The cabinet committee on public purchase yesterday approved procurement of 420 jeeps and ten speedboats for newly elected upazila chairmen who assumed office last week. Of the 420 fleet 180 will be coming in the current fiscal year while the rest will come in the next financial year. To this affect Tk 180 crore has ... Read more
News
Tk 30,500cr ADP planned
Budget will have a new public-private partnership component: Muhith Government plans Tk 30,500 crore Annual Development Programme (ADP) for fiscal 2009-10. This was disclosed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday. “The government will take up the challenge of implementing the big ADP to prove that it has the implementing capacity”, Muhith told reporters after a ... Read more
Heads they keep high in horror
Peyara Begum’s son’s teacher attacked her with acid after she refused to return ‘the love’ he so undeservedly tried to bestow on her. Her face was burnt as was major portion of her body, and her entire face had to be reconstructed. To pay for this treatment Peyara had to sell all her properties. And ... Read more
Crimes galore give the lie to police vigil in city
Despite beefed up security measures and enhanced police vigilance, incidents of murder, robbery, extortion, snatching and mugging have increased in the city at an alarming rate, creating a sense of insecurity. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque expressed his concern in this regard and asked the police to control the law and order ... Read more
3 more public universities in the offing
The government has planned to establish three more public universities and add three more private universities to a large number of varsities under private venture to take in rising numbers of students for higher education. “Government approval of the planned universities is in the final stage of processing,” University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof Nazrul ... Read more
Boro farmers in north suffer surprise loss
Boro farmers in some northern districts, especially in Bogra, face a huge loss as they are forced to sell their produce far below the production costs and at almost half the prices they got last season. “My father lost more than Tk 1.36 lakh cultivating Boro in 3.33 hectares of land this year,” said Abdul ... Read more
Quick disposal of acid attack cases planned
Monitoring cell to be formed at every district, says home minister Monitoring cells would be formed at district levels for quick disposal of acid-violence cases, said Home Minister Sahara Khatun yesterday. “Normally the acid-violence cases take time delaying acid-victims justice. A national monitoring cell has already been formed in this regard headed by a joint ... Read more
Beximco Pharma eyes export market expansion
Beximco Pharma, a leading medicine manufacturer, now targets expansion of its export markets to Australia and North American countries. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a forum of 10 Middle Eastern countries, and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia have already accredited the company in 2008 for exports. The combined pharmaceutical market of GCC is valued at ... Read more
Week-long housing fair begins in Dhaka
A seven-day housing fair of Sheltech, a leading real estate company of the country, begins in the Dhaka city today. The Sheltech is going to arrange the fair when the country’s businesses started feeling the pinch of global recession, Toufiq M Seraj, managing director of the real estate firm, said at a press conference on ... Read more
A tale of tea workers
On the inaugural day of the ten-day festival of documentary films on environment and people, the organisers screened ‘The Story of Tea Workers’, jointly directed by Philip Gain and Ronald Halder in the evening of Sunday at Drik Gallery in Dhanmondi. The festival is organised by the non-government organisation called Society for Environment and Human ... Read more
200 more BDR men hauled up in dists
Law enforcers yesterday arrested a total of 200 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) men from seven districts in connection with eight sedition cases lodged with Sadar police stations in those districts relating to the BDR revolt in the areas on February 25 and 26. Sources said that the BDR mutiny occurred simultaneously in 41 places including BDR ... Read more
Golam Azam, Nizami, Mojahid, SQC, 32 others summoned: Haphazard filing of cases may disturb govt move: Minister
A court yesterday summoned former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Golam Azam, incumbent chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mujahid, BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury MP and 32 others to appear before it and face alleged charges of war crimes.
Khaleda writ goes to 5th HC bench
4th bench expresses inability to hear petition; Khaleda gives govt 5 days to withdraw supplementary notice The chief justice on Monday assigned yet another High Court bench to hear the writ petition filed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia, challenging the April 20 notice that asked her to vacate her Dhaka Cantonment house, ... Read more
NOAB slams move for 100pc duty on newsprint import
The demand for imposing 100 per cent duty on the import of newsprint by the Bangladesh Paper Mills Association is part of a conspiracy to destroy the country’s newspaper industry, observed the Newspaper Owners Association of Bangladesh (NOAB). In a statement issued yesterday it said, if this demand was materialised, the free flow of information ... Read more
Dhaka set to take its case to UN
MARITIME BOUNDARY DISPUTES Dhaka set to take its case to UN Dhaka is set to raise its objection at the United Nations shortly to India and Myanmar’s claims over certain areas in the Bay of Bengal which has led to disputes over delimitation of maritime boundaries. Bangladesh is preparing its case for extraction of marine ... Read more
Reports beyond public still
Parties’ Poll Expenses Reports beyond public still The Election Commission (EC) has not yet disclosed polls expenditure reports submitted to it by the political parties and candidates who contested the last parliamentary election although electoral laws make the disclosure mandatory to ensure people’s access to those. Representation of the People Order (RPO) provides that copies ... Read more
Russian team due tomorrow to sign MoU
Nuclear Energy Russian team due tomorrow to sign MoU A three-member Russian delegation will arrive in Dhaka tomorrow to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on peaceful use of nuclear energy in Bangladesh, science and ICT ministry officials said yesterday. The team, headed by a secretary-level official, is expected to sign the MoU the same ... Read more
RMG workers go berserk over wage
Clashes with police leave more than 50 people injured Thousands of garment workers went berserk over wage related disputes with factory owners, damaged scores of vehicles and put barricades on the Dhaka-Aricha and Dhaka-Narayanganj highways on Monday, leaving more than 50 people, including five policemen, injured. The law enforcers charged batons, and used teargas and ... Read more
Withdrawal of Ganges water by India posing threats to BD
India’s unilateral withdrawal of Ganges water is not only leading to the destruction of ecological and environmental system of Bangladesh but also posing a serious threat to its agriculture, industry and navigation. The allegation was made by speakers at a roundtable discussion on ‘India’s unilateral withdrawal of Ganges water and our role’ organised by center ... Read more
Giant Baghair caught in Jamuna
A rare-breed 105 kg Baghair (Bagarius bagarius) fish caught from the river Jamuna stole the spotlight as it was brought from Chilmari ghat in city’s Merul Badda market yesterday. “It is the largest Baghair sold in the city market in last 15 years. We bought it at Tk500 a kg and sold up to Tk800,” ... Read more