The New Nation - Internet Edition

EC team apprises: President of progress in holding polls

Election Commissioners led by CEC Dr ATM Shamsul
Huda called on President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed at
Bangabhaban yesterday. PID photo

BSS, Dhaka

A delegation of the Election Commission led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr ATM Shamsul Huda called on President Professor Dr Iajuddin Ahmed at Bangabhaban here yesterday.

Election Commissioners Mohammad Suhul Hossain and Brigadier General (retd) M Sakhwat Hossain and Secretary of the Election Commission (EC) Muhammad Humayan Kabir were present.

Emerging out of the meeting, the CEC told the awaiting journalists that they apprised the President of the EC's different activities including the progress in preparing electoral roll aimed at holding the next general elections according to the road map, announced earlier by the EC.

He said that they told the President that EC is hopeful to finalise the electoral roll with photographs by October this year, as the 83 per cent of the voters in the country have already been enrolled.

Moeen opens potato fair: 2007 was bad, 2008 good year of bumper crops

Moeen U Ahmed

UNB, Dhaka

Chief of Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed Wednesday kicked off a three-day national campaign for increased potato consumption with a fervent call for all to enhance the intake of this food item now available in abundance.

A raise in potato intake, he said, could yield a double benefit: it would help out the farmers who have reaped a bumper harvest and cut down the demand for high-priced rice.

"Stand beside the 2.50 crore farmers, who grow food for 15 crore people, to keep them alive by way of eating an extra amount of potato with daily food intake," the army chief said in his appeal at the inaugural function of the 3-day "Potato Campaign 2008" at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.

General Moeen pointed out that the country faces rice shortage in the month of March and April, when potato is harvested. "So, if we increase potato consumption at this time, it will reduce pressure on rice," he said.

Mentioning the hard fact that Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country, he said though every year it faces different natural catastrophes, but 2007 was a very unlucky year as it witnessed seven catastrophes in a row. These included two phases of flooding, attack by cyclone Sidr, price spiral of food items and petroleum on the international market and spread of bird flu.

However, 2008 is a good year for Bangladesh as the country garnered bumper production of most of the crops.

Moeen shared how he became eager to campaign for raising potato consumption. He said when he visited northern Rangpur and Lalmonirhat districts, he saw huge sacks of potatoes lying on roadsides. "Farmers told me no one is interested to buy potato, which inclined me to launch campaign for potato."

He told his audience that due to campaign for a rise in potato consumption by government, its consumption rose significantly. "And I think the government also was able to stand by the farmers through the campaign."

Mentioning that this year the county got 30-lakh-MT higher potato production than last year, he said if the countrymen increase potato consumption, the surplus potato would be finished within two or three months.

To underpin the significance of the national campaign, he said the United Nations urged world population to increase potato consumption, declaring 2008 as World Potato Year, as potato production is higher all over the world this year.

And Bangladesh responded to the call of the UN and launched its campaign.

General Moeen, whose force is backing up the present caretaker government, had a word for critics of this campaign for potato. "I'll request those who oppose potato campaign for raising consumption to give suggestions how farmers would preserve or store the extra potatoes."

Reminding that cold storages have the capacity to preserve only 20 lakh mts of potatoes, he posed a question how the extra potatoes could be preserved if potato consumption is not increased.

Saifur leaves for S’pore: Admits losing authority as acting BNP chair

M Saifur Rahman

UNB, Dhaka

Acting chairperson of BNP (reformist) Saifur Rahman yesterday confessed that his leadership became infructuous after the party's standing-committee members who appointed him pulled out the rug from under his feet.

"I don't have authority as acting chairperson after the standing-committee members who appointed me withdrew support through affidavit… It becomes infructuous," he told reporters at his Gulshan house.

Saifur left for Singapore lastnight for medical treatment delegating none to head his faction of the immediate-past ruling party that fell in trouble following the detention of its chairperson and ex-PM Khaleda Zia.

He made the remarks when reporters wanted to know to whom he would give the charge of acting chairperson while going abroad.

A controversial meeting of the BNP standing committee appointed Saifur and Maj (retd) Hafiz Uddin Ahmed as acting chairperson and acting secretary general on October 29 last year.

Last month, four of the committee members-Dr RA Gani, Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui, M Shamsul Islam and Khandaker Mahbub Uddin-went to a court and renounced their decision by affidavit, saying that it was not a standing-committee meeting and that they attended a tea at the invitation of Saifur Rahman.

In reply to a question about the dialogue, Saifur said the government-political party dialogue might not be fruitful excluding Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina as well as the support of the vast majority of the people.

Insurance sector gets boost as economy grows rapidly: Zillur

Staff Reporter

Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman yesterday said that the importance of insurance business is assuming a new dimension with the rapid growth of the country's economy.

"As economy is growing, so is the risk in different forms, he said at a discussion meeting with the leaders of the Bangladesh Insurance Association (BIA) in the city.

He laid stress on giving importance on risk management saying that the cliental base of insurance companies is expanding steadily.

He said in SIDR affected areas there were many shrimp farms.. The devastating cyclone washed away many of them causing huge losses to owners of shrimp enclosures. They could recover much of their losses if they had insurance coverage, he noted.

Besides, a lot of foreign investment is coming to Bangladesh, which needs risk coverage, he mentioned.

The Adviser assured the insurance leaders that the proposed Insurance Regulatory Authority Act, the Insurance Act and the Takaful Act will take a concrete shape soon.

He informed that the government is considering holding of an economic conference in the gulf region for increasing remittance inflow.

BIA president AKM Rafiqul Islam told the meeting that the 60 private insurance companies have earned Tk 25,539 million in premium in 2005 and Tk 32,571 million in 2006. The private insurance companies paid the government Tk 490 million as Income tax and Tk 750 million as VAT in 2006.

He pointed out that the sector has been facing numerous problems which hindering growth of the industry. He said the insurance sector is still running under the Insurance Act of 1938, which need to be amended. He further said the general insurance companies are being forced to do 50 per cent reinsurance with the state owned Sadharan Bima Corporation (SBC). He urged the Adviser to bring down the stake to less than 10 per cent for the betterment of the sector.

The BIA president said the SBC is delaying settlement of longstanding claims of nearly 400 policies leaving Tk 2,290 million piled up with the state owned concern.

He also urged the government to reduce the corporate tax for the insurance companies.

Former BIA president Nasir Chowdhury and ALICO representative Nurul Islam also spoke on the occasion.

BNP action programme soon: Delwar

Staff Reporter

Secretary General of Pro-Khaleda faction of BNP Khondoker Delwar Hossain yesterday said that his party would announce programmes in a couple of days to press the demand for the release of detained former prime minister and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.

He said this while talking to reporters after a meeting at his NAM flat residence. "We have discussed possible programmes for the release of our detained leader at the meeting. The programmes will be announced in a day or two," he said adding the death anniversary of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman was also on agenda.

The BNP leader reiterated that the BNP would not take part in the polls without two detained leaders -Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.

Criticising the Government effort to involve civil society group in the dialogue process, he questioned the government's plan to sit with them.

He alleged that civil society represent the foreign interests, not the people.

"The civil society receives benefit from local and foreign agencies and NGOs, they don't represent the people," Khondoker Delwar observed. Asked about the political dialogue, he said the outcome of the government-political party dialogue would depend on the sincerity of the government. He demanded the release of Begum Zia and called the charge sheet against her in the Niko case as false and fabricated.

Replying to a question, he said BNP is an election-oriented party and they want to go to the polls after the release of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina.

Among others, Brig Gen (Retd) ASM Hannan Shah, Selima Rahman and Goyeswar Chandra Roy and leaders of Jubo Dal, JCD, Krishak Dal, Ulema Dal, JAS.

AL won’t participate in polls without Hasina: Zillur: It’s good for nation if govt quits: Suranjit

UNB, Dhaka

Demanding immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Hasina, acting Awami League president Zillur Rahman yesterday said his party would not participate in the parliamentary elections without her.

"Hasina's unconditional release would be our main issue at the formal dialogue with the government and we won't join the polls without her," he said adding that only her release could resolve all the prevailing crises of the country.

Zillur made the remarks while unveiling the cover of a book named 'Mohammad Hanif, the First Elected Mayor of Dhaka City Corporation and His Life of Struggle' by journalist Moshtaque Hossain. Mohammad Hanif Memorial Foundation organised the programme at a city hotel.

The AL acting president said the nation would always remember Hanif for his fight for establishing people's rights and democracy.

Speaking on the occasion, AL senior presidium member Amir Hossain Amu said now the presence of Mohammad Hanif was needed very much as the country was passing through a troubling time.

"We're particularly feeling the absence of Hanif as we're going to launch a movement seeking Sheikh Hasina's release and establishing democracy in the country through a fair election," he said.

Another party presidium member Suranjit Sengupta asked the caretaker government to conclude the dialogue process by this month and hand over power to elected representatives by holding a free and fair election.

He alleged that the proposed dialogue is now turning into a wail due to the dillydallying tactic of the government. "People's miseries would continue to aggravate as long as this unelected government will remain in power.

Rabindra kacharibari at Shahjadpur needs repair

Selim Reza, Sirajganj

Rabindra Kachharibari at Shahzadpur in Sirajganj that preserves many of the famous works of nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is now in a shambles due to lack of care and maintenance. Many works of Tagore inside the Kachharibari building was also exposed to damage and destruction due to indifference of the local administration for their proper upkeep.

Local sources said that the Kacharibari building has been decaying over the years as none took any care to repair it. Its roof was reconstructed under the supervision of the Archaeological Department in 1969.Since then no step was taken to refurbish Kachharibari building. After the independence of Bangladesh , a 500- seat auditorium was built there in 1999.

It is learnt from the record that Kumar Darokanath Tagore, grandfather of Rabindranath Tagore, bought an estate Shahzadpur at taka 13.10 on auction in 1840. The Tagore's family establiashed Kachharibari, on eight bighas of land.

Rabindranath came to Shahzadpur for the first time from Kolkata for supervision of their estate in1890. He was 28 years old at that time.

In rainy season, Tagore used to move around the region by boat and in dry season, he used palanquin.

During his stay at Shahzadpur he wrote many novels, dramas, short stories and poems. Noukadubi, sonartory, bisarjon, chitra, Choitali, postmaster and panchobhuto are some of them.

The Kachharibari.at Shahzadpur is rich with many memorabilia of Tagore. They include his shoes, wooden sandal, Bedsheet,, couch, palanquin, sofa set, piano, harmonium and different metal wares.

Govt to hold dialogue with major parties separately

Staff Reporter

The Government is planning to hold the dialogue with the major political parties separately and with the smaller like-minded political parties in a group in order to arrive at consensus easily and save time.

Disclosing this after a meeting of the four policymakers of the Government yesterday, Commerce and Education Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman said Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed is expected to address the nation on Saturday or Sunday, giving the guidelines of the national dialogue.

He said the four Advisers, entrusted to prepare the ground-work and guidelines of the talks, were meeting every day to make the modalities and agenda clearer so that the political leaders could sit across the dialogue table with the Government with an unambiguous picture of the pressing needs of the nation.

"However, we will finalise the mode of the (dialogue) sittings in consultation with the political parties," Dr Hossain Zillur said, adding, "We are in constant contact with the political leaders."

He said many areas of consensus between the Government and the political parties on major national issues have already been identified during the previous pre-dialogues, which the Advisers had with all the individual political parties separately. "Now, we think it will be easier to sit with smaller like-minded political parties in a groups so that the consensus could be arrived easily and time (length) of talks could be saved," he said.

Dr Hossain Zillur, however, refused to divulge the areas of consensus that the Government has identified through its pre-dialogues with the political parties, saying, "It is too early to announce that".

Held at his Law Ministry chamber with Law Adviser Advocate Hassan Ariff in the chair, the meeting was also attended by LGRD and Cooperatives Adviser Anwarul Iqbal and Communications, Housing and Public Works Adviser Maj Gen (retd) Golam Quader.

'Return to democracy must for resolving crisis in country’

Staff reporter

The Caretaker Government should declare the schedule of the parliamentary election as per the roadmap to revive democracy in the country. Without democracy it is difficult to resolve the prevailing crisis of the country, said Former Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdur Rouf at a discussion meeting yesterday.

He also suggested that the policymakers of the Government should concentrate their attention to the holding of fair and credible election to establish an elected Government in the country. Bangladesh National Awami Party (NAP) organised the meeting titled " People's Expectation in the Present Political Context" at the National Press club.

Sheikh Anwarul Haque, Chairman of NAP, said the Government has failed to rule the country properly. The price of daily essentials are out of control. A silent famine is prevailing over the country.

He placed some proposals to the government. The proposals include: To extend Open Market Sales (OMS) programme throughout the country, to suspend the plan for signing agreement for giving transit and port facilities to India, to sit with South Asian forum (a combine of five countries) to resolve the Farakka crisis.

Former Minister Syed Didar Bakth, also Presidum Member of LDP, Mostafa Kamal Majumder, Editor of The New Nation, Abdul Kader Mollah, Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islam, Advocate Abdul Mobin, Secretary General of Islamic Party, Abu Naser Rahamatullah, Secretary General of Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Altaf Hossain Munna, Senior Vice President of NAP also spoke at the meeting.

Former Minister Nazim Uddin Al Azad, also president of Bangladesh Liberal Democratic Party (BLDP) said, some corrupt politicians of previous government are responsible for this critical situation of the country. They embezzled the assets of the country for personal gain. They must be punished and should be declared as disqualified for participating in the next election.

Showkat Hossain Niru, president of National Democratic Party, said, "the caretaker government has failed to meet the people's expectation as it failed to fulfil their fundamental demands. People cannot utilise their freedom of speech. The government should hand over power to an elected government."

Abu Hamidur Reza Khan Bhashani, Secretary General of NAP and Grandson of Maolana Hamid Khan Bhashani, said, people are fed up with the autocratic attitude of the army-backed Government. People want to see their representatives in parliament."

Recalling the contribution of Maolana Bhashani, Reza said, "The nation needs another Bhashani to overcome the crisis in the country."

Red Crescent Day today

Staff Reporter

Today is the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day. Bangladesh Red Crescent Society is organising various programmes to mark the day in a befitting manner.

On the eve of the day, the society organised a view exchange meeting with the journalists at the National Press Club in the city yesterday, while Chairman of the society Prof Dr Abdur Rab delivered the key note speech.

In his speech, he presented Bangladesh Red Crescent Society's various programmes and operations including providing relief among disaster hit-people, health service for the destitute, blood supply for prompt treatment and various disaster management programmes.

Prof Abdur Rab urged the mediamen to play vital role for involving of a large section of the country people with the activities of the Red Crescent.

Vice Chairman of the society Prof Dr Gazi Abdul Haque, Secretary General Safiul Alam, treasurer SM Munir Lablu and members of the Managing Council, among others, were present at the function, a press release said.

Govt urged to buy boro rice from farmers

Staff Reporter

BDR Director General Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed yesterday urged the Government to procure Boro rice and paddy from the farmers directly to stabilise the price of rice in the next three to four month in the country.

Gen Shakil observed that the Government could not procure the rice from the farmers properly and urged the Government to change its procurement system.

He was speaking as special guest at a lunching function of 'FBCCI Price Monitoring Task Force' at FBCCI conference room yesterday.

"The price of rice will be stable in the markets, if we procure Boro rice from the small farmers across the country," BDR director general said adding, "The cyclone 'Nargis' in Myanmar has again warned us to procure Boro properly because the price of rice will increase further in the international market."

"The Government had imported only 10 lakh 15 lakh metric tons of rice and 15 lakh metric tons imported by private agencies annually. The rest of the 270 lakh metric tons of rice produced by farmers against the demand of 300 lakh metric tons annually," he said adding, "It is necessary to provide direct subsidy the farmers to encourage them for producing more foodgrains.

He added that the Government should provide sufficient loans in the agriculture sector.

"It is necessary to change the Government duty structure for ensuring the availability of essential commodities in a stable price in the market," he said adding, "The people use up 70 per cent to 80 per cent of their income to buy essential foods."

He further said that the BDR could not control the retail market in a day. The Government of India could not control the price of palm oil and soyabean oil in that country because the price of the oil in the international market was high.

If the international price of essential commidities do not stablise, the price of the commodities would be fluctuated in the market.

It is possible to stabilise price of essentials if the Government, BDR and FBCCI work together in this regard.

Annisul Huq said that the Government should declare a policy if it would provide provide subsidy to import essential commodities.

"We will need to formulate the food and stock policy," he said adding, "It should specify how long a businessman hoard foods in the godown." ,

"The government should import the rice in the small consignments to ensure the availability of rice in the country, the FBCCI president said.

He hoped that the FBCCI price-monitoring cell would help to adopt a policy and build a bridge between the businessmen and people of the country.

"The people blamed us as profiteers or hoarders, but, we the businessmen have worked together for the betterment of the society," the FBCCI president said.

Fazlur Rahman, a businessman said "We want to cooperate with the government if they assist us."

He added that the Government of India withdrew duty from the oil to stabilise oil price in the country.

Abul Kasem, first vice president of the FBCCI said the price of the essentials commodities were hiked due to price hike in the international market.

"It is possible to stabilizse the price of the essentials commodities if Government and Private agencies could work together," he hoped.

Later, the BDR Director General Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed Lunched the FBCCI Price Monitoring Task Force.

Kamaluddin Ahmed, Chairman of FBCCI Price Monitoring Task Force, Safkat Haider, co-chairman of the task force addressed in the function.

60th founding day of IEB: Engineers’ role in achieving food security stressed

Staff Reporter

Assurance of good quality seeds, fertiliser and proper irrigation could help in achieving food security, said speakers at a function in the city yesterday. Bangladesh needs to produce 3.2 crore tons of rice for the year 2008-09.

As every year the country is losing nearly 80 thousand hectare of arable land, engineers could play an important role in water resources development management, agricultural mechanism and agro processing and food technology for ensuring the country's food target.

The above observations came at a function marking the 60th founding anniversary of Engineers Institution, Bangladesh (IEB) at its headquarter.

Engineer Mohammad Tamim, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser on charge of the ministries of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources was present as chief guest.

M Harun-ur-Rashid, Director General, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) presented a keynote paper. Engineer Mohammad Mohsin Ali, President in Charge of IEB presided over and Engineer Khan Manjoor Morshed also spoke on the occasion.

Mentioning the engineers as the most vital segment of the society Dr Tamim said they could play an important role in agriculture management for achieving the country's food security target.

In this regard he lauded the engineers' untiring role in supporting the farmers for providing power and other agricultural inputs for achieving bumper production of 'Boro'.

Highlighting the importance for food security Dr Tamim said the farmers should be given more subsidies on power and diesel with a view to produce more food grains.

Rashid recommended strengthening the capability of disaster management at the national, regional and local levels, taking initiatives for timely agricultural rehabilitation and international agencies favourable agriculture policies.

IEB was established in 1948 and has a membership of nearly 25 thousand.