Archive for January 15th, 2009
Thursday, January 15th, 2009The government yesterday slashed the prices of non-urea fertilisers to almost half per kilogram to help farmers during the country's biggest crop season, Boro.From now, farmers will be able to buy 1kg TSP (triple super phosphate) at Tk 40, MoP (muriate of potash) at Tk 35 and DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) at Tk 45 from dealers and their agents at the union parishad level.Previously TSP cost Tk 75-80 a kg, MoP Tk 65-75 and DAP Tk 80-85.Farmers, however, will have to buy urea at the previous price of Tk 12 a kg.The move is meant to bring down the prices of ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009The reduction in fertiliser price will decrease the present production cost of rice by Tk 2.5 a kilogram but the government has to take prompt actions for the farmers to reap the benefit of its move.The government has sharply reduced the price of non-urea fertilisers but the rice price depends on many factors including its production, distribution of fertiliser and diesel price, said experts.The price of TSP (triple super phosphate) has been reduced to Tk 40 from Tk 75-80 a kg, MoP (muriate of potash) to Tk 35 from Tk 69-70 and DAP (diammonium phosphate) to Tk 45 ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009The government has decided to take legal actions against Siemens Bangladesh Ltd, following the international scandal of bribery and money laundering involving Germany based industrial giant Siemens, and Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia.The actions might include blacklisting of Siemens Bangaladesh Ltd, barring it from doing business in the country.But it is still not clear whether similar actions are also warranted against Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), the new global joint telecoms division of Siemens and Finland based mobile phone manufacturing giant Nokia.In July 2008, NSN was awarded a contract for expanding the ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009Fighting has intensified in the Gaza Strip between Israeli troops and Palestinians yesterday as al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called for a holy war against Israel in revenge for its deadly offensive.In his first recorded statement in eight months, the al-Qaeda chief appealed for jihad to stop Israel's "aggression against Gaza", a US-based monitoring service said on Wednesday.In the 22-minute audio recording entitled "A Call for Jihad to Stop Aggression Against Gaza," Bin Laden called for a holy war to restore "Jerusalem and Palestine," IntelCentre said.The al-Qaeda leader slammed Arab and Islamic governments for their response to the Israeli onslaught ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday said the government will soon press for appointing two new judges to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to expedite the trial of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassination case.Appointment of the judges will be done as per recommendations of the Supreme Judicial Commission, he told newspersons at his Secretariat office.The minister said the government after the appointment will ask the attorney general to pray to the chief justice to form a bench of the apex court to hear the appeals in the case.Earlier on October 16 last year, the Supreme ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009The Awami League chief's directives to grassroots leaders of the party to pick a single candidate for the post of chairman in the upcoming election to upazila parishads appears to have fallen flat with rival contestants from the party still in the polls race in many upazilas.Supporters of many candidates, who were not picked by grassroots level party committees, are clashing with supporters of party-backed candidates in many areas, let alone extending support to them.In the first week of this month, AL President Sheikh Hasina sent directives to the president and general secretary of the party's district units to put ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009The lawmakers-elect of the BNP and its allies Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party will be sworn in this afternoon by Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar.Party sources said after oath taking, the BNP's parliamentary party will hold a meeting to elect the leader and deputy leader of the opposition in parliament.The BNP might also pick its nominee for the post of deputy speaker of parliament as the ruling party has announced to elect the deputy speaker from the opposition.Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar called on BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office late last night. They talked for about an hour and discussed several ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009Bangladesh has strongly condemned the unrelenting indiscriminate Israeli attacks on Gaza that left nearly a thousand people dead.“We are appalled by the scale of devastation and the deaths of innocent Palestinians, including women and children, in the attacks. Bangladesh is deeply concerned at the unabated violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by the Israeli occupation forces,” said a foreign ministry statement yesterday.“It is disconcerting to see that even the humanitarian workers are being killed by the Israeli attackers,” the release said, adding that entry of the ICRC, an international humanitarian organisation, has also been ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009The government is mulling over formation of a permanent pay commission for the public servants to adjust their income to inflation.Finance Minister AMA Muhith disclosed it to reporters yesterday after a meeting with a five-member delegation led by Pay Commission Chairman M Mustafizur Rahman at the minister's office.The issue of forming a permanent pay commission is being considered as per Awami League's election pledge, Muhith said, adding problems arise as the pay scales are changed after every five or seven years.In the budget for the current fiscal year, the immediate past caretaker government announced a pay scale and ...
(read more) Thursday, January 15th, 2009Bangladeshi expatriates have started experiencing job cuts in Singapore due to slowdown in businesses, especially in the shipping and construction sectors, following the global financial meltdown."We've received information from the Bangladesh mission in Singapore that a good number of our workers are jobless because of delay or slowdown in shipping sector," Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Abdul Matin Chowdhury told The Daily Star.He however did not give any specific number of the workers losing jobs.His statement was evident in The Straits Times, a Singaporean daily, which reported yesterday at least 55 Bangladeshis employed by construction sub-contractor Tunnel & Shaft ...
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