Archive for July 12th, 2008
Saturday, July 12th, 2008The inland water transport sector of the country virtually came to a grinding halt yesterday leaving thousands of passengers and goods stranded, as water transport workers went on a countrywide strike demanding a salary hike.No launch, steamer or cargo vessel has been operating since Thursday midnight, with the exceptions of a few trawlers and small boats.Since the strike went into effect on Thursday midnight, movement of water transports has remained suspended on all major river routes including in the coastal districts of Chandpur, Barisal, Bhola and Patuakhali.Thousands of passengers have been stranded at lunch terminals, including at the country's ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008The dialogue between the government and political parties seems likely to drag on with both sides declining to budge on issues like withdrawal of the state of emergency and parliamentary polls.While its talks with Awami League (AL) last week did not produce any results, the caretaker administration has yet to succeed in efforts to get parties like BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami to join the dialogue.BNP and Jamaat see unconditional release of Khaleda Zia and Matiur Rahman Nizami as a condition for their joining any discussions with the government.Education Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman is however hopeful they would be able to bring ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008Awami League's (AL) top leadership is still bogged down over its mayoral nomination for Rajshahi City Corporation polls although 14-party coalition led by the party announced on Thursday that its nominee there is Fazle Hossain Badsha, a politburo member of Workers Party, a component of the coalition.Talking to The Daily Star a number of senior AL leaders yesterday said they want to maintain unity in the 14-party coalition but they do not understand why Badsha has been nominated instead of AL central leader AHM Khairuzzaman Liton who has the entire Rajshahi city AL rallying behind him.Meanwhile in Barisal, ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008The price of green chilli that sharply came down last week amid heavy downpour shot up again on the wholesale market yesterday while onion prices kept going up.Rice prices also increased by Tk 1-2 per kg on the retail market in the last one week. Edible oil prices, meantime, did not register any decrease two days after their prices were fixed.Five kilograms of green chilli that sold for Tk 30 in the morning were sold at Tk 50 a few hours later in the evening yesterday, with wholesalers projecting further spikes in the coming days.Green-chilli price dropped to Tk ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008The National Coordination Committee (NCC) to Combat Serious Crimes has recommended that the state-owned North Bengal Paper Mills be reopened and be handed over to the army to run it properly.According to an industry ministry proposal sent to cabinet division early this month, the NCC recommended: "In order to make the mill productive, it is necessary to hand over the mill to an organisation that is disciplined and neutral. Therefore, it will be rational to handover the mill to the Army for its revival."The NCC to Combat Serious Crimes has recommended that the three major state-owned mills, shut down for ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008Thirty-year-old Morsheda Begum (assumed name) had sold a piece of land and paid Tk 1.2 lakh to Tofazzal Hossain for a job in Saudi Arabia. He sent her to the Gulf nation through a recruiting agency on April 29. Soon after she landed on the airport, she realised she fell victim to fraud."Four to five people took me to an unknown hilly place and gang-raped me. As I tried to resist, they swiped at me and eventually forced me into prostitution."After some days, a customer agreed to listen to my ordeals. He made a phone call to my husband, who ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008A clash between Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) and Islami Chhatra Shibir of Chittagong Medical College (CMC) left around 25 students injured and around 30 dormitory rooms ransacked Thursday night.The activists of the student organisations also torched five rooms belonging to their rivals at the dormitory on Chatteshwary Road causing much damage.The college authorities in a hurriedly called meeting declared the college closed sine die and asked students to vacate the dormitories. However, the CMC Academic Council during a meeting last evening decided to resume classes from July 14 and open the dormitories on July 13.According to sources, a first-year student ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008The number of cases pending investigations in police stations has been brought down to 4,164 from a staggering 35,000 over the last year and a half.With the reduction in the number of pending cases, harassment of people has also been reduced significantly, since case investigators earlier often kept cases pending just to collect bribes from both the complainants and the accused threatening both parties with possible submissions of biased reports.Pending cases had reached the staggering number also due to the police department being bogged down with too many duties simultaneously during partisan governments' regimes, like breaking up hartals, maintaining ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008Scientists have developed a submergence resistant variety of rice that can withstand inundation, compensating for the yearly loss of yields to flash floods.The variety, known as Swarna-Sub 1, holds out great hope for Bangladesh where recurrent floods wreak havoc on the Aman crop.Floods keep around 70 percent flood-prone areas in Bangladesh inundated for one-two weeks on average, while the other areas remain under water for up to one month, said Saiful Hossain, executive engineer at Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Dhaka.Scientists, however, said the new variety developed by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute ...
(read more) Saturday, July 12th, 2008Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday called for strengthening the motivational programmes for workers, landless and floating people, urban slum dwellers and the destitute in char and remote hilly areas to reduce the number of poor people.The Directorate of Family Planning has taken up a good number of motivational programmes in this regard. But it is difficult for it alone to build up public opinion against the backdrop of low literacy rate, unemployment, unawareness, stigma and superstition, said Fakhruddin.The chief adviser was inaugurating a programme at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium, marking the World Population Day 2008.The theme of this year's ...
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