The New Nation - Internet Edition

Expanding rural banking services

BANKING in Bangladesh has a heavy urban bias. The country's 30 commercial banks (PCBs) have 72.55 per cent of their branches in the urban areas and only 27.5 per cent in the rural areas. The foreign banks have no presence in rural areas. The state-owned banks have been progressively winding up their operations from rural areas. But Grameen Bank and others engaged in non-conventional banking services in the rural areas report high degrees of recovery or success in their loan operations. With easy access to banking services, the rural areas would be fast growing and diversifying economically with positive impact of the same on income generation and poverty reduction while the banks would get dependable clients.

Clearly, the banks must think up innovative ways to extend their services to rural areas for the people of these areas to climb out of the poverty trap. This is a challenge facing the country's banking sector but it needs to be seen as an opportunity also as the success rate of lending activities by some non- government organisations in rural areas has shown. According to various studies, the rural areas provide substantial deposits to the banking system. Such mobilisation of deposits from rural areas could be much greater if the banks' presence in these areas was bigger.

The presence of the banks in rural areas is thin with marginal benefits to rural people. This is helping economic inequalities and contradicting the principle of extending banking services uniformly to all areas. Thus, the banks need to take greater interest in expanding their services to rural areas in their own business interest of greater deposit mobilisation and loan operations. The Bangladesh Bank is expected to be a facilitator in expanding the network of rural banking services.

Maize cultivation goes up

MAIZE cultivation has nowadays become popular among farmers in many parts of the country, particularly in the northern districts, as the crop is gradually replacing paddy mainly for its more production and more profits and less risks, according to available recent reports. The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) confirmed the reports saying a farmer can earn a net profit of Tk 7,000 by cultivating maize on one acre of land while cultivation of paddy on the same unit of land gives rice yield worth Tk. 3000 only. And similarly, maize cultivation cost is less than that of paddy. The cultivation of maize on one acre of land involves an expenditure of Tk 900 only as against Tk 3,000 for the cultivation of paddy on the same land.

Considering maize's utility and advantage over other crops, each farming family in the 16 northern districts is found to set aside a certain portion of their land for cultivation of the crop. Maize used to be cultivated on a very limited scale only about a decade ago. Besides, maize is also highly pest and drought resistant and is vulnerable to only four to five types of pests while crops like paddy and wheat are exposed easily to attack by over 200 varieties of pests. Maize has high demand in the poultry farms as chicken feed and large scale poultry farming across the country has now raised the demand for the crop substantially.

The country now produces only about 20,000 tonnes of maize against the requirement of roughly one million tonnes annually and the poultry farms alone require around nine lakh tonnes of maize, according to the Integrated Maize Development Project report. The DAE has fixed the target of maize production at 1,06,400 tonnes in the 16 northern districts this year. In Jamalpur district, a total of 1,062 hectares of land in seven upazilas has been brought under maize cultivation as farmers there find it more profitable instead of producing other crops. Moreover, a number of organisations including the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the Bangladesh Wheat Research Centre have been working to popularise the cultivation of maize.

It is encouraging to note that although Bangladesh used to be known once as rice-producing area it has successfully started cultivating also wheat on a large scale in the northern region. More and more lands are being brought under wheat cultivation for meeting country's increasing demand for the grain. Like wheat that is now the second staple food after rice, maize can also be used as an alternative to both rice and wheat because food experts both at home and abroad are of the view that maize is an immensely potential crop in view of fast changing of the food pattern of our country.

Making democracy work at grass-roots

Md. Masum Billah

The Election Commission has announced the schedule for holding four City Corporation and nine municipal elections triggering murmuring, buzzing sound and criticism from the big political parties. Intra-party disputes, rivalry between prospective candidates within alliances too has become intense since the declaration. In four divisional headquarters, mayoral aspirations in both AL and BNP brace themselves for challenges from components of fourteen parties and four party combines. Things have been even worse for lack of instructions from central leadership of the parties that have yet to decide whether to take part in the said elections. The political parties must take the matter into account that the government will not be in any problem if they don't participate in the local government elections rather they would be in the awkward position and will get secluded from the public. They threat to resist the elections. Question arises how they will do that. Most of the central leaders who will give the direction are in the jails. Furthermore, it is crystal clear to the ordinary people that the corruption perpetrated by the big leaders of big parties has brought serious misers to the countrymen. The threat to boycott the elections hints that they are pressing the government to free those corrupt ministers and powerful members who have actually not been adored by the people of this country. They further think if local government elections are held the central leaders will lose their hold in the areas. Indirectly it means that the big political parties don't bother about the strengthening of local government bodies. Local government bodies will be their chosen and loyal people. They just think of their party interest instead of welfare of the people. Various ups and downs of political field have made the ordinary people of this country politically mature. They will hardly respond to the unreasonable call of the leaders which calls for serous consideration of big parties.

The recent remark of renowned lawyer Dr. Kamal regarding the political situation gives ample scope to think. He has said, " After 1/11 massive reforms were started in the country which should see a successful conclusion." Questions are being raised about the government's ability to manage, he said urging officials of the military backed caretaker government "You have taken up a responsibility. Your patience, competence and honesty are being tested. Don't let the corrupt people brow beat you. The county cannot afford to be handed over again to those who were engaged in corruption in the past and that the election must be held worth any manipulation by godfathers and black money holders." In democracy the public representation is a must. But the nature and way of it has been vitiated by black money and muscle power. We cannot afford to continue it further.

Our democracy suffered from the top down philosophy which hardly saw real representation of root level leaders. The party which wins the election decides the presentation of the local government body. Such kind of top-down system helps the party and central leaders to dominate keeping aside the local government body's interest and the real welfare of ordinary people. This top down way hardly gives opportunity to people to elect their liked candidate as most of the process is influenced by central policy and leaders.

To bring honest, patriotic and clean people to politics holding local government election without political influence is a key factor. Such kind of people will show interest to do public affairs and contribute directly to the welfare of the people and nation. Party and muscle power controlled election never allures the honest people to come to politics. So, country becomes deprived of their real services as the entire political field is occupied by party interest.

It is true that running the governance calls for experience as it entails serious public dealing and political parity leaders have such kind of knowledge in this line. But their corruption, nepotism and party leanings banish all sorts of public welfares and the ordinary voters become deprived of their due rights and civil privileges due to these negative aspects. On the other hand, the civil society members, honest citizens who usually remain neat and clean from the turmoil of politics but don't have any experience of governance. Their assumption on the office may suffer from public dealing with some flaws. Even then, their honesty may drive away the hurdles standing in the way of their public dealings. Now let the honest people come to politics which may bring positive change in the life of ordinary people of Bangladesh.

The big political leaders and even the civil society members sometimes utter that this government does not have any right to think of local government election, to take any financial decision etc. why not? The political turmoil has given rise to this government. Serious chaos the country experienced and its upshot is the present government. Formally they did not take the votes of the people but indirectly and informally they enjoy public mandate.

Democracy is the popular form of government but it does not necessarily mean that it brings good for the public always. Even then we adore democracy. India is the largest democracy in the world. It has never seen military rule whereas Pakistan and Bangladesh most of their have seen military rule either in disguise or open. Definitely India bears credit in this respect. but her economic situation is still grave which is evidenced from an article of Kuldip Nayar in the D.S on June 16. He said," No doubt , India's middle class has expanded 350 million but the 20 million at the bottom is destitute. The government's own report published earlier this year says that more than 70% of the people live on less than a dollar per day. What does development or progress mean when roughly 70 million people are deprived of basic necessities?"

It proves though democracy is the established form of government, it cannot ensure basic necessities of ordinary people. Cuba has seen socialism in the form of autocracy but she has ensured almost all the basic necessities of her people. Still we are to form, establish and exercise democracy. So, the participation of big parties entails utmost importance. After the restoration of parliamentary democracy in the 1990 in our country all the governments were either coalition or quasi-coalitions. Gradually the country was moving towards greater and bigger coalitions. The fact indicates that, however, large parties are, they alone are not in a position to rule the country peacefully. To dream to rule the country by a particular party remains far apart.

CEC said, "The country's political culture has to be changed to establish democracy in the true sense. Everyone has to play his or her role changing conventional idea and beliefs for the betterment of people." The local government elections must not be dominated by politics and the big parties should restrain themselves to give an institutional shape to democracy. The traditional ideals and beliefs must be abandoned once for all.

The government seems to remain firm in holding the elections as per schedule and roadmap which become evidenced from the speech of Commerce and Education Adviser Dr, Hossain Zillur Rahman "We are moving forward step by step and the election to the local bodies is an important step to pass." To address local issues effectively and combat natural calamites which we experience almost every year, the strengthening of local government bodies attaches utmost importance but it has remained neglected or by-passed. Now time has come to undo the situation and political parties cannot seclude themselves from this requisite element of democracy.

The coming war on Iran

Aijaz Zaka Syed

History, language and culture might separate Iran from the rest of the Middle East. But physically and geographically, the Arab world and Iran are very close-closer than they might like to think.

When the last big temblor hit the Islamic republic, flattening the ancient city of Bam and killing 26,000 people in December 2003, we in the UAE and Gulf felt the tremors.

Which is why amid all this talk of the coming war on Iran, one often wonders what would happen if the US and Israel indeed went ahead and attacked the Islamic republic, as they appear all set to do now. What would happen to the constantly changing skyline of Dubai, the UAE and rest of the Gulf?

Taking a leaf out of Dubai's book and aided by oil money, of late just about every country in the region has been unveiling real estate projects and investment initiatives worth billions of dollars on a daily basis.

What happens to all those projects and development plans, if there's a war in the Gulf?

Common sense tells you that at a time when the US is already neck-deep in two disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is not likely to open another front in Iran. Especially when it's doing so miserably on both fronts.

And particularly when the US economy and the world economy are in such a mess and oil prices are shooting sky-high. Besides, there are less than six months before this born-again president leaves the White House.

This is why the idea of an attack on Iran seems so utterly absurd and downright stupid. This is totally illegal too. Because, according to nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory, every signatory state has a right to peaceful nuclear power. And uranium enrichment is part of this right.

Which is why even these sanctions - three rounds of them-that the EU and US have imposed on Teheran are illegal too. These sanctions have been inflicted on Iran despite the fact that it has taken every step of its nuclear programme under the watchful eyes and cameras of the IAEA.

And now Israel and its friends in the West are threatening to attack Iran even though IAEA's ElBaradei insists that its nuclear programme is NOT "a current, grave and urgent danger."

Why even America's own National Intelligence Estimate in December last year categorically concluded that Iran is NOT developing nuclear weapons and that even if Teheran were seeking nukes, it would take it at least 10 years to develop them!

But then this cowboy president has seldom allowed facts and common sense to interfere with his neocon agenda.

And in case we all forgot, in 2003 the US invasion of Saddam's Iraq too appeared so improbable. Editorial pundits and think tank wonks assured us then that a war on Iraq was not possible because the US was already fighting a bad war in Afghanistan. And now we are once again being told there an attack on Iran is impossible when the US is spread so thin in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But the people in the Middle East have always taken the threat to Iran more seriously, even when common sense suggested otherwise.

Notwithstanding their relations with the US, the Gulf Arab states are understandably worried about the coming war against Iran. After all, they have so much at stake. There are hundreds of billons of dollars in investments across the region-from the UAE to Qatar to Kuwait and Bahrain.

Bandar Abbas, the all-important Iranian port, is only a stone's throw away from where we are. The Bushehr nuclear power plant - currently at the heart of Iran's standoff with the West - strategically located as it is close to the Gulf is not far from Dubai and many booming Gulf capitals and cities.

The consequences of an attack on the Bushehr atomic plant or other strategic installations wouldn't be limited to Iran; they would be felt by America's friends and allies in the region.

An attack on Iran-even a limited strike-is a terrible, terrible idea for several reasons:

For one, Iran is not Iraq. It is not the spineless wonder that Saddam's Iraq had become after two disastrous wars and long years of sanctions. Iranians are a young nation with majority of them born after the 1979 Revolution. Fiercely patriotic and proud of their Persian heritage as well as Islamic identity, the 70-million nation would fight hard to defend every inch of its territory.

For two, an attack on Iran is certain to set the already volatile Middle East and rest of the Muslim world on fire. IAEA's Mohamed ElBaradei exaggerates not when he warns of the region turning into "a ball of fire" if Iran is attacked.

Although Iran does not have nuclear weapons - at least not yet-it has other ways of retaliating against its enemies. For instance, a dangerously desperate Iran could block the Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world's oil is routed. Just a few missiles and gunboats can choke off the narrow channel, hitting the precarious oil markets with frightening consequences for our world.

Then there's the humanitarian cost of this misadventure. Recently, the Oxford Research Group warned that up to 10,000 people could die instantly if Iran's nuclear installations are bombed. An attack on the Bushehr nuclear reactor could send a radioactive cloud over the Gulf threatening millions of lives.

Last time around when they came for Saddam's Iraq despite opposition from the UN and endless protests in Western capital, a deafening silence descended on the Arab and Muslim world.

There was not a single voice of protest in the so-called Arab and Muslim street. And their leaders persuaded themselves that perhaps the Baathist dictator after all deserved this disgraceful end. They told themselves, okay, Iraq is different. They convinced themselves this wouldn't happen again.

And now they are preparing to take out Iran. And they will come again and again to take out everyone who stands up for one's rights and refuses to surrender to big bullies. The only way to put an end to this terrorism of big powers is for the Muslim world to stand up and say in one voice: "Enough."

The 'Black Gold'

O.H. Kabir

This refers to four news items published separately on the first page of each national daily 1) The Janakantha dt. 25th April, 2008 under caption 'Bangladesh would change' Valuable minerals worth US Dollar 560 crore lakh available in the sea beach of Cox's Bazar, other coastal areas and also in the basin of Brahmaputra river 2) The Financial Express dt:-29th April. 2008 under caption 'high -level meeting to decide on sand export to Singapore 3) the New Nation 9th May, 2008 under caption 'Exploitation of sea beach mineral urged' and 4-) The Financial Express dt.17th May, 2008 under caption 'Govt orders study on S'pore proposal to buy coarse sand.

After decades of mysterious silence and play of ducks and drakes by our Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Science Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Commerce, Prime Minister's Secretariat, Geological Survey of Bangladesh, Bureau of Minerals, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Export Promotion Bureau and many others the announcement of BCSIR (Bangladesh Council of Science & Industrial Research that valuable minerals Zircon, Rutile, Monazite, Magnetite, Garnet, Elmenite and Titanium etc worth US Dollar 560 lakh crore are available in sea beach of Cox's Bazar, nome other coastal areas and also in the basin of Brahmanputra river basin is of great importance and now deserves highest consideration. We however vehemently protest cogent reasons.

Why should we export our sand to Singapore ?

There is every possibility that our valuable minerals worth billions of dollars would be smuggled out of our country with the export of sand.

Over last three decades many news, reports, articles, editorials and letters have been published in our various national dailies and weeklies for the utilisation of the valuable minerals which I call Black-Gold but the authorities concerned did not take any positive step and tried to suppress the matter on one excuse or another. I left no stone unturned for the commercial use and export of the valuable minerals in crude form earlier in the public sector or in the private sector but in vain.

In this connection I am constrained to draw the kind attention of all concerned to some of the communications/letters I received from time to time from different authorities i.e. 1) Geological Survey of Bangladesh telegram No.349 dt. 11th Jan. 1971 2) Pakistan Council of Scientific & Industrial Research Laboratories, Karachi letter No.113 dt. January 13,1971 3) Geological Survey of Bangladesh telegram No.926 dt. January 23,1971 4,) BCSIR Laboratories, Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka letter No.7813 dt January 27,1971 5) Hr. S.M. Shafiul Azam, Chief Secretary, Govt of Bangladesh letter No.5-PACS dt. 26th January 1971 6) Asstt. Private Secretary to the president Govt of Bangladesh letter No. 5-PACS dt. 26th January 1971 6) Asstt. Private Secretary to the President 9) Secretary Internal Resources Division and Chairman Board of Revenue letter No. 35 dt. 22-6-1992 10) President's Secretariat ,Cabinet Division letter No. ?29 dt. 1-7-91 11) Prime Minister's Secretariat letter No. 740 dt. 11-8-1991 regarding formation of a committee on 'Black-Gold' of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources minutes of the meeting report dt 20-9-1991 13) Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources letter No. 2./8 dt. 01-08-92 14) Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources minutes of the meeting dt 19-8-1992 15) Ministry of Energy and mineral Resources letter No. 243 dt. 18-8-92 16) Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources report dt. 8-12~92 17) Report of the Committee members of the valuable minerals of Cox's Bazar dt. 8-ll-93 19) Prime Minister' s Secretariat letter No. 25(17) dt. 01-2-94 20) Board of Revenue letter No. 836 dt 31-05-99 21) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 190 dt. 6-6-9) 22) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 402 dt. 27-10-99 23) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 262 dt.6-6-2001 2l) f1inistry of Science Information and Communication Technology letter No. 490 dt.16-4-2002 25) Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission letter No. 10(3)92 dt 05-02-2002 26) President's Secretariat letter No. 51 (2) dt. 12-2001 27) Ministry of, Science Information and Communication Technology letter No. 323 dt. 27-8-2005 28) Prime Minister's Secretariat letter No. 96 dt. 6-1-2004 29) Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources letter No. 839 dt. 17-6-2003 Prime Ministers Secretariat Letter No. 171 dt 21--2004 31) Ministry of Commerce letter No. 2005 (part-1) dt. L-11-2005 32) Export Bureau letter No. 640 dt. 16-7-1992 33) Export Promotion Bureau letter No. 612 dt-25-10-2005 34) Export Promotion Bureau letter No. 430 dt. 10-4-2006 35) Ministry of Commerce letter 2/Panna (4)-2 (Part -1)/15 drt-28-01-2007 etc., etc.

(If any person, scientist, geologist, journalist, industrialist Govt official civil, army or intelligence Department, RAB interested in seeing the relevant letters and other Press clippings on valuable minerals 'Black-Gold' he is most welcome with prior appointment)

I would also like to mention here that long after 36 years, about a year, ago I revisited some of the mineral deposit sites in Cox's Bazar. To my big surprise, disappointment I again found huge deposits of valuable minerals 'Black-Gold' lying unutilised., wasted. and washed away into the sea.

If we do not extract and collect the valuable minerals now within a few years valuable minerals worth billions of dollars would be lost forever due to world climatic change, green house effect and. rise in the sea water level.

We may extract and collect some of the minerals easily and at a low cost in a particular season and time.

Would our Chief Adviser caretaker government Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed look into the matter, hold a high level enquiry and save our valuable minerals 'Black-Gold' worth billions of dollars in the greater interest of our economy, financial benefit and welfare of our poor people?