Archive for March 25th, 2008
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008Wholesale prices of pulse, edible oil, flour and sugar fell significantly in the capital during the last week after their prices skyrocketed a couple of weeks earlier.However, the easing prices on the wholesale markets are yet to make any considerable impact on the retail market.In the meantime, prices of fish, chicken and egg continued to rise on both wholesale and retail markets throughout the last couple of days.The Daily Star correspondent during a visit to wholesale and retail markets in the city found extensive difference between wholesale and retail prices of pulses, edible oil, sugar, flour and vegetables.Retailers expected that ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an 'extraordinary emergency appeal' to donor countries for at least $500 million by the end of April to meet global shortfalls, which include a $15 million shortage in emergency food aid to cyclone-hit areas in Bangladesh."We urge your government to be as generous as possible in helping us to close this gap --- which stood at 500 million dollars on February 25, and has been growing daily," said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran in a letter sent to donor countries last month, reported a British daily, the Financial Times.Sheeran warned, without the ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008Despite being at the forefront of countries affected by climate change, Bangladesh has received only $10 million in foreign aid over the past decade, even as recent donor estimates put future climate change adaptation bill for the country around $4 billion.Meanwhile, a climate change research centre and a government climate change data centre are in the pipeline to allow Bangladesh to use better models and data for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into government projects and to attract funds for long term adaptation plans.Although some NGO officials claim that climate change specific funding might have been much lower than $10 million ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008The Election Commission (EC) will ask the government to deploy the armed forces for maintaining law and order during the elections to four city corporations and seven municipalities."The armed forces will be deployed in both city corporation and municipality elections," said Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain while speaking with reporters at his office yesterday.According to earlier announcement of the EC, elections to Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet city corporations, and the municipalities of Manikganj, Shariatpur, Sreepur under Gazipur, Phulbaria under Mymensingh, Sitakunda, Cox's Bazar, and Golapganj under Sylhet are supposed to be held in May this ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008The high-profile prisoners who have violated the jail code using cellphone will be allowed visit by their relatives only once a month instead of a week.Jail authorities took the punitive decision yesterday as they found the VIP prisoners violating the code by several means.Meanwhile, four more former BNP lawmakers and an ex-Jamaat MP were shifted from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) to different jails for using cellphone and doing other offences.Besides, the authorities are also investigating involvement of jail guards, police personnel and attendants in this regard.Jail sources said Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, political adviser to former prime minister Khaleda ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 In the wake of widespread criticism over the slow progress of investigation of cases against many high-profile corruption suspects, the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) is trying to speed up legal procedures.The ACC yesterday said the charge sheet in a case filed against Tarique Rahman in connection with illegally amassing wealth could be submitted in a week. The case was filed on September 26 last year.Even though the military-backed caretaker government after assuming power last year talked about widespread allegations of corruption by BNP-led four-party-alliance government leaders, no significant progress was made in prosecuting former prime minister and BNP chief ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) yesterday rescheduled its election for April 28 and 29 following negotiations between lawyer leaders and the government ending a stalemate over the balloting originally slated for yesterday and today.The SCBA leaders, candidates for the association's presidency, head of the bar election commission, attorney general and law adviser at a meeting earlier signed a consensus declaration to that end.The association's outgoing president, barrister Amir Ul Islam, told The Daily Star that participants at the meeting decided to carry over the date to the last week of April on requests from the government side.Complications rose after ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008The government should immediately start open market sale (OMS) of foodstuff for factory workers and ensure affordable food for people of low-income group, said Regulatory Reform Commission (RRC) Chairman Akbar Ali Khan.The former adviser to caretaker government said since rationing system would take some time to introduce, the government should immediately begin OMS at factories to mitigate the effects of price hike of essentials on them.Speaking at a roundtable titled Poverty Elimination and Social Security of Labour, Akbar said the government should fix the minimum wage for workers at Tk 3,000, which is now Tk 1,650, so that they ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 25th, 2008Amid a slow rate of Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation, the National Economic Council (NEC) yesterday approved the revised ADP budget of Tk 22,500 crore for the current fiscal year.Thirty-five percent of the revised ADP budget is locally funded while the rest is funded by foreign resources.The original ADP for the fiscal year 2008 was Tk 26,500 crore. The government cut funds mainly from power, health, education, agriculture and transport sectors, constituting 66 percent of the total reduction.Planning ministry officials said contributions of domestic resources in the ADP were higher in the last few years' budgets but this ...
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