Archive for March 19th, 2008
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008The Anti-Corruption Commission is planning to dig out corruption in the civil administration across the country in the wake of enormous pressure from the field level.ACC sources say at present they are initiating enquiries about officials serving as deputy commissioners (DCs) during five years of the BNP-Jamaat-led alliance government.Allegations are rife that a large number of government officials who were posted as DCs were political partisans during the BNP-Jamaat rule.Speaking anonymously, an ACC official said many government officials including DCs served the ruling parties, influential political leaders, lawmakers and ministers instead of discharging their duties impartially."We have a train of ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Prices of rice rose further on both retail and wholesale markets in the capital during the last couple of days while prices of edible oil and sugar continued to fall throughout the week following a sharp rise a couple of weeks earlier.The prices of coarse rice -- Indian Swarna and Ratna -- rose by Tk 60 to Tk 70, selling from Tk 1,180 to Tk 1,230 per maund (37.32 kg) at the wholesale markets yesterday, while prices of all sorts of local rice also shot up by Tk 40 to Tk 50 a maund.In the last two days, the prices ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008The rising prices of food items, especially rice, may cause political instability in the country since poorer households spend up to 80 percent of their income on food, fears the World Food Programme (WFP).The UN agency said the possibility of political, economic and social unrest is growing as the price of food is rising much faster than people's wages in Bangladesh along with regional neighbours like Pakistan and Afghanistan."We are very concerned in Pakistan, Bangladesh and in Afghanistan and we have already seen evidence of when higher food prices hit specific local areas there are often riots and civil disturbances...There ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008The students of class IX are in the dark about their studies as the government after announcing new question method for 2010 SSC examinations and onwards has neither published new textbooks nor trained up teachers.The newly introduced question pattern called 'Structured Question' (SQ) was supposed to take effect from 2009 as per a decision taken in 2006. But the government deferred it for one year giving the National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB) another year to publish a new set of books.The deferment came in the wake of concerns from the then class IX students, guardians and teachers, who found ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008The Election Commission (EC) is now planning to ask the army to take the responsibility of printing the finalised national voter list with photographs in a bid to meet the deadline for finishing the job, stipulated by its own electoral roadmap.If the army takes up the job, it will greatly reduce the expenditure in comparison to the cost of printing previous voter lists, and will also ensure maintaining the electoral course stipulated by the roadmap, said a senior EC official who has been working with the voter list project.According to the electoral roadmap announced by the commission on July ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008The discovery of silver punch-marked coins of the pre-Mauryan period dating back to 600 BC to 400 BC in Wari-Bateshwar reveals that the place was a Mahajanapada, one of the earliest kingdoms or states in the Indian subcontinent.The silver coins and artefacts unearthed and collected so far and geographical positioning of the place both are apparently leading archaeologists to an astonishing discovery.Wari-Bateshwar could be a part of Gangaridae, which was described as a rich place of trade in the estuary of the river Ganges in Greek and Latin literature and was also mentioned by Ptolemy, Virgil, Strabo, Deodorus, Kartius and ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Import of rice from India at the previous cost of $505 per tonne begins today through Benapole land port as India yesterday finally allowed 3,000 rice-laden lorries stranded at Petrapole port for the last 12 days to deliver their consignments.But the final deal for importing another 4 lakh tonnes of rice could not be inked yesterday despite several rounds of discussions between authorities of the two countries in the last two days.The decision to allow export of the rice was taken after two rounds of meeting between India's central Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and the Organisation of Export Import Association ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008The MiG-29 purchase graft case against detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina will resume at the trial court as the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed Hasina's petition for appeal against a High Court order that revived the case.A seven-member full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Ruhul Amin, gave the order that removed all barriers to resuming the trial of the case pending with Dhaka Divisional Special Judge's Court.The trial court fixed March 25 for appearance of all the seven accused in the case before it.The other accused are former army chief Lt General (retd) ...
(read more) Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Fundamentalists have made the National Women Development Policy 2008 an issue in a bid to suppress the public demand for trial of war criminals, participants at a roundtable yesterday said.They also criticised the interim government for their silence on the street programmes fundamental groups carried out against the government's woman policy, clearly violating the state of emergency.Political leaders, NGO activists, women leaders and present and former advisers took part in the discussion on "Women in politics: in party, parliament and government", organised by Bangladesh Mohila Parishad and Saptahik 2000 magazine at the National Press Club.Mohila Parishad president Ayesha Khanam moderated ...
(read more) 
