughout the day to run the transmission and distribution system,’ a PDB official said.
   He mentioned that the headquarters of different organisations in power sector, which are mainly responsible for the administrative works, only keep closed on the weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday.
   ‘But now on, our head office will stay open on Saturday as well. It is not relevant to increase power generation by keeping open our office on Saturday’, he said replying to a question about improvement of power supply situation.

The police in a raid seized some 130 books on militancy from the prayer room of a hall of residence at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology early Saturday.
   During the raid, the police also arrested an outsider from a Shibir-controlled room of the hall and seized more than 100 books on militancy, according to campus sources.
   The arrested was identified as Selim Ahmed, 25, a resident of Akhalia area in the Sylhet city. He is an activist of Shibir, student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami.
   The campus sources said Shibir activists were holding a meeting with outsiders at the prayer room of Second Student Hall on Friday midnight.
   At one point, activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, associate student wing of the Awami League, were locked in an altercation with the Shibir men over holding of the meeting at the prayer room.
   On information, the police came and seized 132 books on militancy from inside the prayer room of the hall, the sources said.
   Later, the law men arrested Shelim and seized about 100 such books from a Shibir-controlled room of the dormitory.
   When contacted, the hall provost Rashed Talukdar told New Age in the afternoon police has been deployed at the hall to avert any trouble.
   Selim is wanted by police in a mugging case, police sources said.

Pleaders and NGO and trade union leaders at a roundtable on Saturday differed on the government’s proposal for decentralisation of labour courts in every district.
   Such a decentralisation will add to hassles for labourers to get justice, they said, adding that the government could set up labour courts in every division and in industrial areas.
   Farida Yesmin, deputy director (law) of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, read out a draft proposal on the issue where she said the number of labour courts was inadequate for workers to get justice easily.
   She talked about advantages and the disadvantages of establishment of labour courts in every district. The country now has seven labour courts.
   The BLAST, Institute of Labour Studies and Manusher Janya Foundation organised the roundtable on ‘advantages and disadvantages of decentralisation of labour courts’ at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity.
   BLAST executive director Mohsin Ali Khan, who presided over the roundtable, said the government should hold discussions with the stakeholders before establishment of labour courts in every district.
   RMG labour leader Touhidur Rahman said it would increase complexities if labour courts would be set up in every district and the justice would be further delayed.
   Lawyer Nesar Ahmed favoured expansion of labour courts so that labourers could get justice easily.
   BILS assistant executive director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed said, ‘We want an increase in the number of labour courts for an easy access for workers to justice.’

A youth was hacked to death by some miscreants at Sabujbag mahalla in the Savar municipality area Saturday.
   The deceased was Md Masud, 30, son of Md Hossain, of Piar char village of Harirampur upazila of Manikganj. He worked in a ticket counter of Savar bus stand.
   The police said a youth called Masud out of the house at 8:00am and dragged him to Bank Colony road.
   As Masud tried to escape a gang of some 7/8 miscreants swooped on him and chopped him to death in presence of hundreds of people. They left the place safely.
   Victim’s bother Zillur said his brother had enmity with the killers over business.