Archive for October 15th, 2008
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008With the completion of the electoral roll with photograph, Bangladesh is now also the proud owner of the world's largest electronic database of 8.11 crore voters.A delegation of Bangladesh Army, which assisted the Election Commission (EC) in implementing the voter list project, handed over the printed electoral roll to EC yesterday, wrapping up the over-one-year-long mammoth task.It will soon hand over to EC the electronic database, which is higher than that of France's 7.3 crore voters.The entries have been checked and re-checked in such a way that strictly prevented duplication, causing a decrease by 1.5 crore voters in the new ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008The much-talked about dialogue between the caretaker government and BNP yesterday ended inconclusively with both sides agreeing to hold further talks to resolve differences on contentious issues like lifting of the state of emergency.There was however no disagreeing about the needs for a free and fair election on schedule, a level playing field for all parties and post-election stability.Coming out of the three-hour long discussions at the Chief Adviser's Office, BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain told reporters, “We have had lengthy discussions on elections, Representation of the People Order (RPO), and other issues. We made it clear that the ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008Acute shortage of quality seeds costs the farmers 15-20 percent in jute production every year while unavailability of enough water for the jute plant to rot lowers the quality of the fibre.The government again does not have any workable plan to reach seeds to the farmers.Every year around 4,000 tonnes of seed are required to grow jute on about five lakh hectares of land, but the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) can produce only 700-1,000 tonnes annually. Farmers add to the tally with 500-700 tonnes.Pointing to inefficiency in marketing, a high BADC official said his department grew 750 ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008Agriculturists and farmers of the northern districts are finally seeing some hope of defeating monga, a recurrent near famine situation with wholesale unemployment, as harvest of the newly developed early harvestable rice varieties, cultivated in greater Rangpur this aman season, has already begun.Immediately after harvesting the new varieties BRRI Dhan--33, BINA Dhan--7 and BU Dhan--1 through October and the first quarter of November, farmers will be able to go for early cultivation of vegetables and robi crops, and then on to boro rice.Success of the new varieties of rice opens the door for turning arable lands into multi-crop ones, maintaining ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008Agriculturists and farmers of the northern districts are finally seeing some hope of defeating monga, a recurrent near famine situation with wholesale unemployment, as harvest of the newly developed early harvestable rice varieties, cultivated in greater Rangpur this aman season, has already begun.Immediately after harvesting the new varieties BRRI Dhan--33, BINA Dhan--7 and BU Dhan--1 through October and the first quarter of November, farmers will be able to go for early cultivation of vegetables and robi crops, and then on to boro rice.Success of the new varieties of rice opens the door for turning arable lands into multi-crop ones, maintaining ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008A month after the milk scandal in China, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) is still unable to confirm or deny the presence of industrial chemical melamine in formulas available in the market.The BSTI authorities say that they are yet to receive the test results of milk powder from the chemistry department of Dhaka University.Meanwhile, parents are panicked and worried about their children as they feed them formulas.Different media published reports last month that formulas produced in China contained melamine that led to the death of four babies in China and sickened more than 54,000 others with ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008A High Court (HC) bench yesterday felt embarrassed to entertain a petition filed by former prime minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia for quashing the proceedings against her in Barapukuria coal mine graft case.The HC bench comprising Justice Syed AB Mahmudul Huq and Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury referred the matter to Chief Justice (CJ) MM Ruhul Amin for a decision.Barrister Rafique-ul Huq, principal counsel for Khaleda, told newsmen that Justice Moyeenul felt embarrassed to entertain her quashment petition. "We will pray to the chief justice tomorrow (today) to constitute another bench of the HC for hearing it," he said.He ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008The High Court yesterday deferred until October 19 the hearing on two writ petitions filed by Awami League President Sheikh Hasina for quashing the proceedings of Niko and barge-mounted power plant corruption cases against her.An HC bench comprising Justice Sheikh Rezowan Ali and Justice Md Rais Uddin deferred the hearing as two government appeals against the HC orders staying the proceedings of the two corruption cases remain pending with the Supreme Court.The HC bench, which was set to hold the final hearing on the petitions yesterday, asked the government to dispose of the appeals at the Supreme Court by ...
(read more) Wednesday, October 15th, 2008Awami League (AL) submits it application for registration with the Election Commission (EC) today with a renewed call on EC to withdraw its authority to cancel candidatures in parliamentary polls on grounds of violation of electoral laws.Jatiya Party will also submit its application for registration to the EC today.AL's decision for registration came at a meeting of its party presidium -- its highest policy-making body -- which passed the amendments approved by the party's Central Working Committee a day before.The meeting was held with AL's acting president Zillur Rahman in the chair at his Gulshan residence.AL amended ...
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