The New Nation - Internet Edition

EC Secretariat, Teletalk sign agreement

UNB, Dhaka

The Election Commission Secretariat yesterday signed an agreement with mobile phone operator Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd to facilitate quick information for the people about the August 4 elections to four city corporations and nine municipalities.

EC secretary M Humayun Kabir and Managing Director of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd Mohammad Mujibur Rahman signed the agreement, on behalf of their respective sides, at the conference room of EC Secretariat.

Terming the agreement as experimental, the EC secretary said that if it proved successful, steps would be taken to extend the services during the upazila and parliamentary elections.

Information security would be ensured under the arrangement, he added.

According to a Teletalk release, any mobile subscriber, by sending SMS, will be able to know all relevant information including the polling centers in their respective areas.

The subscribers can get the desired information sending SMS to 2233 after typing EC and their 13-digit national identity (NID) number.

The subscribers of Grameenphone, Aktel and Banglalink will also get the service using the IVR technology by dialing 2233 from their mobile sets.

The Election Commission's initiative, first in Bangladesh, will also to provide the service through Bangla SMS.

The initiative, taken by the EC Secretariat with technical assistance of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd, can be considered a "milestone" in e-governance in the country, said the Teletalk release.

Wives of former BNP MP sent to jail

Bdnew24.com, Dhaka

Two wives and a son of former BNP lawmaker from Narayanganj Giasuddin turned themselves in to court in a graft case filed by the Anticorruption Commission.

Giasuddin's wives Reshma Begum and Touhfiza Begum and son Golam Md Faisal surrendered to the court of special judge AKM Arifur Rahman.

Giasuddin is behind bars in the same case.

A lawyer for the accused sought bail for his clients but the court rejected the prayers and ordered them to jail.

ACC assistant director Khairul Huda filed the case on Sept 5 last year.

The four stand accused of earning illegal property, concealing wealth information and abetting in graft.

Some red education dept officials indentified as graft suspects

UNB, Dhaka

The Anti-Corruption Commission has so far identified quite a few retired officials of the Education Department involved in corruption and irregularities over enlisting educational institutions for Monthly Payment Order (MPO).

A special team constituted to look into corruption and irregularities in the Education Ministry has so far detected six former officials at deputy director and assistant director levels and others who were allegedly involved in malpractice relating to MPO, sources told UNB.

The team, which is now concentrating on the MPO-related corruption, has already questioned a couple of retired officials in this regard, as a purge against pervasive corruption has been underway since last year's changeover in the corridors of power.

The Anti-Corruption Commission team is facing difficulty in finding the addresses of these officials, who used to work in MPO-related matters. The addresses of two ex-officials, who were questioned, were found while the addresses of others were yet to be traced.

"The MPO-related issue is vast. The team is looking for the people involved. They have been able to trace some of them. Even, the Education Department can't provide us the addresses of the officials," an ACC official said.

"It seems the team itself will have to trace those people. It will take some time," the official added.

Meanwhile, the special ACC team has detected corruption and irregularities in some of the educational institutions, including a few renowned schools in the capital.

According to sources, as part of the investigations, the special team sought documents from Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Motijheel Ideal School and College, Lalmatia Women's College, Titumir College, Borhan Uddin College, Barisal BM College and Pirojpur Suhrawardy College.

The documents were asked for looking into financial irregularities, mismanagement, appointment of principals, teachers and employees and irregularities in student admission, sarcastically called 'education commerce'.

There have been allegations of intake of lower-caliber students through underhand dealings screening out meritorious students in the name of viva after their qualifying in written test for class one at some reputed schools.

Browsing the documents received from the educational institutions, the team has found malpractice relating to MPO, appointment, student admission and mismanagement, sources said.

In phases, other institutions about which there are complaints would be asked to furnish the documents, they added.

Earlier at the beginning of their activities in mid-May, the special team had collected MPO-related documents from the Education Ministry and unearthed significant irregularities.

Bangladeshis can obtain on arrival visas in Malaysia

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladeshis can obtain "on arrival" visas in Malaysia from now on.

According to a Foreign Ministry's press release, the Malaysian authorities have reportedly drawn up a list of 27 countries, whose citizens will be required to obtain visas prior to their departure for Malaysia.

"Bangladesh has been excluded from this list, whereas it includes many SAARC, Commonwealth and African countries," it said.

Commentary on this, Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, also in-charge of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry, said: "This is good news. However, all of us must be careful so as not to be seen to misuse this unique gesture by the friendly Malaysian government".

Public holiday in 4 city, 9 pourashavas on Aug 4 for election

UNB, Dhaka

The government declared August 4 public holiday in the four city corporations and nine pourashavas going to the polls on the day in the first phase of a series of elections planned in the present transition process.

Officials and employees of all government, semi-government, autonomous, semi-autonomous and private offices and organizations in the areas would enjoy the holiday meant for "facilitating exercise of franchise and polling", an official announcement said yesterday.

The city corporations are Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisa and Sylhet.

The pourashavas are Naohata pourashava in Rajshahi, Dupchanchia in Bogra, Chuadanga pourashava, Sreepur in Gazipur, Manikganj pourashava, Fulbaria in Mymensingh, Shariatpur pourashava, Golapganj in Sylhet and Sitakundu in Chittagong.

Three girls drown in Gaibandha

UNB, Gaibandha

Three minor girls drowned in a pond at Bhabanipur village in Sundarganj upazila yesterday.

The dead were identified as Lovely, 8, daughter of Shakhawat Hossain, Rima Begum, 10, daughter of Chan Mia, and Khadiza, 8, daughter of Abdul Khaleq, of the village.

Members of the victims' families said the trio went to a pond nearby their houses to take a bath in the afternoon.

As they did not return home after a long time, villagers started searching them.

At one stage of searching, the three girls were found floating in the pond.