More than 80 shanties burnt in city slum fire

More than eighty shanties were burnt down and a woman received burn injuries as a devastating fire broke out at a slum in the Dhaka city's Kalyanpur area Sunday night.

Fire brigade sources said the fire originated from the kitchen of a shanty of the slum, well known as 'Pora Bustee' at about 7:15pm on Sunday.

A total of 14 fire-fighting units from different fire brigade stations put out the flame at about 11:20pm.

The fire originated from a burner of a kitchen and soon engulfed the adjacent shanties, said an officer of the fire brigade control room.

The estimated loss from the fire is about Tk 20 lakh and a woman, identified as Minara Begum, 40, received burn injuries in the fire incident, the officer added.

Source: New Age

9 get Youth of the Nation 2010 Award

Nine have got the Youth of the Nation 2010 Award for contributing to voluntary and development works for the betterment of society.

The award was handed over to the recipients at a function organised by JAAGO Foundation and sponsored by Airtel Bangladesh at Shahid Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium Mirpur.

The US ambassador to Bangladesh, James F Moriarty, addressed the award giving function as chief guest.

Of the recipients, Shaba Tasnim Huq from SunnyDale School got award in Best Partner School, Suman Ahmed from United International University in Best Partner University, Tausif from 1Di in Best Partner Organisation, Imtiaz from Grafics People in Best Corporate Partner, Fahad Alam Talukder from Black Group in Best Group in Wonderland, Farhan in Best Captain and Antara in Highest Fund Raiser categories.

Valerie Taylor got the life time achievement award and Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish got the Youth of the Nation Award.

Source: New Age

Man stabs wife

A housewife was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Monday after she was stabbed allegedly by her husband at Abdullahpur at Uttara in Dhaka in the morning.

Injured Marzina Khatun Moyna, 32, is the wife of rickshaw puller Hashenur Rahman.

The police said Hashenur Rahman stabbed Marzina Khatun on her face and abdomen at her house following a feud over dowry at about 7:00am on Monday.

Marzina complained that her husband tried to kill her as her family failed to pay him Tk 1 lakh as dowry.

Source: New Age

Fire burns jute warehouses in Khulna

Two jute warehouses at Maheshwarpasha at Daulatpur in Khulna were gutted in a fire originated from short circuit on Monday.

Khulna Fire Service and Civil Defence sources said fire broke out at a shed of a warehouse of Zia Jute Trading at about 2:00pm and spread to adjacent sheds.

The fire also engulfed the warehouse of Mollah Jute Trading, witnesses said.

Fire fighters from Bayra, Khalishpur, Daulatpur and River Stations brought the fire under control after fours hours.

Mohammad Sirajul Islam of Mollah Jute Trading said the fire burnt raw jute worth about Tk 15 crore.

Source: New Age

JnU Badhan observes founding anniv

Jagannath University unit of Badhan, a platform for the blood donors, on Monday observed its 5th founding anniversary on the campus.

The activists brought out a procession, led by university vice-chancellor Mesbahuddin Ahmed, at about 11:00am.

They also organised a discussion at the university auditorium. JnU Badhan president Earshad Ahmed presided over the discussion.

Source: New Age

Non-implementation of CHT accord is a shame: roundtable

Lawmakers of the Awami League and its allied parties on Monday expressed regret for not implementing the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord 1997.

They said it was a shame for them that no pragmatic step has been taken in the last 13 years for the implementation of the peace treaty which brought an end to decades of conflict.

They made the remarks at a roundtable on 'Human rights of indigenous people and ILO Convention 169: self-determination rights and constitutional recognition', organised by Research and Development Collective at Hotel Sonargaon.

Chakma circle chief Raja Devashish Roy, while presenting the keynote paper, said that constitutional recognition of the ethnic communities was essential to ensure their protection.

The state has to be not only secular, but also impartial with regard to race and caste.

The chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the land ministry, AKM Mozammel Haque, said that disregarding the peace accord after signing it is nothing but self-contradiction.

It is deceitfulness that will compel the people of the CHT to distrust the Awami League, he said.

The Parbattya Chattagram Janasanghati Samity's president, Jyotirindra Bodhipriyo Larma, popularly known as Santu Larma, pointed out that no significant measure has been taken by any government for implementing the accord.

'I am not at all optimistic as 28 months have passed since the ruling party came to power for the second time and there is still no sign of implementing the accord. Rather, some decisions have been made which go against the CHT's people,' he told the roundtable supported by the International Labour Organisation and attended by a number of lawmakers and human rights activists.

He said that the present situation of the country's indigenous people clearly proves the government's failure to ensure democracy, secularism and progressiveness. 'I think this oppression will continue even in the future,' Santu added.

Emphasising the need for constitutional recognition of the ethnic minorities as indigenous, lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon said it was not possible to solve their problems overnight but there are some basic issues which need to be resolved immediately.

'Constitutional recognition of them as indigenous people is a major issue,' said Menon, who is also chairman of the parliamentary caucus on indigenous affairs.

Lawmaker Hasanul Haque Inu said, 'The indigenous people will definitely be included in the Constitution, but the concern is not to identify them with an unscientific word.'

Regarding using the term 'small anthropological group' for ethnic minority, Inu said it does not mean anything as every individual belongs to one or other anthropological group.

National Human Rights Commission's chairman Mizanur Rahman said that a 'majority psyche' was hindering the process of recognising the ethnic minorities as indigenous.

Lawmakers Shah Zikrul Ahmed and Noni Gopal Bhowmik, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum's general secretary Sanjeeb Drong, and RDC's general secretary Mesbah Kamal spoke on the occasion, along with others.

Source: New Age

May Day observed

The International Labour Day, widely known as May Day, was observed in Bangladesh on Sunday, as elsewhere around the world, with colourful processions and the voicing of the workers' demand for pay-hike to enable them to cope with continued inflation and price-spiral.

Apart from the government, various trade and labour unions, human rights organisations, professional bodies, socio-cultural organisations and political parties observed the day by staging rallies, holding seminars, discussions and cultural programmes in the capital and elsewhere in the country.

The day was a public holiday, and the entire city was full of programmes of the working class people carrying red banners and flags and chanting slogans for the workers' rights.

May 1 was adopted as the International Labour Day by socialist delegates in Paris in 1889. More than 400 of them met in Paris on the centenary of the French Revolution at the Marxist International Socialist Congress, the founding meeting of the Second International.

The Federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unions of the United States and Canada, in its convention in 1884, passed a resolution: 'Eights hours shall constitute a legal day's labour, from and after 1 May, 1886.'

 Many of the strikes in 1886 were unsuccessful but on 3 May, 1886 one of the anarchists, August Spies, addressed a crowd of strikers at McCormick Harvester Works in Chicago, Illinois, where a force of 200 policemen attacked the crowd. At least one striker was killed. About half a dozen were seriously wounded.

The anarchists convened a meeting in the next evening in Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest against the police action. The police carried out a series of attacks on participants of the peaceful rally on May 4.

A bomb, thrown from the crowd into the ranks of the police, wounded sixty-six policemen, of whom seven died later. The police pulled out their guns and fired salvo after salvo at the workers, two hundred of whom were injured and several killed.

Labourer's organisations, socio-cultural bodies and political parties in the country held a number of programmes to mark the day.

 The labour ministry brought out a procession and held a discussion and initiated a three-day fair in the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre. The prime minister opened the government's May Day programmes.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party's workers wing, Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, brought out a procession from the party's central office in Naya Paltan at around 9:45am on Sunday.

The processionists carried colourful banners, festoons and flags and demanded that the minimum wage for workers in Dhaka city be fixed at Tk 5,000.

BNP's senior vice-president Abul Kashem Chowdhury, vice-president Mojibar Rahman Sarwar, secretary-general Jafrul Hasan, joint secretary-general Anwar Hossain, city unit leader Nurul Islam Nasim and other central leaders led the procession.

The BNP's chief, Khaleda Zia, addressed a workers' rally at Konabari in Gazipur.

Workers vandalised several restaurants on May Day in various parts of the capital because they had not been shut down for the holiday. Police said the vandalism started at 10am and lasted until noon in Karwanbazar, Gulistan and Hazaribagh and surrounding areas.

The Bangladesh Hotel Restaurant and Sweetmeat Federation's general secretary, Rafiqul Islam, said, 'A circular was issued to the owners asking them to keep their shops and restaurants closed on May 1, But some owners still went ahead, threatened their employees and kept their shops open.'

The National Garment Workers' Federation staged a workers' rally and brought out a procession carrying red flags from Purana Paltan crossing. The Bangladesh Garment Workers' Unity Council also staged a rally in Muktangan.

The Samajtantrik Sramik Front staged a rally in the Tejgaon Industrial Area and the Bangladesh Garment Sramik Sanghati staged a rally and screened a film in Pallabi.

The president, Zillur Rahman, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the opposition in the Parliament, Khaleda Zia, and leaders of various political parties and labour organisations issued separate messages to mark the day.

Source: New Age

Teachers challenge EC polls bar decision

Teachers of non government schools and colleges filed a writ petition on Monday challenging a recent Election Commission decision to debar them and the other employees of these institutions from contesting Union Parishad polls scheduled to be held from May 31 to July 5.

A High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Anwarul Haque and Justice Md. Akram Hossain Chowdhury adjourned for two days hearing the petition filed by 47 teachers from 15 districts to see whether or not the EC retracts from its decision.

The election commissioner, Muhammed Sohul Hussain, told reporters at a news briefing at his office on April 21 that the EC would issue a statutory order very soon to debar the teachers from contesting the Union Parishad polls.

He also said that the Election Commission took the decision in accordance with Section 30 (1) of the Intermediate and Secondary Education Ordinance of 1961 which does not allow the teachers and the employees of educational institutions, run by the government or recognised by secondary

and higher secondary education boards, to contest

the local government elections. 

But the teachers' lawyer ABM Nurul Islam said that the Election Commission decision not only violates but also disobeys an Appellate Division order in the case of Mofizul Haque.

He said the order did not debar teachers from contesting the elections.

He said, in its verdict, the Appellate Division had observed that a Union Parishad is neither a statutory body nor a local authority within the meaning of the General Clause Act.

On April 24, Shikkhak Karmachari Oikya Jote, an umbrella organization of the teachers and employees of schools and colleges demanded immediate withdrawal of the Election Commission decision.

It said that the 1979 rules governing the recruitment of the teachers and employees of the non-government institutions do not debar them from contesting the elections.

 It also pointed out that the chief whip of Awami League Parliamentary Party Abdus Shahid, MP, is a teacher of a non-government college and the late Ahsan Ullah Master of Gazipur was elected to parliament when he was a schoolteacher.

It termed the Election Commission's recent decision as 'discriminatory' it sought the prime minister's intervention for resolving the matter.

Source: New Age

School kids sweat under sun for nothing

Kids of Bhatapara Primary School in a village in Lalmonirhat had to queue up on the two sides of the road under the scorching sun for six hours Sunday to welcome the state minister for primary education Motahar Hossain with the vain expectation that the visit would help change the status of the non government institution founded 12 years back.

 For the 130 kids no punishment could be harsher than sweating on the Durakuti –Durgapur Road leading to the school for the minister who came late and left almost in no time without even caring to listen to the problems of the school for which the committee have been begging his presence.

The summer heat was as pitiless as it always is in Durgapur union under Aditmari upazila in the remote northern the corner of Bangladesh.

The kids had no choice but to keep standing from 10 AM to 4 PM without any break though the minister was late in arriving after attending several functions on the way.

And the minister left the school immediately without caring to listen to the problems of the non government school for which its managing committee took all the pains to invite him.

The experience equally disheartened the teachers, the school committee, the students as well as the guardians.

Forced to keep waiting by the teachers and the school managing committee under the sun no kid could take their midday meal at school or take their bath before leaving home.

As a number of the kids fell sick the guardians became angry with the decision of the teachers and the school managing committee to compel the young learners to wait under the sun.

Khairun Akhter, a student of Class V told New Age, all the students had to queue up on the road as the teachers and the school committee president 'asked us.'

Her classmate, Shefali Akhter said, 'We could not have our midday meal or bath today as we spent all these hours on the road.'

Mintu Islam, a student of Class III said, 'I became sick standing under the sum.'

Nur Haque, a guardian said that the students had to stand under the sun for six hours in stead of half an hour as the teachers and the school committee had said.

'We feel really angry about the whole thing,' he said.

Mozibor Rahman, another guardian said that the teachers and the school committee forced the kids to stand under the sun ignoring the guardians' protest against the decision.

The school managing committee president Kazi Mohammad Slayman Alom said that the minister had been invited to facilitate nationalisation of the school established in 1999 with seven teachers providing voluntary service.

Sirajul Islam, the headmaster, said that the teachers and the committee had no choice as the minister visited the non-government school on their request.

Durgapur UP AL secretary Aminul Islam said the minister paid the unscheduled visit to the school due to repeated requests from the teachers and the committee.

He said that he informed the committee that the minister would visit the school after attending the scheduled programmes in Durgapur union on his way back to the district town.

He said that he never asked the school committee to keep the kids waiting under the sun to welcome the minister.

The minister even didn't spend five minutes in the school arriving there late.

Source: New Age

HC seeks govt explanation

The High Court has asked the government to explain why an order to conduct a land survey in Chittagong Hill Tracts to stop land disputes should not be issued.

The cabinet division secretary, law secretary, CHT secretary and 10 others have been asked to explain to the court within 12 weeks.

The bench of justices Farid Ahmed and Mohammad Shawkat Hossain issued the rule on Monday following a writ filed by CHT residents Mohammad Jahangir Kamal and AHM Shahidullah.

Lawyer Monzil Morshed stood for the petitioner during the hearing.

He told the court that the CHT Land Dispute Settlement Commission on August 3, 2009 decided to conduct survey in three districts. As per law, it was compulsory for the administration to implement the decision, he said.

'But the administration is yet to implement the decision,' Morshed added.

Source: New Age