Archive for May 4th, 2008
Sunday, May 4th, 2008The good news is the country at present has no shortage of food grains due to a bumper Boro harvest in progress and a huge import in the recent months.But the bad news is food grains will continue to be pricey in the months to come.According to latest estimates of the food ministry, the demand for rice and wheat in the current fiscal year is 2.60 crore tonnes while their net production is 2.59 crore, meaning deficit is only one lakh tonne.Organisations in private and public sectors have imported 34.73 lakh tonnes of grains including 21 lakh tonnes ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008Security was put on high alert in five northern districts and a combing operation launched in Bagmara upazila of Rajshahi with arrest of 21 people yesterday, a day after killing of a policeman at Taherpur.The five districts are Rajshahi, Natore, Naogaon, Pabna and Sirajganj.Meanwhile, Lal Pataka faction of Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP--Marxist-Leninist) has confessed responsibility of Friday’s attack on police.Primary investigation found the attack, which left a policeman dead, four others injured and five of their firearms looted, was pre-planned, and that the underground operatives have regrouped taking advantage of police indifference to vigilante activities.The local ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008Awami League (AL) yesterday got permission from the authorities to go on its token hunger strike planned earlier for May 5 demanding release of its detained President Sheikh Hasina, albeit for only in its central and Dhanmondi offices in the capital.AL got the permission as it had sought clearance from Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Naim Ahmed.Earlier on April 30, DMP imposed a ban on the AL's announced protest programme terming it illegal under the Emergency Power Rules 2007.AL Acting General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam told reporters last night after a meeting of the party presidium, the ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008The heat was stifling. Sweat rolled down in drops and showed through T-shirts. In the deep Lawachhara rain forest, the workers in bright red overalls and white helmets were busy securing the explosive line. And then there was nothing else to do but wait. The big yellow remote explosion box with a long antennae lay on the ground, occasionally the wireless fixed to it cackling--the man at the other end of a wave recording van somewhere in a far away tea garden called for patience. Somewhere the explosive lines had been disrupted.A good forest is never silent. Lawachhara, one of ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008At least eight people were killed and over 50 injured as nor'westers swept over Natore, Sirajganj, Bagerhat, Rajbari and Jessore districts on Friday night.The storms also damaged huge IRRI-Boro crops and vegetables, several hundreds of semi-pucca and thatched houses and uprooted many trees, officials in district administration and Department of Agricultural Extension said.Our correspondent in Sirajganj reported that three persons were killed in Tarash and Belkuchi upazilas as nor'westers swept over 50 villages of Sadar, Kazipur, Raiganj, Tarash, Belkuchi, Ullapara, Kamarkhanda, Shahzadpur and Chowhali upazilas.Trees fell on Jamila Khatun, 24, wife of Abdur Rashid of Chak-Kushabari village of Tarash, and ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008The government incurred a loss of at least Tk 40 lakh as a few unscrupulous PGCL (Pashchimancal Gas Company Limited) officials laid gas pipelines for two private housing companies free of charge, said sources at PGCL.A preliminary investigation of Petrobangla revealed that the free gas service pipelines were installed for Jannat Rasul Model Town and Snigdha Housing under Bogra Town Gas Supply Project.Admitting the irregularities, Saiful Alam Chowdhury, managing director of PGCL, yesterday told this correspondent over cell phone that he was not certain about the exact amount of loss the government incurred due to this.At least two kilometres of ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008The Election Commission (EC) might bring changes to the proposed code of conduct for parliamentary political parties, making it effective for only the pre-poll period, scrapping the earlier proposal for having the rules effective for an indefinite period of time.According to the proposed code of conduct the pre-poll period has already begun with dissolution of the immediate past parliament on October 27, 2006, which will end with the publication of the ninth parliamentary election's result through an official gazette.It is supposed to become effective from the day after its promulgation, according to the original proposal."The Election Commission will now ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008Law Adviser AF Hassan Ariff yesterday urged the media to arrange grassroots-level public hearings so that people who cannot reach local administration for solutions to their problems or place their demands could be heard.“As a citizen, I would ask you to see whether public hearings can be arranged at grassroots-level for listening to their demands," the adviser said yesterday addressing a seminar titled "Is Amending the Press Council Act, 1974 a Must to Make the Press Council More Effective?".Suggesting such hearings could be organised at local press clubs, Hassan Ariff said he has heard that many people who cannot reach ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008The government incurred a loss of at least Tk 40 lakh as a few unscrupulous PGCL (Pashchimancal Gas Company Limited) officials laid gas pipelines for two private housing companies free of charge, said sources at PGCL.A preliminary investigation of Petrobangla revealed that the free gas service pipelines were installed for Jannat Rasul Model Town and Snigdha Housing under Bogra Town Gas Supply Project.Admitting the irregularities, Saiful Alam Chowdhury, managing director of PGCL, yesterday told this correspondent over cell phone that he was not certain about the exact amount of loss the government incurred due to this.At least two kilometres of ...
(read more) Sunday, May 4th, 2008The PGCL (Pashchimancal Gas Company Limited) has stopped providing any new connections to industrial establishments and CNG refuelling stations in Bogra, Pabna and Sirajganj due to acute shortage of gas.Talking to The Daily Star, Engineer Fazle Alam, deputy manager and in-charge of PGCL Bogra office, admitted that they were forced to stop giving new connections due to short supply of gas.Applications for opening of some 30 CNG refuelling stations in the three districts could not be approved for this reason, he added.Talking to The Daily Star, a senior official of PGCL feared that the gas situation would worsen when the ...
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