Khaleda: RAB sent the killers abroad n Mohammad Al-masum Molla Alleging that RAB has sent the main accused in the Narayanganj seven murder case abroad, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia once again demanded dis- solving the elite security force, formed when she was in power. “RAB now is synonymous with fear. The force is now involved in killings, abduction and forced disappearances. So, in order to bring back peace to peo- ple’s minds, RAB should be dissolved,” she told journalists after visiting the residences of slain ward councillor Nazrul Islam and lawyer Chandan Sarkar. The BNP chief alleged that the prime suspect of the gruesome murders was sent abroad with the assistance of the elite force and also criticised the gov- ernment for not taking any step to arrest the killers even after the High Court ordered for it. “The inaction in arresting the ac- cused proves that the gruesome mur- ders took place as per the government’s instructions. We are giving a word that we will try the murderers if the current government does not do so,” she said. “Despite a court order, they [killers] are yet to be arrested. We want to know the source of power of the killers. The killers should be arrested by today. We learnt that RAB had sent Nur Hossain to India,” she said. The former premier said if the ex- RAB trio had been arrested, the mys- tery would have been unearthed. “Everyone is talking about seven murders. But they are not talking about four others because they were poor,” she said. PAGE 2 COLUMN 1 INSIDE 40 pages | Price: Tk10 Boishakh 31, 1421 Rajab 14, 1435 Regd. No. DA 6238 Vol 2, No 44 WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION Special | DT: BEST OF YEAR ONE 7 | A REAL FASHION REVOLUTION 13 | SOUTH ZONE CROWNED CHAMPION World 8 Manned US aircraft were in the skies above Nigeria yesterday in the hunt for more than 200 missing schoolgirls, almost a month after they were kidnapped by Islamist militants. 9 India’s triumphant right-wing opposition said yesterday it was headed for a decisive majority in the world’s biggest election after exit polls showed its hardline leader Narendra Modi closing in on victory. Business B1 Bangladesh’s cotton consumption is expected to almost double by 2022, strongly retaining its position of world’s second largest cotton importers, according to a new study. B1 The country’s leather products have explored 14 new destinations, registering a 70% growth to US$197 million in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year as compared to $116 million for the same period of the last fiscal. Op-Ed 11 Let’s start with the latest. Following the abduction and gruesome murders of seven individuals in Narayanganj and the alleged involvement of RAB officials in the killing, all hell broke loose in the country. News 3 The authorities’ strategy to check the alien giant mealybug with the use of pesticides has brought a little benefit as the plant-sucking insect continues spreading in different places, including the Jatiya Sangsad premises. 4 Although data collection for the Census of Slum and Floating Population 2014 finished on May 2, many slum dwellers claimed that the enumerators had not visited them to collect their details. Nation 6 Two more days are left till the Bangla month of Joistha, commonly known as ‘Mod- humash’ (honey month), and the juicy fruit litchi, one of the popular seasonal fruits in the country, has already started appearing in the Rajshahi markets. 12 | ARE INDIAN FILMS ENTERING THEATRES? They receive mercy, they commit it again DU unit Chhatra League members face allegations of extortion repeatedly for lenient measures n Tribune Report On April 14, the activists of Bangla- desh Chhatra League of Sir Salimullah Muslim Hall unit were extorting mon- ey from vehicles on Fuller Road on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh. When some university correspondents went to the spot and questioned them about their activities, they assaulted at least five journalists and left one critically injured. Following the incident, the universi- ty authorities identified 21 activists for their involvement in the attack and ex- tortion, and handed six of them to the Shahbagh police station. They were released after two days and no case was filed. The university au- thorities also formed an investigation committee but it has not produced any report and therefore, the accused did not get any punishment. On February 13, Surya Sen Hall Chhatra League leader Arifur Rahman Leyon confined a first year student in room number 219 on the first floor for three days and tortured him, demand- ing money. The victim jumped out the window and asked some hall officials and stu- dents for help. Leyon also jumped out and dragged the student back into the room again. No one helped him. Regarding this, the hall authorities formed a three-member investigation committee and also locked the room. The probe body has not yet submitted its report to the authorities. Last year the leaders and activists of the Dhaka University unit of the Chha- tra League, the ruling party’s student wing, faced several accusations of theft of money and valuables, and even of forceful confinement of students in their dormitories for ransom. Even though the university authori- ties and the law enforcers assured stern action just after the occurrences, no measures were actually taken after- wards in most cases. Central leaders of the Chhatra League, however, claim the allegations are untrue and that such acts by Chha- tra League men are “rare.” The DU authorities, however, admit the rise in incidents of extortion and assure that they will deal with these matters “strictly, in the future.” An officer at the Shahbagh police station, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the law enforcers cannot take appropriate action against the Chhatra League leaders and activ- ists since they have to face huge pres- sure in such cases. OC of the police station Sirajul Islam declined to comment on the issue. On August 18 last year, Chhatra League leader Sohel of the Bangaband- hu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall and his associates abducted two outsiders and tortured them severely after con- fining them in room 319 of the dormi- tory. They also demanded ransom from their families. At one stage, one of the abducted men jumped out the window and was rescued by the hall staff and general students. Upon learning of their situa- tion, the other victim was rescued from the room. PAGE 2 COLUMN 2 A sudden rainstorm in late afternoon yesterday in the capital’s different areas cooled down the agonising heat persistent for the last few days. The photo was taken from Panthapath area RAJIB DHAR Contractors busy lobbying to sell costly equipment to public hospitals n Moniruzzaman Uzzal With about two months left before the end of this financial year, a section of contractors are busy trying to persuade the authorities of state-run hospitals to seek approval from the health ministry to purchase costly medical equipment using public money. They have been requesting, and in some cases pressuring, the hospital au- thorities to send proposals to the min- istry with lists of equipment – whether needed or not. The contractors are also giving as- surances that they will do all the hard work to get the funds sanctioned. Furthermore, some have been flaunting “recommendations” from different influential people, including ministers, MPs and leaders of doctors’ associations, to secure work orders. Some have even been offering hefty commissions to peddle their costly equipment. This reporter recently witnessed a contractor trying to coax officials at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital to buy an advanced endoscopy machine, worth Tk7 crore, for the gastroenterol- ogy department. “Sir, money will not be a problem. You just send the demand letter to the health ministry, we will manage the administrative approval and allocation of the money required,” said the contractor. The contractor produced a letter from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) saying if the DMCH gets the “confocal laser endomicrosco- py” machine, the money for it will be provided from a hospital service man- agement plan. The letter, dated April 7 and appar- ently written by ABM Abdul Hannan, DGHS director (hospital and clinic), ad- vised the hospital authorities to follow its directive. When asked about such a letter, Dr Musfiqur Rahman, deputy director of DMCH, claimed that the hospital will not buy any equipment that is of no use to general patients. This reporter saw another letter from the neuro-surgery department PAGE 2 COLUMN 2 Modi, his party leaders readying for big moves n Agencies A day after exit polls that said Narendra Modi is likely to be India’s next prime minister, the BJP leader was busy yes- terday in his home state of Gujarat, meeting with all state legislators and parliamentarians from his party. All forecasts showed the BJP and its allies trouncing the Congress, and most indicated the BJP-led coalition would seal a narrow majority. Results of the national election are due on Friday, and some experts warn against over-confidence in a BJP vic- tory given notorious forecasting errors for the last two general elections. PAGE 2 COLUMN 4 BUDGET FY2014-15 Huge deficit and borrowing may affect inflation n Asif Showkat Kallol The deficit figure in the upcoming budget may exceed Tk65,000crore, marking a rise of nearly 21%, Finance Ministry officials have said. Subsidy and loan interest payments and a massive Annual Development Programme (ADP) would not only wid- en the revenue and expenditure gap, but might also end up adding to the in- flationary pressures, officials said. According to primary estimates of the Finance Ministry, the Gross Domes- tic Product (GDP) would be deemed at Tk13,49,500crore, up Tk1,60,700 crore from the current fiscal year’s figure. International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescribes that budget should not be more than 4.3% of the GDP.But, in the coming fiscal, deficit may stand at 4.92% of the GDP. For availing the tranches of the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility, the ministry has made a commitment to PAGE 2 COLUMN 4 BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia flanked by party leaders meets the family of slain lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker in Narayanganj yesterday. The lawyer was one of the seven people killed after abduction late last month RAJIB DHAR Three ex-RAB officers yet to be arrested n Mohammad Jamil Khan Despite the High Court order, the three former officers of Rapid Action Battal- ion allegedly involved in the abduction and killing of seven people in Narayan- ganj have not been arrested yet. The High Court on Sunday gave the order to arrest the three officers who were sent to forced retirement. The copy of the order reached the police headquarters and the Narayanganj po- lice authority the following day. Soon after passing the order, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told a press briefing that the process to arrest the three suspended officers was underway. However, they have not been arrested yet. The three officials are former RAB 11 Commanding Officer Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, Major Arif Hossain and Lt Commander SM Rana. Of them, Sayeed is the son-in-law of Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya who denied involvement of any of his family members in the killing. CQK Mustak Ahmed, senior sec- retary of the Home Ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune that there is no need to seek permission for the arrest of these suspended officials. “We have already issued order to arrest the officials and the police will take action accordingly,” he added. Sources said police had sought co- operation from the Armed Forces Divi- sion for the arrest of the three officials. Narayanganj Police Superintendent Khandakar Mahid Uddin declined to give answer to a query about the arrest as well as the High Court directives. He told the Dhaka Tribune that they were trying to abide by the High Court directives. “We are also trying to find the truth.” In response to a query about pro- gress in the probe, Mahid said they were hoping to divulge information from a close associate of Nur Hossain who was arrested recently. “We will seek remand for him.” PAGE 2 COLUMN 2 The DU authorities admit the rise in incidents of extortion and assure that they will deal with these matters ‘strictly, in the future’
Transcript
Khaleda: RAB sent the killers abroadn Mohammad Al-masum Molla
Alleging that RAB has sent the main accused in the Narayanganj seven murder case abroad, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia once again demanded dis-solving the elite security force, formed
when she was in power.“RAB now is synonymous with fear.
The force is now involved in killings, abduction and forced disappearances. So, in order to bring back peace to peo-ple’s minds, RAB should be dissolved,” she told journalists after visiting the
residences of slain ward councillor Nazrul Islam and lawyer Chandan Sarkar.
The BNP chief alleged that the prime suspect of the gruesome murders was sent abroad with the assistance of the elite force and also criticised the gov-ernment for not taking any step to arrest the killers even after the High Court ordered for it.
“The inaction in arresting the ac-cused proves that the gruesome mur-ders took place as per the government’s instructions. We are giving a word that we will try the murderers if the current government does not do so,” she said.
“Despite a court order, they [killers] are yet to be arrested. We want to know the source of power of the killers. The killers should be arrested by today. We learnt that RAB had sent Nur Hossain to India,” she said.
The former premier said if the ex-RAB trio had been arrested, the mys-tery would have been unearthed.
“Everyone is talking about seven murders. But they are not talking about four others because they were poor,” she said.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 1
INSIDE
40 pages | Price: Tk10
Boishakh 31, 1421Rajab 14, 1435Regd. No. DA 6238Vol 2, No 44 WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2014 | www.dhakatribune.com | SECOND EDITION
Special | DT: BEST OF YEAR ONE 7 | A REAL FASHION REVOLUTION 13 | SOUTH ZONE CROWNED CHAMPION
World8 Manned US aircraft were in the skies above Nigeria yesterday in the hunt for more than 200 missing schoolgirls, almost a month after they were kidnapped by Islamist militants.
9 India’s triumphant right-wing opposition said yesterday it was headed for a decisive majority in the world’s biggest election after exit polls showed its hardline leader Narendra Modi closing in on victory.
BusinessB1 Bangladesh’s cotton consumption is expected to almost double by 2022, strongly retaining its position of world’s second largest cotton importers, according to a new study.
B1 The country’s leather products have explored 14 new destinations, registeringa 70% growth to US$197 million in the� rst 10 months of the current � scal year as compared to $116 million for the sameperiod of the last � scal.
Op-Ed11 Let’s start with the latest. Following the abduction and gruesome murders of seven individuals in Narayanganj and the alleged involvement of RAB o� cials in the killing, all hell broke loose in the country.
News3 The authorities’ strategy to check the alien giant mealybug with the use of pesticides has brought a little bene� t as the plant-sucking insect continues spreading in di� erent places, including the Jatiya Sangsad premises.
4 Although data collection for the Census of Slum and Floating Population 2014 � nished on May 2, many slum dwellers claimed that the enumerators had not visited them to collect their details.
Nation6 Two more days are left till the Bangla month of Joistha, commonly known as ‘Mod-humash’ (honey month), and the juicy fruit litchi, one of the popular seasonal fruits in the country, has already started appearing in the Rajshahi markets.
12 | ARE INDIAN FILMS ENTERING THEATRES?
They receive mercy, they commit it again DU unit Chhatra League members face allegations of extortion repeatedly for lenient measures n Tribune Report
On April 14, the activists of Bangla-desh Chhatra League of Sir Salimullah Muslim Hall unit were extorting mon-ey from vehicles on Fuller Road on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh. When some university correspondents went to the spot and questioned them about their activities, they assaulted at least � ve journalists and left one critically injured.
Following the incident, the universi-ty authorities identi� ed 21 activists for their involvement in the attack and ex-tortion, and handed six of them to the Shahbagh police station.
They were released after two days and no case was � led. The university au-thorities also formed an investigation committee but it has not produced any report and therefore, the accused did not get any punishment.
On February 13, Surya Sen Hall Chhatra League leader Arifur Rahman Leyon con� ned a � rst year student in room number 219 on the � rst � oor for three days and tortured him, demand-ing money.
The victim jumped out the window and asked some hall o� cials and stu-dents for help. Leyon also jumped out and dragged the student back into the room again. No one helped him.
Regarding this, the hall authorities formed a three-member investigation
committee and also locked the room. The probe body has not yet submitted its report to the authorities.
Last year the leaders and activists of the Dhaka University unit of the Chha-tra League, the ruling party’s student wing, faced several accusations of theft of money and valuables, and even of forceful con� nement of students in their dormitories for ransom.
Even though the university authori-ties and the law enforcers assured stern action just after the occurrences, no measures were actually taken after-wards in most cases.
Central leaders of the Chhatra League, however, claim the allegations are untrue and that such acts by Chha-tra League men are “rare.”
The DU authorities, however, admit the rise in incidents of extortion and assure that they will deal with these matters “strictly, in the future.”
An o� cer at the Shahbagh police station, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune that the law enforcers cannot take appropriate action against the Chhatra League leaders and activ-ists since they have to face huge pres-sure in such cases.
OC of the police station Sirajul Islam declined to comment on the issue.
On August 18 last year, Chhatra League leader Sohel of the Bangaband-hu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall and his associates abducted two outsiders and tortured them severely after con-� ning them in room 319 of the dormi-tory. They also demanded ransom from their families.
At one stage, one of the abducted men jumped out the window and was rescued by the hall sta� and general students. Upon learning of their situa-tion, the other victim was rescued from the room.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 2
A sudden rainstorm in late afternoon yesterday in the capital’s di� erent areas cooled down the agonising heat persistent for the last few days. The photo was taken fromPanthapath area RAJIB DHAR
Contractors busy lobbying to sell costly equipment to public hospitals n Moniruzzaman Uzzal
With about two months left before the end of this � nancial year, a section of contractors are busy trying to persuade the authorities of state-run hospitals to seek approval from the health ministry to purchase costly medical equipment using public money.
They have been requesting, and in some cases pressuring, the hospital au-thorities to send proposals to the min-istry with lists of equipment – whether needed or not.
The contractors are also giving as-surances that they will do all the hard work to get the funds sanctioned.
Furthermore, some have been � aunting “recommendations” from
di� erent in� uential people, including ministers, MPs and leaders of doctors’ associations, to secure work orders.
Some have even been o� ering hefty commissions to peddle their costly equipment.
This reporter recently witnessed a contractor trying to coax o� cials at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital to buy an advanced endoscopy machine, worth Tk7 crore, for the gastroenterol-ogy department.
“Sir, money will not be a problem. You just send the demand letter to the health ministry, we will manage the administrative approval and allocation of the money required,” said the contractor.
The contractor produced a letter
from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) saying if the DMCH gets the “confocal laser endomicrosco-py” machine, the money for it will be provided from a hospital service man-agement plan.
The letter, dated April 7 and appar-ently written by ABM Abdul Hannan, DGHS director (hospital and clinic), ad-vised the hospital authorities to follow its directive.
When asked about such a letter, Dr Mus� qur Rahman, deputy director of DMCH, claimed that the hospital will not buy any equipment that is of no use to general patients.
This reporter saw another letter from the neuro-surgery department
PAGE 2 COLUMN 2
Modi, his party leaders readying for big movesn Agencies
A day after exit polls that said Narendra Modi is likely to be India’s next prime minister, the BJP leader was busy yes-terday in his home state of Gujarat, meeting with all state legislators and parliamentarians from his party.
All forecasts showed the BJP and its allies trouncing the Congress, and most indicated the BJP-led coalition would seal a narrow majority.
Results of the national election are due on Friday, and some experts warn against over-con� dence in a BJP vic-tory given notorious forecasting errors for the last two general elections.
PAGE 2 COLUMN 4
BUDGET FY2014-15
Huge de� cit and borrowing may a� ect in� ationn Asif Showkat Kallol
The de� cit � gure in the upcoming budget may exceed Tk65,000crore, marking a rise of nearly 21%, Finance Ministry o� cials have said.
Subsidy and loan interest payments and a massive Annual Development Programme (ADP) would not only wid-en the revenue and expenditure gap, but might also end up adding to the in-� ationary pressures, o� cials said.
According to primary estimates of the Finance Ministry, the Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP) would be deemed at Tk13,49,500crore, up Tk1,60,700 crore from the current � scal year’s � gure.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescribes that budget should not be more than 4.3% of the GDP.But, in the coming � scal, de� cit may stand at 4.92% of the GDP.
For availing the tranches of the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility, the ministry has made a commitment to
PAGE 2 COLUMN 4
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia � anked by party leaders meets the family of slain lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker in Narayanganj yesterday. The lawyer was one of the seven people killed after abduction late last month RAJIB DHAR
Three ex-RAB o� cers yet to be arrested n Mohammad Jamil Khan
Despite the High Court order, the three former o� cers of Rapid Action Battal-ion allegedly involved in the abduction and killing of seven people in Narayan-ganj have not been arrested yet.
The High Court on Sunday gave the order to arrest the three o� cers who were sent to forced retirement. The copy of the order reached the police headquarters and the Narayanganj po-lice authority the following day.
Soon after passing the order, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told a press brie� ng that the process to arrest the three suspended o� cers was underway. However, they have not been arrested yet.
The three o� cials are former RAB 11 Commanding O� cer Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, Major Arif Hossain and Lt Commander SM Rana. Of them, Sayeed is the son-in-law of Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya who denied involvement of any of his family
members in the killing.CQK Mustak Ahmed, senior sec-
retary of the Home Ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune that there is no need to seek permission for the arrest of these suspended o� cials. “We have already issued order to arrest the o� cials and the police will take action accordingly,” he added.
Sources said police had sought co-operation from the Armed Forces Divi-sion for the arrest of the three o� cials.
Narayanganj Police Superintendent Khandakar Mahid Uddin declined to give answer to a query about the arrest as well as the High Court directives.
He told the Dhaka Tribune that they were trying to abide by the High Court directives. “We are also trying to � nd the truth.”
In response to a query about pro-gress in the probe, Mahid said they were hoping to divulge information from a close associate of Nur Hossain who was arrested recently. “We will seek remand for him.”
PAGE 2 COLUMN 2
The DU authorities admit the rise in incidents of extortion and assure that they will deal with these matters ‘strictly, in the future’
News2 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Prothom Alo journalist assaulted by doctors in capitaln Moniruzzaman Uzzal
Shishir Morol, a special correspondent of the Bangla national daily Prothom Alo, was injured in an attack alleged-ly by some unruly doctors of Shikder Medical College and Hospital in the capital’s Dhanmondi yesterday.
Shishir said: “A group of around four doctors beat up me severely around 8:30am and con� ned me to a room of the hospital for about three hours when I went there to collect infor-mation about its doctor named Saiful Azam.”
Later, they let me leave the place on begging the life from them, Shishir added. “Despite not being a professor, Dr Sai� ul Azam has been using the title.”
Shishir claimed that some doctors, reportedly followers of Saiful, got an-gered when he enquired about the is-sue and then beat up him mercilessly before the con� nement.
Contacted, Asadul Haque Asad, sec-retary of Shikder Medical College and Hospital, said: “I know nothing about the incident. However, you can con-tact to Abu Su� an of our Dhanmondi branch.”
The Dhaka Tribune tried to talk to Su� an several times. However, he could not be reached over phone for his comment. l
GP sues 8 IGWs over dues worth Tk84 croren Muhammad Zahidul Islam
Grameenphone has � led cases against eight International Gateway (IGW) operators to collect the outstanding amount of around Tk84 crore.
The Bangladesh Telecommunica-tion Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has already blocked these IGWs for having dues worth Tk613 crore.
The IGWs terminate international incoming voice calls through mobile or land phone operators. They are sup-posed to share revenues with the phone operators, the telecom regulator and the
Inter-connection exchange (ICXs).“We had no other way to collect the
outstanding amount of money. The telecom regulator has also been in-formed about the step,” a senior o� cial of Grameenphone, the largest mobile phone operator, told the Dhaka Trib-une yesterday, seeking anonymity.
Grameenphone lodged the cases with the Money-Loan Court of Dhaka in two phases. Cases were � led against sev-en, last week, and another on Monday.
Of them, the outstanding dues of Ratul Telecom Limited – owned by for-mer LGRD state minister Jahangir Kabir
Nanak’s wife and daughter – is Tk12.39 crore, and of Mos5Tel Ltd – a company of former health minister AFM Ruhal Haque – is Tk1.30 crore.
Kay Telecommunications Limited, formerly owned by Awami League law-maker Shamim Osman, owes Grameen-phone Tk15.48 crore. It was later regis-tered after some of Osman’s employees.
The top mobile company sued SM Communication Ltd for Tk3.50 crore, Vi-sion Tel Ltd for Tk20.18 crore, Bestec Tel-ecom Limited for Tk13.49 crore and Ap-ple GlobalTel Com Ltd for Tk9.08 crore.
On Monday, Grameenphone � led a
case against Telex Limited for Tk8.35 crore. These eight companies also owe � ve other mobile operators, land phone operators and some ICXs.
The BTRC has so far � led cases against four out of the eight companies – Vision Tel, Kay Telecommunications, Telex and Bestec Telecom.
Ratul Telecom has allegedly been given time bene� ts on several occa-sions to pay the outstanding amounts.
The BTRC sent show cause notices to the three others and they submitted re-sponses. However, the regulator has yet to make any decision on the explanations. l
Govt withdraws solar panel provision for new connectionsn Aminur Rahman Rasel
The government has decided to with-draw the requirement for power con-sumers to install solar panels for ac-quiring new power connections.
The move reportedly came follow-ing allegations against a section of unscrupulous businesspeople and gov-ernment o� cials of bagging millions of taka exploiting a regulation.
The authorities are also planning to impose a surcharge on new electricity consumers after the withdrawal of the condition for solar panels, State Min-ister for Power Nasrul Hamid told the Dhaka Tribune after a meeting in the capital on Monday.
“We are working on developing a mechanism on how to impose the surcharge. We are not sure who will approve it – the prime minister, the � -nance minister or the energy regulato-ry commission,” the state minister said.
“We will issue a new order to im-plement the decision after getting the green signal from the proper authori-ties,” he added.
Hamid said the proposed surcharge might be handed over to the Sustain-able and Renewable Energy Develop-ment Authority in order to promote re-newable energy sources in rural areas.
The state minister, however, rejected the REHAB’s request for � xing the com-mercial price rate of electricity for devel-opers during construction of buildings.
The meeting at the Bidyut Bhaban, organised by Power Division, was at-tended by o� cials of the division’s Power Cell, the � ve electricity distribu-
tion companies and representatives of the Real Estate and Housing Associa-tion of Bangladesh (REHAB).
Con� rming that the condition for solar panels will be withdrawn, REHAB President Mokarram Hossain Khan said: “The decision was taken in the meeting, and we are pleased about it as it will be withdrawn after four years.”
In May 2011, after a gap of sever-al months, the government resumed giving new electricity connections to residential, commercial and industrial buildings on the condition that they would install solar panels.
However, while the installation of solar panels was not mandatory, pow-er distributors were asked to request consumers to ensure that 3-10% of their electricity supply came from solar systems. But the directive turned into a pre-requisite for getting new electricity connections.
On January 21, REHAB urged the state minister to cancel the require-ment for solar panels for new power connections in residential buildings.
According to the Power Division’s pre-vious decision, domestic consumers who used up to two kilowatts of electricity did not need to install solar panels to get new connections. But if the demand exceeded 2kW, solar panels were required to supply 3% of the total consumption.
Meanwhile, industries consuming up to 50kW power previously need-ed solar panels to operate lights and fans, ensuring 7% of total usage. If the demand exceeded 50kW, solar panels with 10% capacity would have to be in-stalled. l
A farmer drives a bu� alo-drawn cart with his paddy harvest across the dried up river bed of the Padma in Shyampur of Rajshahi yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE
Contractors busy lobbying PAGE 1 COLUMN 5requesting Tk1.5 crore to buy a high-tech machine for stem cell therapy to treat spinal cord injuries. At least two more such demand letters for costly medical equipment were sent to the DMCH authorities.
Seeking anonymity, several high o� cials of di� erent government hos-pitals and medical institutes told the Dhaka Tribune that normally, it is di� -cult to get even small amounts of mon-ey sanctioned to buy essential equip-ment.
But surprisingly, towards the end of the � nancial year, which ends on June 30, both the health ministry and the di-rectorate are ready to allocate funds for expensive medical equipment.
“It is nothing but a waste of public money,” one of them said.
The Dhaka Tribune obtained some copies of letters from contractors where either the ministry or the DGHS has given the go-ahead to hospital au-thorities to procure costly machines under di� erent operation plans under a health, population and nutrition de-velopment programme.
It was learnt that last year, with just a few days to go before the end of the � scal year, a group of politically con-nected people were pushing the DMCH to purchase a LASIK machine for treat-ing myopia. The hospital, however, did not buy the equipment, which cost sev-eral crores of taka.
Several high o� cials of the Nation-
al Heart Institute and Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital told the Dhaka Tribune that usually, the contractors start their lobbying at the end of June, but they began early this year.
The in� ux of contractors trying to get orders for di� erent types of equipment from upazila health com-plexes and specialised hospitals, has increased recently at the ministry and the directorate.
Dr Rashid Mahbub, president of Health Rights Movement Bangladesh and ex-president of Bangladesh Med-ical Association, remarked that before buying any machine, one should con-sider its proper use, the infrastruc-ture to set it up and the availability of trained technicians.
“But unfortunately, authorities at public hospitals do not consider such things, and buy equipment without proper planning. In most cases, the machines are bought to make money, rather than to help patients. A huge commission business is done centering these purchases,” the doctor claimed.
Recalling the example of Bangab-andhu Sheikh Mujib Medical Univer-sity, popularly called PG Hospital, Dr Mahbub said they have a proper plan for buying equipment, thus, di� erent machines are better utilised there than in any other public hospital.
“The government should consider how they could make the best use of public money,” he added. l
Huge de� cit and borrowing may a� ect in� ation PAGE 1 COLUMN 1the global lender about keeping bank borrowing within Tk24,000crore until June 30, 2014.
However, ministry o� cials ex-pressed fears that the government would not be able to keep the com-mitment because of higher allocation demands placed by ministries and di-visions and the sluggish revenue and business growth during and after the political turmoil.
An o� cial said low receipts from the savings instruments might also prompt
the government to borrow more from banks.
The level of in� ation in March and April – 7.46% and 7.48% respectively – hovered above the government’s com-fort zone of 7%.
With only a couple of months left before the ongoing � scal ends, there are chances that the government would keep its in� ation forecast at 7%.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith re-cently told the Dhaka Tribune that the de� cit � gure in the upcoming budget would not cross 4.9% of GDP.
“Our budget de� cit has not crossed the 5% mark in the last six years. But international donors have always kept saying it was too high,” he said.
Former adviser to caretaker govern-ment Dr AB MirzaAzizul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune that: “[Government] borrowing from the banking system usually a� ects in� ation and commod-ity price level.”
He also pointed out that currently, the country’s banking sector had about Tk1,00,000crore non-utilised fund. l
RAB sent the killers PAGE 1 COLUMN 4Khaleda told Chandan’s wife: “I too lost my husband. I know the pain. You will get consolation only when the trial is completed. We wanted to raise our voice against the killings and abductions, but the government did not let us.”
Khaleda asked the government to step down for failing to ensure security. “The prime minister is in charge of the home ministry. So, she cannot avoid the responsibility for the murders and the abductions.”
Khaleda � rst went to Nazrul’s house and then to his aides, who were also killed.
Then she went to lawyer Chandan Sarkar’s house and spent some time with the bereaved family. She also met the family of Chandan’s chau� er Ibrahim. l
Three ex-RAB o� cers PAGE 1 COLUMN 6It is learnt that if any criminal case is � led against any army o� cials, then the police would not be able to arrest them from the cantonments.
Tarek Sayeed and Arif Hossain are now staying at the cantonment, sourc-es said. The law enforcers are keeping watch on them.
Narayanganj City Corporation Ward Councillor Nazrul Islam, lawyer Chan-dan Sarkar and � ve others were ab-
ducted on April 27 and their bodies were found � oating in the Shitalakkhya River after three days.
Nazrul’s father-in-law Shahidul Is-lam alleged that the three RAB o� cials abducted and killed the seven people in exchange for Tk6 crore.
A high-powered committee, headed by Additional Secretary of the Public Administration Ministry Shahja-han Ali, was formed to investigate the incident. l
Modi, his party leaders readying for big moves PAGE 1 COLUMN 6But Modi’s gathering in Gandhinagar is being interpreted as an exercise to � nd consensus on who will succeed him as chief minister of Gujarat if he moves to Delhi to run the country.
“There is a process...the high com-mand will take the decision that will be rati� ed by legislators but all that will happen post-May 16,” said Om Mathur, a party leader, striking a note of cau-tion, according to NDTV.
But privately, many party leaders admit that while the BJP does not want to be seen as jumping the gun in as-suming Modi has got the job he sought, informally, the process of � nding his successor in Gujarat is well underway.
The front-runner is Revenue Minis-ter Anandiben Patel, who is a trusted aide of Modi and an experienced ad-ministrator. Finance Minister Nitin Pa-tel and Industries Minister Saurabh Pa-tel are also in the running, as is Bhikhu Dalsaniya, an organisational secretary of the BJP and liaison with the BJP’s ideological parent, the powerful Rash-triya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS.
Because this is being seen as one of the last meetings Modi will chair as chief minister, o� ce bearers were invited to attend yesterday evening’s conclave as well – another signal that Modi’s move to Delhi is now being tak-en as a given.
Meanwhile, Congress yesterday said
the exit pollsters “deserve the Nobel prize for miniaturisation” taking a dig at pollsters who have projected a poor show by the party in Lok Sabha polls, reports PTI.
“Those who try and capture the es-sence of Indian polity in exit or opinion polls on sample sizes of varying sizes deserve the Nobel prize for miniaturi-sation for a country as diverse as India,” party Spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
He said he was talking of such a prize because these pollsters “are capturing the hearts and minds of over a billion people or X billion voters on sample siz-es of 10-20-or 50 or 90,000 or one lakh. Besides, this is being done on the “most diverse spots on earth that is India.”
Coming down heavily on such polls, he said those who failed to learn les-sons of history are condemned to re-peat them and the same applied to these pollsters and exit pollsters. He said how exit polls have proved wrong in 2004 and 2009 general elections.
The exit polls predict a rout for the Congress and its senior leaders have now rushed to cushion party Vice-Pres-ident Rahul Gandhi, who led the elec-tion campaign, from the impact of a possible crushing defeat.
Union minister Kamal Nath made clear that the “results will be based on government performance and Ra-hul Gandhi is not a part of the govern-
ment.”Another, Jairam Ramesh, seen as
part of Rahul Gandhi’s core group of advisers, said: “Gandhi was an indefat-igable campaigner. He held 125 rallies, went to every state. He brought the spirit to our campaign.”
Ramesh said it was the Congress’ “gameplan, well thought out,” that it would not project a personality, allud-ing to rival BJP’s campaign being built around the persona of Modi.
The BJP yesterday predicted that the Congress will � nd its scapegoat in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in its attempt to protect party President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul from criticism.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress (TMC), projected to do well in Lok Sabha polls in the 42 constituencies in West Bengal, yesterday ruled out a post-poll alignment with the NDA.
“The question of supporting such a formation does not arise,” national spokesperson of TMC Derek O’Brien told PTI in Kolkata when asked whether the party would support NDA, project-ed in the exit polls to form the govern-ment headed by Modi, if it falls short of majority mark and approached it.
TMC, which secured 19 Lok Sab-ha seats from West Bengal last time when it had an alliance with Congress in 2009, would do “much better” this time when it fought alone, he said. l
They receive mercy, they commit it again PAGE 1 COLUMN 2The university authorities as well as the Chhatra League central committee have yet to take any action against the accused.
In September last year, Shahidul-lah Hall leaders Mosta� zur Rahman, Shomit Shahariar and their fellows snatched at least Tk60,000 and a mo-bile phone from a trader named Arif when he was crossing the road in the Matsya Bhaban area on his motorcycle.
Such extortion allegations are also common against the Chhatra League
leaders and activists at the Suhrawardy Udyan and other areas inside the uni-versity campus.
During the last one year, punitive measures have been taken against only a few of the Chhatra League members accused of extortion and misdeeds.
On November 1 last year, Surya Sen Hall unit activists led by Chha-tra League leader Md Taki demanded money from two buses and beat up the drivers.
The buses came from Rajshahi carry-
ing applicants who would sit for the ad-mission test. The university authorities suspended the students, including Taki.
On May 8, police arrested six Chha-tra League leaders from the campus for their involvement in the abduction of a businessman.
The arrested were Srijan Kumar Ghosh, central deputy sports secretary; Sheikh Abdul Al Mamun, student a� airs secretary of Mohsin Hall; Anup Chandra, vice-president of Jagannath Hall; and Dhaka College unit leaders Bappi, Himel
and Tanvirul Islam. Later, Tanvirul was released and the others were handed over to the Ramna police station.
Following the incident, the central unit of Chhatra League expelled four of its activists.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Acting Proctor Amzad Ali admitted the frequent occurrence of such activities on campus.
He alleged that the university au-thorities have not taken such malprac-tices into consideration seriously in the
past. “We will take stern action against the accused in the future,” he claimed.
Chhatra League central unit Presi-dent Bodiuzzaman Shohag condemned such incidents. “Our organisation and our government are very strict in such cases. We have taken action against such guilty members before and it will continue to happen,” he said.
Shohag claimed that the abduction incidents were not frequent on campus and the involvement of Chhatra League members in such incidents is very rare. l
Despite not being a professor, Dr Sai� ul Azam has been using the title
A gala event celebrating the � rst anni-versary of Dhaka Tribune was held at the capital’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, yes-terday.
Noted media personalities, entrepre-neurs and foreign dignitaries attended the event in the Winter Garden ball room of Ruposhi Bangla, among others.
The website for Bangla Tribune was also launched at the event.
Zul� qer Russell, editor of Bangla Tri-bune, said the website is going to present news in simple Bangla for the readers.
“This has taken a lot of preparation,” he said, “and we aim to keep working hard to serve our readers.”
Zafar Sobhan, the editor, thanked readers for choosing Dhaka Tribune, adding that the newspaper strives to stay true to its readers.
“We have never hesitated to call a spade a spade, and I believe that we have won the respect of our readers as a bold and unbiased voice,” he said, addressing the guests, adding, “We have tried to tell the stories that others may have over-looked.”
Chairman of the board of directors Kazi Zahin Hasan said Dhaka Tribune is a pro-business newspaper which aims to present honest and unadulterated news to its readers.
Kazi Anis Ahmed, the publisher, said there are di� erent forms of journalism that are not yet familiar to Bangladesh, and Dhaka Tribune seeks to introduce them here.
Bangladesh is changing, and Dhaka
Tribune aims to be the voice for that change, summed up Shahriar Karim, the executive editor of Dhaka Tribune.
The paper started publishing on April 20 last year. The event ended with the ed-itor’s promise inscribed on every guest’s
minds: “We will never take you for grant-ed. To allow us into your homes everyday is a privilege and an honour that we will strive to be worthy of. Continue to give us 15 minutes of your day and we promise you it will be time well spent.” l
3NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
21 Jamaat leaders sent to jail, four more heldn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong
A Chittagong court yesterday sent 21 Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, including its Chittagong city unit Ameer ANM Sham-sul Islam, to jail in a case � led under An-ti-Terrorism Act.
Police sought a seven-day remand for the arrestees. The court, however, � xed May 18 for hearing on the remand prayer, police sources said.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rahmat Ali passed the order yesterday.
The Kotwali police arrested the 21 Jamaat leaders from their city o� ce at Dewanbazar when they were allegedly
holding a secret meeting on Monday to plan fresh agitations ahead of the ver-dict of Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
Mohammad Ahsanullah, nayeb-e-ameer of the city unit of Jamaat, said they would enforce a dawn-to-dusk hartal in greater Chittagong today, but the ongoing HSC examination would be out of its purview.
Meanwhile, Kotwali police arrested three people from the dormitories of Government Hazi Mohammad Mohsin College and Chittagong Government College, while Bakalia police also arrest-ed a Shibir leader, Nazmul Islam, from Surovi Residential area yesterday. l
Young girl gang-raped at Suhrawardy Udyann Mohammad Jamil Khan
A young girl was allegedly gang-raped in the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan by her “boyfriend” and his friends in the early hours of yesterday.
The victim, aged around 19, � led a case with Shahbag police station, ac-cusing seven people, in the morning.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Shah-bag police station O� cer-In-Charge Shirajul Islam said the victim, who hails from Shariatpur district and was a resident of the capital’s Nazirabazar, met a boy named Nayem, 27, a couple of weeks ago and started dating him.
On Monday evening, the couple met near the glass tower of the Suhrawardy Udyan and was engaged in a very long conversation. During the conversation, the victim also noted that Nayem gave a proposal for marriage, he said.
At around 11:30pm, seven friends of Nayem, namely Shahin, Imran, Habib, arrived and took the girl behind the Three Leaders Mausoleum on gunpoint and gang-raped her. The girl was later rescued from the area by a police res-cue team, the OC added.
“We have sent the girl to Dhaka Medi-cal College Hospital for a medical check-up and drives are now being conducted to nab the suspects,” OC Shiraj said. l
Online voter registration on cardsn Mohammad Zakaria
The Election Commission is set to al-low new voters an opportunity to enrol their names in the voter’s list and col-lect their Smart National Identity Cards by registering online.
The commission plans to introduce the online voter registration service by mid-next year, said an EC o� cial.
In this regard, the commission has already prepared a draft of the National Identity Card Registration Procedure 2014, adding the provisions for online registration and the renewal of Smart National Identity (NID) cards.
Earlier, Chief Election Commis-sioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said the commission will not provide smart cards to new voters in the pres-ent year.
The voter list updating will begin from May 15 across the country this year.
“The commission has sent it [the draft proposal] to the Law Ministry. The ministry has sent back some correc-tions,” a senior assistant secretary of the EC’s law wing told the Dhaka Tribune.
According to the draft, any for voter will be able to apply through the com-mission’s website or directly through the concerned EC o� ce.
Besides, the commission will pro-vide a “Smart Card” version of the ex-isting NID with 10 years’ validity to vot-ers, free of cost for the � rst time, while also setting renewal fees.
If any voter loses their card, they will have to apply to the commission for a new card.
At present, the country has 91,950, 641 voters. l
Spread of giant mealybug continues in DhakaPesticides used against the bug killing other useful insects and organisms, polluting environmentn Kamran Reza Chowdhury
The authorities’ strategy to check the alien giant mealybug with the use of pesticides has brought a little bene� t as the plant-sucking insect continues spreading in di� erent places, including the Jatiya Sangsad premises.
The parliament secretariat on April 26 sprayed pesticides to control the giant mealybug, strongly believed to have sneaked into Bangladesh with the equipment used by the Navy in Congo.
But the use of chemicals practically yielded no result as the white bug stag-es a comeback in the trees surrounding parliament building areas, killing other useful insects and organisms, polluting soil, air and water and ultimately caus-ing harm to human health.
Experts said all mealybugs, includ-ing giant mealybug, cannot be exter-minated completely through the use of pesticides. Nourishing and releasing parasites to counter the mealybug is an ultimate solution, they said.
Detected in 2007, India collected counter-parasites from the USA and successfully eliminated all mealybugs that destroy 60 types of crops and trees.
“The arboriculture (wing of the gov-ernment) sprayed pesticides to kill the giant mealybug. Now, it comes again. We will call the arboriculture again to control it,” Ashraful Moqbul, senior secretary of the parliament secretariat, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
In March last year, the Navy author-ities reported to the Dhaka City Corpo-ration and the plant protection wing of
the government that a new alien insect attacked the Hazi Mohsin base in Dha-ka’s Banani area.
The o� cials concerned and ento-mologists said giant mealybug, not seen in Bangladesh earlier, came here with the equipment deployed in the peacekeeping mission in Congo. Insec-ticides were used to destroy the insects.
In April this year, the same giant mealybug spread in Home Economics College in Dhaka, creating panic among the people.
The parliament authorities also de-tected the invasion of the same mealy-bug on its compound. The compound is not free from the bug, o� cials said.
“We will � rst try to check the spread
of giant mealybug with some mild in-secticides. Parasite is an ultimate solu-tion,” Debashish Sarker, an entomol-ogist and principal scienti� c o� cer of Bangladesh Agricultural Research In-stitute, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Debashish has been involved in working out the solution to check the spread of giant mealybug.
He admitted that the use of pesti-cides to kill giant mealybug had some harms to the environment and the hu-man health consequences. “We have to carry out research which parasites would work in our climatic conditions.”
The available literature shows that India has successfully eliminated all mealybugs in six years since such in-sects were detected in Tamil Nadu in 2007. The authorities collected par-asites such as Acerophagus papaya, Anagyrus loecki and Pseudoleptomas-tix mexicana from the USA, ultimately controlling the onslaught of insect in almost similar climatic conditions.
“Why should we go for pesticides as it is an established fact that chemicals bring temporary solution? We have to use parasites to counter the spread of all mealybugs, including giant mealy-bug,” Ahsan Ullah, an entomologist at the government’s plant protection wing, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“We have to take lessons from India in the extermination of mealybugs,” said Ahsan who attended a special training programme on quarantine in India’s Hyderabad.
The pesticide wing of department of agriculture extension o� cials said a local company had applied for registra-tion to market a pesticide styled Phyto-clean to kill mealybugs. The company sought registration as the attacks of pa-paya mealybug, guava mealybug and other species infested plants across the country. The intrusion of giant mealy-bug has expedited the process of reg-istration of the company to market the pesticide, o� cials said. l
Kindergarten registration yet to take e� ectn Mushfi que Wadud
The government has yet to successful-ly enforce the registration rule for the country’s kindergarten schools it had promulgated in 2011.
Sources in the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) claimed that the rule could not be enforced mainly due to the objection from the schools’ owners and a nexus between them and the o� cials.
Without the implementation of the registration rule, kindergarten schools have been mushrooming all over the capital. Most of these schools lack ad-equate facilities, and employ unquali-� ed teachers.
The current system allows anyone to establish a kindergarten just by ac-quiring a trade licence from the city corporation o� ce.
In the wake of the fact these schools are failing to provide quality educa-tion, the Primary and Mass Education Ministry formulated the registration rule that states that such schools must be registered with the DPE in order to function as an academic institution.
Making the rule mandatory, the ministry also set standards for schools to follow.
According to the rule, a school should have a student-teacher ratio of 30:1 and must be built on 0.08 acres of
land with at least 3,000sq-ft of space within the campus.
Furthermore, every school must have a managing committee comprising guardian and teacher representatives, with the headmaster as the member secretary. Headmaster of the nearest government primary school is also re-quired to be a committee member.
The rule also states that the manag-ing committees will supervise teachers’ recruitment and � x tuition fees. Schools cannot charge extra fees from students for re-admission or the purchase of any modern technology and equipment for the school. Schools also cannot teach from textbooks that are not approved by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board.
After the promulgation, however, kindergarten owners demonstrated and threatened to stage bigger protests as most of the schools did not meet the standards set by the ministry.
Following the protest, the government backtracked from its previous position.
The DPE o� cials have been saying that they would soon enforce the rule, but they have yet to take any action.
When contacted, Director (Policy and Operation) of the DPE Faruque Jalil told the Dhaka Tribune that they were discussing issues with kindergarten owners and would soon enforce the rules. l
Hasina to seek Japanese aid for infrastructure projectsn Sheikh ShahariarZaman
Bangladesh is expected to seek Japa-nese assistance for implementing large infrastructure projects in the country during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Tokyo later this month.
Hasina is scheduled to pay an o� -cial visit to Tokyo from May 25 to 28.
During a bilateral meeting with her Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, Hasina might raise the issue of aid for planned projects, such as the nearly US$5 billion Ganges barrage and a tun-nel under the Jamuna Bridge, saida for-eign ministry o� cial in Dhaka.
Japan has already agreed to provide $2.1 billion for a metro-rail project, and it was supposed to give $615 million for the Padma bridge, but later withdrew its commitment due to certain com-plexities.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Masud-bin Momen told the Dhaka Tribune that both governments were working on � nalising the topics to be discussed during the PM’s trip.
“Bilateral relationship between the two countries is very good, and wh-enwe have a good relationship, many things can move forward,” the envoy said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio
Kishida visited Bangladesh last March and announced a $1.18 billionloan package to � nance � ve projects.“We hope to clinch a part of the pack-age during the prime minister’svisit and the rest when JICA president Sada-ko OgatavisitsDhaka this year,” Masud said.
Bangladesh is also likely to � ag the is-sue of getting GSP (generalised system of preferences) facilities to boost its ex-ports to Japan, the world’s third largest economy, the ambassador said.
“During the PM’s last visit(in 2010), we raised the issue and Japan lowered the duty-free access of knit products from three-tier to two-tier,” he said.
Bangladesh was likely to achieve its export target of $930 million this � scal, while two-way trade may top $2 billion,
Masud said.Readymade garments and leather
products are the main export items to Japan. Japan, the single biggest de-velopment partner of Bangladesh, has provided around $12 billion in loans and grants since 1972.
Japanese loans are the most gen-erous, with an annual interest rate of only 0.01% and a 40-year repayment period.
Under the 34th o� cial development assistant (ODA) signed last year, Japan would provide a $1.03 billion loan to � nance four projects, including bridg-es at Kanchpur, Meghna and Gumati,a Karnaphuli water supply scheme ,re-newable energy development and a north Bangladesh integrated develop-ment project.
The 33rd ODA loan package of $760 million, also signed last year, funded the Bheramara combined cycle power plant development project, the Dhaka mass rapid transit development project and the national power transmission network development project.
Japanese private sector investment in Bangladeshis also growing sharply, with $1.3 billion in total invested until 2012. The number of Japanese compa-nies operating in Bangladesh rose to 176 � rms in 2013, from 61 in 2007. l
The Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises become the latest victim of giant mealybug infestation. The photo was taken yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE
Under the 34th ODA signed last year, Japan would provide a $1.03 billion loan to � nance four projects, including bridges at Kanchpur, Meghna and Gumati
Dhaka Tribune editor, publisher and directors cut the � rst anniversary celebration cake at the capital’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel yesterday evening NASHIRUL ISLAM
4 NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Many left out of slum censusn Tazlina Zamila Khan
Although data collection for the Cen-sus of Slum and Floating Population 2014 � nished on May 2, many slumdwellers claimed that the enumerators had not visited them to collect theirdetails.
Most slums in the capital were ex-cluded from the list, those that was created through the � rst and second zonal operations before conducting the census.
AKM Ashraful Haque, deputy direc-tor of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), told the Dhaka Tribune: “The enumerators collected information from the slums in Mirpur 1 and 10, Shishumela, Asadgate, Gulshan 1 and 2, Kochukhet, Badda, Airport, Shahbagh, GPO, Motijheel, Banani, Agargaon and Gabtoli areas.”
On the other hand, enumeration in the slums in Uttara sector 14, Ut-tarkhan, Dakkhinkhan, Mohakhali, Mohammadpur, Khilkhet, Kawran Ba-
zar, Moghbazar and Shantinagar has not been done yet.
Khadiza Begum, 38, resident at Ut-tarkhan slum, said she was not aware of any slum census. “No one came to col-lect information in this slum,” she said.
Jahir Uddin, another slum-dwell-er in the city’s Shantinagar area, said: “We did not notice anyone visiting any homes to collect information about us. We the poor are always excluded from everything.”
The data collection had started on April 25 this year.
Although it was required to mark the doors of the slums that had been sur-veyed with chalks, this reporter did not � nd said mark in many slum shacks.
In an explanation, Ashraful said: “The marks could be removed for many reasons, like rain, but it is not import-ant during a census at all.”
On the other hand, some of the city’s homeless people also claimed that they had not been counted.
Mujib and Ashraf, two homeless
men living in the Airport railway sta-tion, alleged that no one had come to collect information on them in the area.
“We were present at the area at night during the time of the survey. No one came,” they said.
Jafor Ahmed Khan, project director and director (deputy secretary) of BBS’s Demography and Health Wing, said: “I do not think we missed any slums or homeless people. Our team worked
very hard in order to collect accurate information.
“There will be allegations. We saw no problem in the data collection. If we could not � nd a person, then we col-lected his/her information from oth-ers,” he added.
Wasimul Bari, lecturer at the statistics, biostatistics and informatics department in Dhaka University, told the Dhaka Tri-bune: “The census has to cover the entire target populace, otherwise it will not be accurate. But sometimes government of-� cials skip duties, which is not right.”
He said if the enumerators could not � nd a person, they should visit the place again. “Information given from neighbours or other people could be inaccurate,” he added.
The government allotted around Tk9.32 crore for the census. Around 6,500 enumerators and 1,150 supervi-sors were assigned for data collection.
The full report of the census is ex-pected to be published in December this year. l
Collaboration between universities and industries stressedn Mushfi que Wadud
Educationists and industrialists yes-terday stressed the need for an e� ec-tive collaboration between universities and industries to improve standard of higher education and industrial devel-opment.
While universities are failing to con-duct research for lack of fund industries are su� ering from lack of new technol-ogy and collaboration between the two sectors can prove a win-win situation for the sector, they said while speak-ing at a workshop of University Grants Commission on university-industry collaboration held at a city hotel.
Speaking at the programme, Dhaka University bio-medical physics depart-ment professor Khondkar Siddique E Rabbani said small and medium entrepre-
neurs can get the most bene� t out of the collaboration between universities and industries for their technology transfer.
He, however, said the technology trans-fer should be free of cost in the initial stage.
Chairman of the Apex Group and a former adviser to the caretaker gov-ernment Syed Manjur Elahi said some 10,000 foreigners work in garment sec-tor and this can be a good source of em-ployment for Bangladeshi youths.
He said there is a mismatch between the requirement of industries and the quali� cation of our graduates and col-laboration between the two sectors can solve the problems.
He suggested that a fund should be created taking money from the private sectors and then the educationists and in-dustry people should sit to � nd out what can be done to develop both the sectors.
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology professor Aminul Haque Bhuyan suggested that a UGC can es-tablish a cell through which industry people can share their problems and seek support from teachers.
UGC Chairman A K Azad Chowdhury said UGC was working to bridge the gap between industries and universities. He said that with the support of the World Bank a project is running and collabora-tion between universities and industries is one of the components of the project.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Na-hid said the ministry was wor king to ensure quality higher education but the budget for the overall education sector is not enough. He urged the pri-vate sectors to come forward for the development of the research activities in the universities. l
BCL men stop exam, vandalise exam hall at RUn RU Correspondent
Members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League at Rajshahi University forced the postponement of a Masters exam-ination of the Islamic History Depart-ment yesterday since one of its leaders was allegedly too sick to sit for the test.
Witnesses said about 20-25 lead-ers and members of the ruling party’s student wing, led by the RU unit Vice President Rana Chowdhury, went to the department at 9am and locked the examination room just before the start of a course � ve exam.
The teachers of the department broke the lock and tried to start the exam at 9:30am, but the BCL activists barred most of the examinees from entering the hall. Only a few students managed to en-ter the hall and prepared to take the exam.
At that point, the BCL activists went on a rampage and vandalised the win-dows of the hall and the department’s o� ce. When the teachers came for-
ward to settle matters, the BCL men became vocally abusive toward them.
RU Proctor Tarikul Hasan rushed to the department and brought the situ-ation under control. An hour later, the authorities postponed the exam be-cause of the BCL agitation.
“It was not possible to cancel an exam when a student applies to do so just before the start of the exam, claim-ing sickness,” department head Sayeda Nure Kaseda Khatun said. “A group of people, not known to me, came to the department, vandalized rooms and abused the teachers, including me, which was not expected,” she added.
Mehedi Hasan, a BCL vice president, claimed that he was ill and could not sit for the exam. Proctor Tariqul Hasan lat-er told reporters that he will investigate the matter and take steps against those responsible for the violent incident.
However, RU unit BCL President Mi-zanur Rahman claimed that the BCL mem-bers were not involved in the violence. l
Local BNP leader murdered in Jhenaidahn Our Correspondent, Jhenaidah
A local BNP leader was hacked to death allegedly by a former party fellow in Ka-liganj upazila of the district yesterday.
Victim Ismail Hossain, 48, was the president of Kaliganj municipality’s ward 1 unit BNP, and son of former mayor Abdur Rahman.
Police could not arrest anyone in this connection. No case was � led until the evening.
Locals said a gang of miscreants led by Shahjahan Ali, who joined the ruling Awami League on March 26, attacked Ismail in Nimtala bus stand area around 8:30am while he was returning home at Chapali village on a motorcycle.
Shahjahan hacked Ismail indiscrim-inately with a machete, leaving him critically injured.
Locals got him admitted to Kaliganj Health Complex. Later he was shifted to Jessore Medical College Hospital
where he died around 9:15am.Kaliganj upazila unit BNP General
Secretary Ainal claimed that local Awa-mi League activists had killed Ismail.
OC Anwar Hossain of Kaliganj police station con� rmed the incident. He said con� ict over establishing dominion in the area might be the reason behind the killing.
Local people say Shahjahan’s join-ing the Awami League created much dissatisfaction within the BNP and in the locality. l
1 dead, 30 ill after taking lunch n Our Correspondent, Savar
A man died and 30 others became ill after taking food at a training centre in Ghoshbagh of Ashulia.
Sohag, 22, from Sirajdikhan in Mun-shiganj, was a trainee at Unique Voca-tional Training Centre and died of food poisoning on Monday. Others who fell ill were admitted to a local hospital.
Several hospitalised trainees said they fell ill after consuming rice, beef and chicken that was provided to them as lunch on Monday.
Sohag died after being admitted to a hospital.
Meanwhile, other trainees managed to stay normal until 9pm when they vomited and fell on the ground be-cause of dizziness after having dinner. This happened to 30 of them and they were taken to the hospital.
The trainees claimed that the fatal-ity was caused as training centre au-thorities did not arrange timely medi-cal attention after they had fallen sick.
Ashulia police station OC Sheikh Badrul Alam con� rmed the news and said Sohag died of food poisoning.
The hospital’s Customer Care O� -cer Habibur Rahman said poison in the food was the reason why the trainees fell ill.
He, however, could not con� rm whether Sohag died precisely due to food poisoning. l
Gazipur law and order situation deterioratesn Our Correspondent, Gazipur
There has been a gross deterioration of law and order in Sreepur upazila of Gazipur as incidents like killing, mug-ging, robbery, abduction, post-abduc-tion killing, release of abductees in ex-change for ransom and clash between rival groups have risen alarmingly in the last four months.
As soon as evening descends, money and other valuables are snatched from passers-by at di� erent intersections and also at 30-40 spots in forest. Rival groups, out of a desire for vengeance, are kidnapping and even killing each other’s children. Besides, use of drugs and arms has become commonplace.
Police are yet to arrest anyone in connection with such crimes, turning Sreepur into a city of panic for its res-idents. The role of law enforcement agencies has also drawn harsh criticism in the wake of a rise in unlawful acts.
Locals and police sources say on January 28, 13-year-old schoolgirl Mo-ni’s body was recovered from a pond adjacent to her house six days after she had gone missing.
She was the only daughter of Mot-lob Hossain, a resident of Beraiderchala village in Sreepur municipal area, and an eighth grader at Abed Ali Girls High School. She was wearing her school uni-
form when police recovered her body. Moni’s mother Bilkis Akhter said
21-year-old Nayeem, son of Mojibur Rahman of Shirirchala village in Gazi-pur Sadar upazila, threatened her over phone on January 24 and told her that the family and also her daughter would face consequences if she went too far about the abduction.
Three bodies were recovered from di� erent areas in Sreepur on April 10. One of them was 11-year-old Sayem whose slaughtered body was found in-side a makeshift house erected on an abandoned land near Bormi bus stop. Sayem, son of Ra� qul Islam of Bormi Bazar, was a student of class � ve at Al Madina Kindergarten.
Just two weeks after police recov-ered Sayem’s body, his elder brother Rakib, a ninth grader at Bormi High School, was abducted on April 24. Ab-ductors left him alive near his house on the night of May 1. His father received threats over phone but police could not arrest anyone in this connection.
Meanwhile, the prevalence of drugs has become very high in Sreepur. Po-lice recovered 140 bottles of phensidyl from a rice � eld in Gararan village in early April.
OC Mohsinul Qadir, however, de-nied deterioration of law and order and said everything was normal. l
Clash on Duet campusn Our Correspondent, Gazipur
The activists of the Bangladesh Chha-tra League (BCL) and the Islami Ch-hatra Shibir engaged in a clash at the Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (Duet) campus in Gazipur, yesterday.
Police have arrested nine activists of the Chhatra Shibir so far: Saidur Rahman, a third year student of the mechanical department, Shahinur Rahman, Al Amin Hawladar, Mizanur Rahman, Iqbal Hossain, Raju Ahmed, a � rst year student of the civil depart-ment, Mahmudul Hasan, the director of a local coaching centre, and Abdul-lah-al-Mamun, a fourth year student of the mechanical department and the president of Chhatra Shibir DUET unit.
Sakib Reza Chowdhury, vice-presi-dent of the BCL Duet unit told the Dhaka Tribune that the president of Chhtra Shi-bir was holding a meeting at one of the rooms of the Kazi Nazrul Islam Hall along with several former leaders of the stu-dent body at around 9:30pm on Monday.
They were discussing their organi-sational activities and planning to hold a debate competition on the “atheism” of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The students informed the teachers about their plans and then activists of the BCL raided the room and appre-hended them.
Later, Chhatra Shibir activists were
handed over to the police.Hasan Al Banna, organising sec-
retary of the QK Hall unit of the BCL, were injured by the Shibir activists after their fellow men had been taken outside the campus by the police.
General Secretary of Chhatra Shibir Duet Civil faculty unit Mohsin Uddin re-futed the claim of the BCL leaders and said the last exam of the current semes-ter is scheduled to be held on May 18.
“BCL Duet unit has been planning to organise a program to mark the oc-casion of the PM’s “homecoming” on May 17. In a bid to defer the date of the exam, BCL activists are trying to desta-bilise the congenial atmosphere of the campus,” Mohsin Uddin said.
Provost of Kazi Nazrul Islam Hall Dr Kamruzzaman told the reporters that he was informed by the security guards of the hall that former Shibir leader Parag had come to room no 1009 of the hall and was holding a party meeting.
Activists of the BCL raided the room before he could reach and they assault-ed the Shibir activists. After rescuing the Shibir men, the authority handed over the injured into police custody and they were provided the necessary treatment, the provost said.
Sub-Inspector of Joydevpur police station Monir Hossain con� rmed the authenticity of the incident and said the detained persons were sent to jail by the court. l Two farmers use bull carts to transport their harvests from a paddy � eld in Singra in Natore yesterday. The region experienced a bumper production in Boro paddy this year
Buddhist monks pray in front of a statue of Gautam Buddha, marking Buddha Purnima, in Khilgaon’s Bashabo area in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
DHAKA TRIBUNE
Information was collected from Mirpur 1 and 10, Shishumela, Asadgate, Gulshan 1 and 2, Kochukhet, Badda, Airport, Shahbagh, GPO, Motijheel, Banani, Agargaon and Gabtoli
5NewsDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
PRAYER TIMES Fajar 3:56am Sunrise 5:18am Zohr 11:55am Asr 3:19pm Magrib 6:32pm Esha 7:55pm
Tk37.5 crore extorted from footpath vendorsTraders say not just ruling party leaders, lawmen are also involved with the rackets
n Mohammad Jamil Khan and Abu Hayat Mahmud
Around 11am on a busy working day in Dhaka, a man in his middle ages came up to a vegetable stall near Tejgaon Col-lege in the Farmgate area. The vendor, without saying a word, gave the man Tk1,000. Taking the money, the man moved to the next stall.
The vendor said the name of the middle-aged man was Shah Alam. He was the secretary of ward no 99 unit of Jubo League, ruling Awami League’s youth front.
Shah Alam is also the secretary of the Farmgate Hawkers Welfare Associ-ation. He comes to the stalls once every month and extorts Tk1,000-Tk1,500 out of each of them.
The Dhaka Tribune reporters fol-lowed him; but somehow, he sensed their presence. To cut them o� his tail, he slipped into a local residential hotel and disappeared.
When the reporters asked the peo-ple inside the hotel about Shah Alam’s whereabouts, his followers forced them to leave the place.
The vendor said the 900 stalls in the area paid more than Tk11.25 lakh in total to Shah Alam and police every month.
Nearly all the stalls set up on the footpaths of the capital pay the month-ly “toll.” When BNP was in power, the local leaders of the party collected the toll; just like the way the local leaders of Awami League are doing now.
MA Kashem, president of the Bangla-desh Hawkers Federation, told the Dhaka Tribune that all of the 2.5 lakh hawkers in the capital “must” pay the toll. While the Farmgate hawkers pay a monthly toll, there are many footpath traders who pay daily tolls of around Tk50.
On that count, the footpath vendors pay a staggering total of Tk37.5 crore as toll per month to these political-ly-backed extortionists.
Kashem said: “Not just the political leaders, even law enforcers of local po-lice stations are also involved with the rackets.”
However, MA Aziz, acting presi-dent of Dhaka city unit Awami League, snubbed out the allegations saying or-ganisational actions would be taken against anyone found guilty of extort-ing. “These members will not be given any post in the party ranks in future,” he assured.
There are about 350 footpath stalls in the Motijheel area. According to some of the owners, they pay around Tk15 lakh every month.
In the capital’s Gulistan area, local ruling party activists Babul Chowdhury and Nurul Amin allegedly collect the tolls. From stalls on the footpath from the Shahbagh intersection to the TSC on the Dhaka University campus, two linemen named Islmail and Riazuddin collect the money. Even if for opening a stall on the footpath in this area, one has to pay a huge sum � rst up.
The chatpati vendor at Shahbagh said every night a sub-inspector from the nearby police station come to his stall, chat with his friends for hours oc-cupying his seats and goes away with at least Tk100.
One Ramzan Miah allegedly collects the toll from the stalls on the footpath in front of the Birdem hospital. When the reporters contacted him and said they wanted to open a stall on the foot-path, Ramzan said they would have to give him Tk20,000 � rst up and Tk200 every day as “rent.”
Sirajul Islam, OC of Shahbagh police
station, told the Dhaka Tribune that his o� cers were not involved with the ex-tortion. “In fact, they conduct regular drives to remove the hawkers and free the footpaths,” he claimed.
The Dhaka Tribune has learnt that Koton and Saju collect the tolls in the Baitul Mukarram area; Siraj Talukdar, Selim and Moududi Nur Islam in Jurain; Torab Ali in Jatrabari; Hossain, Sattar
and Ra� q in New Market; and Kana Du-lal and Shah Alam in the Farmgate area.
The various associations of the hawkers have told the authorities from time to time that they are even ready to pay taxes if actions were taken against these extortionists.
“The government is losing crores of takas because of an absence of rules and regulations [for governing foot-
path business],” said Arif Chowdhury, president of the National Hawkers Fed-eration.
Mohammad Ansar Ali Khan, CEO of Dhaka South City Corporation, said: “We often clear the footpaths by con-ducting raids. But they [footpath ven-dors] come back every time.”
He said: “Only police can take action against this.”
Monirul Islam, a joint commissioner of police, said: “Police is not the name of an individual. It is an organisation. There might be complaints against one or two of its members but that does not mean the entire organisation is in-volved.” He promised to take actions through proper investigation if any po-lice member was found involved with the crime. l
Three cops closed on extortion charge in Khulnan Tribune Desk
Three policemen, including a sub-in-spector of Terokhada Police Station, were closed to the District Police Lines on Tuesday on charge of realising ex-tortion from the family of a Rana Plaza victim.
Locals said Abdul Kuddus Mollah of Bhabanipur village received Tk72,000 as compensation for the death of his sister Asma in the Rana Plaza collapse, reports UNB.
SI Milton of the Terokhada police along with two constables went to the house of Kuddus on May 10 and took him to a place one kilometre o� the house.
Later, they beat Kuddus and de-manded Tk5 lakh as extortion, saying he received Tk72 lakh as compensa-tion. They also threatened to put him in cross� re.
The policemen freed Kuddus after his brother paid them Tk19,200.
The action was taken against the three policemen after Milton lodged a complaint against them in this regard. l
Security beefed up in Ctg ahead of Jamaat hartaln Tribune Desk
Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) and district police have taken special security measures in the city and else-where of the district to thwart any kind of sabotage during Wednesday’s day-long hartal of Jamaat-e-Islami.
Jamaat is set to enforce the dawn-to-dusk shutdown in greater Chittagong protesting the arrest of its 21 leaders and activists. Police sources said mem-bers of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) will be deployed in Lohagarah and Sat-kania upazilas of the district during the hartal hours, reports UNB.
Masud Ul Hasan, deputy commis-sioner of CMP, said about 2,000 po-licemen will be deployed in the city
on Wednesday to maintain the law-and-order situation while Rapid Action Battalion personnel will keep vigil at important points of the city.
Iltutmish, additional superinten-dent of Chittagong police, they have also taken a special security measure in the district.
On Monday, local Bangladesh Ja-maat-e-Islami called the daylong hartal protesting the arrest of its leaders and activists, including city unit ameer and former MP ANM Shamsul Islam.
Meanwhile, police � led a case against the arrested Jamaat men with Kotwali Police Station.
Imam Hossain, sub-inspector of the police station, � led the case under the Anti-Terrorism Act on Monday night. l
Roadblock in Cox’s Bazar following death of schoolboy n Tribune report
Hundreds of local people blocked the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway yesterday after a schoolboy was killed in a road accident in Medha Kochhopia under Chokoria upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
Local sources said Tajul Islam, son of Asiur Rahman, died on the spot after a bus ran him over.
As soon as the news of his death spread, hundreds of local people took to the street and put up a barricade on the road with logs.
O� cer-in-Charge of Chokoria po-lice station Probhas Chandra Dhar on receiving information rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
Meanwhile, a minor girl was killed in a road accident on the Tangail-My-mensingh road at Kalihati upazila un-der Tangail yesterday morning.
The deceased was identi� ed as Han-ufa Khatun, 7, daughter of Hurmuz Ali in Chamra village of the upazila.
Monir Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Kalihati police station, said Nani-fa crushed under a Madhupu-bound truck in Donail area on the road while she was crossing the road at about 11am. She died on the spot.
Apart from this, a schoolteacher was killed in Kola Bazar area of Kaliganj up-azila on Monday night.
The deceased was identi� ed as Me-hedi Hasan Milton, 30, an assistant teacher of Kola United High School and
son of Abdul Khaleque, former chair-man of Kol union of the upazila.
Police said the accident had took place when a shallow engine-run hu-man hauler overturned in the area around 6:00pm on Monday, leaving its passenger Milton severely injured.
He was admitted to Kaliganj Upazila Health Complex.
Later in the night, he was shift-ed to Jessore Medical College Hospi-tal, where doctors declared him dead around 10am
In Mymensingh, two people were killed in a road accident on the My-mensingh-Haluaghat Road at Madhu-pur village in Tarakanda upazila.
The deceased were identi� ed as Sha� qul Islam, 27, and Al-Amin, 19. l
Wife: Ex-RAB 11 CO Tarek Sayeed shot my husband deadn Our Correspondent, Lakhshmipur
Wife of slain Lakshmipur Jubo Dal leader Iqbal Mahbub yesterday alleged that former RAB 11 commanding o� cer Lt Col Tarek Sayeed Mahmud shot her husband dead on December 12.
Tarek Sayeed was forced into retire-ment on May 7 days after allegation surfaced about his link to the abduc-tion and killing of seven persons, in-cluding a ward councilor and a senior lawyer, in Narayanganj.
“He shot my husband in the head in front of Chalk Masjid, leaving him dead on the spot. He took the body away in a van,” said Iqbal’s wife Monowara Be-gum at a press conference at her resi-dence in the district town.
“That very day, locals held a RAB ve-hicle, demanding return of Iqbal’s dead body when � ve people had died in the RAB’s random � ring,” she said.
“Now it has been six months but we
have not yet got his body back,” she said.
RAB 11’s present Commanding Of-� cer Lt Col Anwar Latif Khan said: “I have joined here just a few days ago. So, I do not have any idea about it.”
Monowara said at the press con-ference: “We repeatedly tried to � le a case or a general diary with the police, but they refused, saying no GD or case could be � led unless a death certi� cate was shown.”
When this correspondent asked about the allegations over phone, Lakshmipur Sadar police station O� -cer-in-Charge Iqbal Hossain switched o� his phone without saying anything.
The wife of the slain Jubo Dal joint general secretary urged the prime min-ister to intervene into the matter.
Iqbal’s father Nurul Islam, brother Sohel and daughter A� a Mahmud Nahadi were present at the press conference. l
Intercity train catches � re in capitaln Mohammad Jamil Khan
A � re broke out on a Dhaka-bound in-tercity train from Sylhet called Kalni Express at the capital’s cantonment railway station yesterday. No casualties were reported from the incident.
“The � re originated from a gas cylinder leakage from the kitchen of the dining coach around 1:30pm and soon spread to two other passengers compartment,” Atiqur Rahman, o� -cer-in-charge of airport police station, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Seven � re � ghting units rushed to the spot and doused the � re after a
45-minute e� ort. No casualties were reported as the train had arrived at the station and the passengers rushed out of the train following the � re,” he added.
“Primarily, the � re started in the kitchen of the train and soon spread to two other compartments because of the wind,” said Shajadi Sultana, duty o� cer of the Fire Service and Civil Defence.
Asked about the losses incurred from the � re, Bangladesh Railway Di-visional Commission O� cer Mahbubur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune that the � re has totally damaged two com-
partments of the intercity train.“We have formed two probe bodies
– one headed by the divisional tra� c o� cer of Dhaka and the other by the chief engineer of the East Zone of the railway,” he said.
“The committee would hold a meeting after the investigation to � nd reasons behind the � re and estimate the loss incurred from the � re and then we would able to tell the exact amount,” he added.
The � re has damaged almost two compartments of the intercity train and in this way the loss estimated would be around Tk10 crore. l
Woman crushed under trainn Our Correspondent, Jamalpur
A woman was crushed to death under the wheels of a train in Rail Gate area of Jamalpur yesterday morning.
The identity of the woman could not be known till � ling this report.
Railway sources said Mymensingh Express, an intercity train coming from Chittagong, left Jamalpur railway station at 10:45 to catch next
station at the Bangabandhu Bridge East Side.
The woman was trying to cross the track at the town’s Rail Gate area at 11am when she was crushed by the run-ning train.
The woman was approximately 40 years old and was wearing a red saree.
Jahirul Haque, sub-inspector of Ja-malpur railway station con� rmed the authenticity of the incident. lOnlookers are next to the burnt bogies of Kalni Express at the Cantonment railway station yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
Vegetable sellers occupy the walkway leaving people compelled to walk on the road in front of Tejgaon College at Farmgate ABU HAYAT MAHMUD
3 dope gang members mass beatenn Our Correspondent, Munshiganj
A crowd beat up three members of an aggyan party (dope gang) on the Dha-ka-Mawa highway in Srinagar upazila on Monday and handed them over to
the police.The arrestees were identi� ed as
Jamal Sheikh alias Sujan, 50, son of Bujjuk Ali Sheikh and Ujjal Sheikh, son of Jalal Miah, of Nayabari village in Lohajang upazila while the other, Saiful
Islam, 42, son of Redewan Ahmed, of Dharmaganj Pakapole area in Fatullah police station of Narayanganj.
SI Khandaker Khalid Hasan, in-charge of Mawa Naval police out-post, said the trio, who were in guise of passenger in a
Bikrampur-bound bus, drugged an-other passenger with some food and looted all valuables from him.
At one stage, other passengers caught them and gave them a good beating them before handing them over to the police.
The injured were admitted to Srina-gar Health Complex.
Lohajang police station OC said the detainees were grilled and a case was � led in this regard. l
Place/Date/Time of Pre-Tender Meeting Not applicable.
INFORMATION FOR TENDERER
20 Eligibility of tenderer The invitation for tender is open to all eligible tenderers who satisfy the following:(a) The tenderer must have successful completion experience of at least 01
related civil work successfully completed within the last 05 (fi ve) years, each with a value of at least for sl no 23 (i)-(iv) is 50% of quoted amount in Govt./Semi Govt./Autonomous bodies. The work completion certifi cates shall have to be issued by the offi cer not below the rank of Executive Engineer or equivalent offi cer of concern Department/Organization.
(b) The required minimum average annual construction turnover shall be greater than for sl no 23 (i) Tk. 60.00 Lac, for sl no 23 (ii) Tk. 30.00 lac, for sl no 23 (iii) Tk. 10.00 lac & for sl no. 23 (iv) Tk. 8.00 Lac over the best three years in the last fi ve years which will be based on work completion certifi cates. All work completion certifi cates must be enclosed along with the tender.
(c) The required minimum liquid asset for sl no 23 (i)-(iv) is Tk. 50% of quoted amount.
(d) Black listed/debarred bidders from any Govt./Semi-Govt/Autonomous organization will be treated as ineligible to participate in the tender.
(f) Other required conditions and documents of the tenderer are shown in tender data sheet (TDS) of tender documents must be fulfi lled.
(g) All other criterian will be taken according to the public procurement Act-2006 and its amendment.
21 Brief Description of related works For sl no 23 (i) Plaster, PVC pipe, Weather coat etc. (ii) Picking up existing lime terracing and making new lime
terracing. (iii) Plaster, Enamel paint, Weather Coat, Sanitary work etc. (iv) Plastic paint, Weather coat, Floor tiles, Enamel painting etc.
22 Price of Tender document For sl no 23 (i) Tk. 1,000.00For sl no 23 (ii) Tk. 750.00For sl no 23 (iii) & (iv) Tk. 500.00
23 Sl No.
Identifi cation of Lot Dhaka EPZ Ganakbari,
Ashulia, Dhaka.
Tender security amount (in Tk) in favour of BEPZA
Completion time
(i) Re-arrangement of plumbing system for FS-SFB# 1,2,3 & 4 at old zone of Dhaka EPZ
Do Tk. 1,05,000.00 120 (One hundred twenty) days.
(ii) Repair of lime terracing for 3-storied factory building # 3 & 7 at old zone of Dhaka EPZ.
Do Tk. 53,000.00 90 (Ninety) days
(iii) Repair and painting of Ansar Barrack building at old zone of Dhaka EPZ
Do Tk. 15,000.00 90 (Ninety) days
(iv) Repair & maintenance of Mosque at extension area of Dhaka EPZ.
Do Tk. 11,000.00 60 (Sixty) days
PROCURING ENTITY DETAILS
24 Name of Offi cial Inviting Tender G.M Nazrul Islam.
25 Designation of offi cial inviting Tender Superintending Engineer (In-Charge)
(a) Eligible fi rms/authorized representative may purchase tender documents form the offi ces mentioned in SN-18 on submitting written request in their letter head pad.
(b) Any false, forged and miss leading documents furnished by Tenderer shall result in rejection of the Tender.
(c) In case of any confusion arises due to printing mistake or other reason, the Public Procurement Rules-2008 will govern.
(d) Tender should be submitted original along with one duplicate copy and it should be mentioned on the cover sheet.
(e) The tender shall be valid for a period of 90 (Ninety) days from the date of opening the Tender(s). the tender notice is also available at web site: www.epzbangladesh.org.bd of BEPZA.
29 The procuring entity reserves the right to accept any or reject all the Tenders or annual the Tender Proceedings.
Litchi still beyond the reach of commoners n Our Correspondent, Rajshahi
Two more days are left till the Bangla month of Joistha, commonly known as ‘Modhumash’ (honey month), and the juicy fruit litchi, one of the popular seasonal fruits in the country, has al-ready started appearing in the Rajshahi markets. The price, however, is still too high for commoners.
One hundred litchis are sold at Tk220 to Tk350, but traders said this quantity of litchi was sold at Tk120 to Tk150, last year.
Many seasonal traders have set up makeshift shops at di� erent points in Rajshahi city, including at Shaheb Bazar, Shalbagan, Lakshmipur, Sheroil bus ter-minal, Bindurmore and the Court area, displaying the delicious fruit.
Madraji, Bombai, Kadmi, Mojjafar-puri, Bedana, Kalibari, Mongalbari, Chaina-3, Bari-1, Bari-2 and Bari-3 are the most favorite varieties of litchi among customers, traders said.
Noticing the arrival of the fruit, many people come over to purchase it, but return back in empty hand when they see the exorbitant prices.
“I had gone to purchase some litchi for my family, but was astonished by the high prices of the fruit,” said Nu-runahar, a resident of the Shalbagan area.
She hopes that she will be able to purchase the fruit in the coming days.
According to the Department of Ag-ricultural Extension, 378.8 hectares land has been used for litchi cultivation in the district this year with a produc-tion target of 2,078 tonnes.
There is a great demand for the Ra-jshahi litchi across the country, but growers fear that the production target might not be achieved this year because of the � uctuation in temperatures.
But agriculturists claim litchi pro-duction will be as per the growers’ ex-pectations.
Raipara, Choto Bonogram, Lichu Bagan, Banessor and Bagha are the main locations where most of the Rajshahi litchi are produced and marketed.
Rahamatullah, who sells seasonal fruits in the Sahebbazar area, said in-clement weather, associated with the high temperatures, caused huge dam-
age to litchi production this year, there-by hiking up the price.
Mohammad Alimuddin, senior scienti� c o� cer at Rajshahi Fruit Re-search Station, told the Dhaka Tribune that despite inclement weather the dis-trict had witnessed a bumper yield of the fruit.
Mainuddin, a litchi grower from Choto Bongram under the Shah Makh-dum thana, said because of the ex-treme heat and drought, the litchi had ripened earlier last year but this year it has ripened at the right time.
Akbar Hossen, a litchi grower from the Poba upazila, said he had hundreds of litchi trees on his three bighas of land.
“I have sold the litchi from my trees to di� erent traders across the coun-try at Tk1.10 lakh and my I am hoping that I will be able to make a pro� t of Tk80,000 this year,” he said.
Deputy Director of the Rajshahi Ag-ricultural Extension Department said litchi will be available in the markets within the next two months.
He expressed hope that the prices of the fruit will fall soon. l
Manpura Island disconnected from the mainlandn Our Correspondent, Barisal
Residents of the Manpura upazila, an island in the Meghna estuary under the Bhola district, have been endangering their own lives by using unsafe water transportation after a suspension of the sea-truck service in March.
The suspension was imposed by the Sea Transport Directorate under the Shipping Ministry from March 15 to Oc-tober 15, banning passenger-carrying water transports, including launches and trawlers, from operating on the risky water routes around the estuary and the coastal areas in the southern region. The suspension has been en-forced every year since June 18, 2000.
The restriction is in place because of storms like cyclones and Nor’westers during the monsoon season, said Abul Bashar Majumder, deputy director of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTC) Barisal o� ce.
“Water transport is the main mode of transport in that region, and using them during the monsoon can put the travellers’ lives at risk during a storm,” he said.
Abdul Jalil, captain of sea truck ST Shaheed Sheikh Jamal, said his vessel had been approved by the BIWTC to
operate on the Manpura-Tajumuddin route and started carrying passengers on March 19. But it broke down on April 5 for the � rst time.
“After it was repaired, it resumed service on April 22, only to break down again two weeks later,” he said.
Md Sifat, engine driver of the ST Shaheed Sheikh Jamal, said the vessel needed complete servicing and both the engines needed to be repaired.
Mohiuddin Ahmed, secretary of the Manpura Traders’ Association, alleged that owners of the unauthorised wa-ter transports were earning Tk20,000-30,000 every day by commuting on the route using their malfunctioning vessels.
“They are paying Tk4,000-5,000 every day to the lessee and sta� of the ST Shaheed Sheikh Jamal as a bribe to remain out of business,” he claimed.
Nuruddin, the lessee of the sea truck, denied the allegations and said he was incurring a loss as BIWTC has placed a dilapidated vessel in his au-thority.
Abdullah Al Baqi, upazila nirbahi of-� cer of Manpura, said the lessee often blamed the run-down engines of the sea truck for the disruption of service and BIWTC authority has been asked
to provide a replacement immediately. Amir Hossain, vice president of the
local Hazirhut Traders’ Association, said Manpura residents are virtually isolated, detached from other parts of the country due to the shortage of safe water transportation.
Acknowledging the acute shortage of BIWTC-approved vessels for the perilous route, Gopal Chandra Majum-dar, assistant manager at the BIWTC’s Barisal o� ce, said they are trying to re-place the out-of-order sea truck on the Manpura route, soon.
Nazrul Islam, assistant engineer at the BIWTC, stressed on immediate sanctioning of fund and tender invita-tions to start the vessel’s repair work.
Shahinur Bhuiyan, director (� -nance) of the BIWTC, said the BIWTC has been earning only Tk4.56 lakh every year by leasing out the sea truck on the Manpura route, but repair work and management costs of the vessel will take around Tk8-9 lakh, so an in-vestigation is needed before funds are sanctioned.
However, Nurul Alam Akhand, deputy general manager (commercial), assured that they will resume the sea truck’s operations connecting Manpu-ra to the mainland soon. l
The photo taken from Horogram area in Rajshahi shows that a grower collects Litchi from an orchard yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE
The trio in guise of passenger drugged another passenger with some food
7Long Form Wednesday, May 14, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
n Farzana Nawaz
There are few industrial disasters in recent memory that has shaken up the pub-lic conscience the way that the Rana Plaza tragedy has.
The death of 1,133 workers on April 23, 2013 focused attention on the high human cost of cheap fashion. Outrage has poured in from every corner of the globe on the appalling conditions that workers have to endure and the out-rage has been accompanied by a call to action from all quarters. There was a consensus that all parties involved – international brands, governments, factory owners, trade unions and even consumers – need to take action to change the status quo.
This year April 24 was declared “Fashion Revolution” day, an inter-national day of public action with simultaneous events taking place in 51 countries around the world. The main purpose of #fashionrevolution was to commemorate the Rana Plaza tragedy and to raise awareness of the condi-tions in the global garment supply chain.
The slogan for the event was “meet your maker,” a rather unfortunate choice of words, but the intent is clear enough – get to know the people who are making your clothes. Public edu-cation and awareness raising events included screening of documentaries, speaker events with experts, raising funds for the victims and in some places demonstrations and human chains.
However, the rhetoric of the Fashion Revolution day was far more ambitious than just raising awareness.
To quote from the website: “Together we can use the power of fashion to catalyse change and reconnect the broken links in the supply chain. Wear your clothes inside-out to help start the beginning of an industry-wide transformation towards a more sustainable future.” This call to action to wear your clothes inside out resulted in an avalanche of #insideout hipster sel� es on the website, Facebook and Twitter.
While this demonstrates a certain level of interest among consumers and perhaps even solidarity with garment workers, it is doubtful that the campaign will generate any kind of real impact on the lives of garment workers in developing countries or the global garment supply chain.
Squandering the consumer good will
If the revolution fails then certainly the blame can’t be attributed to the consumers. Boycotting is the single most powerful tool consumers have to let companies know that the way they run their business is unacceptable. However, ever since the Rana Plaza strategy, consumers have been consistently told to not boycott clothing from Bangladesh for fear of putting poor people out of their jobs. But what other options are available then?
One of the “action points” on the Fashion Revolution site is to “demand transparency.” That seems like a wor-thy goal and a reasonable place to start. However, it’s not clear how consumers are supposed to demand transparency and from whom. The global garment supply chain is complex and involves a multitude of players and issues that include production of the � bre, textile, manufacturing of the apparel and then the marketing and retailing of it. All along the supply chain there
are considerations of environmental and labour rights. A brief survey of the Fashion Revolution events around the world shows that while most consumer focus right now is on working condi-tions in the manufacturing part, they are also concerned with other issues along the supply chain. Environmental concerns, in particular, loom large.
In the face of this level of complexi-ty, what does the demand for transpar-ency even mean and who will respond to this? The measures that are being taken so far are meagre at best and by themselves won’t generate meaningful
information for action by consumers or civil society watchdogs. For example, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, or “the Accord” in short, stipulates that a list of suppliers from Bangladesh and their inspection reports will be made public. However, the information will be aggregated for all buyers and it won’t be possible to trace which brand is manufacturing at which factories.
International brands themselves have done very little so far to make their operations more transparent. Sustainability sections of major retail brands such as H&M and Inditex (owner of Zara, among other labels) is full of inspirational rhetoric about what they’re doing to improve the conditions of workers and the environment. While glossy marketing copy describes their “generous” programmes in detail, they are completely mum on the actual results of how these programmes are working.
Some brands on the other hand are trying to capitalise on rising consumer interest in sustainability, to market new product lines. However, consum-ers need to take a leap of faith, and “trust” that this is not just a marketing ploy as opposed to a real change in manufacturing practices.
If the brands are not required to produce hard evidence that what they are doing is actually improving work-ing conditions or reducing environ-mental impact, then it becomes all too easy to white-wash the problems that cost money or are di� cult to deal with.
Customers have a right to know
It’s almost banal to say that we live in a data-driven age. There is more and more information available for every aspect of our lives and the goods we consume are no exception. There was a time when labelling of ingredients or nutritional information on food products was not the norm.
However, over time the food indus-try has evolved (often driven by gov-ernmental regulation) to provide more detailed information on ingredients and nutrition so that consumers can make more informed choices. In a sim-ilar vein, various forms of certi� cation and labelling schemes (for example, Energy Star) are being used to signal to consumers whether appliances or other household items are environ-mentally and ecologically friendly.
In addition to certi� cation schemes for quality, in recent years increasing attention has been placed on how products are made. Fair Trade works towards equity in global supply chains, by ensuring that producers in developing countries are paid fair prices.
Various types of eco-labelling schemes are taking into account issues such as sourcing of raw materials, amount of hazardous e� uents in the production process and even packag-ing. Moreover, ever-broader categories of products are using sustainability labelling. For example, in Nordic coun-tries the Nordic Swan eco-label now covers 63 di� erent product groups, from appliances, computers, hand soaps to furniture and hotels.
All of this is to say that perhaps it’s time to think about a labelling scheme for the apparel industry that will allow customers to make a more informed choice about which brands and manu-facturing practices they are willing to support. This will also enable custom-ers to distinguish between “good” and “bad” brands and reward companies that are willing to go the extra mile to ensure sustainability in their supply chains.
As I mentioned before, the garment supply chain is long and complex, therefore it will take some e� ort to develop meaningful certi� cation schemes that can distinguish between the good and the bad performers along metrics such as environmental impact, fair trade and working conditions in manufacturing plants.
Brands are of course likely to complain that transparency comes at a cost. However, because of advances in technology it is easier and cheaper now than ever before to generate the data necessary to be able to do these kinds of assessments. Moreover, given that the global ready-made apparel industry is estimated to generate up to
$2tn of revenue a year, with a stead-ily increasing pro� t margin, the cost argument can only go so far.
To present this data usefully to con-sumers one can imagine something like the use of QR codes on prod-ucts, which when scanned will take customers to a website, where they can � nd detailed information about the sustainability of the production process of the item of clothing they are about to purchase.
For forward-thinking brands that are actually making concrete positive changes along their supply chain, this will give them a competitive advantage, as they will be able to distinguish them-selves from less caring competitors. On the other hand, this will also allow consumers and civil society to aim their advocacy e� orts towards brands that refuse to provide these details.
Making the supply chain more trans-parent to consumers will also discour-age opportunistic business practices, such as moving production from countries with rising levels of environ-mental and labour rights standards to less compliant producer countries in order to cut costs. This will comple-ment the e� orts that are underway at the moment, such as the Accord and the Alliance, to improve conditions in countries like Bangladesh.
Transparency can be the catalyst for a real fashion revolution
The feel-good rhetoric of creating jobs and improving lives in third world countries has served fast fashion brands well. The Rana plaza tragedy along with a string of similar incidents in recent years, has seriously called into question the truth of this claim. There is the beginning of an understand-ing that the complexity of the global garment supply chain can no longer be used as an excuse to hide abuse of workers and the environment, and that there needs to be a higher level of ac-countability for brands that are making billions by exploiting this complexity.
Consumer action can signi� cantly impact industry practices and they can hold brands accountable by voting with their wallets. However, this will not be possible if they are not given
meaningful information that will help them choose. Consumers need better options than boycotting all clothing made in countries such as Bangladesh or continuing business as usual.
Rana plaza has started a global conversation on what consumers can do to ensure that the clothes on their back is not killing people on the other side of the planet. But we now need to take this interest and desire for change and translate it into results by enabling consumers to act. Otherwise, #fashionrevolution will mean little more than a feel good exercise for western consumers while workers in developing countries continue to su� er. l
Farzana Nawaz is governance expert currently working in media. You can write to her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @farzana_n
A real fashion revolutionCan consumer activism have an impact on the global apparel industry?
The main purpose of #fashionrevolution was to commemorate the Rana Plaza tragedy and to raise awareness of the conditions in the global garment supply chain
Fair Trade works towards equity in global supply chains, by ensuring that producers in developing countries are paid fair prices
NASHIRUL ISLAM
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPUFire� ghters try and contain a � re at a RMG plant – one of the many accidents that have plagued the industry
Wednesday, May 14, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World8
US in aerial search for Nigeria girlsn AFP, Lagos
Manned US aircraft were in the skies above Nigeria yesterday in the hunt for more than 200 missing schoolgirls, almost a month after they were kid-napped by Islamist militants.
The United States said manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and recon-naissance) aircraft were being � own and it had also shared commercial satellite imagery as part of the rescue e� ort.
Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok in Borno state on April 14. Some 223 are still missing and on Monday the militants released a new video purporting to show some of them.
With electricity supply intermittent in Chibok, e� orts were underway for the missing girls’ parents to identify their daughters in the video, in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed they had converted to Islam.
The co-ordinator of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, which has helped drive international pressure for action through social media and global street protests, said three parents had seen their daughters on screen.
“Three parents have identi� ed their daughters in the video,” Hadiza Bala Usman told AFP from the Nigerian cap-ital Abuja. “(Borno) Governor (Kashim) Shettima has now organised a screen-ing in (the state capital) Maiduguri with audio and is bringing parents from Chi-bok to try to identify more girls.”
Combing for clues The latest video, obtained by AFP, showed about 130 teenagers, all in Muslim dress and reciting the � rst chapter of the Koran and praying in an undisclosed rural location.
It was not clear where or when the footage was shot, although Shekau does refer to suggestions made in the last week by the United Nations that Boko Haram may have committed a crime
against humanity by abducting the girls.Nigeria’s government said on Mon-
day evening that it was studying the video in which the militant leader ap-pears to indicate that he is prepared to free the girls in exchange for the release of Boko Haram � ghters held in prison.
Interior Minister Abba Moro told AFP that Boko Haram was not in a po-sition to dictate terms, although a later statement from the military and the head of the National Orientation Agen-cy appeared to contradict that.
“The government will continue to explore all options for the release and safe return of our girls to the their homes,” they said in a statement.
British, French and Israeli special-ists are also providing specialist help to Nigeria, whose initial response to the kidnapping was criticised as slow. China has also o� ered help.
US intelligence experts were “comb-ing through every detail of the video for clues that might help ongoing ef-forts to secure the release of the girls”, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington.
‘Nothing to do with Islam’ President Goodluck Jonathan has said that he believed the students were still in Nigeria and would be freed soon.
Nigeria’s military is combing the Sambisa forest former nature reserve in Borno state, where Boko Haram camps and arms dumps have previous-ly been found.
Concern has been expressed, though, that the girls may have been spilt into smaller groups and may have been taken into neighbouring Chad or Cameroon from where Boko Haram has previously launched attacks.
Niger’s President Mahamadou Is-soufou meanwhile described the kid-napping as “hideous” and said people in the Muslim-majority country were moved by the girls’ plight.
“What has happened in neighbour-ing Nigeria is a lesson in the devastat-ing e� ects of ignorance and obscuran-tism, especially when (Boko Haram) are convinced they know everything about religion,” he said.
The kidnapping had “nothing to do with Islam”, he added, saying that Niger would step up military patrols to ensure security after Boko Haram’s previous incursions across the porous border. l
Multiple car bomb blasts across Baghdadn Agencies
A wave of car bombings in mainly Shia areas of Baghdad has killed at least 28 people, o� cials have said, the latest in a surge in violence that has been the most serious challenge to the gov-ernment’s e� orts to achieve stability across Iraq.
Yesterday’s attacks came as peo-ple were celebrating the birthday of Imam Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Police o� cials said a car bomb went o� in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City, killing four people and wounding six in the morning hours. An-other car bomb elsewhere in Sadr City went o� near a cluster of homes, killing two people and wounding seven.
A short while later, a car bomb ex-ploded in a commercial street in Bagh-dad’s eastern district of Jamila, killing three people and wounding 10. l
Olmert sentenced to six years for corruptionn Reuters, Tel Aviv
Israel’s ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert was sentenced to six years in jail yester-day for taking bribes in a real estate deal, a crime the judge said was akin to treason.
The � rst criminal conviction of a former Israeli head of government all but ended speculation that Olmert - a centrist credited internationally with working towards a peace settlement with the Palestinians - might return to political life.
He had denied any wrongdoing in the property deal, approved when he served as Jerusalem’s mayor, that led to the construction of the hilltop Holy-land apartment towers, a hulking stone complex widely seen as one of the city’s worst eyesores.
“A public servant who takes bribes is akin to a traitor,” said Judge David Rozen in the Tel Aviv District Court, as he handed down a six-year prison
term sought by prosecutors and � ned Olmert 1 million shekels ($289,500).
Rozen found Olmert guilty on March 31 of two bribery charges, saying the former prime minister had accept-ed 500,000 shekels from developers of the Holyland project and 60,000 shek-els in a separate real estate deal.
Olmert, the judge said, devoted most of his time to “praise-worthy” public service - but “also lined his own pockets”.
“The accused served as the prime minister of Israel. From this high and honorable post, he reached the posi-tion of having been convicted of the most despicable and grave crimes,” Rozen said.
Rozen ordered Olmert, 68, to report to prison on September 1, e� ectively giving his lawyers time to take the case to a higher court and request that he re-main free until it rules.
Known as one of the country’s most
gregarious politicians, Olmert sat large-ly stony-faced during the court session, and made no comment afterwards.
“He did not take a bribe. He did not receive a bribe. He sees himself as in-nocent, and it is with those feelings that he will be going to the Supreme Court to appeal,” Olmert lawyer Eli Zo-har told reporters.
Two years ago, Olmert was acquitted of most of the major charges brought against him in separate cases involving his links to a U.S. businessman.
Those corruption allegations forced Olmert’s resignation as prime minister in 2008, and his acquittal had appeared to position him for a possible political comeback.
Netanyahu criticOlmert has made several criticisms of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies toward the Palestinians, fuelling talk about his future political ambitions.
But the judge said Olmert’s crimes entailed “moral turpitude”, which under Israeli law would preclude him from running for public o� ce for seven years after � nishing his jail term.
A lawyer by profession, Olmert be-gan his political career in the 1970s as a lawmaker who targeted organized crime in Israel.
He was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003 and prime minister from 2006 to 2009, staying in o� ce in a care-taker capacity until after an election that brought right-winger Netanyahu to power.
As Israel’s leader, Olmert waged war against militants in Lebanon in 2006 and the Gaza Strip in 2008.
He claimed signi� cant progress in talks with the Palestinians aimed at securing a � nal peace deal, o� ering an Israeli withdrawal from much of the occupied West Bank. But no agreement was reached. l
‘Google must respect right to be forgotten’n Reuters, Brussels
Internet companies can be made to re-move irrelevant or excessive personal information from search engine re-sults, Europe’s top court ruled yester-day in a case pitting privacy campaign-ers against Google.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) upheld the complaint of a Spanish man who objected to the fact that Google searches on his name threw up links to a 1998 newspaper article about the repossession of his home.
The case highlighted the struggle in cyberspace between free speech advo-cates and supporters of privacy rights who say people should have the “right to be forgotten” - meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the Internet.
It creates both technical challenges and potential extra costs for companies like Google, the world’s no.1 search en-gine, and Facebook.
Google can be required to remove data that are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed and in the light of the time that has elapsed,” said judges at the Luxembourg-based court. The ECJ said the rights of people whose priva-cy has been infringed outweighed the general public interest.
Google said it was disappointed with the ruling, which contradicted a non-binding opinion from the ECJ’s court adviser last year that said delet-ing sensitive information from search results would interfere with freedom of expression.
“We are very surprised that it di� ers so dramatically from the Advocate Gen-eral’s opinion and the warnings and con-sequences that he spelled out. We now need to take time to analyse the implica-tions,” said Google spokesman Al Verney.
The European Commission proposed in 2012 that people should have the “right to be forgotten” on the Internet. This was watered down by the European Parliament last year in favour of a “right to erasure” of speci� c information.
The proposal needs the blessing of
the 28 European Union governments before it can become law. Google, Face-book and other Internet companies have lobbied against such plans, worried about the extra costs.
The issues of privacy and data protec-tion in Europe have become all the more sensitive since a former U.S. intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked details last year of U.S. surveillance pro-grammes for monitoring vast quantities of emails and phone records worldwide.
Extra costsTuesday’s court ruling will likely bene� t ordinary people but not public � gures, said Larry Cohen, a partner at law � rm Latham & Watkins. “The ruling will help certain people hide their past, making it di� cult to access certain information, but not when it concerns public � gures, or people in whom there is a genuine public interest,” he said. “This will result in added costs for Internet search pro-viders who will have to add to their take-down policies the means for removing links to an individual’s data, and devel-op criteria for distinguishing public � g-ures from private individuals,” he said.
The Spanish data protection agency said the case was one of 220 similar ones in Spain whose complainants want Goo-gle to delete their personal information from the Web.
“We are very satis� ed that there is an end now to the ferocious resistance shown by the search engine to com-ply with the resolutions of the Spanish data protection agency in this matter,” a spokeswoman for the agency said.
European Justice Commissioner Viv-iane Reding said that the court ruling vindicated EU e� orts to toughen up pri-vacy rules. “Companies can no longer hide behind their servers being based in California or anywhere else in the world,” she said on her Facebook page, calling the judgment a “strong tailwind” for data protection reform.
Google su� ered a previous privacy setback earlier this year when a German court ordered it to block search results in Germany linked to photos of a sex par-ty involving former Formula One motor racing boss Max Mosley. l
Who, What, Why: Could Boris Johnson be UK PM and then US president?n Agencies
Incumbent Mayor of London Boris John-son renewed his US passport in November 2012, his aides have con� rmed. The news came as a surprise to some, BBC reported.
In a column for the Spectator in 2006, he said he was renouncing his US citizen-ship after being barred from using his Brit-ish passport to change planes in Texas. But it appears he didn’t follow through.
There has been speculation Johnson might eventually succeed David Cameron as Tory leader. Having dual citizenship is no bar to becoming prime minister. The only requirements are to be able to command the con� dence of the House of Commons and be invited by the Crown to form a gov-ernment, says John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University.
You don’t even need to have British cit-izenship to be an MP. The rules say only that you have to be a citizen of the UK, the Republic of Ireland or the Commonwealth, and over 18.
The US passport revelation leaves an
intriguing question � oating in the air. Could Johnson be prime minister and then US president? He was born in New York and is thus a “natural-born citizen”, a constitutional requirement for any presidential candidate.
He told David Letterman in 2012 that he could “technically speaking” be US presi-dent. In Johnson’s 2006 Spectator piece he wrote: “When the going has got tough in England it has sometimes crossed my mind that I could yet activate the Schwarzeneg-
ger option and � ee to the land of opportuni-ty, perhaps beginning as a short-order chef in Miami before winding up as Colorado senator and, inevitably, president.”
Tongue was � rmly in cheek. Or was it?Arnold Schwarzenegger - at one point
a popular governor of California - cannot become president because he was born in Austria. Rumour has it he has in the past lobbied to get the rule changed. But John-son has no such impediment.
Article II, section 1 of the US Constitution has just three eligibility criteria for being president - being “a natural born Ameri-can”, aged over 35 and living in the US for 14 years. Johnson falls down on the last - but in theory he could leave Downing Street and move to the US and 14 years later enter the race for the White House.
There is nothing in the constitution to stop a foreign leader becoming US head of state, says Dr Joshua Simon, lecturer in American politics at King’s College London.
But that’s the legal situation. The politi-cal one would be rather di� erent. l
Amnesty: Torture is alive and � ourishingn Agencies
The use of torture is widespread 30 years after the United Nations adopted a convention outlawing the practice, Amnesty International has said.
At least 44 percent of more than 21,000 people from 21 countries sur-veyed by the London-based rights group for its new report released on Monday, said that they would not feel safe from torture if arrested in their home country.
The report titled Torture in 2014 - 30 Years of Broken Promises read: “Al-though governments have prohibited this dehumanising practice in law and have recognised global disgust at its existence, many of them are carrying out torture or facilitating it in practice.”
“Three decades from the conven-tion and more than 65 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights torture is not just alive and well. It is � ourishing,” according to the report.
Amnesty said 155 countries have rat-i� ed the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture but many governments were still “betraying their responsibility” with at least 79 countries continuing to engage in the outlawed practice in 2014.
“It’s almost become normalised, it’s become routine,” Amnesty Secretary General Salil Shetty told reporters at the launch of the “Stop Torture” cam-
paign in London. The campaign focus-es on Mexico, the Philippines, Morocco and Western Sahara, Nigeria and Uz-bekistan.
Shetty also spoke of “the cruelty of inmates in the United States being held in solitary con� nement with no light”,
of stoning and � ogging in the Middle East and of the “stubborn failure” of European nations to investigate allega-tions of complicity in torture.
“Since the so-called war against ter-rorism, the use of torture, particularly in the United States and their sphere
of in� uence... has got so much more normalised as part of national security expectations,” he said.
‘Fact of life’The survey showed that the concern about torture is highest in Brazil and Mexico and lowest in Australia and Britain.
Support for torture ranged wide-ly across nations, from 74 percent in China and India, to just 12 percent in Greece and 15 percent in Argentina, the Amnesty survey conducted by GlobeS-can found.
The report described police brutal-ity in Asia, where torture is a “fact of life”, and pointed out that more than 30 countries in Africa have yet to make such abuse punishable by law.
Amnesty said it had received reports of torture being used in more 140 coun-tries and the report gave examples from countries ranging from Nigeria to Mexico and Ukraine.
The NGO called on governments to prevent torture by providing medical and legal access for prisoners and better inspection of detention centres. It also wants an end to the impunity that ex-ists in many places, urging independent investigations of allegations of torture.
The group warns that many govern-ments are endorsing or at least failing to tackle the issue head-on. l
People attend celebrations of what pro-Russian activists claimed victory in an independence referendum in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk, on May 12, 2014. The activists claimed an overwhelming victory in their referendum on self-rule in two Ukraine regions AFP
Europe in fresh push for talks on Ukraine crisisn AFP, KIEV
Europe stepped up diplomatic e� orts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine yes-terday, with the German foreign min-ister in Kiev pushing authorities and pro-Moscow rebels to come together at the negotiating table.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Wal-ter Steinmeier’s e� orts came amid guarded optimism after the OSCE East-West security body said Moscow supported its roadmap to resolving the crisis through talks, disarmament and elections.
Calling for “a national dialogue un-der Ukrainian leadership,” Steinmeier said: “I hope this will create the con-ditions to take a step to bring back oc-cupied territory, disarm armed groups step-by-step and reinstall the authority of the state.” l
Boko Haram has been waging an increasingly deadly insurgency in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north since 2009
9Wednesday, May 14, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE World
US, China spar again on South China Seas disputen Reuters, Washington/Beijing
China hit back at the United States over the disputed South China Sea yesterday, after US Secretary of State John Kerry said recent Chinese moves in the re-source-rich waters were “provocative”.
Tensions rose last week after China moved a giant oil rig into an area also claimed by Vietnam. Each country ac-cused the other of ramming its ships near the disputed Paracel Islands.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejecting rival claims to parts of it from Vietnam, the Philip-pines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
“He (Kerry) said China’s introduc-tion of an oil rig and numerous govern-ment vessels in waters disputed with Vietnam was provocative,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, referring to a telephone call be-
tween Kerry and Chinese Foreign Min-ister Wang Yi in which North Korea was also discussed. “He urged both sides to de-escalate tensions, and resolve the dispute through peaceful means in ac-cordance with international law.”
China’s foreign ministry said there certainly had been provocative moves in the South China Sea, but that China was not the guilty party and repeated that it was the United States’ fault for encouraging such behavior.
“We hope that the U.S. side can carefully re� ect - if they really hope for the Paci� c Ocean to be peaceful, what kind of role do they actually want to play?” spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news brie� ng.
Hua said that Wang urged Kerry to “objectively and fairly” look at the South China Sea issue, and “act and speak cautiously”. l
RIP Congress? Why you shouldn’t write o� India’s grand old party yetn Agencies
Everything that seemed unimaginable a few months ago now looks imminent. A humiliating defeat, the lowest-ever tally, a sharp decline in vote share and the inability to reach double � gures in any Indian state indicate Narendra Mo-di’s dream of a Congress-mukt Bharat has been achieved.
Is this, then, the end of the Con-gress? Have voters performed its last rites? Let us � rst look at why it is dif-� cult to predict the Congress will rise from the ashes of 2014.
One, it is notorious for its inability to rise after a serious beating.
Its record after the electoral rever-sals in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Guja-rat, Bihar and even Uttar Pradesh con-clusively proves that once the Congress is pinned to the mat, it stays there.
Two, its high-command is in de-cline. This election, barring a miracle, is the end of the Sonia Gandhi era of pol-itics. Considering her own frail health and that of the Congress, it is unlikely that Sonia will have the strength and the will to guide the Congress after � ve years.
Rahul Gandhi, without mincing words, has been rejected for perhaps the nth time by the electorate. In his decade-long career, it is di� cult to re-call even a single instance where Rahul has delivered for the Congress.
This election has once again estab-lished what has been known for years: Rahul is a failure.
Three, the Congress leadership in the states has been wiped out. Forget Delhi, look at the states. The BJP has Shivraj Chouhan, Raman Singh, Manohar Par-rikar, Vasundhara Raje and many other powerful satraps. There isn’t a single Congress leader around who is accept-able to the masses in the major states. In a country where politics is getting
increasingly centred on personalities, the lack of charismatic leaders on the ground is a fatal handicap.
Four, its current rival is not a genteel statesman like Atal Behari Vajpayee but a street-� ghter like Modi. If the bitter, personalised 2014 campaign is an in-dicator, the BJP leader will ensure that the Congress and the dynasty don’t get a single opportunity to make a comeback.
He will try everything to turn it into a replica of the Congress in Gujarat - a meek, marginalized, leaderless rubble.
So, is it time to say ta-ta to the Hand?Those gloating over the Congress’
humiliation should not forget that the party has been here before on several occasions. In 1977, 1989 and 1999 too the Congress was on the precipice after serious electoral losses.
Let us revisit 1999. That year, the Congress was reduced to its lowest-ev-er tally. There was a question mark over Sonia’s leadership after her inability to lead the party to a win in the second consecutive election. Its leadership in the states was in disarray and the BJP seemed to be on the rampage. Every-body was eager to write the obituar-ies of the party and the dynasty. What followed was not demise but ten years in power.
Why? The answer is simple. In a democracy, dominance of a single par-ty doesn’t last for long. Promises are broken, hopes are betrayed, heroes turn into villains – Manmohan Singh, for instance, was a middle class icon in 2009-and leaders lose their charm and sheen.
History shows that India can start whining the moment it realises that it is not shining.
And when voters change their mind, every past sin of a political party is for-gotten and forgiven. They � nd hidden virtues even in its failed leaders. l
N Korea vows ‘merciless’ revenge against S Korean AFP, Seoul
North Korea vowed “merciless” re-prisals yesterday after a South Korean military o� cial suggested the isolated Stalinist nation should simply disap-pear. Speaking to reporters in Seoul on Monday, Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok had argued that North Korea barely deserved to be regarded as a proper country and that it would be best if it “vanished as soon as possible.”
South Korean o� cials tend to be guarded in their criticism of the North, and Kim’s remarks were seen as unusu-ally blunt and forthright.
“Our army and people will wipe them out entirely with the most mer-ciless and thorough striking force,” the North’s powerful National Defence Commission said in a statement. l
Modi eyes decisive majorityn AFP, New Delhi
India’s triumphant right-wing opposi-tion said yesterday it was headed for a decisive majority in the world’s big-gest election after exit polls showed its hardline leader Narendra Modi closing in on victory.
Stock markets surged to record highs on hopes of a business-friendly government under Modi after a de-cade of rule by a left-leaning coalition, while US President Barack Obama said he looked forward to working with the new administration in New Delhi.
“Modi at Delhi Gate” said a headline in the Mail Today, while the Hindustan Times read simply “Exit Polls: Enter Modi” after a � urry of surveys released after voting ended Monday pointed to a big win.
All forecasts showed Modi’s Bhara-tiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies
trouncing the Congress party which has been in power for a decade, and most indicated they would seal a nar-row majority. Results are due on Fri-day, with some still cautioning against over-con� dence in a BJP victory given notorious forecasting errors at the last two general elections.
Modi was keeping a low pro� le, but senior BJP � gures struck a bullish note by predicting the opposition would win more than 300 of the 543 seats in parliament although it was willing to work with additional partners.
“These elections have been fought on a hope that the country will get a good, stable government,” V. K. Singh, a former army chief of sta� who is now a senior BJP leader, told reporters at party headquarters.
Asked about the exit polls predict-ing a majority for the BJP-led alliance, Singh replied: “We may perform even
better than this.”Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar
predicted that the BJP-led alliance would get more than 300, echoing Mo-di’s chief lieutenant Amit Shah.
“We will still be open to support and collaboration from any party that wants to work with a government that is committed to work for the nation,” he told the Headlines Today network.
Reacting to the end of � ve weeks of voting that saw a record turnout of 551 million people, Obama said India had “set an example for the world”. “We look forward to working closely with India’s next administration to make the coming years equally transformative.”
Modi’s election would present a headache for the US, which refused to deal with him for years in the after-math of religious riots in the state of Gujarat in 2002 shortly after he became its chief minister. l
‘US presence in Afghanistan to remain signi� cant’n AFP, Tokyo
The US-led military presence in Af-ghanistan will remain “signi� cant” de-spite this year's drawdown, Washing-ton's special envoy for the country said yesterday, as he predicted that outgo-ing president Hamid Karzai would con-tinue to wield in� uence.
James Dobbins, the US special rep-resentative for Pakistan and Afghan-istan, told reporters in Tokyo that Washington was “still considering” the details of the withdrawal plan.
“I hope we will decide sometime in the next month or two on the exact size of (the remaining) contingent,” Dob-bins told journalists in the Japanese capital, where he is attending talks on supporting Afghanistan.
“We and our allies, I think, will be prepared for a continuing advisory mission, much smaller numbers than we have there today but still signi� cant in terms of its ability to continue to im-prove the quality of the Afghan securi-ty forces,” he said.
About 51,000 US-led Nato troops still deployed in Afghanistan are set to withdraw by December, ending a long and costly battle against the Taliban, who launched a � erce insurgency after being ousted from power in 2001.
The US is thought to be looking at a small number of US troops staying on in a training and counter-terrorism role, but is waiting on a long-delayed deal being struck with Kabul after Karzai raised a series of objections.
Dobbins refrained from predicting the results of the ongoing elections to pick a successor to Karzai, saying only: “It could be a close race.”Afghanistan is due to announce the results of its � rst-round presidential elections on Wednesday, with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani set to go through to a run-o� vote. l
Clockwise from top left: Buddhists holding candles encircle a large Buddha statue during Vesak Day, an annual celebration of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, at a temple in Nakhon Pathom province on the outskirts of Bangkok May 13. Buddhist monks take out a candle-light procession at the Mahabodhi Temple. A nun holds a candle as she prays during Vesak Day. Another group of Buddhists holding candles encircle a large Buddha statue in Nakhon Pathom AFP/REUTERS
VESAK DAY : BUDDHISTS CELEBRATE BUDDHA’S BIRTH, ENLIGHTENMENT AND DEATH
Editorial10 DHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
ACROSS1 Conductor’s wand (5)4 Agreement (4)7 Top card (3)8 Armed con� ict (3)9 Governs (5)12 Body of Zulu warriors (4)13 More intelligent (7)15 Male sheep (3)16 Success (3)18 United (3)19 Tear (3)21 Body of retainers (7)24 Sport (4)26 Heavenly bodies (5)27 Tree (3)28 Vigour (3)29 Tide attaining least height (4)30 Poor (5)
DOWN1 Blocks a way (4)2 Keen insight (6)3 Delicate bodily membrane (4)4 Couple (4)5 Limb (3)6 Intertwine (5)10 Do wrong (3)11 Fixed gaze (5)14 Sends out (5)17 Accustomed (6)18 Keyboard instrument (5)20 Mine (3)21 Harvest (4)22 Back of the neck (4)23 Catch sight of (4)25 Extinct bird (3)
How to solve: 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 number repeating.
CODE-CRACKER
CROSSWORD
SUDOKU
How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a dif-ferent letter of the alphabet. For ex-ample, today 10 represents A so � ll in A every time the � gure 10 appears.
You them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.
UlisesObviously, biotechnology will produce a new nature – radically di� erent and hardly imagina-ble nowadays. Even so, will life always be life? Indeed, is the life that is in a cell the same life that is in a monkey or a human being, dully or wisely engineered? And beyond the marvelous speci� c bene� ts, what place will human beings and their traditions have in this new biotech nature? What place will those aged societies that do not inte-grate fully within these biological products have? Will biotechnology inevitably produce a new species, will humanity diverge again as the branch of a tree? Is the current production-economic system demanding these changes? Or rather, is the goal to maintain excellent health of the population? Is the latter credible in a world that is full of competition and enmity? Is it credible when there is hunger in a planet full of protein, where some human beings are hungry while some live without problems?
EC won’t make public voter informationMay 9
rutland watersGood decision as the cards contain home addresses
Who hired RAB: Shamim or Nur?May 8
RuhelBD needs a massive earthquake, with a handful of survivors, so it can start afresh. Corruption has reached a terminal stage.
khanadilI agree with Ruhel that a massive earthquake is needed so that Bangladesh gets to rid itself of these vermins that are eating up the very soul of the na-tion, and rebuilds itself out of the ashes. However, as I do not see any possibility of an earthquake in the near future, one hope is that the way the coun-try is going, it will eventually self-destruct itself and then there will be opportunity for change.
Now coming back to the subject of the report, I would just like to say that it really does not matter whether it is Shamim, Nur, RAB, or all of them that are involved in the multiple murders. The fact is that a heinous crime of the worst kind has happened under the very watch of this government and as far as I am concerned, it is them and no one else that are responsible and must be accountable. But regrettably, except for a few empty and misleading statements, nothing tangible has so far been done by them and not a single suspected/alleged criminal has been arrested and/or interrogated.
In these circumstances, in most civilised coun-tries (I am aware that in our current state we can hardly call ourselves civilised) either the whole gov-
ernment or at least the home minister (in this case the PM herself) and also the minister of state for home a� airs would have resigned forthwith, but not in Bangladesh.
They continue merrily and shamelessly – welcome to Plunderers’ and Murderers’ Republic of Bangladesh!
Bappi TsangmaHere is the main point – RAB, Nur Hossain, and his associates committed crimes or have been committing crimes, and Allah has seen it. They dumped dead bodies into the river with bricks or some heavy objects, but the dead bodies came out to the surface of water. All Bangladeshi corrupt people must know the consequences of doing bad things from this bright example.
ndsWho hired Rab is not the question. The question is why the elite force will allow themselves to get hired by the criminals. Should we assume that in this country, elitism is the most lucrative commodity to sell?
RDI agree with nds. Why do RAB o� cials allow them-selves to be hired as thugs? Everybody drools when they see money. Everybody.
Brazil announces World Cup squad, Kaka left outMay 8
Blank Head Perfect squad to get knocked o� from round 1
AnonTo me, Brazil equals Kaka. Period.
TazkmasterI’m sure Kaka’s omission just cost the event a few million viewers.
Law enforcers must be accountable to the public
The recent abduction and killings of ward councilor Nazrul Islam along with six others in Narayanganj are a painful reminder of the precarious state of law and order in the country.
At least two months before his murder, Nazrul had been seeking pro-tection from active death threats. He is reported to have spoken to the state minister of home a� airs and the RAB director general was asked to act on the matter.
However, in spite of the history of warnings no e� ective protective action was provided.
Indeed, families of the victims have accused RAB personnel of being involved in the murder, at the urging of rival local leaders of the Awami League.
If these accusations prove true, then it is an extremely worrying instance of a breakdown in rule of law. If law enforcers can be manipu-lated for nefarious purposes by politicians then no one in this country is truly safe.
There is only one acceptable and legal answer to the question of who controls the country’s law enforcers and that is the public. Citizens expect and deserve assurance that this standard will be upheld and all necessary action will be taken against individuals who breach the law.
We call on all politicians and law enforcement agencies to help the probe committee on this matter hold those responsible for these mur-ders to account, and to take measures to prevent such incidents.
No person or organisation should be above the law. The public de-serves full accountability .
Diversify exports to reduce dependence on RMG
Reports suggest Bangladesh is on course to reach the export target of $30.5bn for the current � nancial year.
However, it remains the case that these exports are hugely over-dependent on RMG, which accounts for 81% of exports. Not only this, but the vast bulk of RMG exports are concentrated in the European Union and North American markets.
It is important for the country to diversify its export basket, both in terms of broadening the number of countries reached by our goods and in increasing the value of non-RMG items exported.
By creating more export jobs in more sectors and growing new markets, there can be both direct gains for businesses and workers, and a reduction in risks to the economy. The risks inherent in being reliant on limited export items and destinations, need to be spread around and reduced.
It is encouraging then that the government is looking to set up new trade missions and plans to create special incentives to expand exports for various non-RMG manufactured items.
Overseas trade envoys speaking at a Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry roundtable this week, have concurred that there is much untapped potential for the country to broaden its export base and to grow non-traditional markets.
News of plans to assemble mobile handsets for smartphones in the country, point to the possibilities that can be opened up by encouraging higher value export sectors to develop. Business leaders and govern-ment need to work together on a bolder vision for growing the country’s export base.
Bolder vision needed to grow new sectors and markets
No person or organisation should be above public accountability
Feeling like a fake BangladeshiMay 9
Behnaz AhmedThis article paints a very one dimensional Bang-
ladeshi expatriate experience. I’ve lived in the US since I was three years old and I still crave maach bhaat when I’m away from home. My knowledge
of the Bill of Rights is coupled with my knowledge of Bongo Bondhu and Bangladesh’s freedom � ghters of 1971. While I learned about Shake-
speare in grade school, I came home to my mother patiently teaching and translating Tagore and
Nazrul for my understanding. It doesn’t have to be about about picking one side, and alienating the
other – it can very well be about � nding a balance and embracing both. It’s not a matter of helpless
environmental circumstances, but rather a matter of choice and interest in whether or not you want to go the extra step and educate yourself, and the
next generation, about your Bangladeshi roots.
arif siddiqi Behnaz Ahmed: I left Bangladesh 22 years ago
for my studies and have now settled here. I have three kids. I have never been to any cultural event
not only here but even back home in my youth. My wife happened to be into cultural events in Bangladesh and for the � rst time this year took
all of us to a cultural program for the Bengali new year as she has put the kids in Bengali singing
classes. The kids complain, but at the end mom takes over. It is a mixed emotional experience to motivate the kids to take an interest in our
culture.
n Abdul Matin
Following the three major nuclear accidents in the Three Mile Is-land Nuclear Power Plant in USA
in 1979, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, now in Ukraine, in 1986, and lately the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in 2011, interest has shifted from generation-II nuclear power reactors to much safer genera-tion-III reactors. Generation-I reactors were built as prototypes during the early development of nuclear reactors and are no longer in operation. Most of the nuclear power reactors now in operation are generation-II reactors. They are likely to be retired in phases.
The generation-III power reactors are being developed by major reactor manufacturers in the USA, Europe, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, and Canada. The common features of the reactors include simple, standardised, and compact designs to reduce capital costs and construction period, higher fuel burn-up and thermal e� ciency, higher availability and longer core life, and more importantly, passive and active safety systems. Advanced light water reactors include, among others, advanced boiling water reactors (ABWR) and advanced pressurised water reactors (APWR).
Many countries have showed renewed interest in nuclear power because of global warming and climate changes resulting from the combus-tion of fossil fuels and high costs of renewable energy. Germany, which announced to phase out nuclear pow-er after the Fukushima accident, is rethinking to introduce nuclear power again. Many scientists and engineers believe that it may not be possible to cope with global warming without
nuclear power. Nuclear power reactors emit no greenhouse gases and the generation-III reactors are much safer than the generation-II reactors as they incorporate passive safety systems to make them inherently safe.
ABWRs were originally developed by General Electric of USA in collab-oration with Toshiba and Hitachi. Some versions are equipped with core catchers and � ltered vents for release of hydrogen gas from the reactor. Four ABWRs were in operation in Japan in 2011 and several more are under construction in Taiwan and the USA. Japan suspended the operation and construction of ABWRs and other re-actors under public pressure after the Fukushima accident.
AP-1000 is an APWR developed by Westinghouse of USA. It is a two-loop PWR evolved from a smaller version, AP-600, and certi� ed by US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Its simple and compact design resulted in cost savings with improved safety features. It has a core cooling system with pas-sive residual heat removal by natural convection and in-vessel retention of core damage with water cooling around it. No safety-related pumps or ventilation systems are used. AP-1000 reactors are also being built in China.
European pressurised water reactor (EPR) has been developed by Areva (former Framatome) in France. It is a standard model producing 1750 MWe gross and 1630 MWe net power. It is designed to use mixed-oxide fuel. The plant availability is expected to be 92% with a service life of 60 years. The reactor has double containment with a core catcher under the reactor pressure vessel. The reactor building is designed to withstand the crash of an aircraft. EPRs are under construction
in Finland, France, and China.Russia is now marketing mainly two
APWRs: VVER-1000 and VVER-1200. VVER-1000 reactors are available in di� erent versions. Russia and Ukraine have several VVER-1000 reactors in operation. The VVER-1200 reactor is developed from VVER-1000 reactor and has a standardised model with four coolant loops and 3200 MWt pow-er. It has enhanced safety with some passive safety features.
While generation-III nuclear reactors are under construction in several countries, generation-IV reactors are already on the drawing board. An international task force known as Generation-IV International Forum (GIF), formed in 2001, has selected six nuclear reactor technologies which may be deployed around 2030. The selected reactor systems include gas-cooled fast reactors, lead-cooled fast reactors, molten salt reactors, sodium cooled fast reactors, super-critical water-cooled reactors, and very high-temperature gas reactors.
Two of these are thermal reactors while others are based on fast or epithermal neutrons. Four rectors are designated for hydrogen production. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that produc-
es water as waste after combustion. All the reactors are credited to have better safety, economy, reliability, and sustainability compared to their pre-decessors. Other advantages include better nuclear waste management through production of wastes with shorter half-lives, possibility of con-version of long-lived actinides from nuclear wastes of current reactors into short-lived � ssion products, and more energy yield from the same amount of nuclear fuel.
Most of the reactors employ a closed fuel cycle to minimise the volume of high level wastes. Only one reactor is cooled by water, two by he-lium, and the others by lead-bismuth, sodium, or � uoride salts. The latter three are operated at low pressure with signi� cant advantage in terms of reactor safety. The temperatures range from 510°C to 1000°C while present day light water reactors operate at around 330°C. The high temperatures permit operation at higher e� ciencies and production of hydrogen through thermo-chemical reactions.
There are few other types of gen-eration-IV reactors being developed by other countries. Until prototypes of such reactors are operated success-fully, safely, and reliably, the gener-ation-III reactors will continue to dom-inate the nuclear market. It is believed that the advanced nuclear reactors will earn the con� dence of the people around the world as clean, safe, and reliable sources of power, and many countries who decided to phase out nuclear power plants will reconsider their decisions. l
Abdul Matin is a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and author of “Rooppur and the Power Crisis.”
n M Abdul Latif Mondal
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that the government has no plan to increase the age-limit
for the government service freshers. She said this while responding to a supplementary question from a treas-ury bench member in the parliament during the prime minister’s ques-tion-answer session in the House on April 2. The PM’s statement is, in fact, a response to those who have been de-manding an increase in the age-limit for entry into government service.
The following arguments were put forward by a section of students and others for extension of age-limit to 35 years or so from the current age-limit of 30 years for entering government jobs. Firstly, students now take longer to � nish their academic career. The government has extended one year of Honour’s and pass course period, but did not extend the age-limit for entry into government jobs. Due to this and other factors like “session jam,” and political unrest, graduation in many cases is not completed till a student reaches 27 or 28 years.
Secondly, the age-limit for en-tering government jobs for the sons and daughters of freedom � ghters is 32 years. Extending the age-limit to 35 years will bene� t all categories of candidates seeking government jobs. Thirdly, the government has increased the retirement age of public servants to 59 years from 57 years, so that it can be bene� ted from their experience. Extension of age-limit will similarly result in the recruitment of better candidates.
Fourthly, the age limit of job seek-ers is 35 years in many countries such as the UK, the US, Canada, and Aus-tralia. In West Bengal, the age-limit for entry into government jobs is 40 years. And � nally, there is a serious unem-ployment problem for the educated youths in the country. Extension of upper age-limit for entering govern-ment job will be helpful for these unemployed youths.
What is important to note is that the deputy commissioners, who act as the “eyes and ears” of the gov-ernment in the � eld administration, favour extension of the age-limit for entering government jobs. According to a report published in Dhaka Tribune on April 17, the DCs from across the country have recommended raising the age-limit for entering government service to 33 years. The recommen-dation, sent to the cabinet division, came ahead of this year’s DC confer-ence, scheduled to be held in July. The recommendation seems to have put the government in an embarrassing position.
As stated above, the PM has ruled out the possibility of raising the age-limit for entering government jobs. She has said that classes and examinations are being held in all educational institutions timely despite some untoward incidents. As a result, session jam has been reduced and stu-dents are graduating on time. So there is no need to increase the age-limit. She has also added that enhancement of age-limit would not be bene� cial for the job seekers.
It may be mentioned that during the Pakistani rule, upper age-limit for entering government jobs was 25 years. After liberation, the Bangladesh government raised the upper age-lim-it to 27 years for appointment to services/posts under the government, autonomous corporations/organisa-tions, and nationalised enterprises. The upper age-limit for the freedom � ghters was � xed at 30 years. Subse-quently, the upper age-limit for entry into jobs in government, corporations, and nationalised bodies was raised to 30 years. The age-limit for the freedom � ghters was raised to 32 years, which has now been made applicable to the sons and daughters of the freedom � ghters.
The arguments for not raising the
upper age-limit for entry into gov-ernment jobs are summarised below. Firstly, the present upper age-limit is actually the age-limit for submission of the application forms for jobs in the government and other bodies con-trolled by the government. Normally it takes one to two years for processing the applications and selecting appro-priate candidates for the advertised post. By this time a candidate may reach 31 or 32 years. And a freedom � ghter’s son or daughter may reach 33 or 34 years. But this does not disqual-ify him or her from joining the job, if selected.
Additionally, those who demand or suggest raising the age-limit for enter-ing government jobs argue that due to factors like session jam, political un-rest, and others, graduation in many cases is not completed till a student reaches 27 or 28 years. If this is the situation, then the candidate is still left with two to three years to compete for jobs in the governmental and autonomous bodies. As stated above, if a candidate applies for a job when he or she is about to reach 30 years, he or she is getting more time to try his or her luck for jobs.
If the upper age-limit for entering government job is raised to 35 years, then a candidate who completes his or her education at 26-27 years will have to compete with another who might be 35-years-old and in that case “the playing � eld will not be level.”
A new recruit, particularly a BCS cadre post holder has to undergo extensive training after recruitment. Experience has shown that as learners, comparatively young recruits are the most receptive to new teaching.
Available information suggests that age-limit of groups “C” and “D” of the West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) comprising posts like joint block development o� cer, deputy assistant director of consumer a� airs and fair business practices, assistant canal revenue o� cer (irrigation), inspector of co-operative societies, panchayat development o� cer under the panchayat and rural development department has been raised to 40 years. For executives and police belonging to group “A” and “B” respectively, the upper age-limit remains at 32 years. In Pakistan, the upper age-limit for appearing at the CSS examination is 28 years. This is relaxable by two years for scheduled caste, Buddhist community, and certain other disadvantaged groups.
And � nally, it is learnt that as per a provision under National Service Policy, a person who has rendered national service shall, for the purpose of appearing at any competitive exam-ination held for appointment to any service or post, be entitled to deduct from his age the period actually spent by him in national service.
In view of what has been stated above, the issue regarding raising the upper age-limit for entering government job has to be examined very carefully. There should not be any hurry or enthusiasm for another extension of upper age-limit for the government service freshers. As in the past, the government may go for one-time relaxation of the upper age-limit to meet any urgent situation. l
M Abdul Latif Mondal is a former government secretary.
11Op-Ed Wednesday, May 14, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE
n Mohammad Ali Sattar
Let’s start with the latest. Following the abduction and gruesome murders of seven individuals in Narayanganj and the alleged involvement
of RAB o� cials in the killing, all hell broke loose in the country.
On the one hand, people are de-manding exemplary punishment for the killers and their accomplices. On the other, there is a strong plea from in� uential quarters that RAB be dis-banded, while others call for reform in RAB infrastructure and regulations.
It is true that RAB has been mired in controversial actions from the begin-ning. The cross� re exercise (extra-ju-dicial killing), nabbing people and keeping them under cover for days, and bypassing the law of the land have been regular a� airs. RAB members are also involved in controversial acts of maiming and looting people around the country.
According to reports, a large number of RAB o� cials have been either punished or dismissed for their acts since its inception as elite crime busters.
Now we call for reforms in RAB. Why has this force been allowed to run without proper rules, carrying out extra-judicial acts at will is a question that the authorities concerned will have to answer. When a government force becomes a political tool, it ceases to be unfailing. RAB has to come under strict scrutiny with thorough overhauling.
Reforms in the police have also been a much talked about issue over the last decade or so. There have been some measures taken to upgrade the standards and services, but nothing much has happened. Police are still in need of revamping, especially in terms of the ethics of the members. Corrup-tion in police is something we have taken as only “natural.”
After the tragic incident in BDR in 2009, the authorities felt the need of total re-furbishment of the force. The name and uniform was altered and other required changes were brought about to bring back the force on its feet. Thus, BGB was born. Police and RAB should serve as easier things to deal with.
We have witnessed reforms in the education sector. At least there has been some attempt to bring about changes for � ner delivery. Schools and teachers are being treated with some kind of favour, if not total. Although much is needed to be accomplished. Especially the issue of the leakage of
question papers is worrying. An up-right and � awless education system is the best thing a nation can have.
Agriculture and land also call for immediate reforms. Although we have been experiencing su� cient crops all season, related industries in the sector are falling behind in meeting the requirement of the grower and price control of the market. The black marketers are so active that they spoil the broth. People, in the end, are the worst su� erers.
Land seems to be a free gift for some. The government lands are being taken over by the powerful sectors, even private sector lands are being grabbed by in� uential goons. Land disputes continue with no end, and there is no � xed rate for land pur-chase, sale, or registration.
Rajuk still happens to be the den of corruption. A strong nexus still grips the system. Sweeping reform in the system and regulations must be intro-duced to deal with this corruption.
Biman, the national carrier, could not come out of hibernation. The organisation has been in the clutch of some, which makes it impossible for anyone to dare talk about changes in the organisation. Like the aircraft itself, dishonesty has reached the sky.
Corruption stories of Biman are endless, and nothing seems to work there. Or, has there been any actual attempt to bring about a radical turn? No. The latest managing director, who just left, tried to put things in place, but soon found it impossible to turn things amidst the corrupt souls.
Reform is long overdue here.The transportation sector is yet
another important area where we need to have things completely changed. BRTA kept the sector in doldrums.
Reforms in the EC are a topic long buried under rags. People are tired of deliberating on this. The reforms in EC have been long overdue. The weakling is a threat to the country’s democracy. Typically, the EC has been under the in� uence of the government. The EC boss is usually handpicked, and serves the master. Recall the latest comments of the EC commissioner on the latest upazila polls.
The topmost priority should be the overhaul of political parties in the country. The constitutions of the par-ties speak volumes of people’s welfare, economic emancipation, develop-ment, and democracy.
It is the political parties that should metamorphose � rst. The absence of democratic practice within parties has been the main obstacle in establishing democracy in the state level. Not only do the parties hamper development, they actually create such hindrances due to their own ill practices.
The constitutional reforms in the EC and the political parties should bring about an immense change in the social, economic, and political scenar-io of the country. More importantly, it will serve as a boon for the people.
The cry for reform is the cry of the hour. l
Mohammad Ali Sattar is a journalist and DT columnist.
The cry for reform
Constitutional reforms should bring about an immense change in the social, economic, and political scenario
Due to political unrest, graduation in many cases is not completed till a student reaches 27
Countries have showed renewed interest in nuclear power because of high costs of renewable energy
We have no choice but to � x a broken system BIGSTOCK
Raising the entrance age
Our con� dence in nuclear reactors
BIGSTOCK
EntertainmentDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 201412
Two European � lms will be showcased todayn Entertainment Desk
Czech � lm “You Kiss Like a God” and Danish � lm “A Hijacking” will be showcased today as part of the seven-day long “European Film Fes-tival” which began yesterday at the Star Cineplex of Basundhara City shopping mall.
“You Kiss Like a God,” a 2009 Czech comedy � lm directed by Ma-rie Polednakova, is centered on Hel-ena Altmanova, a likable high school French and literature teacher, whose healthy and light-hearted attitude has gained her popularity among teachers and students alike. How-ever, her personal life has big sur-prises in store for her. The � lm will be screened at 12pm, 3:50pm and
7:45pm.Another � lm, “A Hijacking,” is
a 2012 Danish thriller, written and directed by Tobias Lindholm. It is about the hijacking of a ship. The plot alternates between the events on board the hijacked ship, and those occurring in the shipping com-pany’s o� ce back in Denmark. It focuses largely on the experiences of the ship’s cook and the shipping company’s CEO, acting as the nego-tiator. The � lm will be shown at 2pm and 5:55pm.
This is the second time the festi-val is taking place in Bangladesh and the European Union along with Star Cineplex have organised the event that features a total of 12 movies from 12 countries of the EU. l
Are Indian � lms entering the country’s movie theatres?n Hasan Mansoor Chatak
Recently, an Indian � lm titled “Chil-dren of War,” based on the Liberation War of 1971 premiered at the Star Cineplex. The � lm will be released in Bangladesh o� cially on May 16 on special arrangement and has given rise to the dilemma of whether Indi-an � lms are entering the Bangladeshi market, overcoming the almost four-decade-old ban.
Ever since Bangladesh’s indepen-dence from Pakistan in 1971, local cinema halls have been banned from showing Indian � lms. It was an at-tempt to protect the local � lm-mak-ing industry.
On January 26, 2010, when the Ministry of Commerce issued a gazette noti� cation, amending the import policy and withdrawing the ban, it sparkled the continuing debate into an all out war of protest from the local � lm industry. The ban was re-imposed six months later in June through another gazette noti� cation. However, the withdrawal that existed for six months only, later resulted to the screening of three Indian Bangla movies and nine Bollywood � lms in the local theatres.
The reaction to the question of lifting the ban on the import of Indi-an � lms in the country varies among the � lm-makers, actors, producers, exhibitors and critiques. According to a segment, the Bangladeshi � lm industry will su� er immensely if In-dian � lms enter the market as very audience goes to theatre to watch Bangla � lms. On the other hand, In-dian � lms are vastly popular among the viewers of the country and it is feared that given the choice between an Indian movie and a Bangladeshi movie, the preference will lean to-wards the � lm of the neghbouring country. Considering the situation, there are many individuals who still want the ban to be lifted.
But the recent attempt of screen-ing of “Children of War” rekindled the controversial debate.
Fahmidul Haque, an associate professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University
of Dhaka, said: “I am all in for im-porting Indian � lms in Bangladesh. I believe that � lms of all languages should be screened for cultural di-
versity. But, the countries should come to a mutual agreement and India could agree to release Ban-gladeshi � lms in its theatres. I also
think that some regulations and control should be imposed on the cinema halls of the country where it will state that a theatre cannot go on showcasing foreign � lms repeat-edly.”
Recently Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, renowned � lm director, expressed his concern over this phenomenon on the social media: “I think, joint productions of Bangladesh-India will be bene� cial for our industry. I also believe that if Indian � lms are to be released in Bangladesh, then it is only fair for Bangladeshi � lms to be released in India. Tax structures of screening foreign � lms in Bangla-desh should be revised as well. In Kolkata, a Hindi � lm is taxed at 25% whereas a Bangla � lm can run with only 2% tax. As an independent government, our policy should be revised with our own pro� t in mind, not someone else’s pro� t.”
Shahidul Islam Khokon, the pres-ident of Film Directors’ Association, quoted founding president of Ban-gladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: “Films from the other countries of the sub-continent will not be re-leased in Bangladesh.”
Khokon further illustrates that a Bangladeshi � lm has the overall budget of Tk1 crore whereas an Indi-an � lm is made with budget exceed-ing Tk100 crore. He said there is no way � lms of such varying budgets can compete in the same � eld.
Previously, cinema-hall owners expressed concern about the mea-ger number of � lms being released in Bangladesh every year. For more than a decade, the number of movie theatres being shut down increased in number due to the lack of new � lms and the dwindling interest of the audience.
Meanwhile, an India-Bangladesh joint production, “Ami Shudhu Cheyechhi Tomay,” starring Ankush and Shubhasree of India in the lead roles, is also set to hit the local the-atres this month. The inclusion of Bangladeshi production house Ac-tion Cut as a producer of the � lm has raised question as it is rumoured that it is an all-out Indian � lm di-rected by Ashok Pati. l
Humaira Himu joins DBn Entertainment Desk
Popular small screen actor Humaira Himu joined the team of popular dra-ma series DB. She will be seen as an of-� cer of the Detective Branch of Police in the series. Directed by Shahiduz-zaman Selim and Jahangir Alam Su-mon, DB airs every Sunday and Mon-day at 9:15pm on ATN Bangla.
Talking about the action role, Himu said: “This is the � rst time I am acting
in such a role. I found it really chal-lenging. After wearing the costume of a DB o� cer, I felt di� erent and in con-trol. I am enjoying the shooting. In a nutshell, it’s amazing.”
Other series of Humaira on air at present includes “Sanghat”and “Chair-man Bari” on Boishakhi TV, “Batig-hor” on Banglavision and “Shonena She Shonena” on ATN Bangla.
The talented TV artiste has also act-ed in the � lm “Amar Bondhu Rashed.” l
Na Manushi Jomin to be staged tomorrow n Entertainment Desk
Theatre Art Unit will premiere its lat-est production “Na Manushi Jomin” tomorrow at 7pm, at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The troupe will also stage its third technical show of the play to-day at the same venue.
Saif Sumon, the director of the play adapted the story from Anisul Haque’s acclaimed novel with the same title.
The play depicts a number of un-derprivileged people whose lives are disrupted when they face eviction from their homeland. In order to start afresh, they try to enter another coun-try and faces rejection from there as well. With no where else to go, the un-fortunate group gets stranded in “No Man’s Land,” a neutral piece of land that belongs to no-one in particular and separates the borders of coun-tries.
Among the group, a pregnant woman dies after giving birth to a baby. The individuals are then faced with the inevitable question, which country will the baby belong to?
The drama features Prasanta Halder, Sujon Rezaul, Hasnat Pradip, Syed Alik, Tania Chowdhury Shilpi, Shahnaz Shanu, Nuruzzaman Babu,
Adib Mahmud, and Asif Mamun.Theatre Art Unit was formed by late
noted theatre activist SM Solaiman in 1992. From then on, the troupe
has already brought 16 productions on-stage including acclaimedplays “Amina Sundari” and “Court Martial.” l
Kajol turns fair with surgery?
n Entertainment Desk
It is rumoured that Kajol has under-gone a surgery to look fair. At a recent event, the bubbly actor made people wonder about her radiant and lighter skin tone. Kajol looked visibly lovely and far more fair than usual.
The “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jay-enge” actor who is usually known for being a dusky beauty alleged to have gone for skin melanin surgery to get a fairer complexion.
Kajol recently launched the trail-er of “Mighty Raju Rio Calling” and
was also honoured with the “Mighty Mom Award.” The change in her com-plexion was more than evident as she looked gorgeous in a yellow top, which she teamed with a black � oral printed skirt. l
2 States enters ‘100 crore club’n Entertainment Desk
Bollywood’s new duo Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor’s � lm “2 States” has entered the prestigious Rs “100 crore club” and has collected a whopping Rs 102 crore within four weeks of its release.
The � lm made a great start and had earned Rs 12.42 crore on its opening day and later went on to earn Rs 38 crore in its opening weekend.
“2 States” has been declared the third biggest opening of 2014 after Salman Khan’s “Jai Ho” and Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor’s “Gunday.”
Celebrated � lm critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh declared this rom-com a superhit as it hit a ton.
He tweeted: “2 States had re-ceived positive reviews from crit-ics, Indian Express critic Shubhra Gupta said Alia Bhatt was a sur-prise and in fact better than Arjun Kapoor.”
The � lm, directed by debutant Abhishek Verman, is based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel of the same name. The crackling chemistry be-tween its lead actors and rumoured lovers has also worked in the fa-vour of the � lm.
Its supporting cast includes very talented actors like Revathy, Amri-ta Singh and Ronit Roy.
“2 States” is the love story of Tamilian Brahmin Ananya (Alia Bhatt) and Punjabi Krish (Arjun Ka-poor) against all odds and cultural di� erences. l
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki said: I think, joint productions of Bangladesh-India will be bene� cial for our industry. I also believe that if Indian � lms are to be released in Bangladesh, then it is only fair for Bangladeshi � lms to be released in India. Tax structures of screening foreign � lms in Bangladesh should be revised as well. In Kolkata, a Hindi � lm is taxed at 25% whereas a Bangla � lm can run with only 2% tax
13DHAKA TRIBUNEWednesday, May 14, 2014
Sport 1414 15 Dhaka Tribune clinch Sony Expo 2014 title
Did you know?59% - Tim
Sherwood had the highest winning
percentage of any Tottenham Hotspur manager in Premier
League history
Berlusconi ‘not satis� ed’ with Milan
New faces among 30-man Spanish squad
South Zone crowned champion
Prime Bank South Zone clinched the title of the second edition of Bangladesh Cricket League by (BCL) beat-
ing BCB North Zone on the � fth and � nal day by 213 runs at the Sher-e-Ban-gla National stadium yesterday. South Zone’s left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak wrecked havoc by picking up six sec-ond innings wickets to in� ict such a crushing defeat on North Zone who lasted only two hours in the � nal morn-ing of the match.
Chasing 573 runs to win, BCB North Zone su� ered an early blow on the � fth day when overnight batsman Nasir Hossain was clean bowled by fast bowl-er Al Amin who thus denied Nasir any chance to add to his overnight score of 67. Nasir’s wicket brought Tanvir Haid-er to the crease who too followed his skipper back in the pavilion in the next over with North Zone’s score on 259-5. However, Nasir’s overnight partner Forhad was unfazed by this sudden � urry of wickets and went on to com-plete a well-deserved century. Forhad’s � awless innings saw the ball reaching the boundary 17 times for his brilliant
129. Although Forhad had looked quite at ease against spin in his innings, iron-ically it was Abdur Razzak who proved to be his nemesis as he was the 8th wicket to fall for North Zone while try-ing to cut Razzak. Forhad’s departure all but ended North Zone’s hope of any survival as Razzak wasted no time in wrapping up the tail when he bowled Subashis Roy to end North Zone’s � nal day misery with 359 runs on the score-board.
National team bowler Abdur Raz-zak’s six wickets and opener Imrul Kayes’ double hundred in the second innings turned out to be the two piv-otal performances which brought glory for South Zone for the � rst time after Walton Central Zone won the inaugural tournament last year.
Earlier in the match, BCB North Zone skipper Nasir Hossain won the toss and elected to � eld � rst. Man of the series Taijul Islam picked up 8 wickets for the bowling side to restrict Prime Bank South Zone to 271. However, BCB North Zone couldn’t capitalize on that as they were bundled out for 235 runs to award South Zone an all important lead of 36 runs with three days still remaining in the match.
The South Zone top order clicked when it mattered the most as man of the � nal Imrul Kayes’s heroic 204, duly complemented by Mithun Ali’s 126, helped their side to pile up a total of 536 to set North Zone a target of 573 runs to win the � nal. BCB North Zone, although ended the fourth day prom-isingly on 254/3, their hopes of getting anything out of the match were eventu-ally dashed on the � fth and � nal day as Razzak’s mesmerizing spin sent them capitulating for 359 to su� er a crushing defeat of 213 runs. l
Mahmud praises BCL intensity
Title-winning Prime Bank South Zone coach Khaled Mahmud praised the com-petitiveness of the second edition of the � rst-class franchise-based Bangladesh Cricket League, expressing his delight with the fact that the � ve-day grand � nale entered the � fth and � nal day at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
“I must give credit to the boys who played well for their side and the way
the players fought till the � fth day is something great. It’s a very good sign for cricket and I think every cricketer has played their part,” said Mahmud.
Mahmud added that deciding to bat � rst in the � nal proved to be a suicidal decision as the wicket was assisting the bowlers. However, he complimented his batsmen for the comeback in the second innings, especially double cen-turion Imrul Kayes and Mithun Ali, who chipped in with a hundred of his own.
Prime Bank have been involved with cricket for some time as they also own a team in the Dhaka Premier Cricket League and Mahmud, who is acting as the mentor of Prime Bank Cricket Acad-emy, informed that there are plans of more involvement in the near future.
Meanwhile, South Zone skipper Abdur Razzak noti� ed that their main target was to remove the two overnight batsmen early in the � fth and � nal day.
“Our main target was to break the
partnership between Nasir [Hossain] and Forhad [Hossain] and after dismissing these two, I never placed any timeframe for � nishing the game,” he said.
Razzak played an instrumental part behind the victory claiming six wickets in the second innings and added that the standard of the BCL is much better than before and the players are more committed to perform for their respec-tive sides. l
Bulbul refutes rumours
Asian Cricket Council development o� cer Aminul Islam Bulbul is interest-ed in taking charge of the Bangladesh national team, the former captain in-formed the media at Sher-e-Bangla Na-tional Stadium yesterday.
Bulbul’s arrival at Mirpur yesterday created quite a buzz as the Bangladesh Cricket Board is discussing the options of assigning him with the role of head coach. However, the former top-order batsman ruled out the rumours.
“I am here to do some ACC work with the BCB. Bangladesh hosted the Asia Cup so my visit is about settling the accounts of the event, nothing more than that. I did not receive any o� er (for being the head coach) from the BCB. I will think over it if the board gives me the o� er,” said Bulbul.
However according to a BCB source, Bulbul was o� ered the job for the bat-ting coach which he declined due to his commitments with the ACC.
There is a great possibility that the BCB will hire a foreign coach to re-place the outgoing Shane Jurgensen
but Bulbul thinks that Bangladesh have enough quality coaches at home cur-rently and one of them can easily take over the helm of the national side.
“Level-three currently is the high-est in coaching and training. We have around eight-ten who have done the level-three training in Bangladesh. I think the local coaches should also be given the chance to work with the na-tional team. This will help in determin-ing if they (the local coaches) are capa-ble,” said Bulbul.
Bulbul asserted that the BCB should recruit a coach who can understand the players.
“I think the established coaches work with small things in a team. I expect a coach for Bangladesh who will train the top players of the team and at the same time develop the junior cricketers,” said the � rst Bangladesh Test centurion.
“A coach does not only make the players learn the game but also has the job of selecting the team and work on development issues. One cannot work if there is intervention not only in Ban-gladesh but around the globe,” con-cluded Bulbul. l
Teamwork bears fruit for Russel
Sheikh Russel skipper Biplob Bhat-tacharjee termed the AFC President’s Cup group ‘A’ success as a fruit of over-all teamwork both on and o� the � eld.
Russel returned to the capital city yesterday from Colombo and was accorded a � owery reception at the airport. Following � ve failures in the group stages earlier by Dhaka Abaha-ni, Russel � nally toppled the hurdle to earn a � nal-round slot slated for Sep-tember. After a goalless draw against KRL Club of Pakistan in the opening encounter, Russel gradually � exed its muscles to defeat Sri Lanka Air Force 5-0 and Ugyen Academy of Bhutan 4-0 to win the group with seven points and having kept clean sheets in all of the three matches.
Biplob though wiped away talks of any easy environment. “Things were not easy as assumed. The teams were tough as you could see that Sri Lanka
Air Force beat KRL 3-0 while we drew with [KRL]. However, the goalless draw with KRL in the opener was the turn-ing point as it charged the players up and inserted the belief that we could do it. Moreover, Sheikh Jamal’s success in the IFA Shield also motivated us as we thought that we could also achieve something special” said Biplob.
The team management of Russel was particularly happy with the per-formance of Haitian mid� elder Pascal Millien. “He lived up to the expec-tations. For some unknown reason he was not producing his best in the Bangladesh Premier League but he lifted the spirit in Colombo and I hope he continues the form in Bangladesh also,” illustrated Biplob.
Biplob was quick to single out the toughness of the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League. “At the moment I think BPL is the best in South Asia. Our success largely owes to the tough and competitive level of the ongoing league
and this should be continued” said the veteran custodian.
“We want to continue the run of success in the BPL and of course in the � nal round that would be held from 22nd-28th September and the target is to go to the � nal,” said Biplob.
The Russel skipper also added that former coach Maruful Haque was pas-sively involved with the team. “We met him before departing and asked his opinion before every match over phone. He prepared us mentally while he was in charge,” said Biplob.
Russel’s Montenegrin coach Dra-gan Dukanovic credited all his players for the virtuoso performance. “The defence, mid� eld and o� ence were all knit in the same cord. We did not concede any goals and the team man-agement was also e� cient. I want to continue the success in the local league also,” said Dragan.
Russel resume their BPL commit-ments against Team BJMC on Friday. l
Prime Bank South Zone271 (Taijul Islam- 8/86) and 536 (Imrul Kayes 204, Mithun Ali 126) BCB North Zone235 (Al Amin 4/34) and 359 (Forhad Hossain 129, Nasir Hossain 67(Abdur Razzak - 6/102) Prime Bank South Zone won by 213 runs
BRIEF SCORE
Prime Bank South Zone go wild with the BCL trophy at the SBNS yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE
Sheikh Russel team was accorded a warm reception at the airport yesterday COURTESY
Bangladesh Archery Federation general secretary K.R.U.A. Chapal makes a point in the presser of the archery club championship yesterday
Muktijoddha demolish Ctg Abahani
Both Sunday Chizoba and Nkwocha Kingsley, the Nigerian attacking duo slammed hat-tricks as Muktijoddha routed Chittagong Abahani Lim-ited 6-0 in the 2nd phase of Nitol Tata Bangladesh
Premier Football League at the Sheikh Moni Stadium in Gopalgonj yesterday.
The Nigerian forward Sunday scored in the 16th, 49th and 80th minute while his compatriot Nkwocha Kingsley net-ted in the 39th, 42nd and 76th minute.
Yesterday’s win saw Muktijoddha increase their tally to 21 points from 14 matches while Ctg Abahani remain still on their previous aggregate of 8 points from 15 matches. The � fth hat-trick of BPL was recorded on Monday while these two raised the total of hat-tricks to seven. Sunday and Nkwocha joined Mithun, Emeka Darlington, Wedson and Kester in the treble scorers list. l
1st Archery Club C’ship begins tomorrow
The Cute 1st Archery Club Champion-ship comprising 34 clubs from across the country starts at the Army Stadium tomorrow. The competition, � rst of its kind, is expected to generate � erce rival-ry among the archers ahead of the two big international competition - the Com-monwealth Games and the Asian Games.
There will be two divisions as usu-al - the Recurve Bow and the Bamboo Bow. The Recurve Bow consists of a
length of 70 meters while the Bamboo Bow is measured 25 meters. 84 male and 57 female archers constitute a total of 141 archers. All the leading archers of the country - Emdadul Haque Milon, Roman Sana, Sajjad Hossain will be participating in the meet for di� erent clubs. The three categories of the com-petition include individual, team and the mixed team.
Kazi Razivuddin Ahmed Chapal, the general secretary of Bangladesh Ar-chery Federation hoped the competi-
tion will inject new motivation among the archers. “There are a number of good archery clubs which are situat-ed outside the capital. These clubs will try to make their marks. I hope there will be some exciting new tal-ents,” said Chapal.
As the sponsor, Cute is providing a purse of Tk. 300000.00 and the compe-tition will be inaugurated by Zahid Ah-san Russell, the chairman of the stand-ing committee of youth and sports ministry of Bangladesh. l
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Chiellini World Cup place at riskItaly and Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini was banned for three matches for elbowing on Monday, leaving him in danger of being left out of his
country’s World Cup squad for indiscipline. Serie A’s disciplinary tribunal said Chiellini had been guilty of elbowing AS Roma’s Miralem Pjanic in an o� -the-ball incident during Juve’s 1-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday. The tribunal used video evidence to make the decision as the incident was not seen by the referee. Chiellini will now have to wait to see if the incident will a� ect his World Cup chances. –Reuters
Portland top Spurs to stay aliveDamian Lillard scored 25 points as the Portland Trail Blazers stayed alive in the NBA playo� s with a 103-92 victory over San Antonio on Monday. LaMar-
cus Aldridge added 19 points for the Trail Blazers, whose victory in game four of the Western Conference second-round playo� series prevented a Spurs sweep. They’ll head back to San Antonio for game � ve on Wednesday, with the Spurs still up 3-1 and looking to wrap up the series and reach the conference � nals for a third straight season. No NBA team has ever won a best-of-seven playo� series after losing the � rst three games. –AFP
Stiverne wins WBC heavyweight titleBermane Stiverne claimed the vacant World Boxing Council heavyweight title, stopping Chris Arreola Saturday to become the � rst � ghter in years
not named Klitschko to grab a share of the heavyweight crown. The 35-year-old Canadian Stiverne knocked Arreola down twice in the sixth round before referee Jack Reiss stopped the bout at 2:02 of the round, giving Stiverne the victory in the � rst heavyweight championship bout on American soil since 2009. “I had a dream to be the world champion,” Stiverne said. “For me it was an impossible dream but I just kept going. I didn’t stop.” –AFP
Wilmots includes Januzaj, Origi in Belgian World Cup squad
Belgium coach Marc Wilmots on Tuesday unveiled a 24-strong World Cup squad that included young talents Adnan Januzaj and
Divock Origi.Wilmots called up 20 out� eld
players and four goalkeepers given the injury to Ho� enheim stop-shotter Koen Casteels.
Casteels sustained a fractured tib-ia but could be � t for the June 12-July 13 tournament in Brazil, with Ander-
lecht’s Silvio Proto lined up as the num-ber three goalkeeper should the former not make it.
Squad:Goalkeepers (4): Thibaut Courtois
(Atletico Madrid/ESP), Simon Mignolet (Liverpool/ENG), Koen Casteels (Ho� enheim/GER), Silvio Proto (Anderlecht)
Defenders (8): Toby Alderweireld (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Anthony Vanden Borre (Anderlecht), Daniel Van Buyten (Bayern Munich/GER), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City/ENG), Jan Vertonghen (Tottenham/ENG), Thomas
Vermaelen (Arsenal/ENG), Nicolas Lombaerts (Zenit St-Petersburg/RUS), Laurent Ciman (Standard)
Mid� elders (6): Axel Witsel (Zenit St-Petersburg/RUS), Marouane Fel-laini (Manchester United/ENG), Steven Defour (Porto/POR), Moussa Dem-bele (Tottenham/ENG), Nacer Chadli (Tottenham/ENG), Kevin De Bruyne (Wolfsburg/GER)
Frowards (6): Romelu Lukaku (Ever-ton/ENG), Divock Origi (Lille/FRA), Eden Hazard (Chelsea/ENG), Kevin Mirallas (Everton/ENG), Dries Mertens (Napoli/ITA), Adnan Januzaj (Manches-ter United/ENG) l
New faces among 30-man Spanish squad
Spain manager Vicente del Bosque on Tuesday named the uncapped David de Gea, Dani Car-vajal and Ander Itur-raspe in his provisional list of 30 players for the
World Cup in Brazil next month.Del Bosque will announce his � nal
squad of 23 players to defend the tro-phy they won for the � rst time four years ago on May 25, a day after Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have dis-puted the Champions League � nal in Lisbon.
Nationalised Brazilian striker Diego Costa is included among the forwards after scoring 36 goals this season which have propelled Atletico to the brink of a Champions League and La Liga double.
Chelsea’s Fernando Torres is also included despite another di� cult sea-son at club level as are Juventus’ Fer-nando Llorente and Alvaro Negredo of Manchester City with only one likely to make the � nal cut. l
Uruguay’s Coates, Eguren given World Cup lifeline
Defender Sebastian Coates was handed a World Cup lifeline when Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez named the Liv-erpool player in his pro-
visional 25-man World Cup squad on Monday.
Squad:Goalkeepers: Fernando Muslera
(Galatasaray), Martin Silva (Vasco da Gama), Rodrigo Munoz (Libertad)
Defenders: Maximiliano Pereira (Ben� ca), Diego Lugano (West Brom-
wich Albion), Diego Godin, Jose Maria Gimenez (both Atletico Madrid), Sebas-tian Coates (Liverpool), Martin Caceres (Juventus), Jorge Fucile (Porto)
Mid� elders: Alejandro Silva (Lanus), Alvaro Gonzalez (Lazio), Alvaro Pereira (Sao Paulo), Walter Gargano (Parma), Egidio Arevalo Rios (Morelia), Diego Perez (Bologna), Sebastian Eguren (Palmeiras), Cristian Rodriguez (Atlet-ico Madrid), Gaston Ramirez (South-ampton), Nicolas Lodeiro (Botafogo)
Forwards: Luis Suarez (Liverpool), Edinson Cavani (Paris St Germain), Abel Hernandez (Palermo), Diego Forlan (Cerezo Osaka), Christian Stuani (Espanyol) l
Drogba, Toure brothers head up Ivory Coast squad
Veteran striker Dider Drog-ba headed up Ivory Coast’s provisional 28-man squad for the World Cup � nals in Brazil, named by manager
Sabri Lamouchi on Tuesday.
SquadGoalkeepers (4): Boubacar Barry
(Lokeren/BEL), Sayouba Mande (Stabaek/NOR), Sylvain Gbohouo (Sewe San Pedro/CIV), Ali Badra (ASEC Mimosas/CIV)
Manchester City players lift the Premiership and League Cup trophies in celebration as they prepare to take part in a victory parade on an open-topped bus through the streets of Manchester, northwest England, on Monday, after becoming the English Premier League champions AFP
Leicester eye top � ve Premier League place
The Thai owners of newly promot-ed Leicester City are willing to spend $300 million to achieve their goal of � nishing in the top � ve of the English Premier League within the next three seasons.
Leicester sealed a place in the lu-crative top � ight of English football by winning the Championship title last month, ending a decade-long absence from the Premier League.
Like all promoted clubs, survival is the initial goal for Leicester but billion-aire chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha has grander notions in the years ahead.
“We want to stay in the EPL as long as possible,” Vichai told reporters in
Bangkok on Monday after the team en-joyed a three-day stay in the Thai holi-day destination of Phuket.
“But we won’t take the huge leap to challenge the league’s top � ve clubs immediately.
“Do we have a chance to beat them? Yes, we have, but I think we need to es-tablish our foothold in the league � rst and then we think about our next step.
“It will take a huge amount of money, possibly 10 billion Thai Baht ($306.56 million), to get there. But that doesn’t put us o� . I am asking for three years, and we’ll be there.”
Leicester, three-times League Cup winners, were relegated from the Pre-mier League in 2004 and then fell to the third tier in 2008. l
Palestine seeking Fifa sanctions against Israel
Palestine will urge delegates at next month’s FIFA Congress to take sanc-tions against Israel while it continues to act “like the neighbourhood bully”, FA president Jibril Rajoub told Reuters on Tuesday.
Rajoub, speaking at the Soccerex Asian Forum being held on the banks of the Dead Sea, said the relationship between the two Middle East neighbours had seriously deteriorated following the recent arrest of a Palestine footballer and the shooting of two other players.
There was no immediate comment from any Israeli source. l
Rodgers, Pulis honoured with managerial awards
Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers was named the League Managers Associa-tion’s (LMA) ‘Manager of the Year’ on Monday after he helped lift the Mer-seyside club out of the doldrums and took them to the brink of the Premier League championship.
The LMA also honoured Crystal Pal-ace boss Tony Pulis with the Premier League Manager of the Year award for an impressive six months in which he replaced Ian Holloway mid-season and pulled the club out of relegation danger.
Under Pulis’s watch, Palace went from strength to strength, � nishing 11th after a � ve-match winning streak and only one loss in their last eight games.l
Tottenham sack manager Sherwood
Tim Sherwood became the latest Tot-tenham Hotspur manager to fall foul of the north London Premier League club’s sky-high expectations when he was sacked on Tuesday after six months in charge.
The 45-year-old replaced Portu-guese Andre Villas-Boas in December. Sherwood signed an 18-month contract when he took over as manager but was widely expected to leave at the end of the season.
Sherwood, who played nearly 100 league matches in mid� eld for Spurs, rejoined the club as assistant � rst-team coach in 2008. l
Berlusconi ‘not satis� ed’ with Milan, mulls Seedorf future
AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi is not satis� ed with the team’s recent performances and coach Clarence See-dorf’s fate will be decided at the end of the season, he said on Monday.
“I’m not satis� ed with Milan, just like all the supporters,” the former Italian prime minister told the Sport Mediaset television channel with his once all-conquering side lying eighth in Serie A.
“The di� erence is that I’m the one who pays the wages, so I su� er a bit more than them.
“I’m not satis� ed with the way Mi-lan are playing. No, not at all. Therefore
we have to re� ect on this fact.“We will decide at the end of the season
after the � nal match,” he said, referring to Dutchman Seedorf. “I will meet with the board and a decision will be taken.”
Former Milan mid� elder Seedorf was given a contract until the end of the 2015/16 season when he took over in January and has overseen a consider-able improvement in results since then.
Milan won only � ve out of 19 league games this season under predecessor Massimiliano Allegri while Seedorf has led them to 10 wins in 18 matches.
From being 10 points o� the Euro-pa League places in January, Milan are now one point adrift with one match to play at home to Sassuolo on Sunday.
Italian media speculation over See-dorf’s future has been growing, fuelled by the failure of the club’s directors to give him any public backing as they did freqeuntly with Allegri.
“I certainly didn’t expect us to lose,” said Berlusconi, who has been slammed by fans for the lack of recent investment. “Things went badly.
“But I remember all the years in which we’ve had extraordinary success, that we are the club which has won the most titles in the world and above all we are working for the Milan of the future.
“When we put this season behind us, we will look ahead and go back to being the extraordinary protagonists that we have been for many years in the past.” l
Italian coach of football team Galatasaray, Roberto Mancini (L) and Italian football star Francesco Totti perform paddle-tennis during Rome’s ATP tennis Masters in Rome on Monday AFP
GoalkeepersIker Casillas (Real Madrid), Pepe Reina (Napoli/ITA), David de Gea (Manchester United/ENG)DefendersDani Carvajal, Sergio Ramos (both Real Madrid), Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba (both Barcelona), Cesar Azplicueta (Chelsea/ENG), Juanfran (Atletico Madrid), Javi Martinez (Bayern Munich/GER), Raul Albiol (Napoli/ITA), Alberto Moreno (Sevilla)Mid� eldersSergio Busquets, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas (all Barcelona), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Ander Iturraspe (Athletic Bilbao), David Silva (Manchester City/ENG), Santi Cazorla (Arsenal/ENG), Koke (Atletico Madrid), Tiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich/GER), Juan Mata (Man-chester United/ENG)ForwardsDiego Costa, David Villa (both Atletico Madrid), Alvaro Negredo, Jesus Navas (both Manchester City), Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona), Fernando Llorente (Juventus/ITA), Fernando Torres (Chelsea/ENG)
PROVISIONAL SQUAD
SportDHAKA TRIBUNE14
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Start Sports 24:00 PMATP Rome Masters Sony Six5:00AM
Nba Play O� 2013-14, Conf SfIndiana v Washington 7:00AMOklahoma v LA Clippers
Indian Premier League4:30 PMHyderabad v Punjab 8:30 PMKolkata v Mumbai
BJMC win Dhaka zone � nal
Team BJMC emerged as the champion of the KFC National Women’s Football of Dhaka zone with a 12-0 thrashing
of Narshingdi in the zonal � nal held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. National team forward Sabina Khatun scored nine goals in the 13th, 17th, 24th, 31st, 41st, 62nd, 66th, 69th and 78th minute while Suraiya, Rikta and Bithi netted the other three goals for the victors.
–RM
E� mova gets a 16-month doping banRussian swimmer Yulia E� mova was banned for 16 months on Tuesday for failing a drugs test, Russian media reported. The international swimming federation (FINA) doping panel had provisonally suspended E� mova in January after samples she provided in an out-of-competition control last October showed the presence of a pro-hibited anabolic steroid. The FINA ban runs until February 28, 2015, and all of E� mova’s results from October 31, 2013 onwards, including the 200m breast-stroke world record she set at the Eu-ropean short course championships at Herning, Denmark, in December, have been cancelled. E� mova was reported to have accepted she was in breach of the doping code violation but presented a detailed defence and insisted she had not intended to enhance her perfor-mance. Anatoly Zhuravlev, head coach of Russia’s national swimming team, said he was satis� ed with the verdict and had expected a harsher penalty.
–AFP
Court told Pistorius has ‘anxiety disorder’Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial resumed Monday with a psychiatrist telling the court the sprinter had an “anxiety disorder,” as the defence began to wrap up its case. Opening the eighth and perhaps � nal week of evidence, defence lawyer Barry Roux called a forensic psy-chiatrist to testify on Pistorius’s feelings of vulnerability, a factor that may have caused him to believe his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was an intruder when he shot her dead on Valentine’s Day last year. “It is my opinion, my lady, that Mr Pistorius has an anxiety disorder,” said Meryll Vorster, recounting stressful fac-tors in the Paralympic gold medallist’s life. Vorster, who also interviewed Pisto-rius’s close family and friends to compile her report, said the athlete’s disorder began when his parents encouraged the double-amputee to be normal. “Over time this could result in anxiety,” she said. The Pistorius children were not “soothed” by their mother, Sheila, who slept with a � rearm under her pillow and “abused alcohol intermittently,” continued the psychiatrist.
–AFP
Hodgson gives Cole glimmer of WC hopeEngland manager Roy Hodgson suggested on Monday that Ashley Cole could be asked to make an international comeback in case of a pre-World Cup injury to rival left-back Leighton Baines. Cole, 33, retired from international football on Sunday after being informed by Hodgson that he did not feature in his 23-man squad for the World Cup in Brazil, which was unveiled in Luton on Monday. Chelsea defender Cole, En-gland’s most-capped full-back with 107 caps, has lost his place in the starting XI to Everton’s Baines this season. But rather than include Cole as back-up, Hodgson decided to hand an opportu-nity to 18-year-old Southampton de-fender Luke Shaw, who is reportedly the subject of a £27 million ($45.5 million, 33.1 million euros) bid from Manchester United. As Cole was not named on Hodgson’s seven-man standby list, he could only be brought into the squad if one of England’s players su� ered an injury after Hodgson presents his � nal squad list to FIFA on June 2.
–AFP
DAY’S WATCH
QUICK BYTES
Dhaka Tribune celebrate their Sony Expo 2014 football title at the handball stadium yesterday MUMIT M
ENJOYING THE DT ANNIVERSARY PARTY
Dhaka Tribune win Sony Expo 2014
Dhaka Tribune, coincidentally handed the tag of Spain, replicated the FIFA World Cup 2010 by emerging as the un-defeated champions of the Sony Expo 2014 � ve-a-side football tournament defeating Bangla Trac 2-1 in a thrilling � nal at the National Handball Stadium yesterday.
Exhibiting exactitude passing, a solid mid� eld unit and neat defen-sive displays, Dhaka Tribune not only claimed the tournament but also won hearts of the neutral spectators who had thronged to the stadium.
The title win was reminiscent of the
8th Ascent Corporate � ve-a-side Soc-cer Cup � nal last year when the Tribe, playing in the tournament for the � rst time, overcame � ve-time champions Beximco Pharma by the same margin. Skipper Reazur Rahman Rohan had grabbed both the goals against Bex-imco but this time Fazley Rabbi Moon netted a brace, scoring in either side of each half to seal victory.
The day-long competition made it a tough day for both the � nalists who had been on the � eld since morning and had to play group matches, quar-ter� nals, semi� nals and � nals on the same day. A total of 12 teams were handed the tag of 12 countries who
will all take part in the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil and Dhaka Tribune was under pressure from the outset when they were given the Spain card in the lottery.
Wearing the jerseys of defending World Cup champions Spain’s tradi-tional red and gold outline, Dhaka Tribune kicked o� the campaign with a comfortable 4-2 victory over Bangla-desh Sports Press Association (BSPA) and then outplayed Pharmacia Ltd 2-0 in their next group match. The Tribe produced the tournament’s biggest margin of victory in the quarter� nals crushing Singapore Airlines 8-1 with Monu blasting a superb hattrick.
The semi� nal was a hotly-contested one as the Tribe came from behind to pip Eastern Bank Limited 2-1 thanks to Rohan’s sensational brace, one of them arriving at the dying stages of the game. In the other semi� nal, Bangla Trac edged past White Products Limited (WPL) 1-0.
Bangla Trac, representing Mexico, hadn’t conceded a single goal through-out the tournament before the � nal and it took Moon just three minutes to break the deadlock before adding an-other in the second half.
Monu was the tournament’s highest scorer with seven goals while Ferdous of EBL was adjudged player of the tour-nament. l
Carberry gets England recall
Michael Carberry was recalled to limit-ed overs duty by England on Tuesday after being named in both the Twen-ty20 and one-day international squads to play Sri Lanka.
England’s 13-man Twenty20 squad, captained by Middlesex batsman Eoin Morgan in the absence of the injured Stuart Broad for a lone match against World Twenty20 champions Sri Lanka at The Oval next week, also sees expe-rienced stroke-player Ian Bell return to the format while the big-hitting Mi-chael Lumb has been dropped.
Meanwhile left-arm seamer Harry Gur-ney, who made his ODI debut in a rain-marred win against Scotland in Aberdeen last week that was reduced to 20 overs per
side, and � t-again Yorkshire all-rounder Tim Bresnan are in both squads.
Ashes opener Carberry made no se-cret of his anger at being dropped from the ODI series in Australia -- which En-gland lost 4-1 after their 5-0 Test drub-bing -- having performed creditably in the same format against the team’s old-est international rivals on home soil. l
Another super win for Super Kings
Chennai Super Kings continued with their winning ways in Pepsi IPL 2014 by beating the Rajasthan Royals by � ve wickets in a last-over � nish at Ranchi. Initially, led by Dwayne Smith’s initial boost and Faf du Plessis’ innings-stabilising knock, CSK were taken across the line by the ever-de-pendable MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja while chasing the 149-run target.
Earlier, RR elected to bat � rst upon winning the toss. Skipper Shane Watson and Ankit Sharma opened the innings for the hosts. This combination worked out for RR as they gave the team a steady start. They took the score to the 50-run mark in the seventh over. However, R Ashwin � nally got rid of Ankit Sharma (30) in the eighth over with the RR score on 60. And while Watson brought up his half-century, Ajinkya Rahane (4) – the new man in – could not make a sub-stantial contribution to the total; he was run-out in the 11th over.
Watson (51) perished in the 13th over, when Mohit Sharma bowled him out. A short while later, Karun Nair (8) was also bowled out; Samuel Badree claimed his scalp to leave RR on 114 for four. Steve Smith (9) and James Faulk-ner (1), whose heroics saw their team through a couple of nights ago against RCB, failed to make a big impact with the bat today. While the former was cleaned up by Mohit Sharma, the latter su� ered the same fate against Ravindra Jadeja a few balls later.
In response, CSK’s trusted opening pair of Dwayne Smith and Brendon Mc-Cullum started in an aggressive man-ner. They added 20 runs in quick time, before Ankit Sharma got rid of McCul-lum (6) in the third over. Suresh Raina (2) came to bat at one-down, but even he was dismissed by Ankit Sharma, leaving CSK on 41 for two in 4.2 overs. l
Djokovic makes winning return
Novak Djokovic made a winning return nearly a month after su� ering a wrist injury, starting the Rome Masters on a rainy Tuesday with a 6-3, 7-5 defeat of Radek Stepanek.
The second-round victory after a bye was the � rst match for the world number two Serb since losing a Monte Carlo semi-� nal on April 19 to Roger Federer while su� ering with his right wrist problem.
Djokovic, a two-time champion at the Foro Italico, was to have played last week in Madrid but held o� . He won in Rome with new coach Boris Becker looking on.
The Serb, who is competing in Rome for an eighth straight year, won his 25th
match here against � ve defeats. Three of his losses have come against Nadal, the top seed bidding for an eighth tro-phy in the capital.
The end against Stepanek was a struggle, comprising four consecutive breaks of serve before Djokovic took victory with a service return winner out wide after 97 minutes.
Roger Federer will be back on court eight days after the birth of his twin boys Leo and Lenny as he competes due to some fortunate timing in the birth of his second set of twins.
“Since they were born last Tuesday, that gave me a better chance of playing Rome,” said the Monte Carlo � nalist, who plays on Wednesday against France’s Jeremy Chardy. “I didn’t want too much of a break.
“It doesn’t matter if I play � ve matches or one match here. As long as I feel the pulse of things on the tour.
“Of course I hope to win my � rst-round match, but at the moment I have totally di� erent priorities.”
Federer has lost three Rome � nals, all three to Spanirds and the last two two (2006, 2013) to Nadal.
The top-seeded Spaniard is prepar-ing to face one of the biggest annual changes on the clay when he starts three days after winning another Ma-drid title.
“Yes it’s a big change (from Madrid altitude to sea-level Rome), but when you are winning it is a lot easier,” said the holder. “You always need time to adjust. l
(Anti-clockwise from right) BCB directors Jalal Yunus and Ahmed Sajjadul Alam share a light moment with Kazi Inam Ahmed, BFF vice president Tabith Awal is all smiles with Kazi Nabil Ahmed and Kazi Anis Ahmed, Sheikh Jamal coach Josef Afusi and trainer Ariel Coleman enjoy the procedure, renowned football coaches Maruful Haque and Saiful Bari Titu enjoy the time at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel yesterday NASHIRUL ISLAM AND
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Ravi Bopara (Essex), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Jos Buttler (Lan-cashire/wkt), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), Harry Gurney (Nottinghamshire), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Joe Root (Yorkshire), James Tredwell (Kent), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)
ENGLAND ODI SQUAD
Rajasthan Royals148/8 in 20 overs (Watson 51, M Sharma 3-31)Chennai Super Kings149/5 in 19.4 overs (Smith 44, Ankit 2-20)
Chennai Super Kings won by 5 wickets
BRIEF SCORE
SportDHAKA TRIBUNE 15
Salinity may ruin vast tract of arable coastal landClimate change-triggered sea level rise boosting salinity well above what scientists can ever reachn Abu Bakar Siddique
Environmentalists have warned that vast stretches of coastal arable land in Bangladesh may become barren be-cause of an alarming rise in salinitydue toa climate change-triggered rise in sea level.
Researchers say none of the existing varieties of salinity-tolerant rice can stand the level of salinity that has affected some of the coastal districts.
In fact, the best salinity-tolerant va-riety that could be developed was no-where near the level already reached, scientists said.
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and Bangladesh Institute of Nu-clear Agriculture (BINA) have invented seven varieties of rice that can stand salinity of up to 8 deci Siemens per me-tre (dS/M).
However, studies have shown that salinity in more than half of the arable lands in � ve coastal districts have gone well past that level.
According to a study conducted by the Soil Resource Development In-stitute, the level of salinity in 79,000 hectares of a� ected land in the Khulna district was identi� ed as S3 – meaning the salinity ranged from 8.1dS/M to 16dS/M.
Similarly, 62,000 hectares in Patu-akhali, 99,000 in Satkhira, 62,000 in
Bagerhat and 38,000 hectares of salin-ity-a� ected lands in Barguna were also tagged S3.
The study also showed that in 1973, some 8.33 lakh hectares of land in 19 coastal districts were salinity-a� ected. Now, the � gure stands at 10.2 lakh hec-tares.
Jiban Krishna Biswas, director gen-eral of BRRI, said paddy can be made tolerant to 12dS/M of salinity, at best.
Moreover, the salinity-tolerant breeds developed by the BRRI and BINA have failed to gain popularity among the farmers because of their low productivity and high irrigation
dependency.Agricultural Economist Prof Sham-
sul Alam, a member of the Planning Commission, said: “Farmers opted for those varieties that were comforta-ble to produce and rejected those that were substandard in quality and lacked � nancial viability.”
He also said: “BRRI 28 and BRRI 29 have been the most popular [non sa-linity-tolerant hybrid] varieties for the last 20 years because they were farm-er-friendly and ensured more produc-tion for less irrigation.”
Jiban Krishna suggested that coast-al growers should change their paddy farming habits and opt for crops such as soybean, maize, barley and sugar-cane.
The traditional varieties of most crops can withstand salinity of up to 0.7dS/M.
Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, said current trends indicate that salinity is going to a� ect bigger stretches of coastal lands with higher degreesof intensity.
He said: “Because of global warming, sea levels have been rising. Since Bangladesh is a delta, the salinity of sea water is pushing up the rivers, making the adjacent lands highly saline.”
The situation is nothing short of a disaster, said Atiq, who worked as a climate scientist with the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Specialists also said the situation in Bangladesh is unique. Other major rice-producers such as the Philippines are mostly a� ected by harsh weather conditions – another e� ect of the global climate change. l
16 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Nine Bangladeshis killed in Saudi � re n Rabiul Islam
Nine Bangladeshi and two Indian citi-zens were killed in a furniture factory � re at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Mon-day night.
The bodies were badly charred in the � re, Bangladesh Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Md Shahidul Islam told the Dha-ka Tribune over phone yesterday.
He said the bodies were kept at Sham-ochi Hospital in Riyadh. “We are trying to send the bodies soon,” he added.
Second Secretary of Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said: “The � re broke out at the factory of Titas Furniture around 10pm.”
Seven of the victims came from Comilla, one each from Madaripur and Feni while two from India, said an o� -cial of the foreign ministry.
Four of the deceased were Matiur Rahman, son of Abdul Karim, of vil-lage Kalagachhia and Md Selim of vil-
lage Chaderchar in Homna upazila, Md Jalal, son of Rostom Ali, of village Du-larampur and Shah Alam, son of Habi Mia, of village Kalipur in Titas upazila.
Md Ziauddin, director in charge of Expatriates’ Welfare Board, provided a list of the deceased migrants.
The detailed information about Na-zir Hossain and Bhahauddin of Comil-la, Zakir Hossain of Feni and Md Akkas of Madaripur could not be known im-mediately.
Two Bangladeshis named Raju and Mainul were running the Titas Furni-ture, owned by a Saudi citizen, he said, adding that Raju went into hiding soon after the � re incident while Mainul is believed to be in Bangladesh.
Ziauddin said if the workers die in the workplace, they usually get com-pensation. “We hope the family mem-bers of the deceased migrants would get compensation,” he said, adding that the cause of the � re could not be known yet. l
Plan for four satellite cities given upn Mohosinul Karim
The government has given up its plan to build four satellite towns surrounding the capital city Dhaka after Sahara India Pariwar, an interested company to invest in the housing sector of Bangladesh, was found duping investors in India.
Postponing the plan the government has taken initiatives to build a well-planned residential area only in Kam-rangir Char, one of the proposed places chosen to build four satellite cities.
Despite strong opposition from the realtors, the government is planning to allow Malaysia to construct the Kamrangir Char residential area under public private partnership programme, Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain said last week.
He said the steps to build the four towns – three under the National Hous-ing Authority and another under the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha – had been taken to reduce the population pressure in Dhaka.
The proposed project areas were Kamrangir Char, Bongshi-Dhamrai, Ichhamati-Sirajdikhan and Dhalesh-wari-Singair.
“But we had to give up the plan to build four cities as the interested Indian company was found fraud. Now, we are planning to build 10,000 apartments in Kamrangir Char, demolishing the un-planned buildings there,” he said.
A Malaysian company interested to implement the project with new tech-nology already visited the proposed area in Kamrangir Char. The work of preparing an inception report, mid-term report and draft � nal report has already been done.
The minister also said the govern-ment might revive the plan to set up the satellite towns if any acceptable proposal from any renowned company comes in future.
Earlier, Sahara India Pariwar on May 23, 2012 signed a memorandum of un-derstanding with the Housing and Pub-lic Works Ministry for investment in the housing industry of Bangladesh to set up the four satellite townships and other housing projects in the country.
Sahara India intended investing around $120m to $125m in Bangladesh’s real estate sector for which they asked for 100,000 acres of land on the out-skirts of Dhaka from the government. l
Relatives of deceased migrant workers wait long for compensationAround 800 compensation cases pending in Saudi courtsn Rabiul Islam
Omar Faruk, a Bangladeshi construc-tion worker, was killed in a road acci-dent on the way to work in Saudi Ara-bia in 2001.
Thirteen years later, his relatives back home are still waiting for com-pensation from the company where he worked.
“In the last 13 years, we didnot get any compensation. In 2009, as per re-quirement, I sent all necessary docu-ments to the relevant authorities, but we are yet to get anything,” Omar’s son-in-law, Kamaluddin Sumon, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Omar’s family in Lakshmipur’sChar-voga village still do not know when, or whether, they would get any compen-sation at all.
Like Omar Faruk, many relatives
of migrants who died while working abroad gather at the Expatriates’ Wel-fare Board at the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry, but � nd little relief.
“Many relatives of the victims come to us, but we cannot give any satis-factory answer to them,” MdMohsin Chowdhury,director the board,said yesterday.
According to the board, around 800 cases of compensation are pending in Saudi courts alone. Some of the cases have been going on for 18 to 20 years.
O� cials at the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh said compensation for the families depends on the worker’s em-ployment conditions and whether he or she changed jobs.
Receiving compensation also de-pends on reports from the police and hospitals, and there is no guarantee of
reparation for those killed in road acci-dents, the o� cials said.
The welfare board, however, could not say how many Bangladeshis were killed in accidents over the past decade.
“The cases go to court and theyhave to be proven in the court for realising compensation,” Bangladesh Ambassa-dor to Saudi Arabia Md Shahidul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune over phone yes-terday.
“It requires time to complete the various processes, but we still try to get compensation,” Shahiduladded.
The envoy also said the number of pending cases was huge, and the con-sular o� ces work under pressure.
According to Saudi government � g-ures, around 12lakh Bangladeshislive in Saudi Arabia.However, other sources claim that the number of migrant work-ers could be double that number. l
Hilsa in storage, market awash with Chokorin Asif Showkat Kallol
While hilsa is known as much-covet-ed � sh among Bangalees, it is surpris-ing that it remains unsold and is being stockpiled in cold storages.
But the markets have been � ooded with imported Chokori and Chandria � shes which almost look like Bangla-deshi hilsa.
However, the tastes are not as rich as that of the hilsa and consumers are mistaking them with Bangladesh’s most delicious � sh.
In the kitchen markets, vendors are also deceiving the consumers who prefer the � sh for cheaper rates being oblivious of its purity.
The hilsa traders said they were los-ing local market to the low quality and cheap Chokori and Chandria � shes.
The traders said they can neither sell hilsa in local market due to price di� erences nor can export because of an o� cial ban, leading them to su� er huge losses every day.
According to them, a stock of 2,000 tonnes of hilsa have remained piled up for months, damaging the quality and taste of the catches.
Bangladesh Marine Fisheries As-sociation sent a letter recently to the commerce ministry making the allega-tions and urging to resolve the matter.
According to an o� cial source, the commerce ministry will hold an in-ter-ministerial meeting today to dis-cuss the matters.
Visits to the city’s kitchen market found that the market was � ooded with imported Chokori and Chandria � shes.
A total of 12,000 tonnes of Chokori and Chandria were imported from My-anmar, Vietnam and Oman in last sev-en months.
As they are cheap in prices, the con-sumers buy them and do not think of tastes, said hilsa traders, adding the
consumers are also unaware about the � sh that if they are really hilsa.
When contacted, Commerce Sec-retary Mahbub Ahmed, however, de-clined to make any detailed comment and said the ministry was looking into the allegations and demands made by the traders.
A senior commerce ministry o� cial said the allegations should be checked seriously.
“We may hold an inter-ministerial meeting today to discuss the issues,” the o� cial said.
Earlier on July 31, 2012, the govern-ment imposed a ban on export of hisla � sh to keep its prices at the a� ordable
level in the local market.Bangladesh’s � shermen catch 6-7
lakh tonnes of hilsa annually.India’s West Bengal state has a great
demand of Bangladeshi hilsa and if the export is open again, the number of total consumers in the both countries will become 32 crore.
Besides, a recent study conducted by the Bangladesh Fish Research In-stitution showed that the local market of hilsa has shrunk due to water pollu-tion.
The local traders said the import of hilsa-like � shes has contributed to the shrinking of real hilsa demand.
But a stockholder, however, said if
government goes to put high restric-tions on import for resolving the cur-rent issue, the price of even local katla � sh will shoot up to Tk400 per piece from the present Tk150 per piece.
He, however, said the export of hilsa should be lifted as the government is now losing revenues.
“If the hilsa worth Tk2,000 crore in cold storages can be exported, the government will earn Tk500 crore rev-enue,” he said.
Vice President of Bangladesh Fish Exporters and Importers Association, SA Wahab also said “the government is losing huge amount of revenue” due to export ban. l
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DGHS director accused of trying to embezzle Tk9 lakhn Moniruzzaman Uzzal
Allegations have been raised against a director of the health directorate, Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, accusing him of try-ing to misappropriate over Tk9 lakh from the funds of the country’s in� u-enza programme.
Shahid Md Sadiqul Islam, a deputy programme manager (DPM) of the in-� uenza programme, claimed that Dr Be-Nazir, who is also the line director of the programme, received Tk930,850 that was withdrawn using a cheque that named Sadiqul as the bearer.
Sadiqul also alleged that when he challenged the line director about the withdrawn money, Dr Be-Nazir direct-ed him to accept a money receipt with-out raising any questions.
The DPM later o� cially submitted an application to the DG of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the health secretary, accusing Dr Be-Na-zir of trying to embezzle the money.
In his application, Sadiqul men-tioned that as the legal drawing dis-bursement o� cer for the in� uenza pro-gramme, Dr Be-Nazir had the authority to withdraw any amount of money from the bank account concerned. Howev-er, the line director chose to issue a cheque using the DPM’s name, alleged-ly to pocket the withdrawn money.
When contacted, Sadiqul con� rmed that he had submitted the application, but refused to comment in detail with-out the permission of the DGHS direc-tor general.
Sources said Sadiqul had � led a gen-eral diary with the police as well as col-lecting written statements from two of-� ce assistants who had withdrawn the money on behalf of Dr Be-Nazir.
Dr Md Shah Newaz, director (admin-istration) of the DGHS, told the Dhaka Tribune that they are now looking into the allegation, adding that an inquiry committee is usually formed to enquire into such claims.
Meanwhile, Dr Be-Nazir termed the allegations false and counter-accused Sadiqul of preparing false bills and fail-ing to run the in� uenza programme properly. Claiming that he did not use the withdrawn funds, the line director said the money was kept under the cus-tody of his personal assistant.
As the DPM of the programme was not present, two deputy directors of Communicable Disease Control (CDC) later spent around Tk8 lakh from the withdrawn amount to organise train-ing sessions under the in� uenza pro-gramme; while the rest of the money will be used for the next session, Dr Be-Nazir added. l
The recent photo shows Chokori � sh being sold as hilsa at Hatirpul Bazar in the capital RAJIB DHAR
Editor: Zafar Sobhan, Published and Printed by Kazi Anis Ahmed on behalf of 2A Media Limited at Dainik Shakaler Khabar Publications Limited, 153/7, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka-1208. Editorial, News & Commercial O� ce: FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka 1207. Phone: 9132093-94, Advertising: 9132155, Circulation: 9132282, Fax: News-9132192, e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], Website: www.dhakatribune.com
www.dhakatribune.com/business WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2014
B3 World sheds reserve over growing role of China's yuan
B4 Tough to co-exist in a small market
Call for raising VAT ceiling for SMEs n Tribune Report
SME Foundation has urged the Na-tional Board of Revenue (NBR) to raise annual turnover limit of small and medium enterprises to Tk60 lakh for VAT exemption facility.
Under the current rule, one SME � rm making over Tk40 lakh turnover annually needs to pay value added tax.
The foundation said if the limit is raised, it will save many crippling � rms from closures.
According to SMEF, many of the enterprises are also facing di� culties to avail of the tax bene� ts given par-ticularly under the Value Added Tax (VAT) rule.
It said the SME � rms failed to com-pete with the imported products be-cause of the existing tax and VAT rate.
SMEF placed 41-point budget pro-posals to NBR, giving special focus on plastic, electronics, leather, agricul-tural goods manufacturing and light engineering items.
The foundation said manufactur-ing volumes of the SMEs have been lower due to high operating costs.
Quoting from the law, the founda-tion said small and cottage industry gets VAT exemption if it has annual turnover below Tk60lakh with an an-nual investment below Tk40lakh.
SME Foundation demanded the annual turnover ceiling should be increased to Tk1crore and annual in-vestments at plants to Tk60lakh to protect small businesses.
SMEF also urged the NBR to make a number of changes in the VAT and tax structure as many of the enter-prises had to shut their businesses.
“The situation has become very tough for cottage industries to sus-tain at the market under the existing VAT rate,” said SMEF.
It demanded � xing 3% VAT on the sale of manufactured products for the enterprises who do not get VAT rebate.
It sought temporary withdrawal of 15% VAT to help the industry continue.
SMEF said the VAT rebate on elec-tricity, telephone and insurance ser-vices used by the small manufactur-ing enterprises should be increased to 100% from 80% and 15% VAT on Internet should be withdrawn.
It also demanded exemption of 15% VAT on the import of gas gener-ator and generator parts.
The SME Foundation demanded increase of supplementary duties on import of plug socket, holder, and raw materials for manufacturing plas-tic and melamine products including Urea Moulding Compound, Urea Res-ins, and Thiourea. It demanded to raise it from 20-25% to 100%.
For the import of machineries needed for general small and medi-um enterprises, SME Foundation de-manded to set zero percent duty from 2% duty on machinery import.
It urged the NBR to reduce import duty from 25% to 5% on components of toy including spring, friction, elec-tronic device, light and music item. l
Cotton demand likely to double by 2022Bangladesh to contribute 15% of the global cotton import n Kayes Sohel
Bangladesh’s cotton consumption is expected to almost double by 2022, strongly retaining its position of world’s second largest cotton import-ers, according to a new study.
The local consumption is expected to increase from 9% in 2010-11 to 16% by 2022, according to the Organisa-tion for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Or-ganisation (FAO) Agricultural Outlook 2013-2022 released recently.
“Use of cotton in the domestic spin-ning mills increases every year riding on growing apparel industry,” said Mohmmad Ayub, president of Bangla-desh Cotton Association.
Bangladesh’s apparel industry relies heavily on cotton-based yarns, as knit-wear and denim production account for nearly three-fourths of the coun-try’s export earnings.
According to Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), a platform of the spinners, the number of fabrics manufacturing units in 2013 stood at 782 from 777 in 2012.
The number of dyeing, printing and � nishing units also increased to 240 from 234 and 392 spinning mills were set up in 2013, which was 394 in 2012 and 385 in 2011.
Spinning mills are the main strength of the export-oriented garment sec-tor as they play an important role as a backward linkage industry for exports.
“If the present growth trend contin-ues, it might be possible to reach closer to the forecast,” said ex-BTMA Presi-dent Jahangir Alamin.
“But, we need more investment to double the use of spindles for dou-
bling the use of cotton consumption by 2022,” he said. “The fact is that stable political situation and infrastructure are pre-requisite to attract investment.
Executive Director and Company Secretary of Metro Spinning Mills Lim-ited Mohammad Mohsin Adnan said that his company will expand spin-ning capacity from 45,000 spindles to 97,800 by this year.
“Many units of the spinning mills in the country still remain unutilised due to gas crisis,” he said.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts that Bangladesh raw cotton consumption will stand at 3.9 million bales of raw cotton in 2013-14, which was 3.7 million in 12-13 and 3.2 million in 2011-12.
Yarn consumption in 2013-14 is forecast to increase to one million tons from 980,000 tons in 2012-13 while fabric consumption is forecast to reach 6.6 billion meters from 6.4 billion me-ters during the period, the report said.
The OECD-FAO outlook said Chi-na is expected to retain the role as the world’s largest importer that it had held shortly after the end of MFA (multi-� -ber agreement), drive its consumption up sharply but at a reduced level.
“As China’s share of world imports falls from 41% in the base period to 23% in 2022, Bangladesh and Vietnam are expected to nearly reach double their share, surpassing China in total,” it said.
China’s imports are expected to
drop 50% during the upcoming season as it winds down a strategic stockpiling programme, according to the National Cotton Council, a US industry group, leaving room for Bangladesh to expand its role in the international market.
The OECD-FAO report said total de-mand for cotton in the world is expect-ed to reach 27.7Mt in 2022, surpassing its previous records-high by 1Mt.
It said in recent years, cotton con-sumption has been disrupted by glob-al economic volatility, an unexpected price shock, and policy changes in China.
From a peak of 26.7Mt in 2006 and 2007, world consumption is estimated to have fallen 13% to 23.3Mt in 2012, it said. l
RMG FACTORY INSPECTION
Accord & Alliance to meet Buet engineers tomorrow to solve disputes n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi
The Accord and Alliance, two platforms of American and European Union re-tailers, are going to hold a meeting with the engineers of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) tomorrow to resolve the disputes cre-ated over inspection of the RMG facto-ry buildings.
As there is a dispute over the outcome of the ongoing factory inspection be-tween the local engineers and the en-gineers of Accord and Alliance, a tripar-tite meeting will be held to settle the dispute, said a member of the review committee on condition of anonymity.
The review panel suspended in-spection of the apparel factories rec-ommended either by Accord or Alli-ance as soon as the rift surfaced.
Both the Accord and the Alliance used to recommend the review panel to fur-ther visit and scan the factories if they � nd any risky building. Being a neutral body, International Labour Organisation
(ILO) will mediate the meeting to reach a consensus over the required concrete strength of a RMG factory building.
According to the Buet engineers, the concrete strength of a building is to be 2,400 pound per square inch (PSI) for stone-made structure and 2,100 for brick-made structure, while Accord con-sidered the concrete strength should to be 1,750 PSI for brick-made structure.
“Evaluation of the existing RMG buildings is the toughest job although the inspection is going on in a hasty manner, Sheikh Sekender Ali, Profes-sor of Civil Engineering Department of BUET,” told the Dhaka Tribune.
He also said there were some dis-agreements with the Accord’s method in calculating the concrete strength and others standards.
“The Accord should consider the Buet’s recommendation on the required concrete strength of RMG factory build-ings, otherwise, 50% RMG factories will face closures,’’ said an o� cial.
From my personal experience, I can assure that the engineers from Buet are better than the engineers employed by Accord as they have more practical ex-periences than the graduate engineers hired by the Accord, he added.
“All the stakeholders Accord, Alli-ance and Buet should reach a consen-sus on the concrete strength as it is a must for smooth and successful exe-cution of the factory inspection for the sake of RMG sector,” Inspector General of Department of Inspection for Facto-ries and Establishments Syed Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune. l
3-day laptop fair begins tomorrown Tribune Report
A three-day laptop fair begins tomor-row at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the capital with a slogan of “Laptop for all.”
Being chief guest, Information Min-ister Hasanul Haque Inu will formally inaugurate the fair, which will remain open for the visitors till 17 May.
Expo maker, the organ-iser of the 14th laptop fair, came up with the disclo-sure while addressing a press conference at a city hotel yesterday.
Addressing the press conference, the organiser also declared the In Tech and telcom site www.techshohor.com as the title sponsor while other four co-sponsors will be acer,
Dell, HP and Samsung.A total of 28 stalls and 19 pavilions
will be available in the fair where buy-ers can choice their preferable brands and the models available in the country.
“The fair will also provide a chance for the visitors to buy a laptop at the cheapest possible price,” Nahid
Hasnaien, head of operation from Expo maker, told the press conference.
Fair will remain open from 10am to 8pm each day with an entry fees of Tk20 per person. The press confer-ence was also attended, among others, by the representatives from sponsors companies and the industry as well. l
New markets help boost leathergoods export by 70%n Ibrahim Hossain Ovi
The country’s leather products have explored 14 new destinations, register-ing a 70% growth to US$197 million in the � rst 10 months of the current � scal year as compared to $116 million for the same period of the last � scal.
The new destinations are Vietnam, New Zealand, Austria, Bulgaria, Bah-rain, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Lithonia, Moroc-co, Mauritius and Turkey.
Meanwhile, leather goods including � nished leather and footwear earned $1.07 billion, posting about 38% rise in Ju-ly-April period of 2013-14 � scal compared to the same period of last � scal, shows Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.
Exports earnings from leather jumped by 34% to $424 million while footwear fetched $443.5 million with over 30% rise in July-April period of the current � nancial year.
In 2012-13 � scal, Bangladesh had earned $400 million by exporting leather while it fetched $162 million from leather products and $419 million from footwear.
“High quality and timely shipment attracted the buyers for Bangladeshi leather and leather products, which have pushed the exports earnings up,” Shaheen Ahmed, president of Bangla-
desh Tanners Association (BTA), told the Dhaka Tribune.
As a good number of factories in China have been remained closed due to the recent wage hike, the buyers shifted their attention to Bangladesh, said Ahmed.
Urging the government to provide soft loan for relocation of the factories, Ahmed also requested the government not to halt production during the relo-cation as it might drive away the buy-ers from the country.
“The main reason behind the steady growth of export earnings is competi-tive prices of Bangladeshi leather prod-ucts and high quality of leather,” said Abdul Hai, secretary general of BTA. He said Bangladesh produces high quality shoes with innovative and at-tractive designs.
In July-April 2013-14, the country’s total export earnings rose to $24.65 bil-lion, registering 13% growth while Ban-gladesh has set an export target of $30.5 billion for the current � scal year. l
New private banks out of default loan dangern Asif Showkat Kallol
The nine new commercial banks have no default loans during the Octo-ber-December quarter of 2013 as their disbursed loans were little as com-pared to other commercial banks, Ban-gladesh Bank o� cials said.
Most of the new banks have brought fund at higher cost while they provid-ed loan at 7% to 8% rate of interest, said a senior executive of a new com-mercial bank.
“Our chairman directed collecting enough fund and give more loan to the potential clients to increase the loan amount of the banks.”
Bangladesh Bank released the classi� ed loan data for the secondquarter of 2013-14 � scal year on Thurs-day last.
Default loans in banks rose by 1.52 percentage point or Tk7,589 crore in the � rst quarter this year, compared
to the quarter that ended in December last year.
The amount went up as the classi� ed loans of the banks that misused due to a relaxed policy Bangladesh Bank intro-duced for borrowers, who were a� ected by political turmoil last year.
On March 31, the total amount of default loans in banks was Tk48,172 crore or 10.45% of the total outstand-ing loans, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics. On December 31 last year, the amount was Tk40,583 crore or 8.93% of the total outstanding loans.
The total outstanding loan of Union Bank is Tk1,085 crore and there was no default loan at end of December 2013 .
South Bangla Agricultural and Com-merce Bank’s outstanding loan is Lim-ited Tk459.57 crore, NBR Commercial Bank Limited Tk688 crore , Meghna Bank Limited Tk248 crore , Midland Bank Limited Tk282 crore , The Farm-ers Bank Limited Tk105 crore , NRB
Bank Limited Tk94 crore , Modhumoti Bank Tk53 crore and NRB Global Bank Limited Tk370 crore.
Managing director of a new bank said new banks have failed to collect enough fund from the market because of sluggish economic situation. He said they have taken caution while lending to the potential clients.
The central bank approved nine new banks in two phases in 2013 to take the country’s total number of scheduled banks to 56, of which, 39 are private, nine foreign and eight are state-owned. The new banks were es-tablished with Tk400 crore of paid-up capital each.
Following the nationalisation of banks after the country’s indepen-dence in 1971, the government award-ed licences to private banks at � rst in 1983. The second set of such banks were allowed in 1995 and the third set in 2001. l
The Accord should consider the Buet’s recommendation on the required concrete strength of RMG factory buildings, otherwise, 50% RMG factories will face closures
B2
As big ad deal falls apart, � rms start thinking smalln Reuters, New York
The collapse of the $35bn merger of New York-based Omnicom with France’s Publicis is likely to lead the world’s biggest ad agencies to think small as they try to counter the chal-lenge from internet giants like Google.
Since announcing their merger last July, executives from the two � rms touted the creation of the world’s big-gest ad agency as the best way to gain scale and capital to compete on price and invest in technology as clients squeeze the agencies on cost.
One of the prime motivations for the deal was the competition coming from a host of rivals ranging from Google and Facebook, software companies Oracle and Salesforce and consulting � rms Accenture and IBM, which are siphoning o� business that traditionally belonged to ad � rms.
After this week’s break-up, which was due in large part to a clash of cul-tures and egos, the two � rms need to rethink their approach. Bankers and industry executives say buying smaller ad technology companies may be their best bet to capture the billions of dol-lars � owing toward digital advertising.
“You have two massive organiza-tions that singularly focused their fu-ture on a combination of scale to de-liver better costs and that is not going to happen now,” said Dave Morgan, the chief executive of Simulmedia, a � rm that sells TV advertising. He pointed to recent deals by Google and AOL fo-cused on small ad technology compa-nies that provide analytics.
Greater scale was supposed to give the new Omnicom-Publicis group bet-ter bargaining power in buying space for ads on TV, the internet, and print at a time when many global brands are looking to cut costs on advertising.
That rationale was never complete-
ly clear, one major Omnicom client told Reuters. And with the promised increase in scale no longer an option, the two � rms have to explain to their clients what they can o� er instead.
Need for insightOne thing they need to provide is greater insight on what works and how cost e� ective ads are, especially in dig-ital advertising, ad executives and an-alysts say.
Consumers now interact with media in a host of di� erent ways, from the tra-ditional sources of TV, radio, billboards and newspapers, to the di� erent o� er-ings online and on mobile including ba-sic portals and social networks.
That has forced ad agencies and cli-ents to change how they value the in-� uence of an ad. A consumer seeing a traditional TV commercial may then go online to search for a deal before even-tually buying the product in a store some time later, having been remind-ed of it by a nearby billboard.
With so many moving parts, the ad agencies have turned to data analytics to better understand and predict the behaviour of consumers.
It is the need for such insight that has put them on a collision course with the big internet and software companies.
But Brian Wieser, senior research an-alyst at Pivotal, believes there is room for both to operate within the industry.
“Marketing services and technol-ogy are becoming increasingly inter-changeable,” he said adding there is still room for growth since more ser-vices are needed given the fragmented media landscape.
Je� Lanctot, president and CEO of Mixpo, a company that helps compa-nies create video ads, said the need for scale had actually decreased in recent years as digital advertising - which ac-
counts for nearly a quarter of global marketing spend - used real-time auc-tions to buy media space.
“Buying power has been the real pitch from the holding companies,” he said. “I think what is the better ap-proach is to get much more aggressive in technology acquisitions.”
Small bitesTwo relatively small deals announced in the last week could be a sign of things
to come. AOL, which has been invest-ing in automated exchanges where machines buy and sell digital advertis-ing, said this week it would pay $101m to buy Convertro Inc, a platform that helps advertisers manage spending budgets across di� erent media.
On the same day Google announced it was acquiring Adometry, which of-fers the ability to understand the in-� uence that di� erent marketing tools have on consumer decisions.
One sector banker pointed to pro-viders of retargeting - which shows ads of a certain brand to consumers who have already visited that brand’s site - and data analytics for advertisers as Publicis’ best bet to rebound.
He named Next Performance in France, Struq in the UK and myThings in Israel as the most promising sector players under the 100m euro revenue threshold.
“These companies are getting a lot
of attention. The industry will now prioritize smaller deals that bring real strategic value to investors,” a sector adviser said.
Publicly traded marketing analyt-ics providers such as France’s Criteo, which uses tracking technology to tar-get ads at consumers sur� ng the web, and Rocket Fuel, which applies big data analysis to digital advertising, are seen as other promising takeover can-didates for the big groups.
One of the most proli� c acquirer of digital groups is Martin Sorrell’s WPP, which will now retain its position as the world’s largest ad group.
Uncharacteristically left on the sidelines last year, Sorrell wasted little time when the deal was announced in telling both his and his rivals’ clients why it was doomed to fail. Having han-dled 46bn pounds of billings in 2013, WPP, he said, o� ered scale and insight at the same time.
Omnicom’s CEO, John Wren, told investors on Friday that Omnicom was still in the market for acquisitions but stressed those would be small bites.
His counterpart at Publicis, Maurice Levy, demurred on other big acquisi-tions on Friday during a call with in-vestors.
Shares in both IPG, the world’s fourth largest ad group behind WPP, Omnicom and Publicis, and France’s Havas, the � fth largest player, rose on Friday on hopes they too could be in-volved in some form of consolidation.
Japan’s Dentsu Inc is also seen as playing a role.
Several agency CEOs and analysts said while they expected consolida-tion to happen, because the industry would forever be under pressure from clients to cut costs, following the Pub-licis-Omnicom debacle, small may be the order of the day. l
Maurice Levy (left), French advertising group Publicis Chief executive, and John Wren, head of Omnicom Group, gesture during a joint signature ceremony in Paris
IMF chief: Ukraine crisis could have ‘severe’ economic impactn AFP, Berlin
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned in a German newspaper interview Monday that the Ukraine crisis could have “severe” eco-nomic consequences for other countries.
Lagarde also told the Handelsblatt business daily that a 17bn dollar aid package granted to Ukraine by the IMF would not be enough.
“The crisis in Ukraine is a danger which is very di� cult to gauge (and) whose contagion risk for other coun-tries can barely be predicted,” she said.
“All the same, it can have severe economic consequences.”
Lagarde will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday for annual talks, alongside the heads of the OECD, World Bank, World Trade Organ-isation and International Labour Organi-sation, on the global economic situation.
Asked where the biggest dangers lay, the IMF chief pointed to the tur-moil in Ukraine having an impact on international trade, foreign direct in-vestment, international capital � ows and Europe’s energy supply.
“Ukraine needs much more than 17bn dollars. For example, bilateral help from abroad and � nancial help from other international � nancial institu-tions,” Lagarde said, adding that the in-ternational community had no choice.
“We can’t simply say the situation is too precarious, therefore we’re not giv-ing money at the moment.”
Pro-Russian rebels have claimed voters in two eastern Ukrainian regions massively backed independence in a dis-puted poll Sunday, as Ukraine gears up for presidential elections on May 25 after protests in February forced out pro-Mos-cow president Viktor Yanukovych. l
UK business lobby sees brighter economic outlook, boosted by investmentn Reuters, London
Britain’s top business lobby upgraded its economic growth forecasts for this year and next on Monday and said it expects to see marked improvements in British business investment and pro-ductivity.
The Confederation of British Indus-try predicted Britain’s economy will grow 3% this year, raising its forecast from 2.6% previously.
It also upped its outlook for next year to show growth of 2.7%, compared with 2.5% earlier.
The CBI pointed to rising business investment as companies become more con� dent about strength of the upturn, helping to end years of poor productiv-ity that has perplexed policymakers.
“The recovery is advancing after a strong performance in the � rst quarter of 2014,” said John Cridland, the CBI’s director general, referring to the 0.8% economic growth seen in the � rst three months of the year.
“I think we will see the sort of in-
vestment that will achieve organic pro-ductivity growth by boosting the pro-ductive capacity of workers through new kit, new technology, and new work organization.”
The CBI said it expects business in-vestment growth of 8.3% this year and 9.1% next year.
But the it warned there were risks to its outlook - chief among thempolitical uncertainty surrounding next year’s general election and the Scottish independence referendum this Sep-tember.
It called on politicians to avoid mak-ing “damaging market interventions”.
“Politicians must be wary of the risk of headline-grabbing policies that weaken investment, opportunity and jobs,” said Cridland.
The opposition Labour party has said it will stand up for voters by check-ing the interests of big business, and announced it would freeze electricity prices for 20 months if it wins power - a strategy dismissed as “anti-business” by the government. l
Weak Japan exports, not tax hike, could shake BOJ n Reuters, Tokyo
The Bank of Japan is increasingly con� -dent that the economy is weathering a recent tax increase and on its way out of de� ation, but another threat to that optimistic scenario is lurking - weak exports.
If shipments abroad continue to fall short of the central bank’s forecasts, the recovery in the world’s third-big-gest economy could stall and the BOJ might be forced to ease policy again in the coming months.
Growth has returned to Japan, helped greatly by massive monetary stimulus unleashed 13 months ago when Haruhiko Kuroda took the helm at the BOJ. Early signs support the bank’s view that last month’s increase in the national sales tax will not derail the recovery or drag Japan back into de� ation.
But the BOJ has been notably wrong about exports. Weak yen was supposed to boost overseas shipments in time to take up the slack when consumption took a hit from the April 1 tax increase to 8% from 5%.
“The BOJ’s main scenario is for ex-ports to gradually pick up. But it’s true that exports remain the biggest risk to the outlook,” said an o� cial familiar with the BOJ’s thinking.
The central bank still forecasts ex-
port growth will accelerate and Kuro-da’s assurances that prices are on track to hit his 2% in� ation target have prompted investors to scale back ex-pectations of further easing later this year.
But Kuroda is always careful to say the BOJ will not hesitate to ease again if its price goal is threatened.
Some analysts say that if exports remain feeble, the BOJ may be forced as soon as July to expand its stimulus by ramping up its purchases of govern-ment bonds and other assets.
And there are growing signs that policymakers are becoming less con� -dent about an export upturn.
The central bank’s half-yearly out-look cited exports as a key threat to economic recovery, saying they may not increase strongly even as overseas demand picks up.
Kuroda for all his optimism also keeps bringing up exports as a signi� -cant risk factor.
Big manufacturers, too, are cautious. Toyota Motor Corp warned on Thursday its pro� ts may fall this business year as the export tailwind that it and other Japanese carmakers have received from the yen’s 18-month slide fades.
Clinging to hopeThat creates a communication head-ache for the BOJ.
Preserving con� dence in a sustained economic recovery is an essential part of Kuroda’s strategy. Voicing doubts about a key element of that scenario too openly could hurt that con� dence.
“That’s why the BOJ needs to cling to its projection that exports will re-cover,” said a former BOJ o� cial with knowledge of the central bank’s think-ing.
“The export recovery hasn’t hap-pened as quickly as the BOJ wanted. I’m not sure whether everyone at the bank is con� dent this will happen.”
BOJ policymakers stress that export weakness alone will not trigger further easing. But they acknowledge that more stimulus may be forthcoming if the economy is hit by a double-wham-my of persistent export softness and failure of household consumption to rebound from the post-tax hike slump.
Some of them say July is key be-cause they will have a better sense by then if exports are picking up as the BOJ expects, and whether consumer spending has weathered the sales tax hike.
“The BOJ will probably use weak exports as an excuse to revise down its rosy economic projections later this year,” said Masaaki Kanno, a former BOJ o� cial who is now chief Japan economist at JPMorgan Securities.
“It’s easy to blame exports because
they are swayed by external factors beyond the BOJ’s control,” said Kanno, who expects the central bank to ease again in July.
Annual export growth peaked at 18.6% in October and skidded to 1.8% in March, the latest data available and the weakest in a year. Shipments to the rest of Asia, half of the total, were up just 1.4% for the month.
Moreover, export volume fell 2.5% in March, showing that the yen’s slide - driven by the BOJ’s easy-money policy - is not giving Japanese goods the com-petitive edge it once would have.
After having pushed back the ex-pected timing of an export pickup by several months in its assessments, the central bank now expects a rebound by the middle of this year.
The BOJ is also starting to cite “structural factors” for the disappoint-ing performance -- Japanese manufac-turers continuing to shift production overseas and some, such as electronics exporters, possibly losing their com-petitive edge to rivals in South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere.
“Japan won’t return to the days when the weak yen had a more direct impact on exports,” said one o� cial.
But as these trends are not exactly new, bringing them up only underscores the BOJ’s lack of conviction that exports will recover, some analysts say. l
A worker rides a bicycle in a container area at a port in Tokyo April. Japan su� ered its worst annual trade de� cit in March as exports growth slowed to its weakest in a year, suggesting a rapid loss of economic momentum that may prompt policy makers into early action as a national sales tax hike puts more strain on growth REUTERS
Ukraine needs much more than 17bn dollars. For example, bilateral help from abroad and � nancial help from other international � nancial institutions
BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
B3BusinessDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
World sheds reserve over growing role of China’s yuann AFP, Shanghai
China’s yuan will one day compete for a place alongside the mighty dollar as a reserve currency hoarded by central banks, analysts said, as US Treasury chief Jacob Lew urged faster reform on a visit to Beijing.
Communist authorities tightly con-trol the rate of the yuan - also known as the renminbi (RMB) or “people’s money” - and limit capital � ows into and out of the country.
But China - already the world’s second largest economy - is gradu-ally moving to implement � nancial reforms, make its exchange rate more � exible, and open its capital account for investment and � nancial transac-tions, rather than trade-related ones.
The slow pace of change, though, has frustrated Washington, and Lew told Chinese Premier Li Keqiang it was “critical” Beijing continue to reform its currency controls to foster more bal-anced global trade.
“It is important that China dem-onstrate a renewed commitment to move to a more market-determined exchange rate and a more transparent exchange rate policy,” he said.
China’s e� orts so far have focused on transforming its special adminis-trative region of Hong Kong into the world’s centre of “o� shore” yuan trad-ing, where banks take deposits and � nancial institutions issue bonds de-nominated in the currency.
An agreement announced last month will let Chinese investors buy and sell on the Hong Kong stock mar-ket using yuan, while a free-trade zone launched in the commercial hub Shanghai last year aims to pilot reforms for full convertibility of the currency.
“Clearly the renminbi has traction. If you look at any measure of the ren-minbi’s internationalisation... the tra-
jectory looks very sharp,” said Eswar Prasad, economics professor at Cornell University and author of “The Dollar Trap”, which argues that the ubiqui-tous greenback is an inescapable ne-cessity for now.
“If China moves forward with its � -nancial market and economic reforms, the renminbi will become a viable, possibly signi� cant, reserve currency,” said Prasad, previously head of the International Monetary Fund’s China
division.Despite the fact that the yuan cannot
be freely bought and sold, some central banks already hold it in their reserves, including Chile, Nigeria, and South Ko-rea, he said - countries with signi� cant economic relations with China, one of the world’s biggest traders.
Even Japan, with which political relations are deeply strained, holds some.
Beijing’s controls on the yuan’s value
mean it is one of the world’s less volatile currencies, with a � xed rate against the US dollar rate until mid-2005, steady appreciation for the next three years, a two-year pause for the global � nancial crisis, and then gradual strengthening until the beginning of 2014.
So far this year, though, it has lost nearly three percent, closing Tuesday at 6.2285 to $1, with analysts attribut-ing the fall to deliberate central bank action in a bid to chase speculative
funds betting on continued apprecia-tion out of the market.
Exchange rate control is one of the ruling Communist Party’s key tools to maintain its economic grip, and analysts say the central bank guides the currency in the direction it wants while imposing restrictions on its daily movement, limiting the e� ect of mar-ket forces.
Prasad said the yuan is unlikely to become a true “safe haven” currency
as highly regarded as the US dollar, because China lacks the trusted public institutions and independent judiciary of the United States.
“There will be more money coming in for yield, for diversi� cation but with money coming in for safety? I think not,” he said.
The People’s Bank of China, the cen-tral bank, in March widened the yuan’s trading band, allowing it to move up or down two percent daily – double the previous one percent – on either side of a mid-point set under the bank’s su-pervision.
“The mid-point re� ects the guid-ance and intentions of the govern-ment,” said Jiang Shu, a foreign ex-change analyst with Industrial Bank.
‘Serious concerns’ The yuan’s fall this year has upset
major trading partners who believe the currency is vastly undervalued, with the US Treasury saying last month the decline raised “particularly serious concerns”.
Chinese o� cials defended the cur-rency’s movements as normal.
“In the history of international � -nance, no matter what currency ex-change rate regime is adopted, there has never been a currency only rising and never declining,” Guan Tao of the State Administration of Foreign Ex-change, which advises on policy, said in the Shanghai Securities News.
Analysts still expect the yuan to recover to end � at on the year, while pressures for future appreciation will continue.
“The renminbi is an alluring story,” said Prasad of Cornell, “because of course the Chinese economy on its present growth trajectory could match the size of the US economy some time in the next 10 to 15 years.
“Expect the long term money to keep coming here.” l
E-commerce edge helps British retailers expand abroadn Reuters, Berlin
Marks & Spencer Plc is making a new push to expand abroad, hoping e-com-merce will give Britain’s biggest clothing retailer a better chance to succeed than earlier attempts to enter new markets.
It is one of several retailers that are using expertise developed in the UK’s fast-growing e-commerce market to expand overseas. Store chains like M&S are starting to emulate the success of online-only fashion players like ASOS.
Britain is the world’s most devel-oped online retail market, according to a ranking by commercial real estate � rm Cushman & Wake� eld, followed by the United States, Germany and France.
M&S withdrew from mainland Eu-rope in 2001 after a failed expansion. The retreat was temporary. In March the � rm said it would use “bricks and clicks” - opening new stores in a few markets while o� ering online sales in several more - to accelerate growth abroad.
“Because we sit in the UK we some-times forget how advanced the UK is,” said Laura Wade-Gery, M&S e-com-merce executive director.
Although the United States is the big-gest e-commerce market by absolute turnover, internet orders make up a big-ger portion of total retail sales in Britain - about 11% in 2013 to 7.3% in the United States, Euromonitor data shows.
Britain’s leadership position in e-commerce has been driven by its com-pact size - which make delivery more cost-e� ective - along with its relatively
high internet penetration.Retailers are seeking to ship more
goods to shoppers abroad, a drive the British government is supporting to di-versify exports from a heavy reliance on � nance. It launched a plan last year to help 1,000 retailers break into inter-national markets by 2015.
Consultants OC&C say UK retailers are beating domestic competition overseas due to wider choice, better prices and fast and reliable delivery. They predict overseas online sales by British retailers will jump to 28 billion pounds ($4bn) by 2020 from just 4 billion in 2012.
“You can go quite a long way with one warehouse serving the world,” said OC&C partner Anita Balchandani. “We should feel pretty con� dent about the prospects for a nation of shopkeepers with an advantage in the digital world.”
M&S is investing 1bn pounds on logis-tics, IT and systems. It launched a new web platform in February and is ramping
up a new distribution centre in central England to ful� ll all online orders.
It hopes that will help reverse nearly a decade of market share decline at home and pay dividends abroad as it targets a 25% increase in international sales in the next three years and a jump of 40% in overseas pro� ts.
After its retreat in 2001, M&S started a tentative return to the international stage in 2011 when it opened a store on the Champs Elysee in Paris and launched a French-language website.
The move is part of Dutch Chief Ex-ecutive Marc Bolland’s strategy to turn the British group into an international “multi-channel” retailer, reaching cus-tomers through stores, the web and mobile devices.
Credited with turning around grocer Morrisons, Bolland took over at M&S from Stuart Rose in 2010.
M&S grew international sales by a third in three years to account for 10% of the 10bn pounds ($16.82bn) 2013 total and more than 15% of operating pro� t.
Bolland’s “bricks and clicks” mantra involves opening stores in prime loca-tions to publicize the brand, comple-mented by online sales from local-lan-guage websites.
The attempt to meld stores and on-line presence is best illustrated in Bol-land’s birthplace, the Netherlands, where M&S launched a Dutch website and “e-boutique” store in Amsterdam last year that allows shoppers to browse the full range of clothes on life-size digi-tal screens and then order online. l
Facebook says it may open sales o� ce in Chinan Reuters
Facebook Inc said it may consider opening a sales o� ce in China to pro-vide more support to local advertisers who use the website to reach custom-ers overseas.
While Vaughan Smith, Facebook’s vice president of corporate develop-ment, told Reuters it was exploring ways to provide even more support lo-cally, he did not comment on how soon it plans to be in China.
Facebook currently has a Hong Kong
sales o� ce with a sta� of 30 to 40 people who deal with advertisers locally and in mainland China, where its services are blocked. The sales o� ce would, for the � rst time, put Facebook employees inside mainland China. Bloomberg on Monday reported that Facebook could open an o� ce in China within a year, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The world’s largest social network-ing company is in talks to lease space in the Fortune Financial Centre in Bei-jing’s central business district, Bloom-berg said. l
Dollar edges up in Asian AFP, Tokyo
The dollar edged up against the yen in Asia yesterday following a record close on Wall Street, while investors await the release of key economic data from around the globe.
The greenback was at 102.27 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, up from 102.09 yen in New York Monday afternoon, while the euro bought $1.3759 and 140.73 yen, compared with $1.3758 and 140.50 yen in US trade.
Dealers were in an upbeat mood af-ter the Dow and S&P 500 in New York � nished at record highs, while the Nas-daq also surged, thanks to a pick-up in technology shares.
The single currency has been under pressure since last week when Euro-pean Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said he was ready to ease monetary policy soon as the currency bloc su� ers from continuing weak in� ation.
Market-watchers suggested the ECB would now likely be forced to act at
next month’s policy meeting or risk losing its credibility with the markets.
Eyes are now on the release of a string of crucial indicators to be un-veiled later in the day, starting with Chinese industrial production, retail sales and industrial output.
That will be followed by the ZEW monthly indicator of German eco-nomic sentiment and US retail sales for April. The dollar was largely higher against other Asia-Paci� c currencies yesterday afternoon.
The greenback � rmed to Tw$30.18 from Tw$30.15, to Sg$1.2522 from Sg$1.2495 and to 43.79 Philippine pe-sos from 43.76 pesos.
It also rose to 11,530 Indonesian ru-piah from 11,523 rupiah, but was � at at 32.61 Thai baht.
The US unit slipped to 1,022.93 South Korean won from 1,024.70 won.
The Australian dollar inched down to 93.55 US cents from 93.60 cents while the Chinese yuan � rmed to 16.36 yen from 16.33 yen. l
A parcel travels along a belt at the new Marks & Spencer e-commerce distribution centre in Castle Donington, central England REUTERS
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg REUTERS
M&S grew international sales by a third in three years to account for 10% of the 10bn pounds ($16.82bn) 2013 total and more than 15% of operating pro� t
BoE's Cunli� e tells banks to prepare for post – 'too big to fail' worldn Reuters, London
Britain's banks need to start preparing for a � nancial environment in which they are no longer "too big to fail", Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cun-li� e said yesterday.
Taxpayers in Britain poured 65bn pounds into banks during the 2007-09 � nancial crisis and the BoE wants to ensure that no bank is so big that let-ting it fail would risk the market may-hem seen when Lehman Brothers went bust in September 2008.
Speaking at an event held by Bar-clays bank, Cunli� e cautioned lenders that once new rules are in place to en-sure that no bank is too big to fail, mar-ket liquidity won't return to levels seen in the run-up to the � nancial crisis.
"Liquidity premia were likely too low and liquidity risk very probably under-priced before the crisis," Cunli� e said.
"Market participants will need to recognize this change in market struc-ture and adjust their balance sheets ac-cordingly," Cunli� e added.
One of the rules being � nalized is a requirement to hold a bu� er of bonds that can be used to shore up a failing bank once it has burned through all its regulatory capital.
But Cunli� e said the aim won't be to resurrect every failed business such as by arranging "hasty shotgun weddings" or forced takeovers.
The amount of "bail-in" bonds that banks will be required to hold will only be enough to keep critical operations such as payment systems going to avoid harm-ing � nancial stability, while the group can be safely wound down over time.
"We are not seeking an amount of 'Gone Concern Loss-Absorbing Capacity' capable of resurrecting any failing banks including the global giants," Cunli� e said.
Cunli� e's boss, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who is also chairman of the G20 economies' Finan-cial Stability Board, said in March that the board wants to crack "too big to fail" bank barriers by Christmas.
Another global rule being � nalized is the leverage ratio, which acts as a cap on a bank's balance sheet.
A preliminary ratio of 3% was set and global regulators will decide in 2017 what the � nal minimum level should be, though countries like the United States are already moving to a much higher requirement.
Some bankers expect Britain's lend-ers will be required to have a lever-age ratio of 4% or above regardless of what's decided at the global level.
The government has asked the BoE's Financial Policy Committee to review if the global leverage rule should be in-troduced earlier in Britain. l
B4 Back PageDHAKA TRIBUNE Wednesday, May 14, 2014
DILBERT
Tough to co-exist in a small marketCitycell CEO Mehboob Chowdhury talks about the future prospect of mobile phone industry in Bangladeshn Muhammad Zahidul Islam
The telecom industry of the country witnessed lots of uncertainties which might a� ect long term investment in the sector, said Mehboob Chowdhury, chief executive o� cer (CEO) of Citycell.
He said the industry needs a farsighted telecom roadmap that should have a forecast for at least 10 to 15 years - from business perspective it is a must.
In an interview with the Dhaka Tribune, Chowdhury said: “The telecom sector found no roadmap yet, even the national telecom policy that introduced 16 years ago, may not suit with the present perspective. It deserves immediate revision.”
Citycell is the oldest mobile phone operator not only in the country but also in South-East Asia, and Mehboob Chowdhury is the � rst native CEO of the operator as he joined on March 1, 2010.
He said: “Lots of works have done in the mean time in a scattered way. Now we need to collect all of it and need a collective plan-ning what we want to achieve in next couple of years and where we want to go in-terms of service level.”
And for it, the government and the regulator also need to chalk out a combined roadmap with the assistance of the industry, especially with the telecom operators, said Mehboob Chowdhury, also a former chair-man of South Asia Mobile Forum (SAMF).
He, also acted as the � rst chairman of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB), said voice call will die within few years from mobile phone services. So, policy and roadmap should address the issues.
“Ten years ago, we predicted that data will dominate the market and now we can forecast that within � ve to ten years, voice will die from mobile network in our country
also.”And, it has happening in some other
countries around the globe already where data is the main source of revenue for the operators. Somewhere voice is being of-fered free with data pack, he added.
“That day is not so far when people can avail every service free with data service, even in Bangladesh.”
But third generation (3G) mobile service, that was launched in the country within the private operators six months ago, could not satisfy Mehboob Chowdhury.
“As a data focused mobile operator like Citycell, which can’t o� er 3G service; we are not comfortable from business perspective, but it is also true that 3G service not running as expected.”
After launching 3G service, Citycell went back-gear but currently it geared up again in terms of revenue and subscribers, the Citycell boss informed.
Sharing his operator’s plan, Mehboob Chowdhury said they have a plan for 3G, but it needs huge investment. So, they had to rethink about it.
“As we have EV-DO service, which is also
equivalent to 3G, since last couple of years and we think we will go for 4G. This is how Citycell can save extra investment.”
EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimised or Evolution-Data only), which is a telecommu-nications standard for the wireless transmis-sion of data through radio signals.
“We will apply for 4G (fourth generation) service next couple of months after buying
additional spectrum from 1800 bands for voice, in the mean time 4G device price will come down. The price is now very high for our customers.”
Citycell, the only CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile operator in the country also has a plan to convert their tech-nology to GSM, which would allow them to o� er their customers more handsets.
Except Citycell, � ve other mobile operators in the country using GSM (Global System for Mobile) technology that allows their subscribers the freedom to change handsets frequently.
Currently, Citycell has some revenue and spectrum dispute with the regulator and it would be solved within next six months, Mehboob Chowdhury expected.
“After that more investment will come in to Citycell and we can buy 5 megahertz spectrum from 1800 band for � ourish our voice business.”
Currently, global brand SingTel (Singa-pore Telecommunications Limited) has 45% share in Citycell and there is a perception in the industry that SingTel would acquire ma-jority stakes of Paci� c Bangladesh Telecom Limited (PBTL) and increase their shares up to 60%.
Mehboob Chowdhury said: “It will not happen as SingTel has another partner in this market. So we are not thinking about it, but we are searching more investments.”
Asked about merger and acquisitions, he replied: “There is huge chance from Citycell point of view, if we found lucrative o� ers from the market we’ll never obsolete this probability.”
At the same time, Mehboob Chowdhury said, the industry might witness mergers, acquisitions and liquidation in the near fu-ture, it is a very big challenge for six mobile operators to co-exist in this small market under the current situation. l
MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU
OECD: Growth weakening in major emerging economiesn AFP, Paris
Growth is weakening in major emerg-ing economies, the OECD said yester-day, while the recovery in the eurozone remains on track despite some signs of a slowdown in Germany.
The OECD index of composite leading indicators (CLI) showed that growth conditions were below trend in Brazil, China and India and even losing momentum in Russia, struck by the cri-sis in Ukraine.
Inside the eurozone, the CLIs show
growth strengthening in Italy and the sin-gle currency bloc as a whole, with the two biggest economies France and Germany showing stable growth momentum.
But other data this week has sug-gested that the German economy, a longtime bright spot in the often trou-bled eurozone, may be stalling.
On Tuesday, a survey from the ZEW economic institute showed that invest-ment sentiment in Germany fell to the lowest level for nearly 1.5 years. Ana-lysts are however still expecting solid growth for this year.
The French central bank meanwhile forecast that France, while avoiding re-cession, will only see anaemic growth of 0.2% in the second quarter this year.
The head of the French MEDEF em-ployers' union Pierre Gattaz said his data showed no "reversal in the out-look" for France save perhaps "a halt in the decline of certain sectors".
For the OECD as a whole - and the United States, Canada and Japan in particular - growth remained at a stable momentum with Britain showing ini-tial signs of acceleration. l
Top EU court gives people right to ask for Google data deletionn AFP, Luxembourg
In a surprise ruling yesterday, the EU's top court said individuals have the right to ask US Internet giant Google to delete personal data produced by its ubiquitous search engine.
Individuals have a right "to be for-gotten," under certain circumstances when their personal data becomes outdated or inaccurate, the European Court of Justice said.
Speci� cally, this applies when such data "appear to be inadequate, irrele-vant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purpose for which they were processed and in the light of the time that has elapsed." The excep-tion would be if the data concerns a � gure in the public eye and an issue of predominant public interest, it added.
The ECJ said that based on current data protection norms in the European Union, it holds "an Internet search engine operator is responsible for the processing that it carries out of personal data."
Google said the ruling was a disap-pointment and "dramatically" at odds with an opinion last year delivered by one of the ECJ's top lawyers.
"This is a disappointing ruling for search engines and online publishers in general," Google said in a statement.
"We are very surprised that it di� ers so dramatically from the advocate gen-eral's opinion and the warnings and con-sequences that he spelled out," it said.
"We now need to take time to anal-yse the implications," it added.
Google, which dominates the Internet search industry, has previously argued that it is responsible only for � nding the Information. As long as this is correct and legal, and therefore properly part of the public record, it believes it should not be obliged to delete such data, which it argues amounts to "censorship."
Ruling threatens 'private censor-ship' James Waterworth of industry
group, the Computer and Communi-cations Industry Association, attacked the ruling as opening "the door to large scale private censorship in Europe."
"It may open the � oodgates for tens of thousands of requests to have legal, publicly available information about Europeans taken out of a search index or links removed from websites," Wa-terworth said.
Last year, ECJ Advocate General Niilo Jaaskinen had argued that Google was not responsible for the data carried by websites appearing on its search engine and that EU citizens did not have a "right to be forgotten" under current law.
That opinion suggested the ECJ would rule accordingly in due course and was warmly welcomed by Google at the time.
European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding proposed in 2012 that a "right to be forgotten" be included in EU legislation on data protection to meet concerns it was not adequate giv-en the pace of techology change.
Reding's spokeswoman Mina An-dreeva said yesterday the Commission welcomed the ruling as "good news" because it vindicated the EU's position.
At the same time, it left the burden of proof that data should be deleted on the individual while Reding want-ed that reversed so that it will "be up to companies to prove that the data is needed," Andreeva said.
The case centres on Spanish national Mario Costeja Gonzalez who went to court because the personal details of his involvement in a debt recovery opera-tion continued to appear on the online version of a Spanish newspaper long af-ter the legal dispute had been resolved. l
China April data underscores economy still losing steamn Reuters, Beijing
Chinese investment, retail sales and factory output growth all disappoint-ed in April by hitting multiyear lows, suggesting the world's second-largest economy is still losing steam despite government e� orts to shore up activity.
Factory output rose 8.7% in April from a year earlier, marking the slow-est growth in � ve years, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. The result missed economists' expectations of an 8.9% rise.
The lacklustre performance led some analysts to question whether the government may step up e� orts to bol-ster economic growth lest it fall short of the o� cial target of around 7.5%.
"Whether the government will take enough measures to lessen the down-turn, this is the biggest question for now," said Wei Yao, an economist at So-ciete Generale in Hong Kong.
"The most concerning number is the � xed-asset investment number," she said. "The number basically tells us the housing downturn has more than o� set the investment push from the govern-ment so far."
Fixed-asset investment, a key driver of growth, grew 17.3% in the � rst four months of the year compared with the same period last year. That was weaker than expected and the worst showing since December 2001.
Retail sales also missed forecasts by ris-ing 11.9% in April from a year earlier, the weakest growth in more than � ve years.
To shore up economic growth, Bei-jing has been loosening policy at the margins by lowering taxes, quickening infrastructure investment, and reduc-ing the amount of cash that the small-est banks have to keep at the central bank to encourage freer lending.
But a slowing property market, where revenues for developers are falling even as home prices continue to rise, has heightened the pain of the cooling economy. l
Models display Japanese electronics giant Panasonic's wearable camera 'HX-A500' which can record 4K MPEG-4 movies on a micro SD card at a press preview in Osaka in May AFP
'We now need to take time to analyse the implications'
