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The farmers have cultivated boro on 2.4 per cent more land than the fixed target and the crop is growing well under favourable climatic conditions, expecting bumper production in the country's northern region this season.
   According to the Department of Agricultural Extension officials, the boro plants are growing very well in the northern region and the farmers have put in their maximum effort for a good harvest.
   They said that a total of 16,62,312 hectares of land had been brought under boro cultivation this season against the fixed target of 16,22,494 hectares.
   'The farmers have cultivated boro on 39,818 hectares more land, which is 2.4 per cent higher than the fixed target, and the overall boro rice production will exceed the fixed target of 65,45,873 tonnes of rice this year,' said a DAE official.
   Farmers Yasin Ali of Rangpur, Abul Kalam Azad of Naogaon, Mahmudul Islam of Dinajpur, Aminur Rahman of Kurigram, Abdul Quddus of Nilphamari said that the prevailing favourable climatic conditions would help them achieve bumper Boro yield this year.
   The agricultural scientists and experts are providing necessary practical knowledge, latest and proven technologies and advice to the district and upazila level DAE officials and farmers for achieving the boro production target, said the DAE officials.
   The government has also ordered the authorities concerned to timely execute the special steps taken by the government for smooth and successful boro farming aimed at ensuring increased food production in the country, they added.
   Because of the massive initiatives taken by the government, the farmers have cultivated hybrid variety boro paddy on more land in the region that will definitely further increase the overall rice production, said the experts.
   In Rangpur division, the farmers have cultivated hybrid boro on 2,25,397 hectares, high yielding on 5,58,313 hectares and local variety on 2,756 hectares, exceeding the fixed target of 7,64,723 hectares by 18,369 hectares this season.
   Similarly, the farmers have exceeded the farming target of 8,57,771 hectares by 21,449 hectares by bringing a total of 8,79,220 hectares land under boro cultivation in the other eight districts in the region this season, the DAE officials said.

A significant number of poor and underprivileged children are receiving compulsory primary education in Sunamganj, bringing a ray of hope towards building an illiteracy-free society.
   The Sunamganj Shishu Academy and BRAC, with the financial support of the UNICEF and others agencies, are already running 195 early learning centres throughout the north-eastern district.
   There are 5,000 needy kids, between ages 4 and 6 years, attending the free schools and getting educational materials free of cost every year. The authorities are also providing each of the students with one set of dress a year.
   Besides, lunches are being provided to the children once a week.
   Badal Chandra Barman, Sunamganj district children affairs officer, elaborated the activities of the programme when a team of journalists under the `Advocacy and communication for children and women development project' visited the area under Sadar upazila of the district recently.
   Most of the parents of the children are day labourers or farmers who want their kids to work for earning money. 'But we have motivated the parents for the greater interest of the family as well as the country,' he said.
   Of the total child care centres, BRAC alone runs 194 centres. Each of the centres accommodates 25 to 30 students, of whom 75 per cent are girls. Most of the teachers of the centres are also female.
   Deputy secretary of the ministry of information Tandra Sikder accompanied the team of journalists. The field trip was organised by Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.
   When the team arrived at Bodipur union under sadar upazila, children of the centre showed their capability by rendering Chhora gaan, dance and hand writing on the slates.
   Every child is keen to pick up their lessons in cheerful mood. Villagers hailed the initiative of eradicating illiteracy and empowering women.
   BRAC area manager Abdur Razzak said the early schooling raised an interest of learning among the children and later they wanted to go to school spontaneously.
   He said that 98 per cent of their students who appeared in examination in class five last year had come out successful.
   The deputy commissioner of the district is monitoring the educational activities of poor and underprivileged children every month.
   UNICEF representative Jekob Sarker said they were supplying different teaching materials and equipment to the Shishu Academy and other non-government educational institutions for ensuring success of the programme aiming to reach the millennium development goal.

The target has been exceeded in boro cultivation in Mymensingh during the current season.
   The Department of Agricultural Extension sources said the target had been fixed to cultivate boro on 2,48,817 hectares of land in the district, but 2,61,790 hectares have been brought under boro cultivation, which is over 13 thousand hectares more.
   In the last season, boro was cultivated on 2,58,000 hectares of land.
   Of the land, hybrid was cultivated on 22,816 hectares, ufshee on 2,37,384 hectares while local variety of boro was cultivated on 1,590 hectares, said the DAE sources.
   Of the total 2,61790 hectares, 21,000 hectares in Sadar upazila, 18,200 hectares in Muktagachha upazila, 21,270 hectares in Phulbaria, 21,705 hectares in Trishal upazila, 19,310 hectares in Bhaluka upazila, 22,325 hectares in Gafargaon upazila, 22,205 hectares in Nandail upazila, 21,535 hectares Ishwarganj upazila, 21,100 hectares in Gouripur upazila, 41,500 hectares in Phulpur upazila, 20,500 hectares in Haluaghat upazila and 11,140 hectares in Dubaora upazila were brought under boro farming.

The information minister, Abul Kalam Azad, on Saturday said in Pirojpur that there was no alternative to creating skilled manpower for the development of the country.
   'So, the students will have to be groomed as able citizens. They will have to be equipped with modern knowledge and science,' he said while addressing as chief guest a function arranged on the occasion of distributing prizes among the meritorious students at the Biharilal Pilot High School in Bhandaria upazila in the district.
   The Peninsula Welfare Trust organised the function for the students who obtained golden GPA-5 in SSC, HSC, Dakhil and Alim examinations. At the function, 208 meritorious students of Bhandaria, Kawkhali and Swarupkathi upazilas were given crests, certificates and Taka 3,000 each.
   The information minister said the students would have to know their own culture side by side with study and sports. He also called upon the students to strive for the advancement of knowledge and science.
   He said the present government had ensured the freedom of the media through passing the Right to Information Act. He urged the journalists to play a positive role in the national development by disseminating objective news.
   Azad said the past BNP-Jamaat alliance government had distorted the history of the war of liberation and incorporated it in the textbooks with a view to misguiding the students.
   But, he said, the present government had been working relentlessly so that students know the true history of the war of independence.
   The information minister said in the proposed education policy, initiatives have been taken to make madrassah education more time-befitting. 'To this end, steps have been taken to build madrassah students modern science-minded,' he said.
   He called upon all to work unitedly to build a 'Digital Bangladesh'.
   With the Peninsula Welfare Trust secretary Rezaur Rahim in the chair, the function was addressed, among others, by lawmaker Md Shah Alam, Pirojpur deputy commissioner Ruhul Amin, Bhandaria upazila chairman Mahibur Rahman Mahim and president of Biharilal Pilot High School managing committee Khan Enayet Karim.

A three-day workshop on reporting on the Chittagong Hill Tracts environment began here today at the conference room of the Rangamati Hill District Sports Association on Saturday.
   Twenty five journalists of print and electronic media from the three hill districts -- Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban -- are participating in the workshop, organised by the Society for Environment and Human Development.
   The workshop aims at attaining skills to focus on the state of environment prevailing in the CHT.
   On the first day, the environment experts delivered lectures on how to promote the environment status of the CHT and to combat the deteriorating trend of bio-diversity and ecology.
   The Society for Environment and Human Development executive director, Philip Gian, delivered the welcome address at the beginning of the workshop.

The Bangladesh Rifles members seized 306 bottles of Indian Phensidyl syrup from a bus in front of 41 BDR battalion headquarters in Satkhira Wednesday night.
   The paramilitary force also arrested a drug peddler, Anwar Hossain Ghorami, 32, son of Eskendar Ghorami of village Sundardi in Barisal, in this connection.
   Acting on a tip-off, a BDR team halted the bus in front of their battalion headquarters at about 11:00pm.
   Sensing danger, the driver and the helper fled the scene, leaving behind the bus.
   Later, the BDR personnel recovered the contraband cough syrup from inside the bus and arrested Anwar.
   A case was filed in this connection.

A vegetable trader was crushed under the wheels of a bus at Arappur bus stand in the Jhenaidah town Friday morning.
   The deceased was identified as Monirul Islam, 45, of Veramara in Kushtia.
   Witnesses said Monirul had been run over by the bus at about 8:30am while he had been trying to get into a truck on his way to Khulna to sell vegetables.
   He died on the spot.

A suspected cow lifter was killed in a lynch-mob attack at village Chakbeltoil under sadar upazila in Jamalpur early Friday.
   The victim was identified as Humayun Ahmed, 40, of village Boraitair in the upazila.
   The police said local people had caught Humayun when he had been allegedly trying to lift cows from the house of Jasimuddin at village Chakbeltoil after midnight.
   Later, the angry mob gave him a severe beating, leaving him dead on the spot.
   The police recovered the body Friday morning and sent it to hospital morgue for autopsy. A case was filed in this connection.

A two-day centenary anniversary celebration of the Feni Government Girls High school concluded on Saturday.
   The former students of the school took initiative to hold the anniversary programme that was inaugurated on Friday by Mohammad Abdul Quddus Khan, deputy commissioner of Feni.
   The pogrammes included discussion, reminiscence of former students and cultural function.
   Several Hundred former students of the school took part in the centenary anniversary celebration.

The police arrested a woman along with heroin and hemp from Croke Sluice area in the Barguna town Friday night.
   The arrested was identified as Rimi, 25, wife of drug peddler Sagir.
   Acting on a tip-off, a team of sadar police station conducted a drive at the house of Sagir at about 10:30pm and arrested Rimi along with 15 sachets heroin and 200 grams of hemp.
   A case was filed in this connection.

The Bangladesh Rifles on Saturday recovered 143 bottles of Indian liquor from Damdama border in Compannyganj upazila under Sylhet.
   Zafar Ali, an alleged smuggler, left behind the liquor and fled as he sensed the presence of a BDR patrol team at 8:00am.