20 pages plus 8-page Treehouse children’s supplement | Price: Tk10 Boishakh 10, 1421 Jamadius Sani 22, 1435 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 2, No 24 Business B1 The government’s borrowing from Bangladesh Bank has come down to zero at the end of March this year, reflecting strong and sound financial stability in the country. News 5 After a long wait, a brand-new fleet of taxicabs began its journey on the capital’s streets yesterday compound- ed by an unusual high fare rate. Nation 6 A radio mechanic in Madarganj upazila of Jamalpur has devised a method for extracting gas from beneath the ground and using it to run irrigation pump. Op-Ed 11 Most would say this was inevitable. Two parties with more of a glorious past and a comparatively dismal pres- ent were bound to engage in a battle sooner or later to establish their eligi- bility based on historical references by explicitly discrediting each other. INSIDE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION 9 | MODI CONDEMNS ANTI-MUSLIM REMARKS 7 | WHO WILL FORM NEXT INDIAN GOVT? Treehouse | MYTHICAL CREATURE: BASILISK 14 | MAN UNITED SACK DAVID MOYES A motorcade of the BNP starts the party’s long march towards the Teesta Barrage. The photo was taken at Azampur in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE BNP’s long march short on interest n Mohammad Al-Masum Molla The BNP’s much-hyped “long march towards Teesta” that began yesterday was the party’s first major demonstra- tion since the January 5 national elec- tion. But, in stark contrast with what the party had been claiming, BNP lead- ers and activists – especially those at the district levels – accorded the pro- gramme with little enthusiasm and participation. However, BNP acting secretary gener- al Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, leader of the contingent, claimed in a rally at Govindaganj of Gaibandha that the programme’s primary success was proved when India decided to release more water on the day BNP began its long march. Yesterday afternoon, the flow of water in Teesta was measured to be around five times higher than the flow in the previous weeks. Water resources specialists say the stronger flow is normal in the last week of April because it is around this time of the year that ice starts melting in the Himalayas. The Dhaka Tribune reporter, who travelled along with the long march from Dhaka to Rangpur, saw very few archways, banners and festoons in the roadsides – things that usually charac- terise similar programmes of the party. The BNP contingent was sched- uled to hold a rally at the Mati Dhali intersection in Bogra town at 3:30pm. Around 2:45pm, a local decorator com- pany could be seen trying to put up an archway and a minimalistic stage for the gathering. Aslam, an employee of the decora- tor, said they had been told about the meeting in the morning and the work began around noon. The local ranks of the party would usually start publicising such pro- grammes with loudspeakers a few days before schedule. Yesterday, however, the publicity began around 12pm, hours before the meeting schedule, said Azizul Hakim, a local businessman who rents out loud- speakers. When the meeting eventually be- gan, it too was devoid of any substan- tial support. Munshi, a local truck driver, said the scorching summer heat could be a rea- son why people did not come outdoors to take part in the long march. Nazrul Islam Khan was the only standing committee member of the PAGE 2 COLUMN 6 Tk6,000 crore more sought for recapitalising state banks Fund sought for specialised banks too n Asif Showkat Kallol The bank division of the Finance Minis- try has sought Tk6,000 crore allocation in the upcoming budget for recapitali- sation of the four state-owned banks. The division has sought Tk700 crore for the same purpose for the state- owned specialised banks. M Aslam Alam, secretary of the Bank and Financial Institutions Divi- sion, told the Dhaka Tribune that the four government banks needed more capital in the next fiscal year in line with Basel II. Basel II, published in 2004, is an accord that intends to create an inter- national standard for banking regula- tors to control how much capital banks need to put aside to guard against risks. The four state-owned commercial banks in Bangladesh – Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali – are said to have been robbed off their safe footing by major scams such as those staged by the Hall-Mark and Bismillah groups. “The balance sheets of the state banks should be streamlined in order to ensure their survival...The devel- opment partners think that the state banks may collapse because of capital shortfall. So, they want to see recapital- isation in steps,” the secretary said. He also said a negotiation had been going on with the Finance Division re- garding the amount to be allocated in the coming budget for the purpose. In September last year, the Finance Division once disbursed Tk4,100 crore to the state-owned banks so that they could address capital inadequacies. At the time, the aggregate capital short- fall of the four banks was over Tk8,000 core. A senior official said the Finance Di- vision needed to first know how well the banks had used that allocation be- fore it could approve further funds. According to sources in the Bang- ladesh Bank, in December last year, capital shortfall of Sonali Bank stood at Tk249 crore, Rupali Tk107 crore, Janata Tk404 crore and Agrani Tk92 crore. The central bank has not audited the four banks since then, but an offi- cial said these banks might turn out to be Tk7,000 crore short of capital in the next audit. In the audit, the banks need to show, among other things, impressive perfor- mance in reducing non-performing and default loans in order to get further re- capitalisation allocations. A recent study of the Business Mon- itor International, a London-based research firm, said Bangladesh’s bank- ing sector was “seriously vulnerable to economic shocks” mainly because of the poor performance of the state- owned banks. “The state banks had racked up a large amount of non-performing loans on their books, creating a flaw in the banking system,” said the study titled Bangladesh Commercial Banking Re- port 2014. As of September 2013, the gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of state banks stood at 28.8%, up from 11.3% in 2011 and 23.9%in 2012. On December 31 last year, the amount of default loans at the state banks was Tk16,606 crore or 19.76%of their outstanding loans, according to the Bangladesh Bank. NPLs are sums of borrowed mon- ey for which debtors have not made PAGE 2 COLUMN 6 Arati wears a silver anklet on her prosthetic leg just like before. Her right foot had to be amputated from the ankle as it was badly damaged in the collapse of the Rana Plaza in Savar last year. She used to work at a garment factory on the seventh floor of the building and was trapped in the debris for four days after the collapse. Arati lost her mother in the tragic incident. She got her prosthetic limb with the help of an NGO and can now walk with some comfort. The photo was taken at her home at Savar yesterday. Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, the country’s biggest industrial disaster which killed 1,136 people SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN Election Commission probe finds ‘no irregularity’ in upazila polls n Mohammad Zakaria The field-level officials of the Election Commission have not found any proof of violence and irregularities during the upazila parishad polls and claimed that the media reports were incorrect. Returning officers and district elec- tion officers from 40 districts sent in- vestigation reports to the commission after looking into the allegations, EC sources said. All the reports mentioned that there was no proof of violence and irregularities. The reports say the polls were held peacefully and there were no incidents of stuffing fake votes, snatching ballot papers or capturing of polling stations. There had been incidents of vio- lence, capturing polling centres, vote rigging and snatching of ballot boxes reported in different electronic and print media. The EC also suspended polls in two upazilas and 140 polling centres due to violence. The commission took the media re- ports into cognisance and asked the returning officers and the district elec- tion officers on April 7 to investigate those allegations. Assistant Secretary of the EC Asfakur Rahman yesterday told the Dhaka Trib- une: “We have received some probe reports on violence and irregularities during the upazila polls. I am gathering the reports which will be presented at the next commission meeting.” The polls took place in 459 upazilas in five phases across the country. Elections in 14 upazilas will be held on May 19. According to the report from Jes- sore, there were no vote-rigging inci- dents in Keshabpur upazila. The re- port signed by District Election Officer Tareque Ahmed also stated that the media reports on enforcement of hartal protesting vote rigging were incorrect as the voters exercised their franchise “peacefully.” PAGE 2 COLUMN 6 US considering Bangladesh’s request for more military equipment n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman Bangladesh has sought more military equipment from the United States and Washington says it is considering the matter positively. “Bangladesh did express its interest in receiving more equipment from the US. There are various ways for Bang- ladesh to obtain military equipment from the United States,” Principal Dep- uty Assistant Secretary Tom Kelly yes- terday said at a joint press briefing in Dhaka. Secretary (bilateral) of the Foreign Ministry Mustafa Kamal and Kelly held the press conference after a day-long dialogue on security for the third time. PAGE 2 COLUMN 6 Teesta water flow marks a rise n UNB India yesterday augmented the water flow of the Teesta into Bangladesh. The water flow of the Teesta into the Bangladesh territory reached 3,000 cusec as of yesterday afternoon, said Executive Engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board Mahbubur Rahman. He said if the water flow remained the same, there would be no water problem for irrigation during the cur- rent season in Lalmonirhat, Rangpur and Kurigram districts. The water flow of the Teesta dropped a record low of 300 cusec in the current season as India constructed dams on tributaries of the river in Sik- kim and diverted water by the Gazaldo- ba barrage through a link to the Upper Mahnanda River. Water resources specialists say the stronger flow is normal in the last week of April because it is around this time of the year that ice starts melting in the Himalayas. The change in the usual water flow is being marked since last week. WDB sources said water flow had increased through the Gojoldoba gate of India since April 13. Though the water flow increased, it had not played any effective role in the cultivation yet, they added. Meanwhile, the BNP yesterday morning launched a long march to- wards Teesta Barrage to realise the due share of all the common rivers, includ- ing Teesta. l Mirza Fakhrul claims that India starts releasing more water because BNP has made a move EC assistant secretary: We have received some investigation reports on violence and irregularities during the upazila polls An official of the Banking Division said these banks might turn out to be Tk7,000 crore short of capital in the next audit HOPES CARRY ON...
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20 pages plus 8-page Treehouse children’s supplement | Price: Tk10
Boishakh 10, 1421Jamadius Sani 22, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 24
BusinessB1 The government’s borrowing from Bangladesh Bank has come down to zero at the end of March this year, re� ecting strong and sound � nancial stability in the country.
News5 After a long wait, a brand-new � eet of taxicabs began its journey on the capital’s streets yesterday compound-ed by an unusual high fare rate.
Nation6 A radio mechanic in Madarganj upazila of Jamalpur has devised a method for extracting gas from beneath the ground and using it to run irrigation pump.
Op-Ed11 Most would say this was inevitable. Two parties with more of a glorious past and a comparatively dismal pres-ent were bound to engage in a battle sooner or later to establish their eligi-bility based on historical references by explicitly discrediting each other.
INSIDE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION
9 | MODI CONDEMNS ANTI-MUSLIM REMARKS7 | WHO WILL FORM NEXT INDIAN GOVT?Treehouse | MYTHICAL CREATURE: BASILISK 14 | MAN UNITED SACK DAVID MOYES
A motorcade of the BNP starts the party’s long march towards the Teesta Barrage. The photo was taken at Azampur in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE
BNP’s long marchshort on interestn Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
The BNP’s much-hyped “long march towards Teesta” that began yesterday was the party’s � rst major demonstra-tion since the January 5 national elec-tion.
But, in stark contrast with what the party had been claiming, BNP lead-ers and activists – especially those at the district levels – accorded the pro-gramme with little enthusiasm and participation.
However, BNP acting secretary gener-al Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, leader of the contingent, claimed in a rally at Govindaganj of Gaibandha that the programme’s primary success was proved when India decided to release more water on the day BNP began its long march.
Yesterday afternoon, the � ow of water in Teesta was measured to be around � ve times higher than the � ow in the previous weeks.
Water resources specialists say the stronger � ow is normal in the last week of April because it is around this time
of the year that ice starts melting in the Himalayas.
The Dhaka Tribune reporter, who travelled along with the long march from Dhaka to Rangpur, saw very few archways, banners and festoons in the roadsides – things that usually charac-terise similar programmes of the party.
The BNP contingent was sched-uled to hold a rally at the Mati Dhali intersection in Bogra town at 3:30pm. Around 2:45pm, a local decorator com-pany could be seen trying to put up an archway and a minimalistic stage for the gathering.
Aslam, an employee of the decora-tor, said they had been told about the meeting in the morning and the work began around noon.
The local ranks of the party would usually start publicising such pro-grammes with loudspeakers a few days before schedule.
Yesterday, however, the publicity began around 12pm, hours before the meeting schedule, said Azizul Hakim, a local businessman who rents out loud-speakers.
When the meeting eventually be-gan, it too was devoid of any substan-tial support.
Munshi, a local truck driver, said the scorching summer heat could be a rea-son why people did not come outdoors to take part in the long march.
Nazrul Islam Khan was the only standing committee member of the
PAGE 2 COLUMN 6
Tk6,000 crore more sought for recapitalising state banksFund sought for specialised banks toon Asif Showkat Kallol
The bank division of the Finance Minis-try has sought Tk6,000 crore allocation in the upcoming budget for recapitali-sation of the four state-owned banks.
The division has sought Tk700 crore for the same purpose for the state-owned specialised banks.
M Aslam Alam, secretary of the Bank and Financial Institutions Divi-sion, told the Dhaka Tribune that the four government banks needed more capital in the next � scal year in line with Basel II.
Basel II, published in 2004, is an accord that intends to create an inter-national standard for banking regula-tors to control how much capital banks need to put aside to guard against risks.
The four state-owned commercial banks in Bangladesh – Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali – are said to have been robbed o� their safe footing by major scams such as those staged by the Hall-Mark and Bismillah groups.
“The balance sheets of the state banks should be streamlined in order to ensure their survival...The devel-opment partners think that the state banks may collapse because of capital shortfall. So, they want to see recapital-isation in steps,” the secretary said.
He also said a negotiation had been going on with the Finance Division re-garding the amount to be allocated in the coming budget for the purpose.
In September last year, the Finance
Division once disbursed Tk4,100 crore to the state-owned banks so that they could address capital inadequacies. At the time, the aggregate capital short-fall of the four banks was over Tk8,000 core.
A senior o� cial said the Finance Di-vision needed to � rst know how well the banks had used that allocation be-fore it could approve further funds.
According to sources in the Bang-ladesh Bank, in December last year, capital shortfall of Sonali Bank stood at Tk249 crore, Rupali Tk107 crore, Janata Tk404 crore and Agrani Tk92 crore.
The central bank has not audited the four banks since then, but an o� -cial said these banks might turn out to be Tk7,000 crore short of capital in the next audit.
In the audit, the banks need to show, among other things, impressive perfor-mance in reducing non-performing and default loans in order to get further re-capitalisation allocations.
A recent study of the Business Mon-itor International, a London-based research � rm, said Bangladesh’s bank-ing sector was “seriously vulnerable to economic shocks” mainly because of the poor performance of the state-owned banks.
“The state banks had racked up a large amount of non-performing loans on their books, creating a � aw in the banking system,” said the study titled Bangladesh Commercial Banking Re-port 2014.
As of September 2013, the gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of state banks stood at 28.8%, up from 11.3% in 2011 and 23.9%in 2012.
On December 31 last year, the amount of default loans at the state banks was Tk16,606 crore or 19.76%of their outstanding loans, according to the Bangladesh Bank.
NPLs are sums of borrowed mon-ey for which debtors have not made
PAGE 2 COLUMN 6
Arati wears a silver anklet on her prosthetic leg just like before. Her right foot had to be amputated from the ankle as it was badly damaged in the collapse of the Rana Plaza in Savar last year. She used to work at a garment factory on the seventh � oor of the building and was trapped in the debris for four days after the collapse. Arati lost her mother in the tragic incident. She got her prosthetic limb with the help of an NGO and can now walk with some comfort. The photo was taken at her home at Savar yesterday. Tomorrow is the � rst anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, the country’s biggest industrial disaster which killed 1,136 people SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
Election Commission probe � nds‘no irregularity’ in upazila pollsn Mohammad Zakaria
The � eld-level o� cials of the Election Commission have not found any proof of violence and irregularities during the upazila parishad polls and claimed that the media reports were incorrect.
Returning o� cers and district elec-tion o� cers from 40 districts sent in-vestigation reports to the commission after looking into the allegations, EC sources said. All the reports mentioned that there was no proof of violence and irregularities.
The reports say the polls were held peacefully and there were no incidents of stu� ng fake votes, snatching ballot papers or capturing of polling stations.
There had been incidents of vio-lence, capturing polling centres, vote
rigging and snatching of ballot boxes reported in di� erent electronic and print media. The EC also suspended polls in two upazilas and 140 polling centres due to violence.
The commission took the media re-ports into cognisance and asked the returning o� cers and the district elec-tion o� cers on April 7 to investigate those allegations.
Assistant Secretary of the EC Asfakur Rahman yesterday told the Dhaka Trib-une: “We have received some probe reports on violence and irregularities during the upazila polls. I am gathering the reports which will be presented at the next commission meeting.”
The polls took place in 459 upazilas in � ve phases across the country. Elections in 14 upazilas will be held on May 19.
According to the report from Jes-sore, there were no vote-rigging inci-dents in Keshabpur upazila. The re-port signed by District Election O� cer Tareque Ahmed also stated that the media reports on enforcement of hartal protesting vote rigging were incorrect as the voters exercised their franchise “peacefully.”
PAGE 2 COLUMN 6
US considering Bangladesh’s request for more military equipmentn Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
Bangladesh has sought more military equipment from the United States and Washington says it is considering the matter positively.
“Bangladesh did express its interest in receiving more equipment from the US. There are various ways for Bang-ladesh to obtain military equipment from the United States,” Principal Dep-uty Assistant Secretary Tom Kelly yes-terday said at a joint press brie� ng in Dhaka.
Secretary (bilateral) of the Foreign Ministry Mustafa Kamal and Kelly held the press conference after a day-long dialogue on security for the third time.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 6
Teesta water � ow marksa risen UNB
India yesterday augmented the water � ow of the Teesta into Bangladesh.
The water � ow of the Teesta into the Bangladesh territory reached 3,000 cusec as of yesterday afternoon, said Executive Engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board Mahbubur Rahman.
He said if the water � ow remained the same, there would be no water problem for irrigation during the cur-rent season in Lalmonirhat, Rangpur and Kurigram districts.
The water � ow of the Teesta dropped a record low of 300 cusec in the current season as India constructed dams on tributaries of the river in Sik-kim and diverted water by the Gazaldo-ba barrage through a link to the Upper Mahnanda River.
Water resources specialists say the stronger � ow is normal in the last week of April because it is around this time of the year that ice starts melting in the Himalayas.
The change in the usual water � ow is being marked since last week. WDB sources said water � ow had increased through the Gojoldoba gate of India since April 13.
Though the water � ow increased, it had not played any e� ective role in the cultivation yet, they added.
Meanwhile, the BNP yesterday morning launched a long march to-wards Teesta Barrage to realise the due share of all the common rivers, includ-ing Teesta. l
Mirza Fakhrul claims that India starts releasing more water because BNP hasmade a move
EC assistant secretary: We have received some investigation reports on violence and irregularities during the upazila polls
An o� cial of the Banking Division said these banks might turn out to be Tk7,000crore short of capitalin the next audit
HOPES CARRY ON...
News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
14-party alliance: BNP’s road march a ‘political stunt’Nasim urges the BNP to cooperate with the government to resolve the Teesta issuen Emran Hossain Shaikh
The Awami League-led ruling 14-party alliance yesterday termed the BNP’s long-march towards the Teesta Barrage as a “political stunt.”
The alliance’s spokesperson Moham-med Nasim said: “The BNP has started a vehicle march in the name of a long-march. It is nothing but a political stunt.”
Following a meeting of the alliance at Awami League President Sheikh Hasina’s political o� ce at Dhanmon-di, Nasim told reporters that the BNP made the move to gear up its leaders and activists, who had been frustrated over the party’s boycott of the January 5 national election.
“Such programme has been outlined to gear up the party activists as people know about the water crisis. This can-not be an issue,” the spokesperson said, adding that the government also want-ed a solution about water sharing.
Demanding justi� ed share of water, the BNP started its scheduled long-march programme toward Teesta yes-terday.
Hinting at the BNP, Nasim, also health minister, asked the opposition to cooperate with the government in solving the problem. He, however, crit-icised the BNP for not uttering a single word on the issue while they were in power.
Saying the government had solved
the problems of the Ganges River, the minister expressed hopes of also solv-ing the “Teesta problem.”
Nasim said a solution would be reached through bilateral discussions, adding:
“Whether or not there is a change in Indian government, we will get justi-� ed share of water through discussion; because we have the right of getting the water.”
He also cautioned: “If the BNP tries to create anarchy in the name of long-march, the government should handle them with an iron � st.”
Yesterday’s meeting of the alliance was held to � nalise a countrywide tour programme of the 14-party for creating
awareness against the BNP’s alleged move to foil the war crimes trial and democracy.
Nasim said the meeting decided on rescheduling rallies in Khulna, Savar and Mymensingh to April 26, 27 and 28 respectively, although a previous meeting had � xed the dates for April 28-30. The rescheduling was made as the health minister was scheduled to go to the US on a personal tour on April 28, his family sources told the Dhaka Tribune.
However, because of the resched-uled dates, the Workers Party – a key part of the ruling alliance – would not be able to join the rallies as the party’s ninth congress would be held in Ra-
jshahi during April 24-27. Anisur Raman Mollik, general sec-
retary of the Workers Party, told the Dhaka Tribune that they were not “un-happy” for the rescheduling, but added that the party’s central leaders would not join the rallies because of the con-gress.
Apart from central leaders of the rul-ing Awami League, senior leaders of the alliance, including Samyabadi Dal Gen-eral Secretary Dilip Barua, Ganatantri Party General Secretary Nurur Rahman Selim, Communist Kendra Convenor Wajedul Islam Khan, Ganaazadi League President Abdus Samad, Tariqat Feder-ation General Secretary MA Awal at-tended the alliance meeting. l
Law for doctors, patients soonn Tribune Report
Health Minister Mohammad Nasim yesterday said a law would be formu-lated soon for the protection of doctors and patients.
He requested the doctors not to go on strike for the sake of the su� ering patients.
He made the request at a press brief-ing in the capital in the wake of the striking doctors at Rajshahi medical college and other hospitals after recent incidents of clashes between doctors, patients’ relatives and journalists.
“We have formed two probe com-mittees in this regard. Those responsi-ble will be brought to book. So, please withdraw your strike,” he said.
“We will soon make a law so that such incidents do not take place in the future. We are already working on the draft of the law,” he added.
On Sunday, a clash between doctors of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and journalists left about 10 media-per-sons and three doctors injured on the hospital premises.
Later, the intern doctors went on a strike, demanding unconditional apol-ogy from the journalists.
Doctors at Birdem hospital and Sir Salimullah Medical College, popularly known as Mitford hospital, also went on strike after clashes with patients. l
Huge number of SIM cards recovered from water body n Our Correspondent, Joypurhat
Police yesterday recovered a huge num-bers of SIM cards of di� erent mobile phone companies from a water body in Ziapur village of Khetlal upazila.
Khetlal police station O� cer-in-Charge Iqbal Anwar said: “Police recov-ered some 243 SIM cards of di� erent mobile phone companies from the wa-terbody after getting information from the villagers.
Most of the SIM cards are of Robi, one of the leading mobile phone op-erating companies in the country,” he added.
However, locals claimed that police recovered more than 4,000 to 5,000 SIM cards from the water body.
Witnesses said one Rizvi � rst no-ticed some SIM cards in the water body when he went there to pick some vege-tables. Later, he informed the villagers and police about the recovery.
After getting the information from Rizvi, locals rushed in and picked up a huge number of SIM cards before the ar-rival of the police, the witnesses added. l
US considering PAGE 1 COLUMN 6Kelly said there was successful transfer of a US naval ship to Bangladesh Navy and the vessel had been used in a num-ber of important missions, which “en-courages us to very seriously consider further such transfer. I can assure all of you that we are looking at that very carefully in Washington.”
Bangladesh procured 12 training air-craft and four jet engines in 1995, four C-130B cargo aircraft in 1997 and a high endurance cutter last year under the excess defence article programme.
Bangladesh received $2.5 million as-sistance under the US foreign military � -nancing programme last year, Kelly said.
“A strong bilateral partnership and improved defence ties between Bangla-desh and the United States are in both of our interests and will contribute to our common desire for stability, peace, and prosperity in the region,” he added.
Four sessions on strategic priorities and regional issues, military and secu-rity assistance, global security and pro-liferation and global cooperation were held in the dialogue.
Mustafa Kamal said both sides had ex-changed views on regional cooperation and the relationship they had with other South Asian countries, including India, Afghanistan and Myanmar. The US o� -cial said Washington held such dialogue so that the US could learn more about the perspective of other countries. l
BNP’s long march PAGE 1 COLUMN 5party to accompany Fakhrul. Among other noted leaders, only Major (retd) Ha� zuddin Ahmed, Abdullah Al No-man, Selima Rahman and Osman Far-ruq were present.
No leader of the other parties belong-ing to the 18-party alliance could be seen with the long march out� t. Only an ameer of the Bogra unit Jamaat-e-Islami spoke at Mati Dhali meeting, although the chief of the local unit of BNP did not join the rally. BNP’s ally Jaitya Party chief Kazi Zafar sent one of his envoys with the contingent.
Earlier yesterday, the march started o� from Azampur in the capital’s Ut-tara around 9am. Apart from the sen-ior leaders, only about a hundred BNP supporters could be seen around.
The long march took the next stoppage at Kaliakair in Gazipur. The participants seemed to be in a picnic mood. None could tell that it was the party’s � rst major political programme since January 5.
At one of the many roadside rallies in Kaliakair that Fakrul spoke at during the journey, he said: “The government could bargain for the right to get water from India. But it did not. We cannot expect anything from the government.”
He also said the long march was aimed at creating awareness among people about their rights.
Before the long march started, at a small rally in Uttara, Fakhrul had said the long march was not a move against the govern-ment. The motorcade reached Rangpur in the afternoon after having touched Tan-gail, Sirajganj, Bogra and Gaibandha. The BNP leaders and supporters would stay over at Rangpur for the night and start for Daliya Point in Nilphamari today.
According to Asadul Habib Dulu, or-ganising secretary of Bogra unit BNP, a huge crowd of about three lakh people is expected to join a rally at the Dali-ya Point today. He said people would come from the all the 16 northern dis-tricts to join the programme. l
Two women help an elderly patient to shift her from Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital to another hospital because of lack of medical treatment yesterday. Intern doctors at the SSMCH had stopped providing treatment to the patients following the clash between journalists and intern doctors on April 19 at the hospital MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
Otobi factory burns down at Savarn Kailash Sarkar
A devastating � re broke out at a factory of Otobi Furniture at Birulia in Savar on the outskirts of the capital last night.
The factory was still burning till � l-ing of the report around 1:25am.
According to the o� cials of the Oto-bi, at least 500 workers were on duty at the factory in the evening shift. How-ever, there was no immediate report of casualty, thanks to the wide exit pas-sages of the factory.
A total of 13 units of the � re service were working to bring the � re under control. Fire � ghters said taming the � re was very tough as there was no wa-ter body nearby.
“The � re� ghters had been facing acute water crisis while the � re� ght-ers also could not reach inside the � re place due to heavy heat of the � re,”
said Major Shakil Miah, a director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.
He, however, expressed hope that they would be able to bring the � re un-der control by 3:00 am.
In reply to a query, � re � ghters said they were yet to know whether anybody remained trapped inside the factory.
Meanwhile, some o� cials of the fac-tory alleged that � re � ghters delayed around two hours to reach the spot, but the � re service o� cials denied the allegation.
An o� cial concerned told report-ers that the factory was totally burned down, adding that the loss would be no less than Tk1,000 crore.
Primarily it was suspected that the � re might have erupted around 10:00 pm from the godown in the leather sec-tion where the � nished products and chemicals were stored. l
120 Bangladeshis leave for Malaysian Rabiul Islam
A total of 120 Bangladeshi workers have left the country for Malaysia by a Bi-man Bangladesh Airlines � ight yester-day morning.
“The � ight, with 120 Bangladeshi workers, has left the airport at 7am,” Za-hidul Islam, assistant director of Expatri-at Dest at Shahjalal International Airport in the capital, told the Dhaka Tribune.
A total of 244 migrant workers are scheduled to � y for Kuala Lumpur. Of them, 120 have left for Malaysia yester-day and the rest are set to go on April 24 to work in the plantation sector in
Malaysia, he said.The cost for each migrant worker
was estimated at Tk24,000 but sources said the cost came down further when Biman agreed to transport the Malay-sia-bound workers.
According to the Bureau of Manpow-er, Employment and Training, around 3,352 workers out of 10,000 selected thus far have left Dhaka for Malaysia to work in the plantation sector under gov-ernment-to-government arrangements.
The governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia have signed an MoU on No-vember 26 to send the workers to Ma-laysia under the G2G system. l
EC probe � nds PAGE 1 COLUMN 5Similar opinion came from Gazipur and Feni. The investigation report of Gazi-pur states that there were no incidents of irregularities, casting of fake votes or capturing of polling centres in Kaliakoir upazila parishad polls. Even though in-cidents of vote-rigging were reported in Feni Sadar, Porshuram, Phulgazi and Sonagzi upazilas, the probe report termed the elections free, fair and peaceful.
The returning o� cer of Noakhali, also the district’s additional deputy commissioner, said in the investigation report that the published reports on ir-regularities in Subarnachar and Hatia upazila polls were inaccurate.
Election Commissioner Abdul Mo-barak earlier said those responsible for irregularities would not be spared. “If the commission � nds involvement of anyone in irregularities, it will take ac-tion as per the laws.” l
State banks PAGE 1 COLUMN 2scheduled payments for at least 90 days. A non-performing loan is either in default or close to being in default.
Dr Sadiq Ahmed, vice-chairman of the Policy Research Institute, slammed the government for the policy.
“Without � rst � xing the reasons for the deterioration in the portfolio of the state banks, simply providing funds from the treasury to beef up their cap-ital base is equivalent to putting band-age on a cancerous wound,” he said. l
Girl dies in kitchen � ren CU Correspondent
An eight-year-old girl died in a � re at a slum in Chittagong city yesterday
The � re occurred around 9:30am, when Nodi, daughter of Md Babu, was sleeping at a thatched house of the slum behind the city’s Bayazid Bostami shrine, said Baizid Bostami Police Sta-tion’s O� cer-in-Charge Sirajul Islam.
“Firemen rushed to the scene on hearing of the � re and doused it in one and a half hours,” said Fakhrud-
din Ahmed, a senior o� cer at Bayazid Bostami Fire Service and Civil Defense Station.
The oven at the house’s kitchen room was the source of the � ame, he said.
Fakhruddin, however, could not give any estimation of the � nancial loss in the � re immediately.
In another � re, owners of two semi-pucca houses lost valuables worth Tk 3,00,000 at Mirsarai Upazila in the Chittagong district. l
The sculpture at the Rana Plaza collapse site in Savar bears a poster announcing di� erent programmes to be held today on the anniversary of the disaster SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
No Bangladeshi among NY � re victimsn UNB
The Ministry of Foreign A� airs yester-day said no Bangladesh national has been killed or injured in the � re that broke at a commercial building in New York.
“There was no report of casualty or victim of any (Bangladesh) national,” said a Foreign Ministry media release.
A � re broke out at about 6 pm (21 April, New York Time) inside a com-mercial building in Jackson Heights area in New York. The third and fourth � oors of the four-storey Bruson Build-ing have been badly a� ected.
Fire� ghters brought it under control around 11:30 pm. It was not yet clear what actually caused the � re. l
700 RMG workers fall sick in Gazipurn UNB
In another incident of food poisoning, some 700 workers of a garment facto-ry in the city fell sick after taking ti� n yesterday.
Locals said authorities of GMS Gar-ment Factory situated in Sardaganj Sul-tan Market area of the city served ti� n to its workers at about 7 pm.
As the workers joined the work after taking the food, many of them started feeling vomiting and dizziness.
Later, the sick workers were rushed to di� erent local hospitals and clinics.
Earlier on Monday night, over 250 workers of sweater factory BestWool situated at Zarun in the city fell sick after taking ti� n provided by the factory. l
3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
JS body chief: Is GSP so important?n Kamran Reza Chowdhury
The parliamentary watchdog on com-merce ministry yesterday observed that the government should not be so much bothered to regain the gener-alised system of preference (GSP) from the US government.
At its � rst meeting, the members of the Parliamentary Standing Commit-tee came up with the observation that the volume of trade under the GSP was very “negligible.”
“We see much hue and cry about the GSP. Why do we need it? Is it so import-ant? We earn only $5m annually ex-porting products under the GSP,” Prof Ali Ashraf, chairman of the committee, said after the meeting.
He asked the commerce ministry not to be so worried about the GSP. “Rather you should concentrate on trade governance,” said Prof Ashraf, a businessman by profession.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed briefed the MPs about the government’s move to regain the GSP. “It is a matter of prestige. We are trying to meet the conditions necessary for retaining the GSP,” Prof Ashraf quoted the minister as telling the standing committee.
Several lawmakers also supported the chairman.
Prof Ashraf said: “In the past the minister went to the market to enquire about the price of essential commodi-ties. We should not do so as it does not work.” l
TRIAL OF QAISAR
Witness narrates harrowing description of torture n Udisa Islam
The prosecution’s eighth witness in the case against Syed Mohammad Qaisar gave a terrible description of torture at an army camp during the 1971 Liberation War while the accused and members of his force had con� ned him at a power station of Shahzibazar in Habiganj.
In his almost three and half an hour deposition, the witness said Qaisar and his men along with the Pakistani Army had tortured at least 20 people including him at the Shahzibazar camp. He had been tortured brutally for more than 20 days. For this reason, he lost his left leg and cannot hear properly.
At the end of deposition, Shah Hus-sain Ali alias Sabu Miah at the Interna-tional Crimes Tribunal 2 said he was grateful to Almighty Allah as he could tell the tribunal his experiences after long 43 years.
He is the brother of Shah Hasan Ali alias Fulu Miah, the seventh prosecu-tion witness. He said Qaisar had en-gaged his men to kidnap him and killed his father.
After his deposition, defence coun-sel SM Shahjahan asked him a question about the age of his younger brother Fulu Mia. Later the tribunal adjourned the hearing until today keeping cross-examination incomplete.
The accused, a former Jatiya Party state minister, was indicted on Febru-ary 2 on 16 charges of crimes against humanity he had committed in 1971 in Habiganj and nearby areas.
The witness said he had heard about his father’s abduction and death from the family members as he was then in India for training as a freedom � ghting. After his return, his uncle told him that his father had been picked up from their house following the order of Qaisar.
“When my uncle went to the police station, where they took my father, he saw Qaisar and Barek Mokter there. As he requested to free my father, Qaisar asked him to hand over me and my fel-low � ghters to him.
“Later they took my father to the neared rest house, another army camp. My uncle saw my father blindfolded with a pillar. Then he was taken to Sri-mangal and never returned. After the liberation, we tried to get his body, but failed,” the witness said.
He also told the tribunal about the mass killings in Srimangal. He had seen many dead bodies at the WAPDA rest house on December 17, 1971. “We saw many dead bodies of women and men. At Bat Tala, we found hundreds of skel-etons and bodies dumped.”
Sabu also described the killings of Dr Saleh and Hirendranath who had been tortured in front of the house of Justice Syed ABM Mahmud Hossain. “I saw them taken to Laskarpur but heard from others about their death.”
He also reacted sharply whenever the prosecution had asked him to focus on the charges and shorten his depo-sition. “The whole scenario is now in front of my eyes and it is so live that I cannot overlook anything.” l
CID gets 3 more months to submit report on Manzur murdern Md Sanaul Islam Tipu
A Dhaka court yesterday granted the Criminal Investigation Department 83 more days to submit further investigation report in connection with the case � led over Maj Gen Abul Manzur murder in 1981.
First Additional District and Ses-sion Judge Khondker Hasan Md Firoz passed the order after hearing on a time petition � led by CID Special Su-perintendent Abdul Kahar Akond, also investigating o� cer of the case.
Kahar sought three more months for further investigation in the case. The court granted the plea and ordered to submit the report by July 15.
The court also exempted former military dictator and prime accused of the case HM Ershad from personal ap-pearance following a petition � led by his counsel.
Jatiya Party chief Ershad, also the prime minister’s special envoy, was present before the court yesterday.
The same court on February 27 or-dered further probe in the case and di-
rected the CID to submit a probe report by yesterday.
The case is at the � nal stage of tri-al. The order came following a petition � led by special public prosecutor Asa-duzzaman Khan Rochi.
On June 1, 1981, Manzur was killed at the Chittagong Cantonment, just two days into the murder of then president Ziaur Rahman.
Manzur, who was the commander of Sector 8 during the 1971 Liberation War, was believed to have carried out an abortive Chittagong coup in which Zia, the BNP founder, was killed.
On February 28, 1995, barrister Abul Monsoor Ahmed, brother of slain Abul Manzoor, lodged a case with Panch-laish police station in Chittagong.
On July 15, 1995, CID o� cer Kahar submitted charge sheet to the court against � ve persons. The four others are former DGFI o� cer Kazi Emdadul Haque, who was later discharged from the service; discharged o� cer Mustafa Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan; and two retired army o� cers – Abdul Latif and Sham-sur Rahman Shams. l
Witness: Mir Kashem was not in Chittagong in ‘71n Udisa Islam
A sister of alleged al-Badr commander of Chittagong Mir Kashem Ali yester-day told the war crimes tribunal that her brother was innocent as he had stayed in Comilla and Dhaka during the 1971 Liberation War.
Mamtaz Nuruddin, 59-year-old younger sister of the Jamaat-e-Islami treasurer, gave deposition as the � rst defence witness in the case. She claimed that his brother had been at her Agamasi Lane house in Old Dhaka from the � rst week of November in 1971 to March 1972.
After the 10-minute deposition, prosecutor Zead-al-Malum cross exam-ined her. After a sort grilling when he closed his session, the tribunal asked the witness three questions. Respond-ing to a query, Mamtaz said her brother had gone to Dhaka to give her compa-ny. She also said the accused had been in Comilla before going to her house.
Earlier in the day, the tribunal rejected three defence petitions � led for recalling the IO, seeking some documents from the investigation agency and submitting some additional documents. l
RANA PLAZA VICTIMS
Global Trust Fund starts to disburse compensation n Mohosinul Karim
Rana Plaza victims and their family members started receiving the com-pensation from the Global Trust Fund (GTF) from yesterday, a day before the � rst anniversary of the tragedy.
The GTF authorities began to distribute compensation at a programme held at the Labour and Employment Ministry conference room by giving compensation to only two persons.
Those who received compensation o� cially are survivor of the incident Jesmin Aktar and Shamsun Nahar, mother of deceased Shilp Aktar.
State Minister for Labour and Em-ployment Mojibul Haque Chunnu
handed over the chequeof Tk50,000 to each of them.
ILO Deputy Director General of Filed Operation Gilbert Houngbou, ILO Country Director Srinivasa Reddy, Global Union Federation IndustriALL’s Bangladesh chapter’s leader Roy Ra-mesh Chandra, Labour Secretary Mi-kail Shipar attended the programme.
Chunnu said, the rest of the vic-tims will receive their compensation through their mobile accounts by to-day. The shopkeepers and owners were also included in the list.
He saida total of 3,080 victims and their family members will be compen-sated with each victim receiving Tk50, 000 from the trust fund created by in-ternational retailers.
“A total of $1.5 crore has so far been deposited in the fund and it is expected to rise to $4 crore, he said.
The state minister added that Tk3.9 crore was disbursed from the prime minister’s Relief Fund. The victims who losttheir right hand and right leg received Tk15 lakh while those who lost left hand and left leg got Tk12 lakh.
The families of the deceased re-ceived Tk8 lakh to 15 lakh each from the prime minister’s fund.
ILO Country Director Reddy said:“We have not received the ex-pected fund. We are providing support from the fund that was deposited. We hope the rest of the money will also be deposited shortly.” l
IEDCR bodies probe food-borne outbreaks in Gazipur, Kushtian Moniruzzaman Uzzal
An IEDCR probe team has found that food-borne illness, followed by mass psychogenic illness, had caused more than 200 workers to fall sick at a gar-ment factory in Gazipur.
A six-member team, led by Dr M Mushtuq Husain, principle scienti� c o� cer of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), reached the conclusion after visiting the workers of the Bestwool Garment and testing food samples.
Dr Mushtaq told the Dhaka Tribune that the team examined samples of the egg, cake and banana – that were pro-
vided as ti� n to over 2,300 workers. The egg might have become rotten as a result of hot weather, the IEDCR of-� cer said, adding that the contractor who supplied the ti� n had no previous record of providing rotten food to the organisation.
On Monday, several workers became ill after eating the eggs, while others also started complaining of feeling sick once they heard the news. The authority kept the garments closed yesterday.
Meanwhile, as part of a separate IEDCR committee’s investigation into the death of one person after consum-ing watermelon in Kushtia, samples of
the fruit has been collected and sent for examination to the National Food Safe-ty Laboratory of the Institute of Public Health (IPH).
Professor Dr Mahmudur Rahman, director of the IEDCR, expressed hopes that the tests would reveal whether any chemical had been mixed with the wa-termelon, causing a girl to die and 26 others to fall sick.
Chemical or toxin-producing bacte-ria might have caused the fatality, he said, adding that only the chemical test would be carried out at the moment, as the sample collecting process for exam-ining bacteria had not been followed properly. Dr Mahmudur, however, re-
fused to share � ndings from their pre-liminary investigation.
A six-member committee, led by outbreak investigation o� cer Dr Wali-ur Rahman, has been collecting epide-miological and statistical information by visiting relatives of the deceased and the others who fell ill, Dr Mah-mudur added.
Nine-year old Smrity died and 26 others people fell ill after eating wa-termelon at Kalua village in Kushtia’s Kumarkhali upazila on Sunday. Twelve people are still undergoing treatment at Kushtia Medical College Hospital, while police arrested vendor Rezaul Karim following the incident. l
Two workers of All Weather Fashion join a demonstration in front of the BGMEA building at the capital’s Hatirjheel yesterday, protesting the closure of the factory following a clash between workers and police a day earlier MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
News4 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Section 144 in Sylhetn Our Correspondent, Sylhet
Local administration has imposed sec-tion 144 for an inde� nite period in the restricted area of Bholaganj Ropeway under Companiganj upazila in Sylhet.
Upazila Nirbahi O� cer of Compan-iganj Asif Bin Ikram said section 144 was imposed to prevent thieves from stealing stones from the restricted area at night. It would be e� ective until fur-ther notice in this regard, he added.
O� cer-in-Charge of Companiganj police station Delwar Hossain said law enforcers had evicted illegal establish-ments from the restricted area and two people were arrested during the drive.
On condition of anonymity, a local told the Dhaka Tribune that Shamim Ahmed, son of newly elected UP Chairman Abdul Basir, and his activists were controlling the stealing of stones from the area.
When contacted, Shamim denied the allegation, claiming that his ene-mies were conducting ill propagation against him. l
Expatriates’ welfare secretary sued for abusing power n Tribune Report
The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday � led three separate cases against Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Khondaker Showkat Hossain for acquiring plots from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) by abusing power.
ACC Deputy Director Jatan Kumer Roy � led the cases with Motijheel police station.
According to the � rst information
report, Showkat, while serving as the housing and public works secretary, acquired a � ve katha (3,600 sq-ft) plot in his name, and another same-sized plot in his mother’s name.
He also booked a � ve katha plot in his wife’s name at Purbachal New City Project in 2005.
The plot was later changed to 10 katha and later to 12 katha by “exchanging” with the previous ones.
On the same allegation, the ACC last month questioned Showkat; former Rajuk chairman M Nurul
Huda; former Dhaka North City Corporation administrator Akhter Hossain Bhuiyan, now director general of Non-Formal Education Bureau; former Rajuk member (development) Mahbubul Alam, now joint secretary of the Food Ministry; and former Rajuk member (planning) Anwarul Islam Shikder.
During the questioning, the secretary had denied his involvement in the alleged irregularities saying that he had never taken any such advantage and the allegations were incorrect. l
RMCH interns plan to withdraw strike from todayn Our Correspondent, Rajshahi
The interns of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital were expected to end their on-going strike this morning and return to work.
Con� rming the news to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday evening, Abdur Rah-man, general secretary of Intern Physi-cians Council of RMCH, said: “We have decided to continue our strike until to-night. We will join our work on Wednes-day morning.”
The interns began an inde� nite strike from Sunday night following a scu� e with some journalists. The work stoppage disrupted medical services and caused acute problems for patients, forcing many of them to leave the state-run hospital, sources said.
However, RMCH Director AKM Na-sir Uddin claimed that regular doctors were treating the patients and medical services were running as usual.
Earlier yesterday, the vice-chancel-
lor of Rajshahi University had said the authorities would stop issuing certi� -cates to RMCH interns until they with-drew their strike.
VC Muhammod Mizanuddin made the announcement when a group of university correspondents and mem-bers of a student union met with him around 11 am yesterday.
However, a press release issued hours later by the university’s public re-lations administrator, Md Elias Hossain, refuted the VC’s statement, saying the authorities had not taken any decision to freeze the interns’ certi� cates.
Leaders of Rajshahi University Re-porters Unity and Bangladesh Chhatra Federation’s RU unit met the VC yes-terday and submitted a memorandum, demanding holding the certi� cates of RMCH students and punishing the in-terns who attacked a number of jour-nalists on Sunday night.
After receiving the memorandum, Mizanuddin assured them that the uni-
versity would refrain from issuing cer-ti� cates to the interns until they with-drew their strike, sources said.
Meanwhile, 150 intern doctors of RMCH were sued for assaulting at least 10 journalists on Sunday night.
Rajshahi Photojournalist Associa-tion president Asaduzzaman and ATN News cameraman Mahfuzur Rahman Rubel � led two separate cases yesterday against the interns, mentioning eight by name. The OC of Rajpara police station told the Dhaka Tribune that they had started investigating the assault cases.
RMCH director Nasir Uddin said a seven-member committee had already started probing the incident and was expected to complete its work within seven days.
In the meantime, a group of doctors brought out a procession and held a ral-ly yesterday in Rajshahi city’s Shaheb Bazar Zero Point to demand immediate arrest of the interns who attacked the newsmen. l
5 injured in Jubo League factional clashn Our Correspondent, Chittagong
At least � ve people, including a police member, were injured in a clash be-tween two groups of Jubo League in Lalkhan Bazar area in Chittagong city yesterday afternoon.
Police arrested three people in con-nection with the incident, according to police sources.
The injured police member, Consta-
ble Ilias, was admitted to hospital, the sources said.
The other � ve injured were unidenti� ed until � ling of this report.
Harun-or-Rahsid Hajaree, deputy commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, North Zone, told the Dhaka Tribune that two local Jubo League groups – Shamim group and Khokon Chandra Tati group – had locked into a clash in Bottola
area under Khulshi police station around 3pm over previous enmity, leaving four activists from both the groups injured.
Upon receiving information, police rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control. Ilias was trying to break up the � ght when he was stabbed, the deputy commissioner said.
Filing of a case was in progress until � ling of this report. l
Four green activists secure bailn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu
A Dhaka Court yesterday granted bail to four environmentalists in a case � led for entering the Dhanmondi play-ground “illegally”.
Four accused green activists are Mobassher Hossain of the Institution of Architects Bangladesh (IAB), archi-tect Salma A Sha� , Bangladesh Wom-en’s Sports Association General Sec-retary Kamrunnahar Dana and Joint Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh An-dolan (BAPA) Iqbal Habib.
On April 18, Sheikh Jamal Dhan-mondi Club General Secretary Arifur Rahman � led the case with Dhanmon-di police station against the four and several others for creating “chaos” in the playground.
Metropolitan Magistrate MA Salam passed the order after the four envi-ronmentalists surrendered before the court seeking bail.
Activists of over 50 environment
and social organisations and also res-idents of Dhanmondi are forming hu-man chains and organising rallies de-manding the playground be opened to people and all illegal structures by the club be stopped.
In 2004, following submission of a petition by the BAPA and IAB, the High Court directed the then city corpora-tion (now Dhaka South City Corpora-tion) to free Dhanmondi playground from the illegal occupation by Sheikh Jamal Club.
In March 2011, the court again or-dered the DSCC, the Public Works Ministry and the club authorities to remove all illegal structures so that the ground remains open to everyone.
Meanwhile, the High Court yester-day started hearing on the writ peti-tion � led seeking access of all walks of people to the Dhanmondi playground.
The bench of Justice Salma Masud Chowdhury and Justice Habibul Gani adjourned the hearing till Sunday.
The petition, lodged yesterday by six persons including architects Mobassher Hossain, Iqbal Habib and a local inhabitant Farzana Shahnaj, also sought halting construction of illegal establishment in the playground.
The plea also sought the High Court’s direction to remove the illegal establishment.
It also sought a rule asking to ex-plain as to why the failure of the re-spondents to protect the Dhanmondi playground should not be held illegal.
Local government secretary, housing secretary, Dhaka South City Corpora-tion, RAJUk directior (administration), chief engineer of local government and engineering department and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club were made re-spondents in the petition.
The club authorities claimed that the playground was for only the elites while environment activists and local residents pressed for access of all to the � eld. l
Chapainawabganj Jamaat calls half-day hartal today protesting arrestn Our Correspondent,
Chapainawabganj
The district unit Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday called a half-day hartal to be imposed today protesting the arrest of Sadar upazila’s newly elected UP Chairman Mokhlesur Rahman.
O� cer-in-Charge of Sadar police station Jasim Uddin said Mokhlesur was arrested yesterday around 10:30am while he was on his way to Rajshahi to take oath.
Chapainawabganj Police Super Basir Ahmed said the newly elected chairman was accused in nine cases, adding that arrest warrant was issued in two of the cases.
On the other hand, following the arrest, district unit Chhatra Shibir staged demonstration on the Chapainawabganj-Shona Masjid road. They torched tires and staged a short rally.
From the rally, Shibir leaders announced that they would observe hartal in the district today from 6am-2pm. l
CPAP machine can help people with sleep apnoean Tazlina Zamila Khan
Around � ve to 10% of people in Bangladesh su� er from obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), a sleep disorder caused by blocking of the upper respiratory tract that leads to pauses in breathing and snoring during sleep, speakers at a product launching event said yesterday.
According to experts, severe symp-toms of the disorder, such as daytime sleepiness, tiredness and irritability, not only a� ect the productivity and overall quality of life, but OSA su� er-ers are also more likely to be involved in workplace and road accidents.
“Around 5%-10% people in Bangla-desh are su� ering from the disorder,” said Dr Md Zakir Hossain Sarker, a senior consultant at Labaid Specialised Hospital.
Patients may bene� t from continu-ous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP) machines to keep their airways open during sleep to treat the disorder,
representatives of Philips India Ltd said while promoting the product at a press conference in the capital yesterday.
Doctors of private and public med-ical colleges also supported using the
machines to reduce snoring problems and avoid accidents.
“Patients stop breathing for two minutes around 700 times while sleep-ing. They wake up naturally before two minutes. If they did not, they will die,” said Md Ali Hossain, a doctor at the Na-tional Institute of Chest Diseases and Hospitals.
Philips has assisted in establish-ing � ve sleep labs in one government and three private hospitals in Dhaka. The company has plans to establish 10 more sleep labs this year.
“We have a plan to create awareness among people about the disease and using the machines to cure it. The ma-chines would cost around Tk30,000-70,000,” Bidur Dhaul, senior director of Philips Healthcare’s home health-care solution, said. l
Dhaka South City Corporation o� cials demolish illegal establishments on the bank of the Buriganga River at Sadarghat in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
C&F agents call inde� nite strike at Teknaf land portn Our Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar
Three organisations yesterday began an iden� nite strike at Teknaf land port in Cox’s Bazar, demanding release of two persons, who they claimed had been arrested despite doing nothing “wrong.”
Teknaf Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association President Didarul Alam said they began the strike along with the Teknaf Exporters and Import-ers Association and the Teknaf Owners Association. Three more organisations would provide support to the strike, he said without naming them.
On Monday, the BGB handed over Teknaf Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association cashier Md Ayas and mem-ber Ziabul Hossain after capturing them allegedly with 46 and 47 pieces of yaba tablets in their possession.
They were picked up from home in the early hours of Tuesday and then
handed them over to the police showing that they had been held along with the drugs, said Didarul. The strike would continue unless the “false” cases were withdrawn against Ayas and Ziabul and they were set free, he said.
Teknaf 42 BGB Captain Lieutenant Colonel Abuzar Al Jahid, however, de-nied the allegation that the two had not been held with the narcotic and said: “It does not matter to us whether any strike is called at the port or not.
“Our duty is to maintain law and or-der on the border as well as preventing acts of smuggling and illegal intrusion and that is what we have done.”
He said: “No matter how powerful a smuggler is, they must be brought to book.”
Teknaf police station’s O� -cer-in-Charge Ranjit Kumar Barua said: “We sent them to court at 11am and then they were sent to jail.” l
Centre for Policy Dialogue Chairman Rehman Sobhan speaks at a dialogue on Taking Advantage of Indian Market Access Initiative through Promotion of Trade Facilitation, at Lake Shore Hotel in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
Patients stop breathing for two minutes around 700 times while sleeping. They wake up naturally before two minutes. If they did not, they will die
5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wesnesday, April 23, 2014
PRAYER TIMES Fajar 4:14am Sunrise 5:32am Zohr 11:58am Asr 4:25pm Magrib 6:23pm Esha 7:42pm
Source: IslamicFinder.org
Source: Accuweather/UNB
SUNNY
F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A Y
Dhaka 40 29
Chittagong 36 27
Rajshahi 41 27
Rangpur 40 22
Khulna 40 26
Barisal 40 26
Sylhet 39 22
Cox’s Bazar 35 26
D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW
SUN SETS 6:23PM SUN RISES 5:30AM
YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW41.1ºC 18.6ºC
Rangamati Srimangal
WEATHER
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23
PM urges to reduce fares of new taxi cabs The fare for the new service was � xed at Tk100 for the � rst 2km, Tk34 for each subsequent km
n Abu Hayat Mahmud
After a long wait, a brand-new � eet of taxicabs began its journey on the capi-tal’s streets yesterday compounded by an unusual high fare rate for commuters.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inau-gurated the new cab service, operated by the Trust Transport Services under the Army Welfare Trust, at the Army Golf Club at Kurmitola in the capital.
After the inauguration, the premier, however, urged authorities concerned to charge Tk85 for the � rst two kilome-tres instead of Tk100.
“The people would start using these taxicabs if they get to know that the fare rate had been cut-down. On the other hand, the operators would not be a� ected much if the fare is cut down by Tk10 to Tk15,” she said.
“It would be better for all if the fare for the � rst two kilometres is � xed at Tk85 instead of Tk100,” she said and observed that the people are ready to spend something extra for safe and comfortable journey.
She further hoped that the Army Welfare Trust would earn the con� -dence of the people by ensuring a safe and comfortable journey.
Saying the city dwellers were being deprived of such essential, she also said due to the inadequate taxicab ser-vice in the capital it was not possible to
attract tourists to Bangladesh.Communication Minister Obaidul
Quader, Chief of Army Sta� and Chair-man of Army Welfare Trust General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan and Chairman of Trust Transport Services Major General AKM Mujahid Uddin also spoke at the function.
The Trust Transport Services will ini-tially operate in the capital 27 taxi cabs of minimum 1500cc engine of Premio, Allion, Probox and Axio models pur-chased from Japan’s auto giant Toyota.
Another private organization, Toma Group, will also operate the same kind of 19 air-conditioned taxicabs preliminarily.
The two companies would operate 600 taxi cabs in Dhaka and Chittagong. The Trust Transport Services is ex-pected to introduce 400 such taxicabs while Toma Group will introduce an-other 200 units.
Out of the 600, the army trust will operate 100 taxis in Chittagong.
The Army Welfare Trust on August 1 last year sought permission from the communications ministry to introduce 400 taxicabs on streets in Dhaka and Chittagong within four months. The same year on July 14, the ministry al-lowed Toma Construction Ltd to press 250 more cabs into service.
All the taxi cabs will have equipped with high-tech facilities, such as Global Position-ing Systems or GPS, vehicle tracking sys-tems and wireless communications.
The fare for the new service was � xed at Tk 100 for the � rst 2km, Tk 34 for each subsequent km, and Tk 8.5 for two min-utes waiting for air-conditioned cabs. For non-AC ones, the fare comes down to Tk 50, Tk 20 and Tk 5 respectively.
The rate is comparatively high than other major cities in South Asia and
South-East Asian counties. In Kolkata, an AC cab charges Tk 32.31 at the begin-ning of the journey, Tk 19.38 for each kilometre and Tk 1.52 for per minute waiting. In Kuala Lumpur, a taxicab charges Tk 71.25 as the rent charge, Tk 23.23 for each kilometre and Tk 10 for per minute waiting. In Bangkok, the
fare charge goes to Tk 101 for the � rst kilo-meter, from Tk 11.95 for 2-12 kilometres.
However, most of these cities have better roads conditions than Dhaka and are also free from tra� c congestions.
As Dhaka is one of the tra� c-crowd-ed cities in the region, a journey from Mouchak to Mirpur-10, covering around
12km including a 30-minute loss due to tra� c jam, will cost around Tk 552.5 for an AC cab and Tk 325 for a non-AC one.
However, the Communications Ministry and Bangladesh Road Trans-port Authority (BRTA) seemed deter-mined to impose such high rates for the new taxi cabs. l
‘ICT can facilitate rural women entrepreneurs’n DU Correspondent
Innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) can facilitate the women entrepreneurs to expand the country’s economy and development, said speakers at an ICT-based seminar in Dhaka University yesterday.
Titled “Connecting Women Entre-preneurs through Innovative use of In-formation and Communication Tech-nology,” the seminar was organised by The Asia Foundation, Centre on Budget and Policy of Dhaka University, Bangla-link Digital Communications Ltd and District Women’s Business Forum at the university’s Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate building.
The aim of the seminar was to dis-cuss how to connect women entrepre-neurs in the districts, especially at the grassroots level, by creating mobile phone network and delivering ICT-based business tools and service.
Speakers at the seminar emphasised on providing accurate and innovative information and modern electronic business system through latest networking opportunities, mobile technology and other communicative devices to aid
women entrepreneurs both at district and national levels.
Speaking at the occasion, State Min-ister of Finance M A Mannan said wom-en were already playing pivotal role in the country’s development by partici-pating in various activities. “But their participation can be expanded in every sector of our country’s development if we can provide them with modern information and communication tech-nologies, which will be very helpful for the village entrepreneurs who have yet to enjoy such facilities,” he said.
He urged women to participate in every sector, including political and econom-ic, for the country’s development and help take it forward.
Rokia Afzal Rahman, former adviser to the caretaker government and president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stressed on the importance of
technological knowledge to the women entrepreneurs.
“Access to market, � nance and infor-mation sectors will be easier for wom-en, mainly in the rural areas, if the ICT facilities are more developed,” she said.
“The desire of our countrymen to build Digital Bangladesh and establish an a� uent economy will never be met if the technological advancement does not take place and women do not get more involved in the use of modern technology,” she added.
Bibi Russell, famous fashion designer and entrepreneur, said: “The majority of our population lives in the rural parts of our country and they are playing the most important role in our economy. So if we want to achieve development, we have to facilitate the rural people, pro-viding the knowledge of modern tech-nology to those who lack it.”
Solaiman Alam, marketing director of Banglalink, said: “Enhancing and expanding ICT facilities will play a vital role in removing barriers for women entrepreneurs in our society. With proper access to information, training and the market at large, Bangladeshi women, urban or rural, may do their part in the progress of our society.” l
President for enhancing ties with Bhutan n Tribune Desk
President Abdul Hamid today laid em-phasis on enhancing connectivity be-tween Bangladesh and Bhutan for fur-ther increasing trade relations as well as sharing of resources between the two South Asian nations.
The President made the remark while newly appointed Bhutanese Am-bassador to Bangladesh Pema Choden presented her credentials to him at
Bangabhaban this afternoon. Welcom-ing the new envoy at Bangabhaban, the president expressed satisfaction over the existing excellent bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Bhutan.
The President hoped that high lev-el visits will continue to harness the synergies between the two countries for mutual bene� t during tenure of the new Ambassador here, reports BSS.
The president mentioned that Ban-gladesh has taken a number of trade fa-
cilitation measures to increase Bhuta-nese export to Bangladesh and request for reciprocity in this regard.
President Hamid appreciated Bhu-tana’s socio-economic progress under the Fourth and Fifth kings.
Pema Choden said that she would do her level best to strengthen further bilateral cooperation in various � elds.
She expressed gratitude for giving op-portunity to Bhutanese students to study in higher education in Bangladesh. l
CDA employees demand removal of chairman within 24 hoursn CU Correspondent
A portion of Shramik League-backed employees of Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) in the port city yesterday demanded immediate removal of their Chairman Abdus Salam terming him “corrupted” and “pro-Jamaat person”.
About 100 employees of the city de-velopment authority laid siege to the CDA building located in Kotwali area around 10am. The protesting workers took position in the area till noon.
The agitating workers gave 24 hours ultimatum to the authority to ful� l their demands.
At the demonstration, the protes-tors announced that they would hold a rally at Laldighi ground on May 1 to press home their demand.
“We will go for tougher movement, including hartal in Chittagong, if our demand will not be ful� lled,” said a protestor.
The city unit Shramik League organ-ised the event protesting the dismissal of Habibur Rahman, general secretary
of CBA Shramik, and “harassing” trans-fer of 10 employees.
The protesting labourer leaders alleged that Abdus Salam was workin g as an agent of Jamaat-e-Islam turning the CDA as a stronghold of Jamaat-Shibir and committing corruptions and irregularities in the name of development works.
The speakers also said the CDA chairman personally gave allotment to 60 housing plots on 78 acres land in the housing project of the CDA, violating the existing laws.
Boktiyar Uddin Khan, president, Mahmudul Haque Tely, general secretary, Abdul Ahad, labour a� airs secretary of the city unit of Shramik League, Tazul Islam, general secretary of Wasa Employees’ Union, Shramik League leaders, Abu Hosen Abu and Md Alamgir, among others, spoke on the occasion.
On contrary, activists of Jubo League, Sechhasebok League and CDA Employees Association took position on CDA building premises and hold a rally in support of Abdus Salam. l
Jamaat man wounded in ‘shootout’ with cops in Jessoren Our Correspondent, Jessore
A Jamaat-e-Islami activist was shot in the left leg in a gun� ght between Ja-maat-Shibir men and police yesterday around 4am in Hamidpur, under Jes-sore Kotwali police station.
The victim Muhaid Hussain, 28, is also former president of the Fatehpur union unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir. He hails from Jhaulia village under Jessore Sadar upazila.
Reshma Sharmin, assistant superin-tendent of police in Jessore, said a gun-� ght ensued between Jamaat activists and police when police raided a secret meeting of the activists near a garbage disposal area in Hamidpur. “Muhaid got caught in the line of � re and was shot,” she said, claiming he was an ac-cused in a saboteur case.
Police also arrested two other Ja-maat activists named Habibullah and Aminur, and recovered a � rearm and a round of bullet, the assistant superin-tendent said.
On the other hand, Muhaid, who was being treated at Jessore Medical College Hospital, claimed that police had called him out of his residence and shot him in the leg. l
Worker dies falling o� rooftop in Chittagong n CU Correspondent
A construction worker was killed fall-ing o� a one-storied building in Forest Gate area of Panchlaish in the port city yesterday morning.
The deceased is Munsi Mia, 30, hail-ing from Noakhali Sadar, said police sources.
PangkajBarua, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Chittagong Medical College Hos-pital (CMCH) Police Outpost, said Munsi-had fallen o� the rooftop of the building around 11:30am while he was colouring the wall, and was injured critically.
Later, he was rushed to the CMCH where the on duty doctors declared him dead, added the ASI. l
Minor girl poisoned to death in Savarn Our Correspondent, Savar
A woman allegedly poisoned and killed a seven-year-old girl at Imandipur mahalla of Savar Municipality area on Monday night.
The victim is Shanta, daughter of Siraj, a dweller of the area.
Afterwards, a clash ensued between locals and police, leaving 20 people in-jured.
Local sources said a garment work-er named Achia, 35, killed Shanta by poisoning her foodin while she was at home before sunset and later she stu� ed the body into a sack.
When she went to dump the body around 9:30pm, locals caught her red handed with the stu� ed body and started beating up her indiscriminately.
Being informed, police rushed to the spot and a � erce clash erupted when they tried to rescue the woman from mob beating.
At one stage, to bring the situation under control, police � red shots and charged batons on the unruly crowd, leaving the 20 injured.
Savar model police station OC Mo-stafa Kamal said Achia, on preliminary interrogation, confessed her involve-ment in the killing of Shanta with poi-son. “A case was � led and we are inves-tigating into the incident.”
Earlier, Achia had also killed three minor girls in the same way and three cases were launched in those incidents. And about one and half months back, she came out on bail and took a job at a local apparel factory, the OC added. l
A man drives a newly-lauched taxi cab on Kazi Nazrul Islam avenue in the city yesterday SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
The Bangladesh Nodi Bachao Andolon forms a human chain in front of the National Press Club in the city yesterday, demanding measures to protect rivers from encroachment as well as pollution MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
Women have to participate in every sector for the country’s development and help take it forward
Radio mechanic invents gas-run pump Many farmers have followed the method to cultivate Boro rice in their fallow landn Our Correspondent, Jamalpur
A radio mechanic in Madarganj upazila of Jamalpur has devised a method for extracting gas from beneath the ground and using it to run irrigation pump.
Many local farmers have followed the method invented by Rabiul Islam to cultivate Boro rice in their fallow lands.
Rabiul was thinking up a solution to the persistent water crisis in Sukhnagari village of the upazila and nearby villages. Ordinary pumps could not lift water in the area as water tables had gone deep down and farmers, consequently, were unable to grow crops.
As part of his e� orts to lay pipes deep below the ground, Rabiul was � -nally able to � nd water 220 feet deep. But he also observed bubble of gas there which was hindering the upper � ow of water. Instead of getting frus-trated, he was thinking how he could utilise the gas.
At one point, with the help of bam-boo � lter, Rabiul inserted a narrow pipe into the water pipe and was able to separate the bubble of gas. He adopted a special method for using the gas in petrol engines to run irrigation pumps.
After succeeding in doing that, the radio mechanic bought an old care en-gine and used the gas in that engine to
irrigate lands without the help of oil or power.
He said gas obtained this way could be used for charging batteries, cooking and other purposes.
Rabiul’s specially designed irrigation pump helped grow Boro rice in more than 16 acres of land. Farmers were hap-py to have access to this low-cost meth-od that helped them grow Boro rice.
The radio mechanic’s success has made farmers in nearby villages, includ-ing Tartapara, Jangalia, Khilkathi and Palisha, optimistic about growing crops.
“I have no land of my own and my motivation for devising this method came from woes of local farmers. I spent Tk8 lakh from experimentation to run-ning the pump, though Tk5 lakh will be needed now to run a new pump us-ing my method. As I’m not that solvent to install more gas-run pumps, I’ll call on the government to extend its assis-tance,” Rabiul told the Dhaka Tribune.
Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner, Ja-malpur Upazila Nirbahi O� cer and local agriculture o� cials have paid a visit to the village to see Rabiul’s invention.
It is a breakthrough, upazila agricul-ture o� cial Syed Tanvir Ahmed, also an agriculturalist, observed upon seeing the gas-run pump.
“There are many tiny gas pockets across the country. As pressure of gas
is low in those pockets, large-scale ex-traction is not done considering the eco-nomic aspect. We see bubble of gas in many ponds, canals and swamps in dif-ferent parts of the country. I believe Ra-biul’s method could be applied in those places. This will not only save power and oil costs of irrigation pumps but will also help farmers cultivate crops in fal-
low lands,” he explained. Upazila Nirbahi O� cer Dr Md Kam-
ruzzaman said Rabiul’s invention had potential. He said Rabiul succeeded in separating the pressure of water and gas which is why it had become possible to lift both the substance separately.
While observing Rabiul’s innova-tive pump, Jamalpur Deputy Commis-
sioner Md Shahabuddin Khan termed it amazing. He said this method, if spread across the country, could help save a lot of money that is spent on fuel used for agricultural purposes and could help the farmers as well.
Shahabuddin also said steps were taken to inform top o� cials of Rabiul’s invention. l
GP employee killed in road accidentAn employee of Grameen Phone was killed in a road accident in front of Monirampur Degree College on the Jes-sore-Monirampur Highway in Moniram-pur upazila of the district yesterday. The deceased was identi� ed as Khorshed Alam, 30, son of Aktarul Alam of Khath-altola area in the district town.Police and eyewitnesses sources said the accident had taken place when a brick-laden truck hit a motorbike in the area around 11 am, leaving bike rider Khorshed dead on the spot. Police recovered the body and sent it to Jessore 250-bed hospital morgue.A case was � led in this connection.– Our Correspondent
Two arrested for assaulting journalists Two persons were arrested for allegedly attacking journalists yesterday in Barguna. According to sources , Ripon and his co-horts attacked the journalists while they were on their duty. MP Dhirendra Nath Shambhu, BNP leader Mahbubul Alam Faruk Molla and local journalists protested the attack. – Our Correspondent
Housewife found dead in Savar The body of a woman found yesterday in Gazirchat area of Ashulia in Savar.The deceased was identi� ed as Rita Rani,35,wife of Gopal Porsad. She lived with her husband in the rented house of Abdul Haque Mridha in Maddapara vil-lage. Sources said locals found the body hanging from the ceiling of a fan in her room and informed police. The police recovered the body and sent it to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. A case was � led. – Our Correspondent
Drawing competition held in Sherpur A drawing competition was held in Shishu Academy Auditorium under the district yesterday on Global Day of Ac-tion on Nutrition. The academy director Aslam Khan attended the programme as special guest while BRAC representative Ataur Rahman was present on the occa-sion. Over 300 students participated the competition. – Our Correspondent
Minor boy rescued two days after abductionA minor boy was rescued from Bhurunga-mari headquarters in Kurigram yesterday, two days after his abduction. Police also arrested the kidnaper of the child. Police said Sarjat Hossain, 7, son of Nur Islam, a resident of Kuti village under Sonahat upazila of the district, was abducted from their residence by Nur Islam on Sunday. Nur Islam took him to Bhurungamari upazila and con� ned him at his cousin’s house. He later demanded Tk15 lakh from Sarjat parents as ransom money. Nul Is-lam also gave two-day ultimatum to Nur Islam for paying the amount. – Our Correspondent
Six sustain bullet injury At least six persons sustained bullet in-jury in a robber attack in Adra village un-der Nangalkot upazila in comilla district on Monday. According to police sources, around 26 robbers entered the house of Abul Basar. They looted gold ornaments , Tk 50,000 and mobile phones. As the family members tried to protest them, they attacked the family members , leav-ing six critically injured. The police ar-rested a person in this connection.– Our Correspondent
6 NationDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
NEWS IN BRIEF
Dry spell worries jute growersn Our Correspondent, Gopalganj
The continuing dry spell has cast a pall of gloom for jute-growers in Kashiani upazila of Gopalganj district this year.
According to jute growers, due to the complete lack of rains, sowing of jute has been severely hampered, and the jute sowing season has practically been drawing to a close.
Department of Agriculture Exten-sion sources said 6,500 hectares of land have been brought under the cul-tivation this year.
The farmers said only 2,000 hec-tares of land had been cultivated with the help of ditch and canal water.
The 4,500 hectares remained uncul-tivated due to lack of water.
Normally mid-february and mid-april which coincidentally is also the period for jute sowing season. But the � eld started to parch as there is no rain this season.
The farmers became frustrated as the sowing season is already going to be � nished.
Ratan Biswas of Furkan village un-der the upazila said:” This season I have cultivated the crop on a vast portion of my land to get bumper production.”
“But my dream is going to ruin as there is no rain at all,” he said.
Like Ratan, farmers are now worried over drying jute � eld as rainfall is se-verely scanty and the situation seems to remain the same for some time.
Agriculture O� cer Himadri Shekhor
said:” Now, it is the pick hour for the farmers for cultivating jute in the re-gion.”
“But they cannot cultivate the crop due to lack of rain,” he said.
According to farmers, jute is still one of the main cash crop of the region and market activities are closely tied up with the health of jute production in the area.
As the jute growers do not get help from any side, they are solely depend-ent upon the rain god.
The hopeful farmers scan the sky, but the rain god has refused to smile upon them.
DAE O� cer Monoj Saha said: “If the situation continues, the target cannot be ful� lled.” l
Two illegal medicine factories busted in Dinajpur n Our Correspondent, Dinajpur
A mobile court busted two illegal med-icine-making factories in Paharpur in Dinajpur Sadar upazila yesterday after-noon.
Acting on a tip-o� , the mobile court led by Executive Magistrate Abdul Halim Tolostoy conducted a raid at a house in the area and busted a fake medicine-making factory called NA Pharma.
The mobile court also handed out a six-month jail sentence to the owner of the factory and � ned him Tk50,000, in default, to serve two months more in jail. The magistrate also seized raw materials used in adulterated medicine
making in the factory. Later, the fac-tory was sealed o� .
Earlier, the mobile court also un-earthed another fake medicine-making factory in Teromail Goreya area under Kaharol upazila in the district. But sensing the presence of personnel from law enforcement agencies, owner as well as employees of the factory � ed the scene. The mobile court also sealed o� the factory.
Major Mohammad Khalid Ibne Hos-sain, commander of RAB-13, Dinajpur, said apart from unearthing the facto-ries, they also arrested two people with fake currencies. The major said they would continue the drive to bring law and order situation under control. l
BSD lays siege to DC o� cen Our Correspondent, Dinajpur
Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal yester-day staged Deputy Commissioner’s o� ce gherao programme in Dinajpur, demanding rightful distribution of the water of Teesta River.
Leaders and activists of the party also submitted a memorandum, ad-dressing the prime minister and agri-culture minister, to the district admin-istration. In the memorandum they also demanded Tk300 crore as com-pensation to the a� ected farmers of the
Teesta project.They also mentioned that the water
� ow in the river was around 300 cusec, decreasing cultivation in the area as cultivation cost had been increasing day by day.
Lack of adequate irrigational water deprives the farmers of expected pro-duces that leaves hundreds of farmers jobless.
Neighbouring India has established barrage on a total of 51 rivers, and the compensation was demanded to aid the a� ected farmers. l
Notorious robber jailed in Gazipurn Our Correspondent, Gazipur
A mobile court in Sreepur upazila here yesterday sentenced a three-month im-prisonment to a notorious robber and � ned him Tk 5,000 for possessing drugs.
The convict is Hasem, 40, a member of the infamous inter-district robber gang, and son of Alim Uddin, of Bidhai village of the upazila.
Sreepur UNO and also executive mag-
istrate of the court Aziz Hayder Bhuiyan handed down the verdict.
Sreepur Model police station SI Ma-habul Islam said a team of police, being tipped-o� , arrested Hasem along with three pieces of contraband Yaba tablet from Mauna Chaurasta area on Monday night and later produced before the court.
The SI continued that the convict was accused in six cases � led on di� erent charges. l
Soaring onion prices bring farmers to tearsn Our Correspondent, Magura
Onion prices have soared in the recent weeks, yet the farmers in the district still feel deprived.
According to the Agriculture Exten-sion Department (DAE) sources, a to-tal of 5240 hectares of land have been used for the cultivation of onion in the district this year.
Bumper crop has been achieved with a production of 58250 tonnes. But this has failed to make the farm-ers happy as they were cheated by the wholesalers.
The crop is being sold in the retail market at Tk24 per kg. But the farmers had sold it at Tk10 per kg to the whole-salers.
The farmers alleged that they had
been exploited through the formation of a wholesalers’ syndicate.
Farmer Abdul Kader of Moheshpur village under the Sreepur upazila said they had sold the crop to the wholesal-ers at Tk10 per kg three weeks ago and it is now being sold in the retail market for Tk24 per kg.
When contacted, Akram Mollah, a wholesaler in the Magura Katcha Bazar, denied the allegation a formation of a syndicate.
He added that high production of onion has been achieved throughout the country and yet, the Indian onion had � ooded the local markets.
Requesting anonymity, a DAE of-� cial admitted that the gap in onion price between retail and wholesale markets is big. l
The recently taken photo shows that water from gas-run pump � ows towards paddy � elds in Madarganj upazila of Jamalpur DHAKA TRIBUNE
Two labourers release shrimp spwans into the Kirtankhola River at Dapdapia ferry ghat yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE
Spawn seized and released into Kirtankhola rivern Our Correspondent, Barisal
Detective police seized shrimp spawns, locally known as Golda Renu Pona, worth Tk 4,00,00 at Barisal’s Dapdapia Ferry Ghat yesterday.
Catching and trading spawns are illegal according to the country’s Fish Protection and Conservation Act.
”The spawns were later released into the Kirtankhola river,” said Bhashkar Saha, an assistant commissioner at Barisal Metropolitan Police (DB).
The drive was led by Barisal Sadar Upazila Nirbahi O� cer (UNO) Rouf Miah, when two o� cials of the Depart-ment of Fisheries were also present.
Seven traders were also � ned Tk 3500 by a mobile court led by UNO Rouf, said Bhashkar.
Fish resources have been under threat due to catching of spawn of lobsters and shrimp in the southern region of the country coastal belts, according to a Dhaka Tribune report on Feb 6. l
Islami Bank o� cial kidnapped in Mymensinghn Our Correspondent,
Mymensingh
Some unidenti� ed miscreants abducted an o� cial of Islami Bank from Golpukur Par area on Monday night. The victim has been identi� ed as Ilias Ud-din, an o� cial of Rural Devel-opment Project of Islami Bank’s Mymensingh town branch.
O� cer-in-Charge of Kot-wali Model police station Fa-zlul Karim said: “When Ilias and his co-worker Hyder Ali were returning home after praying at a mosque, a group of miscreants numbering eight to nine riding on a mi-crobus dragged Ilias on the vehicle around 10:15pm.”
“They tried to kidnap Hyder also, however he was saved,” he said. Islami Bank’s Mymensingh branch Manager Basir Ahmed said: “Hyder has � led a complaint with Kotwali police station regarding the matter.” l
Government of the People’s Republic of BangladeshOffi ce of The Project Director & Addl, Chief Engineer(Bridge)/West
Bangladesh RailwayRajshahi.
Amendment to Invitation For TendersNo. 54.01.8100.155.01.212.14/4 Date: 21-4-2014
The selling and submission deadline of Tender invited against Tender Reference No. 54.01.8100.155.01.212.14 Dated 07-01-2014, No. 54.01.8100.155.01.212.14/1 Dated 20-02-2014, No. 54.01.8100.155.01.212.14/2 Dated: 27-2-2014 & No. 54.01.8100.155.01.212.14/3 Dated: 19-03-2014 for the Works Package-WD-5 (Lot A): construction, Installation & other works in between KM 0.00-Km 25.00 of Majhgram- Pabna Section. It includes construction of station building, platform, platform shed, car parking area, station approach road, Yard drain, RCC station boundary wall. Staff quarter and Barrack, fencing of platform, project site offi ce & SSAE/Way & Works offi ce, water supply system including deep tubewell with pump and pump house, overhead tank and supply pipeline, electrical works at all stations and supply furniture for waiting room, waiting halls and stations is re-fi xed as under:
SL. No. of Tender Notice
Description Original dates
1st
Amendment2nd
Amendment3rd
AmendmentRe-fi xed
dates
17 Tender Last Selling Date
25-02-2014 During Offi ce hrs
05-03-2014 During Offi ce hrs
23-03-2014 During Offi ce hrs
22-04-2014 During Offi ce hrs
21-05-2014 During Offi ce hrs
18 Tender Closing Date & Time
26-02-2014 12.00 hrs
06-03-201412.00 hrs
24-03-201412.00 hrs
23-04-201412.00 hrs
22-05-201412.00 hrs
19 Tender Opening Date & Time
26-02-2014 12.30 hrs
06-03-201412.30 hrs
24-03-201412.30 hrs
23-04.2014 12.30 hrs
22-05-201412.30 hrs
All other Terms & Conditions of the invitation of tenders shall remain unchanged.
(Md. Arifuzzaman) Project Director Construction of a New Railway line from Ishurdi to Dhalarchar via Pabna ProjectRPRD No. 3758, Date: 21/04/2014 Bangladesh RailwayGC-51/14 (5 X 3) Rajshahi
7Long Form Wednesday, April 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
Who will form the next government in India?
n Vivek Sud
As India approaches the D-day of May 16, 2014 a critical question that needs to be answered is that which of the two
parties, the Indian National Congress (INC) or the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), is better at the art of skulldug-gery; something that is increasingly looking like a necessary requirement for the formation of the next govern-ment in India.
For anyone who thinks that the BJP is on a comfortable path to forming the next government, this electoral analysis will probably be a bit of a shocker. The BJP will certainly come close, but whether it is actually able to form the government will depend on how good it’s “numbers managers” are in the middle of May. I can, from personal experience state without any hesitation that, when it comes to managing numbers the BJP always loses to the INC.
Let us take a look at some of the numbers which led me to draw this conclusion. Contrary to the belief held by a lot of political pundits that the BJP will win somewhere close to 225 seats on its own; I tend to put this number at 175 at best. The pre-poll alliances that the BJP has been able to enter into with other parties that constitute the BJP-led National Demo-cratic Alliance (the NDA) will take the number of seats won by the alliance to around 207.
The INC-led United Progressive Alliance (the UPA) is expected to not perform as well as it did in the last elections but in my opinion they will not perform as bad as some people may have us believe. The INC should be able to win around 122 seats, taking the seat tally of the UPA to around 148. What this leads to is a stark reality that about 188 seats will be won by parties that are in neither of the alliances.
These parties can be split into two sub-groups: one that will never support the BJP, such as the Left Front led by the Communist Party of India, Marxist (the CPM), the Samajwadi Par-ty (SP), Janta Dal United (JDU), et al; and a group such as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), the All India Anna DMK (AIADMK) who may or may not support the BJP.
The group of parties that will never support the BJP will end up commanding a strength of 87 seats. This is where the government forming predicament of the BJP starts to gain strength. The total number of seats held by parties opposed to the BJP-led alliance forming the government ends up being close to 235; just 37 seats shy of the magic number of 272.
It is at this juncture that the role of three parties, the BSP, the AITC, and the AIADMK becomes critically important. The three of them should be able to win seats in the following order: BSP – 30, the AIADMK – 28, the AITC – 25. Let us analyse what the three of them will do. Two questions
will be asked by the leaders of these three parties when asked to support either the NDA or the UPA:
1. What’s in it for me?2. What’s in it for my party?
Since all these three parties are a “one woman show” the second question sort of loses relevance if the � rst question is answered satisfactorily. All three of them have done business with the BJP and the INC at one point or the other so there will be no qualms about getting their pound of � esh. So now let’s see which group – the NDA or the non-NDA – will these three gravitate towards.
In reality only two out of three are needed under all scenarios. The NDA cannot o� er any one of them the coveted top job – the post of the PM.
But the non-NDA group can easily o� er them the PM’s job under the excuse of keeping Narendra Modi out. This makes the NDA a little bit of less attractive for all these three women.
Out of these three women, two of them – J Jayalalitha (leader of the AIADMK of Tamil Nadu) and Mamata
Banerjee (leader of the AITC of West Bengal) – are sitting CMs so they will not accept anything less than the post of the PM. What further complicates things for the BJP-led NDA is that both these leaders have to take into account local and state issues that form the backbone of their political fortunes before supporting any alliance.
For example, why would Mamata whose state is home to the second largest Muslim population in the country, o� er support to a “Hindu” national party? The Muslims in West Bengal have supported the AITC en bloc and this is one of the reasons why the AITC has a brutal majority in the state assembly. Why would Mamata or her party risk annoying this voter base? Jayalalitha’s stated position on the conduct of India’s foreign policy with regards to Sri Lanka is in direct
con� ict with the BJP’s stated position of strengthening relations with India’s neighbours. The point being made here is that even if these two parties were to initially support the NDA there would be an unending list of irritants which will continue to threaten the stability of the government.
Mayawati, the leader of the BSP, who at this moment is not in power, will be reasonably easier to deal with at the negotiating table although the BJP does refer to its earlier alliance in UP with the BSP as the biggest mistake committed by the BJP.
While one can argue that some components of the non-NDA group like the SP and CPM will not let the likes of BSP or the AITC rule the roost; they won’t have too much of a choice when confronted with the prospect of being held responsible for letting the Narendra Modi led NDA come to pow-er. They can agree to abstaining from voting in parliament at key junctures such as when a motion of con� dence is moved.
Apart from the fact that the NDA cannot o� er the top job to anyone in return for support, one more impedi-ment for the BJP-led NDA will be the fear the smaller parties will have for the governance of Narendra Modi. These small regional parties thrive because of the instability.
If a person like Narendra Modi were to be put in-charge of the state of a� airs and he accidentally does deliver on the promise of good governance, then these smaller regional parties would have signed their own death warrant.
Thus, supporting a combination that furthers the political instability in the country will be a much more attractive option than supporting someone who just might lead the country towards some semblance of stability.
At this point it would be prudent to address the question as to why the BJP will not cross the 200 mark all by itself. My reasons are that BJP made � ve critical mistakes, and there isn’t any time left to correct those mistakes:
1. It faltered in ticket distribution; specially in key states like UP and Bihar where too many turncoats were given the party tickets.
2. It failed to execute the plan it had conceptualised; specially in key states like UP and Bihar
3. It failed to control in-� ghting among its leaders – both at state level and national level.
4. In its e� orts to boost the number of parties in the NDA it ran after insig-ni� cant sub-regional parties, thereby negating their claim that a “Modi wave” was sweeping the country. The number of parties (leaving aside the SS and SAD) that the BJP could get under the NDA umbrella far exceeds the number of seats these parties will get.
5. It lost critical time in announcing its � nal list of candidates
The limitation that the BJP has is that it can only perform in a limited number of states on its own where it matters electorally: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, UP, Delhi, Uttrakhand, Chhatisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka. Out of these states, in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan it will win almost 90% of the seats and it was critical for it to perform equally well in UP, Bihar and Karnataka.
Let us � rst look at UP. Whether one likes it or not, after the recent riots in UP the polarisation of votes was pretty much a done deal. The Jaats in West-ern UP were rock solid behind the BJP and all that the BJP needed to do was put up the right candidates to take ad-vantage of the mood of the electorate. Instead, the in-� ghting that was on public display just added to the misery of botching up the “done deal.”
For example, where was the need for the BJP president to abandon his seat in Ghaziabad and run away to Lucknow leaving the seat to a new comer VK Singh? In Mathura, Jayant Singh of the RLD was a sure shot
loser but the BJP put up Hema Malini against him and pretty much lost that seat.
Could they not � nd a suitable or local Jaat leader to contest against Jayant Singh? Hema Malini cannot even � nd the keys to the party o� ce leave alone � nd the voters. Where was the need to give party tickets to people like Meenakshi Lekhi (New Delhi), Kir-ron Kher (Chandigarh), Mahesh Girri (East Delhi)?
Moving on to Bihar. The BJP made a critical mistake in leaving 10 seats out of 40 for Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha – two people whose parties do not have even one seat between them in either the State legislature or the parliament. Where is the guarantee that after the elections these two people will be loyal to the BJP?
It cannot play the “upper caste and lower caste” card at the same time. After the split with the JD(U), a considerable number of upper castes were starting to align behind the BJP but after the alliance with Paswan and Kushwaha those upper castes started to have second thoughts. Added to this is the fact that the Yadav vote bank is standing � rm behind Lalu Yadav.
The INC-RJD alliance is all of a sudden looking like a formidable challenge against the BJP. The issue of turncoats getting the party tickets also continues to annoy the local cadre. The main problem that the BJP faced in Bihar was that since it had not contested all 40 seats in the state for almost two decades – having been involved in a now-broken alliance with the JDU for 17 years – BJP suddenly found itself short of candidates to put up in constituencies that had been represented by the JDU earlier.
The sum conclusion of all this, in my opinion, is that the Congress will be able to block the chances of a Narendra Modi led NDA from forming the government by supporting any combination of parties that will want to stand up against Narendra Modi after the election results are declared. The numbers, coupled with critical mistakes made by the BJP, support this contention. The BJP will have to literally pull a magical rabbit out of the hat to form the government. l
Vivek Sud is a political analyst based in India.
The Congress will be able to block the chances of a Narendra Modi led NDA from forming the government by supporting any combination of parties that will want to stand up against Narendra Modi after the election results are declared
Apart from the fact that the NDA cannot o� er the top job to anyone in return for support, one more impediment for the BJP-led NDA will be the fear the smaller parties will have for the governance of Narendra Modi
Indians have begun voting in the world’s biggest election which is set to sweep the Hindu nationalist opposition to power at a time of low growth, anger about corruption and warnings about religious unrest AFP
AFP
Don’t believe everything you read about a BJP landslide
Wednesday, April 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8
‘Piles and piles’ of bodies in S Sudann AP, Nairobi
The UN’s top humanitarian o� cial in South Sudan said he saw “piles and piles” of bodies after rebels belonging to one ethnic group slaughtered mem-bers of other groups in a remote town.
To by Lanzer told AP in a phone inter-view that the killings are “quite possibly a game-changer” for a con� ict that has been raging since mid-December.
UN human rights investigators said Monday that hundreds of civilians were killed last week because of their ethnic-ity after rebel forces seized Bentiu, the capital of oil-producing Unity state. l
‘Almost 1m’ Syrian refugees in Turkeyn AFP, Ankara
The number of Syrian refugees in Tur-key has reached “almost one million,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday, while pledging to keep accepting those � eeing the war.
“Are we supposed to ask our broth-ers not to come, and to die in Syria?” Erdogan said as he addressed his par-ty’s lawmakers in parliament.
The three-year con� ict in Syria has sent millions � eeing to neighbouring countries and beyond. l
New Syria chemical claims emerge as election announcedn AFP, Beirut
New claims have emerged that Pres-ident Bashar al-Assad’s regime may have launched attacks with an indus-trial chemical earlier this month, de-spite an international agreement to eliminate Syria’s chemical arsenal.
The latest evidence, cited by the United States and France, comes as Syria plans to hold a June 3 presidential poll, which the United Nations and the Syrian opposition have slammed as a “farce” that � ies in the face of e� orts to end the country’s three-year war.
“We have indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical, probably chlorine, in Syria this month, in the opposition-dominated village of Kafr Zita,” White House spokesman Jay Car-ney said Monday.
“We are examining allegations that the government was responsible.”
The revelation follows Sunday’s announcement by French President Francois Hollande that his country had “information” – but no proof – that Assad’s regime was still using chemical weapons.
There have been con� icting ac-counts of an alleged chlorine gas attack in opposition-held Kafr Zita in the cen-tral Hama province earlier this month, with the government and the opposi-tion trading blame.
Activists have also reported oth-er chlorine gas attacks, most recent-ly on Monday in the northwestern Idlib province.
The Organisation for the Prohi-bition of Chemical Weapons and other experts have spent months working to remove Syria’s chemical stockpiles, following an agreement reached after deadly chemical at-
tacks near Damascus last August that killed hundreds.
Western nations blamed those at-tacks on the Assad regime and the United States threatened military ac-tion before backing down and reach-ing a deal with Russia to eliminate the chemical weapons.
The OPCW said last week that 65% of Syria’s stated chemical weapons have been removed from the country.
Although chlorine is a toxic chemical, it is widely used for commercial and domestic purposes, so Syria was not required to submit its stockpiles to the OPCW, a chemical weapons expert told AFP.
“However, as a chemical weapon it is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention,” which Syria joined last year, said Hamish de Bret-ton-Gordon, CEO of SecureBio, a Brit-ish chemical weapons consultancy.
“The delivery method that we’ve seen – the use of helicopters – I am certain the opposition don’t have any helicopters.”
He also said that although chlorine is a weak agent, chemical weapons are “very e� ective in this kind of warfare, in urban, built-up areas, as chemical weapons � nd their ways into the nooks and crannies.” l
Palestinians renew unity bid as Israel talks stalln AFP, Ramallah
The Palestinians have relaunched ef-forts to reconcile their rival leader-ships in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as US-brokered peace talks with Israel teeter on the edge of collapse.
A week before a nine-month target originally set for an Israeli-Palestinian deal, a Palestine Liberation Organisa-tion (PLO) delegation was expected in Gaza City on Tuesday to try to revive long-stagnant unity e� orts.
The team is being led by Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior � gure in the mainstream Fatah party of presi-dent Mahmud Abbas, the head of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).
Independent MP Mustafa Barghuti and � gures from two leftist parties, the Palestinian People’s Party and the Palestinian Arab Front, are also in the delegation.
They were to meet with Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the Hamas government which rules Gaza, and the number two in the Palestinian Islamist movement, Mussa Abu Marzuq, who arrived from Cairo on Monday.
At the same time, the Palestinians re� oated and then played down a threat to dismantle the PA, which is Is-
rael’s negotiating partner, if their peace talks remain deadlocked.
“No Palestinian is speaking of an ini-tiative to dismantle the Palestinian Au-thority,” chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Tuesday.
“But Israel’s actions have annulled all the legal, political, security, eco-nomic and operational aspects of the prerogatives of the Palestinian Authority.”
The PA was set up under the 1993 Oslo accords and has won widespread international recognition but is fully dependent on foreign aid for its admin-istration of autonomous areas of the West Bank.
Palestinian negotiators have warned they may hand responsibility for gov-erning the occupied territories back to Israel, a senior Palestinian o� cial said on Sunday.
He said the Palestinians had told US peace envoy Martin Indyk that un-less Israel releases Palestinian pris-oners as agreed and freezes settle-ment building, they could dismantle the Authority.
US State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki criticised the threat as “extreme” and warned that any such move would a� ect American aid to the Palestinians. l
Tatar assembly: Russia bans Tatar leader from Crimean AFP, Kiev
Russia yesterday banned the lead-er of Crimea’s pro-Kiev Tatar com-munity from entering the Black Sea peninsula for � ve years, the Tatar assembly said.
Mustafa Dzhemilev was handed an o� cial order barring him from re-turning to Crimea as he crossed to mainland Ukraine from the territory that Moscow controversially annexed last month, the assembly said in a statement.
Dzhemilev, also a member of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada parliament, condemned the decision as “an indi-cation of what a ‘civilised’ state we are dealing with.”
Dzhemilev pledged he would ignore the ban and return to Crimea.
Crimea’s 300,000 Muslim Ta-tars, who make up around 12% of the peninsula’s population, largely boy-cotted a disputed referendum last month in which nearly 97% of vot-ers chose to split from Ukraine and join Russia.
In an attempt to appease the com-munity, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he had signed a decree rehabilitating Crimea’s Tatars, who were deported under Stalin over accusations of Nazi col-laboration and who � ercely oppose the region’s new Moscow-backed authorities.
The overture looks unlikely to sat-isfy the Tatars, who eye the Kremlin with distrust and have recently said they will consider holding a plebescite on broader autonomy. l
Biden warns, Russia dismissesn Reuters, Kiev/Moscow
US Vice President Joe Biden told Rus-sia on Tuesday that “time is short” for action on defusing the crisis in eastern Ukraine, but Moscow said it could han-dle any tougher economic sanctions the West might impose.
Speaking on a visit to Kiev, Biden called on Moscow to pull back troops built up on Ukraine’s borders and to “stop talking and start acting” on get-ting Russian separatists who have seized control in eastern towns and cit-ies to disarm.
The United States has repeated-ly warned Russia it faces “mounting costs” if it fails to ensure full implemen-tation of an international agreement struck last week on calming the crisis. This stipulates the rebels must leave the government buildings that they have occupied in the past two weeks.
Russia has in turn accused the Ukrainian government of stirring up the trouble and told Washington it must in� uence Kiev to prevent “hotheads” from provoking a bloody con� ict.
Biden, however, put the onus on Moscow. “We’ve heard a lot from Rus-sian o� cials in the past few days. But now it’s time for Russia to stop talking and start acting,” he told a news confer-ence. “We will not allow this to become an open ended process. Time is short in which to make progress.”
Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the eastern rebellion have deepened the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, and Biden demand-
ed the removal of Russian forces near Ukraine’s frontier which Moscow in-sists are merely on exercises.
“No nation should threaten its neigh-bours by amassing troops along the bor-der. We call on Russia to pull these forc-es,” Biden said after meeting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk.
Moscow denies it is orchestrating the militants, who say they want the chance to join Crimea in becoming part of Rus-sia following the overthrow of Mos-cow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich after months of street protests in Kiev.
But Washington, which signed last week’s accord in Geneva along with Moscow, Kiev and the European Union, has said it would decide “in days” on additional sanctions if Russia does not take steps to implement the agreement.
In Moscow, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the country could deal with tougher measures if necessary.
“We shan’t give up on cooperation with foreign companies, including from Western countries, but we will be ready for unfriendly steps,” he told parliament.
“I am sure we can minimise their impact,” he said. “We will not allow our citizens to become hostages of political games.”
So far the United States and EU have imposed visa bans and asset freezes on only a limited number of Russians over the annexation of Crimea last month.
Medvedev said some Russian banks had been shut out of international pay-ments systems, calling this “a violation of existing agreements” which “must not go unpunished.” l
Turkey PM bans May Day rallies on Taksim Squaren AFP, Istanbul
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday he would not allow May Day gatherings on Istan-bul’s Taksim Square, the scene of pro-tests that have dogged the government for months.
A similar decision in May last year to ban the use of the square – a tradi-tional and symbolic rallying point – led to violent clashes between police and protesters which were followed by a wave of nationwide anti-government demonstrations in June.
“Those who insist on celebrating it here (in Taksim Square) are just saying: ‘I am ready for clashes,” Erdogan said
at a meeting of his parliamentary party.“Give up on your hopes of Taksim.
Do not engage in a � ght with the state. Do not disturb the peace of our people. Our people do not want to see streets where stones and Molotov coctails pre-vail,” he said.
“We will not tolerate this. You are not above the law.”
Erdogan has instead suggested oth-er venues, and o� ered free transport on May 1.
The leftist unions have already vowed to ignore the ban.
On Monday, police � red tear gas at members of the May 1 Committee – made up of unions and civil society groups – to prevent them from issuing
a statement about May Day demonstra-tions in Taksim.
Eight people died when a relative-ly small environmentalist movement to save Istanbul’s Gezi Park – adjacent to Taksim – evolved into a nationwide wave of protests against Erdogan.
Fresh protests have erupted over a graft scandal implicating key Erdogan allies and controversial measures tak-en by the prime minister including an Internet crackdown that saw Twitter banned for two weeks.
Despite the protests and the corrup-tion scandal, Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party scored a crushing victory in March 30 local elections. l
REENACTMENT OF NAPOLEON’S FAREWELL TO HIS GUARD
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge (2nd R) and her husband Prince William (C) are greeted by Aboriginal elders during a visit to Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre at Uluru in the Northern Territory. Britain’s Prince William, his wife Kate and their son Prince George are on a three-week tour of New Zealand and Australia AFP
‘We have indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical, probably chlorine, in Syria this month’
ROYALS IN THE DOWN UNDER
People take part in the reenactment of Napoleon’s farewell to his guard on April 20, 2014 in Fontainebleau. On March 31, 1814 Napoleon took refuge in Fontainebleau, and on April 20, he bade farewell to the Imperial Guard prior to his exile to the island of Elba
9Wednesday, April 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World Death toll in ferry disaster rises to 108n AFP, Jindo
The con� rmed death toll from South Korea’s ferry disaster reached 108 yes-terday as divers, under growing pres-sure from bereaved relatives, speeded up the grim task of recovering scores more bodies from the submerged ship.
Improved weather and calm seas spurred their e� orts, but underwater visibility was still very poor, requiring divers to grope their way blindly though the corridors and cabins of the ferry that capsized and sank last Wednesday.
Nearly one week after one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters, almost 200 of the 476 people who were aboard the 6,825-tonne Sewol – most of them schoolchildren – are still unaccounted for.
The o� cial toll stood at 108, with 194 still missing. Distraught families of vic-tims gathered in the morning at the har-bour on Jindo island – not far from the disaster site – awaiting the increasingly frequent arrival of boats with bodies.
In the initial days after the Sewol went down, the relatives’ anger was fo-cused on the pace of the rescue e� ort.
With all hope of � nding any survi-vors essentially gone, this has turned to growing impatience with the e� ort to locate and retrieve the bodies of those trapped. l
MH370 relatives reject Malaysian conclusions on planen AFP, Kuala Lumpur
Relatives of � ight MH370 passengers have denounced the Malaysian govern-ment’s suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certi� cates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.
The statement, issued in response to a weekend brie� ng that Malaysian o� cials gave to families in Kuala Lum-pur, also called for a review of satellite data that Malaysia says indicates the plane likely crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
“We, the families of MH370, believe that until they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survi-vors, they have no right to attempt to settle this case with the issuance of death certi� cates and � nal payo� s,” said the statement by the “United Fam-ilies of MH370.”
In Sunday’s brie� ng, a Malaysian of-� cial said the government would look into a timetable for issuing death cer-ti� cates for passengers on the Malaysia Airlines � ight, which are required for families to seek insurance payments,
settle debts and address a range of other issues.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainudin also asked relatives in the meeting to submit a proposal for government � nancial assistance for families as the MH370 search wears on.
But relatives, who have repeatedly accused the government and national airline of botching a response to the plane’s disappearance and withholding information, said Malaysian author-ities were playing an agonising “cat and mouse game” over the fate of their loved ones.
“WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR AND SHOCK!” the statement said, using bold caps.
Malaysian o� cials could not imme-diately be reached to comment. The government and airline deny they are hiding anything.
The Boeing 777 went missing March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Bei-jing with 239 people aboard.
Malaysia says satellite data indi-cates the plane crashed in the remote Indian Ocean but no proof has been
found despite an intensive multi-na-tion sea search.
Demanding hard evidence, some vocal relatives have repeatedly said they were unconvinced by Malaysia’s conclusions on the data analysis, per-formed by British satellite communica-tions � rm Inmarsat.
“They have failed to share why they would accept a single source (Inmarsat) for analysis utilising a never before at-tempted method, as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is un-der the water and all lives lost,” the families said.
The statement said they requested an independent peer review, but the suggestion was rejected on grounds Inmarsat’s data was under privacy pro-tections.
In the Sunday meeting, “not a single one of our questions was answered,” it added.
A public opinion poll published last week found that more than half of Ma-laysians believe their scandal-prone government – which has controlled the country for 57 years – is hiding the full truth on MH370. l
First sign of S Korea ferry disaster was call from a frightened boyn Angecies
Reuters, SEOUL - The � rst distress call from a sinking South Korean ferry was made by a boy with a shaking voice, three minutes after the vessel made its fateful last turn.
He called the emergency 119 num-ber which put him through to the � re service, which in turn forwarded him to the coastguard two minutes later. That was followed by about 20 other calls from children on board the ship to the emergency number, a � re service o� cer told Reuters.
The Sewol ferry sank last Wednes-day on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional hon-eymoon island of Jeju.
The boy who made the � rst call, with the family name of Choi, is among the missing. His voice was shaking and sounded urgent, a � re o� cer told MBC TV. It took a while to identify the ship as the Sewol.
“Save us! We’re on a ship and I think it’s sinking,” Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.
The � re service o� cial asked him to switch the phone to the captain, and the boy replied: “Do you mean teach-er?”
The pronunciation of the words for “captain” and “teacher” is similar in Korean.
The captain of the ship, Lee Joon-seok, 69, and other crew members have been arrested on negligence charges. Lee was also charged with undertaking an “excessive change of course without slowing down.”
Lee was not on the bridge when the ship turned. Navigation was in the hands of a 26-year-old third mate who was in charge for the � rst time on that part of the journey, according to crew members.
In a confused exchange between the sinking Sewol and maritime tra� c con-trol released by the government, the crew said the ship was listing to port.
“Make passengers wear life jackets and get ready in case you need to aban-don ship,” tra� c control said.
The Sewol answered: “It’s di� cult for the passengers to move now.” l
Opposition no-show hinders Thai election talksn AFP, Bangkok
Talks between Thailand’s quarrel-ling political parties on a roadmap to elections following months of deadly political turmoil ended with no break-through yesterday after the opposition pulled out at the last minute.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is pushing for new polls as soon as pos-sible to bolster her precarious position in the face of a series of legal threats that could force her from o� ce.
The kingdom has been without a fully functioning government or par-liament since December, and a general election held in February was voided after opposition demonstrators dis-rupted voting.
The nation has been shaken by months of political violence that has left 25 people dead and hundreds wounded, including many anti-gov-ernment protesters, in grenade attacks and shootings.
The Election Commission (EC) called the talks to discuss a new election date with political rivals including the main opposition Democrat Party, which boy-cotted the last round of voting.
But a day after describing the talks as “the most opportune time to put aside our party views,” Democrat Par-ty leader Abhisit Vejjajiva announced shortly before the meeting began that he would not be going.
“I will not attend the meeting be-cause of security,” he told AFP without specifying the nature of the concerns. “No one from the Democrats will at-tend.”
Representatives of more than 50 other political parties joined the talks, according to election o� cials.
On the eve of the meeting, Yin-gluck’s Puea Thai Party decried a “con-spiracy” by her opponents to thwart new polls.
In a statement the party said cer-tain groups and political parties “don’t want democracy” and are trying to create a political vacu-um so they can appoint their own unelected leader.
The EC – which has been accused by government supporters of siding with the opposition – says it needs several months at least to organ-ise new polls, leaving the country in legislative limbo. l
South Korea says North may be close to nuclear testn AFP, Seoul
North Korea could well be preparing to carry out a fourth nuclear test, South Korea said yesterday, citing increased activity at its main test site just days ahead of a visit to Seoul by US Presi-dent Barack Obama.
“Our military is currently detecting a lot of activity in and around the Pung-gye-ri nuclear test site,” defence min-istry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told a press brie� ng.
Kim stressed that North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme was at a stage where it could conduct a test “at any moment” once the order was given by the leadership in Pyongyang.
North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests – in 2006, 2009 and 2013 – all at the Punggye-ri site in the north-east of the country.
Kim declined to give details of the monitored activity, but cautioned that it may be no more than a “deception tac-tic” to raise tensions ahead of Obama’s visit which is due to begin on Friday. l
Sri Lanka to deport Buddha tattoo British womann Agencies
A British tourist is to be deported from Sri Lanka because of a Buddha tattoo on her arm, BBC reported.
Naomi Michelle Coleman was arrest-ed as she arrived at the airport in the cap-ital Colombo after authorities spotted the tattoo on her right arm. A police spokes-man said the 37-year-old was arrested for “hurting others’ religious feelings.”
A magistrate ordered Ms Coleman’s deportation. She is currently being held at an immigration detention camp. She is expected to be removed within days.
Sri Lanka is particularly sensitive about images of the Buddha. l
BJP blocks access to its website in Pakistann Agencies
Internet users in Pakistan yesterday could not enter the website of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had blocked the access of the site, al-though the pro� le of its prime ministe-rial candidate Narendra Modi could be accessed, ZeeNews reported.
“Error 1009 The owner of this web-site (bjp.org) has banned your IP ad-dress on the country or region you are accessing it from,” says the page as one logs in from anywhere inside Pakistan.
This means that Internet users from Pakistan have to mask their IP address-es to log on to the BJP website.
Meanwhile, the party had at-tached on its Twitter handle links to a ‘chargesheet’ it had recently released against the UPA government but the links did not work for those logging in from Pakistan.
The measure was not entirely surpris-ing with the party’s traditional stance in relation to Pakistan and with Modi vow-ing a tough stand against the country if his party wins elections this year. l
Messages of hope are seen at a vigil for students among the missing passengers of a South Korean capsized ferry, in central Ansan on April 22. The banner at top translates to ‘Rest in Peace’ AFP
India’s modi condemns anti-muslim remarks; Togadia de� antn Reuters, New Delhi
Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi on Tuesday sought to calm fears about the future of religious minorities under his rule, saying his government would represent all Indians whether they voted for him or not in an ongoing general election.
Modi, prime ministerial candidate for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and favourite to be-come India’s next leader, is running on a platform of reviving an economy go-ing through its worst slowdown since the 1980s.
But half way through a � ve-week campaign to win over the country’s 815 million voters, some members of the BJP and its hardline a� liates are facing accusations of trying to whip up a par-tisan agenda.
Their statements have re-ignited concerns among religious minorities about a BJP government, which rivals say has a deep-seated bias against In-dia’s 150 million Muslims.
“This government belongs to those who have voted for it; this govern-ment belongs to those who have vot-ed against it; this government belongs even to those who could not cast their ballot,” Modi told the ABP News televi-sion channel.
“And the mantra of my government is absence of fear.”
The comments came after Giriraj Singh, a leader of the Bihar state wing of the party, said those opposed to Modi would have to leave India and go to Pakistan after the BJP won the elec-tion and formed a government.
Modi said nobody could agree with Singh’s comments.
In a Twitter post, he admon-ished his colleagues on the Hindu far right for railing against India’s Muslims and liberals in the election campaign, dubbing their statements “irresponsible.”
Television channels this week
showed a video in which Praveen Togadia, a � rebrand member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a sister or-ganisation of the BJP, was seen of-fering advice on how to prevent Muslims from buying property in Hindu-dominated areas.
Togadia denied that, saying he only asked Hindus to seek the help of police to resolve property disputes involving Muslims.
On Monday, a leader of the BJP’s alliance partner in the Western state of Maharashtra said Modi would teach a lesson to Muslim rioters. Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam made the comments at a joint election rally
with Modi in Mumbai.
‘Crocodile tears’Modi himself is tainted by accusations that he turned a blind eye to, or even encouraged Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 in Gujarat, the state he has gov-erned for 13 years. More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the violence.
He has always denied the accusa-tions and a Supreme Court inquiry did not � nd evidence to prosecute him.
“These crocodile tears ... will not do,” said Abhishek Manu Sing-hvi, a leader of the ruling Congress party, referring to Modi’s Twit-
ter posts criticising colleagues’ statements.
‘People know the truth’While opinion polls predict Modi’s BJP-led alliance will win the biggest chunk of the 543 parliamentary seats being contested in the election that ends on May 12, most of them show he will need new partners in order to secure a majority.
An anti-Muslim pitch would not only make it tougher for him to � nd partners, but could also drive away some middle-class voters whose support Modi is banking on to unseat Congress.
But some of Modi’s colleagues re-main de� ant.
BJP leader Singh, who is contesting the election in the northern state of Bihar, said he stood by his statement. “I have said what I felt. I will give my explanation.”
This month, the election com-mission banned one of Modi’s top aides from election rallies on charges of making in� ammatory speeches against Muslims.
The ban was lifted last week after the aide, Amit Shah, vowed not to use abusive or derogatory language. The commission said that it would monitor his campaigning. l
Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidate for the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), gestures at the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, revered by many in western India as a Hindu warrior king, during an election campaign rally in Mumbai April 21 REUTERS
Do you leave a tip after a good meal?April 17
MD Easir Siddik ArafatYes, I am used to doing that. It’s not begging; it’s just a very kind way by customers to show satisfaction and loyalty to the employees.
Minhaz M ZahinWe might be a poor nation, but we never forget to tip our servers.
Rasel Alam Apu We usually refuse to give beggars more than Tk1 to Tk2. But we never hesitate to give Tk10 or more as tips. It becomes a matter of prestige to give a tip to a waiter, doesn’t it?
Daud Arafath Yep! By giving good tips, you can get good customer service, and especially if you regularly frequent the same eatery.
Doctors do littleApril 17
Traveller_23I don’t think it was purely a service provider versus service receiver issue. Wasn’t the patient politically a� liated, and wasn’t it party men who were involved in the assault? Doctors can reasonably expect and demand safe working conditions, and it is our responsibility to give them that. Probably truer for them than for any other occupation.
A controlled/limited strike may have been a better solution because if the doctors don’t ever demand safe conditions from our politicians they’re never going to get them.
Samiur RahmanGlad someone wrote this article, as it raises many legitimate points against doctors in Bangladesh and poor medical treatment and services provided. Times and doctors’ mindsets have changed signi� cantly since my father earned his medical degree from Bang-ladesh and the UK during the late 70s and early 80s.
I routinely come across egotistical doctors whose moral and ethical senses are blinded by monetary in� uences – many doctors feel it is legitimate and okay to visit and bill a patient during rounds, while the patient is asleep when meaningful advice cannot be communicated. I’ve come across Bangladeshi surgery-hungry doctors who have criticised their peers within the same hospital when they have not been able to perform a surgery due to an alternative, less intensive and more appropriate medical solution being o� ered to the patient. In such cases, not only does the bad-mouthing of colleagues re� ect poorly on the doctor and the hospital at large, but it also gives a strong impression such doctors have converted and re-branded themselves as “doctors for dollars/taka.”
I have also come across junior doctors casually reading away while in the General HDU and ICU, when they are categorically supposed to ensure their eyes are set on their patients. While no one can
argue doctors certainly do not deserve the wrath of their patients and families nor deserve being assaulted, the quality of medical education and the mindset of Bangladeshi doctors and hospitals’ management need to change with a focus on proper diagnosis, cure, and treatment. Remuneration will (and should) follow thereafter, as opposed to demanding /expecting for the opposite to hold true.
ndsI think this sort of bookish advice is the easiest thing in this country, and people appear to be very adept in this art of dishing out free advice. For example, the author has commented that for the victim’s relatives to resort to violence is not the correct response. Would he please elaborate on what would have been the correct response? Does he have any personal experience of what result comes out of a correct response? Does anybody in this country care about one’s sense of propriety and sobriety?
No doctor or hospital authority ever recognises a patient’s right to be dealt with fairly and properly. They treat patients as charity seekers and deal with them in the most arrogant and crudest manner possible. Any encounter with them will leave one with the impression that patients are all despicable insects, not human beings. And as the patients go to them as a last resort, the doctors and hospital authorities seem to take full advantage of their helplessness.
I say this from my personal experience with Birdem physicians and their staff. I am so frustrated with physicians in this country. However, I must add that a few exceptions are definitely out there, but the number is almost negligible.
Nascent CraftA one-sided write up! On the one hand, the author talks about a healthy society, and, on the other, he thrashes the doctors on duty.
No excuse for persecutionThe extraordinary demand made by Hefazat Secretary
General Junaid Babunagari, that followers of minority Islamic sects such as Ahmadiyya and Ahle Hadith should
be banned, and that atheists should not be allowed to live in Bangladesh, cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
We are con� dent most Bangladeshis, regardless of their faith and background, value the spirit and letter of Bangladesh as a free country which constitutionally guarantees freedoms of belief and religion. Moreover, many devout Muslims would disagree with such calls on the Quranic basis that there should be no compulsion in religion.
As a religious body, his organisation may be expected by its followers to disagree with or even dislike contrary religious opinions.
However the com-ments made against atheists, non-Muslims, and Muslims of sects, with which the Hefazat does not agree, are hateful rhetoric which should be resisted.
There is no justi� cation for the state to ban minority sects of any faith. The Hefazat leader’s accompanying remark that Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and people from other religions can still live in the country should not be taken as any form of moderation.
By using blood–curdling language to describe and threaten non-believers and those with whom he disagrees, he opens the door to discrimination and persecution.
All people, whatever their beliefs, or lack of them, deserve equal protection under the law. There is no room in Bangladesh for the state to discriminate between citizens on the basis of their religious beliefs or practices.
Power needs require sustainable vision
The current heat wave and accompanying load shedding is a strong reminder of the fact that Bangladesh still has some way to go to achieve power self-su� ciency.
Although we have made great strides in recent years towards increasing the supply of electricity, the focus should now be on � nding economically and environmentally sustainable paths towards increasing our access to power.
Subsidies on the consumption of power place an economically unsustainable strain on our national budget and have increased by nearly a tenth in the last nine months alone.
Reducing subsidies so that consumers pay the proper price for power can bring the twin bene� ts of discouraging wasteful habits and stimulating a virtuous cycle of more pro� t to attract more investment in generating capacity.
Dependance on costly rental power plants needs to be reduced further as the prime minister has recently promised.
E� orts should instead be shifted towards building up our own capacity for power generation, especially renewable energy sources. We have also previously editorialised about the potential to utilise imports from sustainable sources, such as hydro–power plants in Nepal.
The economy badly needs reliable and cost–e� cient power in all areas of the country. Increasing e� ciency by reducing waste and generating more cost–e� ective power is the only sustainable way forward. We hope that equal emphasis is placed on reducing our dependency on fossil fuels and eliminating consumption subsidies so that our country can move towards a future of self-su� ciency in power which is both � nancially and environmentally sustainable.
Editorial10
www.dhakatribune.com
DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
LETTER OF THE DAY
CALVIN AND HOBBES
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Reducing waste and generating more cost e� ective power is the way forward
Comments made against atheists and sects are hateful and should be resisted
The ‘White House of Faridpur’April 20Mofez Manzil, the zamindar’s (landlord’s) house in Faridpur, was the epicentre of Indian politics in the 1940s, as it played a key role in history leading to the end of British rule in India. The Indians were clam-ouring for independence from British rule, and ultimately India and Pakistan came into being.
I am sure, many readers, particularly students of history and politics, will join me in giving heartfelt thanks to the author for vividly recounting the history of this politics and of the role of the “zamindar bari” in this two-part article in your daily. This is the history that passed me by while I was a school stu-dent in 1946-47 in Calcutta, migrating quickly with my mother to East Pakistan in late October 1947.
In my opinion, the government should buy the estate and the house, with all the historical furniture, and pay the owners fairly for its gross value, so that they can set up their own establishment wherever they so desire.
Engr SA Mansoor
Amarkhana border turns into ‘Milon Mela’ of BangaleesApril 17
So close, yet so far away!Zahurul Islam
Crossword
Sudoku
CROSSWORD YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS
ACROSS1 Stops up (5)4 Narrate (4)7 Respectful fear (3)8 Male swan (3)9 Horse-drawn vehicles (5)12 Encourage in crime (4)13 Paid another’s expenses (7)15 Male sheep (3)16 Donkey (3) 18 Doctrine (3)19 Spirit (3)21 Finds out (7)24 Golfer’s warning (4)26 Sugary (5)27 Tree (3)28 Scottish river (3)29 Regretted (4)30 Representative (5)
DOWN1 Diplomacy (4)2 Presentations (6)3 Nothing more (4)4 Ugly amphibian (4)5 Flow back (3)6 Water lily (5)10 Sailor (3)11 Raised platform (5)14 Sends out (5)17 Glossy fabric (6)18 Imply (5)20 Fresh (3)21 Exploit (4)22 Yield (4)23 To let stand! (4)25 Cereal (3)
How to solve Sudoku:Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no num-ber repeating.
SUDOKU
n Sushovan Dhar
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) election manifesto amply exhib-its that the party has chosen an
aggressive stance on the use of nuclear weapons. In the event it is voted to power, the BJP-led government would send packing India’s no-� rst use (NFU) nuclear doctrine. While releasing the party election manifesto, BJP presi-dent Rajnath Singh made it clear that the manifesto is like a pledge and this would be the Bible for the next govern-ment, which they are con� dent would be in their command. Such pronounce-ments, if turned true, could seriously imperil the region.
With the � fth phase of polling completed on Thursday, the battle for Indian parliament has heated up tremendously. The media projections continue to tilt even more towards the BJP and its prime-ministerial bet, Narendra Modi.
In the meantime, the party had unveiled its election manifesto – what critics call Modi-festo – on April 7, a day before the � rst phase of the elec-tions. The proverbial party manifesto which is like “God’s plans for the redemption of his world” o� ers a lot of promises, from investment for job cre-ation, 100 new cities, along with twin
cities and satellite towns, increased public spending on education, a house for every family, and low-cost housing program, rail networks to connect hin-terland to ports, agri-rail network and bullet train projects, and many other things which are bound to sweep our imagination.
However, the manifesto, largely de-voted to economic development, sets out an in� exibly hawkish orientation on controversial issues and raises the spectre of a rescript of the coun-try’s policy on the use of its nuclear weapons. It is this grave potential of a revision of India’s nuclear doctrine towards a more aggressive stance that has genuine reasons to create tensions in the region as well as the global geo-political space. The current Indian nuclear weapons strategy is centred
around the NFU policy, which implies that in any con� ict, India would not be the � rst party to use atomic weapons. The manifesto says that the BJP would reconsider the policy if it is voted to power.
In 1998, the BJP-led NDA govern-ment conducted a series of nuclear tests. Pakistan reacted within weeks with nuclear tests of its own. It was at this time that India adopted an NFU policy as it was pressured with puni-tive embargoes by the US and Europe-an nations for the above-mentioned tests. However, since then, it has been acknowledged as a nuclear power.
In the BJP election manifesto, the section titled “Independent Strategic Nuclear Program” promises to “study in detail India’s nuclear doctrine, and revise and update it, to make it rele-vant to challenges of current times.” This, it says, is necessary to “maintain a credible, minimum deterrent that is in tune with changing geo-static realities.” The same manifesto also spells out that, if elected, it would look for cordial relations with neighbours. However, without naming any coun-try, it pledged to “deal with cross-bor-der terrorism with a � rm hand” and take a “strong stand and steps” as required.
In the absence of any o� cial
statement, Pakistan’s reaction to the pronouncement is still unknown. However, as it pursues an equally ag-gressive nuclear doctrine, the respons-es are bound to follow similar lines. With India dumping the NFU doc-trine, chances are high that it would intensify Pakistan’s concerns of a � rst strike against it. This would persuade, and also give license, to Islamabad to sharply enlarge and broaden its nu-clear arsenal. A risky behaviour from India’s western neighbours can’t be ruled out under such circumstances.
The Chinese response to this is still unknown. It could also start slackening restraint on the conditions in which it could apply nuclear weapons. Howev-er, a verdict for the BJP in the current parliamentary elections could also be a verdict to intensify the nuclear triangle between India, Pakistan, and China.
It is undisputed that in the South Asian region, with three nuclear pow-ers around, the arms race is already accelerating at an ugly scale. The powerful nations are in contention to pile-up both their conventional and nuclear arms and weapons systems. The uncouthly extravagant budgets in the name of patriotic defence, at the expense of the basic necessities of life – food, health, shelter, education, sanitation – is rendering people even
more defenceless day by day. The region could turn very dangerous with nuclear bombs, missiles, and airplanes always threateningly hovering over the heads of over one � fth of the human race.
This nasty arms race and build-up of the Wehrmacht would undoubt-edly sent waves of terror across the spines of the region. The smaller and militarily-weaker countries of South Asia – who would account for “collat-eral damages” – would feel even more threatened and assailable.
The pro� igacy on military hard-ware is the misplaced priority of the governments of the region, making the population feel more unsecure and threatened. The states and other actors who are upbeat about milita-risation, play in the name of national
security and terrorism. Considering that extreme right-wing and fascist forces such as the chauvinist and ul-tra-nationalist BJP, thrive on whipping up hateful passions and violent aggres-sion against the carefully chosen, and craftily constructed, adversarial “oth-ers” – “internal” and “external”; read together with the relevant portions of the manifesto, the prospect of nuclear instability can scarcely be dismissed.
Such an eventuality would no doubt tremendously damage the chances of advancing towards global nuclear
disarmament and peace. South Asia might turn into a nuclear volcano just ready to erupt with horrendous conse-quences to follow. l
Sushovan Dhar is an activist. He is based in Kolkata.
n Mohammad Ali Sattar
A sense of desperation is strik-ingly obvious in the camps of the ruling party members and
its front organisations, and now it has surfaced in a sporting club.
We have been watching with dis-quieting awe the ghastly murders of the Chhatra League members by their fellows, and the continued interne-cine squabbles for gaining supremacy of student halls and other facilities. However, no one knows what the ultimate intent of these trigger-happy youngsters is.
Since there are no opposition stu-dent bodies in the exploit, the � ght is now, in essence, between the rival fac-tions of the BCL, resulting in habitual feuds leading to injuries and deaths.
The party in power needs a method-ical revamping of the bodies, and to rein in the thugs that disrupt the academic atmosphere in these institu-tions. Mind you, we are destroying the academies of learning. We are burying the major prerequisite of civilisation.
In 1971, the Pakistan junta planned to paralyse the intellectuals and the edu-cated sections of the society to leave us disabled as a nation. Aren’t we doing the same thing under the garb of democracy?
Let’s turn to the newer chapter of crisis. The climactic situation that is building up revolving the Dhanmondi playground at Road 8 is something we are experiencing anew.
The club ground is supposed to be the property of Dhanmondi residents. The pasture was open (until the other day), where the children, youths, and senior citizens of the area used to visit the ground for sport and exercise.
The Dhanmondi Club authority, later named SK Jamal Dhanmondi Club, gradually took over the charge of the play-ground and put up restrictions on com-mon folk from using the ground. No one is allowed to enter the area, which is strictly guarded by uniformed gatewatchers.
Construction of tennis courts and other facilities is being carried out. The Dhanmondi inhabitants, numerous so-cial thinkers, and environmental bodies challenged the club authorities, and demanded returning the ground to com-mon folk for business as it was before. They claim this is land-grabbing (by the club authorities) in broad daylight.
After e� ective protests, and some active maneuvering, the slogan-chant-ing crowd, led by environmentalists and rights leaders, gate-crashed into the � eld and took possession of the ground. This is probably the � rst such instance of forcefully regaining one’s own ground and establishing their right to free movement.
The immediate reaction of the club authorities was interesting. It claimed that the club committee had never thought of “occupying” the ground and that it kept the area out of bounds for the security of the players residing in the club dorms, and the safety of the construction site. They also assured that the ground would be opened up again once after the construction work was complete.
A few days later, the club author-ities came up with more strength
to back them up. We saw the BCB president and the BFF president at the press brie� ng. The club president declared that the Dhanmondi Club was not for street children, it was for the elite of the area. The club president received the backing of other stalwarts present during the occasion.
It now appears that another round of legal battles is in o� ng. According to court orders from 2011, the playground belongs to the people of the area. We shall wait to see what verdict comes from the judiciary next.
Let’s turn from the green meadows to the “sick” in� rmary. As it is, our medical services, and the health sector in general, are pitiable, and could never tend to the poor or lesser-advan-taged sections of our society.
The inadequate number of hos-pitals, health centres, and health workers (including doctors) has kept the sector as poor as ever while the patients keep su� ering.
We know the compulsions and lim-itations of the health workers, but we also know the deliberate negligence on the part of these medical practitioners and support sta� s in various hospitals and health centres.
Our values, human lives, and su� er-ings have become almost a forgotten matter for these people who think they have a monopoly on the matter.
From the rich to the abject poor – all are victims of wrong diagnosis, faulty prescriptions, adulterated drugs, and hefty charges from doctors and hospitals.
Reports of commercialisation of these hospitals are not uncommon these days.
Add to that the regular features of doctors and interns going on wildcat strikes, causing heartless agony to patients coming for attention from distant places.
The desperate individuals (interns, nurses, doctors) beat up anybody not willing to abide by their words. The morbid scenes in the hospital corridors say it all. Shame on us!
Imagine the adverse conditions that these ill-stricken travelers have to undergo right from the start of their journey from home.
Atrocious manners of transport workers, the appalling tra� c system, and the simmering heat, and the poi-sonous food and drinks that they are forced to consume while journeying – make regular features of the society.
Arrogance on the part of the people in power is the wrong way to go. The a� ected lot is already on the path of disobedience l
Mohammad Ali Sattar is a journalist and a DT columnist.
11Op-Ed Wednesday, April 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
n Israfi l Khosru
Most would say this was inevitable. Two parties with more of a glorious past and a compara-tively dismal present
were bound to engage in a battle sooner or later to establish their eligi-bility based on historical references by explicitly discrediting each other.
Bluntly put, the two parties that form the nucleus of our political main-stream today still stand as a testament to some remarkable contributions by two individuals, who at various junc-tures managed to unite this nation and dared the people to dream.
The Awami League’s initial assault – which entailed an attempt to question the integrity of the slain President Ziaur Rahman as a freedom � ghter, patriot, and a leader – has now been countered with a similar rhetoric. The battle lines are drawn now and the level of hostility enhanced. So, what has led to such a unique phenomenon, where the battle for history is overrid-ing the importance of our present and future as a nation?
One would argue that history depicts the ideologies that led to the creation of the AL and the BNP. Hence, it is an attempt to reclaim those ideologies, which have waned over a period of time. It is true that these two political entities came into existence at di� erent times in our history out of necessity, dictated by circumstances. However, the debate that has started is not about the spirit that led to the
creation of the BNP or the AL. The current debate encompasses
disproving speci� c contributions of two historical icons by two opposing camps. The debate is not about the political ideologies that were projected by Bangabandhu or Shaheed Zia. Fur-thermore, the debate is certainly not about whether these ideologies stand opposed to each other, thus making this a premise merely for mudslinging and slander.
One might also argue that the utter failure of these two parties in lifting the country out of poverty and estab-lishing good governance in more than two decades has led them to resort to their past and to try to re-establish that sense of loyalty and idealism en-joyed by their founding and supreme leaders. However, if this is the sole reason, the fact that it has led to the recent round of controversies can easily lead one to conclude that this strategy has proven to be counterpro-ductive for both sides.
While history can serve as
an inspiration, it can never be a substitute for inaction, ine� ciency, and incompetence in the present. The manner in which our political mainstream is trying to grasp on to the past to deem themselves to be relevant for the present and the future will only serve them to shy away from formulation of a viable vision, and garner genuine political will to take the nation forward.
As a general citizen sees it, squab-
bling about history has become a feasible cop out for our political parties. They see it to be a rather in-expensive diversion tactic, which will keep the political arena heated with super� uous debates and controversies in abundance. It will be a disservice to history to say that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not the supreme leader who inspired Bengalis to unite and dream of a state free of subjugation and enriched with the right to self-determination. Shaheed Zia’s announcement of independence on March 27 is also worth its weight in
gold because it served to reinforce that consensus.
While Mujib envisioned and inspired the creation of a free state built on so-cialist principles, Zia, in his short stint as president, brought the people of that very state together to gain recognition as a global producer and a respectable member of the international communi-ty. The people of this country are in no illusion regarding their history. Some know it as they saw it, while others have read about it. Ironically, those who claim to carry on the political legacy of the aforementioned leaders by virtue of the political platforms created by them are disillusioned to an extremely fundamental level.
Both Mujib and Zia, beyond reason-able doubt, were leaders who uni� ed the nation, and despite their various � aws, inspired a nation. However, this ensuing so-called battle for history is only dividing the nation at a very elemental level. This is not a battle of ideologies, neither is it a battle for moral high ground. This is a battle for power, where our revered slain leaders have become meagre political capital.
Unfortunately, this unholy battle will continue till our current leaders develop the substance and eagerness to take the country forward. We will wait for that day, but meanwhile, these rather unwanted history lessons are becoming tedious when the elector-ates are alienated and there are greater things at stake. l
Isra� l Khosru is a businessman and runs a youth-led think tank called The Bangladeshi.
The battle for history
The debate is certainly not about whether these ideologies stand opposed to each other, thus making this a premise merely for mudslinging and slander
Extreme right-wing forces such as the BJP thrive on whipping up hateful passions and violent aggression against the carefully chosen
In the South Asian region, the arms race is already accelerating at an ugly scale
They also assured that the ground would be opened up again once after the construction work was complete
The arrogance of a few
The spectre of the Modifesto
EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 201412
Tisha faces dramatic hiccups in Mon Tar Shongshoye n Entertainment Desk
Women-centric tele� lm Mon Tar Shongshoye is a story that is aimed at motivating women of the society. It urges the helpless females to � ght for survival and to push forward by ignoring and overcoming obstacles.
The tele� lm is written and directed by Sumon Anowar and features pop-ular actors including Tisha, Rawnak Hassan, Sabbir Ahmed, Sohel Khan, Josna Akter, Amanul Haque Helal and many others. Tisha will be seen as the protagonist of the story.
The tele� lm revolves around a vil-lage girl named Sheuli who is from a poor family. Her father is an alcoholic who was a son of a landlord (zamin-dar) but was disowned for his obses-sion to act in Jatra (folk theatre of Bengal). To save her family from the
iron-grip of poverty, she seeks em-ployment at one of her rich relative’s place. But her stay there was short lived as she faced exploitation at the hand of the elder son of that house-hold.
One day she discovers that she is pregnant and after su� ering a di� -cult pregnancy, her baby dies after birth. In order to pull her life together, she gets married to a co-worker from her village. They were both honest and open about their past. But, after a length of time, her husband leaves her as he cannot accept her troubled past.
Helpless at the face of the cruel situation, she is forced to move back home. Then, she is pursued by the fa-ther of her child and at the same time, her husband returns after realising his mistake. l
A non-violent take on the Liberation War portrayed in Bou Basanti n Hasan Mansoor Chatak
Without illustrating any war scene, horrifying incident of numerous ab-ductions, terri� ed imagery of burn-ing villages and the vision of freedom � ghters, a theatre is constructed in the backdrop of the Liberation War of 1971 with a � amboyant humorous rural life depicting enjoyment, grief, love and thievery. Theatre Department of Udi-chi staged a play titled Bou Basanti at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Ban-gladesh Shilpakala Academy on April 21 in the capital. The play is written by Ratan Siddique and directed by Azad Abul Kalam.
The theatre portrayed an atypical story of the time-line which existed but rarely revealed in any form of art presentation or literature, while the 38th staging of the show saw a huge crowd as it is established as one of the popular plays of the troupe.
The comedy depicted the period between March to December of 1971 and portrays the simple people of a periphery community. Badar and Manu are cheeky thieves who never gets caught. Badar loves a girl named Rizia who is the daughter of a beggar named Motaleb. Sekandar, the son of the village chairman punishes Badar and Manu by throwing them out of the village for their misdeeds. The con-demned thieves leave their dwelling and begins residing in another village at Halim’s house.
Halim is the person who has a daughter named Jyotsna who is fasci-nated by � lms, maintains many a� airs and is greedy for wealth. When the lib-eration war starts Moina, a � sherman of the village joins the Pakistani Army and � ghts against the freedom � ght-ers. The lives of villagers are disrupted a bit but at the end the audience saw the life remains same as before in the
rural Bengal.Numerous songs were used to cre-
ate the ambiance of the theatre while a radio is used to portray patriotic songs of the Liberation War and the declara-tion of independence.
The central philosophy lies within the maiden and � nal act of the drama. In the maiden act, an assistant of a tai-lor shop suddenly makes a � ag of Ban-gladesh when everyone else was mak-ing � ags of Pakistan. He is critisised and humiliated by his co-workers for his deed. The concluding act shows that after liberation, one of the assis-tants again deliberately made a � ag of Pakistan and receive similar treatment
from his fellow workers. The contrast shows that during the time when Ban-gladesh was part of Pakistan, there were people who craved for liberation and afterwards, there are people who is against the separation. The writer of the play resembles the sentiment in his speech: “The story of the play started in East Pakistan and ended in Bangladesh. While we were under the reign of East Pakistan, Bangalees were desperate to be free of the tyrannical rule. In liberated Bangladesh, few mis-creants still exists who want to deny the outcome of the glorious war. This political message is focused in the backdrop of the rural people’s life.” l
n Shadma Malik
On April 24, 2013, a monumental tragedy altered the lives of thou-sands of people and ended up with a death toll of 1134, according to of-� cial records. To mark one year of the Savar Tragedy, Pathshala South Asian Media Institute has organised a multimedia art exhibition 1134 Lives Not Number at the premises of Pathshala. Around 22 artists with their respective disciplines show-cased the aftermath of the horri� c accident and pays homage to the fallen souls, who were killed in the incident at Rana Plaza. Through the captured moments of the needless “accident,” through performance art re� ecting the sorrow of the de-prived, it attempts to leave a lasting mark on the minds of the viewers in
the hope of avoiding the repetition of such a deadly incident that was caused due to the negligence of a speci� c group.
Curated by Mahbubur Rahman and Munem Wasif, the exhibition caters the haunted memories of the most disgraceful history in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector of Ban-gladesh. The curators said: “On April 24, 2013, Rana Plaza collapses, 1134 lost to senseless greed, lives lost due to collective negligence.
A dark day in the history of the garments worker’s lives, a nightmare which will terrorise people for years to come. Amongst the rubble, hid-den beneath the stones, beams and bricks, thousands of workers lie en-veloped in darkness, their dreams crushed under the weight of our negligence.”
Each artwork tells the story of RMG workers who were in the rubble of Rana Plaza for twenty days. At the entrance of the exhibition, an instal-lation, Why God Why by Shulekha Chowdhury depicts the bloodshed of the nine-storey building. The red thread hanging, torn and tattered shirts and passport size photos of loved ones are the core objects of the mix media artwork that will hold the viewers attention. Another installa-tion Mohamman Hasanur Rahman’s Buy 1 Get 1 Free showcases the dead victims trapped inside the rubble of the collapsed building. The trapped corpse has turned black which ema-nates the horror of the situation.
“World Press Photo Award” win-ner, Taslima Akhter’s Death of a Thousand Dreams is also on display. Her explanation of the artwork said:
“Rana plaza collapse raises questions to national-international owners, brands and government about their role to secure working conditions. It also raises question about all citizens and consumer’s responsibility. With this documentary photo story, I have tried to portray the narrative of the death of thousand dreams.”
Abir Abdullah’s photograph cap-tures a “moment” which shows a de-voted husband caring for his injured wife, a survivour who lost a leg. Mahmud Hossain Opu’s photograph shows the culprit Sohel Rana’s trial at CMM court.
Dilara Begum Jolly’s installation Tazreen Nama showcases the horri� c incidents of the garment factory on November 24, 2012, which indicates the deadliest factory � re in the na-tion’s history. l
Pathshala pays homage to the fallen souls Rani Mukherjee and Aditya Chopra � nally tie the knotn Entertainment Desk
Bollywood’s popular actress Rani Mukherjee has tied the knot with Adi-tya Chopra, son of late iconic � lmmaker Yash Chopra, according to Indian me-dia. The couple got married on April 21, in Italy, in an “intimate a� air.” In a statement issued to media, Rani Muker-ji said: “I have always believed in fairy-tales and with God’s grace my life has been exactly like one, and now as I enter the most important chapter of my life.”
As the maker of legendary love story Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge Aditya
Chopra and Raaja Ki Aayegi Baraat star Rani Mukerji get married, lets take a look at the de� ning moments of their romance.
Rani Mukherji was earlier rumoured to have dated Bollywood actor Govin-da. The duo met on the sets of Hadh Kar Di Aapne (2000) and grew fond of each other. Buzz is that a journal-ist who came to Rani’s house for an interview spotted Govinda emerging out of her bedroom in a night dress. The bongshell was also linked with actor Abhishek Bachchan. Reportedly, Abhishek’s mother Jaya really wanted them to marry.
Aditya Chopra was earlier married to high-school sweetheart Payal Khan-
na, who was an interior designer by profession. However, the going wasn’t good and the couple � led for divorce in 2009. If reports are to be believed, Rani and Aditya started dating around the same time.
In 2012 during an interview with Simi Garewal, Rani accepted that she was “absolutely in love,” without di-vulging the name of the person.
In October 2013, Aditya Chopra is said to have popped the question to his ladylove at a private function. No priz-es for guessing, Rani said “yes.”
The couple was earlier scheduled
to get married in February this year at Umaid Bhawan in Udaipur. But the wedding got postponed due to un-known reasons.
Rani was captured by shutterbugs with Aditya Chopra and a couple of close friends celebrating Diwali at her Juhu residence. She was even spotted feeding mithai to her beau.
Chopra family was not too hap-py initially when they came to know about Aditya’s a� air with Rani, but later they relented and acknowledged Rani at public functions. In fact, at Yash Chopra’s funeral, Rani took care of all the arrangements like a family member, which pretty much con� rmed their relationship. l
Clockwise from top: visitors at the exhibition; theatre artiste Ritu Sattar presents a solo performance on the inaugural session and an installation SADIA MARIUM
Leonardo DiCaprio to play Steve Jobs n Entertainment Desk
As � rst reported by The Hollywood Re-porter, Leonardo DiCaprio could play Steve Jobs for director Danny Boyle in Aaron Sorkin’s untitled movie about the Apple Computer co-founder. Da-vid Fincher was previously attached to direct the � lm, albeit in the loosest of terms, with rumors that he wanted Christian Bale to play Jobs.
Whether this ever happens with DiCaprio is, of course, up for great debate. Since saying in December of 2013 that he was ready to take a “long break” after � lming The Great Gats-by, Django Unchained and The Wolf of Wall Street in succession, DiCaprio has found himself attached to no few-er � ve projects. In the last 13 months, he’s been associated with nine � lms. l
Tele� lm Bishkata will be aired today at 3.05pm on Channel i
SADIA MARIUM
13DHAKA TRIBUNEWednesday, April 23, 2014
Sport 1514 Real’s Ronaldo ready for Bayern
Man Unitedsack Moyes
15 Farbrace resigns as Sri Lanka coach
Did you know?2013/14 is the � rst season in Premier League history to see 10 managers
leave a club before the � nal day
Tricky times ahead for Tigers
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) cricket operations chairman Akram Khan termed the time ahead for Ban-gladesh cricket as “tough”. The deci-sion from ICC for the bottom ranked, 9th and 10th, sides playing in World Cup 2019 quali� ers meant bad news for Bangladesh who has been consistent in the slots in the last 14 years.
“This thing is di� cult and has put pressure on us. We have no other op-tion than to perform if we want to play in the main round of the World Cup,” said Akram to the media at Sher-e-Ban-gla National Stadium yesterday.
“It was tough for us in 1997. But now we have the ability to perform and win games even against big teams. Our team has performed well in the last two years or so except for the last three months, which I think can happen to any team, a side can go through a bad patch,” he added.
It was surprising to see the BCB keeping such developments a ‘secret’. Let it be qualifying of the ICC World Twenty20 or the ICC World Cup 2019, it was the media that had always re-vealed such developments.
“I got to know about it from a news-paper,” informed Akram. “Even our board president (Nazmul Hasan) was not sure of what is actually happen-ing,” he said.
When quarried why it has become a norm for the BCB to hide such develop-ments, Akram said, “CEO (Nizamuddin Chowdhury) can answer this well. We don’t go to attend the ICC meetings it’s the CEO and the president of the board who attends the meeting.”
Bangladesh now stands at point where they have to perform, win games and better their ICC rankings, to be more appropriate be at least on the No 8 spot, in order to remain on the safe side as far as participation in the ICC world events are concerned.
For the above wishes Bangladesh need to play enough international games - a common complaint from the cricket board.
However, Akram informed Bangla-desh will get to play a good amount of international matches in the coming years and that his department, BCB cricket operations, are working to in-ject more matches in the idle slots of the calendar.
Akram also informed of domestic leagues happening on time and reg-ularly will also be of help. A meeting between the BCB game development, cricket operations and CCDM (Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis) was held yesterday where setting the do-mestic calendar was the chief agenda.
“We discussed on the future tours and home series of the national team and Bangladesh A team. And we also informed the CCDM of when the na-tional cricketers are available so that they can participate in the domestic tournaments,” informed Akram.
With ICC World Cup 2015 in Austra-lia-New Zealand in nine months time, the BCB cricket operation plans to hold a 15-day camp down under either this year or just ahead of the world event.
“It is almost con� rm, should not be right to say that it will happen for sure at this point of time however. We plan to do a camp there as the condition there is di� erent from Bangladesh. It will do good to the cricketers if they can have 15 days of training there and also play few one day games. This will help them to be a little comfortable in the World Cup,” said Akram. l
Title drought ends for Dhaka Division
Courtesy of playing consistent crick-et throughout the tournament, Dhaka Division clinched the 15th Walton Na-tional Cricket League title by beating Khulna Division by � ve wickets on the � nal day of the last round of the tour-nament at the Sheikh Kamal Interna-tional stadium in Cox’s Bazar yesterday while man of the match Sabbir Rahman and Farhad Reza’s brilliant batting saw Rajshahi winning by four wickets over Dhaka Metro and subsequently be-come the runner up of the � rst class tournament this season.
Dhaka Division actually had one hand on the title after a long seven year wait even before the last day of the match began as they needed only 128 runs with nine wickets in hand. Riding on opener Rony Talukder’s 90 runs,
Dhaka comfortably reached the target of 224 with � ve wickets in hand. Wick-et-keeper batsman Nurul Hasan who smashed a century in the � rst innings was adjudged the man of the match.
At the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, Dhaka Metro bowlers kept the match alive by taking six wickets on the third day ag ainst Ra-jshahi. But the two overnight batsmen Sabbir (85) and Farhad (80) added a brilliant 155 runs for the seventh wick-et as both of them remained unbeaten to chase down the target of 272 losing six wickets.
Meanwhile, Rangpur Division beat Barisal Division by an innings and 25 runs at the Khan Shaheb Osmal Ali Outer Stadium where Barisal was bun-dled out for 229 runs after scoring 289 in their � rst innings. The two overnight batsmen Salman Hossain and Nuruz-
zaman resumed the � nal day on 133/2 but folded to 229/9 as Fazle Rabbi did not bat after sustaining injury. Left arm spinner Suhrawardi Shuvo picked up 3 wickets for Rangpur while Sajedul, Nasir and Tanveer chipped in with 2 wickets each.
Chittagong � nished the tournament with a big win of 258 runs against Syl-het Division at the BKSP-3 ground. Trailing by 374 runs, Sylhet resumed their innings on the fourth day with nine wickets in hand but eventually were bowled out for just 180 runs as left arm spinner Mohammad Younus bagged � ve wickets for only 47 runs from 22.4 over while o� spinner Ali Akbar claimed three wickets for Chit-tagong. Mominul Haque was adjudged the man of the match after the dimin-utive southpaw smashed 168 runs in Chittagong’s second innings. l
May-June 2014Bangladesh A tour of West IndiesJune 2014India tour of Bangladesh (3 ODIs)June-July 2014Zimbabwe A tour of BangladeshAug-Sep 2014Probable home series of Bangladesh AAugust-Sep 2014Bangladesh tour of West IndiesSep-Oct 2014Asian GamesNov-Dec 2014Zimbabwe tour of BangladeshFeb-March 2015ICC World Cup New Zealand-AustraliaApril 2015Pakistan tour of Bangladesh (rescheduled from January)June 2015India tour of Bangladesh (2 Tests, 3 ODIs)July 2015SA tour of Bangladesh (2 Tests, 3 ODIs)
FTPDhaka Division players celebrate the 15th National Cricket League title after winning their � nal round match against Khulna at the Sheikh Kamal International stadium in Cox’s Bazar yesterday COURTESY
Sheikh Jamal’s Haitian striker Wedson (C) celebrates after scoring against Brothers Union in BPL at BNS yesterday MUMIT M
Dhaka Div v KhulnaKhulna 243 and 232Dhaka 252 and 224/5Rony Talukder 90
Dhaka Division won by � ve wicketsRajshahi v Dhaka MetropolisDhaka 126 and 352Rajshahi 207 and 275/6Sabbir Rahman 85*, Farhad Reza 80*Rajshahi Division won by four wicketsRangpur v BarisalBarisal 289 and 229/9Rangpur 543/9Dhiman Ghosh 149, Tanveer Haider 121*
Ranpur Division won by 25 runs Chittagong v SylhetChittagong 213 and 415/9Mominul Haque 168Sylhet 190 and 180Chittagong Division won by 258 runs
BRIEF SCORES
Season Champions Runner-up 1999-00 Chittagong Sylhet 2000-01 BD Biman Chittagong 2001-02 Dhaka Div Rajshahi 2002-03 Khulna Dhaka Div 2003-04 Dhaka Div Sylhet 2004-05 Dhaka Div Rajshahi 2005-06 Rajshahi Chittagong 2006-07 Dhaka Div Rajshahi 2007-08 Khulna Rajshahi 2008-09 Rajshahi Barisal 2009-10 Rajshahi Chittagong 2010-11 Rajshahi Dhaka Div 2011-12 Rajshahi Khulna 2012-13 Khulna Dhaka Div 2013-14 Dhaka Div Rajshahi
NCL ROLL OF HONOURS
BFF seeks � nancial support from ministry
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has asked the government to allo-cate Tk35m for football every year. A six-member BFF delegation team met state minister for youth and sports Bi-ren Sikder and his deputy Arif Khan Joy yesterday to seek � nancial support for the development of football.
The BFF top o� cials, led by its presi-dent Kazi Salahuddin, informed their de-� cient and put up few demands in order to run football smoothly. The amount put up by BFF includes the wages of Ban-gladesh national team coach, training football in the root level, national team’s participation in the international tourna-ments, organising professional football league and other tournaments.
They also demanded at least one stadium, only dedicated to football, in every division and six-month time, which will allow divisional and district football tournaments to continue pro-fessionally, allocated for the game in every district stadium.
BFF also proposed 35 percent of the total money government gives to every district sports associations to be allocat-ed for district football association (DFA).
BFF boss Kazi Salahuddin believes that if the demands are ful� lled then the football in Bangladesh will be the main bene� ciary. “We had the realisation be-fore to seek support from government but we didn’t have a proper communica-tion with the previous ministers to place our proposal to them. The Ministers (current) pledged to provide support for
the development of football. If they ac-complish our demands, then the whole football will be bene� tted. The minister also appreciated the amount of � nancial support we proposed,” said Salahuddin.
“We should have arranged such meeting with sports ministry earlier and then there would not be many problems in football. The initiative is however fruitful and it is better to get it later than never,” said BFF vice president Badal Roy. He added, “Both the ministers are very supportive. They gave us assur-ance to provide support for football.”
He also informed the ministers will come to a decision about allocating football stadium in every division soon.
“There will also be a football stadi-um in Cox’s Bazaar beside the cricket stadium according to the wish of the prime minister. A representative team of BFF will go to Cox’s Bazaar tomor-row (Wednesday) to look over the loca-tion of the venue,” he added.
“The Minister was very cordial about the � nancial support we asked for the de-velopment of football. Even he said that the proposal money should have been 50 crores Taka rather than 35 crores,” said BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem.
Along with Kazi Salahuddin, Badal Roy and Abu Nayeem Shohag, BFF se-nior vice president Abdus Salam Mur-shedy, Shamsul Hoq Chowdhury, DFA league committee chairman Manjur Kader also visited at the minister’s of-� ce. Sports secretary Noor Moham-med, National Sports Council (NSC) secretary Sibnath Roy and NSC direc-tors were also present. l
BCB � nalises domestic calendar
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) con� rmed the domestic calendar for the 2014-15 season after yesterday’s meet-ing between BCB’s game development, cricket operations and the CCDM (Crick-et Committee of Dhaka Metropolis).
The meeting generated dates for the Dhaka Premier League, First Division, Second Division and the Third Divi-sion cricket. BCB’s acting-chief execu-tive Nizamuddin Chowdhury, cricket operations chairman Akram Khan and CCDM chairman AZM Nasiruddin were present in the meeting but failed to answer when queriedabout the fate of 2013-14season.
The calendar was formed without following the typical method. The DPL takes place in June-July every year but it was con� rmed after the meeting that the DPL will begin on October 10 after having the players’ transfer on August 4 and 5. However, there won’t be any play-ers’ draft this time – a system introduced by the BCB in the last season. The par-ticipating clubs will be able to follow the typical manner of roping in cricketers.
The players’ transfer of First Divi-sion cricket will be held on September 1 and 2 and the tournament will begin on October 12.
The BCB also plans to hold a Twen-ty20 tournament in � rst division crick-et in order to improve the cricketers’ skill, informed BCB director and CCDM chairman Nasiruddin.
Upon completion of the BPL season, the national cricket squad will be sent to Australia for a 15-day condi-tioning camp. l
Wedson saves Jamal blushes
Wedson Anselme, the Haitian forward of table toppers Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club broke Brothers Union’s heart by scoring a brace in an action packed second phase match of the Ni-
tol-Tata Bangladesh Premier League which ended 3-2 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
The action packed match saw Broth-ers’ new Nigerian mid� elder Simon Ezeodka score a stunning goal in the � rst-half which was complemented by Ja-mal’s Haitian star Sony Norde. But when the match was surely heading for a draw, Brothers’ custodian Sujon, who earlier
had foiled a number of Jamal attacks all alone, lost the grip of a tame Wedson shot to in� ict defeat to his own team.
The initial proceedings were slow and sluggish with both the teams try-ing to set the tone. Brothers naturally was in a defensive mood as the three-pronged attack of Jamal comprising the Haitian duo of Norde and Wedson, plus the Nigerian Emeka Darlington are more than capable of creating havoc to any defense and they eventually did.
Brothers, relying on their young guns, fought shoulder to shoulder and were inspired by the superb strike of their new signing Simon Ezeod-ka. However, they ran out of steam in countering the relentless attacks of their opponents.
Sheikh Jamal took the lead in the
17th minute o� a penalty by Norde be-fore Nigerian mid� elder Simon Ezeo-dka scored the wonderful equaliser within three minutes.
Six minutes into the second-half, Brothers shocked Jamal to take the lead. Defender Yasim missed the line of a reg-ulation long ball and Kester Akon took control before chipping it into the far post. This meant Jamal had to show their character typical of a strong team and thankfully Wedson brought Jamal back into the game with a superb solo e� ort in the 61st minute. Defying the attempted o� side trap, Wedson went past his mark-er as well as Brothers’ goalkeeper Sujon before drilling a low shot into the far post.
Brothers were let down by their goalkeeper Sujon in the 90th minute when he failed to grip a shot of Wedson. l
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Ancelotti ‘sorry’ for sacked Moyes
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said Tuesday he feels sorry for sacked Man-chester United counterpart David Moy-es and that the club have broken with tradition.
“I was a little surprised because Man-chester United don’t have that custom of sacking managers,” Ancelotti said.
“In another club it would be com-pletely normal, but after so many years with Sir Alex (Ferguson) it is a little sur-prising,” the Italian coach added.
Moyes was sacked on Tuesday, after less than 10 months as Ferguson’s suc-cessor, with United enduring a disas-trous season.
“I feel for David Moyes, but in gen-eral this is the life of a coach,” Ancelotti told a press conference ahead of Real’s Champions League semi-� nal � rst leg against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
“At times things don’t go well and you are sacked. I’m sure David Moyes will look for and � nd another job,” he added. l
Diego Simeone (ARG)Has impressed while guid-
ing Atletico Madrid to the Champions League semi-� nals and to the top of La Liga, chal-
lenging the dominance of Real Madrid and
Barcelona at the summit of Spanish football. The former Argentina mid� elder remains best known in England for being the player David Beckham kicked to be sent o� during a last 16 match at the 1998 World Cup in France; a game England eventually lost.
Louis van Gaal (NED)The Netherlands manager is one of the most experienced coaches in world
football, having been in charge of a host of major clubs including Ajax,
whom he guided to Champions League glory in 1995, Barce-lona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich. Has
made no secret of his desire to work in the
Premier League, but his role with the Dutch side at this year’s World Cup in Brazil could reduce the time he has to bring in new players to Old Tra� ord during the close-season transfer window.
Jurgen Klopp (GER)The charismatic 46-year-old has enjoyed great success while in charge of Borussia Dortmund, guiding an e� ervescent, hard-working team
to back-to-back German league titles in 2011 and 2012, plus last season’s
Champions League � nal. However, they are cur-rently a distant second in the Bundesliga table behind already-crowned
champions Bayern Mu-nich. Has also been linked with
the manager’s position at Barcelona.
Ryan Giggs (WAL)The most decorated player in English
football history and United’s record appearance holder,
the ageless Welsh mid-� elder is currently on the sta� at Old Tra� ord as
a player-coach. Whether
the 40-year-old has the experience and strength of character to be more than a stop-gap appointment is an open question, but he would certainly be a fans’ favourite.
Alex Ferguson (SCO)The former United boss,
British football’s most successful manager, has insisted that there is no way he would
return to the hot-seat following his retirement
at the end of last season. But is the 72-year-old Scot, now a United director, really content to stay on the sidelines while his work of more than 26 years unravels in front of his eyes? May feel pricked by responsibility as Moyes was hired on his recommendation.
Man Unitedsack MoyesGiggs appointed interim manager
Manchester United on Tuesday sacked manager David Moyes following a disas-trous ten-month spell at the world-fa-mous club, with veteran mid� elder Ryan Giggs named as interim manager.
Moyes, 50, succeeded Alex Ferguson at the helm of the Premier League side on July 1 but the move quickly became a � asco with the team slumping to a se-ries of embarrassing defeats.
After feverish speculation in the British media, United con� rmed Moy-es’s departure in a brief statement.
United later con� rmed Giggs would � ll in on a caretaker basis.
“Following the departure of David Moyes as manager, Manchester United has announced that Ryan Giggs, the club’s most decorated player, will as-sume responsibility for the � rst team until a permanent appointment can be made,” said another statement.
“The club will make no further com-ment on this process until it’s concluded.”
Giggs, Britain’s most decorated player and United’s record appearance-maker, was informed of the news after arriving at United’s Carrington training ground
near Manchester on Tuesday morning.His � rst game in charge will be a
league � xture at home to Norwich City on Saturday.
Giggs, 40, made his United debut in March 1991 and has made 962 appear-ances for the club, winning 13 Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues, four FA Cups, three League Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup.
He has no previous managerial experi-ence, but has combined his role as a player with a position on United’s coaching sta� since the start of the current campaign.
Experienced Dutch coach Louis van Gaal has emerged as the British book-makers’ favourite to succeed Moyes on a permanent basis.
The 62-year-old, whose previous clubs include Ajax, Barcelona and Bay-ern Munich, recently expressed a desire to work in England when his contract as manager of the Netherlands expires after this year’s World Cup in Brazil.
Moyes signed a six-year contract and inherited a team that had romped to the Premier League title -- United’s 20th English league crown -- by 11 points, but he endured a torrid season.
United have slumped to seventh place in the league table and been elim-inated from both domestic cup compe-titions and the Champions League.
Moyes’s last game in charge was Sunday’s 2-0 loss at his former club Everton, which con� rmed that Unit-ed will not compete in the Champions League next season for the � rst time since 1995. l
Glazer family face huge criticism
Former Manchester United star Gary Neville and fans on Tuesday blasted the team’s owners for the way manager David Moyes was sacked.
Neville said that Moyes should have been given more time before his ousting.
The Manchester United Supporters Trust said the manner of the sacking was a “PR shambles” because of media leaks about the sacking.
United’s American owners, the Glazer family, ousted Moyes after less than 10 months in the post, with the team slumping in the Premier League and Europe’s Champions League.
“The last 15, 16 hours or however long it’s been, I don’t like it, it’s not the way in which the club should portray itself,” Neville, who won eight Premier League titles with United, told Sky Sports.
“But it’s the modern world, it’s how things seem to be dealt with now, but I’m a traditionalist and I think it could have been dealt with a whole lot better.
“I believe in managers being given time, I think they should be allowed to
complete their work.”But Neville added that Manchester’s
results this year have been “poor”.“As a fan I’ve not enjoyed watch-
ing it -- I’m sure David Moyes himself hasn’t enjoyed watching it.”
Neville said Manchester United players must “take massive responsi-bility” for the bad season.
“I never once during my 17/18-year career at United turned around after a game and thought ‘you lost us that game boss’.
“It’s always the players. Players have to take responsibility, accountability in football.”
Sean Bones, vice chairman of the Manchester United Supporters Trust, expressed outrage at the way British newspapers knew about the impend-ing sacking on Monday, calling it a “PR shambles” for the club.
“The story leaked before David Moyes has been spoken to, and that’s not the Manchester United way. There was no dignity or class in the way they went about it.”
Former United and England striker
Michael Owen said the club may have had no choice but to act now.
“With the summer looming and a huge transfer kitty available, United had to be 100% (certain) Moyes was the right man,” Owen said on his Twitter account.
“Evidently they didn’t have the con-� dence in him in which case makes the timing absolutely right. Now the big question is who’s next?” he added.
Dwight Yorke who played in United’s team which won the Champions League, Premiership and FA Cup, believes inter-im manager Ryan Giggs could be the per-son to take permanent charge.
“There is never going to be someone like Sir Alex Ferguson but what we’re given here is a young manager who is looking to break in,” said Yorke.
“He’s not got the managerial skills but we thought that David Moyes had those skills going into Manchester United with the experience that he had for 11 years being at Everton and the wonderful job that he’d done.
“But he hasn’t been able to turn things over at Manchester United. l
SEASON OF DISASTER2013
Moyes starts work as Man-chester United manager after the retirement of Alex Ferguson.
Liverpool beat United 1-0 at An� eld, in� icting the � rst Premier League defeat under Moyes’ leadership in his third league game in charge.
Manchester City ham-mer city rivals United 4-1. One week later lowly West Brom beat United at Old Tra� ord where they have not won in 35 years of trying.
Moyes former side Everton win 1-0 at Manchester United – a � rst victory at Old Traf-ford in 21 years.
Rio Ferdinand criticis-es Moyes’ late team selection pol-icy, saying on BT Sport: “It turns you into a madman.”
2014
Swansea win at Old Traf-ford for the � rst time, sending United out of the FA Cup at the third-round stage for only the second time in 30 years.
Defeat in Capital One Cup semi-� nal � rst leg at Sunder-land means a third straight loss for the � rst time since May 2001.
Stoke end their long wait for a win against United. Charlie Adam’s double gives them their � rst since 1984.
Veteran Serbian defend-er Nemanja Vidic announces he will leave United at the end of the season.
United come from be-hind to lead bottom side Fulham at Old Tra� ord, but Darren Bent’s stoppage-time equaliser grabs a 2-2 draw. Moyes describes the result as being “as bad as it gets”.
In the Champions League last 16, United lose 2-0 at Olympiakos in Greece.
Two Steven Gerrard pen-alties and a Luis Suarez strike earn Liverpool a crushing 3-0 win at Old Tra� ord.
United lose 3-0 at home to Manchester City. The result meant United were guaranteed to end the season with their lowest points total in Premier League history.
Despite an encouraging 1-1 draw in the � rst leg, United go down 3-1 to title holders Bayern Munich in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-� nal in Munich.
Moyes’ return to Ever-ton becomes a nightmare. He is jeered by the crowd and United lose 2-0 – a club record 11th defeat in the Premier League. United cannot now qualify for the 2014-15 Champions League.
Why Moyes had to go
Moyes’s appointment only made sense if in the short term he could ensure that Manchester United was ticking over with the ideology, culture, and methods � rmly entrenched by Sir Alex Ferguson. He was hired because he supposedly ensured consistency and stability.
Instead within days of his appointment, Moyes, Woodward, Round, P Neville, Lumsdan and Woods was presented as an entirely new senior management team. It is unprecedented at any Fortune 500 compa-ny that an entire board is replaced in one go so I have no idea why anybody thought we would be successful in our historic transition from Ferguson to new manager.
I admired Brendon Rodgers for the amount of time he invested in his early months in learning about Liverpool’s traditions and history and that he went out of way to emotionally connect with the fan base in the local area. Moyes has not culti-vated the same relationships in Manchester. And of course his record in the transfer mar-ket spending €75m but delivering no impact at all to the team has been a disaster.
The job was very easy: 1) Initially to allow SAFs coaches to
run the 1st team, as was, for the � rst few months and simply observe and absorb the clubs methods.
2) Use existing club intelligence to immediately recruit a suitably classy central mid� eld ball winner and perhaps a left back.
3) Use the � rst months to build relation-ships with senior players and sta� , meet senior and in� uential supporters and stakeholders
within Manchester and get to Christmas in the top 4 of the table and still in the cups.
Only after about 100 days should he start
thinking about implementing any new ideas he has, but even then, it needed to be in a coherent manner. He was given a 6 year contract … Moyes had plenty of time to go about his work in a planned and systematic manner and so not change things that were working perfectly � ne.
None of this is rocket science …. Managing the � rst 100 days of any new senior appointment is a well established path which all seasoned professionals are aware of. But it seems Moyes was hell bent of being Mr Hard Man, he wanted to hit the ground running and prove he was his own man and he ripped out the heart of the club. I wonder if SAF knew that his protégé and friend would so brazenly disregard every principle he has established at his beloved club and more than that how he felt while
he watched the kingdom built by him fall like a house of cards.
Moyes tried to � x problems that did not exist, ignored issues that have been plainly obvious and seemingly had very little respect for the amazing work done at the club in years gone past. Press leaks like SAF’s footballing operation being years behind the modern world, that our squad was simply not good enough, that the team required enormous restructuring were all made to help cover up his own limitations and capability in the job. It’s been the white elephant in the room for too long.
Simply put, Moyes was not the man for the job, and the club has su� ered a heavy penalty in trying to make that decision work.
The writer is a freelance contributor
Moyes tried to � x problems that did not exist, ignored issues that have been plainly obvious and seemingly had very little respect for the amazing work done at the club in years gone past
FIVE POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS
“David Moyes Leaves United“Manchester United has announced that David Moyes has left the Club.“The Club would like to place on record its thanks for the hard work, honesty and integrity he brought to the role.”
MAN UTD STATEMENT
GOAL.COM
SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Ten Action, Ten Sports12:45AMUefa Champions League, SF-Leg 1Real Madrid v Bayern MunichSony Six8:00PM Indian Premier League 2014Rajasthan v ChennaiNBA Play O� 2013-145:30AM Atlanta v Indiana7:30AM Washington v ChicagoStar Sports 2AFC Champions League5:00PMPohang Steelers v Buriram United7:00PMNew Radiant v Churchill BrothersStar Sports 45:30PMBarcelona Open
DCC pioneer footballSuper League from next monthThe super league matches of the Dhaka City Corporation Pioneer Football League will get underway across three di� erent venues in the city from May 2. A total of 20 teams split into four groups will take part in the tournament. Each team will receive Tk15000 as participating fee while the champions and runners-up will get Tk100000 and Tk50000 respectively. The top three teams after the super league will also get promoted to third division football league. A press conference was held at the BFF House yesterday where pio-neer football league committee chair-man Bijan Barua, BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag, member and former football star Sheikh Mohammad Aslam and Kaiser Hamid were present to reveal the details.
–Tribune Desk
Zia shares lead after round � ve Bangladesh Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman moved jointly at the top of the Open Section of the Asian Continental Chess Championships points table after beat-ing 2621 rated GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong of Vietnam in the 5th round in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates on Monday. Zia played with black pieces used Queen’s Gambit Declined game and won after 64 moves. Zia now have four points af-ter the end of the 5th round and shares the lead along with six other players. Meanwhile in the women’s section, WFM Nazrana Khan Eva drew with WIM Gu Tian Lu of China. Eva earned 2 point out of 5 games.
–Tribune Desk
Army continue winning spree Bangladesh Army continued their winning spree in the Walton Premier Division Kabaddi beating Bangladesh Navy by 46-08 points with four credit-able Lona’s at the Kabaddi Stadium yes-terday. In the other match of the day Border Guards Bangladesh outplayed Bangladesh Police by 29-19 points with three lonas.
–Tribune Desk
Nadal makes no excuse for Monte Carlo lossWorld number one Rafael Nadal on Mon-day refused to blame his shock defeat in the Australian Open � nal in January to Stanislas Wawrinka as an excuse for his loss in Monaco last week. The 27-year-old Spaniard, the top seed for this week’s Barcelona Open, lost in the quarter-� nals of the Monte Carlo Masters to compatriot David Ferrer. It was his earliest loss in the Principality since 2003 and came 12 months after his eight-year winning streak at the event was ended in the � nal by Novak Djokovic. “I cannot continue using the Australia Open � nal as an excuse, that is past,” said Nadal.
–AFP
Kiwi all-rounder Ryder agrees Essex move New Zealand all-rounder Jesse Ryder has signed for Essex until the end of the season, the English county side announced on Tuesday. “I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to represent Essex,” Ryder, 29, said in a statement on the Essex website. “This couldn’t have come at a better time as I want to get as much cricket as possible over the New Zealand winter. It’s an added bonus that there are a few guys I have played with before, the side looks very strong, and they have got o� to a good start for the season.” The move remains subject to visa approval, but New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have signed a no-objection certi� cate.
–AFP
DAY’S WATCH
QUICK BYTES
Satkhira register double victory
Satkhira registered double wins on the opening day of the Walton Inter District Volleyball � nal round at the Volleyball Stadium yesterday.
In the � rst match of the day Satkhi-ra beat Dinajpur by 3-0 games and car-ried their momentum to win the last match on the day with the same margin against Comilla. In the other matches, Narail beat Gazipur, Khulna defeated Comilla, Pabna overpowered Chit-tagong, Khulna outplayed Dinajpur – all wins coming in the same margin 3-0.
State minister for youth and sports Biren Sikder inaugurated the event as the chief guest. Volleyball Federation general secretary Ashikur Rahman Miku, Walton additional director AFM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn were also pres-ent on the occasion. l
S‘maxwell’ � res again, Punjab go top
It was yet another blistering knock from Australian Glenn Maxwell
that powered Kings XI Punjab to win their third consecutive match and go top in the Indian Premier League yesterday. Maxwell’s 43-ball 95 saw the Punjab post a mammoth 193 for six before Sunrisers Hyderabad crumbled to 121 runs.
The pre-match talk was all about Maxwell and he did not let down, though he missed the opportunity of a T20 100 for the third consecutive time. The right-handed, who made 89 and 95 in the previous two matches, tried to reach the milestone with a six o� Amit Mishra, the most expensive of the SH bowlers, but holed out at the long-o� region. He
struck nine sixes and � ve fours.The Sunrisers were never in control
of their big run chase and lost wickets in quick successions before getting bowled out in their second defeat in as many matches. Balaji did the most of the damage as he dismissed the dan-gerous Aussie duo – Finch and Warner – before claiming Sammy and Steyn to make the win easier. l
Real Madrid forwards Cristiano Ronaldo (L) and Gareth Bale (C) practice during a training session on the eve of their Uefa Champions League semi� nal match Real against Bayern Munich at the Valdebebas training center in Madrid yesterday AFP
An action from the match between Satkhira and Dinajpur during their Walton Inter District Volleyball tie yesterday COURTESY
City close on Liverpool
Manchester City nar-rowed the gap to Premier League leaders Liverpool to six points with a com-
fortable 3-1 victory over West Brom-wich Albion at Eastlands on Monday.
Pablo Zabaleta, Sergio Aguero and Martin Demichelis all scored for City as three di� erent Argentinian players net-ted in a Premier League match for the � rst time.
West Brom showed brief moments of skills and had pulled the score back to 2-1 through Graham Dorrans, but ul-timately City had too much quality.
City will close further on Liverpool should they win their game in hand, although they still need the Merseyside club to drop points in their remaining three games if they are to
take the title themselves.The hosts were also still without in-
� uential mid� elder Yaya Toure, who is recovering from a groin injury, while West Brom recalled Craig Dawson and Billy Jones to their defence.
But it did not take a much more � uid City side long to assert their authority in the game and they took the lead in the third minute with a header from right-back Zabaleta.
A weak header from West Brom de-fender Liam Ridgewell fell to Aguero who struck a powerful � rst-time volley which was parried by Ben Foster, but Zabaleta anticipated the rebound to head into the vacant net.
Aguero lifted a shot over the cross-bar moments later when he got on the end of a cross from Samir Nasri, but it was not long until the Argentina striker got his name on the scoresheet. l
Ronaldo set to return for Real’s Bayern test
World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo looks set to make his come-back from injury for Real Madrid when Bayern Munich visit the Santia-
go Bernabeu for their Champions League semi-� nal, � rst leg on Wednesday.
Ronaldo has been sidelined for the past three weeks due to a hamstring injury and will be desperate to make up for lost time by building on his re-cord-equalling 14 goals in the competi-tion this season.
Real are set to be at full strength as left-back Marcelo has also overcome a hamstring problem. Gareth Bale missed training on Monday due to � u-like symptoms, but the Welshman is expected to take his place alongside Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in attack.
Los Blancos will need Ronaldo and Bale � ring on all cylinders if they are to overcome their historic hoodoo against Bayern in the last four of Europe’s pre-mier club competition.
In � ve previous semi-� nals, the Ger-mans have come out on top four times, with a 3-2 aggregate victory in 2000 on their way to winning the competition
for an eighth time Real’s only success.However, Madrid’s previously awful
record against German opposition has been salvaged this season as they saw o� Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund on their way into the last four.
Bayern boss Pep Guardiola enjoyed an impeccable record of � ve wins and a draw in six visits to the Santiago Bernabeu in four years in charge of Barcelona.
However, the Spaniard has accepted responsibility for his side slacking o� in recent weeks and will be hoping meet-ing the nine-time European champions brings out the best in them, having pre-viously described playing in Europe as “like a good meal in a nice restaurant” compared to the “everyday pizza or hamburgers” of the Bundesliga.
And captain Philipp Lahm admitted the European champions need to be at the very top of their game when they visit the Spanish capital, where they triumphed on penalties in the semi-� -nals two years ago.
Other than the absence of former Bar-celona mid� elder Thiago Alcantara, Bay-ern should also be at full strength with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and David Alaba returning to the side after missing Saturday’s win at Braunschweig due to injury and illness respectively. l
Farbrace resigns as Sri Lanka’s coach
Sri Lanka were left searching for their seventh coach in four years after Paul Farbrace resigned on Tuesday to take up a possible assignment with En-gland, Sri Lanka Cricket said.
Farbrace, 46, has been linked to the post of assistant coach to Peter Moores, who was named England’s chief coach last week replacing Zimbabwean Andy Flower.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have yet to con� rm Farbrace’s appointment, but Sri Lankan chiefs ap-peared certain that the Englishman will return to his home nation.
Farbrace, the former Kent wick-et-keeper, took over as Sri Lanka’s coach in January for a two-year term that was to include next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Under him, Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup one-day tournament and also grabbed the World Twenty20 title after beating India in the � nal in Dhaka ear-lier this month.
Sri Lanka will need a new coach be-fore they head to England next month for two Tests and a limited-overs series.l
Top court urges new corruption probe
The Supreme Court on Tues-day urged a tough new investiga-
tion into allegations of spot-� xing and illegal betting in the Indian Pre-mier League cricket competition after months of controversy.
The top court said it wanted the country’s investigation agencies to team up with its own three-member panel appointed last year to probe the allegations into the popular Twenty20 competition.
The panel, led by former judge Mu-kal Mudgal, has already produced a damning report which lists 13 people, including Indian cricket boss N. Srini-vasan, who has been forced to stand aside in the wake of the scandal.
Justice A.K. Patnaik said he wanted the new investigation to look further into
allegations contained in a sealed section of the report – which has not been made public and which deals with the 13 people.
“We want to know from the Mudgal panel if they are willing to continue in-vestigations,” Patnaik told the court.
The court has accused Srinivasan, seen as the most powerful man in world cricket, of e� ectively turning a blind eye to the allegations that have embroiled the IPL since last year.
The court last month ordered Sri-nivasan to stand aside as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It installed batting Indian great Sunil Gavaskar, who is charged with overseeing the latest edition of the IPL.
Srinivasan is still set to take over in July as head of the International Crick-et Council.
The panel has been looking into al-legations surrounding last year’s IPL, when former Test bowler Shanthaku-maran Sreesanth was caught delib-
erately bowling badly while playing for the Rajasthan Royals in return for thousands of dollars from bookmakers.
The panel’s report concluded that Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Mei-yappan -- who was the team principal of the Chennai Super Kings -- could be guilty of illegal betting on IPL games.
The Super Kings are owned by India Cements, whose managing director is Srinivasan. The team is captained by India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The court had asked the BCCI itself to investigate the panel’s report. But af-ter hearing legal arguments on Tuesday against the BCCI’s proposed list of names to head the probe, the court asked if the Mudgal panel was willing to take over.
Meiyappan and several cricketers and bookmakers have also been the target of a separate police investigation which has resulted in charges including forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy. l
Kings XI Punjab’s Glenn Maxwell plays a slog sweep against Sunrisers Hyderabad during their IPL 7 match at Sharjah yesterday CRICINFO
Kings XI Punjab193-6 in 20 oversMaxwell 95, Pujara 35, Sehwag 30B Kumar 3/19, A Mishra 2/56Sunrisers Hyderabad121 all out in 19.2 oversK Rahul 27, A Finch 19; L Balaji 4/13, M Johnson 2/26, A Patel 2/20
KXIP won by 72 runs
BRIEF SCORE
SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15
16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Rajuk asked to identify unauthorised buildings n Kamran Reza Chowdhury
The parliamentary standing committee on public accounts yesterday asked Ra-juk, the city development authority, to prepare within one month a list of the buildings constructed in the capital vi-olating laws.
The 15-member public accounts committee at its � rst meeting also asked Rajuk to initiate departmental action against its o� cials who were involved in destroying the � les and allowed the realtors to construct high-rise buildings in prime locations in the capital.
According to a � nal report placed by the o� ce of Comptroller and Auditor General at the meeting, the Rajuk o� -cials had allowed the real estate � rms
to construct high-rise buildings, giving � nancial bene� ts of over Tk143 crore between 2005-06 and 2007-08.
The public works audit done from March 2007 to October 2009 found that a realtor was allowed to construct up to a maximum of six-storey building on a plot on the western side of Siddhesh-wari Girls School.
But the building inspector, author-ised o� cer of Rajuk, allowed Advanced Technology Ltd to construct 18-sto-rey building that gave the company a bounty of around Tk90 crore.
According to the paper, Rajuk had confessed its misdeeds.
The CAG report suggested that the government form a taskforce aimed at realising compensation from all the persons involved in corruption.
Besides, the realtor should be black-listed for constructing buildings infuture.
“The committee has asked for a list of all the buildings, built in Dhaka in violation of the building construction rules 1996, within one month,” Abdus Shahid, a committee member, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said Rajuk Chairman GM Joynal Abedin Bhuiyan sought more time for preparing such a list.
“Give us progress report within one month; then we will consider extend-ing the deadline,” Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, the committee chairman, told the chairman.
The CAG report said Rajuk allowed Eastern Housing Company to construct 18-storey building beside the Mogh-
bazar Kazi o� ce. This law violation helped them earn over Tk29.37 crore.
In Purana Paltan area, Rajuk allowed a company to construct 18-storey building. The company made a pro� t of around Tk24 crore.
Abdus Shahid, the former chief whip, then raised the question what would happen to the buildings con-structed in violation of the rules.
The chairman told the meeting that the committee had no mandate for recommending demolition of these buildings.
Committee members Mohammad Amanullah, AFM Ruhal Haque, Afsarul Amin, Begum Rebecca Momin, Md Shamsul Haque Tuku, Md Rustom Ali Farazi and Begum Wasika Ayesha Khan attended the meeting. l
ILO advocating for freedom of association Gilbert Houngbo tells Dhaka Tribunen Shahidul Islam Chowdhury
International Labour Organisation encourag-es peaceful demonstrations of apparel work-ers without hurting the chain of production of a factory and the economy of the country, said Gilbert Houngbo, deputy director gen-eral of the Switzerland-based body.
“We are trying to develop mechanism for constructive dialogue among the parties con-cerned to protect workers’ rights,” Houngbo said in an exclusive interview with the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Houngbo, also former prime minister of Togo, added: “We are advocating for freedom of association. But freedom of association also brings responsibility.”
DT: You visited Dhaka after the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013. You are again here after one year of the tragic incident. Have you observed any efforts made to improve working conditions for RMG workers?Gilbert Houngbo: Changes are evident right now and e� orts are on. At least 140 trade un-ions have been created in the sector. Another thing is that about 900 factories were inspect-ed. The government has increased minimum wage and many factories have started imple-menting new wage. New labour inspectors are appointed. So, it is a good beginning. Now everybody needs to speed it up and there are challenges need to be overcome.
It is almost established that more than 1,100 workers died in the tragic April 24 incident. But there is no complete list of the deceased, identified or unidentified, and missing persons. There are several [incomplete] lists prepared by the government, DNA laboratory authority and NGOs. Gilbert Houngbo: It is heartbreaking as a clear list is yet to be established. Yes, there was lack of institutional capacity and
bureaucratic problems. Bangladesh is not alone in this situation if you look at the issue on quality crisis management perspective. But Bangladesh managed the crisis rela-tively well. I just hope that the authorities [public or private] will take lessons from the incidents they face and the mistakes they made before and after the disasters; and the workers and the factories will be bene� tted from the lessons.
Do you think that the foreign buyers and brands who import apparels need to share responsibilities, financial and otherwise, to improve working conditions, safety and security of workers? Gilbert Houngbo: Improving working conditions is a collective responsibility of the government, [local and international] part-ners, owners, international buyers and labour organisations. Many of them are coming up with their e� orts. My call is there should be an organised approach from every authority, including the Alliance and the Accord and others. To me, we should not go backward af-ter some improvements to labour standards. Secondly, we also need to encourage tradi-tional buyers, employers [factory owners]
and trade unions to have a major role to play to see this sector really well managed.
Most of the leaders of the 140 newly formed RMG trade unions hardly have any knowledge, experience and understanding of labour law and rules to face problems in future. Do you have any suggestion for them?Gilbert Houngbo: Yes, they do not know what to do and how. But we [government, ILO, owners and national trade unions] know what we expect from them. That’s why ILO has launched programme for capacity building of the newly formed trade unions as collective bargaining agents for constructive engagement for interests of the workers and as well as for the interests of the employers and the industry.
What do you expect from the employers?Gilbert Houngbo: They need to maintain a minimum acceptable working atmosphere and allow workers to exercise freedom of association to uphold their legal rights. We want that there will be no abuse. There should not be any retaliation against any-body for trade union activities. l
Survey: Five crore people su� ering from ear-related ailmentsn Moniruzzaman Uzzal
Almost one-third of the country’s pop-ulation is su� ering from some sort of ear-related ailments, a survey has found.
The “National Survey on Hearing Impairment in Bangladesh 2013” found that among those su� ering with di� er-ent ailments, at least 9.6% were facing disabling hearing loss and 1.2% were completely hearing-impaired.
The number of patients with ear-re-lated ailments was more than � ve crore, the survey revealed, adding that the prevalence of hearing-impairment was higher among the under-15 pop-ulation. More than 15% of the patients with hearing-impairment came from poorest families and 7.6% from the richest group of people.
The � ndings of the survey were dis-closed at a programme in the capital’s Sonargaon Hotel yesterday. The survey was conducted by the ENT (ear, nose and throat) department of Bangab-andhu Sheikh Mujib Medical Univer-sity (BSMMU), with assistance from the World Health Organization and the health directorate, between Janu-ary-May last year on 4,220 people at 52 upazilas of seven divisions.
The study also found that the key reasons behind the hearing-impair-ment were ear wax, middle ear � uid and ear infection. Other than congen-ital deafness, 50% of the hearing-im-pairment cases could be cured if prop-erly treated, the survey found.
Meanwhile, although there was a spe-cialised 250-bed hospital at the National Institute of ENT in the capital’s Tejgaon, it was reportedly failing to attract or en-sure proper treatment for patients.
During a visit to the hospital yester-day, the Dhaka Tribune found that most doctors were sitting idly in their o� ces as there were only a handful of patients.
On-duty nurses said only 49 patients had sought services at the outdoor yes-terday, while the number was the same on Monday.
Built at a cost of Tk62 crore, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the eight-storey facility in June last year, while 264 employees including 56 doc-tors were also appointed at the time.
When the hospital was inaugurated, Prof Dr Abdullah, former project direc-tor of the ENT institute, told the Dhaka Tribune that the facility would be “a unique modern hospital for the thou-sands of hearing-impaired patients.”
However, although ten months had passed since its inauguration, the hospital was yet to launch its indoor services or seven of its high-tech oper-ation theatres.
Seeking anonymity, hospital sourc-es said since its inauguration on June 19 last year to March 26; only 1,300 ENT patients had taken service from the hospital, with an average of less than � ve patients a day.
Asked about the low number of pa-tients, Professor Dr Pran Gopal Datta, vice-chancellor of the BSMMU, expressed hopes that the hospital would start in full swing within the next two months.
Among others, yesterday’s pro-gramme was attended by Telecom Min-ister Abdul Latif Siddiki, DGHS DG Prof Din Md Nurul Hoque, BSMMU Pro-VC Prof Dr Md Shahidullah Sikder, WHO representative Dr Khaled Hasan. The keynote paper was presented by Pro-fessor Dr Kamrul Hasan Torofder. l
Union leaders complain of misbehaviourn Tazlina Zamila Khan
Leaders of newly formed trade unions complained about misbehaviour of the owners towards trade union leaders and members.
They said they had to face verbal abuse and even threats of job termina-tion before and after the formation of the trade union.
They shared their experience in an orientation programme on Freedom of Association for the Newly Registered RMG Sector Trade Unions held in Dha-ka yesterday.
The programme was organised by National Coordination Committee for Workers’ Education (NCCWE), Inter-national Labour Organisation (ILO), Bangladesh Institute of Labour Stud-ies (BILS) and IndustriALL Bangladesh Council (IBC).
O� cials of more than 140 trade unions formed in the last 15 months received training on the activities of trade unions. They vowed to work for the workers’ interest in future.
Sirajuddin, General Secretary of the trade union under Tekno Dress Ltd Gar-ment,said he was ousted twice from his job due to his involvement in trade un-ion movement but “I got back my job with the help of the united federation of trade unions”.
He demanded a separate govern-ment committee to work as a go-be-tween to help stop misbehave of own-ers with the trade union activists.
President of Tuba Garments trade union Aleya Akter said her union was
formed only two months back.“The owner didn’t allow us to form the un-ion as they think workers will stage demonstration and never listen to them once the union is formed.”
She said: “They threaten to � re us if we protest any move of the owner that goes against the interest of the workers.”
Roy Romesh Chandra, secretary general of the IBC said: “We want trade union in every garment factory. There are around seven pending registration forms. Owners have to be helpful to-wards workers.”
He said: “Trade union leaders have to prove that production of a factory in-creases and workers remain happy in a factory having a trade union. It’s a chal-lenge and it will depend on the future work of the unions.”
Zafrul Hasan, chairperson of the NCCWE and joint secretary of the BILS said: “Owners think trade union harms production but it is rather the opposite.”
Gilbert Houngbo, deputy director general for Field Operations and Part-nerships, ILO said: “The utmost impor-tance is worker’s interest. Every trade union leaders and workers should also think of long-term interest in order to contribute to the national economy.”
Mujibul Haque Chunnu, state minis-ter for Labour and Employment minis-try, said: “There is a lack of trust between owners and workers. But, we have to work together. Workers should remem-ber that trade unions are not for politics.”
Mikail Shiper, secretary of the min-istry said: “If the unions are handled skilfully then owners will not object.” l
3 bodies to probe recent hospital clashesn Moniruzzaman Uzzal
The Health Ministry yesterday formed three committees to investigate incidents of attacks by intern doctors on journalists at Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospi-tal (SSMCH) on April 19, Rajshahi Medi-cal College Hospital (RMCH) on April 20, as well as an assault by bereaved rela-tives on doctors at Birdem hospital.
The committees led by three joint secretaries have been asked to submit their reports within seven working days, Health Secretary MM Niazuddin said.
Health Minister Mohammed Nasim also held a meeting with journalists at his o� ce yesterday, with doctors’ lead-ers present.
The journalists who had their cam-eras broken in the attack at the SSMCH
would be compensated and the injured would also be taken care of, he said.
The meeting decided on opening an information cell at each public hospital and appointing an information o� cer to brief the media on any incident to shun such unpleasant incidents.
Earlier, the minister said: “Those who take up sticks in hands cannot be doctors. They are mastans [goons].”l
Giant mealybug attack spreads to adjacent areasn Tribune Report
The infestation of a foreign pest, known as the Giant Mealybug, held re-sponsible for a recent temporary halt in academic activities at the College of Home Economics campus, has spread to di� erent parts of the capital within a short period.
Colonies of the white foreign unar-mored scale insect had been seen de-veloping on several trees on the Dhaka University campus, Government Labo-ratory School, Eden College and Azim-pur Sta� quarters.
The foreign insects are mostly seen in the trees of DU’s Institute of Educa-tion and Research (IER) areas, Molchat-tar, Muhsin hall and Government Labo-ratory school premises.
While visited the a� ected spots, it was found that many of the trees in the campus were su� ering from the mealy-bug infestation.
These insects can cause skin rash and itching to children studying in our school. Steps to eradicate the infestation have become an urgent issue,” a teacher of Government Laboratory School said while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.
When asked, DU Assistant Proctor Robiul Islam said: “The university au-thority will talk with the respective ex-perts on stopping the infestation and re-production of the insect in the campus.”
He, however, mentioned that the Dha-ka City Corporation Authority had been asked to spray water on a� ected trees as per a directive of the Education Minster.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Plant Protection Wing of Department of Agricultural Extension formed two separate committees with specialist and entomologist to � nd a solution on the infestations.
Plant Protection Wing Director ABM Abduz Zaher told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are aware of the issue and the ag-ricultural ministry had formed a com-mittee with three entomologists who have already begun their work at the Home Economics College.
“We also formed a 5 member com-mittee,” he added.
“If anyone from any a� ected area contacts us, we will go there and will take initiatives.”
Earlier on Sunday, Education Minis-ter Nurul Islam Nahid urged everyone not to panic over the infestation but to be aware of it. l
Garment workers listen to a speech of an ILO o� cial at an orientation programme on “Freedom of Association for the Newly Registered RMG Sector Trade Unions” in the capital yesterday RAJIB DHAR
Indigenous farmers are seen reaping Boro paddy in Godagari Barshapara area of Rajshahi yesterday. Local farmers are now busy as the harvesting season has begun DHAKA TRIBUNE
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Bangladesh hardly bene� ted from duty-free Indian market, trade experts say
n Tribune Report
Bangladesh has failed to take advantage of the duty-free access to Indian market due to reasons, including lack of leader-ship, coordination, infrastructure bot-tlenecks and cumbersome export pro-cedure, trade analysts said yesterday.
To enhance exports to the market, Bangladesh needs to diversify its ex-port basket, they said.
They came up with the observation at a dialogue titled “Utilising Indian Market Access O� er Through Promotion of Trade Facilitation,” organised by Cen-tre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in Dhaka yesterday, presided over by CPD Chair-man Professor Rehman Sobhan. India allowed all but 25 Bangladeshi products duty-free in their market in 2011.
CPD Distinguished Fellow Debapri-ya Bhattacharya said though volume
of trade between the two countries in-creased over the years, proportionately it declined.
He said infrastructure, lack of port facilities, non-tari� barriers and di� -cult export procedure are the bottle-necks for increasing trade between the two countries. “But the bottom line is that lack of leadership, initiative and coordination are the stumbling block to boost export to India,” he said.
He said India’s credit was used only to buy truck instead of developing in-frastructure, which lacks aims.
State Minister for Foreign A� airs Md Shahriar Alam said to facilitate trade, Ban-gladesh is negotiating with India to open deputy high commission in Gauhati.
“There is a multi-tier mechanism between Bangladesh and India for en-hancement of bilateral trade. The en-gagement is also intense.”
A very positive development has been there for operationalsing the standard operating procedure signed between the two sides in August 2010, allowing trucks carrying bilateral cargo to cross up to 200 metres beyond the zero line.
As regards port restriction, Indian side maintains that their port restric-tions a� ect very few Bangladesh items.
Abdul Matlub Ahmad, former pres-ident of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the major problem is lack of exportable products. “We need exportable products having quality and competitive price.”
“We invite Indian companies with reputed brand to invest and export back to India, which help reduce the trade gap. We also need to assure in-dustrial plots, gas and electricity to the Indian entrepreneurs.”
Farooq Sobhan, President of Ban-
gladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) said: “We need to produce new products tar-geting India.”
Direct � ight between Dhaka and Gauhati, trade o� ce, deputy high com-mission are needed to boost trade, as Bangladeshi products have huge demand in the North-East region of India, he said.
Former commerce secretary Suhel Ahmed Chowdhury said one country is operating two system – one for the North-East region and another for oth-er parts of India.
He said one importer has to go to Kol-kata to open LC, which is one of the bot-tlenecks for increasing export to India.
Former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Abdul Awal Mintoo said: “We have still to go a long way. We don’t have enough exportable products, causing yawning trade gap between the two nations.”
He said though infrastructure and non-tari� barriers are the barriers to boost trade, there is also political problem.
CPD Executive Director Professor Musta� zur Rahman in his study report identi� ed four bottlenecks against ex-port increase to India are infrastruc-ture-related bottlenecks, inadequate customs and port facilities, non-tari� barriers and cumbersome export pro-cedures and documentation.
He said Bangladesh’s export to India was only 0.13% of India’s global import while India accounted for 16% of Ban-gladesh’s total global import.
An interesting feature of Bangladesh’s export to India is that whilst the ratio of Bangladesh’s global export of RMG and non-RMG items was 80:20, in case of In-dia this was the opposite at about 30:70.
This alludes to the potential for Bangla-desh’s export diversi� cation in the Indian market, using duty-free access to India.
North-East region of India remain a market with a signi� cant export potential for Bangladesh because of its close prox-imity to Bangladesh and the high cost of trade transaction with the rest of India. l
www.dhakatribune.com/business WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2014
B3 US business lobby says market access concerns in China growing
B4 How technology is im-pacting the accounting discipline
BFFA for not awarding licenses to foreign companiesn Tribune Report
Bangladesh Freight Forward Associ-ation (BFFA) has requested the Na-tional Board of Revenue (NBR) not to approve any license for the foreign companies to do businesses in Ban-gladesh.
The country’s freight forwarding agents viewed that the government should not approve any license for any foreign company for the sake of supporting and protecting the busi-nesses of the local companies.
The leaders of the BFFA came up with the plea at a pre-budget discussion with the NBR o� cials held at its head-quarters in the capital yesterday with NBR member Farid Uddin in the chair.
“The government may approve license for the foreign companies only if they agreed to meet a con-dition that 49% investment would come from them while rest of the 51% would be from the local companies,” opined the BFFA representatives.
They also demanded for � xing the license time-limit for the C&F agents, stakeholders, and shipping agents for four years as the stakeholders in this sector can now work only for two years after obtaining a license.
As the C&F agents and shipping agents are to pay value added tax (VATs) at the customs stations, they often face hassles to deal with it. That’s why the leaders of the BFFA also requested the NBR to allow them for paying VATs at the central o� ces.
The other demand from the associ-ation includes cancellation of license of those companies without mem-bership of BFFA. In response, NBR member Farid Uddin said: Business personnel always ask for the reduc-tion of taxes, but they do not have any headache as to how the government will ful� ll its revenue target. l
REHAB seeks continuation of black money whitening facilityn Tribune Report
Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) has request-ed the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to continue the scope for whit-ening black money in housing sector for the next 5 years.
The leaders of the association came up with the demand while at-tending a pre-budget discussion with NBR o� cials held at its headquarters in the capital with NBR chairman Md. Ghulam Hussain in the chair.
The meeting was attended, among others, by NBR members Farid Ud-din, Syed Aminul Karim and Jahangir Hossain.
The NBR should continue the fa-cility to boost the sales of apartments as people could not invest their un-disclosed money in the previous year due to political turmoil situation, which lasted till January 5 polls, said REHAB vice-president Liakat Ali Bhu-iyan.
The association also proposed the NBR to reduce the income tax on transfer of per square metre residen-tial lands, buildings and apartments to Tk1,000, Tk800 and Tk500 respec-tively from existing Tk1,600, Tk1,500 and Tk600 for the areas divided in three di� erent categories.
The REHAB also proposed to re-duce tax on transfer of commercial lands, buildings and apartments to Tk5,000, Tk.3,000 and Tk1,000 re-spectively from existing Tk6,5000, Tk5,000 and Tk1,600 for the three di� erent categories.
The other demands include reduc-tion of gain tax, stamp duty, registra-tion fee and value-added tax in regis-tration of plots and � ats to 6.5% from the existing 11.50%.
REHAB also recommended that the government should introduce secondary market for trading � ats and plots at a lower tax.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Land De-velopers Association echoed with the proposals made by the REHAB at the same meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Bangla-desh Auto Re-Rolling and Steel Mills Association urged the NBR to in-crease customs duty on import of MS Billet to Tk5,500 per tonnes from the existing Tk3,500 tonnes and reducing duties on the import of raw materials used in re-rolling and steel mills in a bid to protect local industry.
Steel Building Manufacturers As-sociation of Bangladesh sought re-duction of duty on import of colour sheet used in pre-fabricated building industry.
Bangladesh Cement Manufactur-ers Association (BCMA) sought reduc-tion of duty in import of raw materi-als including clinker and � y ash for the sector.
In reply NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain said: NBR has been large-ly deprived from collecting a huge amount of taxes just from the land purchase because of the malpractice for undervaluation of the real prices of lands and apartments during the registration process.
Citing an example, he said 1-katha land in Gulshan and Banani is now being sold at Tk10 crore but the price of the land is being shown only Tk52 lakh at the time of registration.
“The NBR was supposed to get Tk-1crore as tax if the transaction could be made in actual price but it got only Tk 5.2 lakh because of undervalu-ation.’’
NBR chief further explained that during the last year, the revenue board provided huge tax break to this sector, which is against the spirit of the government’s tax policy, just considering the consumers’ interest but it could not yield any result as the price of land remained higher and continue to be increased further. l
Tk1,863cr telecom network project okayedn Tribune Report
The government yesterday approved a project of Tk1,863.15 crore to expand the country’s � xed-line tele-density and related telecom facilities across the country through reaching ICT ser-vices at a reliable and a� ordable price.
It would facilitate Bangladesh Tele-communications Company Limited (BTCL) to provide digital services com-pletely. The project is to establish next generation network (NGN) for “Digital Bangladesh” through replacing the low-capacity existing transmission equipments at the exchanges BTCL.
This is to facilitate providing broad-band internet services across the coun-try with modern internet and multime-dia-based transmission equipments.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the project at its meeting at the NEC conference room, with ECNEC chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry will implement the project.
The NGN project as well as four other development projects were ap-proved involving a total expenditure of Tk2,072.53 crore, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told a press brief-ing after the meeting.
Of the total project cost, Tk619.32 crore will come from the govern-ment exchequer and the remaining Tk1,453.21 crore as project assistance.
Meeting sources said China would come up with a credit of Tk1,453.21 crore for the NGN project, which will be completed by June 2017.
Mustafa Kamal said the Chinese credit would have 1.50% interest with a 20-year repayment period.
Under the project, the low-capacity old copper-based cable will be replaced with high-powered optical � ber cable.
Planning ministry sources said, with the implementation of the project, in-ternet connections would be available
up to village level while all the govern-ment institutions would be connected through creating network at national level alongside creating scope for inter-net telephone and video conferencing.
Besides, it would be possible to provide internet connections at all primary and secondary schools, and vocational training institutes at an af-fordable price. One internet protocol multimedia subsystem (ISS) platform would be set up in the capital with ca-pacity of providing some 700,000 con-nections apart from another same-ca-pacity ISS platform in Chittagong.
“This project will give the BTCL a lifeline for re-strengthening it,” Md Abubakar Sdddique, Secretary of Posts & Telecommunications division, also the Chairman of the BTCL board told the Dhaka Tribune.
The project would ensure voice call alongside sharing of videos. As a result, some 10 lakh land phone users would be able to use internet services without taking new connections. l
ICC holds workshop for bankers in KLn Tribune Report
International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICC,B) and ICC Malay-sia are jointly organising a three-day workshop on Rules and Tools for Inter-national Trade Finance for the bankers of the two countries in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur from today.
A total 90 bankers from 19 Banks in-cluding Bangladesh Bank, 18 commer-cial banks and Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) will attend the workshop while some 50 other bankers from Malaysian banks will also be partici-pating the same workshop, according to a press release yesterday.
The Bangladeshi Bank-ers will visit Maybank today and have interaction with senior o� cials of Bank Neg-ara Malaysia and Maybank. This is for the � rst time that ICC Bangladesh is organising such a workshop outside the country.
Vincent O’Brien, who
is a highly experienced practitioner of International Trade Finance a long-standing member of the ICC Banking Commission from Ireland, will be conducting the workshop. ICC Bangladesh Secretary General Ataur Rahman is leading the team along with Deputy General Manager Ajay B. Saha.
The main objective of the workshop is to allow the Bangladeshi bankers to interact with their counterparts in Ma-laysia and also learn more about the latest rules and tools of international trade � nance, understand internation-
al trade � nance scenario based on real life cases and guide them to undertake secure and successful international trade and � nance as well as to avoid risks in cross-border transactions.
The workshop will also help the bankers in understanding the new pro-visions and how the changes impact users with the con� dence and legal certainty to trade in unfamiliar markets and save both time and money as well as how to achieve maximum practical bene� t in everyday Documentary Cred-it Operations and Risk Management. l
Government borrowing from BB becomes zeroThe condition yet to have positive impact on private investment, triggering concernsn Asif Showkat Kallol
The government’s borrowing from Bangladesh Bank has come down to zero at the end of March this year, re-� ecting strong and sound � nancial sta-bility in the country.
However, o� cials said, the govern-ment is still worried over the lack of investment in the private sector, which might jeopardise the comfortable � -nancial situation.
As the government has paid back the loan to the central bank, BB’s ac-counts of Over Draft Current (ODC) and Ways and Means Advance (WMA) came down to zero, said an o� cial of the � -nance division yesterday.
He, however, feared the country’s economy might face a challenge in the near future unless the government enhances expenditure, increases the private sector credit and attracts more foreign direct investment.
The country‘s growth rate is hitting hard because of the sluggish private sec-tor investment, the o� cial further added.
The government normally borrows a signi� cant amount of money from the central bank under its ODC and WMA programme to � nance the budget de� cit.
According to � nance ministry sourc-es, the matter was discussed at a recent � scal coordination council meeting when the � nance minister asked the ministries to vibrate private sector through ensuring more facilities and infrastructures for attracting more the private investment.
WMA and ODC accounts zero means there has been no in� ationary pressure in the market because central bank
prints necessary amount of money and the same situation had prevailed in 2010, according to the cash and debt management of � nance division.
The government’s borrowing through ODC stood at Tk7,000 crore and WMA Tk2,500 crore at the end of January 2014 against TK7,205 crore in June 2013. At the end of March this year, ODC and WMA of Bangladesh Bank came down to zero level while the cen-tral bank’s ODC surplus is Tk3,500 crore, according to the central bank data.
Cash and debt management wing of the � nance ministry now plans to give long-term dues especially big amount of bonds payment within short time, said a source in the � nance ministry.
The cash and debt management wing has already put a cap on the govern-ment's borrowing from the BB through ODC limiting it to Tk4,000 crore. An ODC limit has been imposed from April 1.
The BB data showed that the credit growth in the private sector declined to 10.73% in February from 13.96% in the corresponding month of previous year.
The o� cial said due to the fall in private sector credit growth, the banks were investing signi� cant amount of fund in the government securities with a lower interest rate of 7% to 12.16%
Besides, the private sector cred-it growth remained stagnant at 11.1 % during the months of September, Oc-tober and November in 2013 against the target of 15.5 %. As per the � nance division data, bank borrowing stood at Tk8,730 crore at the end of December 2013, compared to Tk7, 213 crore in the same month a year before.
PAGE B3 COLUMN 1
CPD chairperson Prof Rehman Sobhan delivering speech at a dialogue on 'Utilising Indian Market Access O� er Through Promotion of Trade Facilitation' in Dhaka yesterday
ANALYST
B2 Stock Wednesday, April 23, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
Stocks edge higher with volatility n Tribune Report
Stocks edged higher for the fourth consecutive session yesterday amid volatile trade and sluggish turnover, as investors went for quick pro� t taking advantage of shortened settlement period.
The benchmark index DSEX soared 11 points or 0.3% to 4,660, which is one and half month high.
The blue chips DS30 gained 4 points or 0.3% to 1,704. Howev-er, the Shariah index, DSES, was slightly down 1 points or 0.2% to close at 1,029.
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also edged marginally higher with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, gained 37 points to 8,979.
The total turnover on DSE, how-ever, dipped below Tk400 crore and stood at Tk391 crore, register-ing a fall of more than 15% over the previous session.
“Market has positioned on the comfortable pitch after the techni-cal breakout in index as recent rally is supported by the large and mid-cap stocks of bank, textile and oil stocks,” said Lanka Bangla Securi-ties in its daily market analysis.
It said current price multiple of banking stocks has attracted the in-vestors and they found it good time to make an entry. Though banking sector ended � at Tuesday due to pro� t taking attempt in the last hour, banking stocks showed handful of
resilience in early trading, it said. IDLC Investments said: “Natu-
ral correction in large caps count-er-balanced in day’s upswing in remaining caps and forced the mar-ket to end � at.”
Meanwhile, investors’ focus continued changing across sectors and scrips level, it said. They are focusing on micro caps, lately as those scrips remained dormant for last couple of months, it said.
It said triggered by this, textile sector soared 2%. Sequentially, in-vestor search for lucrative price prompted session-long volatility with 63 out of 290 traded scrips post-ing more than 3% change, it added.
Gainers took a strong lead over the losers as out of 290 issues trad-ed, 190 advanced, 66 declined and 34 issues closed unchanged on the DSE � oor. After previous day’s re-markable gain, banks closed � at losing 0.07%. Among the large cap sectors, non-banking � nancial in-stitutions posted highest gain of 1.4%, followed by food and allied, fuel and power. Telecommunica-tions also lost 0.4% and pharma-ceuticals 0.25%.
Blue chip stocks captured 9 out of 10 spots in day’s most traded chart with Lafarge Surma Cement became the top turnover leaders with shares worth Tk26 crore changing hands, followed by Olympic Industries, Meghna petroleum, Heidelberg Ce-ment and Square Pharma. l
News, analysis and recent disclosersNHFIL: The Board of Directors has rec-ommended 12.50% cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 28.05.2014, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Lakeshore Hotel, Road#41, House#46, Gul-shan-2, Dhaka. Record Date: 04.05.2014. The Company has also reported net pro� t of Tk. 167.47 million, EPS of Tk. 1.57, NAV per share of Tk. 13.40 and NOCFPS of Tk. 2.72 for the year ended on December 31, 2013 as against Tk. 41.44 million, Tk. 0.39 (restated), Tk. 13.34 (restated) and Tk. 4.98 (restated) respectively for the year ended on December 31, 2012.AFCAGRO: The Board of Directors has rec-ommended 10% stock dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2013. Date of AGM: 12.06.2014, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Institu-tion of Diploma Engineers, Kakrail, Dhaka. Record Date: 08.05.2014. The Company has also reported EPS of Tk. 2.03 (including Tk. 0.33 interest from Income IPO amount), Post IPO EPS of Tk. 1.54, NAV per share of Tk. 12.34 and NOCFPS of Tk. 0.18 for the year ended on December 31, 2013.BoardMeeting: FEDERALINS on April 27, 2014 at 3:15 PM. SQUARETEXT on April 27, 2014 at 3:30 PM. SONARBAINS on April 28, 2014 at 3:00 PM. PEOPLESINS on April 27,
2014 at 3:00 PM. PARAMOUNT on April 28, 2014 at 4:00 PM. BDWELDING on April 27, 2014 at 4:30 PM. KARNAPHULI on April 28, 2014 at 4:00 PM. GQBALLPEN on April 24, 2014 at 3:30 PM. PRIMEFIN: The Company has informed that it has transferred the cash dividend for the year 2013 to the respective sharehold-ers bank account (except NRB, Merchant Banks etc.) through Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network (BEFTN) System. NRB, Merchant Banks and the sharehold-ers whose dividend could not possible to send through BEFTN due to inadequate information, are requested to collect divi-dend cheques from the Head O� ce of the Company at 63, Dilkusha (3rd Floor), C/A, Dhaka-1000 from April 22, 2014 to April 24, 2014 during o� ce hours.FAREASTLIF: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to form a subsidiary Company named Fareast Islami Properties Ltd. The details are as follows: Authorized Capital: Tk. 50.00 crore; Paid up Capital: Tk. 10.00 crore; Per Share Value: Tk. 10.00 each; Cap-ital of Fareast Islami Life Insurance Co. Ltd.: 51% (i.e. Tk. 5.10 crore) and Capital of other
Sponsors: 49% (i.e. Tk. 4.90 crore).BATASHOE: The Company has informed that Mr. Rajeev Gopalakrishnan has been appointed as Chairman & Director and Mr. Chitpan Kanhasiri as Vice Chairman & Man-aging Director of the Company with e� ect from April 01, 2014.AMBEEPHA: The Company has informed that the Head O� ce of the Company has been shifted to its new location at 184/1, Te-jgaon Industrial Area Tejgaon, Dhaka-1208.MTB: The Company has informed that it has credited the bonus shares for the year ended on December 31, 2013 to the respective shareholders' BO Accounts on April 20, 2014.LINDEBD: The Company has further informed that the AGM of the Company will be held on May 08, 2014 at 10:30 AM at O� cers Club, 26 Baily Road, Ramna, Dhaka-1000. Other information of the AGM as announced earlier.PRAGATIINS: The Company has further informed that due to unavoidable circum-stances the date of the 28th AGM of the Company has been shifted to May 18, 2014 from May 15, 2014. Other information of the AGM will remain unchanged.
CSE LOSERS
Company Closing (% change)
Aver-age (%
change)
Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover
in millionLatest
EPSLatest
PE
GreenDeltaInsu -A -7.06 -7.08 84.25 84.30 84.50 84.00 0.017 3.21 26.2Fareast Finance-N -5.30 -3.07 12.61 12.50 13.20 12.40 2.522 -0.97 -ve ICB -A -5.29 -5.29 1,790.00 1,790.00 1,790.00 1,790.00 0.269 40.46 44.2Kay & Que (BD) -Z -5.03 -4.49 17.00 17.00 17.00 17.00 0.009 -0.89 -veSandhani Life -A -4.88 -4.84 85.70 85.70 85.70 85.70 0.004 2.39 35.9AFC AgroBiotech-N -4.78 -4.50 49.64 49.80 50.50 48.90 3.624 1.54 32.2DESCO Ltd. -A -4.19 -2.39 64.05 64.10 65.50 61.50 0.192 1.12 57.2In Tech Online -A -4.03 -2.83 14.43 14.30 14.50 14.30 0.022 0.04 360.8LafargeS Cement-Z -3.87 -6.00 66.73 67.10 70.00 65.00 13.547 2.19 30.5Social Islami. B-A -3.40 -2.07 14.22 14.20 14.40 13.30 0.841 1.78 8.0
DSE LOSERS
Company Closing (% change)
Aver-age (%
change)
Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover
in millionLatest
EPSLatest
PE
Savar Refractories-Z -6.53 -9.27 54.44 54.40 58.80 53.10 0.049 0.60 90.7AFC AgroBiotech-N -6.27 -4.53 49.70 49.30 51.00 49.00 15.557 1.54 32.3Libra Infusions-A -5.83 -5.82 460.30 460.30 460.30 460.30 0.092 3.04 151.4Reckitt Benckiser -A -3.96 -3.39 1170.29 1158.80 1196.00 1135.10 2.048 41.12 28.5Fareast Finance-N -3.88 -1.40 12.68 12.40 13.50 12.30 6.194 -0.97 -veLafargeS Cement-Z -3.87 -5.91 66.55 67.10 69.90 65.00 260.293 2.19 30.4AB Bank - A -2.60 -0.03 30.48 30.00 31.10 27.80 96.929 2.06 14.8Trust Bank 1st MF-A -2.56 -0.77 7.70 7.60 7.80 7.10 3.916 0.42 18.3Apex Footwear-A -2.53 -2.06 450.80 446.90 463.80 444.90 19.745 23.61 19.1Reliance Insur -A -2.47 -2.39 63.41 63.30 64.80 62.00 0.225 4.63 13.7
CSE TURNOVER LEADERS
Company Volume shares
Value in million
% of total turnover
Daily closing
Price change
Daily opening
Daily high
Daily low
Daily average
UCBL - A 556,504 15.01 5.80 26.90 0.75 26.70 27.60 24.10 26.96Matin Spinning-N 336,400 13.67 5.29 40.90 5.14 38.90 41.40 38.30 40.64LafargeS Cement-Z 203,000 13.55 5.24 67.10 -3.87 69.80 70.00 65.00 66.73BSC-A 15,620 9.32 3.60 598.00 0.34 596.00 603.00 591.00 596.87Meghna Petroleum -A 29,530 9.15 3.54 309.10 -0.03 309.20 311.50 308.00 309.84Southeast Bank-A 399,690 8.45 3.27 21.00 -1.87 21.40 21.60 20.20 21.14Padma Oil Co. -A 22,452 7.80 3.01 346.50 -0.35 347.70 352.00 345.10 347.30LankaBangla Fin. -A 132,225 7.50 2.90 56.90 3.08 55.20 57.30 53.00 56.71Grameenphone-A 27,800 6.99 2.70 250.80 -0.32 251.60 255.00 249.00 251.42HeidelbergCement -A 11,120 6.43 2.49 570.00 1.42 562.00 589.00 567.00 578.45UNITED AIR-A 429,170 5.68 2.19 13.20 -0.75 13.30 13.40 13.10 13.22AB Bank - A 185,898 5.67 2.19 30.10 -1.95 30.70 31.20 29.80 30.50BD Submarine Cable-A 27,400 5.61 2.17 204.90 0.15 204.60 206.60 204.00 204.90Emerald Oil Ind. -N 21,500 5.09 1.97 46.60 -79.99 232.90 47.70 45.50 236.63Square Pharma -A 17,431 4.86 1.88 279.50 -0.32 280.40 282.00 278.00 279.08
DSE TURNOVER LEADERS
Company Volume shares
Value in million
% of total turnover
Daily closing
Price change
Daily opening
Daily high
Daily low
Daily average
LafargeS Cement-Z 3,911,000 260.29 6.65 67.10 -3.87 69.80 69.90 65.00 66.55Olympic Ind. -A 967,244 228.63 5.84 238.80 2.58 232.80 241.00 215.00 236.37Meghna Petroleum -A 621,292 192.32 4.91 308.70 -0.03 308.80 312.40 282.00 309.55HeidelbergCement -A 255,300 146.40 3.74 567.90 0.67 564.10 584.00 565.30 573.43Square Pharma -A 504,494 140.97 3.60 279.80 -0.71 281.80 282.30 260.10 279.42UCBL - A 5,034,787 136.17 3.48 27.00 0.75 26.80 29.00 25.00 27.05Grameenphone-A 500,684 126.04 3.22 251.60 -0.44 252.70 256.00 235.00 251.73Padma Oil Co. -A 358,587 124.36 3.18 346.20 -0.32 347.30 351.80 325.00 346.81Square Textile -A 916,944 103.87 2.65 114.50 4.09 110.00 115.00 102.00 113.28LankaBangla Fin. -A 1,724,464 97.81 2.50 57.20 4.19 54.90 58.50 49.70 56.72AB Bank - A 3,180,356 96.93 2.48 30.00 -2.60 30.80 31.10 27.80 30.48Southeast Bank-A 4,325,902 91.68 2.34 21.10 -1.40 21.40 22.50 19.30 21.19Jamuna Oil -A 331,139 77.15 1.97 232.20 -0.30 232.90 235.50 216.00 232.97National Tubes -A 340,748 58.20 1.49 171.00 3.14 165.80 173.80 161.90 170.80Matin Spinning-N 1,257,200 51.08 1.31 40.90 4.87 39.00 41.50 39.00 40.63
CSE GAINERS
Company Closing (% change)
Aver-age (%
change)
Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover
in millionLatest
EPSLatest
PE
Union Capital -A 8.03 5.33 26.27 26.90 27.00 25.10 1.022 1.17 22.5Metro Spinning -A 7.23 6.30 17.38 17.80 17.80 16.90 0.330 0.88 19.8National Housing Fin.-B 6.99 4.40 30.13 30.60 30.60 29.80 0.271 1.57 19.2First Lease- A 6.98 3.89 22.42 23.00 23.00 21.80 0.561 1.20 18.7Paramount Insur-A 6.86 4.80 21.38 21.80 21.80 21.00 0.043 1.51 14.2Peoples Insur -A 6.25 4.49 28.38 28.90 29.00 27.90 0.054 2.20 12.9 Argon Denims Limited-A 6.11 4.98 56.95 57.30 58.00 56.00 0.456 2.74 20.8Maksons Spinning-A 6.00 5.89 15.65 15.90 16.10 15.20 3.090 0.64 24.5MJL BD Ltd.-A 5.79 4.44 75.26 76.80 77.90 73.50 4.336 2.93 25.7Reckitt Benckiser -A 5.65 5.02 1290.00 1290.00 1290.00 1290.00 0.129 41.12 31.4
DSE GAINERS
Company Closing (% change)
Aver-age (%
change)
Closing average Closing Daily high Daily low Turnover
in millionLatest
EPSLatest
PE
Argon Denims Limited-A 6.85 2.75 56.08 57.70 58.70 52.00 23.999 2.74 20.5BD Fixed Income MF-A 6.59 6.71 9.70 9.70 9.70 9.70 0.005 0.54 18.0First Lease- A 6.07 3.59 22.23 22.70 23.10 20.00 15.769 1.20 18.5Sonargaon Tex -A 6.00 4.71 15.78 15.90 16.30 14.00 1.915 -0.69 -veMaksons Spinning-A 5.96 5.09 15.70 16.00 16.50 13.60 46.581 0.64 24.5AramitCementA 5.58 4.39 54.24 54.90 55.60 53.30 9.817 2.56 21.2SonarBangla Insu. -A 5.36 3.32 23.05 23.60 23.90 22.30 1.072 1.85 12.5City G Insu.-A 5.28 4.80 25.53 25.90 26.20 23.80 0.481 1.73 14.8Northern G Insur-A 5.15 4.47 38.55 38.80 40.00 33.30 1.373 1.82 21.2MJL BD Ltd.-A 5.09 4.17 75.65 76.40 77.50 66.00 25.021 2.93 25.8
SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY
Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change
Bank 727.69 18.60 57.55 20.04 785.24 18.69NBFI 307.13 7.85 19.81 6.90 326.94 7.78Investment 80.80 2.06 3.27 1.14 84.08 2.00Engineering 270.04 6.90 15.70 5.47 285.74 6.80Food & Allied 309.22 7.90 12.67 4.41 321.90 7.66Fuel & Power 505.68 12.92 32.77 11.41 538.45 12.82Jute 2.19 0.06 0.00 2.19 0.05Textile 365.60 9.34 37.79 13.16 403.39 9.60Pharma & Chemical 345.72 8.83 16.93 5.89 362.65 8.63Paper & Packaging 1.25 0.03 8.25 2.87 9.50 0.23Service 24.50 0.63 0.93 0.32 25.43 0.61Leather 65.87 1.68 11.93 4.15 77.80 1.85Ceramic 16.15 0.41 1.00 0.35 17.14 0.41Cement 475.34 12.15 24.65 8.58 499.99 11.90Information Technology 31.00 0.79 3.28 1.14 34.28 0.82General Insurance 43.66 1.12 3.12 1.09 46.79 1.11Life Insurance 66.34 1.70 4.87 1.70 71.21 1.70Telecom 169.70 4.34 12.60 4.39 182.31 4.34Travel & Leisure 29.53 0.75 6.56 2.28 36.09 0.86Miscellaneous 75.68 1.93 13.52 4.71 89.19 2.12Debenture 0.12 0.00 0.02 0.01 0.14 0.00
Daily capital market highlights
DSE Broad Index : 4659.99432 (+) 0.24% ▲
DSE Shariah Index : 1029.48528 (-) 0.15% ▼
DSE - 30 Index : 1704.06926 (+) 0.23% ▲
CSE All Share Index: 14379.7697 (+) 0.26% ▲
CSE - 30 Index : 12084.0375 (+) 0.36% ▲
CSE Selected Index : 8979.1491 (+) 0.42% ▲
DSE key features April 22, 2014Turnover (Million Taka)
3,913.21
Turnover (Volume)
91,664,648
Number of Contract 90,917
Traded Issues 291
Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)
165
Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)
121
Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)
5
Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)
2,356.11
Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)
28.56
CSE key features April 22, 2014Turnover (Million Taka) 262.76
Turnover (Volume) 7,473,992
Number of Contract 11,390
Traded Issues 222
Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)
127
Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)
90
Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)
4
Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)
2,256.78
Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)
27.35
Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to [email protected] or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net
Natural correction in large caps counter-balanced in day’s upswing in remaining caps and forced the market to end � at
US business lobby says market access concerns in China growingn Reuters, Beijing
Multinational � rms are planning to invest less in China because of market access barriers and slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy, a US business lobby said on Tuesday.
China's economy expanded 7.4% year-on-year in the January-March quarter, its slowest pace in 18 months.
Concerns over market access and slower growth are greater this year than they were in the past, the Ameri-can Chamber of Commerce in China said in its annual report on the busi-ness climate in China.
"We refer to market access barriers as one of the primary reasons for low-ered investment," Chamber Chairman Greg Gilligan told reporters at a brief-ing on the report.
"With slower growth, our member companies do not re� ect less need for investment, but perhaps less need for investment based on the old eco-nomic model that was more reliant on exports and infrastructure spending," Gilligan said.
At a plenum meeting of the Com-munist Party last November, China announced ambitious reforms that signaled the shift of China's economy from infrastructure- and export-fu-elled growth towards a slower, more balanced and sustained expansion.
The annual report, which the Cham-ber uses to lobby both the Chinese and U.S. governments, placed industrial policies that support Chinese state-
owned enterprises atop the list of com-plaints.
"State-owned enterprises have in-creased their control over certain sec-tors of the economy in recent years,
and government support for SOEs was overwhelmingly citied by AmCham China member companies as the most negative industrial policy, being cho-sen more frequently than all the other
options combined," the Chamber said in the report.
The United States has a massive trade de� cit with China, which maintains a tight grip on state-owned businesses.
The report also said that 40% of the lobby's member � rms felt they were targeted by Chinese media, increasing perceptions that foreign investment is becoming less welcome.
Other concerns included fear of ret-ribution if companies defend their in-terests through the Chinese legal sys-tem, and the report noted moderate or low progress on a host of perennial issues, from government procurement to intellectual property rights protec-tion.
Despite the deep-seeded worries over market access, the Chamber was optimistic about renewed negotiations on a US -China bilateral investment treaty.
The world's two biggest economies agreed in July to restart stalled talks on the investment treaty. Previously, Bei-jing had agreed to negotiations only if certain Chinese industries, especially in its service sector, were exempt.
Tim Stratford, a co-chair on the Chamber's legal committee and a for-mer U.S. trade negotiator, said the Chinese government's commitment to return to talks re� ected "a lot of study."
"It was not a casual undertaking on their part. Given all the work that has gone into these negotiations already and given the momentum behind them ... we are feeling optimistic that the negotiations will be successful," Stratford said.
"It's hard to say how long that will take, but it is not something that will be done in a few months," he said. l
B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Akij Ceramics Ltd, a company owned by Akij Group, opened an exclusive display centre, named Experience on Monday at Shahajalal Upashahar in Sylhet. Sheikh Nasir Uddin, the group’s chair, inaugurated the centre
Ishtiaque Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director and CEO of Trust Bank Limited inaugurated commercial operation of 100% export oriented food processing concern “Taiwan Food & Processing Industries Limited” at Valuka in Mymenshingh on Monday
Modhumoti Bank Limited (MMBL) recently signed an agreement with Information Technology Consultants Limited (ITCL), under which, the bank’s customers will be able to avail Q-Cash ATM/POS sharing network of the member banks. The bank’s managing director & CEO Md Mizanur Rahman and managing director & CEO of ITCL Dr Kazi Saifuddin Munir signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations
Banglalink, with support from The Asia Foundation and the District Women’s Business Forums (DWBFs), has launched a new initiative yesterday to empower women throughout the country by connecting district level women entrepreneurs with a mobile phone network and delivery of ICT based business tools and service. State minister at Ministry of Finance, MA Mannan inaugurated the project as chief guest that was held at the Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban in the capital
Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited has launched its Hajj Prepaid Card. Mohammad Abdul Mannan, managing director of the bank unveiled the card at the bank’s board room on Sunday
BRAC Bank launches home loan product ‘Nijer Bari’ for low & middle income people outside Dhaka city
Mozibar Rahman, chair of Gastro Liver Hospital, a concern of BRB Group has inaugurated a new building for the hospital at East Razabazar in West Pantha Path, Dhaka on Monday
Businessmen walk on the Bund near the Huangpu River in front of the � nancial district of Pudong in Shanghai REUTERS
Toyota wants to use more hybrid system partsn Reuters
Toyota Motor Corp wants locally pro-cured parts to make up at least half the components in the gasoline-electric hybrid propulsion systems for the Co-rolla and Levin cars it plans to start making in China next year.
Shinichi Matsumoto, Vice President for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manu-facturing in China, said Toyota needs that level of local content in order to bring down prices of hybrids and to generate more sales in the world’s big-gest auto market.
Toyota, which currently pays costly tari� s and transport fees for bringing key components from Japan to assem-ble hybrid vehicles in China, aims to slash costs by using many locally pro-cured materials and parts, Matsumoto told reporters yesterday.
“My feeling is that unless the lo-cal procurement ratio reaches 50%, we can’t call it ‘localized’,” he said at a research and development centre in Changshu, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Shanghai. He was refer-ring to number of parts procured spe-ci� cally for the hybrid system.
“Ultimately, our goal is to localize 100%.”
Matsumoto also said that using parts procured in China for its new hybrid cars does not mean it is lowering qual-ity to pursue higher sales. Toyota plans to keep the system’s quality equal to that achieved in Japan, he said.
The world’s biggest auto maker said this week that it will start manufac-turing and selling Corolla and Levin sedans for China in 2015 with a locally made hybrid system including the bat-tery and the motor, the � rst time it will
make hybrids outside of Japan using key components procured locally.
But made-in-China components does not necessarily mean made-by-Chinese companies. While localizing parts is go-ing more smoothly than Toyota had ex-pected, much of that output currently comes from Chinese units of Japanese parts makers with manufacturing opera-tions in China, Matsumoto said.
Toyota is also procuring from sev-eral Chinese companies, he said.
In a gasoline-electric hybrid like Toyota’s Prius, a battery captures energy from the brakes to provide a supplement to the combustion engine, boosting overall mileage, particularly in stop-and-go city tra� c.
Toyota, which already assembles the Prius and Camry hybrids in China with component and system kits brought in from Japan, said it is trying to educate
Chinese customers about hybrid tech-nology. For instance, some people think they must be re-charged like electric ve-hicles, which is not the case.
While Toyota is not the only � rm trying to localize production of the hy-brid system, it is the furthest ahead.
Honda Motor Co is also trying to start procuring key components in China, including motors and lithium-ion batteries, Takahiro Hachigo, an ex-ecutive at Honda’s Chinese operations, said in a news conference in Beijing on Sunday. The � rm plans to start making hybrid cars in China by 2016.
“As corporate average fuel emission standards get stricter, we believe that hybrids will become the mainstream among green cars,” Seiji Kuraishi, Hon-da’s Operating O� cer and COO for the China region, told the same news con-ference. lGovernment borrowing
PAGE B1 COLUMN 1Finance ministry o� cials had tried to convince a visiting IMF review mission last week that the government would reduce the bank borrowing target to Tk24,000 crore from the Tk25,993 crore while � nance division showed that the bank borrowing was Tk5000 crore at the end of March during the visit of IMF Extended Credit Facility mission, ac-cording to � nance ministry o� cial.
Disbursement of money for Annual Development Program is 47 % at the end of March in 2014, which was over 50% same period last year, according planning ministry data.
Professor Shamsul Alam, a member
of general economic division of the planning ministry, said the govern-ment spending would not be increased unless the capacities of the ministries and divisions are enhanced for imple-menting the development projects.
He also said the government was trying to boost private sector invest-ment by constructing more infrastruc-ture across the country.
President of Bangladesh Exporter’s Association Abdus Salam Murshedy said the private sector would be de� nitely vibrant if the government can create the environment. He said the idle money of banking sector now stood at around Tk100,000 crore at the end of March. l
Dollar steady in Asian AFP, Tokyo
The dollar held steady in Asia yester-day ahead of US housing data, while the yen was under pressure after a re-cord Japanese trade de� cit boosted speculation of more central bank mon-etary easing.
In Tokyo afternoon trade, the green-back fetched 102.64 yen, slightly up from 102.62 yen in New York on Monday.
The euro bought 141.59 yen against 141.58 yen while it was also nearly un-changed at $1.3795 from $1.3794 in US trading.
"The dollar remains � rm, especially against the yen after Japanese trade num-ber disappointed," Credit Agricole said.
"The week ahead will likely be rela-tively quiet given a lack of key focus,
and as geo-political issues in Ukraine continue to cast a shadow on senti-ment."
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday urged Russia to take "concrete steps" to implement an agreement on defusing the crisis in Ukraine.
The accord, struck last week in Ge-neva, was meant to lower the heat on the worst confrontation between Washington and Moscow since the Cold War, but each side has accused the other of violating it.
The yen has been under pressure since Monday when Japan said that its trade de� cit surged to $14 billion in March, with a weak currency com-pounding surging imports as consum-ers rushed to buy ahead of a sales tax rise on April 1. l
Ajinomoto, a brand of Japanese company Umami Seasoning has successfully launched its caravan campaign to o� er people on the streets of the capital for tasting food with its seasoning at free of cost. The initiative is to inform its potential customers about the product
Appollo Ispat renews MoU with Japanese companiesn Tribune Business Desk
Appollo Ispat Complex Ltd has re-newed the Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) signed earlier with Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) and Marubeni Itochu Steel Corporation.
A senior level team of the company recently visited Japan for this purpose.
During the visit, senior o� cials of the companies had talks on strength-ening the existing mutual business co-operation.
NSC is the largest supplier of the � n-est quality of Hot Rolled Coil to Appollo Ispat, one of the largest � at steel pro-ducers in Bangladesh.
The company has targeted to expand its market share by optimizing the ca-pacity utilization. A highly sophisticat-ed Radiant Tube Furnace (RTF) based NOF CGL Line is under implementation to produce premium product which is expected to be launched in the local market by the end of this year. l
Negotiator: Japan has not narrowed trade di� erences with USn Reuters, Tokyo
Japanese o� cials said yesterday there was still a signi� cant way to go before reaching a broad agreement on trade with the United States, a day before President Barack Obama visits for a summit.
A US-Japan agreement is critical to the US-led Trans-Paci� c Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation grouping that would stretch from Asia to Latin America. A TPP deal is central to Obama’s policy of expanding the US presence in Asia.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also touted the TPP as a main element of his economic strategy to increase growth and shake o� years of stagnation.
As the talks dragged on over re-cent days, o� cials from both sides played down the chance of reaching an agreement before Obama’s visit. But the longer the stand-o� goes on, the more doubt could grow about prospects for the trade pact.
“We still have a lot of issues left to dis-cuss,” Japan’s Deputy Chief Negotiator Hiro-shi Oe told reporters.
“In these circum-stances, I cannot say that we have nar-rowed our di� er-ences.”
Oe spoke after talks with US Acting Deputy Trade Representative Wendy Cutler in Tokyo about trade terms for the TPP.
Breaking a US-Japan deadlock over access to Japan’s farm and auto mar-kets is seen as key to � nalising the TPP.
The United States wants Japan to open its rice, beef and pork, dairy, and sugar markets - politically powerful sectors that Abe has vowed to defend. Japan wants a timetable on US promis-es to drop tari� s of 2.5% on imports of passenger cars and 25% on light trucks.
Gaps remain over the size of cuts in tari� s on beef and pork as well, Japa-nese media have reported.
Japanese Economics Minister Akira Amari also acknowledged that the many hours of negotiations had not narrowed the gap with the United States.
The two countries will likely an-nounce a strong bond at a summit between Abe and Obama this week, Amari said. Obama is scheduled to be in Tokyo until Friday.
A � nal deal, however, could be much further o� .
TPP negotiators are due to recon-vene in Vietnam in mid-May and trade ministers will meet at an Asia-Paci� c Economic Cooperation gathering in China that month. l
B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, April 23, 2014
DILBERT
How technology is impacting the accounting disciplinen Tasnova Moktadir
Every accountant knows that account-ing is the language of business, and that language has gone through many changes throughout the ages. But through all the changes, technology has always played a part in making the accountant’s job just a little easier. This advancement in technol-ogy has enhanced the accountant’s ability to interpret and analyse statistical data and values e� ciently and e� ectively. He/she now has the ability to infer the language of business with such ease that the accoun-tant has now become a corporation’s most trusted business adviser.
We can start way back in the beginning, where the earliest extent of accounting records which follow the modern double-entry form. Back then, the abacus was the only tool used to keep track of calculations in business. As technology advanced, which is a blessing for us really, so did the speed and pro� ciency of the accountant’s job. Then came programs such as Microsoft Excel, an accountant now had an electronic spreadsheet. The job became less tedious with less of a margin for error.
We are in the “era of big data” now, and from predictive analytics to decision making, big data is everywhere. Companies worldwide, giants such as Amazon, IBM,
and Google, are looking to leverage new algorithms in areas of machines learning to deal with their data to get the bene� ts of the growing technologies. Data analysts are looking for the “right” kind of data, based on which to make their models, to predict the future. Like any other profession, big data will make a huge impact in the ac-counting profession and disciplines.
While scientists, in the Big Data Initiative at MIT CSAIL and at IBM Research, are working on big data research, accountants and � nance professionals are � nding ways to use big data to measure all kinds of business risks, including organisational and investment risks. This is assisting their risk assessment procedures and helping them analyse organisational performance in turn. As the importance of data in a business grows, accountants are becoming more practiced in measuring its intrinsic value as an organisational asset.
Today’s accounting professionals, who understand the importance of the internet, will use the internet to execute major busi-ness processes in the enterprise for Elec-tronic business (e-business). E-business allows the accounting � rm to coordinate activities for internal management and combines the clients’ relationships with the use of digital network. Accounting profes-sionals can also communicate outside the organisation with Web technology using the creation of an Extranet. This allows the clients to have limited access, linking to a portion of the accounting � rm’s Intranet to import and export � les back and forth. Linking electronically increases e� ciency and cuts down on travel costs, ultimately reducing operational costs.
Another strategic software application is the Supply Chain Management (SCM) system. This helps businesses manage relationships with their suppliers and pro-vide visibility and automation. This assists
you to proactively plan, source, schedule, produce, store, transport, and trace supply chain activities, in activities industries with distribution-intensive supply networks.
To go a step further, cloud computing is becoming popular today. It is a service that is being provided over the internet to permanently store data and use business applications over a remote server which is shared by many other users. This means, the risk of data loss can be minimised by the use of cloud computing! With the rise of mobile technology and the cloud, this also means that an accountant can use the cloud based software from anywhere in the world, while changes get updated real time – ensuring that business owners can also stay connected to their data and the accountants all the time.
The next decade will see industries tran-sition to a Cloud-enabled world where work can be accomplished anywhere, anytime. This will especially be true of the account-ing profession. To best serve their clients, accounting professionals need to embrace new technologies quickly, understand the best way to incorporate those technologies into the business processes, and proactive-ly guide their clients through full adoption.
However, the tendency to hinge on technology has its own share of problems, such as data loss through power failure, dangers of hackers stealing data, computer fraud, etc. Let’s just say, there will always be a loophole in every security system no matter how seamless it seems, that’s the screwed reality I suppose. And if we con-tinue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. l
Tasnova Moktadir currently works at ACNABIN Chartered Accountants � rm. The article was originally published in the LCP Blog (lightcastlebd.com/blog)
PACIFICOCEAN
Vietnam
Brunei
New Zealand
PeruAustralia
Malaysia
Singapore
Japan
Mexico
Chile
Source: USTR
Trans-Pacific PartnershipUS-backed free trade deal currently beingnegotiated with 11 other countries
Canada
US
Account for:
of global economy
40%
Siluanov: Russia may su� er second-quarter recessionn AFP, Moscow
Russia could tip into recession in the second quarter of 2014 after the econ-omy contracted by around 0.5% in the � rst three months of the year, a � nance ministry o� cial said Monday.
Oreshkin, who heads the � nance min-istry’s department for long-term strat-egy, made the prediction in comments to journalists.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov warned last week that Russia’s econo-my might not expand at all in 2014.
“It looks like the second quarter compared with the previous quarter will again have a negative value. In this way, the � nance ministry does not rule out a technical recession,” the Interfax
news agency quoted Maxim Oreshkin as saying.
Siluanov said Russia was facing the toughest economic conditions since 2009, when it went into a deep slow-down.
Russia’s economic development ministry last week announced that the economy had shrunk by 0.5%, fuelling concerns that the Ukraine crisis could tip it into recession, which is de� ned as two consecutive quarters of shrinking economic output.
Russia’s economy has already seen colossal capital � ight since the start of the Ukraine crisis as worried investors have pulled out of the country.
Oreshkin predicted that net capital � ight from Russia in 2014 would be $70 to $80bn, less than a prediction of $100bn made by the economic devel-opment ministry earlier this month.
Russia has seen growth fall in recent years, from 4.3% in 2011 to 1.3% last year, blamed by experts on its overde-pendence on energy exports and fail-ure to modernise the economy.
The latest predictions follow a series of increasingly gloomy assessments this month, including from the Inter-national Monetary Fund which slashed its forecast for Russia’s 2014 growth by two-thirds to 1.3% due to political un-certainty. l
'It looks like the second quarter compared with the previous quarter will again have a negative value. In this way, the � nance ministry does not rule out a technical recession'
Honda North America makes their North American debut of their new Asimo Robot as it demonstrates its ability to pour a liquid at a news conference domonstration April 16 in New York. The new ASIMO will showcase major technological advancements including increased hand dexterity, allowing ASIMO to communicate using both American and Japanese sign language. Other new capabilities include running, hopping, jumping, climbing stairs, pouring liquid, dancing and kicking a soccer ball AFP
Apple, Google vie to o� er exclusive game appsn Reuters
Apple Inc and Google Inc are wooing game developers to ensure that top game titles arrive � rst on devices pow-ered by their respective operating sys-tem, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Both the companies are trying to lure game developers by o� ering pre-mium placement to these games on their app stores’ home pages and fea-
tures lists, the daily said.Both Google and Apple were not im-
mediately available for comment out-side regular US business hours.
Apple had struck a deal with Elec-tronic Arts Inc last August to promote the game “Plants Vs Zombies 2” promi-nently in its App Store, and had a simi-lar arrangement with ZeptoLab to pro-mote the sequel to its popular puzzle game “Cut the Rope”, which released in December, the Journal reported. l
Toyota India workers back at work ending a 5-week stando� n Reuters, Mumbai
Striking workers at Toyota Motor Corp’s two plants in Karnataka have returned to work from yesterday, a union o� cial said on Monday, after the state govern-ment ordered the company and the union to restore normal operations.
Many unionised workers at Toyota’s two plants near Bangalore had refused to return to work despite the ending of a lockout last month over a pay dispute.
The Indian unit of the Japanese auto
maker, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Ltd, had required workers to sign a good con-duct agreement before returning to work, which many employees refused to do.
Workers can now resume work without signing the undertaking, the union’s general secretary R Satish said. The wage dispute has been referred for adjudication. The union is also de-manding that the company reinstate some suspended workers. A Toyota In-dia representative did not respond to a call seeking comment. l
Indian election cash restrictions to dent gold importsn Reuters, Mumbai
India’s gold imports in April and May could be less than half of arrivals in March, as restrictions on the move-ment of cash during general elections dent the buying power of consumers, jewellery industry o� cials said.
Lower imports by the world’s No.2 buyer of gold after China could hurt a recovery in global prices of the precious metal after a sharp 28% drop last year.
“Indian demand for gold is lower as it is di� cult for consumers to car-ry cash given election-related curbs. They are resisting unnecessary buy-ing at the moment,” said Bachhraj Ba-malwa, director with All India Gems
and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), which groups more than 300,000 jew-ellers.
Gold arrivals in both April and May could plunge to 20 tonnes, Bamalwa said, from March imports of 50 tonnes.
To guard against bribes or vote buying during the ongoing elections, the Election Commission has made it mandatory for individuals carrying more than 50,000 rupees ($830) to pro-vide documentation, such as a proof of identity and an explanation for the source of funds.
For jewellers, the cap is 200,000 ru-pees in cash.
This has hit jewellery sales, which have already been squeezed by a 10%
gold import duty imposed last year to reign in India’s ballooning current ac-count de� cit.
Rural buyers, who account for about 70% of India’s gold demand, pay in cash for jewellery as they have limited access to banking facilities like cheques and credit cards.
“The (Income Tax) department is very strict on the movement of cash and has opened a 24x7 call centre to re-ceive complaints on violations, so peo-ple are scared to carry cash or gold,” said Kumar Jain, vice-president with Mumbai Jewellers Association, which groups more than 10,000 jewellers.
In previous elections, political workers suspected of trying to bribe
voters were caught with suitcases packed with cash and stowed in car trunks, ambulances and even hearses.
The ongoing elections in India started on April 7 and will continue till May 12. Results will be announced on May 16.
Jewellers are unwilling to transport huge stock and cash due to the curbs, GJF’s Bamalwa said, adding that about 58 kilograms of legal gold was seized by income tax o� cials in the west-ern state of Maharashtra earlier this month.
“Seizures of legal gold are happen-ing everywhere ... government o� cials are harassing jewellers with legal gold in the name of elections,” Bamalwa said. l
GM seeks court protection against ignition lawsuitsn Reuters
General Motors Co � led a motion in a US bankruptcy court to enforce a bar on lawsuits related to ignition defects in cars sold before its 2009 bankruptcy as it � ghts a class action lawsuit that seeks to set aside the restriction.
The plainti� s also � led a class action lawsuit on Monday, seeking an order de-claring that GM cannot use the bankruptcy protection to absolve itself from liabilities.
The faulty ignition switch has been linked to at least 13 deaths and the re-call of 2.6 million GM vehicles.
GM emerged from bankruptcy pro-tection in 2009 as a di� erent legal en-tity than the so-called old GM. Under those terms, the "new GM" shed liabil-ity for incidents predating its exit from bankruptcy, and any lawsuit related to pre-bankruptcy issues must be brought against what remains of old GM.
"New GM's recall covenant does not create a basis for the plainti� s to sue new GM for economic damages relating to a vehicle or part sold by old GM," the company argued in a � ling on Monday in the Bankruptcy Court for the South-ern District of New York.
Since it began to recall vehicles in February, GM has been hit by dozens of lawsuits on behalf of individuals injured or killed in crashes involving recalled cars, as well as customers who said their vehicles lost value as a result of the company's actions.
The plainti� s have claimed they bought or leased vehicles that had the defective ignition switch and ac-cused GM of fraudulently concealing its knowledge of the defect, saying that as a result, it was not entitled to protec-tion from liability. l
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