The post Man kills teenage girlfriend after she refuses to return smartphone he gifted her appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
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A 20-year-old man murdered his teenage girlfriend after she refused to return a cellular phone that he had earlier gifted her.According to the police, the incident took place in the Pakur district of India’s Jharkhand state, NDTV reported.
The deceased had gone missing since Sunday night after she went out with her boyfriend to watch a football match, the police said, adding that when her family reported that she had not returned home, the police started a search.
Subsequently, her body was discovered at a secluded location in the city on Monday morning, the police said.
The girl’s uncle told the police that the couple had been going out for the last two years, while the accused used to visit the girl’s house often.
The man had gifted a smartphone to the girl but asked her to return it, saying that his parents had fixed his marriage to someone else.
The girl resisted and refused to hand over the phone back which resulted in a fight between the couple. However, the boy later took her out to watch the football game.
Police said that the accused has been arrested and confessed to slitting his girlfriend’s throat with a sharp object. He admitted that he killed her as she refused to return the smartphone, which angered him.
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]]>The post Assurances galore but no implementation appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Besides, no conclusion of the issue appears to be in sight in the near future. An interim agreement on Teesta water sharing was set to be signed during Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s Dhaka visit on September 6-7, 2011. But the deal could not be inked, thanks to a last-minute objection raised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Since Dr Singh’s visit about 21 months ago, the political and bureaucratic leaderships of both Bangladesh and India have expressed optimism about signing an agreement, but without any fruition. Dhaka has repeatedly raised the issue at almost all discussions with New Delhi. India has been consistent in its response, always saying that the deal would be signed after reaching a consensus with the West Bengal chief minister.
Leave alone the signing of any agreement, according to foreign ministry officials, there has been no visible progress since the visit of the Indian prime minister in 2011. Any conclusion in this regard appears to be unlikely, at least in the near future, they said.
“To be honest, we really don’t know as to when the agreement will be signed,” an official told The Independent.
There is little likelihood that there would be any breakthrough over the Teesta in the upcoming meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) between Bangladesh and India in Dhaka on June 18 and 19, said diplomatic sources of both countries.
“Let’s hope for the best. But it does not seem that the Teesta agreement will be done during the JRC meeting that is going to be convened after a gap of three years,” said a Bangladesh diplomat.
“JRC is not only about Teesta. All the issues relating to common rivers, including Teesta, will be discussed in the meeting. I don’t think we will overcome the issues regarding Teesta before the meeting,” said an Indian diplomat.
Immediately after the conclusion of Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit, finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said on September 7, 2011 that he hoped the Teesta agreement would be signed within the next three months.
On the same day, water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen also expressed his optimism that the deal would be concluded within three months. The minister, on September 24, stated that the deal would be struck within three to four months.
Foreign secretary Mijarul Quayes told a press conference on September 8 that Prime Minister Sheikh had said the Teesta agreement would be signed within the next three months and her Indian counterpart had also assured her of it.
But on September 16, the Prime Minister said at a party programme that the treaty would be signed with India soon. “I will not mention any specific timeline for it. Rather, I will say that it is a matter of time. The two countries will ink the Teesta deal through discussion,” she said.
Besides, without mentioning any timeframe, local government and rural development (LGRD) minister and Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni, Prime Minister’s international affairs adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi and economic affairs adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman said the agreement would be signed “soon”.
Since September 2011, Dr Rizvi said on a number of occasions that the agreement would be signed soon.
The foreign minister, on October 4, 2011, extended the timeframe, saying that the Teesta water sharing agreement between Bangladesh and India would surely be signed under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“The Teesta water sharing agreement will definitely be signed under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina. But since it is a thing of the future, I cannot specify any date and time. I am not an astrologer,” she said.
On October 15, foreign secretary Quayes said in a press conference that there had been no new development about the interim agreement on Teesta water sharing since the visit of India’s prime minister.
In an interview with The Independent in the first week of January 2012, foreign minister Dipu Moni said the deal had not been signed due to India’s internal problems. “I hope it will be signed. Good sense will prevail. But I cannot say when it will be signed,” she said.
The higher echelons of the governments always maintained that the agreement would be signed based on the ‘principles’ and ‘text’ agreed upon by Bangladesh and India.
-With The Independent input
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]]>The post Purchasing capacity at border markets doubled appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>An individual shopper can now purchase products with respective local
currency equivalent to $100 from the existing $50.The BB issued a circular to authorised dealer branches of all banks saying that as per addendum signed on May 15, 2012 under memorandum of understanding between Bangladesh and India, the maximum purchase limit of the two country’s client increased to respective local currency equivalent to $100 from the existing $50.
A client will be able to spend the money for any particular day in a border market, the circular said.
The direction will be implemented with immediate effect, it added.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Two Bangladeshi sisters sold to Pune pimps rescued appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The social security cell of the crime branch swung into action soon after the central agencies instructed city police commissioner Gulabrao Pol to trace the girls as soon as possible.
Five more girls, including four minors from Bangladesh and another from Kolkata, were also rescued during the 14-hour operation, which started around 7:30pm on Friday.
While one of the sisters was rescued from a brothel in Budhwar Peth, the other was found at a row house in Undri, Kondhwa.
Seven suspects, including three women, were arrested under relevant sections of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA).
Senior inspector Bhanupratap Barge, who led the operation, said that the police team first raided a brothel at Shalukarbol in Budhwar Peth and rescued four minor Bangladeshi girls, but they did not include the two sisters. “Brothel manager Pinki Nilgopal Das was arrested. We raided another brothel at Chandni building at the same area, rescued one more minor girl and arrested brothel owner Anita Rambahadur Thapa,” he said.
The police raids continued as the two sisters were yet to be found, Barge said. “We raided another brothel at Tulsi building and rescued one of the sisters, aged 15, along with two other minor girls. Shiva Vichare of Kolhapur and Taniya Vyapari of Budhwar Peth were arrested from the spot,” he said.
“Taniya told police that the older sister, aged 17, was sold to Vilas Kasle, a sex racketeer, in Hadapsar area, following which he was arrested.
Acting on information given by Vilas, a row house was raided in Undri and the girl was rescued,” said Barge.
Vilas’s brother Ravi Kasle and his aide Vishal Kumar Khopde of Phursungi were arrested from the row house.
“Police have got clues about the kingpin of the racket, who has been identified as Rocky. He brings girls to Kolkata by making false promises crossing the international border by boat. We suspect that he is involved in selling around 40 such girls from Bangladesh to sex racketeers in India. We have passed on the information about his whereabouts to Bangladesh,” said Barge.
Police said, the five Bangladeshi girls, who were rescued along with the two sisters, were also lured with marriage and job promises by agents who sold them at brothels in Pune and other cities. Police are looking for six more suspects in the case.
The city police have rescued 50 Bangladeshi girls who had been forced into prostitution in Pune since 2011.
-With The Independent input
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]]>The post India, Saudi Arabia set up joint group to resolve labour issues appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The decision to form the joint working group was taken during the meeting held between the Indian delegation, led by overseas Indian affairs minister Vayalar Ravi and Saudi Arabia’s labour minister Adel Fakieh.
The two sides agreed that the first meeting of this joint group would be held on May 1, a statement released by the Indian embassy in Riyadh said.
The visit is aimed at exchanging views with the Saudi leadership on the welfare of the Indian community in the context of its Nitaqat programme, the statement said.
The visit also aimed at briefing the Indian community in Saudi Arabia on the specific steps that the Indian government has taken for the rehabilitation of the returning Indians and addressing their concern in this regard.
‘We had met the Indian community workers before my meeting with the Saudi authorities. We will be meeting the community again here today and in Riyadh tomorrow. The delegation understood the issues and took it up with the Saudi leadership appropriately.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Nepal, India, Bangladesh on Ganga water, hydropower appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>According to a note prepared by the Ministries of Power, Water Resources and External Affairs the Ganga Basin has tremendous potential for development of water resources and hydropower.
Therefore, the role of the Ganga in the agriculture, hydro-power, fisheries, navigation, and environmental sectors and in the economy of the co-basin countries is vital. The joint initiative will contribute to poverty eradication and better socio-economic integration.
The note states that the NIB initiative will explore technically and geographically feasible means for augmentation and equitable distribution of this augmented supply of water and power. There shall be a Committee of Water Resources and Power Ministries of the NIB which will be the highest decision-making body, subject to the approval of the respective governments. The Ministers for Water Resources or Irrigation shall be co-chair, while the Ministers responsible for Power shall be co-vice chair. The NIB Committee will be supported by a Technical Advisory Committee comprising the Secretaries of Water Resources or Irrigation, Power or Electricity and at least two technical experts representing water sources and power and one representative from the MEA of each of the three countries.
Similarly, in order to derive optimum benefits from the Brahmaputra Basin, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh have agreed to work jointly towards cooperative development and management of water resources and hydropower in an integrated and holistic manner. For this, the three countries have agreed to cooperate on the Bhutan, Bangladesh and India (BIB) Initiative.
“The basic aim of these initiatives is to implement programmes in partnership with member-states that will contribute to strengthening the cooperation mechanism and to long-term sustainable development, economic growth and sub-regional cooperation,” a senior official of the Ministry of Power said.
-With The Independent input
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]]>The post Bangladeshi beaten dead in India appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The deceased was Asadur Rahman, 34, son of Mozzafar Hossain of Akkelpur village in Gomostapur upazila.
Commanding officer of Battalion-46 of Border Guard Bangladesh Lieutenant Colonel Jasim Uddin said Asad went to visit his relatives’ house at Batsa village under Haripur police station in Malda of the neighbouring country on Wednesday.
He was killed by some unidentified miscreants during his stay at his relatives’ house on Thursday, he said. The BGB commanding officer, however, could not elaborate on the incident.
On information, the Indian police recovered the body of Asad and sent it to Malda Govt Hospital morgue for autopsy. The body was lying at the Indian hospital as of Friday night after completion of the postmortem.
BGB sent a letter to th Border Security Force of Bhabanipur-Kotalpur outpost on Friday evening seeking return of the body after victim’s father filed a petition with it through company commander of Rokanpur BGB.
-With UNB/New Age input
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]]>The post Indo-Bangla meet on Tipaimukh dam begins Aug 27 appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>According to a senior official of the Central Water Commission in Shillong, the members of this expert group, to be drawn from both the nations, have already been constituted.
He said the group members are experts in hydrology and river engineering.
A few officials of the flood control and water resources departments will also figure as delegates, according to a report carried by The Telegraph.
The discussion will focus on reaching a consensus on the construction of the 162-foot dam on the Barak.
The Rs 7,600-crore Tipaimukh dam project, meant to control the recurring floods in the Barak valley districts under south Assam and to generate 1,500MW hydel power, has run into various problems.
A number of the NGOs and scientists of the Northeast, particularly in Manipur and Assam’s Cachar district, and Bangladesh are opposing the project.
The opposition party in Bangladesh, the BNP, headed by the former prime minister Khaleda Zia, organised a big motor rally in Sylhet on December 1 last year in protest against the proposed construction of this project.
The Angikar Bangladesh Foundation, spearheaded by some leading civil engineers in that country, has also opposed this project.
The chief director of the NGO, Muhammad Hilaluddin, recently called upon like-minded environmentalists and river specialists of both the countries to join their hands in opposing the project.
-With UNB/New Age input
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]]>The post Half of India without power appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Half of India yesterday went without electricity as three power grids serving Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern regions failed, crippling normal life across 22 states.
The blackout comes a day after a mass outage left eight states without power for much of the day.
The federal Indian government blamed overdrawal of power by states in eastern region for yesterday’s grid collapse.
As the grids collapsed at around 1:00 pm, miners in Eastern Coalfields got trapped in Sodepur and Satgram in Burdwan districts of West Bengal, according to officials of state-owned Coal India Ltd who said rescue efforts are on.
State-owned Eastern Coal Ltd sources said the miners who went into the mines in the first shift were stuck when the grid collapsed.
“They were not trapped, but were safe at the pit bottom,” the sources said.
This is perhaps for the first time that three power grids collapsed on the same day.
In New Delhi, Metro commuters were trapped inside the tunnels for sometime as trains came to a halt as electricity supplies got stopped.
Power Grid Corporation promised normalcy would be restored by this evening.
The states affected by the power crisis covering about 642 million of India’s 1.2 billion population included Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Bihar, Rajasthan and Assam and federally-administered territory of Chandigarh.
In Kolkata, Metro rail services were unaffected, according to state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The state government declared holiday in its offices after 3:00 pm.
The railways network across major parts of the country was among the worst hit services, as trains, other than those running on diesel engine, stopped midway.
Three hundred trains came to a grinding halt at various places yesterday afternoon due to failure. Train services from Monday’s power failure had barely been restored when the railways was once again been hit by another power tripping yesterday, a railway spokesperson said.
Northeastern state of Assam witnessed large-scale power cuts and in Orissa also, train services were hit.
The Northern Indian Power Grid, which had collapsed Monday and was restored after 15 hours, again tripped yesterday. The Eastern Indian and North-Eastern Indian transmission lines too failed yesterday afternoon, worsening the power situation in the country when it is facing a drought-like situation in most parts due to deficient monsoon.
Power Grid Corporation chief R N Nayak said, “Some sections are creating problems by overdrawing power.”
-With The Daily Star input
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]]>The post Indian train fire kills 32 appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The accident, on a long-distance service from New Delhi, occurred in the early hours of the morning near the town of Nellore with an electrical short-circuit seen as the most likely cause.
Images showed dozens of rescuers, survivors and crowds of onlookers milling around as the blackened and twisted bodies of victims, some burnt beyond recognition, were lifted out and laid in rows alongside the railway line.
Family members of the victims wailed and screamed, while other dazed survivors sat around quietly with their belongings.
“I woke up when people were rushing into our compartment, I was in S-10 which was attached to the S-11 coach that caught fire,” Shantanu, one of the passengers, told the NDTV news channel.
“There was smoke all around. We tried to open the emergency window, people jumped out of it.”
Railway Minister Mukul Roy announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the mishap, Rs 1 lakh to each of the grievously wounded and Rs 25,000 for those who suffered minor injuries.
The ministry also ordered an inquiry by DK Singh, commissioner of Railway Safety, into the cause of the accident, our New Delhi correspondent writes.
Additional Director General of Railways VSK Kaumudi said 32 bodies have so far been recovered from the charred compartment of the Tamil Nadu Express.
The train was travelling from New Delhi to Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu state neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Laxmikant, additional joint collector of Nellore, about 500 miles off Chennai, said the death toll could rise as some of the bodies are still to be recovered from the charred S-11 compartment.
Railway officials said 25 people were injured in the mishap and were admitted to different hospitals.
They said a gateman alerted them after noticing the fire around 4:15am and alerted them.
Two fire units rushed to the spot immediately and managed to prevent the spread of the blaze from the affected compartment.
Nellore District Collector B Sridhar said there was a short circuit near the toilet of the compartment and all the passengers were asleep when the fire broke out.
As the train was travelling at a speed of 110km per hour, the flames spread fast and the passengers could not come out through one of the doors because of the flames.
The burning carriage was quickly detached from the rest of the train which prevented the fire from spreading, reports AFP.
Some people could come out using the door at the other end of the coach while others were burned to death, he said, adding that the bodies have been burnt almost beyond identification.
Nellore police said 14 passengers in the compartment were safe.
Some of the passengers travelling in the train told reporters that smoke engulfed the compartment soon after the fire broke out which make difficult for them to come out.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent his condolences over the deaths and has asked the national railways ministry to coordinate the relief effort, his office said.
India’s accident-prone rail network is still the main form of long-distance travel in the huge country despite fierce competition from private airlines.
While new shiny airport infrastructure is springing up, the Indian railways — a much-romanticised legacy of British colonial rule — often appear stuck in a time-warp.
There were two fatal accidents this May alone, including a collision that killed 25 people near the southern city of Bangalore. Four passengers also died after a train derailed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The National Crime Records Bureau, which gathers the causes of fatalities across India, says 25,705 people in total died on the railways in 2009.
The data is not broken down, but a vast majority of these deaths are people falling from the open doors of carriages or being hit on the tracks, which are mostly unsecured.
India’s worst rail accident was in 1981 when a train plunged into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 800 people.
-With The Daily Star input
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