Archive for May 11th, 2008
Sunday, May 11th, 2008At least 50 people were injured in clashes between students and police for the second day yesterday in Dhaka Polytechnic Institute over a student's death in road accident the night before.The authorities suspended classes for an indefinite period and asked the students to leave dormitories by 2:00pm yesterday.Of those wounded, 20 were students and 26 policemen.The pitched battles began at around 8:45am and continued at regular intervals for about three and a half hours.Police charged baton and fired more than 100 tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the agitating students. The protesters responded with hurling brickbats from ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008The National University (NU) is spending about Tk 1.5 crore a month in salaries and allowances of over 1,000 officials and employees recruited unnecessarily through a fake advertisement in 2004.Before these recruitments, the university used to spend Tk 15 lakh a month in salaries of its 600 officials and employees. Now Tk 2.25 crore is needed to pay salaries of the 1,863 staffs of the university, sources in the NU said.“Yes, many additional staffs were recruited during the tenure of the then vice chancellor (VC) Prof Aftab Ahmed, and for this a huge amount of money is now going ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday said that there is no alternative to raising fuel prices as the price of petroleum products have skyrocketed on the international market.The government, however, is yet to decide as to when and how much the prices would be increased."We will have to go for price adjustment at some point or the other…it can't go on like this for long," Mirza Aziz said while talking to the reporters at the Zia International Airport.He returned home yesterday after attending the annual meetings of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008The government has failed to spend its Asian Development Bank (ADB) project funds in time due to significant delays in procurement and recruitment, according to an ADB study.The finding comes as the ADB plans to lend $2.8 billion between 2009 and 2011 to be given on the basis of performance and fund-absorption capacity.The proposed loan will be subject to regular performance-based assessment and will only finance large infrastructure projects that contribute more directly to 'growth', according to ADB documents.The issue will be discussed in detail at a meeting between the government and ADB today, which will wrap up the assessment ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008For the first time since the present government assumed power, Jamaat-e-Islami finds itself in troubled waters following the Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) approval of charges against its Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami along with 23 others in the Gatco case.Its executive committee, the highest decision-making body, meets today to decide on how to respond to the latest developments, insiders told The Daily Star last night.Jamaat leaders yesterday claimed that none of them including the two former ministers were ever involved in corruption.They said the ACC charge sheet is part of the government plan for depoliticisation and barring some politicians from ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008The injured and ailing general prisoners are denied of essential health services as the country's prisons severely lack doctors and pathological equipment.The VIP prisoners have access to health care both in and outside jails but thousands of their fellow inmates are vulnerable to various chronic diseases because of the sorry state of medical facilities in jails.Of the 67 prisons in the country, excepting the two special jails for Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, only 12 have hospitals with one or no doctor while the rest 55 neither have hospitals nor doctors.These 12 prison hospitals, however, do not have any specialist ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008Garment workers demonstrating for a hike in their wages vandalised offices, machinery and finished products at a sweater factory in the city's Muradpur area yesterday.The workers of BLP Warm Fashion Ltd also swooped on the factory officials injuring two of them seriously.The injured are knitting in-charge Arifur Rahman and knitting supervisor Abdul Khalek.The agitating workers calmed down after the management assured them of meeting their demands including an increase in allowances.Sources said the workers stopped working on Friday afternoon demanding fixing of a proper piece rate of products. They also placed a 19-point demand including an increase in basic ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008Two suspected criminals were beaten to death and two others injured seriously by a mob at Dattapara in Tongi after the gang gunned down a local trader.Police said five criminals sprayed bullets on waste-cloth trader Jahangir Alam, 50, in front of a grocery near his home on Bonomala Road at about 9:45am, killing him on the spot.Jahangir went to the grocery along with his son to buy the child chips.Enraged, locals chased the gang and caught four of them, all aged between 25 and 30. The mob beat up the four criminals leaving them seriously injured.Police ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008Commuters suffered badly on weekend yesterday as hundreds of vehicles got stuck in gridlock for hours in major thoroughfares of the city following re-routing of traffic from Tongi Diversion Road in Tejgaon.Police diverted vehicles at Mohakhali and FDC crossing as the agitating students of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute vandalised passenger buses and clashed with police in front of the institute starting at about 8:45 in the morning to protest the death of a fellow student on Friday.Though the Tongi Diversion Road was opened for vehicular movement at 2:30pm, it took about a couple of hours more for the traffic pressure ...
(read more) Sunday, May 11th, 2008At least 50 people, including two jail guards, were injured in a clash between two groups of prisoners at the district jail yesterday morning.Jail sources said the clash between the under-trial and convicted prisoners broke out on the second floor of the jail at about 8:00am over establishing supremacy.According to the sources, the under-trial prisoners, led by Chhatra Dal cadre Daudul Islam Minar, had been trying for the last few days to establish supremacy over the convicted prisoners. They also had a heated exchange of words on Friday night.Yesterday morning, the two groups attacked each other with firewood taken ...
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