Main Page «
Front Page «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

A cardiac patient died on Wednesday after his family failed to purchase lifesaving drugs during a half-day, countrywide strike of medicine retailers.
   Hundreds of patients also suffered, emergency medical officers at different hospitals in the capital told New Age.
   Ashraful Huda, a 65-year-old heart patient, died at the National Heart Foundation at about 2:30pm because his family could not purchase Clarithromycin, an antibiotic, doctors had prescribed at 9:00am to be immediately administered to Ashraf, who had developed serious infection.
   ‘We tried everything possible to save our father. I went from Mitford Hospital to Dhaka Medical College and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. I finally found it at LabAid but when I reached the heart foundation, it was already too late,’ said M Anisuzzaman.
   The Chemists and Druggists Association called the strike in protest against police ‘intervention’ in their activities and arrest and harassment of drug traders.
   The deputy secretary of the association, Monir Hossain, said they had no arrangement for emergency medicine supply since the strike was only for six hours. ‘We also made a lot of publicity giving ultimatum to the authorities concerned.’
   An emergency medical officer at Dhaka Medical College Hospital said most patients had missed their morning and afternoon doses of emergency medicine. ‘Families tried hard to procure them but failed in most cases.’
   ‘Fortunately, there were no major casualties,’ said another on-duty doctor.
   ‘We made a compromise with quality but tried to provide patients with medicines that were available.’

The Spectra Group will organise a monsoon wedding festival at its convention centre at Gulshan from Thursday to promote dowry-free weddings.
   A wedding is not merely about the couple but also about the social and cultural norms and values, said the speaker at a press briefing on Wednesday.
   The organisers urged that people use local products to strengthen the local economy and at the same time contribute in sustaining domestic culture.
   A number of women well known in their fields spoke about dowry-free weddings at the press briefing. They included Kabari Sarwar, Bibi Russel, Bipasha Aich, Lubna Marium and Shawon Mahmood.
   The three-day festival will start today at 3:00pm with a mock wedding ceremony named ‘srabon konnar biye’ — meaning monsoon girl’s wedding — of a model with a freedom fighters’ family.
   The gaye halud (a pre-marriage ritual) of the girl, will take place at the inauguration.
   A number of the stores and companies will exhibit their products and services with discounts, ready for taking orders at the spot, said MH Khan, chief executive officer of Spectra.
   The festival will showcase 21 companies including Divine, Khan Brothers, Ruphali, Nongor Silk, Mantra, Bibi Productions. The jewellers include Dia Gold and Gems Gallery. Other participants include Ferns and Petal, Melange, Pan Supari and Premeium Sweets.
   The festival participants cover the entire range of wedding products and services from flowers and jewellery to honeymoon trips and stage decoration. There will also be a match-maker’s corner complete with ‘couple meeting sessions’.
   There is no entrance fee for the festival. It will remain open for all from 4:00pm to 10:00pm on Thursday, 10:00am to 10:00pm on Friday and 10:00am to 9:00pm on Saturday.

The Barisal City Corporation on Wednesday proposed a Tk 329.56-crore budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year without levying any fresh tax. The revised budget for the previous fiscal year was Tk 37.57 crore.
   The mayor Majibor Rahman Sarwar unveiled the budget in presence of fellow BNP lawmaker Shahidul Huq Jamal, ward commissioners, city corporation officials, and district and divisional administration representatives at the Barisal Club.
   The mayor lamented that the residents only wanted city development and civic amenities but did not pay taxes.
   In the budget proposal, Tk 287 crore has been allocated for development sector, provided that the city corporation gets enough government and other grants. The city corporation received only Tk 17 crore in government and other grants in the previous fiscal year.
   It expects Tk 31.75 crore from current and outstanding holding taxes, land registration and contract fees, water bills, bus terminal and stall rents, and other sources. Establishment cost of the city corporation, to be spent from the earnings, is estimated to be Tk 28 crore.
   Major expenditures in the development sector, as proposed in the budget, includes Tk 64 crore for development and management of city roads, Tk 42 crore for water treatment plant, Tk 26 crore for development of extended city corporation areas, Tk 21 crore for municipal development fund, Tk 15 crore for special development assistance programs, Tk 15 crore for the city corporation building, mayor’s house and commissioners’ offices and Tk 15 crore for market construction.

A mob beat a suspected criminal to death at Madarbari in the Chittagong city late Tuesday, pushing the number of death in lynching to ten in the past two months.
   The police claimed that they had arrested Mohammad Manik at Balurmath as he was collecting toll from a transport agency at about 8:30pm.
   As the news broke, local people rushed in, snatched Manik from the police and started beating him, claimed the police.
   The police also claimed that they had tried to rescue Manik but failed. Eventually, they informed the Rapid Action Battalion.
   However, by the time the battalion members arrived at the spot at about 10:00pm, Manik had already been killed.
   It was the tenth incident of lynching in Chittagong in the past two months.
   On July 17, a mob beat Mohammad Sohag to death at Paschim Madarbari area as he tried to kidnap a garment worker after she had spurned his proposal for marriage.
   On July 15, three suspected robbers, one of them later identified as Ekramul Haque, were lynched at the Technical Training Centre in the Khulshi police area.
   On July 11, a suspected robber, Sher Ali, was beaten to death at Ashia union of Patiya upazila.
   Two suspected muggers were lynched in front of the Oli Khan mosque at Chawk Bazar on June 23. Their identities could not be confirmed.
   On May 25, three suspected muggers — Rajeev Kumar, Mohammed Arif and Rinku Kumar Acharaya — were lynched on Fazilkharhat road in Patiya upazila.
   Two unidentified carjackers were beaten to death at Shikerpur in Hathazari upazila on May 23.

At least 5,000 shanties were demolished rendering about 8,000 people homeless in a slum eviction drive at Bhasantek under the Kafrul police station in the Dhaka city on Wednesday.
   As per the instruction of the housing and public works ministry, a police squad led by magistrate Sultan Ahmed and engineer Feroj Ahmed demolished dwellings of over 3,000 families at the Sagarika slum.
   The slum dwellers alleged that the drive was launched without any prior notice when most of the adults were out at work and children were alone at their shanties.
   Sources in the ministry said they had issued notices asking the illegal occupiers to vacate the land immediately before the drive but they did not vacate the land.
   Feroj told newsmen that they issued notices several times but he could explain why the slum dwellers not get them.
   But the slum dwellers alleged that the authorities only announced the drive through a loud speaker on Tuesday night.
   The slum dwellers allege that the drive was conducted destroying their valuables worth several lakhs of taka.
   Rahima Begum, a day labourer, told New Age, ‘I heard about the eviction drive on Tuesday night at around 9:00pm, when I returned from my work but where could we go with all our belongings in such a short notice?’ ‘I have four children and my husband went to his village home in Madaripur, how could I shift along with my minor children?’ asked Mariam another slum dweller.
   Kamran Ali Matobbar, a local leader, alleged that two ward commissioners and a ruling party lawmaker masterminded the drive, instigated by the land owners.
   ‘More than 8,000 people were staying here and we were ready to face the evictors but we changed our decision when a large police contingent was deployed during the drive,’ said Kamran.
   ‘We tried to rent a room at a nearby slum but we failed as it is the middle of the month. Vacant rooms are not available at this time,’ said Khaleque another slum dweller.
   Amirul Islam, the second officer of the Kafrul police station, who also supervised the eviction drive told New Age, ‘No untoward incidents took place and we did not demolish the shanties forcefully or all of a sudden. The dwellers willingly took away their valuables when we reached the spot.’

Students of two Barisal schools on Wednesday demanded an immediate end to the US aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.
   In a question-answer session after the distribution of schoolbags by the American Centre, they also questioned the logic of giving schoolbags, medicines and biscuits as gifts when hundreds of children, their educational institutions and even hospitals in some other parts of the world are feeling prey to its aggression.
   In reply, the director of the American Centre of the US Embassy in Dhaka, Jonathan Cebra, said the US was trying to establish democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and elected democratic governments had already taken power there.
   The US state department donated 10,000 schoolbags for the Bangladeshi school students and the American centre of the US Embassy in Dhaka in association with Change Makers, a non-governmental organisation, is distributing the bags.
   The students also criticised the comment of the US president George Bush in the recently concluded G-8 summit where he had vowed to protect the US interest and economy at any cost.
   They held USA responsible for about 80 per cent of the environment pollution globally and demanded immediate steps in this regard.

The inter-district bus terminal at Mohakhali, extended and modernised at a cost of Tk 15 crore, will be inaugurated today.
   The Dhaka mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, will inaugurate the terminal refurbished along with two other inter-district terminals at Gabtoli and Sayedabad under a Tk 52 crore World Bank financed project.
   The terminals at Sayedabad and Gabtoli are also set for inauguration and will be launched very soon, a Dhaka City Corporation official said.
   The Roads and Highways Department modernised the terminals under the Dhaka Urban Transport Project. The works started in October, 2003.
   Initially the project cost was fixed at Tk 44 crore and it was supposed to be implemented by the corporation, but it was later handed over to the RHD and the project value was also increased by Tk 8 crore.
   The construction work of the Mohakhali terminal was completed on May 14, 2005.
   The 33,022 square metres terminal has a two-storey terminal building, 39 ticket counters, passenger lobbies, public toilets, a mosque and a police check post.
   As per the World Bank condition to get the fund, the corporation had handed over the terminals to private operators in October 2003 for three years.
   Rora Enterprise got the charge of the Sayedabad and Mohakhali terminal while Diba Enterprise the Gabtoli terminal.
   Rora later kept itself off the operation charges of the Sayedabad and Mohakhali terminal and the terminals were later handed over to Panama Traders Limited.

Grocer stabbed, robbed
A young grocer was stabbed and robbed of Tk 42,000 at Nawabpur Road in the capital on Wednesday. Dulal, 32, owner of a grocery shop at Karwan Bazar, said he was on the way to Shyambazar in a rickshaw when a group of armed men attacked him at the Nawabpur Road crossing at about 6:30am.

300 Mirpur phones out of order
At least 300 landline phones of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board went out of order Wednesday at Mirpur, said a BTTB press release. One thousand pairs of underground cable were affected Tuesday during the installation of power cable by the Dhaka Electric Supply Company at sections 11, 12 and 7 of Mirpur and Pallabi. The repair work has begun and will take about a week, says the press release.

Free legal aid
for poor
Bangladesh Manabadhikar Sangstha (human rights organisation) has taken an extensive programme to provide free legal aid for the destitute and oppressed people of society. Under the programme, assistance will be provided on dower subsistence allowance, disputes ranging from family feud, harassment and other sort of oppression to service and land related conflicts, said a press release. Interested people have been asked to contact secretary general of the organisation at 72 Jigatala Road.

RAB after illegal motorcycles
The Rapid Action Battalion has been deployed in Rajshahi to seize motorcycles that have no valid documents. So far, the special law enforcement outfit has seized 247 motorcycles.

Pakistan date fair August 12-13
The Pakistan Export Promotion Bureau in collaboration with the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka will hold a date show on August 12 and 13 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

Apex move against illiteracy
Apex Bangladesh, a voluntary organisation, announced Wednesday an extensive programme to make Bangladesh illiteracy free. ‘We will distribute stipend and different educational materials among under-privileged students soon,’ president of the organisation Abdur Rauf Dilip said at a news conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity.

Discussion on Science Books Year
The Directorate of Archives and Library organised a discussion meeting and an exhibition to observe the Science Books Year 2005 on Wednesday at Agargaon in the capital. Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Professor Maniruzzaman Miah presided over the meeting while the state minister for cultural affairs, Begum Selima Rahman, was present as chief guest.

Pakistan date fair August 12-13
The Pakistan Export Promotion Bureau in collaboration with the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka will hold a date show on August 12 and 13 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

Apex move against illiteracy
Apex Bangladesh, a voluntary organisation, announced Wednesday an extensive programme to make Bangladesh illiteracy free. ‘We will distribute stipend and different educational materials among under-privileged students soon,’ president of the organisation Abdur Rauf Dilip said at a news conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity.
— New Age