Archive for April 13th, 2008
Sunday, April 13th, 2008More than 50 people including 27 law enforcers were injured yesterday, with four of them having shotgun wounds, in yet another series of clashes between several thousand garment industry workers and police at Fatullah of Narayanganj near the capital.The three-hour clash, that ensued after police had tried to refrain a group of garment workers from demonstrating for a salary hike adjustment on a par with other garment factories in the area, turned Dhaka-Narayanganj link road at Shibu Market area into a virtual battlefield.Police fired shotguns and charged batons when several thousand demonstrating workers attacked the law enforcers with sticks and ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008In a reversal of a decision Awami League (AL) presidium finally agreed yesterday to sit in a dialogue today with caretaker government advisers, without a formal invitation.Earlier on Wednesday, the highest policy making body of the party however had decided not to talk to the government without a formal invitation.Sources said Commerce Adviser Hossain ZIllur Rahman sent an SMS to AL Acting President Zillur Rahman inviting him to an unofficial talk today at 5:30pm in the state guesthouse Padma.On AL's position about the disputed formal invitation, acting general secretary of the party Syed Ashraful Islam said in the ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008The government has no plan to go for the masterminds of recent violence in the name of protesting "anti-Islam" elements in the women development policy but is going to take stern action against the violators of the state of emergency.The street demonstrations and violence by Islamist bigots have "embarrassed" the government. But it does not want to take a hardline stance and arrest the masterminds "since it's a sensitive issue" involving religion and the national mosque, said a high level source in the government yesterday.While the government is in a dilemma, Mufti Mohammad Nuruddin, acting Khatib of Baitul Mukarram National ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008With no practical move to improve gas supplies to power plants, the load-shedding situation continues to worsen as the dry scorching heat drive people to use more electricity at homes and offices.The officially estimated power demand yesterday was 4,500 megawatts (MW) against a generation of around 3,500MW. Around 800MW power could not be generated due to short supply of gas to many power plants.Power Development Board (PDB) sources said while the official power demand was just 4,500MW, the unofficial demand was hovering around 5,900MW.A top official of the power ministry, however, told The Daily Star yesterday that the ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008A billion dollar 'multi-donor trust fund' for Bangladesh is on the cards to finance long-term climate change mitigation and adaptation in the public and private sector.The national 'trust' would pool money obtained from different national and multilateral climate-change funds and be managed by a 'board of trustees'. But the scale and scopes are currently under discussion, according to government and donor sources.The government and donor officials close to the process say the fund is likely to be around $1 billion as it would finance long-term climate change adaptation plans in sectors varied from education and health to agriculture."The fund has ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008Newspaper owners yesterday requested Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed to waive the existing 15 percent VAT on newsprint in the wake of unusual price hike of printing paper on the international market.They also requested a fourfold increase in rate for government advertisement as they said the existing rate has not been increased for last 20 years now.The present rate for government advertisement per column-inch is Tk 208.An eight-member delegation of Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (Noab) and Bangladesh Sangbadpatra Parishad (BSP) called on the chief adviser at his office.The delegation thanked the chief adviser for waiving import duty on newsprint in ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008Two separate cases were filed yesterday against around 11,000 unidentified Islamist activists for Friday's violence and vandalism in the Baitul Mukarram area in the capital and Hathazari Police Station in Chittagong.Out of the accused, only 17 Islamists were identified and arrested for their involvement in the violence in Dhaka. As they were produced before a Dhaka court yesterday, the court ordered to send them to Dhaka Central Jail custody.However, no one has yet been arrested in connection with the Chittagong case.Meanwhile, one of the agitating Islamist organisations, Islami Shashontantra Andolon (ISA), yesterday issued a five-day ultimatum to the ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008Former agriculture minister Motia Chowdhury yesterday waited in the queue for nearly five hours to buy rice from an Open Market Sale (OMS) outlet in the city, only to return empty-handed.She joined the queue at 8:00am at Kadamtala OMS outlet at South Basabo and waited there till 12:30pm."But, like several hundred low-and middle-income people, I did not get rice. The sellers told us that they had run out of stock," she told reporters at noon.Motia, an Awami League presidium member, said she now knows that the government has taken to "falsehood" about the availability of rice for the poor."The ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008Khandaker Delwar Hossain, the chairperson-appointed secretary general of BNP, yesterday made a call for unity in the party, saying that the party would soon announce programmes to free its chairperson Khaleda Zia.Meanwhile, Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, the rival acting secretary general of pro-Saifur faction of the party, yesterday said the Election Commission (EC) has recognised him as the lawful secretary general of the party and he would seek to visit detained Chairperson Khaleda after receiving letter for dialogue from the EC.However Delwar, while speaking with reporters following a meeting with the recently elected delegates of Barisal Bar Association, dismissed ...
(read more) Sunday, April 13th, 2008India and Bangladesh yesterday signed an agreement to make joint efforts to tackle cross-border crimes like arms smuggling and trafficking of women and children by sharing timely and actionable information."The agreement will help to end any suspicion and distrust prevailing on ground level," Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Director General Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed told reporters after signing the agreement with the DG of the Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) A K Mitra.The BDR and BSF wrapped up their biennial five-day conference in New Delhi agreeing to jointly deal with trafficking of women and children, smuggling of arms and counterfeit currency through ...
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