Postogola electric cremator inoperative for 21 years

The Dhaka City Corporation has decided to sell a Tk 3 crore electric cremator at Postogola crematorium as it remained out of order for 21 years, said the corporation officials.

The corporation sources said the device was the only of its kind in the country which had gone out of order just a

few weeks after being installed at the crematory.

The chief social welfare officer Khandker Millatul Islam told New Age that he was unable to give any information about the cremator as the crematorium was maintained by the corporation's regional office of zone-1.

When approached, the zone's regional executive officer Bimal Chandra Das said that the electric cremator could not be used in its full capacity as very few dead bodies arrive at the crematory a day.

He said that daily one or two bodies arrived at Postogola crematorium on an average while the device could be cost effective if 20-25 bodies arrived a day because the cremator consumed a lot of electricity.

'I think, it has not been wise on the part of the corporation to install such an expensive device,' he said.

Bimal Chandra Das said that a few days ago the corporation had taken a decision to sell components of the device as they were decaying day by day.

The corporation also took a decision in principle to install two gas burners at the Postogola crematory, he added.

'The DCC has already invited tender for installing the gas burners but got no response yet as there is hardly any company experienced in operating gas burners at crematoria,' he said.  

The crematorium's caretaker Ratan Das told New Age that the corporation had set up the device in 1990 to modernise the process of cremation.

'The device took about four hours to heat up and another 30 to 40 minutes to burn a body and as a result we had to pay a high electricity bill,' he said.

Ratan Das also said frequent power outages interrupted the burning process contributing to the increased electricity bill.

'Charge for cremation of a body is between Tk 1,500 and Tk 2,000 while most of the families could not afford the expenses,' he said.

He said that despite repeated reminder, the corporation had not taken any steps to solve the problem.

Source: New Age

Young man commits suicide over stock losses

A young man has committed suicide allegedly after losing huge amount of money in share trade as the market crashed recently.

Rony Zaman, 23, committed suicide by hanging in his rented house at Arichpur in Tongi near Dhaka on Saturday night. His body was brought to his parents late on Sunday night for burial at family graveyard in Pirojpur town.

Lamenting the death Rony's mother Shaharannussa said share market crash had taken away the life of her son. She said her son during telephonic talks from Dhaka expressed worries and used to cry at the loss of about Tk 5 lakh in the share business.

His newly married wife Ananya Zaman, teacher of a primary school in Gaibandha, burst into tears saying Rony could not withstand the shock of loss of money. He committed suicide with the feeling that he would never be able to repay the money he borrowed and invested in the share market.

Source: New Age

Amendment to ICT Act challenged

A Supreme Court lawyer on Monday filed a public interest litigation, challenging the legality of the incorporation of a new provision amending the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973 in 2009 to make it possible to try any person or group of persons on charge of committing war crimes in 1971.

In the writ petition the lawyer, Md Rezaul Karim, said that by inclusion of the new provision to try individuals or groups besides members of the defence and auxiliary forces and prisoners of war, the fundamental right

of the individual to move the Supreme Court for any remedy has been taken away.

The petition also said, 'The insertion of the words — any 'individual' or 'group of individuals' — in the Act of 1973 by its amendment in 2009 is a violation of Article 47 (3) of the Constitution which stipulates that the fundamental rights can only be taken away from four categories of people, which include members of the armed, defence and auxiliary forces and prisoners of war.'

The writ petition said that due to incorporation of the terms 'any individual' or 'group of individuals', about 70 million people of 1971 have become vulnerable and subjected to prosecution, which was not contemplated in Article 47(3) of the Constitution.

Rezaul Karim also challenged the incorporation of another provision in the Act which permits the appointment of Supreme Court judges as chairmen or members of the International Crimes Tribunal for holding war crimes trials.

The petition also said that the inclusion of the provision for appointing Supreme Court judges to the Tribunal as members or chairmen was also violation of Article 94(3) of the Constitution which permits the High Court judges to sit only in the HC division.

Source: New Age

Improving human resources main concerns for LDCs: Hasina

The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said enhancing productive capacities and improving human resources to get benefit from globalisation are the main concerns for the least developed countries.

She highlighted the concerns while speaking as the key-note speaker at the thematic session on 'enhancing productive capacity of the LDCs' at Lutfi Kirdar Convention and Exhibition Centre in Istanbul on Monday.

The thematic debate was co-chaired by foreign affairs minister of Senegal Madicke Niang and under-secretary of state of development policy and cooperation Ritva Koukku-Ronde.

Joseph Deiss (Switzerland), president of the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, UN Conference on Trade and Development secretary general Supachai Panitchpakdi, under-secretary general and executive secretary of ESCAP Noeleen Heyzer, director general of UNIDO Kandeh K Yumkella, director general of World Intellectual Property Organisation Francis Gurry, executive director of ILO Juan Somavia, and deputy secretary general of International Telecommunications Union Houlin Zhao also spoke at the session.

Hasina urged all to discard past myopic strategies and opt for a win-win arrangement benefiting all.

She said the first Action Plan of the LDCs in '80s recognised that LDCs must produce more goods and services to escape from poverty and deprivation.

'To be able to do so, LDCs would need to improve human resources, ensure macro-economic stability, enhance trade and establish good governance.'

The prime minister mentioned that after the first LDCs' Action Plan, both the LDCs and development partners made a specific commitment to enhance the productive capacity of the LDCs.

In this regard, she said to enhance productive capacities and improve human resources, the LDCs required investment, manpower training, transfer of knowledge and also resources.

'Primarily, inadequate resources in the form of development assistance and investment, and insufficient access to trade and integration in the market of developed countries, have hampered development of infrastructure, manpower development and hence the productive capacity of the LDCs.'

Hasina also said restraining the transfer of technology and of the accompanying knowledge and skills also added to retarding development of the LDCs.

Citing example of Bangladesh, she said in order to enhance productive capacity and take advantage of the globalisation process, the government had strived to frame appropriate monetary, fiscal, trade and investment policies and initiatives in infrastructure, power, energy, communications and transport sectors.

'We've also progressed reasonably well in human resource development, social safety nets, micro-credit in alleviating poverty, domestic resource mobilisation, transforming our agriculture and rural economy by integrating the domestic market, and making technological advance.'

The prime minister also said the present government lately introduced public private partnership for development activities, and was seeking FDI and remittance from expatriate Bangladeshis to meet the domestic gap.

To develop the LDCs from their precarious situation, she urged the Istanbul Programme of Action to include a structure of genuine commitment for a reinforced partnership between the LDCs and the development partners to ensure production of more goods and services in the LDCs.

Hasina said she believed that improvement of the economies of LDCs meant improvement of their purchasing power, and becoming stronger and more viable markets for the developed countries.

Source: New Age

995 bullets seized in Sherpur

The police have recovered 995 bullets from Bankakurha cluster village in Jhenaigati upazila in less than five months into the seizure of a huge cache of ammunition from the same village.

Police superintendent Mohammed Anisur Rahman said Ashraful Islam, 26, of Dupuria village, had been arrested in connection with the latest recovery of ammunition from the house of Mohammad Ali, alias Ali Chora, 30, of Bankakurha on Monday morning.

He said Ali had been arrested from the Sherpur district headquarters on Sunday and the drive in his house had been conducted based on his statement to the police.

Islam was arrested following Ali's information after the recovery of the bullets, he added.

A joint team of the Jhenaigati police and a detective unit, led by assistant police superintendent (circle) Mohammed Salah Uddin Shikder, conducted the drive around 6:00am.

'The joint team recovered the 995 bullets of rifles, wrapped in a polythene sack, from a hole in the house,' Rahman said.

Detective Branch's assistant sub-inspector Sajib Khan filed an arms case with the Jhenaigati police station.

Jhenaigati police officer Abdur Rob Pradhan said Ali was accused in eight cases, including one for robbery.

Ali told reporters at the police station that he had been unaware of the ammunition.

Earlier on December 18 last year, 13,680 rounds of sub-machine gun bullets were recovered from an abandoned house at Bankakurha.

Border Guard Bangladesh had claimed that the ammunition belonged to Indian outlawed separatist group United Liberation Front of Assam.

Source: New Age

Govt agencies pay back Tk 628cr ADP funds

A number of ministries and divisions have refunded to the finance ministry Tk 628 crore allocated to them under the current Annual Development Programme as they failed to implement efficiently, accurately or to the end the development projects the money was meant to

fund, planning ministry sources told New Age on Monday.

The communications ministry refunded to the public exchequer the highest amount of Tk 92.5 crore, followed by the housing and public works ministry sending back

Tk 86.8 crore, the sources said. The allocation

made for the communications ministry in the original ADP was Tk 4,613 crore and that for the housing and public works ministry Tk 599 crore, they added.

Among the other government agencies, the Election Commission Secretariat paid back Tk 73.47 crore of unutilised development funds, water resources ministry Tk 36.89 crore, industries ministry Tk 55.78 crore, liberation war affairs ministry Tk 10 crore, energy and mineral resources division Tk 16.64 crore, Internal Resource Division Tk 16.8 crore, and expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry Tk 7 crore.

A planning ministry official said, 'Some ministries and divisions have returned Tk 628 crore allocated funds. The main reason for doing this is weak implementation of projects.'

The official said the refunded parts of the allocations would be given to the ministries and divisions that needed additional funds to execute other ADP projects.

'The amount of allocations made to the government bodies will be updated in the revised ADP. The ministry has already set the revised ADP at Tk 35,130 crore, trimming the original Tk 38,000 crore ADP by Tk 2,870 crore,' said another planning ministry official.

Among the government agencies short-listed for receiving additional

development allocations, Power Division will get Tk 400 crore, local government and rural development ministry Tk 30.51 crore, Food Division Tk 15 crore, fisheries and livestock ministry Tk 7.28 crore, and Disaster Management Division Tk 3.37 crore.

The sector-wise allocations in the revised ADP are likely to be approved in the next meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.

Source: New Age