Archive for July 2nd, 2009
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009The main opposition BNP and its key ally in four-party alliance Jamaat-e-Islami remain absent from joining the House proceedings, paying no attention to their electoral pledges made to the people before the December 29 parliamentary election.In their election manifesto, both BNP and Jamaat promised that if voted to power, they will take strong stance including the ones for bringing amendment to the constitution, if required, to bring an end to the pervasive culture of boycotting the parliament sessions.Though the four-party alliance failed to return to power in the polls, they got around 38 percent of the total vote ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009The government doubled security in and around Ashulia yesterday as garment factories resumed production in full swing to end three days of violent labour unrest in the industrial area.Meanwhile, police revealed that Jubo League members joined the labourers and caused most of the damage during the unrest to establish control over the jhoot (garment rejects) business.An additional 4,000 personnel from police, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and armed police battalion watched over the area as garment factories opened their doors to let thousands of workers get back to work.Meanwhile, factory owners were scrambling to fix the damaged factories in order to ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009The all-party parliamentary probe committee yesterday decided to submit its report to the House on corruption by former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, his deputy Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and former chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain on July 7.The probe body found evidence and proofs of the trio's "misappropriation" of Tk. 1.71 crore. They took the money as medical expenses and additional fuel allowances ignoring the law, sources in the committee claimed.In a set of recommendations in the report, the parliamentary body will ask the House to recover the money from Sircar, Akhtar and Delwar and file criminal cases in this connection ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Almost all the 40,000 trucks running throughout the country carry weights more than twice the capacity, causing colossal damage to the roads and bridges.Sources at the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) said the trucks bring about severe traffic congestion, pollution and lead to loss of lives as well.A 'Road master plan study' conducted in 2007 by WSP, a United Kingdom-based consulting firm, says overloaded trucks lead roads to wear and tear before their projected deterioration, costing the country around Tk 300 crore each year in additional maintenance need.According to sources at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), RHD, and Transport ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Titas gas company made a record in revenue collection in 2008-09 fiscal year, exceeding actual sales, because of an improved management and strong drive for revenue collection. The state-owned organisation also achieved a notable drop in systems loss.Breaking its age-old image as a corrupt and irregular organisation, Titas collected Tk 5,248 crore revenue against gas sales of Tk 5,159 crore in the last fiscal year, recovering Tk 89 crore of cumulative arrears from clients.With its vigilance on pilferage strengthened, systems loss also came down to a record low of 0.93 percent.The loss was 3.39 percent in 2007-08 and 5.26 percent ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009The parliamentary standing committee on LGRD ministry yesterday came down heavily on Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) for its failure to provide safe drinking water to city dwellers and dispose of sewage.The parliamentary body observed that Wasa could not address the acute crisis of drinking water and problem of bad sewerage system in many parts of the city.As Wasa placed a report on its activities before the parliamentary body for discussion claiming its effort to serve city dwellers, the committee outright reacted and castigated it for its poor performance to mitigate people's sufferings, officials who attended ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Titas gas company made a record in revenue collection in 2008-09 fiscal year, exceeding actual sales, because of an improved management and strong drive for revenue collection. The state-owned organisation also achieved a notable drop in systems loss.Breaking its age-old image as a corrupt and irregular organisation, Titas collected Tk 5,248 crore revenue against gas sales of Tk 5,159 crore in the last fiscal year, recovering Tk 89 crore of cumulative arrears from clients.With its vigilance on pilferage strengthened, systems loss also came down to a record low of 0.93 percent.The loss was 3.39 percent in 2007-08 and 5.26 percent ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Share trading of 28 laggard companies has been suspended from today for an indefinite period by the stock market regulator.The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through a letter yesterday ordered Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges to suspend share trading of 28 Z category companies until further order, officials said.Companies that do not offer dividends, or hold annual general meetings (AGM) regularly, or are out of operations, fall under the Z category."Twenty eight companies are not holding AGMs, and have not been declaring dividends for a long time, many of them are not even in operation, but their share prices are ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday said Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty might have violated diplomatic norms through his comments on controversial Tipaimukh dam and Bangladeshi water experts."I personally feel he [Indian envoy] might have breached diplomatic rules,” Dipu Moni told journalists in reply to a query at a press conference at the foreign ministry.Foreign diplomats have limitations to making comments but the Indian envoy might have crossed that limit, said Dipu Moni.Pinak at a seminar on June 21 termed the Bangladeshi water experts opposing the Tipaimukh dam project 'so called experts' in presence of the foreign minister.His ...
(read more) Thursday, July 2nd, 2009The Main opposition BNP's central committee is now fraught with difficulties in resolving internal conflicts arisen out of the formation of full-fledged district convening committees.The central body approved only around 20 committees but the deadline for approval of all the district committees ended on Monday. Earlier, more than 50 district committees out of 71 had submitted full-fledged convening committees for approval.The party announced the convening committees of 71 districts on June 9 and asked all of those committees to submit 51-member committees by June 25.Though leaders of some districts submitted several committees for approval leaders and activists ...
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