The New Nation - Internet Edition

CNG-run taxicabs, 3-wheelers’ fare up: Autorickshaw Tk 18, Non-AC cab Tk 30, AC cab Tk 40 for first 2 km.

Staff Reporter

The government yesterday has re-fixed fares for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) run autorickshaws and taxicabs. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting with Communication Secretary Dr Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman in the chair.

An official of the Ministry said the fares for CNG run autorickshaws was raised to Tk 6 a kilometre, non-AC taxicabs to Tk 8 and AC taxicabs to Tk 10.

The minimum fare of the autorickshaws will start at Tk 18 and non-AC taxicabs at Tk 30 and AC taxicabs at Tk 40.

Fare for the first 2 kilometre or the lowest charge of autorickshaws is Tk 18 and subsequent per kilometre charge is Tk 6. And per minute waiting charge of autorickshaws is Tk one.

Fare for first 2-kilometre of AC taxicab is Tk 40 and subsequent per kilometre charge is Tk 10. The lowest charge of economy taxicab is Tk 30 for the first two kilometre and subsequent per kilometre charge is Tk 8.

ATKM Ismail, Additional Secretary of Communication Ministry and BRTA Chairman Sunil Kanti Bosh and representatives of vehicles owners and transport workers organisations, among others, attended the meeting.

Our Chittagong Correspondent says: Unscrupulous CNG run autorichkshaws and taxi divers have allegedly demanded high fares from the passengers on the grounds of recent price hike that led to brawls between the passengers and drivers.

"I am already exhausted with the price spiral and CNG fare hike has added an extra load" said Alimullah a mid-level government official.

One the other hand CNG run autorickshaws and taxi drivers said that they had no option but to charge high fares.

Commuters in the capital are also suffering due the recent doubling of the price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by the government, as the drivers of CNG-run cabs and three-wheelers had started charging exorbitant fares from the first day of the price hike on Friday.

On Thursday the government has raised price of CNG from Tk 8.50 to Tk 16.75 per cubic metre effective from Friday.

The CNG price was last fixed on June 13 in 2005 at Tk 8.50 from which the pump operators received Tk 6.02 and the government share was Tk 2.43.

Troops cordon 'dumped’ rice site in Chittagong

People of all ages scouring a dumping ground in
Chittagong to retrieve rice declared unfit for human
consumption by the Food Directorate (L) Collected rice being
dried in the sun on Friday. Focus Bangla

Chittagong Correspondent

The dumping of about 400 tonnes of rice worth about Tk 20 crore at a place near the Chittagong port on the ground of being unfit for consumption has raised a lot of controversy in different circles.

Officials of the joint forces here in the port city claimed that there was a good quantity of consumable rice that has been dumped.

The officials of the food department, however, declared the rice unfit for human consumption after necessary examination and approved the dumping of the rice which was donated by Pakistan in aid of the Sidr victims.

Troops have b een deployed at the dumping site located near the landfill of Chittagong port to prevent people from collecting the dumped rice. They also stopped the dumping move and asked for re-examination of its actual quality.

Officials of the joint forces at the port city claimed there is a good quantity of consumable rice in the lot that has been dumped as being unfit for consumption.

The dumping site has been cordoned and the relevant authorities have been asked not to dump rotten rice at unrestricted spots anymore, said a security official.

Some of the poor who collected rice from the dumping site said they did not find it fully rotten.

People belonging to different tiers of society questioned the wisdom of dumping sizeable quantity of rice without proper examination of its quality at a time when its prices have shot up beyond the purchasing capacity of the poor.

Local sources said the customs people secured approval for destroying 74 containers of perishable from the special committee comprising officials from the directorate of food, Environment department, Chittagong City Corporation, Chittagong Customs House and Chittagong Port Authority.

28 lakh signatures collected: No election without Hasina: AL leaders

Leaders of Dhanmondi and Mohammadpur thana units of
Awami League handing over the copy of mass signature
demanding the unconditional release of former prime minister
Sheikh Hasina to the presidium members of the party on
Saturday. Focus Bangla

Staff Reporter

Senior Awami League leaders yesterday warned that that there would be no election excluding their detained party chief Sheikh Hasina.

Addressing the separate meetings in different places in the city including Motijheel and Mohammadpur to mark the conclusion of the mass signing collection programme demanding release of AL chief Sheikh Hasina and send her abroad fro treatment, they also demanded holding of parliamentary election before any election.

AL sources said the party has collected a total of 28 lakh of signature from across the country demanding release of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

This would be submitted to Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed on Monday next for consideration.

AL presidium member Amir Hossain Amu, who addressed a meeting at Mohammadpur, demanded immediate release of Sheikh Hasina saying that programme of movement would be taken if the AL chief were not freed.

AL leaders-Abdur Razzak, Suranjit Sengupta and Matiya Chowdhury also spoke on the occasion.

Abdur Razzak demanded starting the process of trail of the war criminals immediately.

Suranjit Sengupta said excluding Sheikh Hasina, the dialogue would not be successful and the election would also not be meaningful and acceptable.

"Sheikh Hasina will be freed through movement if the government not releases her," he warned.

Matiya Chowdhury said no election would be held in Bangladesh except Sheikh Hasina.

Passport 'help desk’ fails to deliver

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

The simplification of passport issuance procedure through establishing 'help desk' across the country has not progressed despite release of an official order in September last year.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a gazette notification last year for appointment of agents for handling passport related work under 'Passport Agent (licensing) Rules, 2007.'

The move was intended to ease licence issuance procedure and take the service to the doorsteps of the people, said the officials.

However, the Government, in the meantime, has taken some measures to expand the service through seven post offices and four branches of private sector Trust Bank.

The number of passport seekers doubled this year. So, it is now imperative to decentralise the system to ease pressure on the head office, said officials of the Passport office.

In 2006, the government earned Tk 4.0 billion in revenue through issuance of around 1.3 million passports, while around 2.2 million passports were issued in 2007 that fetched Tk 7.0 billion.

"The government had taken the move to appoint agents to help innocent and less educated people fill up passport forms following all procedures," said an official.

The agents will help the passport seekers to follow all the instructions for obtaining passports, he said.

Once the system was implemented, harassment by middlemen, known as 'dalal,' will be reduced significantly, he added.

The agents will be responsible for issuance of passports, and if the authorities find irregularities or detect any fake passport the agents will face penalties and have their licences cancelled.

Recently, a large number of the workers and labourers applied for passports to go abroad for work.The workers usually face problems while filling up passport application forms.

They have to seek help of middlemen on payment of high charges.

According to the rules, a five-member committee will select the agents. An agent should have minimum graduation degree. An income tax payer over the past three years, the agent should possess a legal trade licence.

The agents should have infrastructure and logistic facilities and skilled manpower to handle the passport related work.

Currently, four Trust Bank corporate branches at Dilkusha, Dhanmondi, Uttara and Gulshan have been receiving passport applications covering the 14 police stations of Dhaka city area only under six months' 'Pilot Project for Receiving Applications from the Applicant of Passports' since October last year.

Considering the satisfactory performance in receiving applications and delivery of passports and upon recommendation of the Department of Immigration and Passports, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued permission to 13 other branches of the bank to provide the service.

50 Khaleda loyalists sued for violating emergency rule on April 17

Staff Reporter

At least 50 Khaleda loyalists, including Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leaders have been sued, Friday night for breaking emergency through staging "demonstrations" in front of the Election Commission Secretariat on April 17, during the EC meeting with the two BNP factions.

Sub-Inspector of Tejgaon Police Station Deepok Kumar Paul filed the case with his police station Friday night, a week after the incident.

A case was filed against the protesters with Tejgaon police station under the stringent provisions of the Emergency Power Rules (EPR), police source said.

Assistant Sub Inspector Sirajul Islam said yesterday, "The case has been filed against a number of leaders and lawmakers of one faction of the BNP, for breaching security by holding a rally in front of the EC on April 17."

Of the accused, 14 are identified, while around another 40 people remain unnamed in the case details.

The 14 accused are former lawmaker and General Secretary of Jatiyatabadi Mohila Dal Shirin Sultana, JCD leaders, Aminuzzaman Khan Shimul, Nurul Islam Nayan, Rafiqul Alam, Robin, Abdul Quader, Saiful Islam and Yasin Ali, Swechhasebak Dal leader Zakir Hossain Milon, Rehana Akhter Ranu, Bilkis Jahan, Saimum Begum and Mohiuddin Khan Mohan, former Assistant Press Secretary to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and 40 other JCD leaders and activists.

The supporters of detained BNP chairperson and ex-PM Khaleda Zia staged demonstrations in front of the Election Commission Secretariat on April 17 when the two rival groups of the former ruling party sat for a courtesy meeting with the EC, pending their stalled dialogue on electoral reforms.

Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda invited both the BNP's reformist faction leader and Acting Secretary General Hafizuddin Ahmed and BNP's Khaleda-nominated Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain to the EC Secretariat last week.

Hafizuddin accepted the invitation and led a delegation to meet Huda and election commissioners on the morning of April 17.

Pro-Delwar faction supporters chanted slogans in front of the EC office, as Hafizuddin-led group left the secretariat building.

A 15-member delegation of BNP's opposing (Delwar) faction, led by standing committee member Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui, met with the EC later the same day. Delwar himself did not attend the meeting.

The ex-Prime Minister Khalada nominated, BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain said the case was filed 'under a blueprint to destroy nationalist forces'.

"Ruining the nationalist forces won't be allowed," he was quoted as saying by BNP Acting Office Secretary Rizvi Ahmed, in protest against

the filing of the case against his party faithful.

Rizvi denounced the case saying, "The 'false' case has been filed in a planned way. This is a conspiracy."

Rizvi demanded the case be withdrawn immediately.

EC’s BNP talks amid tension today

Staff Reporter

After ending speculations, the dialogue of the Election Commission with the pro-reformist BNP faction on electoral reforms is going to be held today at the Commission Secretariat. But none of the pro-Khaleda BNP faction would take part in the talks.

With this talk the EC would wrap up its year-long dialogue with political parties on electoral reforms. Joint secretary general of pro-Khaleda faction Nazrul Islam Khan dismissed

the prospect of going to the dialogue along with the reformist group.

He told reporters that this would not be dialogue with the BNP rather it would be considered dialogue with a very small group of the party.

"Taking part in the discussion with them (reformist group) means dialogue of 20 people out of 80 or with 2 out of 8. It will not fulfil their wishes," he said.

However, acting secretary general of pro-reformist BNP faction Maj (Retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed said he would continue his efforts till the last minute for going unitedly to the dialogue with the Commission.

He said acting chairperson Saifur Rahman is continuing efforts to contact with the senior leaders of the party including the members of the standing committee.

The BNP leader also hoped that they would take part in the elections with party chairperson Khaleda Zia with them.

Replying to a question he said during the dialogue with the Commission, they would put forward a number of recommendations including taking measures to stop election of black money and nomination trading.

It may be mentioned that the EC started the dialogue on April 26 last year and met with representatives of civil society and media on reform electoral law. It also held two rounds of talks with 17 major political parties on the issue since September last.

Meanwhile, Sramik Dal, labour front of the BNP had a meeting with Khondoker Delwar Hossain at his residence in the morning.

Led by Sramik Dal president Nazrul Islam Khan they discussed the May Day programme.

After the meeting Nazrul said they would hold discussion meeting on May 2 at the press club in observance of the May Day.

Speakers come down heavily on ADB

Staff Reporter

Immunity of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) should be rescinded forthwith to ensure accountability of the international financial institution, speakers demanded at a roundtable discussion yesterday.

The special tribunal should scrutinise ADB's operations in the country, the speakers also demanded.

VOICE organised the discussion on "Hear the Unheard: A Reality Check of ADB's Operations in Bangladesh" at the Conference Lounge of the National Press Club.

Prof Anu Mohammad of Jahangirnagar University (JU), Hasanul Haq Inu, President of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), Saiful Haque, General Secretary of Workers Party of Bangladesh, Md Shamsoddoha, Secretary of Equity and Justice Working Group, Zakir Hossain and Aminur Rasul, among others, attended the roundtable.

Referring to Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) of ADB as a sugar coated bitter pill, Anu Mohammad said the main purpose of the ADB is to exploit the people of Bangladesh rather than remove poverty from the country.

"A sector becomes vulnerable whenever the international financial institution like the ADB shows interest to come to its help," he said and added to privatise Bangladesh Railway it circulated misinformation to the people saying that it was a loss-making organisation.

The ADB had suggested our government to withdraw Rationing System, close down TCB and BIDC, Anu Mohammad disclosed.

He further said people should muster power to ensure accountability of the ADB.

"In the name of privatisation, the ADB was demolishing our service-oriented sectors like education and health" Saiful Haque said and added Micro or Macro economics could not work for the betterment of the poor.

Hasanul Haq Inu said, "We should ignore all the suggestions of the multinational organisations on reduction of subsidy."

Zakir Hossain said, "The ADB gobbled up 70 per cent of its aid money in the name of consultation for the project on Saving Biodiversity in the Sundarbans, though the interest on the aid was borne by the people of the country."

"We fail to understand why our governments become so interested to take aid which is only 6 per cent of our national budget from the international organisations," questioned Aminur Rasul.

Gabinda Dhar, a representative of the ADB, pointed out to the absence of any Government representative at the roundtable. He emphasised on Government's role at the time of project formulation and said, "The ADB cannot continue with its activities in Bangladesh without the permission of the Government."

Corporate houses urged to support health, education programme

Staff Reporter

Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday requested the big corporate houses to come forward with their support to health and education programmes for the poor and empowerment of women.

"Banks have already extended their support for this two sectors," he told a function at the CIRDAP auditorium, and called upon the corporate houses to widen their social support for income generation for the poor.

Bankers' Forum, a welfare-oriented organisation, organised the function to distribute 'corporate social responsibility award' for the years 2006 and 2007 among six organisations for their contribution to social welfare.

The Dhaka Bank, Islamia Eye Hospital and Standard Chartered Bank have got this award for the year 2006, while Dutch-Bangla Bank, Ahsania Mission and Pubali Bank for 2007.

Forum president MA Khaleque chaired the function.

Dr Salehuddin called upon the non-banking financial institutions to engage themselves in social welfare activities for the poor.

"Corporate social responsibility should be carried out in a manner so that the poor people can become self-reliant by involving them in economic activities," he said.

There is a lot of scope for such support in the northern region of the country, he added.

The Bangladesh Bank governor, however, said that only some grants would not help improve the lot of the poor.

Operational activities of Ctg Port to be privatised

UNB, Chittagong

Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Commodore M Faruk yesterday said the operational activities of the port would gradually be handed over to private management.

"But the port machinery would not be allowed to be used by the private management after the privatisation," Commodore M Faruk said while talking to journalists on the occasion of the port's 121st founding anniversary.

After the privatisation, he said, the port authority would only monitor the port activities as a regulatory body. Referring to the port's enhanced efficiency, the port chairman said the average stay of ships in the port was 12 days in October 2006 and it is now only two and half days following the 1/11. "Efforts are on to bring down it to two days," he said.

About the steps taken for modernisation of the port, Commodore Faruk said, "We want to see it as one of the world's modern ports by 2010."

Hasina sent back to jail after treatment at Square Hospital

UNB, Dhaka

Detained Awami League president and ex-premier Sheikh Hasina was sent back to makeshift jail in parliament building complex yesterday afternoon after a week's treatment at Square Hospital.

Hasina who has been suffering from multiple health complications including problems with her ears and eyes was admitted to Square Hospital second time on April 19 She was first admitted to Square on March 11 and she was discharged on March 30.

Deputy Inspector General (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told UNB that the former Prime Minster was sent back to the makeshift jail as the hospital authorities discharged her after necessary treatment.

Hasina is likely to be produced before a Dhaka Divisional Special Judge court relocated to parliament building complex today in connection with Mig-29 war plane case.

DU teachers demand salary rise: Syndicate members, deans meet CA

UNB, Dhaka

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday urged the teachers of the Dhaka University to take the lead in creating knowledge based society in the country to catch up with the advanced world.

Terming Dhaka University the highest seat of learning in the country, he said quality of education of the university would have to be maintained and stressed training of the teachers to create an educated society.

The Chief Adviser made the remarks when a 26-member delegation of Dhaka University, comprising its syndicate members and Deans of Faculties and led by Vice-chancellor Prof Dr SMA Faiz, called on him at his office.

Some of the teachers on the delegation stressed revising the pay scale of Dhaka University teachers as many teachers are going to private universities due to low pay. They also proposed that a research fund should be created in the national budget.

Some of them also emphasized maintaining transparency in appointing lecturer for the university and introducing training programme at the entry point for lecturers.

They also opined for sharing equipment and spaces of various departments of the university for their optimum use.

The Vice-chancellor in his speech placed a number of demands, including transfer of the Atomic Energy Commission Complex from the to Dhaka University, construction of a 10-storied building at TSC for co-curricular activities of the students, construction of tower buildings for teachers' accommodation, allocation of land for a second campus of the university as primarily 500 acres of land was allocated during inception of Dhaka University, which presently possess 250 acres of land, extension of academic building and increasing overseas scholarships for higher studies.

The meeting was informed about ongoing four projects of a total cost of Tk 67.18 crore for various development works of the university and an increase in qualitative standard of university education.

Of the projects, a Tk 21-crore Dhaka University special development second-phase project is for construction of new girls' dormitory, flats for hall resident teachers, procurement of scientific equipment and construction of Bungalows for provosts.

Another amount of Tk 20.81 crore was sanctioned for a project for extension of academic building, extension of student halls, while a Tk 5-crore project taken for repair, renovation and reconstruction of Curzon Hall and a Tk 20-crore scheme for development of infrastructure and research capability of physical, chemical and biological sciences.

The meeting was also informed about five proposed projects for the next fiscal, including Tk 154-crore Dhaka University Special Development Project, Tk 27.35-crore Extension of Jagannath Hall project and Tk 15-crore project for renovation of antiquated establishments of the octogenarian DU.

The Chief Adviser gave a patient hearing to the delegation of Dhaka University and said he is in the know about the problems of the university as he was also the student of Dhaka University.

He assured that "despite resource constraint on part of the government, the problems would be addressed on priority basis".

He urged the Dhaka University teachers also to try to create the university's own sources of income.

Education Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, Education Secretary Momtazul Islam, Secretary to CA's office Kazi Aminul Islam and CA's Press Secretary Syed Fahim Munaim were also present.