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Customers bribe linemen, clerks for phone connections; ministry’s influence major hurdle, says TIB study Most of the BTCL customers have to pay an average of Tk 6,000 as bribe for telephone connection, revealed a report of Transparent International Bangladesh yesterday. Under its research report titled “Lack of good governance in government’s telecom sector and

Reopens two PSTN companies The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Tuesday sealed off the National Telecom Ltd for its suspected involvement in illegal voice over internet protocol business and reopened the switch rooms of two private landline operators. The commission shut down the operation of RanksTel on March 19 and of Dhaka Phone on

Private Real Estate Act Developers-turned-MPs stand in its way Allege environmentalists, submit memo to PM Real estate developers turned lawmakers have held back the passage of a proposed private real estate development act, said leading environmental and professional organisations at a press conference

Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzak told the House yesterday that Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) is among city’s 72,000 buildings vulnerable to earthquake. In reply to a supplementary question of ruling party lawmaker Major (retd) Rafiqul Islam, the food minister said that the hospital buildings in the

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday stayed for six weeks a High Court verdict that directed the government to appoint 197 candidates, who qualified the first viva voce for 27th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination, to the services. Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice SK Sinha passed the order upon a petition filed

Many native species of fish are facing extinction in the natural water bodies of Netrakona day by day due to various reasons including adverse impact of climate change. People of the district, which was once popularly known as ‘grain vowel and fish resourceful area’ of the country, are now facing an acute shortage of the

Lawyers condemn Drik closure unlawful Police yesterday closed down a photo exhibition at the Drik Gallery in Dhaka just half an hour before the inauguration of the show, relating to deaths by RAB ‘crossfire’ or extra-judicial killings. The exhibition was due to open at 4:00pm, but a contingent of police took up position in front

A paper released yesterday has revealed that the country’s food security is at risk due to threats of arsenic contamination in groundwater and food chains posing severe health hazards to millions of people. This was revealed at the launching ceremony of a publication titled “Towards an arsenic safe

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has decided to restore lines of about half a million subscribers of four private PSTN operators whose operations were shut down for alleged links to VoIP trade. The telecom regulator formed a committee, headed by its commissioner, Aliwardy Khandakar, to

The cabinet on Monday cancelled its earlier decision to introduce Daylight Saving Time System on a permanent basis in Bangladesh considering sufferings and difficulties of different sections of professionals and people. A meeting of the cabinet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair took the decision in

The High Court on Monday asked the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to immediately start demolition of unauthorised billboards in the capital. The court also directed the inspector general of police (IGP) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner to provide police forces during removal of

The hapless victims of cyclone Aila, with the monsoon setting in shortly, say that they want to return their homesteads in Dacope and Koyra upazilas, and are badly in need of assistance for reconstruction of their houses along with employment, reports NewAgebd. ‘We don’t know how we will fare in the coming days, especially during ... Read more

4 lakh subscribers of three companies left in the lurch The BTRC will continue its investigation of illegal VoIP activities by any telephone operator or Internet service provider and shut them down, if found guilty, as it did in cases of three private landline companies and 18 ISPs recently, reports The Daily Star. Bangladesh Telecommunication ... Read more

Some 20 out of 64 district web portals of Bangladesh were hacked on Saturday. “Mission is now complete .Who will be next,” says the hacked sites’ messages. The messages read, if you need help contact me: emilindianhacker@hotmail.com. The hackers claimed that they are from India. The text on the hacked sites also reads: “Secure

The Election Commission has asked three political parties to notify the commission about the affiliation with their respective student organisations. The EC Thursday issued letters to the political parties in this regard mentioning some press reports and speech of the leaders of the Awami League, the BNP and the

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission on Friday shut down all operations of the Ranks Telecom Ltd, brand-named RanksTel, for its alleged involvement in illegal voice over internet protocol business and arrested three of its top executives. The arrested officials of RanksTel, a public-switched telephone network operator, are general manager

Thirty-one Bangladeshi students secured the highest marks worldwide in 14 subjects in GCE O-level examinations and another 21 in six subjects in A-level exams in 2008-2009 academic session. Two students obtained A grade in 11 subjects in the 2009 O-level exams and three others in six subjects in the

More than 1.27 lakh out of about 7 lakh students enrolled in Class XI in the 2008–2009 academic session to take the HSC and equivalent exams of 2010 have dropped out, reports NewAgebd. Of the total 1,27,844 lakh students who dropped out, 61,796 are female, according to statistics available with the

National vitamin A plus campaign-2010 will be observed on May 29 with feeding over two crore under 5 children vitamin A capsules and de-worming tablets with a view to preventing childhood blindness, reducing child mortality and strengthening immunity. Children aged 1-5 years will be fed a high powered

The government has nominated 10 distinguished persons and an organisation for Swadhinata Puroshkar (Independence Award) 2010 in recognition of their glorious contributions to the nation. The nominated persons and organisation are AKM Samsul Haque Khan (posthumously), Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury and Belal Mohammad in the