Call for Halda river protection in national interests
Staff Correspondent
The River Halda, the major source of genetically pure carp fish in the world, is likely to be included as a world heritage site if the biodiversity of the river can be well conserved. The agriculture, fisheries and livestock adviser, Chowdhury Sajjadul Karim, said this addressing a seminar on the necessity of Halda river protection in national interest. He was speaking as chief guest at the seminar, organised by the Chittagong Samiti in Dhaka at the Chittagong Bhaban on Tuesday. The natural water flow by most of the cross boundary rivers has already been affected due to withdrawal of water upstream while Halda can be protected locally as the only source of hundred per cent pure fish resource of the country, the adviser said. Improper management and excessive catching of brood fish has led to a severe decline of spoon availability, said Karim, adding that, ‘The government will initiate a new project regarding the management of the river on July 1 which has been already undertaken by the government on a priority basis.’ Chaired by the president of the Samity, Abu Alam Chowdhury, the home secretary, Mohammad Abdul Karim, and fisheries and livestock secretary, Syed Ataur Rahman, also attended as special guests. Mahmudul Karim, president of Bangladesh Shrimp and Fisheries Foundation, presented the keynote paper titled ‘Halda river fisheries: stop further degradation and sustain the fisheries’. The river is the most reliable source for genetically pure and high quality brood stocks of Rui, Katla, Mrigal and Kalibaosh and also a significant source of Galda prawn brood stocks for hatchery and post larvae for farming, said the keynote paper.
Kamal wants HR commission to curb rights violation
Staff Correspondent
Eminent lawyer and Gana Forum president Dr Kamal Hossain on Tuesday called upon the interim government to constitute a human rights commission to address the cases of rights violation. ‘During the transition, the proposed commission can ensure that while corrective actions are being taken, human rights are respected and also awareness is developed about the responsibilities of those performing public functions,’ Kamal said. The commission could make a significant contribution towards empowering the citizens, in particular women, to play a dynamic role in the society, he told a press conference on hill cutting at the National Press Club in Dhaka. The Gana Forum chief also called for establishment of a judicial reform commission which the lawyers’ community had been demanding for quite some time. ‘Through the commission, consultations with the present and past senior members of judiciary as well as leaders of the legal profession would be useful in bringing about meaningful changes in the judiciary’, he observed. He demanded a complete ban on hill cutting in Chittagong and necessary changes in the building code. Economist Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, journalist Syed Abul Mokshud and politician Zahirul Islam also spoke at the press conference.
Jahanara Imam’s death anniv observed
Staff Correspondent
Various organisations observed the 13th anniversary of the death of Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam in Dhaka on Tuesday. Ekatturer Ghatak-Dalal Nirmul Committee placed flowers at the grave of Jahanara in the Martyred Intellectuals’ Graveyard at Mirpur in the morning. Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Inu) and Karmajibi Nari placed flowers at the grave of Jahanara Imam in the morning. The Nirmul Committee held a Jahanara Imam memorial lecture and a discussion and awarded deputy commander in chief of the independence war, retired air vice marshal AK Khundakar, and Muktomona web site the Jahanara Imam Memorial Award 2007 in a programme at the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs at Dhanmondi in the afternoon. The Muktijuddha Sanghati Parishad chairman, retired colonel Shawkat Ali, received the award on behalf of AK Khundakar. Professor Ajoy Roy received the award on behalf of Muktomona. The Bangladesh convener of the War Crimes Fact-Finding Committee, MA Hasan, delivered the memorial lecture. Justice KM Sobhan, Shyamoly Nasrin Chowdhury, Jahanara Imam’s son Sayeef Imam Zami, president of the committee Shahriyar Kabir and its general secretary Kazi Mukul also took part in the discussion. Martyred intellectual Alim Chowdhury’s wife Shyamoly Nasrin Chowdhury called for all to be united to punish the war criminals. Sayeef Imam Zami urged all to visit the Jahanara Imam Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi. Professor Kabir Chowdhury chaired the function. The Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal convener, Khalekuzzaman urged all progressive forces to be united in the spirit of independence war. In the afternoon, Jahanara Imam Memorial Library at Dhanmondi organised a commemorative meeting in its office. Central BSD leader Saifur Rahman Topon, Julfiqar Ali, Jamal Uddin Titu and Selina Akhter spoke on the occasion. Jahanara Imam, in 1992, initiated Ghatak-Dalal Nirmul Committee (committee to exterminate killers and collaborators). The committee held a people’s court to try the war criminals of 1971.
Principal, 19 others hurt as locals attack college
Our Correspondent . Sirajganj
At least 20 people, including the principal of the Shimla Degree College, were injured when local people attacked the college over a conflict centring on an auction of the college buildings in the town on Tuesday. The assistant commissioner (land), Md Abdur Rahim, with some policemen went to the college to hand the buildings over to the auctioneer at about 12:30pm when about four or five hundred people launched the attack, the local residents said. The principal, Md Anisur Rahman, and 19 others were injured in the clash. The principal and four others, seriously injured, were admitted to Sirajganj General Hospital. The college needs to be shifted as erosion could hit the buildings any time, said the assistant commissioner. Local residents, on the other hand, said the principal was ‘intentionally’ trying to shift the college.
Shibir man held for bribery
Our Correspondent . Lalmonirhat
The joint forces arrested an activist of the Islami Chhatra Shibir at Daikhowa under Hatibandha in Lalmonirhat on Tuesday. The arrested, Monsur Elahi Aslam Khandker, 25, of Daikhowa, and master’s degree student of the Islamic University, had allegedly taken Tk 20,000 in bribe from a local resident promising him a job at the deputy commissioner’s office in 2004.
ADB okays $465m credit for power sector reforms
Staff Correspondent
The Asian Development Bank board in Manila approved Tuesday a $465 million credit for a sustainable power sector development programme in Bangladesh, the ADB website said. The multilateral lending agency will disburse the fund as a $60 million programme loan and a $405 million project loan. The programme loan is aimed at supporting the power sector reforms through financial and organisational restructuring, improved governance, and promotion of public-private partnership. The loan will have to be repaid within 24 years with an eight-year grace period. Of the project loan, $400 million will be used for expansion of clean fuel generation capacity, enhancement of transmission network reliability and efficiency, and improvement of the quality of power supply to Dhaka and its surrounding areas, which accounts for majority of the country’s power demand. It will have to be repaid in 25 years with a five-year grace period. The remaining $5 million of the credit will be used for capacity development of the power sector to improve utility performance and promote sustainable operations. It will be repaid in 32 years with an eight-year grace period. The power sector development programme supports the government’s goal of providing electricity throughout the country by 2020, said Pil-Bae Song, head of project administration of the bank’s South Asia department. Inadequate electricity supply has been a major constraint to Bangladesh’s economic growth and poverty reduction, he observed. ‘The project loan is expected to reduce system losses and improve quality of supply, leading to more efficient use of energy and making more power available to support sustained economic growth, while offsetting growth in greenhouse gas emissions,’ Song said. It will also directly benefit 8.2 lakh existing consumers in Dhaka by providing reliable power supply, he added.
100 years’ Scouts celebrations to begin June 28
Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Scouts will hold a programme, ‘Jamboree on the train,’ beginning on June 28 from the Chittagong railway station to mark 100 years’ of the Scout movement worldwide. The Bangladesh Scouts officials at a briefing at its headquarters in Dhaka on Tuesday said the theme of the celebrations would be ‘Jamboree on the train: knowledge, thrill and friendship.’ The journey, which will cover a distance of about 800 kilometres, will end in Dinajpur on June 30. The journey will begin in Chittagong at 8:00am on June 28 and will reach Dinajpur via Laksam, Akhaura, Dhaka, Tongi, Gazipur, Jamuna Bridge, Ishwardi, Santahar, Parbatipur and Jaipurhat, said the Bangladesh Scouts chief national commissioner, M Fazlur Rahman. The inaugural ceremony will be held at the Kamalapur railway station at 10:30am on June 29. Adviser to the interim government Mainul Hosein will attend the programme as chief guest. The concluding ceremony will be held in Dinajpur on July 1 at 11:30am. On the way from Chittagong to Dinajpur, there will be some entertainment and academic programmes such as making friendship, writing travel stories and poem writing, recitation session, games and exchange of gifts on the train, Fazlur Rahman said. Scouts will participate in the jamboree programme in three batches. The first group will have 20 Scouts and Girl-in-Scouts, selected from all the Scouts areas of Bangladesh, who will get into the train in Chittagong and travel up to Dinajpur. Some participants from three SAARC countries — India, Nepal and Bhutan — will also during the whole of the journey with the group. Another batch of groups will travel to the on-route camps and back after finishing their scouting activities and the third batch of groups will stay at the on-routes stations to welcome the train. Two thousand and five hundred Scouts from 11 Scouts zones of Bangladesh will take part in the programme. The on-route camps will be at Laksam in Comilla, in Dhaka, Jaipurhat and Dinajpur, the organisers said. The Bangladesh Scouts president, Shah Mohammad Farid, chief coordinator of the jamboree programme and national commissioner of Scouts Mirza Ali Haider, Bangladesh Railway director (public relations) M Shafiqul Alam Khan and other Scouts officials attended the briefing.
Tarique’s wife seeks time to appear before ACC
Staff Correspondent
Zubaida Rahman, wife of the detained BNP senior joint secretary general, Tarique Rahman, on Tuesday appealed to the Anti-Corruption Commission to grant her some time to respond to its letter summoning her to its office. An ACC investigator, however, told reporters that the notified people might appear any time before the ACC as there was no time specified for doing that. ACC investigator Jahirul Huda on Monday issued two letters to Zubaida and her mother Iqbalmand Banu saying he needed to speak with them to verify the wealth statements submitted by Tarique. When asked why the two had been summoned, Jahirul told reporters that Tarique informed the ACC that he received a bulk of his wealth from his wife and mother-in-law. Tarique will be interrogated at the Dhaka Central Jail to cross-examine the statements made by Zubaida and her mother in this regard, the investigator added. According to Tarique’s statements submitted to the ACC on June 13, he owns Tk 78,39,463 in assets, besides a house in Gulshan leased to him by the government and five tolas of gold. His wife owns three one-storey buildings — two on one-bigha plots and another on a plot of 12 katha and 13 chhotak — on Dhanmandi Road 5, one two-storey building on a plot of 800 square yards in Mohakhali DOHS, one 5-storey building on a 7.43-katha plot at 71, Motijheel, a one-bigha plot worth Tk 77,000 in Joydevpur, 72 tola gold, and two fixed bank deposits of Tk 35 lakh. She received all her wealth from her parents, the statements claimed.
Two wanted criminals held in Natore
Our Correspondent . Natore
The police arrested on Tuesday two wanted criminals, including an associate of the Jamaatul Mujahideen kingpin Siddiqul Islam Bangla Bhai, at Naldanga in Natore. The police said Jamaatul Mujahideen activist Afsar Ali, former Piprul union council chairman, who was a close associate of Bangla Bhai, was arrested at Naldanga Bazar at around 2:30pm. The other, Sanwar Hossain Tulu, of Saterbhag and member of criminals’ gang Dulu Bahini, was arrested at his village in the afternoon. The police said they had a number of cases filed against them with the Naldanga police.
ATTACK ON UK ENVOY
Case sent to district judge’s court
Our Correspondent . Sylhet
The case filed in connection with the grenade attack on the British high commissioner, Anwar Choudhury, was sent on Tuesday to the Sylhet district and sessions judge’s court from the magistrate’s court. The hearing in the case to frame charges has been posted for July 12, court sources said. Senior assistant CID superintendent, Munshi Atiqur Rahman, submitted the charge sheet in the case to the magistrate’s court on June 9 accusing four Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami members, including its Bangladesh chapter operation commander Mufti Abdul Hannan, of carrying out the attack on the envoy. Three others named in the charge sheet are Mafizur Rahman alias Mahibullah, Arif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul and Delwar Hussain Ripon. Three were killed and 70, including Anwar Choudhury, were injured in the attack on May 21, 2004.
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