The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Dhaka City Awami League vice-president MA Aziz and joint secretary Advocate Qumrul Islam have been made acting president and acting general secretary as part of efforts to revitalise party activity in the capital.

The decision was taken unanimously at a meeting between the leaders of the central and city unit of the Awami League with acting AL president Zillur Rahman in the chair yesterday.

The meeting asked the new leaders to strengthen its organizational activities ahead of the city corporation elections.

Earlier, Awam League (AL) had decided to dissolve the existing Dhaka City unit committees and bring in new faces to gear up their activities.

AL leaders Abdur Razzak, Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser, Syed Ashraful Islam, Mukul Bose, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Abdul Mannan, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Sultan Mohammad Monsur Ahmed, Latif Siddqui, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, AKM Jahangir, Col (retd) Faruq Khan, Capt (retd) Tajul slam and Dhaka City unit leaders MA Aziz, Faizuddin Mia, Shah Alam Murad, Abdul Quddus, Sheikh Bazlur Rahman, Mukul Chowdhury, Abdul Haq Sabuj, Adv Qumrul Islam, Abdul Quddus and Aslamul Huq Aslam, among others, were present at the meeting.

The meeting asked the City unit leaders to remain vigilant so that every city dweller could be enlisted in the voter list and inspire the city ward leaders so they can take similar initiatives.

In 2005, AL had formed eight committees, led by eight party presidium members, to sort out their infighting and ensure better coordination in the party activities in eight parliamentary constituencies of capital Dhaka, but they could not resolve their disputes.

As some of the presidium members are now in jail, the meeting included some more leaders and asked the eight committees to start work afresh.

Talking to journalists after the meeting, Zillur Rahman said a flawless voter list is essential for fair polls and all should remain vigilant about it as election is the best way to hand over power.

"Seeing government initiatives, it seems that there would be an election and we all need to prepare for the polls," he said.

But he hastened to say that the party central working committee would decide whether AL would participate in the elections.

Zillur urged the government to lift the ban on indoor politics across the country saying that organizational activities are being hampered due to the restriction.

He also demanded the release of detained party chief Sheikh Hasina immediately and vowed to continue the legal battles to have her released.

Zillur also urged the government to withdraw the "false" case against Sheikh Rehana, the younger sister of Sheikh Hasina, and demanded the release of other detained party leaders and workers, including AL general secretary Abdul Jalil and Dhaka University teachers.

The AL Acting President also called on the government to distribute fertilizer and agricultural inputs among the farmers and take initiatives to control the soaring prices of essentials.

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh Movement for Rights of Indigenous People yesterday demanded of the government for exemplary punishment to the attackers on the Orao indigenous people recently at Patnitola Upazila in Naogoan. The Movement, at a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity, also demanded compensation for the victims of the attack.

Secretary of the rights group Prof Mesbah Kamal presided over the conference, while its president Prof HKS Arefin, Adv ZI Khan Panna, chairman, Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh Bar Council, Karina Hasda, Rakhi Mrong, Subol Larka, Jannatun Ferdous, Patnitola attack victims Suryamoni, Sujit, Srigulu and Sudeer, among others, were present. Suryamoni said local leader of BNP Idris Ali in association with 150 to 200 armed terrorists swooped on the indigenous people of Kazipara village at Dibar union in Patnitola upazila early November 5 when most of the indigenous males went to work and set fire to 17 houses and beat up 15 people mercilessly.

Sujit, another victim, claimed the gang also looted cash, livestock and other valuables.

Rakhi Mrong told reporters that five injured people were rushed to Sapahar Health Complex on the day, where three critically injured are still under treatment.

Subol Larka, local leader of indigenous rights group, alleged that local police did not come forward to help them.

Subol Larka also filed a case with the local police against 24, including Idris Ali, his brother Safiuddin. Police arrested four persons after filing of the case.

However, he alleged that the police did not arrest the gang leaders Idris and his brother Safiuddin.

Karina Hasda said Idris Ali claimed that he and his brother Safiuddin took lease of 1 acre and 33 decimals of indigenous peoples' land in 1991. "But his claim was absurd, as 50 families have been living at Kazipara village for generation," Karina added.

Prof Mesbah Kamal urged the government to form a separate land commission for the indigenous people of the plain land and activate the land commission for Chittagong Hill Tracts.

BSS, Dhaka

Despite much progress in reducing poverty worldwide, a substantial number of the world's poorest people are being left behind, according to a new report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) released recently.

About one billion people today live on less than a dollar a day, the report said.

The report titled "The World's Most Deprived Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger," found that 162 million of the world's poorest people, the ultra poor, survive on less than 50 cents a day.

Three categories of poverty in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa are examined in the study: subjacent poor, living on between $0.75 and $1 a day, medial poor, living on between $0.50 and $0.75 a day, and ultra poor, those living on less than $0.50 a day.

If the poor concentrated in a single nation, they would comprise the world's seventh most populous country, said the report conducted by three senior research fellows of the IFRI, led by Akhter Ahmed.

The report however, said, South Asia, which accounts for 19.7 million, or 12 percent, of the world's poorest people achieved remarkable growth rates during the 1990s.

It said, poverty rates in Bangladesh in all three categories of poverty have fallen significantly since the end of the 1990s. The report, however said, the South Asia region was less able than East Asia and the Pacific to convert this growth to reductions in poverty.

The ultra poor benefited the least from progress in this region, and those people living in medial poverty benefited the most, it added. It said in India, the medial poor fared better than the subjacent poor and only marginally better than the ultra poor.

The report defined subjacent poverty as the proportion of the population living between $0.81 and below $1.08 a day, the medial poverty as between $0.54 and below $0.81 a day; and ultra poverty as below $0.54 a day.

Staff Reporter

Retired Armed Forces Officers' Welfare Association (RAOWA) urged retired army officials in politics to refrain from making comments on past controversial happenings of their service life.

Secretary General of RAOWA Col (Retd) Abul Fazal Mohammad Khaled yesterday in a statement said, "A few armed forces officers involved in politics are passing unhealthy remarks on past controversial issues, which are directly undermining and degrading the pride, prestige and honour of the retired army officers."

He said retired armed forces officers involved in politics should uphold the gracious pride and prestige of the uniform and work towards the development of the country.

Staff Reporter

The National Review Committee on Coal Policy yesterday recommended that the land that might be affected due to coal extraction should be returned to the owners by restoring the top soil and productivity.

The recommendation was made at a meeting of the review committee at the Petrobangla Headquarters in the city with its convener and former BUET Vice Chancellor Prof Abdul Matin Patwary in the chair.

The meeting suggested setting up of a site office of the Environment Directorate in the adjoining areas of any coalmine to oversee the possible environmental pollution round-the-clock during extraction of coal. The experts committee, formed earlier to examine and scrutinise the draft coal policy, also recommended taking steps to strengthen the Environment Directorate by recruiting more competent people and experts to deal with environmental issues particularly in the coal-mining sector.

The committee said that the present role and strength of the Environment Directorate was not sufficient to deal with environmental issues particularly those related to the coal mining.

The meeting discussed different aspects of the draft coal policy and viewed that the government should allow the coalmine developers to go for limited export of coal.

The committee members suggested that the government should form a high-power committee to dispense compensation payment and organise rehabilitation of the affected local people.

They opined that the rehabilitation programmes, what they termed a gigantic task, should be monitored by a high-power committee comprising representatives of the affected people also.

Currently, the matter is being dealt with by the concerned Deputy Commissioner or Thana Nirbahi Officer (TNO).

The meeting locked in a heated debate on the issue of water infiltration in the mining area during the development of open-pit mine project.

Some members opined that measure should be taken to check diversification of mining areas on practical ground not on the basis of computerised simulation while some others disagreed with the idea.

The meeting was attended, among others, by committee members-Prof Nurul Islam, Prof Badrul Imam, IIFC Chief Nazrul Islam and journalist Ataus Samad.

Meeting sources said the next meeting of the national, committee expected to be held on November 17, was likely to discuss the royalty issue.

UNB, Dhaka

Malaysian government may consider the lifting of embargo on fresh recruitment of Bangladeshi workers once problems recently caused by unscrupulous agents are resolved. Talking to UNB at his residence on Friday, Malaysian High Commissioner in Dhaka Abdul Malek Bin Abdul Aziz said the Malaysian government has been taking measures to address the problems recently faced by the Bangladeshi workers on their arrival at Kuala Lumpur.

The measures include the concerned companies will have to pick up Bangladeshi workers within 70-72 hours of their arrival at Kuala Lumpur airport. Besides, before the workers' departure from Dhaka, they will have to get the "confirmation" from their respective companies in Malaysia.

Earlier, the High Commissioner said, recruiting agents in Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur recruited and received the workers without proper knowledge of respective companies.

Now, he said, officials of Malaysian Human Resource Department visit the respective companies to check if they have confirmed the new recruitment of workers for their companies to stop recurrence of unpleasant situation.

"So far, there is no problem now," the envoy said, adding that around 200,000 of the Bangladesh workers already arrived in Malaysia and the remaining 100,000 are in the process for departure.

The Malaysian government had approved an initial intake of 300,000 workers from Bangladesh.

The workers are employed in manufacturing, plantation and service sectors.On October 4, Malaysia banned fresh recruitment of Bangladeshi workers after hundreds of them were stranded at Kuala Lumpur airport because their employers failed to collect them promptly.

As a result, many workers had to pass days without food. There were some demonstrations by angry workers outside the Bangladesh mission in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government placed a similar restriction in 1999, but lifted the ban last year.Malaysia has 2.7 million legal foreign workers, mainly from Indonesia. More than 300,000 Bangladeshi workers are now employed in Malaysia with valid documents.

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

A government report has said that seven out of eight motor vehicles used in various government jobs between 2002 and 2006 were not deposited at the government transport pool.

"Most of these vehicles are now being used in breach of government rules," the planning ministry's Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) said in a report sent to the Chief Adviser's Office in August.

In May, the CAO sent a letter asking IMED to launch an enquiry into the current status of motor vehicles used in public sector development projects.

A six-member team led by IMED joint secretary Sheikh Abdul Gaffar carried out the investigation. It was found that some 1,441 motor vehicles out of 1,603 used in various projects completed between 2002 and 2006 were not returned to the government transport pool as required by law.

Only 162 or 10 percent of vehicles used in projects were sent back to the government pool. The report also found mismanagement and irregularities in the use of the vehicles. Maintenance, fuel costs and drivers' salary were borne either by new projects or from the revenue budget.

According to the report, a total of 1,603 motor vehicles were used by 40 ministries and divisions for 340 projects completed between 2002 and 2006. The environment and forest ministry did not deposit a single vehicle out of 214 used in nine projects, the report said.

Only three vehicles out of 183, used in 10 projects under the communications ministry, were deposited at the transport pool. The power division used 151 vehicles for 22 projects. Not one was returned, according to the IMED report.

The agriculture ministry did not deposit a single vehicle out of 135 used in 29 projects.

Out of 227 vehicles used by the local government and rural division in 36 projects, 113 were deposited with the transport pool. The energy and mineral resources division handed over only 3 vehicles out of 104 used in 17 projects.

The education ministry returned 8 vehicles out of 73 used in 29 projects.

The fisheries and livestock ministry returned just one vehicle out of 143 used in 21 projects.

The report made 11 recommendations, including issuing letters by the relevant ministries to deposit vehicles used in their respective projects.

It also asked the finance ministry to punish the chief accounts officers who provided the costs for these vehicles.

"I don't know what actions have been taken by the CAO after getting the IMED report," IMED secretary Sheikh AK Motahar Hossain told bdnews24.com.

UNB, Golapganj

Ten activists of local Islami Chhatra Shibir were arrested from Miapara in the district town on Thursday night on charge of holding a meeting violating the Emergency Powers Rules.

The ten arrested were identified as district Shibir president Mohammad Moniruzzaman Alamgir, general secretary Mohammad Solaiman Siddique Badal and seven workers-Mokarram Billah, Enamul Haque Khan, Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Masum Billah, Nazmul Hossain, Syed Ekramul Haque, Mohammad Mamun Khandaker and Sohrab Hossain Sheikh. Police said they raided the Alhaj Rokon Uddin Trust and held the Shibir leaders and workers at about 10:30pm. Ten other Shibir activists also present in the meeting managed to escape the police raid.

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

The government will install four more special judge's courts to quicken the trials of high-profile graft suspects, officials have said.

The planned courts will start working next week and the judges for the courts have also been finalised, the officials at the Law Ministry said.

Lawyers for the Anticorruption Commission have indicated that cases involving two former prime ministers, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina, could be tried in the new courts.

The officials with the Law Ministry's justice department said special judge of Jamalpur Tanjina Ismail, judge of Chittagong administrative tribunal AKM Arifur Rahman, divisional special judge of Barisal Khandakar Kamaluzzaman and Public Safety Act tribunal judge in Khulna AKM Siarjul Islam will take charge of the new courts.

bdnews24.com correspondents in those districts have said that the judges had been given farewell.

Supreme Court registrar Iktedar Ahmed confirmed to bdnews24.com that chief justice M Ruhul Amin had already approved the new appointments.

"The Law Ministry will issue a circular on the matter," he said.

On assuming power in mid-January, the interim government installed five special judges' courts on the Jatiya Sangsad premises in May to try the high-profile graft suspects that include politicians, former or incumbent bureaucrats and businessmen.

Staff Reporter

Coordination between production and development was needed to ensure social stability. Speakers said this at a roundtable on 'Production, Development, Social stability: vis-à-vis Agriculture' at the Engineers Institute yesterday.

Krishi Unnayan Kendra organised the meeting, which was attended by former chief election commissioner justice Abdur Rauf, as chief guest.

Justice Rauf said food security should be ensured by increasing agricultural productivity and maintaining a production cycle of various agricultural products.

He said," Social stability cannot be ensured without ensuring food security. People will not feel safe in empty stomach even with nuclear weapon in hand."

He also said without any clear statistics about our production and its capacity the country could not step toward development. Alamgir Mohiuddin, editor of the daily Naya Diganta, Prof Dr Abdul Karim, Prof Dr Tajul Islam of Bangladesh Agricultural University and Rajia Akter Banu of Dhaka University, among others, spoke at the meeting.

Chittagong Correspondent

Finally the headquarters of Messrs QC Shipping Lines, owned by BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, came under the raids of the joint forces.

The members of the joint forces reportedly searched every nook and corner of the shipping line's headquarters on the second floor of the Shafi Bhaban for nearly two hours on Thursday.

The investigators reportedly took away dozens of files and documents of suspicious business dealings by isolating the whole office from external communications as staffs inside asked to switch off their cell-phone and other means of communication.

Some of the raiders admitted that they came from the capital to investigate into different charges lodged against Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, former advisor to the ex-prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

Chief Executive of the shipping lines Swapan Goash and controller of accounts Mohammad Iqbal came under the intensive interrogation of the joint forces during the two-hour raid.

The joint force people kept mum on their raid. Officials at Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), Chittagong Divisional wing, however, did not want to comment on the drive.

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

The Hindus in Bangladesh celebrated their four-day major religious festival, the Shyama Puja or Kaali Puja starting Friday. The first day of the festivities kicks off with the Dipannwita Parban (Festival of Lights) rites with solemnity and enthusiasm.

Saturday, the second day, will be marked by the rituals Annakoot, Mahatsav and distribution of offerings dedicated to the deity Kaali.

The third day, Sunday, will be celebrated by observing Bhrattreedwitiya or Bhai Phonta and dance dedication competition. The devotees will observe the final day parading with Goddess Kaali's idol and concluding the rites by immersing the icons in the running waters of rivers.