Work on 17 govt schools, colleges in city soon

The government has decided to build 11 more secondary schools and six colleges in Dhaka city to ease the seat crisis in government educational institutions in the capital where the pressure of population is increasing rapidly.

Education ministry sources said that construction of the schools and colleges would start soon.  Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to launch the project soon by laying the foundation

of one school and one college at Kalu Nagar of Hazaribagh in the Old Town of Dhaka.

Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid visited the sites selected for construction of the schools and colleges on Friday.

The sites for nine government schools and six colleges have already been selected.

One school and one college will be built at Hazaribagh, one school and one college at Mohammadpur, one school and one college at Pallabi, one school and one college at Sabujbagh, one school and college at Badda, one school at Uttarkhan in Uttara, one school at Shyampur, one school at Mirpur Darussalam and one school and one college in Mirpur's Bhasantek area.

The work on the Taka 435 crore project will start in July 2011 which is expected to complete in June 2014.

At present, there are 24 government schools and 11 government colleges in Dhaka city.

Source: New Age

BEA wants good law and order, economic progress

Bangladesh Economic Association president Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad on Friday said the law and order should be maintained and people's rights ensured to overcome the country's economic challenges.

He said the country's macroeconomic situation will be strengthened if the socio-economic issues are rightly addressed in the national budget and the law and order is established.

Development will be meaningless, if we fail to establish the rights of people, he told a press briefing on 'Bangladesh Social and Economic Forum' at the BEA office in the capital.

The Dhaka School of Economics is organising the six-day forum with the support of the BEA. The theme of the forum is 'Bangladesh: A country of middle standard of living by 2021: pathways, potentials and challenges'.

Kholiquzzaman said the objective of the forum was to bring together experts and interested people from different walks of life and review a number of selected sectors of the economy and the society.

The forum will come up with action programmes to overcome the identified constraints and improve performance.

BEA secretary general Toufic Ahmad Choudhury also spoke at the press briefing.

He said, 'We will focus on the present economic situation and the ways to move forward.'

He mentioned that the issues of macroeconomic performance, regional connectivity, agricultural development, sixth five-year plan, human development, effectiveness of regulatory bodies, public-private partnership, local governance: ensuring transparency, effectiveness of external assistance, promoting trade with SAARC countries, financial stability of and risk management in the banking sector, and a number of other socio-economic issues will be discussed in the forum.

The BEA established the Dhaka School of Economics in April 2008.

Source: New Age

Govt not sincere about CHT treaty: Santu

The Awami League has not taken any step in its 28-month rule to implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts Treaty, Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, who signed the deal with the government on behalf of the hill peoples in 1997, said on Friday.

Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, popularly known as Santu Larma, who is the president of Partbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity, made the allegation in the 11th central council session of Parbatya Chattagram Mahila Samity held in Rangamati outer stadium.

He said the love and responsibility the prime minister had shown for the hill people 13 years ago seemed to have become thinned as she was not keeping her words at the pressure from certain quarters.

Larma said the hill people would become extinct if the orchestrated attacks on them continued and cited the recent deadly attacks on hill people at Baghaighat, Langadu, and Ramgarh as examples of the process of elimination. He also branded the United People's Democratic Front a terrorist outfit and demanded that it should be banned.

Santu Larma also criticised state minister for CHT affairs Dipangkar Talukder for not keeping his words. 'Neither the Awami League nor Dipankar is interested in implementing the CHT treaty. He has not taken any step so far in this regard.'

Santu said the hill people who became leaders of the mainstream political parties like Awami League, BNP, and Jatiya Party were in politics to serve their own interests, not the interests of the hill people.

JSS leader Mangal Kumar Chakma, social activist Nilima Chakma, MN Larma Foundation convener Bijoy Ketan Chakma, Pahari Chhatra Parishad president Bablu Chakma, and Hill Women Federation leader Jonaki Chakma also spoke in the programme chaired by Jyoti Prova Chakma.

Source: New Age

Info and services centres in 100 more unions likely

The government is going to digitise a hundred more union councils to facilitate dissemination of information and delivery of government services.

Under the 'Empowering rural communities: reaching the unreached' project, 100 union information and service centres will be set up. The project is now waiting for government approval.

The Bangladesh Computer Council's senior system analyst Tarique M Barkatullah said that the project would help to establish a digital Bangladesh and make government information available at the grass roots.

Tarique said that the centres would try to reach out remote areas such as coastal belt, Chittagong Hill Tracts, hoars, Sundarban forest, areas in the north vulnerable to monga and river erosion.

'The centres will provide services such as downloading of government forms, government notices and announcements, addresses and services of local government entities, and information on immigration, passport, visas, citizenship certificates, market price, public examination results and birth and death registration,' he said.

He also said that the centres would also provide commercial services such as internet, e-mail, video conferencing, mobile service and computer training.  'Some of the centres, in off-grid areas, will run on solar power.'

Tarique said that each of the 100 union centres would have two local officials to run the centres while one of them would be female.

He said that each of the centres would be given two laptops, a printer, a scanner, a webcam and internet connection.

He said that among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation's members, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal jointly proposed the project.

The officer said that the SAARC Development Fund Secretariat on March 24 had approved the project proposal with a total budget of $7,938,335.

'The project proposal submitted to the government through the science and ICT ministry on April 12,' he said, adding that the project would be implemented in public-private partnership.

He said that after the government approval, the project budget would be released and a tender would be floated to be followed by manpower appointment.

'We will float the tender in May,' he added.

On November 11, 2010, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, launched UISCs in 4,501 unions to provide people with online and offline facilities at the centres for a nominal price.

Source: New Age

H&M wants annual review of apparel worker wages

Kazi Azizul Islam

Hennes & Mauritz AB, a Sweden-based global retail giant which is a major importer of apparels from Bangladesh, has suggested that the government here should create a mechanism for automatic annual review of workers' wages on the basis of cost of living.

The company considered the recent increase of the wages of garment workers in Bangladesh was a required and positive move.

'While we appreciate this [upward revision of garment workers' minimum wages in August 2010] is a step into the right direction,' read an H&M statement.

'We still request that the [Bangladesh] government creates a mechanism for automatic annual wage reviews to ensure that minimum wages develop in line with living costs.'

The statement came in the annual sustainability report, released last week, by the Stockholm-based retail giant.

Referring to August 2010 increase on the wages of workers by 67 to 81 per cent, depending on job categories, H&M said, 'We regard minimum wages or equivalent standards as competition neutral and these increases can only be regarded as positive.'

H&M categorically admitted that importers and buyers of garments have much to do in ensuring fare wages to the workers. 'Where minimum wages are too low, we can use our influence to demand systematic improvements.'

The company recalled that in January 2010, it, together with a number of other companies [importers and retailers of made-in-Bangladesh garments], sent a letter to the government of Bangladesh requesting an urgent review of the minimum wages of the garment workers.

In Bangladesh, the government does not review minimum wage levels regularly, H&M pointed out. 'And systems for employees to negotiate directly with their employers are generally not sufficient.'

Industry sources said H&M is one of the top five importers of Bangladeshi garments and its sourcing increased rapidly in recent years.

Daily minimum wage of a Bangladeshi garment worker is about $1.5 while it ranges between $2 and $6 in other major apparel exporting countries.

Source: New Age