Month: June 2009

Khaleda seeks Hasina’s assistance to send BNP team to dam site Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said the problems posed by the controversial Tipai-mukh dam project by India could be resolved through bilateral discussion . “I believe I will be able to resolve the problem through bi-lateral discussions.” She accused the main opposition BNP of ... Read more

Hundreds of angry apparel workers set ablaze a 10-storey building of Hameem Group yesterday in protest against at the death of two of their co-workers in Ansar and police firing over the past two days at Ashulia in Savar. The two garment workers were killed in firing by Ansar and police and about 200 others ... Read more

Duties on newsprint, mobiles, motorbikes, micro-buses ought to be lowered, says PM The premier, Sheikh Hasina, on Monday asked the elected representatives and members of the administrations to work hard to implement the proposed budget for 2009-10 fiscal year, which she termed a ‘pro-people’ budget. The premier, while taking part in the general discussion on ... Read more

The leader of the opposition in parliament and BNP’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, naming a six-member team for visiting the site of the proposed Tipaimukh dam, in response to the latter’s request that BNP send a separate team. The team comprises BNP’s two vice-chairmen, MK Anwar ... Read more

The High Court yesterday issued a rule upon the government to show cause within four weeks as to why the extra-judicial killings ‘in the name of crossfire or encounter’ by the law enforcing agencies, should not be declared illegal and without lawful authority. The court also asked the government to explain as to why departmental ... Read more

RMG Workers’ Mayhem in Ashulia It all started with the sacking in a sick unit Sacking of about 1,000 workers of a sick garment factory was at the root of yesterday’s mayhem in Ashulia. But it fanned at a stunning speed the festering anger of workers of a large number of sick garment factories. Ultimately, ... Read more

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Kathun told the House on Monday that a total of 74 persons, including 57 army officers, were killed in BDR mutiny at Pilkhana on February 25-26. Replying to a question raised by treasury bench member Begum Meher Afroz, she said the other people, who were killed in the carnage, included a ... Read more

A telephoned threat to bomb the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Monday forced the authorities concerned to stop trading at the bourse forty-five minutes earlier than the scheduled closing time, said a senior official. When contacted, DSE’s president Rakibur Rahman told New Age from Singapore over the phone, ‘We think the fake bomb threat was an ... Read more

Focus only on their constituencies: Suranjit Awami League (AL) lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta criticised some ministers for speaking only about their own constituencies rather than the entire country during discussion on the proposed budget in parliament yesterday. Suranjit, chief of the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry, also fired a broadside at

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) yesterday blamed government ‘failure’ to ensure law and order as the main reason behind last three days’ incidents in Ashulia-Savar industrial belt near the capital, resulting in damage worth around Tk 300crore. Leaders of the BGMEA refused to recognise the incidents as ‘labour unrest’. They claimed that these ... Read more

1 more killed, 150 hurt as RMG workers clash with cops for second day Garment workers clashed with police for hours at Ashulia near the capital yesterday, leaving a co-worker killed and over 150 people including 30 cops wounded. The fight followed Saturday’s pitched battles that saw a worker killed and 25 others injured when ... Read more

Awami League’s spokesman and Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday criticised the comments made by party general secretary Abdul Jalil saying that none should do anything that affect the party unity. “It was good for him not to make such statements at this moment,” he said in an exclusive ... Read more

At least one in every seven garment factories does not pay salaries to the workers regularly and one in every three factories could in no way be considered a good employer in view of the labour laws, an official survey reveals. Labour rights violation is actually more widespread in garment factories than the survey has ... Read more

The move to revamp the opposition BNP in a bottom-up approach faced obstacles at its initial-level as differences of opinion among grassroots leaders and activists surfaced over formation of the convening committees at district levels. A number of district units failed to present full-fledged convening committees to the central committee for approval within the deadline ... Read more

JS body asks for steps to recover 3.27 lakh acres grabbed land A parliamentary body yesterday castigated forest officials for their failure to prevent grabbing of forest land and illegal felling of trees, and directed the chief conservator of forest to strengthen the drive to recover around 3.27 lakh acres of land from grabbers. The ... Read more

Joint working group on counter terrorism launched Bangladesh and UK yesterday launched a joint working group (JWG) to enhance counter terrorism cooperation between the two countries for building capacity of combating terrorism. At the first meeting of JWG, high officials of the two countries primarily identified the areas of cooperation, including sharing intelligence and training ... Read more

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday demanded investigation to establish whether poisoned food had been served for the chiefs of the Awami League and the BNP when they were in jail during the rule of the military-governed interim government. The BNP’s standing committee member Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain said they suspected ‘poisoned food’ had also been ... Read more

Chief of General Staff (CGS) of Bangladesh Army Major General Abdul Hafiz on Sunday said Bangladesh as a troops contributing country to United Nations Peacekeeping Mission has ranked second for sincere efforts and high standard training of its peacekeepers. The CGS said this while addressing the inaugural session of the Asia-Pacific Peacekeeping Training Centre Commandants ... Read more

The low lying coastal areas of Southern Bangladesh may go under sea by 2100 due to global climate change, State minister for forest and environment Advocate Mostafizur Rahman Fizar told the Jatiya Sangsad yesterday. Replying to a question of Rashed Khan Menon of Workers Party, he said “there is a possibility of rising in the ... Read more