Light to moderate rain or thundershowers accompanied by temporary gusty wind is likely at a few places over all the seven divisions till 6:00pm today.
Slight rise in day temperature is expected over the country, Met Office said.
The sun sets in the
capital today at 6:26pm
and rises tomorrow at 5:37am.
The country's highest temperature, 35.0 degrees Celsius, was recorded on Sunday at Saidpur and the lowest, 23.8 degrees, in Comilla.
Source : New Age
Leaders and activists of Rajshahi University unit Bangladesh Chhatra League, along with teachers and students, formed a human chain on the campus on Sunday, demanding speedy trial of those involved in the August 21 grenade attack on an AL rally.
The university unit BCL organised the programme in front of the university central library at around 12:00pm.
Later they held a brief meeting at the same venue where the speakers alleged that the grenade attack was carried out under direct patronisation of the then ruling BNP-Jaamat government.
They also said there was no more doubt about the incident and the recent supplementary charge sheet proved who were involved in grenade attack.
RU vice-chancellor Professor Abdus Sobhan said, 'We do not want any more political killings.'
RU public relations officer Professor Chitta Ranjan Misra, law and justice department professor Hasibul Alam Pradhan, RU unit BCL president and general secretary Ahmed Ali and Abu Hussain Bipu addressed the programme among others.
Source : New Age
Students Against Oppre-ssion, an organisation of general students of Dhaka University, on Sunday arranged a photo exhibition in front of DU Central Students' Union building to raise awareness among the students of all kind of repressions across the country.
The daylong exhibition was a part of programmes, marking the 20-22 August student agitation during Army-backed caretaker rule in 2007.
The exhibition in four parts included photos of the Shamsunnahar hall protest in 2002; protest at the torture against teachers and students in August 2007, demonstrations demanding punishment of murderer of Abu Bakar in 2010, police torture on Abdul Kadar in 2011 and other recent incidents of repression.
The second part represented the photos of protests against increase in fees and RAB torture on students at Chittagong University in 2009.
The third part had photographs of demonstrations demanding trial of the teacher convicted of sexual abuse of a Viqarunnisa Noon School student.
Speaking on the occasion, organisation leader Moustafa Mahbub Russell said that it was high time for teachers and students to unite and protest all sorts of oppression and torture on students, rape, murder and other anti-social crimes.
Source : New Age
With a little more than a week left for Eid-ul-Fitr, fashion houses and boutique shops in the capital, presenting new design dresses, are experiencing huge rush of buyers.
Most of the new Eid collections for girls are based on the latest trends and using locally-produced materials at affordable prices for middle and upper middle classes, said fashion house owners.
Leading dress maker Aarong has tried to follow the latest sub-continental trend in their dresses like long six-cut, eight-cut and double-step kameez with churidar payjamas, said Asad Gate outlet supervisor Mehbub Alam.
Various materials including muslin, silk and even cotton have been used for the dresses designed with laces and hand embroidery, he added.
The prices of three-piece suits for girls range between Tk 2000 and Tk 15,000, depending on the material used.
Aarong's sari section supervisor Shirin Ahsan said the new collection includes opera katan, muslin baluchori with jamdani work, Rajshahi silk with nakshi katha work, jamdani and cotton sari ranging between Tk 2000 and Tk 25,000 each.
Aarong's exclusive Taga collection tops and frock style are mostly designed with knit fabrics this year and the prices range from Tk 700 to Tk 2,000, said supervisor Halima Taslim.
The Aarong's Eid collection also has latest design of hand bags, shoes and different types of ornaments to match the dresses.
Fashion house Rang also has come up with a wide range of collections in salwar-kameez and saris made of locally produced silk, andy, cotton, muslin and khadi with price ranging from Tk 3,000 to Tk 6,000.
Rang's ornaments variety include earthen ear rings, finger rings, necklace sets and bangles. Wooden and silver ornaments have also found a place in this year's fashion, said section manager Jahangir Alam.
Dhanmondi Nabarupa's shopkeeper Ashim Ahmed said they had a wide range of collection of cotton saris including traditional Tangail tant, jamdani, cotton baluchuri and gadwan.
Nabarupa also has latest designs in Rajshahi silk, crape, kota, muslin and embroidery sari with price varying from Tk 1,400 to Tk 20,000.
All the outlets of trendy fashion house TRENDZ have their own newly designed salwar kameez made of silk, viscose, cotton and muslin with price starting from Tk 3,500 and going up to Tk 15,500.
Traditional ladies' wear house Nilanjana Palli, famous for their jamdani saris, have collections with prices ranging from Tk 3,500 to Tk 25,000.
They also have their jamdani salwar kameez with price starting at Tk 3,000 up to Tk 5,000 per set.
Texmart Dhanmondi branch sales executive Mamunur Rashid said their female collections include salwar kameez, tops and denim dresses priced from Tk 795 to Tk 4,000.
Besides usual saris and salwar kameez, Jatra's main feature is their hand bags, sandals and decoration pieces made of recycled materials.
Asked about the most-sought-after colour trend this Eid, Kay Kraft's Basundhara City's Deshi Dash branch sales executive said this year both ladies and gents clothes were blue and purple colours in Kay Kraft.
Fashion house owners said more girls would be wearing long kameez this Eid and most of the dresses are designed to suit the hot summer.
Banglar Mela, Sada Kalo, Anjans, Prabartana, Bibiana, Deshal, Dressy Dale, Nipun, Grameen Check are the other leading fashion wear houses presenting Eid dresses for both females and males.
Source : New Age
http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/national/30848.htmlMiscreants killed an unidentified man at Mohakhali in the capital on Sunday.
The police recovered the body of the man, aged about 35 years, from the rooftop of a three-storey building at 98/14 Mohakhali at about 8:30am after the house owner had reportedly called police to recover the body.
Subinspector Rafiqul Islam of Gulshan police station told reporters that they had found the body on the rooftop bearing marks of multiple injuries in different parts of the body.
He said Mohammad Alamgir Hossain, house owner, had fled the scene after the incident.
The reason behind the killing could not be known immediately.
Source : New Age
Rangpur Express was lunch Sunday at the Rangpur Railway station.
The communications minister, Sayed Abul Hossain, as chief guest opened the service in the evening.
Admitting that the condition of highways and roads in the country was vulnerable, the minister said the government was trying to develop the overall condition of the roads and highways.
He said, 'Bangladesh Railway introduced Rangpur Express on the Rangpur-Dhaka-Rangpur route. It will introduce six more intercity trains across the country before Eid-ul-Fitr.'
Lawmakers Tipu Munshi and HN Ashiqur Rahman were present as the special guests in the inaugural ceremony chaired by director general of railway Abu Taher.
Local government and rural development ministry secretary Abu Alam Shahid Khan and railway secretary Ebad Ali were also present in the inauguration ceremony.
The Rangpur Express is scheduled to leave Rangpur Railway Station at 7:40pm and it will reach Dhaka at 6:35am taking nearly 11 hours.
The train with 11 luxurious compartments will run two times in a day except Sunday. The train will leave Dhaka at 9:00am and reach Rangpur at 7:00pm.
Source : New Age
The poor of the country are not being effectively benefited from public expenditures made for secondary and tertiary education, upazila health clinics, and water supply system, according to a recent study report.
The study report titled 'Linking Research with Development Policy in Bangladesh: Public Expenditure in Social Sector' was presented at a national interface meeting of government and non-government policy stakeholders on Sunday.
Mahfuz Kabir, a senior research fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, presented the findings of the study conducted by the Unnayan Shamannay, a civil society think-tank.
The study aimed at estimating the distribution of the public spending in three major social sectors – education, health service delivery, and water supply – and to track the nature of distribution of the public expenditure, dividing the society into five income groups.
The study has found that 80 per cent people of the society receive the benefits of only 49.69 per cent of the public expenditures made in these sectors, with the highest income group getting the rest.
Similarly, the lowest income group gets the benefits of 10.59 per cent of the total public expenditures made for secondary education, while the highest income group gets 28 per cent.
The study, however, has found the primary education system as more pro-poor, because the lowest income group of the society gets the benefits of 25 per cent of the total spending made in the sub-sector, while the highest income group gets about 15 per cent.
The study also reveals that the poor living in the 101 of the country's 257 municipalities, where there is piped water distribution system, do not have access to the water, although the government provides 30 per cent of the total water distributed through pipelines free and meant for the poor.
According to the study, the two lowest income groups or 40 per cent of the population get 33.45 per cent of the total subsidy given in public expenditures in hospitals, while the highest income group gets 25 per cent of it.
The study, however, has found the public expenditures on preventive healthcare fairly pro-poor as the lowest income group receives 27.74 per cent of the government's subsidy given in the sector, while the highest income group gets 15 per cent, although the rich rarely visit the public healthcare centres to get preventive treatments.
According to the study findings, the community clinic system, maternal and child care in particular, is more cost effective than that of the upazila health clinics or BRAC's Essential Health Care programme.
The study has recommended that the government should make public expenditures for secondary and, especially, tertiary education more pro-poor, try to make hospitals more accessible for the poor, and improve the quality of service delivery by public hospitals.
It also has recommended that the government should bring the poor, particularly the slum-dwellers, within the piped water distribution coverage and make alternative sources of safe water available in the areas where tube-well water is contaminated by arsenic.
Source : New Age
The High Court has ordered the government to take steps against five readymade garment factories in Savar for polluting the Karnaparha canal and the farmlands of Ashulia, a lawyer says.
The bench of justices AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Gobinda Chandra Tagore on Sunday gave the order upon a petition by Bangladesh Environment Lawyers' Association.
Lawyer for the petitioner Iqbal Kabir Liton told the news agency that the court had ordered the units temporarily shut but he later said the court only asked for action against them.
The court directed the government to explain why the activities of the factories should not be declared illegal and against public interest.
The judges also asked the government to report back to the court in three months with an assessment of how much damage these apparel units had done to the arable lands and canal.
The land secretary, the environment secretary, the industries secretary and 10 others were asked to come up with their explanation within four weeks.
Authorities have been asked to report within three months assessing how much damage these apparel units have done to the arable land and canal.
The factories are Mojrat Knitting and Dyeing, Tajul Garments, Nasirullah Cotton Mills, Apparel Village Ltd and Simtex Industries Ltd.
Source : New Age
The Chief Election Commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on Sunday said that they were planning to introduce the electronic voting machine to ensure free, fair, accountable as well as trouble-free elections.
Huda was speaking at a meeting with a delegation of diploma engineers headed by MA Majid, inventor of the Electronic Vote Casting and Counting Machine, at the Election Commission secretariat.
The delegation demonstrated how the EVCCM works, probably to persuade the EC to choose their machine instead of the Electronic Voting Machine of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
After listening to MA Majid talk about his invention, the chief election commissioner said that
the EC had already planned to introduce the BUET's EVM.
'We have no bias towards or against any kind of electronic polling machine, but the machine will have to be easy to understand and use in order to earn the people's confidence,' Huda said. 'In fact, we plan to introduce the EVM to reduce the hassle caused by the old electoral process.'
Without directly turning down the proposal of using the EVCCM, the CEC asked MA Majid to modify his discovery in line with the demand and with the electoral laws.
Pointing out various flaws in the EVCCM, the CEC said, 'Bangladesh's political culture is confrontational, so we will have to introduce a system which won't give rise
to any controversy or
dispute.'
Election Commissioner Sakhawat Hussain said that democracy is a costly system.
'A total of Tk 300 to 350 crore is needed to hold a general election, and the sum will rise to Tk 1,000 crore in the next general election,' he said.
Majid, who won a national award for his invention, said that the EVCCM is a product of local technology. 'It will help to curb irregularities in vote casting and counting and will reduce the time of voting,' he said.
Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain and other EC officials
were also present at the meeting.
Source : New Age
Libyan rebels snuck into Tripoli by sea Sunday to launch the first salvos in the fight for the capital, as opposition forces surged to join them in a final push to topple Muammar Gaddafi's shaky regime.
A regime spokesman acknowledged a small band of insurgents had penetrated the capital but said Tripoli was well-defended by 'thousands' of troops.
The dawn assault by the advance party, who were joined by Tripoli rebels, marked the start of what the opposition has dubbed 'Operation Mermaid' and which it vows will end only when the veteran strongman surrenders or departs.
Rebel spokesman Abdullah Melitan said the covert operation, which comes more than six months after a popular uprising turned into a civil war, was launched from their western enclave of Misrata, 200 kilometres from Tripoli.
An advance party 'from Misrata reached Tripoli this dawn by sea and joined Tripoli rebels. They are now fighting alongside them,' spokesman Abdullah Melitan said in Misrata.
Intermittent gunfire crackled in Tripoli shortly after four strong blasts were heard around 4:00am (0200 GMT) as NATO warplanes flew overhead, an AFP journalist said. This was followed by more gunfire and further blasts.
The targets were not immediately identifiable but witnesses reported clashes in several districts between insurgents and Gaddafi supporters, namely in the eastern neighbourhoods of Soug Jomaa, Arada and Tajura.
Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said on state television there had been 'small clashes' that lasted 30 minutes and the 'situation is under control.'
Source : New Age
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday said that the government was putting on the party all the blames for the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally to hide real culprits.
The party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that there had been too many questions regarding the grenade attack and the government implicated BNP leaders, including Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of the BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, in the case after seven years out of vengeance.
'We clearly say that Tarique Rahman was not involved in the grenade attack. He has been implicated in the case out of a political vengeance,' he said at an iftar party hosted by the Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu Mukti Parishad at Lalbagh in Dhaka.
Fakhrul said that out of political vengeance, the ruling party was trying to divert the investigation of the grenade attack.
He said that the government wanted to tarnish the image and dignity of the family of the late president Ziaur Rahman and Tarique Rahman had been implicated in this connection in the process.
Fakhrul said that an investigation team had been hired from the United Kingdom to find out the culprits behind the grenade attack when the BNP-led alliance was in power. But the then opposition Awami League cooperate with the investigation.
Brushing aside the allegation of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, regarding the BNP's involvement in the incident, he said the government was engaged in lodging cases against Tarique Rahman one after another so that he could not take part in the next general elections.
'False and motivated allegations are also levelled against the BNP chairperson,' he said.
At another news conference at night, the party's joint secretary general Rizvi Ahmed claimed that the investigation conducted during the tenure of the BNP-led alliance government was correct but the repeated investigations during the tenure of the Awami League-led government were politically motivated.
He said that the government in the name of investigation was trying to destroy the nationalist party politics. A certain quarter is coming up with fairy tales by implicating Tarique Rahman in the incident.
BNP leaders AZM Zahid, Ruhul Kuddus Talukdar Dulu, Masud Ahmed Talukdar and Sanaullah Mia, among others, attended the briefing.
Source : New Age
Protests including transport strikes demanding repairs of rundown roads and highways are spreading across the country.
After transport strikes on the Dhaka–Mymensingh, Dhaka–Tangail, Dhaka–Munshiganj highways and regional routes in Rangpur and Faridpur, the transport operators in Kushtia on Sunday called an indefinite transport strike from today on the Kushtia–Ishwardi route.
The transport owners and workers on Sunday formed human chains halting traffic for 10 minutes at two points in Barisal demanding immediate repairs of roads in the region.
Leaders of the Kushtia Bus Owners' Association and Kushtia Transport Sramik Oikya Parishad at a joint press conference on Sunday announced that they would continue the strike until the roads were repaired. They said that plying vehicles on these roads and highways had become impossible.
Shihab Uddin, president of the Kushtia Bus Owners' Group, said that they would enforce the strike from 6:00am Monday, suspending bus service between Kushtia and other parts of the country, including Dhaka.
Bus service on Dhaka-Munshiganj route, however, resumed on Sunday after four days of suspension.
On August 17, three trucks fell in potholes at Syedpur and Panchabati triggering 10 kilometres of tailbacks on both sides of the road.
In the name of repairs, the authorities had put some bricks on the road at a few points.
A source claimed that the communications minister was scheduled to visit the rundown road but he did not come. Villagers of Sayedpur and Muktarpur in Narayanganj and Munshiganj districts were preparing for protest at the appalling condition of roads.
Our correspondent in Barisal reported that transport owners and workers on Sunday morning formed human chains halting traffic for 10 minutes at two points of Barisal. They submitted a memorandum to the local administration demanding immediate repairs of roads in the region.
Barisal Bus Malik Samity, Barisal-Patuakhali Bus-Minibus Malik Samity and Barisal Sarak Paribahn Sramik Union jointly organised the programme at Nathullabad and Rupatali central bus terminals.
Source : New Age
An Indian anti-graft activist whose hunger strike has galvanised millions to hold the biggest protests in decades appeared Sunday ready to end a standoff with the government, saying he was open to dialogue.
Anna Hazare's statement comes a day after the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, also said the government was open to discuss the 74-year-old self-styled activist's demands after briefly detaining him earlier this week.
At least 50,000 people gathered Sunday to support Hazare, who is demanding a tough anti-graft law.
But Hazare's insistence that the government introduces this bill Tuesday and passes it by the end of this month has sparked criticism that his group was dictating policy to an elected parliament, putting pressure on him to compromise.
'We have not closed the door of dialogue. We have kept it open. Only through dialogue the issues can be resolved,' Hazare told supporters at an open ground in the capital on the sixth day of his fast.
Protesters chanted 'Anna, you keep fighting, we are with you,' and 'Hail mother India.'
Hazare's campaign has found resonance with millions of Indians, particularly the middle classes tired of endemic bribes and a series of corruption scandals that have touched top politicians and businessmen in Asia's third largest economy.
But critics of Hazare's hunger strike, who include novelist and social activist Arundhati Roy, say he is setting a precedent by holding democratic institutions hostage.
'The danger is if we get rid of these institutions and say that discussions will happen outside parliament, then tomorrow there can be a mobilisation of any kind of extremist group,' renowned social activist Aruna Roy told CNN-IBN TV.
Roy's civil rights organisation, the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), said it would introduce its own anti-graft bill to parliament.
Saturday, Singh, widely seen as out of touch and leading a graft-riddled, fumbling government, took the initiative for the first time during the fray with Hazare and said the government was willing to talk.
A ruling Congress party lawmaker also sent Hazare's bill to a parliamentary committee for consideration, meeting a demand of the protesters.
Hazare was briefly jailed Tuesday in a bid to prevent him from massing support for his fast, but he refused to leave prison until the government allowed him to continue his vigil, in public, for 15 days. He was released Friday to huge cheering crowds and widespread media coverage.
The activists' supporters say he will not fast to the death but a medical team is on hand to monitor his condition. Hazare has carried out scores of hunger strikes to pressure governments over social issues in the last few decades.
Source : New Age
The High Court on Sunday cleared the way for the installation of the much-talked-about coal-fired power plant near Sundarban at Rampal in Bagherhat.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore passed the order after the attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, had prayed for vacating the court's March 1 order on the maintenance of a status quo on the power plant project.
The court on March 1 also issued a rule on the government asking it to explain why its decision on the establishment of the power plant near Sundarban should not be declared illegal.
The court had issued the order order after hearing a public-interest litigation writ petition filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh seeking cancellation of the installation of the power plant near Sundarban as this might damage the environment.
The bench, which on Sunday heard the government's prayer for vacating the status quo order, said that the March 1 rule would not obstruct the signing of the treaty with India on the installation of the power plant as the status quo was no longer in force.
Mahbubey Alam told the court that the government had wanted to sign the agreement during the the visit of the Indian prime minister to Dhaka in September 6-7.
He also said that the government needed to make an early decision on the installation of the power plant with a capacity to generate 1,320MW of electricity as the people are suffering because of power shortage.
The Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh's counsel Manzill Murshid opposed the government's prayer saying that Sundarban, one of the world's largest mangrove forests, could be damaged and it might invite more natural disasters if the power plant is set up.
He added that the rule should be expeditiously disposed of and no order should be passed in the mean time allowing the government to set up the plant.
The court, however, said that it would hear the rule in October when the court resumes after its month-long vacation.
The Power Development Board and India's National Thermal Power Corporation have decided to ink a deal and register a joint venture company with the Registrars of Joint Stock Companies and Firms to set up the plant.
The power board signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian company in 2010 to set up two coal-fired plants, each with the capacity to generate 1,320MW of electricity, with partnership shared equally between them.
Experts in Bangladesh said that the planned coal-fired power plants would drastically reduce the diversity of vegetation, wildlife and micro-organisms in Sundarban.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, Sundarban Parjatan Club, Krishi Jami Rakkha Sangram Parishad, and the Centre for Human Rights Movement also protested at the initiative.
According to the organisations, if the plant near Sundarban is put in operation, it will severely damage the biodiversity of the forest in two years and the farmers of the project area will lose their land.
They also pointed out that the site selected for the plant was only nine kilometres from Sundarban, which will be disastrous to the world heritage site.
Referring to the devastation cyclones such as Sidr and Aila caused, rights activists said that Sundarban would not be able to serve as a natural barrier to the protection of the people in a large area of the coastal region from such calamities if the power plant is built because it would destroy the trees that are 3-8m high.
According to experts, the project will destroy the ingredients of the soil that support the lives of millions of inhabitants of a large region, increase the proportion of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the air and seriously harm the flora and fauna of Sundarban.
Source : New Age