Govt, traders at odds

A disagreement over the pricing of fertilizer has put the traders and the government at odds.
People in the farm sector fear if the issue is not resolved soon enough, farmers would take the brunt of a possible distribution disruption during the peak Aman season.
Bangladesh Fertilizer Association (BFA) has threatened to go on strike after next Saturday if the government does not resolve the pricing issue by then.
BFA, which commands over 5,000 chemical fertilizer dealers in the country, has long been demanding removal of the price disparity in urea delivered from mill gates and buffer godowns.
“The dealers have to procure urea from the government’s buffers at a higher price than they usually pay at the mill gate,” BFA Chairman Kamrul Ashraf Khan told The Daily Star.
Industry sources said the disparity between the factory price and the buffer price continues to exist, even after the recent cut in urea price by the government.
Against Tk 700 factory price of urea (per 50 kg sack), the buffer price is Tk 735, according to Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), the state-run body that operates the six urea manufacturing factories in the country.
Through a press conference on September 21, the BFA plans to go for tough programmes including indefinite strikes if the government fails to keep its “commitment” to reducing the buffer price of urea.
BFA Chairman Kamrul Ashraf Khan told The Daily Star that while attending the annual general meeting of the association back in April this year, Industries Minister Dilip Barua and State Minister for Industries Omar Faruq Chowdhury had promised to remove the price disparity.
Since then, said Khan, “We have reminded the government on several occasions about this commitment, but to no avail so far.”
None of the urea factories are in north Bengal, the rice-rich region of the country, and “our dealers have to buy urea from buffer godowns there at a higher price,” the BFA chairman added.
Contacted by phone, Industries Minister Dilip Barua told this correspondent that he was aware of the fertilizer dealers’ threat of strike.
He acknowledged that he had assured the BFA of considering the disparity problem but declined that he had made any promise in that respect.
Barua, however, said he would discuss the issue with the agriculture minister.
Talking to The Daily Star, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said the issue had been taken up with the finance minister. She hoped there would soon be a solution to the issue of urea pricing.
Urea constitutes a major portion of chemical fertilizers that farmers apply to rice — both the rainy-season Aman and dry-season Boro.
Government provides Tk 6,000 crore to Tk 9,000 crore worth of subsidies for urea prices each year as the country turns heavily dependent on the import of the chemical fertilizer.
Most of the BCIC urea factories remain out of operation half the year thanks to a persistent supply crunch of gas, compelling the government to meet the yearly domestic requirement of urea by importing up to 1.7 million tonnes, against the total demand of 2.4 million tonnes.

Criminals kill businessman

A businessman was stabbed to death and another injured in an attack by criminals in CDA Residential area of Chittagong city Friday night.
Meanwhile, aggrieved locals with the body in an ambulance staged a rally on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in City Gate area yesterday afternoon for around one and a half hours demanding the killers’ arrest and removal of Akbar Shah police officer-in-charge, said witnesses.
They alleged that the OC Abdur Razzak sheltered the criminals for extortion.
The deceased Md Belal, 35, of Uttar Kattoli area, ran a container depot, SR Trading, at Pakka Rastar Matha in the city.
Denying the allegation, Razzak said Belal had a longstanding dispute with one Khorshed Alam alias Roni over the land on which the depot was situated.
However, Hasan Mostafa, brother of Belal, said around eight extortionists, including Roni, Fakhrul and Pavel, halted a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in front of Provati school in the area around 10:00pm. Belal along with his another brother and some friends were returning home in the auto-rickshaw. Later, the gang stabbed them with sharp weapons.
Sometimes the extortionists demanded money from his brother Belal and they attacked him as he wanted to inform police of the matter, Hasan said.
Belal was declared dead at Chittagong Medical College Hospital around 11:30pm, he added.
The body was sent to CMCH morgue for autopsy.
Morgue sources said the body bore several stab injuries to the chest, back and legs.

My soft-spoken, elegant friend

It was a declining afternoon back in 2001 when Rashida Muhiuddin called. She sounded happy, to the point of being thrilled. Could I come over to her Sheraton office for tea? Within the next half hour I was there. She was radiant, with that serene beauty in her giving off a glow of contentment. She had just been nominated by the Awami League for a Jatiyo Sangsad seat in Muktagachha and in celebration wished to share the moment with her friends. I thought myself fortunate in being one of them. For the next hour, we talked of her plans. She was going on leave from Sheraton, where she had headed the public relations department for years. She clearly looked forward to winning that seat in Parliament, but if she lost, she would be back at work where we sat talking. On the walls were a good number of photographs. Rashida was in all of them, welcoming high profile visitors to Sheraton over a period of years.
On that day, Rashida Muhiuddin seemed to be bursting with energy. In my heart, I hoped she would win, for she would make a good, enlightened, graceful presence in Parliament. As I stood up to leave, we shook hands and I told her I would do all I could to help her in her campaign. A certain kind of brilliance shone in her eyes. Before the week was out, I had prepared a piece on her for the newspaper I was working for at the time. I called it ‘My friend the candidate’. She was happy. She called to say she was touched and indeed copies of the article had already gone up on walls in her constituency. In the course of the campaign, she would call to say how encouraged she was at the popular response to her candidacy. Here was a young woman, urbane and urbanised, who was busy creating her own niche in the rough and tumble of politics in rural Bangladesh. She was quickly overcoming opposition to her within the local Muktagachha Awami League and seemed headed for victory at the polls. In the event, she lost. Or was made to lose. It was a year of disaster, for her and for her party. Rashida was certain victory had been stolen from her and for a very long time could not bring herself to face the fact that her rival had triumphed, in however questionable a way, over her.
Rashida Muhiuddin’s sadness took on a deeper hue when she realised she was not welcome at Sheraton any more. Her party had slipped from being the government into being the opposition. Perhaps the new regime, in an act of malevolence, did not want her back at her old workplace? And perhaps the management of the hotel, acutely conscious of the need not to arouse the ire of the new ruling class, did not wish to embarrass itself by asking Rashida back in? In those months of growing frustration, Rashida realised that the only way she could keep herself going was to stay in politics. It was often late in the day that she called, to tell me of the many frustrations she was going through. And yet, she said, she felt she owed it to her constituents to keep the faith they had reposed in her despite the fact that she had not made it to Parliament. Like any seasoned politician, she made it a point to visit Muktagachha on a regular basis and thereby earned enough respect and support to be regarded as her party’s voice in the region. And then there was the night when she called, only for me to hear her sobbing at the end of the line. Recovering in a minute or

so, she stunned me with the news that she had earlier in the day seen her brother buried. It was a situation where I had no words to comfort her. She hung up, but before she did so I told her I would keep in touch.
My early acquaintance with Rashida Muhiuddin came through watching her read the English news bulletins on Bangladesh Television. Then, sometime in July 1996, she and I found ourselves as part of a team previewing a documentary prepared by the new Awami League government elected to office a month earlier. That was our first meeting; and it was to be followed by many more. She was happy when I went off to London in early 1997 as media spokesperson at the Bangladesh High Commission. On regular visits home, we would meet at her office. I would often wonder why the government could not place her in a position where she would be doing a lot more good for it and for the country.
I did not go to see my friend Rashida Muhiuddin after her death. I was not at her burial at the intellectuals’ cemetery in Mirpur. But over these last few years I have thought of her, have prayed for her; and I have wondered why she had to go the way of all flesh so soon, so much before her time. The last time we spoke was when I called her on her mobile. She was busy at a meeting of her party workers in Muktagachha. This is a bad time to call, I told her. I promised to call later. She said she would call too.  That was the last time we spoke to each other.
This morning, it is the soft-spoken, elegant Rashida Muhiuddin who comes alive in the crevices of the soul. She was a proper lady. The thoughts in her ran a beautiful course. And they underlined the self-esteem she based her life on.
She speaks not a word these days.

A rural autodidact’s success story

Youth entrepreneurship is defined as the “practical application of enterprising qualities, such as initiative, innovation, creativity, and risk-taking into the work environment using appropriate skills necessary for success in that environment and culture”. That means organising wild thoughts, packaging big ideas and managing daily issues in an order can be a good start for a young entrepreneur. The importance of promoting such activity has been realised by the economists of our era, mainly for creating employment opportunities for both the self-employed youth and other young people. Bringing the alienated and marginalised youth into the economic mainstream and helping address some of the socio-psychological problems and delinquency that arise from joblessness is also a vital agenda.
Youth-run enterprises give young people, especially the marginalised, a sense of belonging. Enterprise helps young women and men develop new skills and experiences that can be applied to many other challenges in life. Though education has been highly accessible nationwide, jobs are still a different ball game altogether. A significant number of mainstream youth either drop out or remain unemployed, generating frustration and a feeling of worthlessness. But some of them can swim against the tide despite limitations. Such is the case of Rupom Kumar Sarker of Natore. At the age of 29, he has proven himself to be a frontrunner.
Rupom is an autodidact, which means he “learned on his own”, and it is an extremely demanding and absorptive process. Rupom was not considered a “good student” at school but he was extremely keen on learning new things. He is what we consider “street smart”.  His areas of interest include general knowledge, current affairs, history of inventions and technical manuals. Many of his friends were surprised to see his attachment to such knowledge which conflicts his unimpressive results at school. As expected, after passing SSC exam in 2001, Rupom never joined college as he was set to work and earn for his family, which was at that time an inevitable need. His father had a small business of collecting and selling juice of date palm in winter that could hardly meet family expenses. Rupom decided to open up a tea stall with his father in the central part of Natore city. After a year, he wondered was this going to be his future? The answers were clear; his aspiration was bigger and his dreams, untamable. He joined an electrician-mechanic called Harun-Rashid, an old-timer with whom he would worked as an apprentice for a few months. Rupom, adamant to do something meaningful, was a fast learner and started getting shifts for fixation and connection related orders. Rupom was inspired by Harun’s life story and his successful business.
As an electrician, Rupom was doing quite well but the income was still insufficient for the family. In the meantime, the telecom industry was penetrating the local market rapidly and there was a roaring need for cell phone mechanics. Rupom was waiting for something new in which he could uniquely excel in the regional market and thus was interested in mobile phones. He immediately enquired and got enrolled into a three-month training in Dhaka for which he took loan from a community fund (samiti) in his locality. It had cost him 35,000 taka, an amount unimaginable for his family to spend — an investment that does not even assure a confirmed income. But as luck favoured, while training in Dhaka, he got a job as a mechanic at a shop in New Market, which he accepted and joined after the course. Though he was earning well, he realised that all of his money was spent because Dhaka is expensive.
Always with an urge to do something on his own, Rupom came back to Natore with a big plan. He opened his own shop at the Pouro Hawker’s Market in the town area and started providing mechanical solutions for damaged sets. He bought equipment and paid the leasing advance through another loan from the same community fund. In the beginning, he faced many obstacles — starting from his inability of diagnosing complex problems to even compensating for technical mishaps. That made him desperately look for various ways of autonomous learning like internet, different manuals, fix and break through dummy models, and comparative crafting analysis with other mechanics. At one point he became overly dependent to internet tutorials which compelled him to take another loan to buy a PC of his own.
All of these efforts paid off within two years when he started earning enough to pay back his monthly instalments and rents, contribute to family expenses, save for himself and also invest back in business.
Today, he earns enough for a quality living and has two employees whom he is training. He plans to open new shops in other areas as well. He aims to open a training institute for the underprivileged youth of his locality and simultaneously increase the magnitude of his business. Rupom couldn’t finish his studies but he is proud of his sister who is doing her honours (third year) under National University. Two thumbs up to Rupom and his unstoppable zeal for a better life for himself and others.

Umama Nowrose Ittela is a communication specialist, marketeer and a development worker. She is also a passionate dancer, history enthusiast, travel maniac, movie buff, avid reader-writer and a believer of fate.

THE SCIENCE OF RICKSHAW FARE

The rickshaw: the most Bangali of all transports; not having ridden on one renders you a silly person who deserves the mockery of peers. Yet, there’s a lot of confusion as to exactly what a fair fare is. The rickshawalas don’t help matters, seeming to charge their passengers any random number that comes into their heads. We have discovered that there is in fact a method to their madness, and that if one takes into account several factors it is possible to explain the fare any rickshawala will ever charge. We present to you the Rickshaw Fare Equation, guaranteed to always work.

The Rickshaw Fare Equation can be expressed as:
Yi = Distance + Weather Quotient + Traffic Index Effect + Passenger Neediness + Passenger Wealth Index Effect + Relatability + Location Effect + µi
µi is the error term: variations in the fare due to factors we did not or cannot account for (e.g the Rickshawala’s mood). We will now discuss how these variables came to be calculated.
Distance
According Jafar’s First Law of Rickshaw Fares, rickshaw fare is directly proportional to distance. The principle is expressed in the celebrated Fare-to-Distance Conversion Formula:
Fare = 10 x Distance (in kilometres)
That is, each kilometre travelled will on average add 10 taka to the fare. Certain rickshaw-pullers operate with increments of 5 taka, but their peers whole-heartedly reject them as outliers who shouldn’t be given any attention at all.
Weather
Pagla Hannan’s Theory of It’s Hard to Cycle When It’s Wet states that fares rise during rain.  Our field researcher Wasi Noor verified Hannan’s Law at the expense of a bad cold. A derivation of Pagla Hannan’s theory, It’s Hard to Cycle When It’s Effing Hot, states that fares rise with temperature.
The Weather Quotient is an acceptable estimate of how the weather affects the fare at any given time. It is expressed as W = Rain Effect + Temperature Effect.
More exactly:
W = 10D1 + 5D2
D1 = D2 = 0, not raining and not hot. No effect on the fare.
D1 = 1, D2 = 0, raining and not hot. Fare rises by 10 taka.
D1 = 0, D2 = 1, not raining and hot. Fare rises by 5 taka.
D1 = 1, D2 = 1, raining and hot. Fare rises by 15 taka.
Traffic
Rickshaw-pullers generally charge more to travel through thick traffic. According to Lomba Sourav’s paper on Time and Opportunity Cost in Rickshaw-pulling, this is to account for the fare they might have been earning during the time they were stuck in traffic.
Traffic is measured as an index: a certain base number of cars per square metre (Banani 11 pre-Eid) is given a value of 100. Percentage differences to the base amount are then calculated; on average Farmgate has four times the amount of traffic compared to the base, giving it an index value of 400.
It is difficult to calculate the effect of the traffic index, the approximation Fare = Index value/base value is considered satisfactory by most experts.
Passenger Neediness
It has been observed by the B.S. Surveys that the average rickshawala is a master of human psychology, being very attuned to his passenger’s mental state. If he senses that the passenger is in great need of a rickshaw, he raises his fares accordingly.
The effect is calculated as = 5D1 + 10D2, where
D1 = 0, D2 = 0, passenger is not needy, no effect on fare.
D1 = 1, D2 = 0, passenger is in a hurry, raise fare by 5 taka.
D1 = 0, D2 = 1, passenger is desperate, raise fare by 10 taka.
D1 = 1, D2 = 1, passenger is wearing a sherwani and turban and would rather pay 15 taka than miss his own wedding.
Passenger Wealth
Jafar’s Second Law states: “The richer the passenger appears, the greater the fare.” We sent our field researcher Wasi Noor to test the theory and the fare was largely unaffected. Again, when we sent our other researchers, they reported that fares varied considerably depending on how affluent they looked. Wasi’s experiences thus represent an inexplicable outlier that we need not take further account of.
Jafar did propose an equation to measure the wealth effect. This is based on an index figure for Passenger Wealth, where the base is held as being 200 taka in the wallet. Thus:
Fare = Index value/base value
Relatability
Many rickshaw-pullers tell stories to their passengers. One of the writers of this article met a puller who told him all about his three kids and blind uncle. The purpose of this is to make the puller more relatable to his passengers, thereby prompting higher fares. Jafar’s Third Law explains this principle, and he developed the following relation:
Fare = 0.5*Relatability
Where Relatability is a grade between 0 and 10, measuring how likable the puller made himself seem.
Location
Boro Mokhles’ Boro Loker Jayga Hypothesis is, “The richer the neighbourhood, the more the rickshawala can charge.” This is a simple enough concept. The demand for a product is the desire and ability to purchase said product. In more affluent areas the ability to purchase, and thus demand, is higher. For any given level of supply, higher demand leads to higher prices. Boro Mokhles uses a system where he charges extra based on a fraction of the average monthly income in any given area, typically one ten-thousandth. Thus:
Fare = I/10,000 where I = Average monthly income.
He claims it is foolproof. Probably. He is no fool, he wouldn’t know.

Pearls of Imagination

For Syed Iqbal what matters in painting is the emotions it arouses. His images are often disjoined, at times suggestive, at still other times stylized and submerged in apparently abstract compositions. Most of the time, his Images reveal themselves to viewers only after close observation. He thwarts the possibility of a narrative emerging from the images. They work as objective correlatives to his fear and angst; ecstasy and ennui. To borrow from Kandinsky, Iqbal ‘seeks to express only inner, essential feelings.’
He treats his themes in the abstract mode of high modernism, but approaches the surface of his painting in Art Informal manner, experimenting with different materials, combining colour with sand, different modeling paste, textured glue and resin, for example, to create a multi-layered surface to convey a calm beauty. The delicate balance he creates of abstract imagery, and the interplay between powerful hues of exquisite colour and form result in a feast for the eye.
As he places personal feelings at the heart of aesthetic experience his images, associated with individualistic subjectivity, appear elusive and ambiguous. The white-winged blue fairy in Mind the Gap ( 2012) floating in the heavy impasto of blue paint at first glance eludes the eye. But as the viewer’s eye becomes accustomed to the painting, the slender figure of the fairy slowly takes shape in the viewer’s field of vision. The sweeping pale light from an unidentified source and the splotch of red around the pelvic region, indicative of the vagina, give the painting a surreal overtone. Overarching sexual desires take the form of the fairy in the painting, but at the same time we find a yellow border in the right corner which reads ‘mind the gap’ suggesting repression of the desire by our conscious mind.
The internal theatre of the conflict between the subconscious and the conscious has been a consistent theme for Iqbal and he dips his paintbrush in dreamy blue to set up the stage for the play of inner desire and repressed emotions. But his palette oozes with the colours of the rainbow when he expresses his concern for the loss of bio-diversity in the series Tears of Nature. A flurry of primary colours constructs the language of the series. Nature here appears as a sad, gloomy and distorted face of a woman who is integrated into a fantastical amorphous landscape. Visions from his dark imagination dart across the picture surface, like electrical currents. The series rings the bell of the doom of a planet engendered by unsustainable development and loss of bio-diversity.
Iqbal has always looked into himself as the source of his images much like a silkworm which produces silk from its own cocoon. The rich repertoire of his oneiric images made to sink in thick layers of paint and textured surface, is virtually spun from his own cocoon of anxiety, lust, despair and fear.
The current Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts show ‘Colours from the Soul’ reveals the Syed Iqbal we have not seen since 2001. He left for Montreal, Canada that year to start a new life. A year later, he moved to Toronto for a long sojourn that still continuous. In the past 12 years he has visited Dhaka, the city that provided him nourishment for his creative self, on a number of occasions but never to offer a solo exhibition. The importance of the current show thus lies not only in viewers  being able to see Iqbal after a long hiatus, but also to catch up with his recent experiments and look at his exciting new palette shimmering with hues.
Imaginary figures, distorted parts of female body or phantasmagoric imagery have started inhabiting Iqbal’s recent canvasses. The images appear lyrical at times and on other occasions as haunting. Perhaps he is trying to find the meaning of love, sexuality or even failed relationships anew through them. But meaning, as we all know, is always slippery and elusive. This anxiety for meaning runs deep into this recent works.
While groping for a meaning, the best an artist can do is to plumb the depths of the subconscious as an ‘underwater swimmer’ to fish for pearls of imagination. And this is what we see Iqbal doing in his recent works.

Public art installation at the Korail slum waterfront at Gulshan

Since early 2013, artist and photojournalist Susie Taylor has been reporting on the Bangladeshi garment industry with her partner, Jason Motlagh.  The two have teamed up with the Photography Department of Counter Foto, an international platform of photographers and activists, to install a public art installation with world-renowned artist JR and the Inside Out Project, at the Korail slum waterfront in Gulshan, Dhaka.  The exhibition opened on September 13, says a press release.
Taylor brought the Inside Out project to Bangladesh because of the inherent tension inside the Bangladeshi garment industry. While the industry has brought strength and mobility to women, it has also cost them dearly – both in the loss of traditional craftsmanship and the adoption of grueling labour demands. The art installation at Korail is a celebration of the hard working Bengali woman and in support of her struggle for socio-economic justice.
The message is Dignity in Industry.  Bengali photographers from Counter Foto, in collaboration with Susie Taylor and Jason Motlagh, produced the artwork.  The interactive public exhibition was installed in collaboration with JAAGO Foundation, a youth organisation that focuses on eradicating poverty in Bangladesh. Jaago has built and operated schools in Korail over the years. The prints are done on PVC plastic rather than traditional paper and wheat-paste to add utility to the environment, and avoid adding to the solid waste that is already a burden for those living in Korail. The Korail community owns the completed exhibit; and at any point can use the work for insulation, waterproofing, etc.
Jaago Foundation will be collecting garbage from the waterfront during installation of the piece.
The exhibit is entitled “Akhter Begum”– the two most common last names for garment workers in the countries EPZs — adopted by most who have only first names and sometimes no government record. The broader public is invited to take boats to Korail; interact with the community; boost the local economy; learn their stories; take part in the clean up effort; and close the overt division between the rich and the poor.

Poachers fined only Tk 500 each, freed

Police seized seven hares and arrested four poachers from Dophadah area in Lohagara upazila town on Thursday morning.
A mobile court, led by upazila nirbahi officer Rebeca Khan, later fined the poachers Tk 500 each and released them, said Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury, officer in-charge of Lohagara police station.
The poachers are Raju Morlick, 19, son of Ismail Morlic and Murad Mia, 35, son of Lal Mia of Roghunathpur village, Akbar Ali, 50, son of Syed Ali, Shful Islam, 28, son of Hakim Sheikh of Bollertop village in Sadar upazila.
They have been setting poison traps to catch birds and hares from Lahuria jungle in the upazila for long, said the OC, but he could not say why they were freed for only Tk 500.
Contacted, Rebeca Khan said she took action as per the wildlife preservation law. The arrestees told the court that they caught the hares for consumption, she said.
Another mobile court, on 29 July, freed a band of six poachers who killed 280 birds in Lohagara area.
Cases of poaching are on the increase in the upazila, locals said, adding that strict enforcement of law and severe punishment to the offenders must be ensured to stop this callous act.
Poachers catch wild animals from local jungles and sell them openly in local markets, several villagers alleged.
Many locals also stressed the need for raising awarness among villagers about birds and animals to protect them from hunters.

Protest against robberies in Sylhet continues

Different social and voluntary organisations of the district and traders in the city yesterday organised human chains, processions and rallies to protest increasing robberies and mugging in the last few months.
The traders in Sylhet city yesterday held a rally in front of Nehar Market at Zindabazar to protest the police failure to arrest the robber who looted the jewellery shops of the market on September 4.
Members of all the market committees joined the rally presided by the Sylhet Zila Baybosayee Oikya O Kalyan Parishad Sheikh Mokon Mia.
As the prime minister will visit Sylhet on September 17, the sit-in of Sunday has been suspended. Fresh agitation programes including hartal would be announced from a rally on September 18, the leaders told the rally.
They also announced a 3-hour sit-in in the city’s court point area today from 11:00am. Earlier, the businesses hoisted black flags on September 7 and enforced a daylong strike in the city on September 8. They also blocked Zindabazar-Barutkhana road on September 5 and held a protest rally on September 7.
At least 24 incidents of robbery took place in the district in the last three months, indicating a serious slide in the law and order, reports UNB.
During the period, robbers killed two people and looted valuables, including 300 tolas of gold ornaments, worth over Tk 2.25 crore.
Many were also injured as they tried to resist robbers.
On June 2, a gang looted valuables, including gold ornaments and British pounds, worth over Tk 15 lakh, from the house of Maulana Zamir Hossain at Nidanpur village in Lama municipality area under Beanibazar upazila.
On June 11, robbers killed Haji Lal Mia, 60, at Bhanudev village in Debpara union under Nabiganj upazila.
On June 14, robbers looted 85 tolas of gold jewellery and cash worth Tk 50 lakh from the house of Haji Tota Mia at Khasaripara village in Bianibazar municipality by breaking open the collapsible gate.
On the same day, 10/15 robbers attacked the house of UP member Shakil Ahmad at Shampasy village in Kamalpur union of Moulvibazar Sadar and looted 25 tolas of gold and others valuables worth Tk 15 lakh.
On June 28, a gang numbering 10-12 entered the house of Khelafat Majlis’s district organising secretary Maulana Abdul Quayum Zakir in Bahubal Sadar and looted 42 tolas of jewellry and valuables worth Tk 30 lakh.
On July 1, three armed robbers were caught when they went to commit robbery in the city’s Madhuban Market allegedly with the help of market supervisor and a guard.
On July 5, a gang of robbers attacked Majibur Rahman’s house at Tetli in Dakkhin Surma and looted 13 tolas of gold and other items worth Tk 11 lakh.
On July 3, robberies took place at three houses in Rajnagar upazila. The robbers took away 46 tolas of gold, 11 tolas of silver and over Tk on lakh from the houses of Lebas Mia, Abas Mia and Nazrul Mia of Defulura village.
On July 10, a gang of 15-16 robbers broke open the collapsible gate of Minhaj Rashid Moktar’s house at Khadimpara and looted 45 tolas of gold ornaments, cash Tk two lakh and others worth Tk 30 lakh.
On August 1, a robbery was committed at Baghbari in Sylhet city in broad daylight. The hoodlums broke open the lock of the house of Simanto Roy Pappu on the Orphanage-School Road and looted 11 tolas of gold ornaments, cash and other times worth about Tk 20 lakh.
On September 4, a robbery took place at Nehar Market in Zindabajar area where robbers exploded bombs and opened fire and looted three jewellery shops.
The robbers looted gold worth several crores of taka. Guard Badsha Mia was killed in the firing by robbers.
Police arrested five people on suspicion but till yesterday failed to make any headway in the incident.

Vehicles remain stranded for ferry disruption

Strong currents in the Padma again yesterday disrupted ferry services on Mawa-Kawrakandi route, causing immense trouble to passengers as around 500 vehicles were stranded on both sides of the river.
Only nine out of 16 ferries operated yesterday, taking much longer time than usual to cross the river. Local administration forced the Kawrakandi-bound goods-laden trucks to remain halted at Chhanbari in Srinagar upazila, about 10 km of Mawa terminal, to give passage to private cars, passenger buses and other vehicles to board the ferries.
Sirajul Haque, manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) at Mawa, said ferries could not move at normal speed due to strong currents in the river and strong winds accompanied by rain.
Ferries were taking four to five hours to reach Mawa ghat from Kawrakandi, although it is normally a one and a half hours trip. However, a Mawa-Kawrakandi trip was taking around two and a half hours.
BIWTA deployed a tugboat for towing ferries to negotiate strong currents, Sirajul Haque said.
The Padma was flowing 2cm above the danger mark at Bhagyakul point yesterday, said sources at the Water Development Board.Erosion by the Padma hit fresh areas on Thursday, snapping direct communication on Mawa-Bhagyakul-Dohar road in Louhajang upazila as the river devoured a 100 feet area of the road at Mawa point.A two-storey building housing Bangabn Friday. With this, as many as 7,000 feet area at Mawa had gone into the river in the last few days.The parking yandhu Smriti Parishad at Mawa collapsed into the river at around 9:00pm oard of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authorities (BIWTA), river police outpost, met office and other establishments are under erosion threat. People living in the area are trying to shift their belongings to safer areas

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No respite for Siddikur

There was no turnaround for Siddikur Rahman as the 28-year old golfer settled for the joint 63rd position after the third round at the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship on Saturday. The one-time Asian tour winner carded two-over-par (74) to amass six-over-par (222) at the end of the third round at the 500,000 dollar Asian Tour event which is being staged at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club in Taipei.
The lead was grabbed at ten-under-par (206) by Korean-American rookie Chan Kim who carded a four-under-par (68) yesterday.
Taiwanese Yeh Wei-tze and reigning Order of Merit winner Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand were at joint second position with nine-under-par (207).

BFF to form fact-finding committee

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) will form a ‘fact finding committee’ to look into the failure of the national football team in the recently concluded SAFF Championship in Nepal where Bangladesh were eliminated from the group stages without a single win.
The decision came yesterday after a meeting between the members of the National Teams Committee (NTC) and BFF president Kazi Salahuddin.
“In order to investigate the failure in the SAFF Championship and also to formulate better work-plan for the future, we will form a fact finding committee within a few days,” said BFF vice president and NTC member Tabith M Awal after the meeting yesterday.
“To find out the right facts, the committee, which will be formed with BFF executive committee members, can interview everyone including coaches, players, team officials, BFF executive members, and even members of NTC, who worked closely with the national team in the last two month,” said Tabith.
Coach Lodewijk de Kruif and manager Iqbal Hossain were supposed to submit separate reports to the NTC regarding the SAFF Championship yesterday but they will instead submit it to the fact finding committee.
Tabith however could not give a timeframe for the submission of the report but informed that they would finalise their next work-plan on the basis of the report of the fact finding committee.
Tabith informed that they have no plan to scrap the short-term contracts with goalkeeping coach Kees Kalk and trainer Mohammet Yamali, who will be working with the U-19 team for the qualifying round of the AFC U-19 Championship, before their contracts expire.
Replying to a query, the former footballer said, “Other nations in the SAFF have improved much compared to their previous standing but Bangladesh have improved little. We will have to improve the technical side of the players and find out players of good-build with a long-term plan.”
“As a member of the NTC, we gave effort as much as we could before the SAFF championship and I haven’t had much dissatisfaction regarding the result of the national team,” said
Asked about the possibility of holding the Bangabandhu Gold Cup football tournament at home soil, Tabith said, “The BFF president (Kazi Salahuddin) is trying to get an appointment with the Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina) this week and if he gets the appointment, the Bangabandhu Gold Cup will be held after Eid-ul-Azha where six nations will participate instead of eight.”

Two businessmen shot in Savar

A group of criminals shot two garment accessories businessmen and allegedly snatched away Tk 24 lakh at Gorat of Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital yesterday morning.
Ashulia Police Station Sub-inspector Rakibul Islam said, “Both victims were shot in the legs. This was not a simple case of mugging, but was related to a case of land disputes.”
The victims Shamsuddin Mondol, 34, and Fazlur Rahman, 40, both from Changao village, were relatives. They were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Fazlur said, “We were on way to Konabari in Gazipur district from our village via Gorat on a motorbike like any other day. A white microbus barricaded the way and they started shooting at us and snatched the bag containing the money while leaving us seriously injured.” They were supposed to make a payment with the money at the factory, he added.
The SI said they were preparing to lodge a case.
Police could not apprehend any of the criminals till 5:00 pm yesterday.

Let’s not allow bigots to take over Bangladesh

Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman yesterday urged all to work in unison so that religious fanatics cannot take hold of the country.
The image of Bangladesh lies in the spirit of the Liberation War, but demands are being made to send women back to the confine of the four walls of house, he said.
All will have to work together to defend that spirit, he told a ceremony at BCS (Administration) Academy in the capital where Chandraboti Academy conferred a lifetime achievement award on the educationist for his contributions to the country.
The chief guest, Finance Minister AMA Muhith, said just as a light house was to a sailor, Prof Anisuzzaman was to society.
Chandraboti Academy has published “Akash Amay Bhorlo Aloy”, a book containing the life, works and some rare pictures of Prof Anisuzzaman, edited by the academy adviser Mahfuzur Rahman.
Executive Director of Ain o Salish Kendra Sultana Kamal and Chittagong University’s Prof Golam Mostafa, among others, spoke on the occasion.
Chandraboti Academy Executive Director Kamruzzaman Kajal gave the welcome speech function, chaired by Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique.

Dhaka losing ancient stone inscriptions

Lack of conservation efforts and greed of some unscrupulous individuals is resulting in the loss of Dhaka’s historical stone inscriptions, said researchers yesterday.
Over 100 ancient inscriptions were lost in the last 30 years, mostly in the late 90s, stated the Committee for Documentation on Architectural Sites in Dhaka after a four-year voluntary investigation patronised by Dhaka University (DU).
The committee, comprising architects, translators, sculptors, photographers and journalists, published their second report on the lost inscriptions at a ceremony in DU’s Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban.
The researchers took the painstaking task of going to every ancient mosque, tomb, temple, church and cemetery to collect information about the inscriptions, said DU Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, the committee’s chairperson.
“The stone inscriptions are valuable pieces of Dhaka’s rich cultural history. Losing them means losing our history, he said.
Renowned archaeologist Abul Kalam Mohammad Zakaria said, “Nothing will remain of the valuable inscription stones if we keep losing them at the present rate.”
Noted architect and art critic Shamsul Wares said the inscriptions provide valuable insight into the societies of people who came to this part of the world from different continents centuries ago. The government must take steps to protect them, he said.
Sculptor Rasha said there was a conspiracy behind the disappearance of the historic relics. It is necessary to bring the perpetrators to justice, he said.
“Looking for personal gains, a number of educated people had tried to smuggle the valuable relics out of the country and destroy our heritage,” he added.

After 5yrs girl gets home from India

Twelve-year-old Afroza Khatun finally returned to her homeland yesterday, around five years after she had travelled to India with her mother and elder brother illegally.

India’s Border Security Force (BSF) Additional Director General Bangshi Dhar Sharma handed over the girl to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Director General Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed at the BGB headquarters in the capital around 10:30 am.

Her father and maternal grandmother from Natore were present on the occasion.

Monowara Begum with her little daughter Afroza and son Munna Parvez crossed over the border into India in January 2009 in search of a livelihood, says a BGB press release.

But a few days later, they headed back for Bangladesh as Monowara fell ill. In January the same year, they tried to cross the border near Siliguri to come to Bangladesh but were detained by police for intrusion into India and later imprisoned.

“Heavy rains caught us unaware, and we sought shelter in a place. My mother was putting me to sleep when a law enforcer approached and started asking us questions. We got arrested afterwards,” Afroza said at a press briefing after the handover.

Afroza’s father Md Akram Hossain said the girl’s mother had gone to India for healthcare.

But BGB said Afroza’s mother had crossed the border in search of a livelihood because her husband had abandoned her.

According to a BGB press release, Afroza, originally from Natore, had been trafficked to India around five years ago.

After their detention along the Siliguri border, Monowara and little Afroza were sent to a jail in Balurghat and Munna to a children’s home.

Afroza and her mother were later transferred to a jail in Baharampur, Murshidabad, West Bengal. It was in the Baharampur jail that Afroza’s mother died on October 13, 2009.

The girl stayed in Holy Child Home at Ranighat in Nadia under the supervision of BD Sharma until her return home yesterday. Her brother was sent back to Bangladesh on August 24, 2011.

The BGB chief said Afroza would be admitted to a school in Rajshahi and stay in the hostel. She can communicate with her father and grandmother in Natore, he said.

Afroza has been given Tk 1.5 lakh as compensation from the BSF, claimed Sharma.

Factory survey faces hiccups

After months of delays following the deadly Rana Plaza collapse in April, a comprehensive factory inspection was supposed to begin today to check structural flaws in buildings.
But the process is grappling with setbacks and may take another 7-10 days to kick off, as stakeholders are yet to agree on a common checklist for the inspection guideline, according to Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar.
Under the initiative, the labour and employment ministry in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation will inspect 2,250 factories by 30 teams of experts led by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
However, three separate platforms, including the one led by Buet, had earlier agreed in principle to follow a common action plan drawn by the government, but did not turn up later.
The other platforms are global initiatives—one led by IndustriALL, an international trade union, and the other is North American Alliance, a platform of 20 US-based retailers and brands.
Initially the platforms that emerged after the Rana Plaza building collapse had a plan to inspect the factories under their own guideline.
Shipar said they will sit tomorrow with the high-ups of North American Alliance, one of the global platforms, to discuss the common checklist.
They have another meeting on the same day with the Economic Relations Division on the funds for the inspection, the secretary said.
The ERD will disburse the $24 million funds provided by the ILO.
The global platforms are yet to submit the lists of the factories they will inspect, which is also holding the inspection back.
The members of the North American Alliance will also  hold a meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufac-turers and Exporters Association in Dhaka tomorrow to discuss the issue of a common checklist.

Appollo Ispat to bring in green tech to produce CI sheet

Appollo Ispat Complex is bringing in an environment-friendly technology to produce lead- and acid-free corrugated iron sheet from next year.
The non-oxidising furnace (NOF) technology of Germany will also help increase the CI sheet maker’s efficiency and reduce cost of production, officials said.
The new technology, in addition to the existing continuous galvanising process, will be applied to an extension, construction of which is going on in the 17-acre factory area at Shimrail in Narayanganj.
Once the new technology is introduced, hot roll (HR) coil — the raw material for cold roll (CR) coil — will be cleaned through heat, instead of caustic soda and acid.
Appollo Ispat now imports HR coil, mainly from Japan, and transforms those into CR coil, the raw material for CI sheet.
Also, there will be no need to use lead during the galvanization of the CR coil, said Hasan S Hannan, general manager of Appollo Ispat. “The finished products will be shinier, more durable and environment friendly,” he said.
“We will be able to produce 120 tonnes of CI sheet per line, up from 70-80 tonnes in the existing two lines.” The cost of production will also go down by Tk 2,000 per tonne, Hannan said.
The NOF project will cost Tk 95 crore, of which Tk 60 crore will come from a portion of initial public offering, and sponsor shareholders will contribute to the rest.
Appollo Ispat has recently got a go-ahead from the stockmarket regulator to raise Tk 220 crore by issuing 10 crore ordinary shares of Tk 10 each, in addition to Tk 12 as premium per share.
“From the IPO proceeds, we will spend around Tk 153 crore on loan repayment, Tk 60 crore for the NOF project and the rest to bear the IPO expenses,” said Abdur Rahman, deputy managing director.
With the utilization of the IPO fund, he said, the company’s profitability will go up, helping the management to disburse dividends among shareholders at the year end.
Appollo Ispat produces around 1.20 lakh tonnes of Rani branded CI sheet per year, with a 20 percent market share.

Govt goes ahead, greens worried

The government is set to hire a consultant for the massive coal power plant in Rampal, close to the Sundarbans, despite environmentalists’ concern about the project’s site selection and its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
“We have floated a tender to appoint the consultant which is expected to be done by December. By March, we plan to award the power plant building job to an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor through an open tender,” said an official of the India-Bangladesh joint venture company that is implementing the scheme.
The joint venture company is expected to cover 70 percent of the $ 1.5 billion project cost from loans.
The official claimed that environmentalists and civil society groups were criticising the project EIA without going through its final version.
The Centre for Environment and Geographic Information Services (Cegis) had prepared the report having consulted all including the project’s critics to the Rampal locals, he said, adding that the Department of Environment (DoE) had approved the report early August.
Located 14-kilometre northwest of the Sundarbans and four kilometers from the declared ecologically critical area (ECA), the Rampal site was selected based on recommendations by the Cegis upon an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) of two sites — Rampal and Labanchhara in Khulna.
Critics say the Cegis prepared the report just to fulfil the government’s wish. They think Labanchhara is a better location as it is situated 33km off the forest.
The Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (Bela) earlier this year gave the government a set of concerns that included selection of Rampal as the project site and the poor environmental track record of National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) of India.
Bela said the Indian environment ministry had taken note of NTPC’s extremely poor compliance with environment norms. This was relevant to the selection of a site that is eco-sensitive.
It added even though the site was located 4km from the ecologically critical area of the Sundarbans, there had been insufficient studies on the possible impacts.
“Since NTPC is involved in this project, it is pertinent to note that under India’s EIA Manual on TPP (thermal power plant) the location should be at least 25km from the outermost periphery of the ecologically sensitive areas. Here the site is only 4km away from the Sundarbans,” said Bela.
It appeared to Bela that price of the land had been a major factor for selecting Rampal over Labanchhara where per decimal of land costs between Tk 25,000 and Tk 30,000 compared to Rampal’s Tk 8,000 and Tk 10,000.
In response to Bela’s concerns, the government said the NTPC ranked 337th largest power company in the world according to Forbes and the biggest company in India.
It said the site selection was not motivated only by the land cost. The major indicators were number of settlements to be rehabilitated, population density, cropping area, amount of khas land, maximum allowable draught of the river and cities at downwind direction.
The approved EIA showed that the density of people in Labanchhara was 647 per square-kilometre whereas it was 121 persons per sq-km in Rampal. The net cultivable land in Labanchhara, located just 2km off the Khulna city, was nearly four times more than that of Rampal. Besides, the Passur River in Rampal had three times more draught than that of the river near Labanchhara.
“The final project area is 1,834 acres and it requires evacuation of around 150 homesteads. The Rampal site satisfies all the site selection criteria compared to other sites like Labanchhara,” said the EIA report, adding that in Labanchhara three times more people would need to be evacuated.
“Even if the Rampal plant poses no threat to the Sundarbans, why can’t the government select some other sites in Khulna — far away from the forest — to avoid all these controversies,” a geologist who worked at a coal mine project said.
He said once the power plant was set up, Rampal would be crowded by many industries and that would have an adverse impact on the sensitive ecology.
The government’s priority is to implement the project, not to save the Sundarbans, said Abdul Matin, secretary general of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa).