The New Nation - Internet Edition

Alokito Nogori accords reception to Dr Anisuzzaman

Staff Reporter

Alokito Nogori (Enlightened City) accorded reception to Professor Emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman and 'Ananda Purushkar' winner novelist Hasan AzizuJ Huq at a local club on Saturday. Aminur Rahamn Rana, Chief Executive Officer of Alokito Nogori welcomed all.

The function was attended by celebrated litterateurs and intellectuals of the country.

They included Prof Hayat Mamud, environmental scientist Dwijen Sharma, Jyoti Prokash Datta, Principal Jahanara Nawshin, Dr Syed Manjurul Islam, Dr Biswajit Ghosh, Ali Ahmad, Dr Syed Mohammad Shahed, Aslam Ziauddin, Poet Rabiul Husayn, Abed Khan, Editor and Mozammel Hossain Manju, Deputy Editor of Danik Samakal, Kaiser Chowdhury, Managing Director of AB Bank, Nasir Uddin Ahmed, Acting Managing Director of Prime Bank, Sayed Lutful Haque, Abul Hasnat, Khairul Alam Sabuj, Nasir Uddin Yusuf Bacchu, Bulbul Chowdhury, Ata Sarkar, Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, Dr Mahbub Hasan, Maruf Raihan and Shamim Reza, Ahmad Mazhar, Shirin Bakul, Kazi Dinar Sultana Binti, Syed Zakir Hossain, Mubassir Majumder, Engineer AK Azadand Masud Ahmad Sanju.

BSF abducts two Bangladeshi youths

UNB, Sylhet

Two Bangladeshi citizens were abducted allegedly by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) from Tahirpur frontier of Sunamganj district on Saturday evening.

According to 17 Rifles Battalion, a team of Gomaghat BSF Company headquarters abducted Sabuj Miah, 19, and Joynal Abedin, 27, when they went to Laurergarh border area to collect firewood in the evening.

A letter on behalf of BDR was sent to the BSF Sunday morning demanding immediate return of the two Bangladeshi youths.

Trial in tax-evasion case against Tuku defers to July 21

UNB, Dhaka

A special court Sunday deferred to July 21 the trial in the tax-evasion case facing by jailed former State Minister for Power Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku as he fell sick before he was produced in the dock.

Tuku's son Abed Hasan Mahmud told UNB that his father fell sick in the court hajat at about 2 pm as he was brought from Kashimpur jail. Later, the resident medical officer (RMO) of Jatiya Sangsad examined him and found his blood pressure high, he said.

After instant treatment, the doctor advised Tuku not to attend the court and have proper treatment.

As the prosecution was informed about it, the court deferred the trial proceedings.

Deputy tax commissioner of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Mohammad Nurul Amin filed the case accusing Tuku of evading about Tk 3.80 crore in income tax from 1999 to 2007.

Earlier on November 15, 2007, a special court trying high-profile corrupt suspects sentenced Tuku to nine years in jail in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Wild elephants again raid Bandarban villages

BSS, Bandarban

Simultaneous raids of wild elephants at two remote Bandarban villages left six people injured, prompting hundrdes of frightened villagers of the rugged region to flee their homes.

Officials and witnesses said a herd of wild elephants attacked again the remote Tirer Deba village of Lama this time injuring critically a widow and his 22-year son three days after the monster beasts trampled to death four members of one family in the same village.

Police said in a simultaneous raid at rugged Chhagalkhaia village at neighbouring Naikhangchhari upazila injuring four, three of them seriously.

The injured were being treated at local facilities while preparations were underway to send the critically wounded persons to Chittagong Medical College Hospital for better treatment, they said.

One elderly woman was killed as the herd of elephants attacked the same area 10 days ago.

More than 100 families of the two villages fled their homes overnight for safer places in view of the repeated attacks by the wild elephants in the region.

Another 100 families deserted their homes at Tirer Deba alone after the deaths of the four villagers there three days ago.

Eighteen deaths were reported in Lama and neighbouring Naikhangchhari and Chokoria in the past two months as the elephants raided villages coming down from the forests in search of food, targeting harvested heaps of paddy and household banana gardens.

Bangladesh has nearly 400 elephants, including 100 migratory pachyderms, and a similar number of captive elephants, forest officials said adding that up to 20 people and eight elephants are killed in human-elephant conflicts every year on an average.

Wildlife experts and officials have long been saying that human populations were fuelling more demand for land and other resources, destroying the elephants' habitat and placing them at a greater risk of direct confrontation with people.

Some 100 elephants migrated to forests in northern Sherpur from India's northeastern state of Meghalaya several years ago, but failed to return because of development of infrastructure like roads by Indian authorities.

Bangladesh has been asking Indian authorities to take back the elephants saying they were causing damage to crops, properties and human life in the region.

Draft coal policy goes to cabinet for approval soon

UNB, Dhaka

The draft coal policy with options for open pit and underground mining is being sent this week to the cabinet division for government approval.

"We've completed all necessary procedures. Now the draft will be sent to the Cabinet Division anytime this week for approval, Chief Advisor' s Special Assistant for Power and Energy Ministry Dr. M Tamim told UNB on Sunday.

He said inter-ministerial meeting discussing the draft policy had given the green signal to go ahead.

The BUET professor-turn caretaker government functionary said options for both open pit and underground mining methods were kept in the draft policy.

"Development method of any coal field will be determined on the basis of the coal conditions," he said adding that there is no provision for any pilot project or experimental basis project of open pit mining.

Full compensation including rehabilitation of those affected by the mining was provided in the draft policy. But they would not get the land back on completion of the mining as was proposed in the earlier draft policy.

"Land Ministry has suggested that this is not a pragmatic provision as land returning process to the original owner may create lot of complications after a long time of acquisition," said Dr, Tamim.

A high-level technical expert committee drafted the coal policy and placed it to the Energy Division in January this year.

Energy Division then reviewed it and took suggestions and opinions of other ministries concerned before finalizing the draft.

In the absence of coal policy, the Energy Ministry's move for developing the country's coal fields remained stalled.

So far, six coal fields with a total reserves of 2.55 billion tons have been identified, mainly in northern region.

Of those, Phulbari Coal Mine project, for which it UK-based Asia Energy conducted a feasibility-study and submitted an open pit mining development project remained staled for government's approval.

Similarly, Indian Tata Group also showed interest and placed a proposal for development of Barapukuria coal mine through open pit method. But the government is holding a decision for the policy.

Postgraduate students stage demos on DMC campus

UNB, Dhaka

Postgraduate medical students Sunday staged demonstrations on the central Shaheed Minar premises to press for resignation of Professor Abul Kashem Khandaker, head of medicine department of Dhaka Medical College.

The agitating students who came from different medical colleges affiliated with Dhaka University also demanded immediate cancellation of 'allied system' from their curriculum, which was earlier interpolated into their post-curricular Doctor of Medicine, Masters of Surgery (MDMS) through an amendment.

Seeking anonymity, one agitating student told UNB by phone in the afternoon that the Faculty of Medicine had formed a 7-member committee, headed by Abul Kashem Khandaker, in the face of strong student protest to resolve the matter on June 18.

The committee was also asked to decide a strategy on how the course curriculum would be carried out without allied system.

But Abul Kashem with the help of two other members of the committee announced that allied system would not be cancelled from their curriculum on June 30, ignoring the order of the Faculty of Medicine. "And that forced us to go for demonstration," he said.

Citing an example, he said despite of being a skin student, he is to answer questions about brain tumor. "So it should be removed."

During the one-hour demonstrations from 12 noon, the postgraduate students also burnt an effigy of Professor Abul Kashem after forming a human chain at the central Shaheed Minar.

Later, they submitted a memorandum to the Health Ministry seeking its attention to the problem for a solution.