The Barind Multipurpose Development Authorities (BMDA) have been implementing various need-based projects to improve the socio-economic conditions and protect the environment in the vast Barind area in northern Bangladesh. Officials said here on Friday that implementation of some projects during the last nearly two decades came out with desired crop production side by side with ... Read more
Dhaka Mirror
1065 posts of teachers in govt primary schools lying vacant in Barisal division
Posts of 1065 teachers of government primary schools have been lying vacant in Barisal division for long, hampering primary education of the region. Barisal divisional education office sources said there are 5,597, including 3,479 government and 2,118 non-government primary schools in the division. Posts of 241 out of 3,479 headmasters and 824 out of 14,256 ... Read more
VC Arefin Siddiq urges colleges to ensure quality education
Vice chancellor of Dhaka University AAMS Arefin Siddiq yesterday said quality education must be ensured at all colleges to enable the students to compete in the higher education. He urged all concerned to see that the curriculum of the board is not only confined to book based education, he said while addressing as the chief ... Read more
Realistic decision to be taken to reform national university
The National University will take realistic decision to reform the university through establishment of good administration in a bid to brighten the image of the university and increase the quality of education in college level. University Grants Commission Chairman Prof. Nazrul Islam said this while speaking at a seminar on ‘Bangladesh’s environment and foreign aggressive ... Read more
Political interest keeps black money alive
We have to satisfy everyone: Muhith Finance minister AMA Muhith on Friday said he did not favour whitening of black money, but was forced to incorporate the provision in the proposed 2009-10 budget for political reasons. ‘Politics is the highest form of the art of compromise…..We have to satisfy everyone,’ Muhith said while defending his ... Read more
Country caught in ‘debt trap’: UO
Huge govt borrowings will jack up inflation, it says The proposed budgetary measures will not help achieve the poverty reduction target as mentioned in the election manifesto of the present grand alliance government, local development think-tank Unnayan Onneshawn (UO) said in its budget response released yesterday. It said that huge government borrowing will create adverse ... Read more
MP injured after scuffle with cope: Mohiuddin, Afsarul prohibit Latif’s entry to WTCC office
Water Transport Coordination Cell began operations on Friday after dropping MP and Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mohammed Abdul Latif from the post of adviser and convenor. Shipping minister Afsarul Amin and Chittagong City Corporation Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury attended the launching programme as chief guest and special guest respectively. The WTCC was ... Read more
Budget implementation to be tougher than resource mobilization: Muhith
The budgetary provision for whitening black money has been the outcome of political compromise, rather than ethical considerations, by the political leadership of Awami League-led ruling alliance. “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and I myself do not ethically support allowing the black money,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the post-budget press conference at the NEC auditorium ... Read more
Budget conservative, rather than ambitious: CPD, Dream of middle-income country can’t be achieved
Civil society think tank the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) yesterday termed the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2009-10 conservative rather than ambitious one in terms of growth-target achievement. Briefing media to express CPD’s view on the budget, its Research Fellow and former Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said, “The country achieve 5.9 per ... Read more
Money-whitening scope in budget sparks debate
CPD, MCCI strongly oppose; finance minister terms it ‘political compromise’ The provision for whitening undisclosed money in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2009-’10 is ‘a political compromise’, said the finance minister yesterday, after several organisations scathingly criticised the government’s move. Every year during budget time, the issue of whitening black money becomes a ... Read more
Labour migration to go costlier
Recruiting agencies decry proposal to scrap VAT exemption facility The government’s move to revoke the VAT exemption facility for manpower exporters will ultimately hurt migrant workers, as it will increase the cost of going abroad for work, recruitment agents and migration analysts said yesterday. “At a time when manpower export is suffering from the fallout ... Read more
Mystery shrouds death of AL MP’s son at Uttara
Awami League lawmaker Tipu Munshi’s son Apu Munshi (25) died at a city hospital soon after his admission there on Friday night with bullet wounds. Police quoting family sources said Apu has been suffering from mental depression and he might have shot himself with his father’s revolver. Bullet hit Apu was taken to the United ... Read more
Swine Flu Pandemic
People urged not to panic over WHO declaration Nations around the world said they were ready to combat the spread of the swine flu virus yesterday, urging people not to panic after the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic. WHO officials stressed that the designation of a “moderate” pandemic did not mean the number ... Read more
India to phase out army presence in Kashmir
India is to phase out the controversial presence of large numbers of its troops in towns across the Muslim-majority Kashmir region, the country’s home minister announced yesterday. Such a move would be the first time the armed forces have been pulled out of urban areas in the disputed region since an insurgency against Indian rule ... Read more
Socrateser Jabanbandi captivates the audience
The play ‘Socrates-er Jabanbandi’, a seventh production of Drishyapat was staged at the Experimental Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the city on Monday. Socrates-er Jabanbandi is adapted by Shishir Kumar Das based on Apologia Sokratous (Defense of Socrates) by Plato. Ali Mahmud gave the direction of the play. Socrates is the great ... Read more
Men ‘live longer’ if they marry a younger woman
Men are likely to live longer if they marry a younger woman, new research suggests. A man’s chances of dying early are cut by a fifth if their bride is between 15 and 17 years their junior. The risk of premature death is reduced by 11 per cent if they marry a woman seven to ... Read more
Women with emotional intelligence have better sex lives
BEAUTY may bag you a man – but brains will bring you more fun in the bedroom. Women blessed with “emotional intelligence” – the ability to express their feelings and read those of others – have better sex lives, research shows. Those most in touch with their feelings have twice as many orgasms as inhibited ... Read more
Mix of progress, protection
Farm sector, major environmental initiatives, hugely expanded social safety net set proposed budget big-spending Finance Minister AMA Muhith proved his reputation of being a straight talker when he placed his maiden budget for the new government in parliament yesterday that explicitly aimed at protecting the domestic industry and at the same time laid down the ... Read more
Tk 1,13,819 cr nat’l budget for 2009-10
Earning Tk 79,461 crore; Expenditure Tk 82,ooo crore; ADP Tk 30,500 crore; deficit Tk 34,358 crore; GDP growth target 5.5 per cent Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith presented a Tk. 1,13819 crore national budget for 2009-10 in parliament on Thursday with special emphasis on implementing the ruling Awami League’s election pledge – ‘Charter of ... Read more
1818 imported vehicles cleared in 5 hours
Officials of the import wing of Chittagong Customs House (CCH), biggest revenue earner for the national exchequer, reportedly became over efficient and finished formalities of clearing more than 1800 automobiles before Wednesday midnight. According to some of the retired customs officials the state exchequer could have received more than Taka 540 million if the clearing ... Read more