Archive for July 11th, 2009
Saturday, July 11th, 2009Around half of the NGOs registered with the Ministry of Social Welfare remain inactive for long and a few of them are even regularly taking funds from the government, reveals a recent finding.The ministry makes the finding digging into the allegations against several NGOs of having links with militants.A staggering 23,280 of the 50,997 registered NGOs, which do not get foreign funds but receive government allocation, have so far become "signboard NGOs" and have no recent activities.Ministry officials say these "signboard NGOs" did not submit their annual reports and financial records to the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) as per ...
(read more) Saturday, July 11th, 2009Ripe jackfruit, pineapple, papaya or mango--all fruits flooding the city markets look great but lack usual scent and taste as traders use chemical compounds to ripen them artificially, posing a serious health risk to the consumers.Sources said fruit growers and traders are using different harmful chemicals including growth hormone, insecticides and other chemicals like carbide and formaline in the fruits from the orchard to market for making quick cash.Carbide, a chemical compound used for manufacturing dry cell batteries, is now being used in mango, banana and papaya for bringing colour.“A couple of days ago, my husband bought a jackfruit which ...
(read more) Saturday, July 11th, 2009The Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of four districts, who were asked by the High Court (HC) on June 25 to take measures to protect the rivers under their jurisdiction, are now 'doing some home work' in this regard on the basis of newspaper reports as none of them received the court order officially until writing of this report yesterday afternoon.The DCs of Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Munshiganj said they cannot start the process of demarcating the rivers until they get the HC order officially.“I have nonetheless started doing some homework which includes finding the location of the rivers as recorded in ...
(read more) Saturday, July 11th, 2009Confusions have arisen regarding the date for the visit to the Tipaimukh dam site in India by a special committee of lawmakers and experts."We have set July 15 as a tentative date for the visit. But the schedule could be delayed by one week for Nam summit," Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen yesterday told The Daily Star over telephone.He also said the date for visiting Tipaimukh will be confirmed after Awami League lawmaker Abdur Razzak, chairman of the nine-member committee, returns from his visit to London.On July 6, Ramesh had told journalists at his secretariat office that the committee ...
(read more) Saturday, July 11th, 2009Former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar and chief whip Khandaker Delwar Hossain had requested Khaleda Zia, then the prime minister, to relax the medical expenses rules and grant them Tk 37.86 lakh.In their applications to the PM in 2006, both cited “inability” to bear the medical costs. But Khaleda did not buy that and declined to stretch the rules, show documents preserved at the parliament secretariat.The two were in fact millionaires as per the wealth statements they submitted before the ninth parliamentary election.Turned down by the Prime Minister's Office, Sircar drew Tk 27.86 lakh as medical bill of his own account. In ...
(read more) Saturday, July 11th, 2009Traditional birth control strategy coupled with slow implementation of various related programmes by the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) has failed to control birth rate in the country.The government is yet to achieve the target of lowering the birth rate to 2.2 per cent despite its 29-year effort.According to a study of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics last year, the total population of the country is now 14.45 crore and the growth rate is 1.39 per cent. If the present rate continues, the population will be doubled within next 50 years.Sources in the DGFP says, around 55 per cent of ...
(read more) Saturday, July 11th, 2009The Russian government has invited Bangladesh to send a delegation to visit its nuclear power projects and sign deals."We have received an invitation recently from the Russian government to visit its different projects. They proposed the visit to be made at the end of the current month," a top official of the ICT ministry told UNB.According to the official, Bangladesh government is now taking preparation to send a team in response to the offer.The state minister for science and ICT himself might lead the delegation on the important mission, he said.As per the plan, during the visit, an agreement will ...
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