Archive for July 13th, 2008
Sunday, July 13th, 2008Internal tussles over nomination for mayoral candidates in city corporation polls still trouble the Awami League (AL) and BNP although the deadline to withdraw nominations ends today.There is at least one candidate from both AL-led 14-party and BNP-led four-party for the four city corporation polls scheduled for August 4. However, the BNP-led four-party alliance has formally boycotted the polls while AL-led 14-party combine has announced their candidates.The AL-led coalition has unanimously nominated Talukder Abdul Khaleque for Khulna City Corporation (KCC), Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran for Sylhet City Corporation (SCC), Shawkat Hossain Hiron for Barisal City Corporation (BCC) and Fazle Hossain ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008After around 38 hours, passenger vessels resumed operations yesterday as water transport workers partially called off their countrywide strike demanding higher wages.Following meetings with Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), labour ministry and representatives of vessel owners, the striking workers decided to allow launches and other passenger carriers to run while keeping the freight vessels still off the routes.In line with the decision, launches, steamers and large boats got back to service at 3:00pm, ending sufferings of the passengers who had been stranded at different terminals for hours.The announcement of partial adjournment came on assurance from the government of a ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008It was raining for two days. The weather was not so bearable for fifty-seven-year old Lalmeher Begum of Southkhali who is an asthmatic patient. On the first day, all stuffs she had in her torn tent got soaked. The next day the floor submerged.Lalmeher was taking preparations to move elsewhere, may be to the nearby school building when she heard someone from Dhaka was talking with people and writing their names. With high hopes, she rushed to that tea stall."Are you writing names?" Lalmeher, the skinny, old woman, wearing a wet torn saree, asked breathlessly. "Please jot my name on ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008 An assault on a freedom fighter by some operatives of Jamaat-e-Isalmi and its students' wing Shibir on Friday in the capital sparked widespread condemnations and protests across the country yesterday.The operatives of the political organisations, well documented as major anti-liberation forces in the country, dragged and kicked veteran freedom fighter, Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman, as he demanded immediate trial and execution of war criminals while speaking to the news crew of a private TV channel outside the venue of a representatives' meeting of a Jamaat backed organisation ironically named 'Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad' or the National Forum of Freedom Fighters.Mohammad Ali ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008The country has no alternative to using science education as a tool for improving the living standards of the people and for dealing with the economic and environmental challenges it faces, experts said.Alarmed at the decline of the quality of science education and student enrolment for it, key scientists and educationists of the country yesterday stressed the need for sensitising the government to allocating a larger budget for the sector to enhance teachers' capacities and update the curricula.Science textbooks need to be simplified, teachers' salaries need to be raised, and science graduates need to be motivated to become teachers, said ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008The government yesterday approved three proposals for purchasing wheat and fertiliser at a cost of Tk 956 crore.The proposals were approved at a meeting of the advisers' committee on public purchase at the planning ministry with Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam in the chair.A total of 100,000 tonnes of wheat will be purchased at a cost of $419 per tonne through international tender. It would require about Tk 290 crore to purchase the wheat, cabinet division sources said.“The price of wheat on the international market has been low for the last six to seven months.” Azizul told reporters after ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury yesterday made an unequivocal and firm resolve regarding the question of transit to India, saying the foreign ministry will never agree to any arrangement which is contrary to Bangladesh's sovereign national interest.Responding to some reports related to transit to India, he said, “I wish to announce unequivocally and firmly that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will never, under any circumstances, agree to any arrangement that is contrary to our sovereign national interest.”“We are prepared to negotiate with any country on any subject, but no solution can ever be imposed on us without our consent,” ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan (BKA) yesterday called upon the interim government to make women ineligible for becoming head of the government or the state."We have told the government to take measures so that men hold the top executive positions and no woman assumes the responsibility of head of state or government," said BKA Secretary General Muhammad Zafrullah Khan in a joint press briefing following the party's dialogue with the panel of advisers led by Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.The BKA during the dialogue also suggested reintroducing presidential form of government in the country and mentioning religion of voters on voter identity cards ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008Home Affairs Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin yesterday said the law and order situation is now under control, though it had deteriorated a little bit.“I think there is no need of conducting special drive ahead of the national election. Regular drive to arrest the listed criminals will continue as a routine work,” he said.His remarks came while talking to the media after a closed-door meeting on law and order with high officials of police and district administration at local Circuit House.About the strike by river transport workers, he said the government is trying to solve the problem.Replying to a ...
(read more) Sunday, July 13th, 2008Vested interests using the banner of the liberation war are plotting to create a civil war-like situation at a time when people are waiting for transition to democracy through a general election, Awami League leader Amir Hossain Amu yesterday said.He pointed finger at a meeting of the Jamaat-backed so-called "Jatiya Mutkijoddha Parishad" Friday where Shibir cadres swooped on a liberation war veteran as he demanded punishment to those Jamaat men who had been al-Badr and Peace Committee members during the liberation war.Amu was speaking at a discussion on Liberation War of Bangladesh: Role of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, organised by ...
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