The New Nation - Internet Edition

President asks AHQ selection board: Act neutrally in selecting officers for promotion

President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed addressing the Army
Headquarters Selection Board -2008 meeting at Dhaka
cantonment on Wednesday. PID photo

UNB, Dhaka

The President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Dr Iajuddin Ahmed, Wednesday asked the Army Headquarters Selection Board to rise above all personal liking and disliking and decide neutrally based on justice in selecting officers for promotion to senior posts.

"I believe, you give promotions to senior officers following specific guidelines… you'll rise above everything and find out through neutral analyses the competent officers, who will be respectful to their commands and more responsible for their subordinates," he said while addressing a meeting of the Army Headquarters Selection Board-2008 at the Army Headquarters.

The President said the officers elevated to senior posts should be temperate and also accountable to the country and the people. "I believe, your wisdom and neutrality will help build up a skilled army."

Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed, PSO of the Armed Forces Division Lt Gen Abdul Mobeen, Quarter Master General Lt Gen Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, all Lieutenant Generals and Major Generals of the Selection Board were present at the meeting.

Terming the Bangladesh army a part and parcel of national development and advancement, President Iajuddin said the army always stood by the people and for the welfare of the nation, and hoped they would make more

contributions to the welfare of the motherland in the future.

He said the patriotic army built up through the great Liberation War always has all along been playing strong role for the nation's interest.

The President expressed the hope that as members of a disciplined and professional army they would perform their duties with sincerity, honesty and firmness imbued with the spirit of highest dutifulness and patriotism.

"The honour you have earned at home and abroad through your professional excellence, dedication and dutifulness will be further consolidated and upheld in the future," he said.

Describing the Army as the symbol of independence and sovereignty as well as the nation's pride, Iajuddin said the role of army has been institutionalized in national development, maintaining internal law and order and rendering services to the humanity.

The army, he said, played a responsible role at the critical juncture of the nation on Janaury 11, 2007 rescuing the country from an anarchic situation.

Besides, he added, the Army's role in the present government's activities in curbing serious corruption and crimes have earned appreciation at home and abroad.

Praising the Army's role in preparing the voter list with photographs and national ID cards, he said this project would remain as a milestone in the country's history of democracy and advancement.

The President was also appreciative of the army's role in relief and rehabilitation work during the time of cyclone Sidr that struck the country's southern region last year. The army, he said, also earned fame for their services in tremor-hit China and cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, apart from their contributions to the UN peacekeeping missions.

He said the present caretaker government has been modernizing and expanding the armed forces so that they can efficiently face the challenges of the 21st century.

Despite economic constraints, initiatives continued to make the armed forces skilled and time-befitting by considering the importance of national defense, he added.

President Iajuddin said establishment of the Army Training and Doctrine Command would enhance the standard of overall training and professionalism of the armed forces.

Fun ride ends in funerals 5 school children drawn

Relatives and on-lookers wait anxiously on the bank
of the waterbody at Kalshi in Mirpur as search for missing
students go on. Four girls and a boy, students of MDC
Institute, drowned in a boat capsize while on a joy ride.
FocusBangla

UNB, Dhaka

Five school students, four of them girls, were drowned during boating for fun in Beguntila Jhil in Mirpur area of the city yesterday.

Witnesses and police said nine students, including six girl students, of class IX and X of MDC Model Institute at Mirpur-12 under Pallabi police station went to the flooded water-body for boat journey after visiting the house of one of their friends, Ajanta, in Block-D of Mirpur-12 area.

"As the students were enjoying the journey by dancing and singing, the boat capsized in the jhil near Madhumati Matsya Khamar about 12 noon," says a spot account of the tragic ferry accident that drowned the mirth of fun into the mourning of funeral.

The five dead were identified as Jyoti, 15, Shoshi, 16, Brishti, 15, Khoki, 14, and male-student Nipu who studied in class X of the school.

Ajanta, 16, Iva, 15, Ratul, 16, Mridul, 16, and Arif, 21, managed to swim to the jhil bank.

Arif used to study at Dhaka Commerce Collage, Officer-in-Charge of Pallabi thana Abdul Momen told UNB in the afternoon by phone.

On information, rescue teams of firefighters rushed to the spot and recovered the five bodies from the jhil waters with the help of locals.

Haroon, the boatman, told reporters that the accident occurred as the students started merrymaking "desperately" dancing, ignoring his repeated request.

Shamsunnahar Hall atrocity day observed at DU

Shamsunnahar Hall students brought out a rally on
Dhaka University campus yesterday commemorating the midnight
police attack on the female students inside the dormitory on
July 23, 2002. FocusBangla

DU Correspondent

Students of Dhaka University (DU) yesterday observed the 6th anniversary of police atrocities on female students at Shamsunnahar Hall of the University.

To mark the day, different student organisations of the university organised protest processions, rallies, photo exhibitions and cultural programmes on the campus throughout the day.

On this day in 2002, the police stormed into the hall at dead of night, dragged students from their beds, verbally abused and assaulted them, leaving more than 50 students injured.

The police swooped on them as they were protesting against illegal occupation of hall seats by some Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leaders.

In the morning, female students of Samsunnahar Hall brought out a protest procession from the hall that marched different streets on the campus with festoons and posters in their hands protesting the police attack.

Bangladesh Chhatra Union (BCU), a left leaning student organisation drew wall-paintings on the Shamsunnnahar Hall wall protesting the incident. BCU also organised a cultural programme protesting the police atrocities in front of hall gate in the evening.

Bangladesh Chhatra Federation (BCF) and Samajtrantrik Chhatra Front (SCF), two left learning students organisation brought out separate protest processions on the campus.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), student wing of Awami League in the evening lit candles at the Central Shaheed Minar. BCL also brought out a candle light procession from there that also marched different streets on the campus.

From the Foreign Press: Americans and autos: The romance wanes: The land of freeways and road trips is facing a travel revolution

Paul Harris Riverside,

California Observer

It is known as the Inland Empire: a vast stretch of land tucked in the high desert valleys east of Los Angeles. Once home to fruit trees and Native Americans, it is now a concrete sprawl of jammed freeways, endless suburbs and shopping malls.

But here, in the heartland of the four-wheel drive, a revolution is underway. What was once unthinkable is becoming a shocking reality: America's all consuming love affair with the car is fading.

Surging petrol prices have worked where environmental arguments have failed. Many Americans have long been told to cut back on car use. Now facing $4 a gallon fuel, they have no choice.

Take Adam Garcia, a security guard who works near the railway station in Riverside. Like many Inland Empire residents, he commutes a huge distance: 160km a day. He used to think nothing of it. But now, faced with petrol costs that have tripled, he is taking action. He has even altered the engine of his car to boost its mileage. "I have to. Everyone does. I can't afford to drive as much as I did," he said.

Recent figures showed the steepest monthly drop in distances driven by Americans since 1942. At the same time car sales are collapsing, led by a decline in sales of SUVs.

General Motors, once the very image of US industrial might, is in deep trouble. Cities are now investing in mass tranist hoping to tempt people back into town centres from far-flung commuter belts where they are stranded by high petrol prices.

Jonathan Baty used to be a pioneer. The lighting designer has cycled to work every day since 1993. It's a 14 km trip through the heartland of a car-based culture once famously termed "Autopia". But now Baty

has company on his daily rides as others choose two wheels rather than four to navigate southern California's streets. "We have seen a whole emergence of a bike culture in this area. There is a crescendo of interest, said Baty, who does volunteer work for a cycling group, Bicycle Commuter Coalition of the Inland Empire.

In Riverside, bus travel is up 12% on a year ago, rising to 40% on commuter routes. Use of the town's railway link is up 8%. A local car pooling system is up 40%.

It is the same in the rest of the US. In South Florida a high rail system has reported a 28% jump in passengers. In Philadelphia one has shown an 11% rise. Even scooter sales have shot-up. At the same time car sales are hitting 15-year record lows. Last week major American car-makers reported a devastating 18% drop in car sales.

The numbers point to a more fundamental shift. In American car sles carry a sysmbolic value that transcends the wheeler-dealering of the Showroom. This is a nation of fabled road trips and Route 66. "There is an American dream of mobility and freedom and wealth. The car is part of all that," said Professor Michael Dear, an urban studies expert at the University of southern California.

In the 1950s the confident nation was expressed in classic car designs of huge fins and open tops. By the 1990s it had become the Hummer, a huge bulking car born from the military. Now there is to be another shift. For, hidden within the car sales figures, is a more complex story than a simple fall. Sales of big cars are plummeting while smaller vehicles, especially fuel-efficient hybrids, are replacing them. GM has now closed SUV production at four plants. Its Hummer brand is up for sale or might even be closed. GM is ploughing huge resource into its 2010 launch of the Chevy Volt, a bybrid car that may get up to 1.6 litres per 100 km.

But America's changing relationship with the car is just part of the story of how it is changing in the face of the oil price rise. America has been built on an oil-based economy, from its office workers in the suburbs to its farmers in the fields.

Since the 1950s and the building of the pioneering car orientated suburb of Levittown in Long Island, the US city has been designed for the convenience of the car as much as its human inhabitants. People lives miles away from jobs, shops or entertainment. If you take away cars, the entire suburban way of life collapses. To some, that development is long overdue.

"Suburbia has been unsustainable since its creation," said Chris Fauchere, a Denver-based film-maker who is producing a documentary called The Great Squeeze. "It was created around cheap oil. People thought it would flow easily from the earth for ever."

Fauchere's film, due but later this year, aims to tackle the profound changes caused by a world where oil is becoming scarcer. He does not think that it is going to be easy for America to make the adjustment. "It is going to be tough. It is like a chain reaction through the economy. But if you look at history, it is only crisis that starts change," he said.

"Distance is now an ememy," said Professor Bill McKibben, author of the 1989 climate-change classic The End of Nature. "There's no question that the days of thoughtless driving are done."

Lamy calls for 'intensified’ talks, compromises: Brinkmanship, not breakthroughs, dominate WTO talks

Staff Reporter

Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Pascal Lamy has urged Wednesday WTO members to conduct "more intensified talks" with a sense of urgency and to be prepared for compromises to break deadlock over Doha Round negotiations.

"It is clear we need to move into a more intensive mode of consultations including smaller configurations," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell quoted Lamy as speaking to delegations in the morning when they entered the third day of the week-long meeting.

Ministers from some 35 WTO members including the United States, the European Union (EU), India and Brazil kicked off a crucial six-day meeting Monday, which was billed as the last chance to strike a deal on the long-stalled Doha Round of global trade talks within the deadline of this year.

The Doha Round of global trade talks, officially launched in 2001, had missed repeated deadlines in the past seven years mainly due to differences between the developing and developed countries over agricultural and non-agricultural market access (NAMA).

While rich nations were seeking more market access to the developing world for their industrial products, developing countries urged developed members to make a deeper cut of farm subsidies and tariffs for agricultural goods.

AFP Wednesday reported that high-stakes brinkmanship took hold on day three of crucial WTO trade talks yesterday, with both advanced and developing countries demanding concessions to avert another failure.

There were hopes that the late arrival of Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, a leading emerging country representative, would spur progress but he appeared in little mood to give ground.

"This is a round where developed countries have to put something on the table," he told reporters, adding that "real" cuts in farm subsidies and tariffs were needed from rich countries rather than empty proposals.

The European Union and the US have both made opening gambits with offers to reduce trade-distorting assistance to their farmers and are now calling for steps by developing nations to open their markets for industrial products.

The World Trade Organisation has convened a meeting of about 30 leading trade negotiators this week with the aim of mapping out a deal to conclude the long-delayed Doha round of global trade talks.

The Doha round began seven years ago with the aim of helping poor countries, but it has been delayed by disputes between developed and developing nations over subsidies and tariffs for farm and industrial products.

The brinkmanship fits a pattern that has seen several previous meetings since 2001 collapse without a deal.

"Progress has been modest until now," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy conceded in comments to the organisation's 153 members, his spokesman Keith Rockwell said Wednesday.

But Rockwell suggested there had been an "intensification" of talks during and since a ministerial meeting late on Tuesday.

In London, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that the talks were at "the 11th hour" and "a critical moment."

"If we do not succeed in the next few days, then it is very difficult to imagine people returning quickly to the negotiating table to secure the outcome that is needed," he said.

The United States on Tuesday offered to cut official aid to its farmers to 15 billion dollars a year, two billion dollars more than a previous offer, in a bid to spur movement at the WTO talks but found no support from key player Brazil.

The US overture came after an attempt by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson to jolt the talks into movement on Monday with an announcement that the European Union was now ready to extend tariff cuts on agricultural products to 60 per cent from 54 per cent.

Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath called the US offer "wholly inadequate" on Wednesday.

The EU offer was described as "propaganda" by Brazil and even dismissed as nothing new by the EU farm commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel.

Among all the pessimism, Indonesia's trade minister sounded a note of optimism, saying she had seen "coded signals" indicating that the key players were ready to make new offers to reach a final deal.

"I have to be cautiously optimistic (about progress). There were coded signals -- some evidence was there yesterday, even though they were not putting explicit offers on the table," said Mari Elka Pangestu of a ministerial meeting Tuesday night.

Pangestu, who speaks for the G33 group of developing countries, added that it was "not just the US or Europe", but that "it's what we call the major countries."

Nath insisted Wednesday however that he would be prepared to let a global trade deal go if developed nations insisted on including in an accord measures that would compromise India's industries.

Developed nations are pushing for a so-called anti-concentration clause -- which stops countries from exempting certain sensitive sectors from tariff cuts, to be included in a final global trade deal.

"All developing countries must protect their infant industry, must protect their small industry, and if it is a deal breaker so be it," he said.

Price of onion, garlic, ginger ominously high

Staff Reporter

The prices of onion, garlic and ginger ranged wide in the wholesale and retail markets in the city yesterday.

The range of difference in the prices of onion, garlic and ginger in the two markets are irrational, unacceptable and beyond comprehension, said customers in the city.

If the present price gap of the vital spices continued then the prices of those items might skip further during the month of Ramzan, they apprehended.

They said that the price gap should not be more than Tk 4 to Tk 5 per kg in the wholesale and retail markets.

The supplies of the three items are abundant in the markets and the price gap between the two markets remained noticeably high, said market experts.

Some unscrupulous businessmen might have been deliberately manipulating supply of those three vital spices for making windfall profits, they added.

They called upon the Government to form a committee comprising representatives of business community and law enforcing agencies to check the abnormal price gap between the two markets.

The local variety of onion was sold at Tk 25 and imported one was between Tk 19 and Tk 20 per kg yesterday in the wholesale markets yesterday.

Per kg of imported garlic was sold at Tk 20 to Tk 22 and the local variety at Tk 36 to Tk 40 and local variety of ginger was at Tk 72 and imported one at Tk 44 per kg in the wholesale markets.

In the retail markets per kg of local variety of onion was sold at Tk 30 to Tk 32 and imported category at Tk 24 to Tk 25. Local variety of garlic at Tk 55 to Tk 60 while imported one at Tk 32 to Tk 36 and local ginger at Tk 70 to Tk 75 while imported one at Tk 60 per kg.

Wholesalers at Kawran Bazar said the price of onion, garlic and ginger would not go up in the next couple of months if the present ratio of import volume went on smoothly.

We usually make marginal profit by selling onion, garlic and ginger in comparison with the wholesale price, claimed retailers at Hatirpol Bazar yesterday.

3 to die for murder in Munshiganj

BSS, Dhaka

A Court here on Wednesday awarded death penalty to three persons in the Mobarak Hossain Murder Case in Munshiganj.

The convicts are Mohammad Jahangir Alam Khokan, Mohammad Rashidul Islam Sagar and Mohammad Quiyum. Quiyum was tried in absentia.

Judge of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 Mohammad Nurul Huda delivered the verdict.

According to the prosecution, Mobarak Hossain Sarkar went missing after he left for his home from his business firm at Moktarpur on April 11 in 2007. Police recovered his body from Paragaon Beel under Tantar union in Srinagar Upazila on April 13. A murder case was filed with Munshiganj police station by his uncle Mohammad Aziz Sarkar.

Police after investigation submitted charge sheet against the three. The probe revealed that the trio killed Mobarak as he owed them some money.

Later, the case was transferred to the Speedy Trial Tribunal. After examining 25 witnesses out of 30, the Judge pronounced the verdict.

CA for housing projects of low income group in capital

BSS, Dhaka

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to undertake short and long term housing projects in the capital to address the accommodation problem of the low income group.

The directives came at a meeting held at the Chief Adviser's Office with Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair. The Chief Adviser himself took the initiative of this meeting to reduce the housing problems of the marginal income group people in Dhaka City.

"The multistoried housing projects should be implemented in such a way so that the limited income group can own the apartments gradually," he added.

LGRD and Cooperatives Adviser M Anwarul Iqbal and Housing and Public Works Adviser Maj. Gen. (retd) Ghulam Quader attended the meeting.

Cabinet Secretary Ali Imam Majumder, Secretary to the Chief Adviser's Office Kazi M Aminul Islam and Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser Syed Fahim Munaim were present.

The Chief Adviser was apprised that the National Housing Authority (NHA) could construct six-storied building on its own land in the capital as part of the programme.

Fakhruddin asked the authorities to go for a model project at first which can be replicated later following its success.

The Chief Adviser asked them to take cognizance of the recommendations given earlier by committees concerned regarding urban housing.

Housing and public works secretary, RAJUK chairman and NHA chairman were present in the meeting.

New water management in South Asia stressed: Take rivers as a whole from their source

BSS, Kandy

The South Asian Policy Forum has called for a new water management approach in the region taking the 'rivers as a whole' from their sources while planning river basin management.

"Water is going to be scare in the region soon and we should not waste time to find regional solution to water sharing," Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman as a panelist told a meeting of the Forum here on Wednesday.

He said the modality of basin-wise water management has already been worked out by experts, the problem is that the administrative establishments of the countries concerned are not paying heed to it.

Senators, lawmakers, political leaders, academia, journalists and representatives of various civil society forums from SAARC member states are taking part in the meeting under the auspices of 'Imagine a New South Asia'

ActionAid International and local Peradinya University are organizing it.

Referring to water disputes between India and Bangladesh on the Ganges river, India and Nepal on the Muhakhali river and India and Pakistan on Mongla Dam, the discussants said these are common property of the region and one should not treat them as transboundary issues.

Former Awami League MP Dr Abdur Razzak raised the issue of Tipaimukh dam now being implemented by India and said it threatens to dry half of Bangladesh on both sides of the Meghna basin.

He said India should be barred from creating such ecological disaster for its neighbours.

Ruhul Kabir Rezvi of BNP, journalist Nurul Kabir and Nawajish Ali Khan are taking part in the three-day event, among others.

The discussants are trying to map out the future of the region which should be borderless and visa-free built on the basis of a 'People's Union of South Asia'.

One discussant said Nepal alone has 6,000 small and big rivers flowing downstream and all the countries in the lower basin should have equal right on this water.

The discussants touched on quick transformation of the region to facilitate socio-economic integration and closer business ties on intra-regional basis.

The SAFTA should be made effective, they emphasized.

The region should create common financial institutions and on top of it should set up a South Asian bank to replace the Western domination of the regional economy by institutions like World Bank, IMF or World Trade Organization, they said.

They also called for creating a nuclear-free South Asia where democracy will flourish to give expression of the peoples' will away from the domination of military, elite class or bureaucratic institutions.

South Asia should have a human rights charter and a commission to be supervised by a South Asian people tribunal, they said focussing on the emerging face of a new South Asia.

The discussants said South Asia should have an efficient regional connectivity and in the area of media countries like India should allow the flashing of TV programmes of Pakistan or Bangladesh to Indian viewers.

Iftekhar holds talks with Myanmar FM

UNB, Singapore

Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury held a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart U Nyan Win here Wednesday afternoon, discussing bilateral matters, including trade and lease of land.

They are here to attend a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which is being attended by Foreign Ministers of all ASEAN countries and also US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Japan, China and Korea. Speaking to the media after the meeting, the Foreign Adviser said:

"We discussed a number of issues of common interest, including our desire to resolve the issue of maritime boundaries, soonest. Matters pertaining to trade and possible leasing of land in Myanmar by Bangladesh also featured in our talks."

The Foreign Adviser extended a very warm invitation to his Myanmar counterpart to visit Bangladesh soon.

Among others, Secretary to the President Sirajul Islam, Bangladesh High Commissioner to Singapore Kamrul Ahsan and Director General of Foreign Ministry Mosud Mannan were present during the meeting.

President asks AHQ selection board: Act neutrally in selecting officers for promotion

UNB, Dhaka

The President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Dr Iajuddin Ahmed, Wednesday asked the Army Headquarters Selection Board to rise above all personal liking and disliking and decide neutrally based on justice in selecting officers for promotion to senior posts.

"I believe, you give promotions to senior officers following specific guidelines… you'll rise above everything and find out through neutral analyses the competent officers, who will be respectful to their commands and more responsible for their subordinates," he said while addressing a meeting of the Army Headquarters Selection Board-2008 at the Army Headquarters.

The President said the officers elevated to senior posts should be temperate and also accountable to the country and the people. "I believe, your wisdom and neutrality will help build up a skilled army."

Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed, PSO of the Armed Forces Division Lt Gen Abdul Mobeen, Quarter Master General Lt Gen Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, all Lieutenant Generals and Major Generals of the Selection Board were present at the meeting.

Terming the Bangladesh army a part and parcel of national development and advancement, President Iajuddin said the army always stood by the people and for the welfare of the nation, and hoped they would make more contributions to the welfare of the motherland in the future.

He said the patriotic army built up through the great Liberation War always has all along been playing strong role for the nation's interest.

The President expressed the hope that as members of a disciplined and professional army they would perform their duties with sincerity, honesty and firmness imbued with the spirit of highest dutifulness and patriotism.

"The honour you have earned at home and abroad through your professional excellence, dedication and dutifulness will be further consolidated and upheld in the future," he said.

Describing the Army as the symbol of independence and sovereignty as well as the nation's pride, Iajuddin said the role of army has been institutionalized in national development, maintaining internal law and order and rendering services to the humanity.

The army, he said, played a responsible role at the critical juncture of the nation on Janaury 11, 2007 rescuing the country from an anarchic situation.

Besides, he added, the Army's role in the present government's activities in curbing serious corruption and crimes have earned appreciation at home and abroad.

Praising the Army's role in preparing the voter list with photographs and national ID cards, he said this project would remain as a milestone in the country's history of democracy and advancement.

The President was also appreciative of the army's role in relief and rehabilitation work during the time of cyclone Sidr that struck the country's southern region last year. The army, he said, also earned fame for their services in tremor-hit China and cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, apart from their contributions to the UN peacekeeping missions.

He said the present caretaker government has been modernizing and expanding the armed forces so that they can efficiently face the challenges of the 21st century.

Despite economic constraints, initiatives continued to make the armed forces skilled and time-befitting by considering the importance of national defense, he added.

President Iajuddin said establishment of the Army Training and Doctrine Command would enhance the standard of overall training and professionalism of the armed forces.

Assault of FF DU teachers form human chain

DU Correspondent

The teachers of Dhaka University yesterday formed a human chain on the campus demanding trial of war criminals and punishment to those who assaulted Muktijoddha Sheikh Mohammad Ali Aman.

The teachers especially from 'Blue panel participated in the human chain at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla.

DU teacher Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, Prof Anwar Hossein, Dr Harun-Or-Rashid, Prof Muhammad Samad, Dr Ahiduzzaman Chan and Dr Mashiur Rahman, among others, attended the programme. They urged the government to begin the trial process of war criminals immediately.

Terming the attack on a freedom fighter unacceptable, Prof Arefin said the trial of war criminals is now a demand of the time.

"The Government should implement different conventions which were signed for the trial of different genocides during the Liberation War," he added.

Besides, Bangladesh Chhatra Union under the banner 'Juddhaporadhider Bichar Mancha' collected signatures at the campus to push for the trial of war criminals.

Deadlock at Ctg Port over food unloading

Chittagong Correspondent

No sign in sight of resolving the deadlock at Chittagong maritime port created over scheduled discharge of rice came from India as aid.

The deadlock allegedly emerged over scarcity of transport like trucks. The Inter-district Truck Owners Association reportedly engaged in row with the department of food over an old contract.

The Truck Owners Association (TOA) demanded scrapping of an agreement signed in 2002 for revising truck fare. It stopped supply of trucks to the Directorate of Food since last eight days.

The stalemate screwed up as the Directorate of Food failed managing adequate storage facilities and could not manage the truckers for transporting the rice to suitable places in addition.

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) sat together with the officials of regional Food Department to find a way out but it also failed make a breakthrough.

The CPA, in the meeting, proposed to look for rented warehouses for storing the huge consignment of rice. The proposal has reportedly been passed to the ministry concerned. Port sources said that five ships remained almost idle at different jetties while five others are waiting in outer anchorage. Meanwhile, a vessel sailed this afternoon after discharging rice.

Indian government earlier pledged half a million metric tons of rice for Bangladesh. First phase of the pledge 100 thousand metric tons of rice have already been reached in Chittagong port.

According to director transport of Chittagong Port Authority nearly 2,000 to 2,500 tons of rice are usually discharged from vessels a day. But this time discharging of over 650 tons of rice at a time will be difficult for want of required transport, he said. [The End]

Lead: CRHOA urges review of CMP order Chittagong Correspondent Leaders of Chittagong Residential Hotel Owners Association (CRHOA) urged Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) to withdraw its recent directives that asked them to take photograph of each boarder while check-in.

They also threatened to go for tougher action if the CMP would not withdraw the directives immediately.

The CRHOA leaders convened a press conference at the conference room of Chittagong Press Club yesterday.

Convener of the association Abu Bakar Siddiquee and its member secretary Mohammed Jashim Uddin addressed the press conference among others.

Referring to the contribution of residential hotels in the country's economy the CRHOA leaders said that their business had already affected with the directive and at least 50 small and medium types hotels in the city would close down their business.

CG consolidating its power base by prolonging emergency: Delwar

Staff Reporter

The Caretaker Government was only consolidating its power by delaying lifting of the state of emergency, said BNP Secretary General Khandoker Delwar Hossain yesterday.

He said if the Government did not lift the state of emergency immediately, people would take the decision as to how and in what way the state of emergency could be lifted from the country.

Delwar was addressing a token hunger strike programme observed by the Zia Parishad at NAM flat in the city to realise its five-point demand, including unconditional release of the party chief Begum Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman and lifting of the state of the emergency.

About the recent comment of the Chief Adviser on the lifting of the state of emergency, Delwar said, "Eighteen months have already elapsed, and you (Chief Adviser) are still saying the time was not yet ripe to lift the state of emergency."

He said no free, fair and credible election would be possible under the state of emergency. "If the Government believes in democracy, it should lift the state of emergency immediately and arrange parliamentary election ahead of local government body polls," Delwar said.

"Although a famine like situation is prevailing all over the country, but the common people are not able to express their anger due to the state of emergency. People are unable to protest against the violation of their basic rights, it is not acceptable," Delwar said.

He repeated yesterday the demand for immediate unconditional release of the party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and all detained political leaders of the BNP.

About transit issue, he again urged the Government not to sign any treaty with India, which will go against the national interest.

"A non-elected government has no constitutional right to sign any deal with any foreign state. Your (government) only task is to arrange a free, fair and credible election and handover power to an elected government," he added.