Bangladesh News Updates : 11.5.2009

Bangladesh News

Prove innocence in war crime Posted: 11 May 2009 05:35 PM PDT A Dhaka court yesterday summoned Jamaat leaders Ghulam Azam, Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, and 32 others to appear before it on July 20 to explain why they should not be declared war criminals for committing crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971. According to the court [...]

GTCL goes for ‘forced’ re-tender for 3rd time Posted: 11 May 2009 05:33 PM PDT Going against its tender evaluation committee and a project consultant, the Gas Transmission Company Ltd (GTCL) board headed by the Petrobangla chairman disqualified the lowest bid of a crucial $150 million gas compressor project. The project is aimed at improving gas supply pressure and flow, sources said. During the GTCL board meeting Saturday, which saw heated arguments [...]

4th HC bench declines to hear Khaleda’s petition Posted: 11 May 2009 05:31 PM PDT This time a High Court (HC) bench assigned by Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin has declined to hear BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s writ petition challenging the legality of the government decision to cancel the allotment of her cantonment house. Three HC benches had already shied away from hearing the former prime minister’s petition, and the court [...]

Demand for 100pc duty on newsprint import a conspiracy Posted: 11 May 2009 05:29 PM PDT As Bangladesh Paper Mills Association’s demanded 100 percent duty on newsprint imports, Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (Noab) yesterday urged the government to keep zero tariff on newsprint imports to ensure press freedom and free flow of information. Expressing concern, Noab in a statement said the demand for imposing 100 percent duty on newsprint import is [...]

Parties’ Poll Expenses: Reports beyond public still Posted: 11 May 2009 05:25 PM PDT 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 of polls expenditure of the parties and candidates [...]

Ghulam Azam: Focus back on, 8yrs after Posted: 11 May 2009 05:24 PM PDT Former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam stayed out of focus since he disappeared from open politics of Jamaat-e-Islami eight years ago. One of the front men of 1971 who actively helped Pakistani occupation forces’ attempts to foil the birth of Bangladesh, he was brought to spotlight once again after yesterday’s court order. Ghulam Azam, who was hyperactive [...]

200 BDR men held in 7 dists Posted: 11 May 2009 05:18 PM PDT About 200 suspected BDR rebels were arrested from different sectors, battalions and camps in seven northern districts yesterday as the police started filing sedition cases against the border troops across the country for staging February 25-26 mutiny. Police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) assisted by army personnel arrested suspected mutineers from different BDR units as courts [...]

RMG workers go on the rampage Posted: 11 May 2009 05:14 PM PDT Several hundred ready-made garment (RMG) workers vandalised more than a dozen garment factories at BSCIC industrial area in Fatullah of Narayanganj yesterday morning demanding a hike in their salaries. Meanwhile, another group of workers in Savar put up blockades on Dhaka-Aricha highway and damaged around 30 vehicles halting traffic movement for over an hour. Workers at both [...]

2 killed in Rangamati gunfight Posted: 11 May 2009 05:11 PM PDT Two activists of United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) were killed in a gun battle with army members during a raid at Badalchhari under sadar upazila yesterday. The army men rounded up two UPDF activists in the predawn raid. A huge number of arms and ammunition were also recovered from the UPDF hideout, 30 kilometres off the [...]

Proposed salaries to be slashed off a little Posted: 10 May 2009 04:43 PM PDT The finance ministry plans to cut 10 to 20 percent of the Pay Commission’s recommended scales for 20 grades of government employees. Sources say the ministry is now looking for ways to cut Tk 2,000-2,500 crore of the commission’s recommended expenditure for paying government employees. They said the ministry is currently examining what amount of money they [...]

Bangladesh News Updates : 10.5.2009

Bangladesh News

Nuke answer to power Posted: 09 May 2009 01:21 PM PDT Previous governments may not have kept the promise to build a nuclear power plant for the last 40 years but this Awami League government is committed to make it happen during its tenure, said State Minister for Science and ICT Yeafesh Osman yesterday. “We mean business,” he said at a discussion titled “Prospects of nuclear power [...]

Govt’s borrowing from banks may rise 34pc Posted: 09 May 2009 01:18 PM PDT The government’s bank borrowing target for the next fiscal year (FY) may be increased by 34 percent over this year’s and set at Tk 18,000 crore due to a possible mismatch between budgetary earning and expenditure next year. In the current FY, the target of bank borrowing is Tk 13,500 crore. Finance ministry sources however said the [...]

Dr Wazed no more Posted: 09 May 2009 01:15 PM PDT Eminent scientist and husband of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Dr MA Wazed Miah passed away yesterday afternoon in the capital’s Square Hospital after a prolonged battle with multiple illnesses. The prime minister was beside her husband at the moment of his passing away. He had been suffering for long from high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and [...]

NID cards only for those eligible for becoming voters Posted: 09 May 2009 01:13 PM PDT Only people eligible for being registered as voters will now be entitled to get national identity (NID) card, according to a draft national identity registration act. It also proposed that preparation of fake NID card and any cooperation in this regard would be considered a non-bailable offence with the offender liable to imprisonment for up to [...]

Khaleda rushes to Sudha Sadan, consoles Hasina Posted: 09 May 2009 01:05 PM PDT Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia rushed to Sudha Sadan last night to stand beside Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and convey her condolence on the death of Dr MA Wazed Miah. The BNP chairperson went there around 9:00pm and stayed for around 25 minutes. The BNP also decided last night to postpone a human chain programme today [...]

Troops kill 55 Taliban in fierce Swat fighting Posted: 09 May 2009 01:02 PM PDT Doctors rushed to treat wounded Pakistani civilians and desperate refugees looted UN supplies yesterday, as thousands of troops backed by bomb-dropping warplanes sought to purge Taliban militants from a northwestern valley. The army said it killed as many as 55 more Taliban fighters in clashes in the Swat Valley on Saturday. Four soldiers were wounded, a [...]

Project for disabled gets uncertain Posted: 09 May 2009 12:59 PM PDT The fate of $35 million donor-funded project for the welfare of the persons with disability (PWDs) and disadvantaged children is uncertain due to negligence of the government in launching it formally within the timeframe, which has already expired. The World Bank and Bangladesh government signed an agreement on December 28 last year for the five-year term [...]

Infighting grips JCD over new committee Posted: 09 May 2009 12:57 PM PDT Internal feud has raised its ugly head in BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) ahead of the formation of a new central committee as part of the party’s initiative to reform its associated organisations. The row was sparked over whether a fresh full-fledged central committee will be formed or a convening committee will run the [...]

Ex-NSI officer taken to TFI for quizzing Posted: 09 May 2009 12:54 PM PDT Further interrogation of arrested former director (security) of National Security Intelligence (NSI) Mohammad Sahab Uddin began at TFI cell in Dhaka yesterday afternoon in connection with the Chittagong arms haul case. Sahab Uddin was brought to the Task Force for Interrogation (TFI) cell in the afternoon. The interrogation started around 4:00pm, said the sources. A Chittagong court [...]

Foreign forces being invited in search of militants Posted: 09 May 2009 12:49 PM PDT Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami yesterday said a certain quarter is inviting foreign forces to Bangladesh in search of militants mentioning the country’s inability to fight against militancy. The Jamaat chief was addressing a council of Bangladesh Islamic Lawyers Association (BILA) as chief guest at Diploma Engineers’ Institute in the capital yesterday morning. He said besides Jamaat-e-Islami, [...]

Bangladesh News Updates

Bangladesh News

All Dhaka rivers left ‘dead’ Posted: 26 Apr 2009 02:02 PM PDT Soft attitude of the government towards polluters and lack of awareness among city dwellers have literally left dead all the rivers and other surface waters in and around the capital. Over the years the government agencies conducted small-scale drives against the polluters without yielding any major success. The polluters have meanwhile continued polluting the rivers side [...]

Dhaka gone crazy Posted: 26 Apr 2009 02:01 PM PDT Life in the capital has become utterly miserable over the last ten days due to a severe heat wave accompanied with repeated load shedding, an acute water crisis, shortage of gas supply, infestation of mosquitoes, and the resultant near epidemic of diseases like diarrhoea. Other diseases like typhoid, jaundice, and heatstroke are also on the [...]

Tk 14 for paddy, Tk 22 for rice Posted: 26 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT The government has fixed the procurement prices of per kg Boro paddy at Tk 14 while rice at Tk 22 to encourage farmers and protect their interest. A meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee also decided that a total of 10.5 lakh tonnes of rice and 1.5 lakh tonnes of paddy will be procured [...]

Quick bucks out of crisis Posted: 26 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT Wasa water has become a source of quick bucks for some dishonest government employees in the wake of unbearable water crisis in the capital, allege a number of city dwellers. They allege a clique of Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) officials are exacting more money than the official rates for water supply in lorries without [...]

Students down under look down the barrel Posted: 26 Apr 2009 01:59 PM PDT About 6,000 Bangladeshi students brace for bad times as recession strikes Australia and starts to bite deeper into a once solid economy of a paltry 21.7 million population. Feeling pinch of the slowdown in November last year, Kevin Rudd’s government kept on trying every tricks laid out in the capitalistic economics to thwart the impact that [...]

Industrial cops in 3 months Posted: 26 Apr 2009 01:59 PM PDT Formation process of industrial police force would be completed within next three months to maintain peace and discipline in apparel sector for which all procedures already have been finalised. Before introducing the new force, the government has decided to use battalion Ansars in the industrial areas to protect the sector from any untoward situation. This was disclosed [...]

Recession to bring food crisis back Posted: 26 Apr 2009 01:58 PM PDT The food crisis that hit many developing countries last year is likely to re-emerge following the recession and Asian countries must take measures to protect poor people from rising prices, a UN report said Friday. The report released in Bangkok called for Asian governments to implement social programs such as cash assistance and food-for-work schemes that [...]

PM calls for action Posted: 26 Apr 2009 01:58 PM PDT Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the power division and Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) to act expeditiously in reducing sufferings of the people caused by ongoing water and power crisis. The PM gave the directive at a meeting with the power secretary, chairman of Wasa, managing director of Dhaka Power Distribution Company [...]

3 Bangladeshi teachers killed in Saudi road accident Posted: 26 Apr 2009 01:57 PM PDT Three Bangladeshi lecturers of King Khaled University were killed and two others injured in a tragic road accident at Doadmi, 328-km northwest of Riyadh last Friday. A relative of one of the victims told UNB that lecturers Sakil Ahmed Sohel, 27, Dr Akhtaruzzaman Afroz, 24, and his wife Sarzia Sajib, 25, died in the mishap. The [...]

72 more BDR men shown arrested Posted: 26 Apr 2009 01:56 PM PDT Seventy-two more suspected Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutineers were shown arrested yesterday and 10 of them were placed on a five-day remand each. Meanwhile, a lost BDR pistol was recovered from the Pilkhana quarters of a BDR member. A BDR jawan died of cancer at Narsingdi Sadar Hospital Saturday, says a BDR press release. Criminal Investigation Department (CID), [...]