Archive for October 19th, 2009
Monday, October 19th, 2009Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the administration to free rivers, canals and wetlands from the grabbers' clutches and take legal actions no matter how influential the encroachers are.Addressing secretaries of different ministries, she also said, “Once the waterbodies are recovered, stay vigilant so the grabbers cannot reoccupy those.”She observed that land-grabbing was encouraged in the past because the authorities took no action against the offenders.“The narrowing of rivers, canals and beels not only hampers the livelihood of the people but also degrade the environment.”The prime minister instructed the officials to bring legal proceedings against the industries that dump waste ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009A raging fire in the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) warehouse in Tejgaon industrial area of the capital yesterday burnt a large stockpile of textbooks and printing materials.Firefighters backed by army engineers and navy divers had to struggle all through the day to make a headway into the burning warehouse.The fire that broke out around 7:15 in the morning was still on at the time of filing this report at 8:15pm.The cause of the fire and the extent of the damage could not be ascertained immediately, said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid at 3:50 in the ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court verdict that declared illegal the parliament membership of Maj (retd) Jasim Uddin, who was elected from Bhola-3 constituency on Awami League nomination.Jasim Uddin had participated in the December 29 parliamentary election before completion of five years of his compulsory retirement from the defence service.A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin passed the verdict, dismissing Jasim's appeal against the HC verdict.The court asked the Election Commission to hold a by-election to the constituency.Officials at the Parliament Secretariat said on receiving the copy of the verdict they ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the ninth parliament has apparently been ineffective till now as it did not meet in the last five months to perform its task of ensuring transparency in government expenditure.PAC Chief KH Rashiduzzaman is empowered to convene its meeting but he did not do so during this period. Formed on February 18, PAC met only twice on April 27 and May 25.Members of the 15-strong committee blamed the House body chief for indifference to making it effective, and said in the absence of regular meetings the committee is becoming dysfunctional.They said the committee should ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009A parliamentary standing committee yesterday asked the authorities concerned to scrap lease of about 27,250 acres of land in three hill districts for violating the lease contract given to 545 organisations and individuals.The parliamentary standing committee on Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) affairs ministry also asked the ministry officials to ensure accountability and transparency of non-government organisations working in the hill areas."The committee in its meeting asked the deputy commissioner of Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati to take necessary steps to cancel lease of the hill lands allocated to as many as 545 individuals and organisations," Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing, ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009The chaos over BNP's ongoing reorganisation process got on its chairperson's nerves, as the party has not yet been able to hold councils across the country, said insiders.A report on the party's reorganisation process submitted to the chairperson last week showed that the party even could not complete formation of convening committees for upazila units by now.Formation of the convening committees from district to ward levels of union parishad is very crucial as these committees were supposed to organise councils to form full-fledged committees by November 25.Party's central office sources said the party has about 1,23,545 organisational ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009Barrister Abdullah-al Mamun, counsel for convicts Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin in Bangabandhu murder case, yesterday claimed before the Supreme Court that Bazlul was innocent and had not been involved in the killings of Bangabandhu and his family members.Mamun quoted the statement of prosecution witness Abdul Quddus that Bazlul took Bangabandhu's body to the airport after killing him. Besides, he had earlier gone to Mohammadpur to buy ten coffins and also took the rest nine bodies to Banani graveyard, said the counsel.It is not humanly possible to do so many tasks in cool head after committing murders because ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009A suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of the elite Revolutionary Guards in southeastern Iran yesterday, killing at least 30 people including top commanders and tribal leaders, a senior official said.The attack took place in the city of Pisheen near the border with Pakistan in restive Sistan-Baluchestan province, which hosts a substantial Sunni population, local news agencies said.Iran's parliament speaker said the United States was behind the attack while the Guards accused Western powers of carrying out the assault, the deadliest against them since a bombing in February 2007 in the same province killed 13 people."Based on the ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday submitted final report clearing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and three others of charges in a corruption case saying the charge of misuse of power against them could not be proved.The case was filed accusing them of embezzling Tk 41.84 lakh from a project to construct a complex at the grave of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Tungipara in Gopalganj.ACC Deputy Director Mohammad Moniruzzaman Khan, also investigation officer in the case, submitted the final report to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court citing no instance of misuse of power by any of the accused.Earlier, the government ...
(read more) Monday, October 19th, 2009The High Court (HC) yesterday granted anticipatory bail for three months to former Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil MP in a tax evasion case.The HC bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Rais Uddin also issued a rule upon the government to explain why Jalil should not be granted regular bail in the case.The AL leader yesterday appeared before the HC bench and filed a petition with the court for bail in this case. Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud stood for him.Earlier on October 15, the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka issued an arrest warrant ...
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