Archive for December 12th, 2007
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday rejected the controversial appeal against the High Court (HC) directives for the Election Commission (EC) to collect and publish certain personal information about the aspirants to parliament.The full bench Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Ruhul Amin in its ruling said the petition did not qualify as an appeal as it was filed on the basis of false and fabricated documents.The judgment means now there is no bar to disclosure of eight-point details including academic qualification, profession, source of income, wealth accounts and criminal records (if any) of the candidates.The HC passed the ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against four teachers and 15 students of Dhaka University for breaching emergency power rules (EPR) and a Rajshahi court today will deliver verdict in a case against two Rajshahi University teachers and 12 others for torching a vehicle of the DGFI.Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Rabbani framed the charges against the Dhaka University (DU) teachers and students.He rejected the discharge petitions of the defence lawyers of the four DU teachers and a student now in jail custody.The court fixed December 17 for the trial of the case at a time when the government assured ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 Birshreshtha Hamidur Rahman was finally laid to eternal rest in his homeland yesterday with the highest state honours, 36 years after he embraced martyrdom during a battle with Pakistan occupation forces.Before the burial, the nation paid homage to the Liberation War hero as the coffin with his remains reached the National Parade Square in the capital in the morning.His coffin was brought back to his beloved motherland from Tripura in India on Monday.Later, Hamidur was reburied beside Birshreshtha Matiur Rahman at the reserved graveyard for eminent freedom fighters at Mirpur Martyred Intellectual's Graveyard.The 17-year-old freedom fighter attacked ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Foreign adviser Iftekhar A Chowdhury yesterday said now is the right time for India and Bangladesh to seriously negotiate on issues, since India has accepted a greater responsibility in the relationship.Expressing deep concerns regarding the construction of dams and reservoirs in India that would deprive Bangladesh of crucial water resources, he said water sharing issues need to be addressed immediately to take the relations forward."Both parties should realise that if there are hills to climb, waiting would not make them any smaller," Iftekhar said at the inaugural session of the three-day 16th Bangladesh-India dialogue at Brac Inn in the capital.The ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Japan will provide $ 324 million in loan assistance for New Haripur Power Plant and two other projects in the country.An agreement to this effect was signed between the governments of Japan and Bangladesh in the capital yesterday.Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Masayuki Inoue and Secretary, Economic Relations Division, M Aminul Islam Bhuiyan signed the exchange of notes on behalf of their respective governments.Following the signing of the notes, Chief Representative of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in Dhaka Yasuo Fujita and ERD Additional Secretary M Mejbahuddin signed the loan agreements.The government of Japan will provide the loan to the ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Five international power companies yesterday submitted their qualification documents with the Power Cell of the power ministry to participate in the bidding for setting up the 450 megawatt Sirajganj Power Project.Previously the government had floated three rounds of tenders for the same project. One of the tenders was cancelled at its final stage without any reasonable explanation and the third one was cancelled earlier this year on ground of lack of transparency.This time, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing technical support for the tender.Sources said the five companies that submitted qualification documents yesterday are AES Corporation from USA, Korea ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Non-governmental organisation (NGOs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) will suspend the collection of monthly instalment of their loans in the cyclone-affected areas for next three to six months.This was decided at a meeting of Bangladesh Bank with the NGOs and MFIs at the central bank headquarters yesterday, where they announced fresh lending plans for the areas and requested the government to funnel more funds.Bangladesh Bank Government Saleh Uddin Ahmed, also chairman of the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority (MRA), presided.MRA is a regulatory body working under the central bank to monitor and control the micro-finance operations by a host of NGos ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Law Adviser Mainul Hosein does not see the justification for the demand for unconditional release of detained Dhaka University (DU) teachers before their conviction."How do they demand unconditional release before conviction? The Rajshahi University teachers could demand it because they were already convicted," he told reporters when asked about DU teachers' demand.Legal experts, however, did not agree with the law adviser and said anyone can demand unconditional release at any point of investigation or trial. The government can also withdraw the charges against anyone anytime.When asked about the government's withdrawing the cases filed against the DU teachers, Mainul did ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007The lawyers of four Rajshahi University teachers yesterday decided to go ahead with appeal proceedings against their clients' convictions even though the government freed the academics two days ago amid mounting public demand.The defence lodged the appeals with the District and Sessions Judge's court on December 9, one day before the teachers walked out of prison. The court set December 27 to hear the appeals.The four teachers, meantime, joined their respective departments yesterday. They were given two-year jail terms on December 4 for breaking the emergency power rules by bringing out a silent procession on the campus on August 21.Two ...
(read more) Wednesday, December 12th, 2007All the detained Dhaka University teachers and students must be released in the interest of a congenial academic atmosphere on the campus, senior DU teachers said yesterday.Former president of Dhaka University Teachers Association (Duta) Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique said it would have been the best if the government withdrew the cases in connection with the August violence on the campus.“Now that charges have been framed against the detained, it means the government has gone for judicial process concerning them. And now it might take a long time to get them released, resulting in an unhealthy campus situation,” he told ...
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