The New Nation - Internet Edition

President urges public, private varsities: Impart time-worthy quality education to students

President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed addressing the
inaugural function of newly built permanent campus of
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) at
Tejgaon in the city on Monday. PID photo

BSS, Dhaka

President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed on Monday called upon authorities of both private and public universities to come forward with state-of-the-art curricula to impart quality and time-worthy education to the students.

"As you know, at all the ages, educational institutions are regarded as the sacred and stately place of the country, which contain nation's hopes and aspirations by putting its collective endeavours.

I hope university authorities both private and public would understand the tune of the society and would uphold the image of the esteemed institutions," he added. The President said this while addressing the inaugural ceremony arranged on the occasion of opening the permanent campus of Ahsanullah University of Science Technology (AUST) at Tejgaon in the city.

Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Professor Dr AMM Safiullah, VC of the AUST Professor Dr M Anwar Hossain, President Kazi Fazlur Rahman and President of Dhaka Ahsania Mission Kazi Rafiqul Alam also spoke on the occasion. Secretary to the President Md Sirajul Islam and Press Secretary Abdul Awal Howlader were present. The President unveiled the plaque of the new campus of the university.

Referring to the country's huge population in a small geographic location, Professor Iajuddin said this vast populace could also be used as the main driving force in the way of our development process by making it more skilled and capable.

Therefore, it needs comprehensive strategy and appropriate plan to turn them into proper human resources, he added. He said globalisation and information technology encompass us at every nook and cranny of our everyday life and we must deal with this properly by using our skilled human resources in order to cope with the world family.

AL sets deadline for Hasina’s release

UNB, Dhaka

Demanding unconditional release of detained ex-PM and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina by April 4, party's key leaders yesterday warned the government that their announced mass hunger strike programme would turn into a "mass upsurge" for freeing her if the deadline failed.

"Release our president by April 4, ahead of the beginning of mass-signature programme…Otherwise, we'll free Sheikh Hasina through announcing tougher street movement," senior AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said while speaking at a discussion.

Dhaka City Awami League organized the discussion at its office at Bangabandhu Avenue marking the National Independence Day with acting city president MA Aziz in the chair.

Amu also demanded of the caretaker government to recognize Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as father of the nation and execute the verdict of the Bangabandhu murder case during its tenure.

Party presidium member Tofael Ahmed demanded unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina immediately, failing which their proposed mass hunger strike programme would be turned into mass upsurge to compel the government to set free Hasina.

He raised question about the neutrality of the incumbent caretaker government and said the government "lost its credibility and neutrality" through its activities.

Cyber cable snapped: Int’l tele-link goes off for 9 hours

Chittagong Correspondent

International and domestic tele-link and the cyber accessibility suffered a major setback yesterday when the nation's lone optical fiber cable came under axing near Basantpur, some 65 kilometers away from the port city.

The nine-hour tele-link disruption inflicted an estimated revenue loss of Taka more than a million.

All sorts of overseas tele-link went off for nearly nine hours until 8:30 in the morning from 11:00 p.m. yesterday. It also made cyber accessibility either down or difficult until restoration of the link at around 8:19 a.m.

Officials of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) admitted the incident and claimed that the system had already been brought back to order after hectic efforts of the BTTB engineers.

Bangla-Myanmar talks on Maritime boundary begins

Two-day meeting on maritime boundary demarcation at
the technical level between Bangladesh and Myanmar began at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday. Focus
Bangla

BSS, Dhaka

The two-day meeting on maritime delimitation at the technical level between Bangladesh and Myanmar began after 21 years here on Monday.

Additional Foreign Secretary MAK Mahmood led the 18-member Bangladesh team at the meeting while the 10-member Maynmar delegation was headed by Director of Myanmar National Hydrographic Center Commodore Maung Oo Lwin, said an official press release.

The last maritime delimitation meeting between the two countries was held in 1986.

Eight meetings were held on maritime delimitation between the two countries since 1974, the release added.

Bangladesh asks global community: Help fight climate-induced disasters

BSS, Bangkok

Bangladesh on Monday asked global community to help people of Bangladesh to fight poverty, mostly triggered by climatic calamities in their efforts to achieve the millennium development goals.

Bangladesh also asked the global community especially the industrialised developed countries to urgently cut, back their dangerous greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change endangering economic growth of the least developed countries like Bangladesh. "Climate induced disasters are increasing in frequency and severity in Bangladesh. These as well as other climate related phenomena, erratic behaviour of temperature and rainfall pose severe threat to agriculture and food security, damage of infrastructures, create uncertainties with water availability, endanger livelihood of people," environment secretary AHM Rezaul Kabir told opening of the UN Adhoc Working Group (AWG) 5th meeting on future commitment of Kyoto Protocol at the climate change conference at UNESCAP here. "These expose people to malnutrition, disease and morbidity and premature death. All these together challenge the ultimate objective of the UN Climate Change Convention environment- friendly economic growth in a sustained manner," he added.

Kabir, leader of an eight-member Bangladesh delegation, made the plenary statement expressing deep concern that measures and actions to reduce greenhouse gases should not compromise with present and future food security concerns. "Bangladesh wants to record its worries on slow progress made in last two years by AWG under Kyoto Protocol on future commitments. We also notice that there is lack of progress to comply wih present commitment by the Annex-1 (industrialised developed) countries. Urgency of the issue should be translated into immediate actions," he told the conference.

The Bangladesh delegation leader, who successfully led Bali negotiation and United Nations General Assembly thematic debate on climate change last month in New York, said, AWG should agree on reduction commitment without which effective adaptation cannot be designed along with funding and technology deployment.

Bangladesh, Kabir said, believes that to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change, the global average temperature increases must be kept as far below two degree Celsius as possible.

Members of Bangladesh delegation-director general of Department of Environment Dr Khandaker Rashedul Haque, Bangladesh ambassador to Thailand and PR to UNESCAP Mustafa Kamal, experts Dr Ainun Nishat, Muhammad Reazuddin, Dr Nasir Uddin, Quamrul Islam Chowdhury and Mozaharul Alam actively participated in the different sessions and working group meetings of the climate change conference here.

The Bangladesh delegation was also very vocal at the G-77 meeting and raised the concerns of LDCs which should be urgently addressed by the UN Climate Change Convention processes.

BNP leaders barred from attending JCD rally

DU Correspondent

The leaders of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) yesterday warned that they would resist the upcoming general election if the government wanted to hold it keeping BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in jail.

They issued this warning at a press conference at the Dhaka University after failing to hold their scheduled discussion meeting at TSC marking the

Independence Day.

The leaders of JCD, student wing of BNP, said they would no longer request the Government for the release of the political detainees from jail as they would free them through movement.

Later, they held demonstration and paraded on the campus. JCD leaders Sultan Salah Uddin Tuku, Abdul Kader Bhuiyan Jewel, Hasan Mamun, Saiful Islam Firoz, Mamun Rahman, Obaidul Haque Nasir, among others, took part in the demonstration.

JCD sources said that earlier they took permission from the administration to hold a discussion meeting ,but the officer in charge of Shahbagh Police Station made a call to them yesterday saying that they could hold the meeting excluding the BNP leaders. The police officer also threatened that they would arrest the JCD men who are not students of the university if came to the university.

Gayeshar Roy, Joint Secretary General of BNP, Major (Rtd) Akhteruzzaman were compelled to leave the campus while Dr R A Gani, Brigadier (Rtd) ASM Hannan Shah, Ruhul Kabir Rezvi Ahmed, Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon were not permitted to enter the campus, sources said.

Economists for food stock policy planning to tame price hike

Staff Reporter

A number of economists Monday suggested building up of an adequate food stock, declare a proper food procurement policy and reintroduce its five-year development programme to avoid the recurrence of abnormal price hike in the future.

Criticising the present policies of poverty elimination they said the target of poverty eradication and improving the lifestyle of the people will not be fulfilled with the present Annual Development Programme (ADP) and donors-prescribed Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

"We've abandoned our five-year action plan and opted for one-year development programme being prescribed by the donor agencies and countries. Bangladesh must look for five-year plan without delay if it really wants a stable economy and unhindered development," Shamunnay Chairman Dr Atiur Rahman said at the launching ceremony of third issue of Bangladesh Economic Outlook at the Jatiya Press Club.

Economist Selim Raihan presented the findings of his team's research carried by the publication. Newly elected FBCCI president Annisul Huq also spoke on the occasion.

Referring to the weak points of ADP, the research said many projects, which were undertaken during the term of a particular government, either had their budgets slashed or were even totally abandoned when a new government was elected.

Bangladesh must consider devising and adhering to a development plan that covers a longer time horizon, the research said.

Former caretaker government adviser Hafizuddin Khan said a person might even not be able to chalk out a plan in one year for his own life. "Then how is it possible to have a plan and implement it for a country of 14 crore people?"

The speakers laid emphasis on building up a food stock after estimating the demand of the growing population of Bangladesh in the next 10 to 20 years.

"In 2000 when the then government completed its term there was no food shortage or price hike of food in Bangladesh. Then-Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury had been able to create a food stock of 16 lakh tons of rice against the total demand of 10 lakh tons," Atiur Rahman recalled.

"But after that Bangladesh could not maintain the practice of stocking food. Now a large portion of the population finds it almost impossible to buy rice they require. A sort of silent famine is now prevailing in the country," he claimed.

About the effectiveness of having a food stock, former adviser Hafizuddin Khan said, "During our caretaker government, Bangladesh's development partners had forced us to reduce food stock, although food stock always has a positive impact on price."

Criticising the so-called development partners he said, "Now where are those who had forced this country not to stock food when Bangladesh is suffering from food crisis and price hike of essentials? Has America or the World Bank said that they are ready to provide Bangladesh with rice?"

Atiur Rahman said Bangladesh should finalise its food procurement law immediately. "How much rice will be collected in the coming Boro season? What price the farmers will be given, how many godown will be needed, everything should be fixed now."

The experts found Bangladesh is facing the current food crisis and intolerable price hike due to a mismatch between demand and supply of food.

"Government's estimates on total food demand of the country falls 23 lakh tons short of our estimation. I suggest the government to form a high-profile taskforce which will be able to estimate the real demand of food in the country," Dr Atiur demanded.

The economist suggested building up of a stock of 20 lakh tones of rice to help stop manipulation of market by the profit mongering businessmen.

Hillary at odds as Obama’s lead widens

AFP, Washington

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton faced increasing odds Monday as a new opinion poll showed rival Barack Obama consolidating his nationwide support.

A Gallup tracking survey indicated the Illinois senator extending his lead over Clinton among Democrats nationally to 52 percent versus 42 percent, Obama's largest lead of the year so far.

This marks the first time either candidate has held a double-digit lead over the other since early February, when Clinton led Obama by 11 percentage points, the polling firm pointed out.

On Sunday, the New York senator vowed to stay in the White House race to the bitter end as party elders floated ideas to avert a paralyzing struggle between her and Barack Obama. In a Washington Post interview, the former first lady said: "I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong.

"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests, and until we resolve Florida and Michigan." The two states were stripped of their delegates to the Democrats' August convention when they advanced their primaries into January.

Clinton won both contests and needs the results to stand to have any chance of overhauling Obama's lead in the national popular vote.

The Clinton-backing chief executive of Pennsylvania, which is the next state to vote on April 22, said it was a "disgrace" that Obama's campaign was pressing for him to become the nominee with weeks of voting to go.

But Governor Edward Rendell, speaking on ABC television, also said he would "love" for the two star Democrats to join forces against Republican candidate John McCain for November's general election.

Sircar sees no scope to scrap NAM flats allocations

Bdnews24.com, Dhaka

Jatiya Sangsad speaker Jamiruddin Sircar has said he has no authority to tell former lawmakers to vacate the NAM flats they are living in.

The speaker clarified his position on the apartments in a letter addressed to chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed Sunday.

The correspondence, a copy of which was obtained by bdnews24.com yesterday, makes clear the speaker's opinion that the NAM flats were allocated to the former members of parliament in accordance with a decision made by a Sangsad committee (parliament committee).

"According to the decision of the parliament committee, the MPs of the eighth parliament will be eligible to live in the NAM flats until the declaration of the official results of the ninth parliamentary polls through publication of the gazette," Sircar said in the letter.

"Therefore there is no scope to cancel the allocation of the flats for the former MPs."

Sircar said the Parliament Secretariat, not the housing and pubic works ministry, was the legitimate owner of the flats.

Currently, 187 former legislators from different parties are living in the apartments.

In the letter, the speaker proposed that the dispute between the caretaker government and the former lawmakers could be resolved in a meeting between the Parliament Secretariat, the housing and public works ministry and eight of the former MPs.

Involve women in climate adaptation: Debashish

Staff Reporter

The Special Assistant to Chief Adviser for Ministry of Environment and Forests Raja Debashish Roy yesterday called for greater involvement of the media in the issue of climate change adaptation.

Women are most vulnerable to climate change especially for their proximity to water and, therefore, prone to water borne diseases so analysis of women's participation in the adaptation methods is very important, he mentioned. Climate change cannot be anticipated and the current housing and shelter status is not meant to deal with the effects of the climate change.

This also needs to be addressed, he said as chief guest at a workshop on 'Adaptation to Climate Change: Alternative Option for Drinking Water to Combat Water Borne Diseases in Bangladesh' jointly organised by Centre for Global Change (CGC) and Actionaid at Spectra Convention Centre in the city.

Farah Kabir, Country Director of Actionaid, in her address mentioned that the Government must also come forward to solve water related problems and raise awareness amongst the community on the issue.

Sharmind Neelormi, Associate Professor of Economics Department of Jahangirnagar University presented keynote paper, while Wahida Bashar Ahmed, Theme Leader of Risk Reduction of Actionaid, Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, Executive Director of CGC, among others, spoke at the workshop.

Some recommendations that came up from the keynote paper include reintroducing the indigenous and local method of water purification for drinking, accountability of local government officials and ensuring the voice of women at the policy level as they face the staggering effects of water borne diseases and climate change.

The government must commit to withdraw all forms of price barriers to make water purification tablets cheaper and affordable, said the speakers.

Water logging is a reality now and likely to be aggravated under the climate change and sea-level rise. Since there is a strong possibility that water logging would be spread over a larger area in the south-western region than that being observed today, efforts must be made to address the issue with proper planning, they observed.

The local government institutions at their lowest tier can play a complementary role for the benefit of the local women. In devising plans and programmes, costs of women's sufferings and vulnerability must be weighted against the potential cost of implementing such activities. The community-based adaptation measures can facilitate women's well-being in a major way in the affected areas, said the speakers.

CA distributes export trophies: Increase exports to keep pace with rising Asian economy

UNB, Dhaka

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday called for increasing the country's export growth to keep pace with the fast rising economies of Asia like China, India and Vietnam.

He emphasized on production of more competitive goods and their marketing utilizing the comparative advantages of the country's human resources.

The head of the caretaker government made the call and remarks addressing the National Export Trophy distribution function at Osmani Memorial Auditorium jointly organized by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the Commerce Ministry.

Dr Fakhruddin said the country must diversify its exports, adding that the government is considering potentialities of the export sector.

He said there is high demand in the international market for agro-based and processed agricultural goods, light engineering items, shoes and leather products, medicine, ICT and home textiles. The export income of Bangladesh was US$ 12.18 billion in 2006-07 fiscal year while export target for the current fiscal was set at US$ 14.50 billion.

Drawing attention of all concerned for maintaining peace and discipline in business arena in the interest of development of the country's economy, Dr Fakhruddin made a clarion call to all concerned to refrain from activities which cast negative impact on trade and business as well as in the economy. He believed that Bangladesh would turn into a middle-income group country in the next one decade if all, irrespective of class, profession and position work together.

The national export trophies were awarded for the years 2002-2003, 2003-04 and 2004-05 in three categories : Gold, Silver and Bronze along with certificates on 21 export items among 82 business institutions and industries for their extraordinary contributions to the national economy.

A total of 33 gold, 28 silver and 21 bronze trophies were given for the three years.

In 1978 the government introduced President's Export Trophy as a recognition for keeping special contribution in the economy of Bangladesh through exporting goods. Later in 1994, the trophy was renamed as National Export Trophy.

Bangladesh is now exporting 167 items to some 186 countries.

Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, Commerce Secretary Firoz Ahmed, FBCCI President Annisul Huq and EPB Vice-President Md Shabullah also spoke at the function.

Women’s ownership of family land stressed

Staff Reporter

Experts at a seminar said approximately 96 per cent of privately owned land in Bangladesh was owned by male, whereas, women do not generally have resources or access to credit necessary to purchase land in their own name.

Daughters and widows often do not inherit land despite legal provisions granting them rights to land. Separated and divorced women have no rights to claim any portion of their husband's land, they pointed out at the seminar on 'Women's Rights to Land in Bangladesh: Roles, Limitations and Transformations' organised by Actionaid Bangladesh in association with Nijera Kori and Association of Land Rights Division (ALRD) at Spectra Convention Centre in the city yesterday.

Zakir Hossain of Unnayan Onneshan presented keynote paper, while Farah Kabir, Country Director of Actionaid, Khushi Kabir, Coordinator of Nijera Kori, Prof Anisur Rahman, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, legal expert, Azima Begum, a landless women's leaders, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Some 78.3 per cent of the womenfolk of the country are involved in agriculture. This segment of the population's right on land and traditional role in agriculture has been diminishing day by day in the backdrop of globalisation and commercialisation of farming, said the speakers.

There is no legal concept of co-ownership of marital property in the country. Unless a woman's name is actually on the land document, she has no ownership interest in that family land, even if she contributes to the land by working on it or processing the corps from it, they said.

Many women are aware of these rights, but either they do not know how to exercise them or feel socially barred from exercising them. For these reasons, the legislative and policy recommendations outlined throughout the report must be included in education curriculum highlighting the benefits to women in asserting these rights, they pointed out.

The keynote paper focused on the relationship between women and land rights and recommended that women should sign land deed in their names, to raise awareness of the community on the laws pertaining to women's land rights, to allocate khas land to both husband and wife and to create opportunities for women to get greater income from farming and agriculture.

How Dalai Lama escapes to India

Dalai Lama

Agency, Dharmasala

The spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, has crossed the border into India on March 31, 1959 after an epic 15-day journey on foot from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, over the Himalayan mountains.

There had been no news of his safety or whereabouts since he left Lhasa on 17 March with an entourage of 20 men, including six Cabinet ministers.

Many thought he had been killed in the fierce Chinese crackdown that followed the Tibetan uprising earlier this month.

The Dalai Lama had to cross the 500-yard wide Brahmaputra river, and endure the harsh climate and extreme heights of the Himalayas, travelling at night to avoid the Chinese sentry guards.

He finally crossed the Indian border at the Khenzimana Pass, and is now resting at the Towang Monastery, 50 miles inside the Indian border.