The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Rangpur

Different organisations with the help of the armed forces further stepped up their post-flood relief and rehabilitation works in full swing in the worst flood-hit Chilmari Upazila of Kurigram, official sources said.

The recent floods caused a huge damage to crops and properties as the whole upazila of Chilmari on the Brahmaputra remained under floodwaters for days together and normalcy returned there as all of the displaced people already returned home.

The armed forces, district and upazila administrations and NGOs are still continuing huge relief and rehabilitation activities to help the flood-hit people of the area.

The armed forces are distributing seedlings and crop seeds and extending their all-out cooperation to the Administration and other organisations in conducting their relief and rehabilitation works for the flood victims in Chilmari Upazila.

Chilmari Upazila administration already distributed over 51.4 tonnes of rice and Taka 16.27 lakh among the flood victims in the upazila as the process continued and distributed more Taka 5.55 lakh as house building grants with Taka 1,000 to each affected family.

Besides distribution of VGF rice among the flood-hit families, the upazila administration has also started distribution of more Taka 20 lakh allocated from the Chief Advisor's Relief Fund for the affected people of Chilmari Upazila.

Dozens of NGOs and voluntary organisations are continuing their huge activities through distributing relief goods and medicines among the flood affected people of the upazila and they intensified their such drives further in the Upazila.

The relief goods mainly include rice, potato, flatened rice, cash money, salt, soaps, edible oils, utensils, water purifying tablets and medicines, candles, safe drinking waters, life-saving medicines and oral saline, clothes and other necessary essential goods.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF distributed 97.5 tonnes of rice, huge quantities of highly nutritious biscuits with three kilogram to each of the 6,500 affected families of Chilmari Upazila.

Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) and its Char Livelihood Project (CLP) are continuing distribution of huge quantities of relief goods and medicines among the flood victims of Chilmari Upazila.

Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd also continues its relief activities in Chilmari through distributing rice, potato, salt and other necessary goods.

CARE-Bangladesh, Oxfam-GB, Save The Children and several other donor agencies and development partners are also conducting huge relief and rehabilitation activities in the worst hit Chilmari Upazila.

Different organisations including BRAC, Friends Cooperative Society Ltd, Grameen Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, Uddipon, Oporajeyo Bangladesh, Terre Des Homes, Naifa Maruf Foundation, Grameen Phone, business and financial institutions are continuing distribution of relief goods there.

Besides, other organisations including ASA, TMSS, Jibika, Solidarity, Grameen Kallyan, private bodies, business community leaders, affluent people and charitable organisations have further intensified their relief, rehabilitation and medicare service activities in Chilmari.

Side by side with the huge relief distribution and medicare services being conducted for the affected people, massive steps have been taken for rehabilitations in the agriculture sector on emergency basis and renovation and reconstruction of the infrastructure sectors will begin from October in the Upazila.

So far, members of the Armed Forces distributed huge quantity of T- Aman seedlings among the flood-affected marginal farmers of Chilmari upazila and other adjoining affected areas in Kurigram, officials said.

The process of distributing T-Aman seedlings and seeds of other crops by the armed forces, different government departments, NGOs and other organisations are continuing in full swing in Chilmari upazila under the post-flood agro- rehabilitation programme.

The Administrations have begun post-flood agro- rehabilitation activities in the upazila on emergency basis for early fight back of the situation recouping losses by the farmers.

Dr Abdul Mazid, Chief Scientific Officer of Rangpur Regional Research Centre of Bangladesh Rice Research Institute distributed huge quantities of Nabi, BRRI-11 and other varieties T-Aman seedlings among the Chilmari farmers.

The DAE, BARI, BADC and other departments have launched massive agriculture rehabilitation programmes including distribution of T-Aman seedlings and seeds of various crops among the farmers of the flood-hit areas including the worst-hit farmers of Chilmari upazila on priority basis, the sources said.

They said that the newly prepared T-Aman seedlings and other necessary agro-inputs are now being distributed in full swing among the affected farmers of Chilmari to make the T-Aman farming programme successful and recouping the losses by cultivating other crops at the earliest by the farmers there.

Our Correspondent, Barisal

Construction of 8,965 development projects in different sectors involving Taka 737.18 crore were completed in six southern districts under Barisal Division by Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) during the last fiscal year.

The LGED has implemented these projects for overall development of the rural infrastructures of the region along with generation of job opportunities for the rural people under poverty alleviation programmes of the government, Superintending Engineer of LGED Sukumar Chandra Kar told BSS today.

The projects included the construction and reconstruction of roads, bridges, culverts, primary schools and land offices, developments of hats and bazars and construction of Primary Training Institutes (PTI), he said.

Of the total projects, 2,566 were implemented in Barisal district, 728 in Pirojpur district, 1,567 in Jhalakathi district, 1,276 in Bhola district, 450 in Barguna district and 1,195 in Patuakhali district

With a view to building a good road communication network, 654 roads in rural areas in the region were constructed at a cost of Taka 170.95 crore, he said and added in addition 1,760 bridges and culverts were also built at a cost of Taka 148.75 crore.

Construction of 7 land development offices at a cost of Taka 96 lakh and three Primary Training Institutes (PTIs) along 525 Registered Primary Schools at a cost of Taka 10.30 crore were also completed during the period in the region, Sukumar Chandra Kar said.

He said earth work on 1,231 various rural projects for building kutcha roads were also completed at a cost of Taka 11.13 crore in the six districts.

Another report adds: A total of 504 projects were implemented under the Education Engineering Department (EED) in 10 upazilas of the district at a cost of Taka 38.04 crore. Official sources said, the projects included construction, reconstruction and development of colleges, schools and madrasas.

Of the total amount Taka 3.55 crore was spent for the development of 14 government colleges, Taka 20.48 crore for the development of 234 secondary schools, Taka 3.25 crore for the development of 52 madrasas and Taka 5.54 crore for the construction of a model school along with development of 59 government primary and 143 registered primary schools, the sources said.

BSS, Rangpur

Bangladesh Rural Improvement Foundation (BRIF), an NGO being run with technical assistances of the Souhardo programme of CARE-Bangladesh, has been continuing massive poverty alleviation activities in 12 remote poverty-prone char villages of Kawnia upazila, BRIF officials said.

Under the ongoing programme that will continue till 2009 next, a total of 3,376 hardcore poor families of the natural disaster-prone char villages will achieve their complete socio-economic self-reliance through various income-generating activities, they told BSS today.

The remote char villages are: Pollimari, Thakurdas, Char Nazirdaho, Dhumgara and Chhit Nazirdaho under Haragach UP, Biswanath, Gonai and Hoyebot Khan under Tepamadhupur UP, Dhushmara, Panjorbhanga, Araji Hariswar and Gopiodanga under Balapara UP.

Officials said 3,376 families were divided into a number of groups and then engaged in different trades and professions to free them from poverty.

Under the programme that began last fiscal year, they said each of the 317 beneficiary families have been provided with two cows, two goats, each of the 49 families with one rickshaw van and 77 more families were given necessary capital and inputs for running small-scale businesses.

Each of the 151 fishermen families have been provided with necessary trainings on fish farming using the latest technologies, fish fries and fish-feeds and each of the other 125 farmer families were provided with training on the latest technologies for farming maize in char lands and necessary inputs including seeds and cash money.

Officials said 452 families have been provided with necessary trainings on farming of high-valued vegetables round the year using the latest agro-technologies and each of the families were given necessary quality seeds and other inputs.

They said each of the 421 more families have been provided with necessary trainings on vegetable farming, rearing of poultry and goats and fruit farming as well as planting of 'Mollika' variety of mango saplings and saplings of guava, litchi and lemon for converting their houses into ideal ones.

Levels of 20 houses were elevated where over 60 families took shelter along with their belongings and catle during the recent floods and passed the flood period safely.

Each of the 667 hardcore poor families are being provided by BRIF with 12 kg wheat, 1.5 kg edible oils and 0.5 kg pulse per month under the ongoing nutrition programme for the children and mothers in the char villages.

Besides, one trained health worker is working in each of the 12 villages under the programme for creating mass public awareness on health and sanitation related maters among the poor char dwellers.

Each of the other 50 families have been provided with five pieces of rings and one slab that helped the beneficiary families to set up hygienic latrines in their homes.

Discussion sessions with groups of mothers are being conducted in every village in five-day intervals on health care and nutrition issues for mothers and children and pregnant women and new mothers. Two trained nurses were provided with necessary trainings for safe delivery of pregnant women.

Activities of Seven Shishu Bikash Kendras and five Ekota Dals are working in these villages under the education programme of the 3-year term project to educate all people of the char villages and these Ekota Dals have so far stopped four child marriages and prevented one case of repression on women.

The Ekota Dals also organised a dowry-free marriage recently in the char areas that created huge enthusiasm among the char people for arranging dowry-free marriages for their sons and daughters in future, the officials said.

Members of the School Managing Commitees and teachers of five Primary Schools in the project area were provided with necessary trainings for improving the standard of education and running the schools by ensuring atendance of all school-going children and at the same time stopping dropouts.

Besides, some other poverty alleviation activities by self-employments are also being conducted in the 12 char villages to relieve the hardcore poor people from the clutches of abject poverty by 2009, officials said.

Programme Manager of BRIF Souhardo Project of Kawnia Upazila M Abdur Razzaque told BSS that all the char villagers have started geting benefits of the ongoing programme by now and the overall socio-economic situation will be changed there by the year 2009 after completion of the programme.

Our Correspondent, Patuakhali

Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) took new project for Kuakata to make more atractive among the tourists home and abroad. The project involving Tk 700 milion for develop the prime tourists spot with a vast sea beach is about 72 Kilometres in the South from Patuakhali district town. BPC already called a bid, BPC and Kuakata porjatan motel sources said.

A two year project involving Tk 100 milion for infrastructure development includes renovation of two Budda temples, development a youth tourists centre, construction of a motel and purchase of modern transports, Khalid-Bin-Majid, deputy Manager of BPC told.

'Two acres of land already acquisitioned in the area to implement the new project,' he told.

Another project costing Tk 600 milion includes construction of three bridges and a motel in Barisal town is under consideration, sources added.

Project proposal has already been completed. PWD (Public Works Department) will renovate the two Buddha temples. The rest of the work includes construction of a 100-bed motel, 200-bed youth tourists centre and purchasing of two air-conditioned luxury tourist buses by the BPC.

BPC already set up here a motel containing 100 seats named' Kuakata Parjatan Motel' in 1998.

A high official team from BPC visited Kuakata last year to take plan for Kuakata development After completion the work Kuakata will be more atractive to the tourists of home and abroad, Faruquzzaman, manager of Kuakata Porjatan Motel said. Kuakata's scenic beauty atracts foreign and Bangladeshi tourists as the sunrises and the sunsets are shown at the beach.

'Winter and spring are prime periods for tourism. More over every Eid vacation many tourists come to the beach in order to spend their time. Many are arrive here every year to celebrate the Bengali or English New Year.

On the other hand, The 150 year- old traditional Ras Mela, the biggest festival for the Hindu community observed here every full moon of Kartik, a Bengali month and several thousand of people of Hindu community are gathered to celebrate the festival.

BSS, Khagrachari

Guava, one of the popular fruits of Bangladesh, has a bumper production this year in the four upazilas of the district

Agriculture development sources said that 8,780 metric tons of guava were produced this year in the district by cultivating 6,080 hectors of lands. The per acre production of guava is about 16 metric tons.

The sources said the farmers of the upazila have raised about 1,000-guava garden in 30 villages of the district on commercial basis so far.

At least 30 guava cultivators of Ramgarh have been preparing 20 acres of land to plant guava cultivation for next year as inspired by Nur Hossain, another successful guava cultivator of the area, who sold his garden for Taka 1.80 lakh to a Chitagong businessman earning huge profit

Despite bumper production this year, the guava cultivators alleged that they are not geting expected prices for guava because of lack of preservation, marketing and processing facilities. The farmers of the area would be encouraged to make more guava garden If they get good road communication facilities for boosting their business. They demanded of the government to build guava processing industrial units in the area.

Chitagong Correspondent

Detectives and the people of the secret services are learnt to have sniffed political maneuverings behind the violence at Chitagong University campus on Wednesday last

Some of the detectives claimed that they had received confirm information about the political instigation for destabilizing the congenial academic atmosphere in the name of student protest

The secret service people are currently working to figure out the sources of money and the designers of the action plan. They reportedly have become sure of involvement of outsiders at the campus fury.

According to the investigators, a good number of students from two public colleges - Chitagong College and Haji Mohammad Mohsin College - strong hold of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of the anti-liberation Jamaat-e-Islami, reportedly have materialized the centrally engineered plot of violence.

Top officials of the Rapid Action Batalion (RAB) and the police believed that the university students had not solely sponsored the violence especially during the state of emergency.

The investigators said that many of the wounded youths went to seek medication at Chitagong Medical College Hospital had no atachment with Chitagong University. "They were outsiders," the source said.

Sources hinted that a number of teachers of Chitagong University went into hiding after the hunt for the mentors of campus violence was launched couple of days ago and five teachers of two public universities were taken into custody for questioning.

The security people will soon start questioning some of the outsiders wounded in the campus violence on August 22. "We hope to detect the root of the trouble and its sponsors soon," a senior detective commented preferring anonymity.

Meanwhile, police recorded a number of rioting cases accusing 1500 university students and outsiders of the violence.

Adulterated buter oil

trader jailed

A mobile court recently raided an apartment and seized nearly 200 kilograms of adulterated buter oil from Khatiberhat area under Chandgaon police station.

Authorized officer of Chitagong Port Authority (CPA) and Magistrate of Class-I Mohammad Munir Chowdhury led the court The court found a huge store of adulterated buter oil at the residence of Mohammad Sekandar, an alleged trader of the adulterated buter oil.

Laboratory examinations revealed that the buter oil had been nothing but a clever blending of low-quality palm oil, vegetable oil and flavor chemical. The buter oil would be extremely harmful for the consumers.

The court realized Taka 50,000 in cash from the owner of the adulterated buter oil as penalty and ordered him to serve rigorous imprisonment for two months. [The End]

Lead: Shamsuddin joins CSSTEAP training Chitagong Correspondent Shamsuddin Ahmed, a Deputy Director of Bangladesh Meteorological Department here in the port city, left Chitagong recently for joining an international training course in India.

He is scheduled to undergo an advance course on "Application of space technology for disaster management and flood risk reduction." Center for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) is hosting the course.

The month-long course will take place at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (NRSA) at Dehra Dun.

A scholar of Physics department of Chitagong University Shamsuddin Ahmed was conferred Post Graduation Diploma in meteorology and oceanography from the University of Philippines.

Apart from taking up foundation course at the Government Meteorological Training Institute in Dhaka, he also joined several international seminars and workshops in Thailand and Japan.

CCH seizes goods imported on false declaration

Officials here at Chitagong Customs House (CCH) yesterday foiled a wity bid of clearing steel products worth more than Taka 15 million reportedly brought upon false declaration.

The CCH officials seized the consignment after physical examination and asked the importer to comply the rules of penal tax on the total consignment

Informed sources said that a private steel recycling plant - Jiri Subedar Steel Mills at Bara Kumira - imported the consignment from Canada. A Mexican flag vessel MV Ex-e-Makalo brought the consignment to Chitagong maritime port

The company in connivance with the exporter prepared two export documents stating the materials as 'recyclable steel scrap for making steel bar'.

Commissioner of Customs (Import) Lutfur Rahman after examining papers asked his men to carry out physical examination of the materials. The officials at this stage detected finished steel products inside the containers worth not less than Taka 15 millions. [The End]

CCC&I proposes

monitoring board to

arrest price hike

President of Chitagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCC&I) Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Zabed yesterday placed a set of proposals before the interim government including formation of a 'price monitoring board' for making essentials affordable to consumers during holy month of Ramadan.

He suggested slashing the borrowing rate of interest to single digit, engaging the BDR-men in importing essentials and distribution of essentials all over the country.

The CCC&I President placed a 19-point proposal at a meeting of the merchants for easing essential supply to the markets and arresting the price hike. He hoped that implementation of his proposals would help people to well combat the situation.

Senior Vice President of the CCC&I MA Latif said that price hike of essentials had not only become a common phenomenon in Bangladesh but also a global trend.

"So it will not be wise if the businessmen are lonely blamed for the price hike," he added. He sought coordinated efforts from all to tackle the prevailing crisis.