Archive for April 30th, 2008
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008The Election Commission (EC) yesterday unveiled a draft list of parliamentary seats with their boundaries redrawn district-wise.Of the 300 constituencies, 133 have seen changes in boundaries and the rest remained intact.Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda presented the list of redefined electoral districts at a press conference at the EC Secretariat's conference room.According to the catalogue, seats representing 17 districts in parliament have either increased or decreased.After massive delineation of boundaries, seven new seats have been added to Dhaka district. Metropolitan areas with high density of population won all the seven additions.The number of constituencies ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008Almost stationary in the Bay, cyclone Nargis has gathered more strength, intensifying into a "severe cyclonic storm", and is moving north very slowly. It may hit the Bangladesh-Myanmar coast.A Met Office special bulletin said yesterday evening that Nargis was lying over west central Bay and adjoining southwest Bay 1,155km from Chittagong coast, 1090km away from Cox's Bazar and 1,030km from Mongla coast with minimum sustained wind speed between 90kmph and 120kmph within the 54km radius of its centre.The first cyclonic storm since the deadly Sidr, Nargis is likely to intensify further."It is too early to comment about when and where ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008When Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Chief Jacques Diouf recently blamed the World Bank and the IMF policies for dismantling systems to protect farmers, he introduced a new chapter to the ongoing debate on rice crisis.While it is true that the donor-led policies led to the rice production revolution, it is equally true that their later policy changes left governments like that of Bangladesh vulnerable to food shocks and incapable of acting fast in such a situation.When the Green Revolution was introduced in late 1960s, a magic thing happened. Farmers found their fields yielding as much as three times ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008The government is going to increase the salaries of its employees by around 20 percent in the next fiscal year considering the price hike of essentials.It will also raise the funds for the safety net programmes for the poor to Tk 9,000 crore. The revised budget of the current fiscal year allocated around Tk 4,000 for this purpose.However, officials said it is not yet certain whether the increase will be on the gross or the basic salary of the public servants."The preliminary estimation shows that the government will have to spend Tk 3,210 crore in addition to its current ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday ordered a top level task force to take on the global crisis caused by rising food prices and urged key producer nations to end export bans.The UN chief said the immediate priority must be to "feed the hungry" and called for urgent funding for the World Food Programme.Ban said after a meeting of the heads of 27 key international agencies that the new task force would be led by the UN's top humanitarian official, deputy under-secretary John Holmes.Ban urged countries such as Brazil and Egypt to drop export restrictions on certain foods and commodities, ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008The five advisers who wrapped up their pre-dialogue talks with political parties, business community and civil society on Monday will submit their report to the chief adviser today.The informal talks were held in the run up to formal dialogue between the caretaker government and political parties.The advisers are now preparing the report containing their recommendations.“As you know, the pre-dialogue talks ended yesterday (Monday). We are now holding meetings to prepare a synthesis of the topics that came up during the pre-dialogue talks,” Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said.Talking to reporters following a meeting with three other advisers yesterday ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008The government is thinking about extending the time for the universal birth registration programme for the third time as only 2.80 crore people received their birth certificates since July 3, 2006.The programme was supposed to complete registering every one in Bangladesh by the end of this year.Over 11 crore people are yet to receive their birth certificates and it is not possible for the government to reach and gather data of so many people by December this year, said sources in the LGRD ministry which deals with the birth registration programme.Using the national ID cards as birth certificates for people ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008More than 50 people including students, teachers and police were injured in a three-hour clash between Dhaka College students and the law enforcers on and around the campus yesterday.Earlier, the students got infuriated after some street hawkers and shopkeepers had handed over a college student to police after a beating, when he and some of his college mates were beating a human hauler driver. The students chased and caught the driver at Nilkhet intersection after he had refused to pick them up from across the campus, as there is no stoppage for the public transportation.Later, the students returned to their ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008With Boro harvest having started across the country, marginal farmers in northern districts who borrowed money to meet high production cost are now forced to sell rice to moneylenders and hoarders at prices cheaper than the government rate.While borrowing money, these small farmers had to sell a portion of their Boro harvest to the moneylenders and hoarders in advance. In some cases, part of the harvest is even considered as interest against their loans.The government has set Tk 720 as the price for procuring a maund of Boro paddy but many farmers were found selling their harvest at as low ...
(read more) Wednesday, April 30th, 2008An international organisation focussed on preventing deadly conflicts in a report said that a reformed, secular Awami League and BNP that respect the democratic rules, both internally and externally, is the best hope for democracy in Bangladesh and the best defence against religious extremism.Brussels-based International Crisis Group in its report on Bangladesh urged the caretaker government along with the international community to take credible steps ahead of the December 2008 general elections to restore democracy in Bangladesh."If the government cannot bring the parties on board, it would carry the immediate risk of violent clashes and also increase the ...
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