Archive for February 6th, 2008
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008Counsel for Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina will move to have the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against her transferred to another court as they fear they might not get justice at the present court.In an application to the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court yesterday, they sought adjournment of the proceedings for two weeks so they could petition the High Court (HC) for transfer.Following submissions from both sides, Judge Azizul Huq accepted the application and adjourned the case proceedings till February 11.The adjournment came a day after the court saw a heated argument over its integrity.“I'm allowing the application. ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008The Election Commission (EC) has set end of March as the deadline for the caretaker government for lifting the restrictions on indoor politics countrywide so that political parties can resume their activities and get registered with the EC.The EC also asked the government to decide by early next month whether the state of emergency would be lifted or relaxed to create the environment conducive to holding the long due polls to four city corporations and eight municipalities in April.Following a meeting with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday disclosed the March-deadline to ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008One hundred and twenty-four staff of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd yesterday handed over their illegally amassed properties worth about Tk 350 crore to the task force while 11 others also supposed to do so have gone into hiding, sources said.Earlier, all of these 135 staff including 10 officials had admitted their involvement in corruption and committed to hand over their illegally earned properties.The task force yesterday recommended to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and National Board of Revenue (NBR) filing cases against 30 other staff for concealing wealth.Members of the task force formed for Titas Gas had ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008The government may slash the Annual Development Programme (ADP) by more than Tk 4,000 crore mainly due to poor implementation of the development projects and increased revenue expenditure.The Budget Monitoring and Resource Committee at a meeting held at the Secretariat yesterday indicated to the planning ministry about possible cut in the ADP for the current fiscal year.“Although there are some proposals to cut down the ADP to Tk 22,000 crore to Tk 24,000 crore, I think it may be between Tk 22,000 crore and Tk 23,000 crore,” Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told journalists after the meeting.Already more than half ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008Muggers yesterday stabbed a trader to death, wounded his companion and reportedly snatched Tk 3 lakh from them at East Aganagar of South Keraniganj in Dhaka.Protesting this killing, a few thousand business establishments at East Aganagar and its adjoining areas in South Keraniganj remained closed all day yesterday.A gang of four to five muggers stabbed wholesale garment shop owner Helal Sheikh, 42, and his neighbour Jamal Hossain, 38, near Zila Parishad Market in Keraniganj around 5:30am yesterday. The muggers also took away Helal's gold ring and a cellphone.The two were returning home from a business trip in Chuadanga.Helal, proprietor ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008The government is going to form a 'central authority', which will coordinate signing of the memorandum of understanding with six countries including Malaysia to recover siphoned off money.The central authority will have members from the home ministry, the Attorney General's Office, and other government bodies. It will coordinate the process of bringing back the stolen assets from foreign countries, said Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Salehuddin Ahmed.He was talking to journalists yesterday after a meeting of the national taskforce on recovering the smuggled money.Sources said the taskforce has been notified that Malaysian authorities declined to provide the list of Bangladeshis who ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008The troubled Barapukuria coalmine struck a record coal production in its history Sunday extracting 4,085 tonnes of coal in a single day, which is almost three times higher than it normally produced last year.Sources said since the Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) authorities started mining from a new phase, Phase-1103, it was being able to produce high volume of coal because of better working environment, good coal seam and better equipment condition.Last month the mine broke its past record by producing 3,685 tonnes from the new phase.With Chinese company CMC spearheading the production, the BCMCL started mining ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008The Council of Advisers yesterday approved the draft of production sharing contract (PSC) for offshore oil and gas exploration.A meting of the council with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair approved the PSC model subject to discussion with the Energy and Mineral Resources Division and the Ministry of Law.The draft was prepared by Petrobangla with the help of experts and following the PSCs of some other countries like India, Pakistan and Vietnam.A total of 35 articles, including agreement site, various conditions, guarantee, working area, price payment, partnership with government, tax and VAT, limitations and matters related to effectiveness ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday requested Vietnam to help Bangladesh get membership of the Ganges-Mekong Cooperation Initiative so, as a lower-riparian country, it can reap benefit out of the bloc.The CA made the request when newly appointed Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Van called on him at his office.The head of the caretaker government said Bangladesh and Vietnam shared similar views on major issues in various regional and international forums and thanked Vietnam for its support to Bangladesh in becoming member of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF).He expressed gratitude for Vietnam's quick response to Dhaka's request for exporting rice to ...
(read more) Wednesday, February 6th, 2008At least 5,932 bird flu infected fowls were culled in Jhenidah and Pabna on Monday and yesterday as more reports pour in of the spread of the infection.Our Jhenidah correspondent reports that around 4,232 poultry and domestic fowls were culled on Monday following infection of bid flu at the Three Friends Poultry Farm at Shailkupa in the district.When the fowls started dying at the farm, samples of the dead poultry were sent first to Manikganj Livestock Regional Centre and later to the Savar centre. On confirmation of the bird flu infection the local administration arranged the culling of the fowl. ...
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