PAGE 3Home minister: MP Bodi is innocent

PAGE 7 SUST students give VC 48 hours to resign

PAGE 32Deutsche Welle starts TV channel in Dhaka

PAGE 4Bar Council polls results announced o� cially

PAGE 5Post o� ce, BTCL losing concerns

SECOND EDITION

TAZREEN OWNER, STAFF FINALLY INDICTED PAGE 32

SOCCEROOS BREEZE PAST TIGERS PAGE 25

TOFAIL: DHAKA TO REGAIN GSP IN US MARKET SOON PAGE 15

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015 | Bhadro 20, 1422, Zilqad 19, 1436 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 141 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages plus 24-page Weekend | Price: Tk10

WATER STAGNATION, TRAFFIC JAMS

Planners blame it on land grabbersn Abu Hayat Mahmud

The twin evils of water stagnation and tra� c jams continue to hold Dhaka residents hos-tage despite repeated attempts to bring them under control.

Ambitious government projects have failed to reduce waterlogging and tra� c congestion in the capital because politically in� uential land-grabbers remain in illegal occupation of water bodies, open spaces, footpaths and roads in and around Dhaka, urban planners, local government authorities and residents said.

City planners said illegal occupation inter-fered with the natural discharge of rainwater, in turn contributing to gridlock on the roads.

They added that failing to free up foot-

paths and motorways from encroachment contributed to tra� c jams.

Four bodies bear primary responsibility for maintaining the city’s drainage and tra� c sys-tems – Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) and the Tra� c Division of the Dhaka Metro-politan Police (DMP).

Land-grabbing causes waterloggingUrban planner Professor Nazrul Islam, also chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies, told the Dhaka Tribune: “To � x the waterlogging problem, the authorities must � rst recover and conserve all water bodies – canals, low-ly-ing land, lakes and rivers.”

“There is no alternative to recovering these

water bodies – this is the only way to enable the proper discharge of rainwater,” he said.

Dhaka’s drainage network is composed of canals that discharge storm water into surrounding rivers. The city is protected from river � ooding by an embankment that

encircles it, but during the monsoon riverlevels rise higher than drainage water levels, experts say.

As a result, storm water fails to � ow into the Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakkhya and Balu rivers.

At a Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) programme, Buet teacher Prof Shahjahan Mondal said encroachment had taken place in more than 3,000 places along Dhaka’s � ve riv-

ers – the Buriganga, Shitalakkhya, Turag, Balu and Dhaleshwari.

“Illegal occupiers are usually in� uential people who use their political and � nancial power to manage the government machin-ery,” he added.

The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority has identi� ed 7,154 individuals and organisations as encroachers.

According to Dhaka Wasa, a major part of its drainage system consists of canals, rivers and lakes to reroute excess water out of the city. It also uses a storm drainage network measuring some 261.39 square kilometres around the city.

The major canal systems serving the capi-tal are the Degun-Ibrahimur-Kallyanpur canal

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Survey: Support for government growing

n Tribune Report

Despite continuing partisan divide on elector-al issues, ruling Awami League government has gained support among a majority of Bang-ladeshi respondents, an International Repub-lican Institute survey has found.

The results of the poll, conducted in June 2015, also indicate positive public feelings about the current economic position and op-timism about the future.

However, respondents cited corruption as their dominant concern.

In the 18 months following the January 5, 2014 parliamentary election, support for the

government and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasi-na reached 66 and 67% respectively.

Bangladeshis are increasingly optimistic about the prospects for the country, with 62% saying the country is headed in the right di-rection – up from 56% in a September 2014 survey.

Furthermore, 72% rated overall economic conditions positively, 68% felt security con-ditions are good and 64% was positive about political stability.

The survey was based on face-to-face in-terviews conducted with a randomly selected sample of 2,550 voting aged adults from May 23 to June 10, 2015.

The e� ects of the January 2014 election were evident in the persistence of a sharp division regarding new elections – respond-ents were almost equally divided when asked about when they would like the next national election to occur.

Conducted in cooperation with interna-tional research � rm Global Strategic Partners, the nationally representative sample was drawn from all 64 districts in the seven divi-sions.

Forty-seven percent of the respondents indicated a desire for new election to be held immediately, similar to an IRI survey con-ducted in September 2014, when 40% stated they wanted immediate election.

Forty percent want the current parliament to ful� ll its term, down slightly from 45% in the previous survey.

With the decline of electoral violence and daily hartals, 24% Bangladeshis surveyed cit-ed corruption as the most important problem facing the country, nearly 10 points higher than political instability (16%) and security (15%), which are cited as the second and third most important problems facing Bangladesh.

Although the government received posi-tive marks on the whole, 47% do not see the government as fully engaged in or capable of � ghting corruption. Interestingly, only 11% said they had paid a bribe; more than half of them said they had paid at least Tk5,000.

The margin of error does not exceed plus or minus 2% with a con� dence level of 95%. l

Bangladesh’s per capita debt $169n Tribune Report

Bangladesh’s per capital gross external debt now stands at $169, or Tk13,160, which is higher than what it was two years ago.

On behalf of Finance Minister AMA Mu-hith, junior � nance minister MA Mannan yes-

terday revealed the information in parliament while responding to a query.

As on June 30, 2015, that is the last day of the immediate past FY2014-15, the coun-try had an outstanding loan of $25,908 or Tk2,07,265 crore.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Do you believe things in Bangladesh are heading in the right direction, or are they heading in the wrong direction?

33% 35%

56%62%62%

59%

39%

36%

Nov 2013 Jan 2014 Sept 2014 June 2015

Right Direction Wrong Direction

Development Partners Amount

in $ million Amount

in Tk croreADB 7731.32 61850.56China 919.51 7356.08IDA (World Bank) 12792.94 102343.50

IDB 419.78 3358.21

Denmark 108.65 869.21Japan 2422.02 19376.18India 207.18 1657.45South Korea 348.97 2791.78Kuwait 134.43 1075.46IFAD 366.92 2935.39Others 456.34 3650.72Total 25908.06 207264.50

BANGLADESH’S OUTSTANDINGEXTERNAL LOAN AS ON JUNE 30, 2015

PM TOO SLAMS GRABBERS3

Planners blame it on land grabbersthat discharges into the Turag River, the Dhanmondi-Paribagh-Gulshan-Banani-Mo-hakhali-Begunbari canal that discharges into the Balu River and the Segunbagicha-Gera-ni-Dholaikhal canal that discharges into the Balu and Buriganga rivers.

Wasa sources said there were originally 65 canals, but over the course of time the num-ber has come down to 43. Of these, some 20 canals have died out, many have been � lled with garbage and others are being encroached upon by land-grabbers.

Dhaka’s two city corporations occupy an area of 360 square kilometres but storm drains cover just 280 square kilometres of the metropolis.

The city has box culverts stretching 10.5 kilometres with 913.63 kilometres of surface drains and 26 canals, ranging from 10 to 30m in width, running a length of around 60 kilo-metres. The drainage pipes have diameters ranging from between 450 and 3,000mm.

Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune on condi-tion of anonymity, several DNCC, DSCC and Wasa o� cials said the capital’s underground drainage system was not adequate to handle storm water from heavy rains.

“The network needs to be expanded by at least another 40 percent. The drains should be properly linked through a scienti� cally de-signed network,” said a Dhaka Wasa o� cial, asking not to be named.

The prime minister and shipping minister have directed the relevant government bod-ies to address waterlogging and tra� c con-gestion in the capital.

But Dhaka Wasa, DNCC, DSCC and BIWTA have yet to demonstrate success in carrying

out the directives.Dhaka Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A

Khan continues to attribute the city’s water-logging problems to incidents of heavy rain.

“Waterlogging temporarily occurred due to heavy rainfall. To drain away the storm wa-ter we have installed pumps at di� erent sta-tions,” he said.

Earlier the Wasa boss claimed that Wasa operates just 30% of the capital’s sewerage and drainage facilities, with 70% of the infra-structure out of service due to a lack of funds.

Despite election promises to solve the problems of waterlogging and tra� c jams, the capital’s two mayors, Annisul Huq and Sayeed Khokon, have yet to deliver.

DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq told the Dhaka Tribune that he had directed city and Wasa o� cials to take steps to resolve the problem. “We have purchased equipment to clean the city corporation’s drains.”

Annisul said he had met civil society mem-bers and urban planners to exchange ideas about creating a Green Dhaka.

DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon said: “We have taken temporary steps to deal with wa-terlogging.”

He said the existing drainage system was not adequate to deal with heavy rain, adding: “A deep drainage system will be constructed after demolishing the surface box culverts.”

Reclaiming occupied footpaths, roadsDespite big-ticket road projects like the Gu-listan-Jatrabari � yover and the Kuril � yover, tra� c jams, sometimes lasting for hours, are a daily fact of life in the capital.

Urban planners said tra� c congestion would

not ease unless the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripa-kkha (Rajuk) – the capital improvement author-ity, the two city corporations, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and the rele-vant ministries co-ordinate their e� orts.

At a meeting held shortly after the mayor-al polls, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Dhaka North city Mayor An-nisul Huq and Dhaka South city Mayor Sayeed Khokon agreed to take steps to remove illegal en-croachers from the capital’s footpaths and roads. But the initiative has not yielded much success.

Annisul told the Dhaka Tribune that re-moving illegal occupants and land-grabbers was a complex procedure and would only be successful if a long-term plan was put into ef-fect.

Prof Nazrul said: “Urbanisation and tra� c management in Dhaka city is completely un-planned. Roads and footpath occupiers must be removed in the situation is to improve.”

“In the long term, the government must seriously work on decentralisation…without this tra� c congestion will likely intensify in future,” he added.

“Dhaka has the highest rate of urbanisa-tion – at 90%,” he said.

Prof Dr Sarwar Jahan of Buet said: “Dha-ka has become un� t for living because of the enormous rate of migration to the capital.

“About 15 million people live in and around Dhaka. If the government does not take strong measures to decentralise the country, no e� ort to reduce tra� c congestion will be successful.”

The government has taken steps to make commuting in the capital a more tolerable experience including introducing special bus

services, CCTV-aided surveillance systems, bans on old and un� t vehicles, setting up new school and o� ce schedules and implement-ing automated tra� c signals.

The government has embarked on a mas-sive building programme to enlarge the car-rying capacity of the city’s infrastructure, constructing link roads, � yovers, a bus rapid transit system, elevated expressways, and a metro rail transit system.

It has launched a water bus service in the rivers surrounding the city. l

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Bangladesh’s per capita debt $169Responding to a query, Mannan said Bang-ladesh had paid $182.43m or around Tk1,419 crore in interests against that loan amount.

In reply to another question, the state minister for � nance said that according to the Bangladesh Credit Information Bureau, the total number of loan defaulters in the country is 175,580.

According to Mannan, there are 62 organi-sations o� ering banking services in the coun-try, of which 56 are scheduled banks. In 2014, Islami Bank made the highest pro� t Tk1621.21 crore. On the other hand, state-owned BASIC Bank made the highest Tk110.79 crore loss. Oth-er losing banks are Bangladesh Krishi Bank, ICB Islamic Bank and National Bank of Pakistan.

Responding to another query, Mannan said that the Asian Development Bank will give $250m or around Tk2,000 crore as loan under the 3rd Capital Market Development Programme (CMDP-III) to develop the capital market in Bangladesh.

He also said that the foreign exchange re-serve was $5.349bn in 2009, but on August

2015, it rose to $26.16bn, which is the highest ever.

In reply to another query, the junior minis-ter said that in the 2014-15 � scal year, a total of Tk1,28,771 crore was transacted through mo-bile banking. Up to July of the new � scal year, the transacted amount stood at Tk13,811.52 crore. l

3 diplomats promoted to secretary status n Sheikh Shahariar Zaman

Three career diplomats have been promoted to secretary status at the Foreign Ministry.

They are Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Masud bin Momen, former additional secre-tary Mizanur Rahman and Bangladesh Am-bassador to Singapore Mahbub Uz Zaman.

“They were promoted to the status of sec-retary on August 27,” said a senior o� cial of the Foreign Ministry.

All of them belong to the BCS 1985 batch. With the promotions, the Foreign Ministry now has 13 secretary status diplomats includ-ing the foreign secretary.

According to rules two of them will be based at the headquarters including the for-eign secretary and 11 will be posted at di� er-ent missions at ambassador position.

Former foreign secretary Md Mijarul Quayes is now ambassador to Brazil. His batch mate Is-

mat Jahan is now ambassador at Brussels. Their another batchmate Golam Moham-

mad, former envoy in Greece, has now been made OSD at the headquarters.

Current Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque’s batch mates Shamim Ahsan is cur-rently posted in Geneva as envoy and Fazlul Karim as ambassador to China. Mohammad Abdul Hannan is the Bangladesh High Com-missioner to England while Imtiaz Ahmed is the ambassador to Portugal.

Md Shahdat Hossain is Bangladesh Ambas-sador to Italy while Mosud Mannan is envoy to Uzbekistan. Mazeda Ra� qunessa is now a director general at the ministry. Her promo-tion is withheld because of allegations of ir-regularities as ambassador to Manila.

Promotion of Shamsul Haque has also been withheld on similar grounds.

O� cials of the Foreign Ministry are promot-ed in line with the position of their merit list. l

Advance rail tickets from September 15n Tribune Report

Bangladesh Railways will begin selling train tickets in advance from September 15 to ease travel for home-bound passengers ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

Railways Minister Md Mujibul Hoque made the announcement in a press brie� ng at Rail Bhaban yesterday.

The minister said: “Advance tickets for Eid will be sold from September 15-19, and return tickets will be sold from September 23-27.”

He said the tickets for September 20 can be purchased on September 15, while return tickets for September 27 will be available for purchase on the 23rd of the month.

The tickets for September 21, 22, 23 and 24 will be sold on September 16, 17, 18 and 19 re-spectively.

“A person can purchase up to four tickets, but the tickets will not be refunded,” Mujibul said. l

Latif’s parliament membership declared vacantn Tribune Report

The parliament membership of former min-ister Abdul Latif Siddique has been declared vacant following his resignation.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury made the announcement yesterday, two days after he stepped down as a lawmaker.

While tendering his resignation on Tues-day, Latif told the Jatiya Sangsad that he was doing this as per the wishes of his leader.

In September last year, the now-former Tangail MP and then telecom minister Latif faced severe criticism after making derogato-ry remarks about hajj and tabligh jamaat at a programme in the USA.

A number of cases were � led against him on charges of hurting religious sentiment, while he had to stay nine months behind bars in several of those cases. He was also expelled from the Awami League and the cabinet. l

NEWS2DT

NEWS 3D

TFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

This pick-up van arrives at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday carrying bags of life-saving salines but without any arrangement for maintaining the temperature of the � uid MEHEDI HASAN

Home minister: MP Bodi is innocentn Kamrul Hasan

The home minister yesterday claimed that investigators had not found the involvement of ruling Awami League lawmaker Abdur Rah-man Bodi in any drug smuggling case.

“Investigators found many people in-volved in illegal yaba smuggling. But they did not � nd any evidence that he [Bodi] was the ring leader or involved in yaba smuggling.

“Bodi is innocent,” Home Minister Asaduz-zaman Khan Kamal said replying to a query after a conference of the Department of Nar-cotics Control (DNC) in the capital’s Tejgaon. Senior o� cials of the ministry and the DNC were present at the event. Kamal said that someone might have given his name driven

by emotion. But it is a matter investigation.The reporters wanted to know about the

drug smuggling allegations raised against the Cox’s Bazar 4 lawmaker and whether his “attacks and threats” on government o� cials would encourage the drug dealers and dis-courage the public servants.

The minister said that many allegations had been brought against Bodi. “But justice cannot be ensured out of possibility or impos-sibility. We have to � nd proper evidence.”

The controversial lawmaker was sued by the Anti-Corruption Commission last year for gaining wealth beyond the known source of income. He is currently on bail in the case.

Earlier, the DNC and several intelligence agency reports mentioned about Bodi and his

brothers’ names for their involvement in yaba smuggling, human tra� cking and illegally naturalising Rohingya immigrants, as well as illegal hundi business.

Bodi joined the BNP in 1996. He later joined the Awami League failing to win in parliament elections. He became a member of parliament for the � rst time in 2008 with the Awami League ticket and then in the January 5 polls last year.

Speaking at the function, the minister said that yaba trading had taken a deadly look in the country. “This evil business can not be controlled even by conducting mobile courts.”

He called upon the DNC o� cials to collect information objectively and advised them to take police members with them during any operation. l

Planning Commission member under ACC scannern Adil Sakhawat

The Anti-Corruption Commission has decid-ed to run inquiry into the allegation against Planning Commission’s Member Humayun Khalid for his alleged involvement in bribing and corruption while he was registrar of the Department of Cooperatives.

But when contacted Humayun Khalid, the member of Planning Commission’s Socio Eco-nomic Infrastructure Division, denied his in-volvement in such crimes.

Humayun was registrar of the Department of Cooperative from June 2012 to June 2014.

The ACC yesterday appointed Deputy Di-rector SM Ra� qul Islam as inquiry o� cer and Director Moniruzzaman as monitoring o� cial to look into the matter of the allegation, said a competent source in the commission.

The source said when Humayun was regis-trar of the Department of Cooperatives he had leased out a land of others illegally to Bakus-hah Hawkers Market Cooperative Society in the capital’s Nilkhet area.

In the primary inquiry the commission found some clues to the allegations against that member of the Planning Commission.

Soon, the commission will summon Hu-mayun Khalid, the source also said. However, Humayun said: “The Department of Coopera-tives is not responsible for giving lease of any land to any cooperative society.

“As a registrar of the cooperatives I was only responsible for issuing registration to cooper-ative societies, forming the management of those societies or arranging election for those cooperatives, and auditing their budget.”

Leasing out land to cooperatives are the responsibility of the Ministry of Land and the collectors of Dhaka District, he said.

“There are two parties in the Bakushah Hawkers Market Cooperative Society. During my time as a registrar I had to settle some of their disputes through arbitration. But as the commission decided to run inquiry against me I welcome that initiatives as ,” he said.l

PM slams businessmen for water stagnationn Tribune Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday blamed businessmen for water stagnation in the capital saying that it was the result of un-planned construction of buildings by � lling the water bodies.

“You cannot blame the government or the city corporation only; the businessmen too will have to shoulder the responsibility for waterlogging in Dhaka,” she told a delegation of newly-elected o� ce bearers of the Feder-ation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) led by its President Ab-dul Matlub Ahmed at her o� ce.

The premier urged the businessmen of the country to go for planned and environ-ment-friendly industrialisation having provi-sion of water bodies so that any possible � re incident could be dealt with properly, accord-ing to TV reports.

Hasina said that the businessmen construct buildings but do not keep space for drains and footpaths but they � ll the water bodies.

They should have given a second thought that these water bodies are essential during the monsoon. “You have � lled everything to construct the buildings, sold them and made pro� t.

“I do not want to mention the name who I gave a piece of land for construction of a building. I asked them to keep a road and not to � ll the [nearby] canal...I was not in pow-er for seven years, and when I took o� ce, I discovered the building in the canal. Even a bridge was made which means they will � ll the other free spaces and make another build-ing there,” the premier said.

She further said the Awami League gov-ernment has always been a business-friendly one, according to UNB.

About the recent power and gas tari� hike, Hasina said that the government had to pur-chase fuel at a higher price earlier for power generation for which it had to bear a liability of Tk38,000 crore. Out of such liability, she said, about Tk8,000 crore have been paid so far.

Hasina asked the businessmen to tap the growing domestic market and take steps to explore the huge marine resources, her Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told reporters after the meeting.

She said that the country’s businesses should not be restricted to the RMG sector only and should tap into the vast marine re-sources in the Bay of Bengal, especially after the gain of huge marine areas through the maritime boundary verdicts over Myanmar and India.

She also urged the businessmen to get in-volved with the growing domestic market alongside boosting exports. “The more the purchasing capacity of the common people will increase, the domestic market would get bigger,” she said.

Referring to the withdrawal of import duty on lique� ed petroleum gas (LPG), the prime minister said that her government did not re-ceive much response from the businessmen, and suggested that they go for manufacturing cylinders.

Hasina said that the government would try to bring the bank interest rate to single digit to encourage industrialisation and businesses. She urged the businessmen to pay taxes, so that the government could pay incentives to them based on the tax.

She said that the proposed Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) and the Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) initiatives have provisions of regional connectivity which could help � ourish businesses.

She said that the ongoing extension work on Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Sylhet highways would help in-dustrialisation.

The government is looking for suitable places for setting up slaughterhouses, she said putting emphasis on optimum utilisation of rawhide.

Speaking on the occasion, the FBCCI pres-ident said that the businessmen would work hand in hand with the government to materi-alise its Vision 2021. l

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015NEWS4DT

Three more testify in Khaleda’s graft casen Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

Three more prosecution wit-nesses gave depositions yester-day in Zia Charitable Trust graft case � led against former prime minister Khaleda Zia and three others.

BNP Chairperson Khale-da did not appear before the court at Bakshibazar due to her illness. She earlier skipped ap-pearance on August 10 and Au-gust 27 citing the same reason.

Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court 3 recorded the state-ments and adjourned the pro-ceedings until September 10.

The three witnesses are HM Ismail, senior principal o� cer of Pubali Bank; Sheikh Mak-bul Ahmed, deputy-general manager of Janata Bank; and

Fahmida Rahman, � rst AGM of Janata Bank’s Masjid Road branch.

The court is dealing with the two cases � led by the ACC for alleged embezzlement of funds of Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust.

At the beginning of the hear-ing, Khaleda’s counsel � led two petitions for her non-appear-ance, saying that she could not appear in the court due to her illness.

They also � led two more petitions seeking permission to represent Khaleda in her ab-sence on the day.

The defence � rst cross exam-ined the third and fourth pros-ecution witnesses. After the new witnesses completed dep-ositions, the defence counsels cross examined them too. l

Bar Council polls results announced o� ciallyn Tribune Report

The ruling Awami League-backed Sammilita Ainjibi Sa-mannay Parishad panel has won 11 posts out of 14 in the Bangladesh Bar Council elec-tions, according to o� cial re-sults announced yesterday.

The pro-BNP and like-mind-ed Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Oikya Parishad panel, who dominated

the council in the last two ten-ures, got the three other posts.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam formally announced the results in the morning. The election was held on August 26.

The Bangladesh Bar Council elections are held every three years. The 14-member execu-tive body elects the vice-chair-man while the attorney general is given the post of chairman. l

Aman gets bail in 11 casesn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

A Dhaka court yesterday grant-ed the bail petitions of BNP Joint Secretary General Aman-ullah Aman in 11 cases � led on charges of arson attacks and vandalism in the capital and its outskirts during the anti gov-ernment programme.

After hearing on his bail plea,

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ali Masud Shiekh, granted the bail petitions � led by Aman’s counsel Md Sanaul-lah Miah before the court.

On August 2, the metropoli-tan magistrate court’s sent the BNP leader to jail rejecting his bail petitions in 44 cases after his surrender before the courts in the cases. l

SUST student found deadn Tribune Report

An architecture student of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Sylhet, Mu-hammad Shahriar Majumdar, was found dead in his room last night.

Classmates and police said Shahriar lived in a mess in Sur-ma residential area, adjacent to the university campus.

His door was found locked from inside when his classmates went to call him around 8pm. As Shahriar did not respond, one of his classmate tried to

peak through the ventilator and found that his body was hang-ing from the window with a belt, SUST Proctor Prof Kamru-zzaman Chowdhury said.

Kotwali police recovered the body and sent it to Osmani Medical College for an autopsy.

An activist of Gonojagoron Moncho, Shahriar was a stu-dent of 2008-2009 session. He completed honours recently but was waiting to complete some pending courses.

He was also the senior ad-viser of SUST Sahitya Sangsad and Cartoon Factory. l

NEWS 5D

T

Post o� ce, BTCL losing concernsn Tribune Report

In the last three � scal years, state-controlled entities Bangladesh Post O� ce and Bangla-desh Telecommunications Company Limited have both incurred revenue losses.

Figures have been particularly grim for the post o� ce, which has never made a pro� t since the 2008-09 � scal year.

Over this period, it su� ered the lowest loss – Tk94.43 crore – in 2009-10 and the high-est – Tk234.55 crore – in the immediate past FY2014-15.

In fact, its losses have never come below Tk200 crore in the last four years.

These � gures were revealed in parliament yesterday when Tarana Halim, state minister for Post and Telecommunications, was taking part in a question-answer session.

Figures for Bangladesh Telecommunica-tions Company Limited (BTCL) showed that it su� ered a Tk17 crore loss in the � scal year that just ended. In the two preceding years, its revenue losses were Tk4 crore and Tk546 crore respectively.

Actor-turned-politician Tarana Halim, who is a lawyer by training and has made it to the cabinet for the � rst time during the last spate of reshu� e in July, said: “Mobile phone call rates are becoming increasingly cheaper. As a result, the land phone service is facing severe competition.”

She, however, assured that the BTCL has taken a number of steps to survive the � erce competition from the mobile phone industry.

Tarana also said that at present, there are 736,000 land phone users in the country. l

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

100

200

300

400

500

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

INCOME EXPENDITURE(Taka in crore)

BANGLADESH POST OFFICE

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

INCOME EXPENDITURE(Taka in crore)

BANGLADESH TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY LIMITED (BTCL)

ACC okays charge sheet against 14 for embezzling Tk110 croren Adil Sakhawat

Government’s corruption watchdog Anti-Cor-ruption Commission has approved the charge sheet against 14 o� cials of Bismillah Group and Shahjalal Islami Bank for their alleged in-volvement with embezzling Tk110 crore from the bank’s Eskaton branch.

The approval came from a regular meeting of the Anti-Corruption Commission yester-day, con� rmed ACC Deputy Director (Public Relations) Pranab Kumer Bhattacharya.

After working on the case for more than two years, investigation o� cial Gulshan An-war submitted the probe report to the com-mission in August this year; the case was � led with the Ramna police station in Dhaka on March 29, 2013.

According to the probe report, the accused – in connivance with each other – embezzled Tk975,648,000 from the Eskaton branch of the Shahjalal Islami Bank by making fake in-voices of export in the name of back-to-back Letter of Credit, which caused the bank losses worth Tk1,100,959,000.

The 14 accused in the charge sheet include Bismillah Group Managing Director Khaja Soleman Chowdhury, its Chairman Nowrin Hasib, Directors Begum Sarwar Jahan, Abi-

da Hasib, Nahid Anwar Khan, Khandaker Moinuddin Ishak, General Manager (Account) Abul Hossain Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Director Akbar Aziz Mutakki, Manager Ri-azuddin Ahmed.

The other accused bank o� cials are: Shahjalal Bank Eskaton branch’s former branch manager Aslamul Haq, former dep-uty manager ASM Hasanul Kabir, Senior Executive O� cer Sahidul Islam, Junior As-sistant Vice-President Mannatul Maula and Chairman of Network Freight System Limited Akhter Hossain.

Sources in the Anti-Corruption Commis-sion said all of the accused are now in hid-ing in various countries including the United Arab Emirates, England, Malaysia, Canada, and Australia.

On November 3, 2013, the commission � led a total of 12 cases with the Ramna and Motijheel police stations in Dhaka against 53 people, including the 14 accused in the charge sheet, in connection with the loan scam of Bismillah Group worth Tk1,200 crore.

Thirteen of the accused were from Bismil-lah Group and 40 others were high-ranked o� cials of Janata Bank, Prime Bank, Premier Bank, Jamuna Bank and Shahjalal Islami Bank. l

FB account opened every 12 secondsin Bangladeshn Tribune Report

State Minister for Information and Telecom-munications Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Thursday told the parliament that every 12 seconds some-one in Bangladesh opens a Facebook account.

In response to a query by lawmaker Farhad Hossain, that he does not have a Facebook ac-count so who maintains the accounts opened in his name, the junior minister said, “This question is valid for not only you. It is a ques-tion for crores of Bangladeshis. Bangladesh has the second-highest growing number of Facebook users. Every 12 seconds, a Facebook account is opened in Bangladesh.”

The junior minister told the parliament that one can resolve the problem of fake ac-counts by going onto the ICT Division and BTRC websites.

Apart from this, he also told the parlia-ment that one can also get help by dialing 0176678888 and that this service would be provided around the clock.

In response to a supplementary question, Palak said, “The government has taken various steps to guarantee internet usage. We passed the ICT Act and have laws against pornography. Apart from this, we are also formulating the co-ordinated Cyber Act and whenever it becomes law, our security will be strengthened.” l

Ministry unaware of ‘martyr’ tag ofQuader Mollan Tribune Report

Liberation War A� airs Minister AKM Mo-zammel Haque yesterday said that they were unaware of the tombstone of executed war criminal Abdul Quader Molla where the for-mer Jamaat-e-Islami leader is mentioned as a “martyr.”

He told parliament that the ministry would take measures to remove the word “if any written complaint is lodged with the ministry in this regard.”

The minister made the statement replying to a question of a ruling party lawmaker who said that using the word “martyr” for a con-demned war criminal was an insult to those who had sacri� ced their lives for the inde-pendence of the country in 1971.

The Jamaat assistant secretary general was the � rst war criminal to be executed following trial. He was known as “Butcher of Mirpur” during the war.

Quader Molla was hanged on December 12, 2013 and buried at his family graveyard at Amirabad village under Faridpur’s Sadarpur upazila. His party termed the execution a po-litical killing.

He was given life-term imprisonment on February 5, 2013 by the International Crimes Tribunal for the killing of Hazrat Ali and his family, and rape. The Appellate Division on September 17 the same year increased his sen-tence to capital punishment. l

Two war tribunalsto be mergedn Tribune Report

The government has initiated a process to merge the two international crimes tribunals from Sunday as the number of pending cases have come down.

Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said a gazette noti� cation might be issued in this re-gard. The government started the process to merge the tribunal into a single one in consul-tation with the Supreme Court, he said.

“One of the tribunals will be inactive and its judges will work for the High Court. It can be made functional in the future, if necessary for disposal of the cases,” the minister added.

The Awami League-led government formed the � rst tribunal on March 25, 2010 to try the collaborators of the Pakistani occupa-tion forces who had been involved in murder, rape, arson and looting during the 1971 Liber-ation War. The second tribunal was formed on March 22, 2012.

So far, the two tribunals have pronounced verdicts in 21 cases including those � led against former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Ghulam Azam and current chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.

After the country’s independence on De-cember 16, 1971, then the government estab-lished 73 special tribunals across the country to try the local collaborators. The trial pro-ceedings began with 37,471 detained. Some 26,000 were freed under general amnesty de-clared in 1973.

But those accused of killing, raping, looting and arson were declared beyond the amnesty. The trials continued until the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. The subsequent military-backed gov-ernment annulled the Collaborator’s Ordi-nance on December 31 the same year and freed the detainees. l

NEWS6DTFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

1,500 kg Ilish seizedn Our Correspondent, Satkhira

Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) seized 1,500 kilograms of hilsa while those were being smuggled to India through Alipur check post area at Bhomra border point in Sa-dar upazila yesterday morning.

Major Mojammel Haque, deputy commander of BGB Battalion-38, said acting on a tip-o� , a team of the border force conducted a drive in the area and intercepted a truck loaded with hilsa packed in 35 cartons in the morning. However, the smug-glers and truck driver managed to escape sensing the presence of the BGB members. l

Dhaka-Rangpur Highway turns miserable within a year of repairn Our Correspondent, Gaibandha

Barely one year has elapsed since the repair works, myriad big and small potholes have developed on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway that covers 32km in the district.

Consequently, the vehicles plying on the dilapidated highway have been victim of ac-cidents repeatedly.

It was learnt from Gaibandha Roads and High-ways Department (RHD) that some 32km of Dha-ka-Rangpur highway is situated in the district stretching from Fasitola area of Gubindaganj upazila to Dhaperhat of Sadullahpur upazila.

Last year there was a carpeting works on the 32km highway at a cost of Tk23 crore. While visiting, the correspondent found that carpeting got badly damaged in many plac-es and many potholes appeared on the road within the short span of time.

Nayon Chandra Saha, businessman from Dhaperhat area, said the patients in ambu-lance face a tough time in the shaking by dint of the potholes on the road.

A local journalist namely Aminul Islam

opined that most of the long-route buses meet accidents particularly during crossing the 32km part. He continued that three people got killed and at least 40 others injured in road accidents on the highway in last two months.

A bus driver named Amirul Islam from Po-lashbari upazila town said the potholes of the road got � lled during rain and they failed to assume the depth of those resulting repeated accidents appeared there despite their cau-tious driving.

Local Awami League leader and former Po-lasbari upazila chairman AKM Moksed Chow-

dhury Bidyut blamed low-standard works of the road while one year has barely passed af-ter the carpeting.

Local RHD has not paid any heed to the re-peated calls from the locals to take necessary steps to run repair works anew for the sake of them, the ex-chairman alleged.

Denying the allegation of using sub-stand-ard materials in the construction by the con-tractor, Gaibandha RHD Executive Engineer Mahbubul Alam Khan said: “The road is � t for plying at best 12mt vehicles, but about 20-25mt goods-laden trucks are using it daily, leaving the road in dilapidated condition de-spite having repaired one year ago.”

Besides, many shops erected on both sides surpass the height of the road and that was why rainwater could not move easily causing a great damage to the carpeting, the RHD en-gineer went on.

Local MP from Gaibandha 3 constituency Dr Yunus Ali Sarkar said: “Thousands of ve-hicles ply on the highway daily amid a great risk and that is why repeated accidents appear there. Its repair works is urgently needed.” l

Seven pharmacies � ned, one sealed o� n Tribune Report

Two pharmacies were � ned with Tk6 lakh at Kolabagan in the capital yesterday for selling foreign-made medicines without approval.

The pharmacies which were � nes are Lazz Pharama and Tazrin Pharma.

Firoz Ahmed, magistrate of RAB 1, con-ducted a drive in the area and � ned Lazz Phar-ma with Tk4 lakh while Tazrin Pharma with Tk 2 lakh.

A mobile court � ned � ve pharmacies with a total of Tk55,000 for selling drugs without

license in Kotwali and Bakalia areas of Chit-tagong yesterday.

It sealed o� another drug store for selling fake medicine and seized drugs worth Tk1 lakh.

The court � ned Buj Pharmacy with Tk5,000, Boshudha Pharmacy with Tk5,000, BN Pharmacy with Tk20,000, Haque Phar-macy with Tk10,000, Tusna Medical Hall with Tk10,000, and Japan Dental Care with Tk5,000, said Executive Magistrate Ruhul Amin, who led the drive.

It sealed o� Tushna Medical for selling fake medicines. l

Two Bangladeshis shot by BSF n Our Correspondent, Thakurgaon

Two cattle traders are receiving treatment at a hospital in Rangpur after being bullet injured by the members of the Indian Border Security Forces. Local sources said members of the BSF opened � re on Kotwal Haque, 35, and Musam, 25, at Beraojhari border while they were return-ing from India with cattle. Tushar Bin Yusuf told the Dhaka Tribune that they would hold a � ag meeting with BSF soon over the matter. l

‘Thousands of vehicles ply on the highway daily amid a great risk and that is why repeated accidents appear there. Its repair works is urgently needed’

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015NEWS 7

DT

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:14PM SUN RISES 6:14AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

33.8ºC 22.6ºC

Jessore & Chuadanga Khepupara

SourceL IslamicFinder.org

F O R E C A S T F O R T O D A YDhaka 33 26Chittagong 32 26Rajshahi 34 26Rangpur 32 23Khulna 34 26Barisal 33 26Sylhet 30 24Cox’s Bazar 31 26

PRAYER TIMESFajr 4:22am

Sunrise 5:40amJumma 11:58am

Asr 4:27pmMagrib 6:14pm

Esha 7:44pm

WEATHER

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

THUNDERSHOWER WITH RAIN

Three charged for assaulting female student at DU n DU Correspondent

Three activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) Dhaka University unit have been al-leged for physically assaulting a female stu-dent on campus.

Shahbagh police held the three – Ratul Hasan Nayeem, Amirul Islam and Nazmul Sakib – from the campus on Wednesday.

Ratul is a student of applied mathematics while Amirul and Nazmul study zoology and statistics at the university. All of them are honours � rst year students and residents of Amar Ekushey Hall, DU, said Dhaka Universi-ty acting proctor Amzad Ali.

They were temporarily suspended yester-day, he told the Dhaka Tribune.

According to the proctor, on Tuesday around 1:30am, a female student of popula-tion science, DU, was chatting with two male friends in the TSC area. The three students came at the spot and started charging the girl for chatting with two outsiders of the univer-sity at that hour in the area. Eventually their conversation turned into a brawl and the three men started beating the girl and the two boys.

The next day, the female student submit-ted a written compliant at the proctor’s o� ce and � led a case with Shahabag police station.

An investigation committee would be formed on the matter soon and further action would be taken following the investigation, said the proc-tor. The three arrested were sent to jail. l

SUST students give 48-hour ultimatum for VC’s resignationn Our Correspondent, Sylhet

Students of Shahjalal University for Science and Technology (SUST) expressing solidarity with agitating teachers gave 48 hours ultima-tum for the resignation of Vice-Chancellor Professor Aminul Haque Bhuiyan.

The students gave the ultimatum after a sit-in programme in front of vice-chancellor’s o� ce.

The students threatened to announce tougher movement if the VC does not resign by the stipulated time.

Earlier, the general students joined a pro-cession brought out by teachers from univer-sity library.

Meanwhile, teachers under the banner of Mohan Muktijuddher Chetonay Udbudhho Shikhak Forum declared that they would ob-serve work abstention on Sunday.

Yesterday, the teachers observed work ab-stention for four hours as part of their 3-day programme protesting the attack on the teachers and demanding removal of the VC.

After the work abstention, Professor Sham-sul Haque said the VC had used his terrorist group against teachers.

He said: “We will continue our movement until the VC resigns.”

He said: “If the VC would not resign by Sunday we will announce our next course of action on that day.”

He also said examinations at all the depart-ments would be held according to schedule. But the agitating teachers would not conduct any class during the strike.

The pro-Awami League teachers had been continuing their movement to remove VC Prof Aminul Haque Bhuiyan since April 12 this year.

On August 24, the Education Ministry sent a letter to the authorities concerned of the university requesting all to run the university properly.

On August 30, 10 teachers of the university were assaulted by the leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) in front of the vice-chancellor’s o� ce. l

ROAD ACCIDENT IN UAE

Joyful wait turns into despairn Tarek Mahmud, Chittagong

The families were waiting cheerfully to wel-come their beloved expatriate family mem-bers, who were scheduled to arrive in the country next week ahead of Eid-ul Azha.

But their joyful wait turned to sorrow and mourning when the families heard that their family members living abroad were killed in a road accident on Wednesday at noon.

Now, the families of three deceased people, killed in a car accident in the capital of Unit-ed Arab Emirates, are waiting to receive the bodies of the victims who had gone abroad several years back to improve their families’ � nancial conditions.

The bodies of the deceased – Akhtar Hos-sain of East Dholoi in Chittagong’s Hathazari

upazila, Md Farhad of Natoan Bagicha under Raozan upazila in Chittagong, and Muham-mad Ilias of Noapara area in Raozan – are be-ing kept at Al Ain Al Jimi Hospital in UAE.

The two who were injured - Belal and Sai-ful, both from Raozan - were also admitted to the same hospital.

On Wednesday, a car, carrying the � ve men, lost control and hit the central reservoir of a road in Al Khazna area of Al Ain in UAE at around 7am (local time) while they were on their way to work, leaving the three dead on the spot and two others critically injured.

The authorities concerned said they had contacted the families of the deceased and the bodies would be sent to Bangladesh fol-lowing due procedures.

Sexagenarian Md Abu Jafor lost all hope for

life since losing his beloved son, Farhad. “We were happy when we heard Farhad

would be coming this Eid, but now we are waiting for his body,” the old man said, blam-ing his fate.

Akhtar’s brother Rahmat Ali said: “Akhter had gone to Al Ain to send home money from there. He phoned his wife Bilkis Akhter be-fore boarding the car. He was scheduled to arrive home on September 10.”

“My two nieces lost their father at a very early age, while the family has fallen into deep trouble by losing the lone wage earner of the family,” he added.

Ilias’s wife, his two sons and a daughter live in the port city’s Kuaish area. They are also in deep grief, having lost the lone bread-winner of their family. l

Dhaka South City Corporation demolishes structures illegally set up on the footpath of Shat Masjid Road in the capital yesterday DHAKA TRIBUNE

WORLD8DT

Schengen: Europe’s open borders in questionn Reuters, Brussels

The names Kos, Lampedusa, Hegyeshalom may go down in histories of Europe’s 2015 ref-ugee crisis yet it is an obscure village in Lux-embourg, far from the human drama, that is hogging headlines.

Schengen, on the vine-� anked Moselle where old enemies France and Germany meet, gave its name 30 years ago to the code which removed border controls between most European states. Now, feuding over who should shelter hundreds of thousands of people on the move seeking asylum has put “Schengen” under threat.

The European Commission, the executive of the European Union which enforces the Schengen rules on 26 states including four non-EU members, has ruled out any change. It describes Schengen as one of the greatest achievements of the postwar peace, a boon for citizens and non-European visitors, as well as for business.

“It’s not Schengen that’s the problem,” the commissioner in charge of it, Dimitris Avram-opoulos, said as Budapest, Vienna and Berlin bicker about what to do with thousands of mainly Syrian refugees trying to reach Ger-many from the Balkans.

The problem, most EU leaders agree, lies less with the lack of internal borders than with the bloc’s external frontiers and with an-other town inscribed in its statutes - Dublin. (With a touch of irony, Ireland, like Britain, shuns the Schengen zone.)

A system � rst agreed at Dublin in 1990 means that people requesting asylum must be housed and have their claims processed in the state in which they � rst arrived in the EU. A surge in arrivals by sea has left Italy and Greece struggling. Chaos in Greece means many move on across the Balkans to reach Hungary.

Accepting the Dublin rules must be � xed to spread the load, the Commission proposed to send some asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece around the EU according to quo-tas based on countries’ population, wealth and so on. Bickering has held that up, while

Greece and Italy have resorted to DIY meth-ods to relieve the pressure, simply letting mi-grants head north over their borders.

That has seen France step up checks on tra� c around its Italian border, Danes mon-itoring their German frontier more closely and, this week, Austrian police mounting operations on roads from Hungary. If such procedures are increased and endure, they could undermine Schengen’s principles of free transit.

As yet, there appears little appetite among governments to challenge the Commission and undertake the cost and disruption of rede-ploying frontier police to make routine docu-ment checks to intercept the few thousands of migrants, among the millions travelling every day, who are not entitled to move country.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fearful for the open-border system, this week

brandished that danger to Schengen as a means to focus minds on agreeing to � x Dub-lin: “If we don’t succeed in fairly distributing refugees,” she said, “Then of course the Schen-gen question will be on the agenda for many.”

Schengen has also come under attack from some who argue that it has made life easier for criminals, including the suspected Moroc-can Islamist accused of attacking an interna-tional train from Amsterdam via Brussels to Paris last month. The Commission says the Schengen code gives states su� cient powers to carry out both security and identity checks where these can be justi� ed.

For many political leaders, however, the fate of Schengen is so bound up with the European Union’s essential sense of self, as the response to centuries of war between na-tions, that calls for major change will meet heavy resistance. l

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

First Tamil in 32 years to lead S Lanka oppositionn AFP, Colombo

A Tamil lawmaker became leader of the op-position in Sri Lanka’s parliament for the � rst time in 32 years on Thursday, in the latest sign of progress towards ethnic reconciliation on the once bitterly divided island.

Rajavarothiam Sampanthan is the � rst lawmaker from the ethnic minority to lead the opposition since 1983, when Tamil leg-islators resigned en masse to protest against a statute that compelled them to denounce separatism.

The 82-year-old moderate heads the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which emerged from last month’s election as the third-largest force with 16 seats in the 225-member assembly.

“Our primary duty is to ensure that there is an acceptable resolution to the Tamil ques-tion,” Sampanthan told the House on Thursday.

Sri Lankans voted overwhelmingly in last month’s polls to continue what Prime Minis-ter Ranil Wickremesinghe called the “January 8 revolution” in reference to the toppling of the former president Mahinda Rajapakse, who oversaw the crushing of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas that ended the war in 2009.

The UN Human Rights Council will this month produce the results of an investigation into war crimes said to have been committed in Sri Lanka over six years ago. l

THE TODDLER WHO SHOOK GLOBAL CONSCIENCE

The tiny body of the three-year-old Syrian Alyan Kurdi washed up in the Aegean resort of Bodrum in Turkey on Wednesday. His � ve-year-old brother Galip and mother Rehan, 35, also died after their boat capsized while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. Souces said his family was trying to emigrate to Canada. The image swept social media on Wednesday, spawning sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees AFP

Khamenei: Nuclear deal rests on lifting sanctionsn AFP, Tehran

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khame-nei warned anew Thursday that there could be no nuclear deal with the West if sanctions imposed on Tehran are not lifted.

Khamenei, who has the last say in matters of policy, also said he believes Iran’s parlia-ment (majlis) should make up its own mind about landmark July 14 deal struck with six world powers.

“I believe... that it is not in the interest of the majlis to be sidelined,” Khamenei said.

“I have no recommendation for the ma-jlis on how it should examine it; it is up to the representatives of the nation to decide whether to reject or ratify it.”

Khamenei’s comments, published on his personal website, come as a debate rages in Iran over whether the majlis should ratify or reject the deal.

Most US lawmakers oppose it, but President Barack Obama has enough backers in the Sen-ate to uphold his certain veto of any congres-sional resolution disapproving it. Iran’s par-liament and the US Congress need to vote – in the coming weeks – on the agreement struck in Vienna before it can be implemented.

But formal oversight of the accord rests with Iran’s Supreme National Security Coun-cil, a powerful committee headed by Pres-ident Hassan Rouhani, which reports to Khamenei.

The deal between Iran and Britain, Chi-na, France, Germany, Russia and the United States aims to curb Tehran’s nuclear drive in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions im-posed on its economy since 2006. l

“Intruders” on the tracksearly Wednesday, trainsdisrupted

Hundreds of passengersleft stranded

Latest developments of refugee crisis in Europe

Eurostar

Budapest, HUNGARYSeveral hundred migrants storm the station early Thursday

Parndorf, AUSTRIA71 people found dead in an abandoned truck on the motorway August 27

Bavaria, GERMANYA record 3,500 asylum-seekers arrive Tuesday

Calais, FRANCESome 3,000 migrants camped out

Athens, GREECETwo government-chartedships carrying some 4,300 people dock Wednesday

Bodrum, TURKEY12 Syrian migrants drownafter setting off the Greek island of Kos early WednesdayImages of a child lying dead on a beach dominate front pages throughout Europe

Vienna, AUSTRIA3,650 migrants arrive by train on Monday

MediterraneanMore than 350,000 have crossed the sea so far this yearAt least 2,600 have died on the crossing

Updated September 3

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

China to cut 300,000 troops by 2017n Reuters, Beijing

A 300,000 troop reduction announced by Chi-nese President Xi Jinping on Thursday will be completed by the end of 2017, the Defence Ministry said.

Xi made the surprise announcement at the opening of a military parade marking 70 years since the end of World War II. The cut represents a little more than a tenth of the military’s 2.3m strong forces.

The reduction will make the People’s Lib-eration Army more modern and better able to achieve the aim of China having a strong mili-tary, the ministry said in a question and answer statement carried by the Xinhua news agency.

“The Chinese armed forces will be slimmer but more capable, and their composition will be more scienti� c,” it said.

This is the fourth time since the 1980s that China will be reducing its military numbers, as it speeds up an ambitious modernisation programme which has seen the development of stealth jets and anti-satellite missiles.

The focus of the cut announced on Thursday will be on phasing out outdated equipment, simplifying administrative and non-combat roles and “adjusting and improving military structure,” the Chinese ministry said, adding it would be basically completed by late 2017. l

‘No proof Yasser Arafat poisoned’n AFP, Nanterre, France

French judges investigating claims that Pal-estinian leader Yasser Arafat was murdered have closed the case without bringing any charges, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

“At the end of the investigation... it has not been demonstrated that Mr Yass-er Arafat was murdered by polonium-210 poisoning,” the three judges ruled, ac-cording to the prosecutor at Nanterre court near Paris.

Arafat died in Percy military hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after devel-oping stomach pains while at his headquar-ters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Many Palestinians accuse Israel of poisoning Ara-fat, a charge � atly denied by the Jewish state.

Arafat’s widow, claiming that her hus-band was poisoned by highly radioactive polonium, � led the suit in 2012 at the Nanterre court.

She made the claim based on � ndings of a Swiss centre, which had tested biolog-ical samples taken from Arafat’s belong-ings that were given to his widow after his death. The centre claimed that their tests found “abnormal levels of polonium.” But it stopped short of saying that he had been poisoned by the substance.

The judges concluded their investiga-tions in April and sent their � ndings to the Nanterre prosecutor, who recommended in July that the case be dropped. Lawyers for Arafat’s widow said the investigation had been “fundamentally biased” and accused the judges of closing the probe too quickly.l

ChinaIndia

South KoreaRussia

1,600,0001,150,000

520,000

771,000

956

209

622

1,407

United States

540,000

949

3,646

609.91

Source: Japan government/Military Balance 2015/SIPRI/cfr.org

2014 military expenditureCompiled bySIPRI

$, billions

Armytroops

Navy vessels

Airforce combataircraft

45.78

216.3736.68

84.46

140,000

871223

137

410

2,616

963

Military power compared

49.97Japan

Russia rejects proposal to limit UN veton AFP, United Nations

Russia on Wednesday dismissed as “populist” a French proposal to limit the use of the veto at the UN Security Council and said it would oppose it.

France has launched an initiative to per-suade the other four Security Council perma-nent members – Britain, China, Russia and the United States – to refrain from using their veto when action is required to address a mass atrocity.

“We are against it,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters. “We think this is not a workable proposition.”

It was the � rst time that Russia had come out so clearly in opposition to restricting the use of the veto, which some blame for the lack of e� ective measures to end the war in Syria.

The French proposal gained traction after Russia and China used their veto power last year to block a resolution asking the Interna-tional Criminal Court to investigate crimes committed in Syria.

Churkin argued that declaring that mass atrocities have occurred could become a politi-cal tool, and raised questions about who would be empowered to make that determination.

Russia in July blocked two resolutions by resorting to its veto power, one that would have declared the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia to be a genocide and another on set-ting up a tribunal to try those responsible for the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine. l

New approach to old alliance for Saudi King and Obaman Reuters, Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will meet US Pres-ident Barack Obama in Washington today, aiming to push him for more support in Ri-yadh’s e� orts to counter Iran after it agreed to a nuclear deal that will relieve Tehran of some international pressure.

Despite Saudi disappointment with Oba-ma’s push for a nuclear deal with Iran and his lack of direct action against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the US role in Riyadh’s war in Yemen shows Washington remains the kingdom’s core strategic partner.

“The relationship is entering a new phase. It is still a partnership, but Saudi Arabia is be-coming more independent. And I think the Americans like that. They are not objecting to our active foreign policy, but cooperating with us on that front,” said Jamal Khashoggi, head of al-Arab News Channel.

The relationship, a mainstay of the Middle East’s security balance, has su� ered turbulence since Riyadh faulted what it saw as Obama’s withdrawal from the region, and a perceived tilt toward Iran since the 2011 Arab uprisings.

Since Salman took power in January, he has abandoned Riyadh’s traditional reliance on Washington to do the heavy lifting in Mid-dle East security, instead embarking on a war in Yemen and boosting support for rebels against Assad in Syria.

It showed both Riyadh’s increasing sense of independence, and willingness to work with regional allies instead of Washington.

But it also a more transactional approach to relations with the United States.

Unlike at some earlier points in the re-lationship, cooperation now appears to be limited, either to instances where interests directly overlap, or to support in one area in exchange for another.

Obama has been keen for Washington’s allies to take on a bigger role in regional security issues as part of his e� orts to reduce American involve-ment in the Middle East’s many messy con� icts.

Nuclear falloutThe clearest evidence of that shift in the rela-tionship is in Yemen, where Riyadh formed a coalition of 10 Arab states in air strikes against the Iran-allied Houthi forces in March, a cam-paign that relies heavily on American military assistance.

While US o� cials have talked of a need for Riyadh to do more to avoid civilian casualties, Washington’s role in accelerating weapons de-livery as well as intelligence and logistical aid has been indispensable to the Saudi war e� ort.

Many Saudis regard such material Ameri-can support in the Yemen war as part of Oba-ma’s e� orts to reassure the kingdom and its Gulf allies that the Iran nuclear deal does not mean Washington will allow Tehran to domi-nate the Middle East.

Riyadh is convinced that Iran is bent on achieving regional hegemony through proxy militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, thereby destabilising the entire region and undermining the kingdom’s own stability.

Washington, while critical of Iran’s region-al role, does not see it in such dire terms.

The Saudis fear that by relieving sanctions on Iran, the nuclear deal will give Tehran more money and political freedom to back clients like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iraq’s Shi’ite militias, as well as allies like Yemen’s Houthis. Riyadh’s public response to the deal, combining lukewarm praise with the proviso that its success would depend on tough in-spections, was accompanied by private ex-pressions of concern by Saudi o� cials.

Syrian crisisThe next big test of ties between the two countries is likely to be in Syria, where Saudi Arabia has frequently described Assad’s use of air raids and artillery on civilian areas as geno-cidal, and has described Iran’s support for mi-litias there as constituting an occupation.

While Obama has said Assad can have no role in Syria’s future, his bigger focus has been on the militant threat posed by Islamic State.

While Riyadh helped corral regional states to join US-led air strikes against IS in Syria last year, it has been disappointed by Washing-ton’s limited e� orts to train and arm non-ji-hadist rebel groups.

Saudi Arabia, along with Qatar and Turkey, appears to have stepped up the backing of re-bel groups this year, helping them to achieve advances against Assad. If its Yemen cam-paign succeeds, with American help, Riyadh may be emboldened to increase that support still further. l

WORLD 9D

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TEDITORIALFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

INSIDE

We mourn the over 150 people who drowned when two boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea o� the Libyan coast last week.

Many of the victims were Bangladeshis who had been safely working in Libya until political turmoil took away their jobs and human tra� ckers were able to lure them with false promises. At least 24 Bangladeshi victims were buried on Sunday and more may be identi� ed among bodies being recovered.

Despite many reports about the callous and cruel way in which people smugglers operate, tra� cking gangs operate widely across many parts of the world including within Bangladesh. The victims from Libya are reported to have paid approximately Tk60,000 each to middlemen.

Their plight echoes that of the many Bangladeshis stranded in recent months o� the coast of Malaysia, after being tricked into boarding over-crowded boats, with little or no chance of legal employment at the end of their perilous journeys.

Joined-up action is needed by governments around the world to put an end to this despicable trade in human misery.

As a nation which bene� ts hugely from remittances with some 8 million citizens working abroad, we need our government to give much higher priority to working with other nations to address the root causes of this problem.

Facilitating safe and legal migration is the most e� ective way available to root out illegal tra� ckers. The government should negotiate more agreements with labour importing nations, such as the arrangement agreed with Saudi Arabia this year for it to import 10,000 workers a month free of cost.

It must also increase investment in skills and language training for would be Bangladeshi migrants. This would make more of them attractive to labour-importing nations and less vulnerable to exploitation, while having the added bene� t of enabling workers to seek higher value jobs at home.

The government should negotiate more agreements with labour importing nations, such as the arrangement agreed with Saudi Arabia this year for it to import 10,000 workers a month free of cost

Time to put an end to human tra� cking

The South Asian learning crisis

Clean up Dhaka is a rubbish initiativeVolunteers are no way to clean a grow-ing mega-city that produces over 5,000 tonnes of solid waste each day

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NSA says no to beaching shipsBangladesh, Pakistan, and India account for around 90% of the world’s scrapping capacity for large ships

Much of the progress in improving access to education in Bangladesh and elsewhere in South Asia may not have created tangible gains in cognitive skills. Therefore, future strategies aiming to prepare millions of youths for a life of work must start by � xing the school system

REU

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OPINION12DT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

n Asif Baul

If you were one of the volunteers who joined Clean up Dhaka and Dhaka North’s mayor to sweep up garbage outside the Parbat cinema in Gabtoli last

Friday, I would like to say well done.But I cannot say thank you for the idea.

Volunteers are no way to clean a growing mega-city that produces over 5,000 tons of solid waste each day.

As they say on their Facebook page, Clean up Dhaka is just “seven kids from Japan,” (university students to be precise) who came to Bangladesh because they wanted to do something to “initiate a sustainable change” to encourage residents to clean up the city together and make Dhaka more liveable.

Laudable as their intentions are, vol-unteering is a futile approach for such an important task.

Of course, if this is the way these students want to spend their holidays, well then good

for them; it’s nice that they are humbly trying to be the change they want to see in the world.

But Dhaka’s waste disposal challenge is simply too big a problem to be left to volun-teers.

Even if all the tens of thousands who liked CUD’s Facebook page started giving a dozen hours a week to clean up bits of Dhaka (after making their own beds and cleaning their own bathrooms and kitchens of course), it wouldn’t solve the problem or in any way amount to a “sustainable change.”

I realise this is no way to court popularity with clicktivists, but so be it, I need a hobby when I’m not busy pulling candy away from babies.

No, cleaning up Dhaka is a job for its may-ors and city corporations. They need to pull their socks up and start delivering practical solutions which go beyond campaign slogans and photo opportunities.

Thing is, cleaning up a city is not exactly

rocket science. It’s not even what Sherlock Holmes called a “two-pipe problem.” Every-one knows what it takes to tidy their own room and can look up the simple, proven ways in which other big cities manage to clean up and recycle their waste.

The school-boy error in CUD’s thinking is focusing on the collection part, when lack of labour is not the cause of Dhaka’s waste man-agement problems. As it is, many apartment blocks are served daily by waste collectors. They’re even nicely green and cycle driven. Trouble is even when waste is regularly collected (and perhaps half the city’s waste is not) it tends to be dumped very close-by for sorting on the many notoriously noxious skips which block our city’s roads.

By the time waste reaches o� cial land� lls at Amin Bazar and Matuail, who knows how much has been responsibly recycled by waste pickers? Not me for sure.

And probably not the city corporations either, judging by the complacency with which city-dwellers tolerate their lakes and green spaces being polluted. If people who are privately clean in their own households weren’t so complacent about public squalor, Dhaka would have had some Beirut style “you stink” protests by now, methinks.

For all this, it is still easy to imagine what a truly cleaned-up Dhaka should look like. Reg-ularly emptied recycling bins outside every apartment block, o� ce building, and place of worship, where residents are encouraged to dispose of litter responsibly.

Volunteers would not feel left out as everyone would be asked to help pre-sort paper, plastics, and other renewables, and to help community-based recycling schemes make local use of composted organic waste.

On a nation-wide scale, land� lls and sewage systems could be adapted to generate bio-gas and there would be strictly enforced laws to ensure electronic and electrical equipment is safely disposed of and profes-sionally recycled.

A science � ction pipe dream, or an abso-lute necessity to stop the poisoning of the environment and generate new (and less haz-ardous) income for the city’s waste collectors and recyclers?

Well, it will cost money for sure, but it’s not as if companies and governments from

France and Japan haven’t been active in help-ing to update sewage services and provide garbage trucks.

And what could be a more basic way to ex-pect mayors to spend tax-payer money than taking away the trash?

So, I’ll end with a tip for Dhaka North’s mayor to reconsider how he should spend the Tk500cr he reportedly sought from the � nance ministry earlier this year to construct new city corporation headquarters.

My back-of-the-envelope arithmetic sug-gests that, give or take, this is around $64m.

Let’s say we let the city corporation take a good third of this amount, $24m, to rent ex-tra o� ce space. Over a four-year period, $6m a year could be spent to cover its o� ce needs, while it concentrates on getting the basics of rubbish collection and recycling right.

Ignoring currency � uctuations, this would still leave around $40m.

So consider this. Search engines suggest a brand new 240 litre wheelie bin can be bought in Australia for prices between $80 and $100. Chinese suppliers on Alibaba meanwhile o� er 360 litre bins from $35 each at freight on board price. These quotes do not take into account discounts for bulk orders, or the aggressive bargaining skills of local rickshaw users. And that is without even allowing for the possibility of local sourcing.

For the sake of argument though, even if it cost $100 each to procure one large bin, $1,000 could supply 10 large new bins, and $30m at least 300,000.

Of course, you’d need several di� erent bins per building to allow for separation of food waste and other recyclables, but $30m would still cover a set of new large bins for a lot of buildings.

Now let’s consider garbage trucks. One can see 15 cubic metre garbage trucks being advertised online for under $60,000 each. Staying conservative, I’ll say this means it may still cost a million dollars to procure 10 garbage trucks.

Depending on how you want to cut it, that means Dhaka North could buy at least 150 garbage trucks and 150,000 large bins for its $30m.

All this would still leave some $10m, or $2.5m a year if we’re going on four-year electoral cycles, to top up garbage collectors wages or hire a few new ones.

Personally, I think something like this would be a better way forward for the mayor than taking part in a photo op. It wouldn’t solve everything, but, combined with more professional management of city services, it would be a good start.

Clean up Dhaka is right to demand more action to ful� ll its aim. Of course, everyone in the city needs to go beyond simply cleaning their own houses, while rubbish and pollu-tion literally pile up next to their houses and clog our water-ways.

But this needs a grown-up professional city corporation. Not a few volunteers to tidy up rubbish now and then. That’s a rubbish idea. l

Asif Baul is an occasional compere and stand-up comedian.

Clean up Dhaka is a rubbish initiativeDhaka needs a professional, grown-up city corporation

Volunteers are no way to clean a growing mega-city that produces over 5,000 tonnes of solid waste each day

The question of how to deal with our massive amounts of waste is a burning one BIGSTOCK

OPINION 13D

TFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

n Sturla Henriksen

The majority of ships have a 25-30 year lifecycle before reduced e� -ciency, increased wear and tear, and costly repairs make their continued

service unpro� table. Usually, at this point, for both commercial

and environmental reasons, it is sensible to scrap the ship and recycle its materials.

Today, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India account for around 90% of the world’s scrapping capacity for large ships. Although there are signi� cant di� erences between the ship-breaking locations, the conditions in many of them are totally incompatible with the expectations and demands we otherwise set for the industry, concerning health, safe-ty, and the environment.

By necessity, the dismantling of ships has to occur at the coast, where land meets the sea. There is currently no clear and unambig-uous de� nition of the term “beaching.” In its simplest form, it describes an activity where large vessels are driven up onto beaches to be manually dismantled.

We de� ne “beaching” as “the recycling of ships without the use of � xed installations for collection and handling of dangerous and polluting waste.”

Witnessing the conditions workers endure on many of the beaches at these so-called ship-breaking yards, makes a strong impres-sion. In addition, a common feature of beach-

ing practices is that ships are deposited at beaches situated on unprotected coastlines, meaning that tide-waters wash over and then discharge hazardous substances into the surrounding environment.

There is a lack of infrastructure in place for the scrapped ships, and this makes it di� cult to use cranes and other heavy tools, which would normally be required in the proper dismantling of large vessels. As a result, the operations often pose great risk to the health and well-being of workers, in addition to the damage they cause to the environment. We are also aware that the actual conditions in many of these places have barely improved over recent years.

This is unacceptable. There is a responsibility for both ship-owners and authorities to ensure both responsible practices and acceptable standards for this industry.

The NSA has, for many years, worked internationally to improve standards in ship-breaking. For a globalised industry such as shipping, only a binding frame-work of international rules will ensure uniform high-er standards. Together with the Norwegian authorities, we have been at the vanguard of e� orts to establish a regulatory frame-work under the auspices of the UN.

The result was the Hong Kong Conven-tion of 2009, a milestone in the campaign to improve conditions at ship-breaking yards. The convention includes a requirement to provide documented plans to ensure the safe-guarding of the environment and the security of employees.

It remains a major challenge that this convention, six years after it was initially adopted, has yet to enter into force due to a lack of rati� cation from participating countries. Norway is one of only three countries that have so far rati� ed the convention.

This is dragging on much too long, and the NSA is working actively in international forums to help accelerate the protracted rati� cation process. In the near future we will, amongst other things, participate in a delegation together with the European

Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) visiting some of the major Asian ship-breaking nations to initiate a dialogue on what can practicably be done to stimulate faster development in line with the provisions of the Hong Kong convention.

At the same time, the NSA has, and is, taking responsibility independently, giving the following advice to its members:

We consider that ship-owners have an independent responsibility to ensure proper recycling of their ships. This also applies to ships sold to third parties prior to recycling.

We urge our members to adhere to the Hong Kong Convention, although it has not yet entered into force, and to choose recy-cling facilities that adhere to the Hong Kong Convention.

We advise our members against recycling ships at yards using “beaching” as a method.

Taking this stand comes with a price tag to our members. Selling to beaching yards often results in a payback of between $3-7million more per ship than they would receive if choosing a more responsible, full standard scrapping yard.

Nevertheless, we, as one of the largest and strongest ship-owner communities, want to give a clear indication of what we expect from a responsible, environmentally friendly and modern, quality shipping industry. l

Sturla Henriksen is CEO, Norwegian Shipowners’ Association (NSA).

NSA says no to beaching shipsThe Norwegian Shipowners’ Association has been working internationally to improve standards of ship-breaking

Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India account for around 90% of the world’s scrapping capacity for large ships

The term ‘beaching’ describes an activity where large vessels are driven up onto beaches to be manually dismantled BIGSTOCK

OPINION14DT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

n M Niaz Asadullah

South Asia is home to a growing youth population, and widely considered to bene� t from the “demographic dividend” in the coming decades. The

United Nations Population Fund’s State of World Population 2014 report, “The Power of 1.8 Billion: Adolescents, Youth, and the Transformation of the Future” therefore calls for increased investment in youths and adolescents.

Most governments in South Asia have already invested heavily in education to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of universal primary education for all children by 2015, and have succeeded in closing school enrollment rate gaps vis-a-vis other developing regions.

However, two in� uential reports

published in 2014 have singled out South Asia as a region undergoing an education crisis. According to the United Nations Educational, Scienti� c, and Cultural Organisation’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2014, schools in South Asia are failing in terms of learning outcomes. In terms of global ranking, students from India and Pakistan perform only better than those in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A World Bank report published in late 2014 “Student Learning in South Asia: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Priorities” has gone one step further by looking into emerging evidence from new micro data sets.The report, by far the most comprehensive to analyse the performance of South Asian educational systems in terms of student learning, con� rms the low level of student learning across the region: “Up to one-third

of those completing primary school lack basic numeracy and literacy skills.”

Recent research conducted in Bangladesh, however, indicates that the learning crisis is much more severe than previously thought -- learning achieved against years spent in school is very low across all grades.

The World Bank study “Assessing Basic Learning Skills” by Vincent Greaney and Shahidur Khandker was the � rst to document the case of schooling without learning in South Asia.Conducted in 1992 in Bangladesh, the study assessed basic literacy and numeracy among 5,200 individuals and found that the majority of those who had completed primary schooling failed to attain minimum standards in four areas: Reading, writing, written mathematics, and oral mathematics.

The level of competency in basic numeracy skills was particularly low, even when focusing on graduates of primary school enrolled in secondary school.

In a recently published study (The Dissonance between Schooling and Learning: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh, by MN Asadullah and N Chaudhury), I replicated � ndings from Vincent Greaney’s seminal work 16 years later as part of a research project on the state of student learning in rural Bangladesh. We focused on children who were 10-17 years old and tested them using a sub-set of Greaney’s written and oral numeracy tests.

They were examined irrespective of whether they were in school, dropped out,

or never chose to enroll. The � ndings are striking. Children, on average, increase their written math scores (ie percentage of correctly answered questions) by 6.4% per year of schooling (grades one to nine). Once we account for di� erences in child attributes, parental characteristics, and a measure of cognitive ability, the � gure is even lower -- 4% per year.

Five years of primary education only raises the percentage of correct answers by 31.6% or 6.3% per year when averaged over the � ve years; the � gure is lower, 3.6%, in case of oral math.

Given that the tests are designed to assess rudimentary numeracy skills taught at the primary level, these � gures highlight a very low level of achievement in rural Bangladesh. The learning pro� le is unusually � at, and re� ects a deep crisis in Bangladesh’s education sector.

In collaboration with researchers from BRAC, I revisited the state of learning among rural adolescents in 2012 using a similar research design. Among sample adolescents who have completed � ve years of schooling (ie primary school graduates), 30% do not have basic numeracy skills, while 33% cannot read two simple sentences in Bangla and 66% cannot do so in English.

A large proportion of adolescents go on to post-primary schooling to attain these basic numeracy and literacy skills, even though they are supposed to have achieved this by the end of primary school. This once again points to a shallow learning pro� le. Similar evidence is also coming out from assessment exercises carried out by the NGO, Pratham, in India and Pakistan.

With 30% of the total 158.5 million people in the age group 10-24 in Bangladesh, eight education reforms are urgent if the country is to capitalise on the window of opportunity presented by its bulging youth population. Equally, South Asia faces a very di� cult challenge for future economic growth and productivity if the region fails to equip youths with adequate marketable skills.

The emerging evidence on � at learning pro� les challenges the conventional wisdom that spending time in school is valuable preparation for labour market success. Much of the progress in improving access to education in Bangladesh and elsewhere in South Asia may not have created tangible gains in cognitive skills.

Therefore, future strategies aiming to prepare millions of youths for a life of work must start by � xing the school system.Otherwise, South Asia risks over-emphasising single-focused policy prescriptions (such as enhanced access or improving physical infrastructure at school) and may reproduce the past pattern of schooling without learning. l

M Niaz Asadullah is Professor of Development Economics and Deputy Director of the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies (CPDS) at the University of Malaya. An earlier version of the article was published in The Asia Pathways Blog of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI).

The South Asian learning crisisOur children are not being suitably prepared for the future

Much of the progress in improving access to education in Bangladesh and elsewhere in South Asia may not have created tangible gains in cognitive skills. Therefore, future strategies aiming to prepare millions of youths for a life of work must start by � xing the school system

How much are kids really learning in school these days? BIGSTOCK

15D

TBusiness FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Gazprom gets lucrative trio of deals without tender

17 Stocks end � at in high volatility19

Tax fair kicks o� in 86 Upazilas on September 16

16IMF: Impact of China slowdown larger than expected

20

visit our website @www.dhakatribune.com

Moriarty hails RMG factory remediation process

n Tribune Report

The Executive Director of Alliance for Bang-ladesh Workers Safety, James F Moriarty, yes-terday said six RMG factories have complet-ed 100% remediation work and ensured the highest international standard of safety, but the remediation job is going slowly.

The factories are—Green Textile Ltd, Kwun Tong Apparels Ltd, Laundry Industries, Len-ny Apparels, Optimum Fashions Ltd and Uni Vogue Ltd.

According to the report, Alliance in 2014 completed safety inspections in 528 factories from which its signatories source products and started remediation veri� cation visits this year.

Moriarty, also a former US ambassador to

Bangladesh, came up with the comment at a press conference organised by the Alliance to inform the progress of inspection in the sec-ond year at a city hotel yesterday.

M Rabin, managing director of Alliance, was present at the conference.

The remediation is going on at a slow pace as it takes time to import � re doors, and lack of availability of safety equipment and exper-tise is another reason behind the slow pro-gress, said Moriarty.

In the second year of Alliance, six factories completed all remediation works and ensured the highest international standards of safety, the former envoy said.

“The cost of doing business is also impor-tant in Bangladesh and we recognize it and have arranged � nancing facilities especially

for small and medium RMG entrepreneurs to complete remediation.”

By making � nancing more widely available and a� ordable and working with factory own-ers to make necessary repairs, the Alliance is making factories safer for millions of workers, he added.

Alliance is providing $50m to Bangladesh RMG factories, from which the Alliance signa-tories source products, at a low interest rate through � ve local banks.

“We � nance medium and small factories for ensuring remediation and the scheme will be � nalised by the end of this month,” Janina Jaruzelski, Bangladesh mission director of the USAID, said at the press conference.

An Alliance source said USAID is likely to provide a total of $18m credit through local banks to help RMG owners.

Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of Ex-porters Association of Bangladesh (EAB), al-leged that a good number of manufacturers are not getting the IFC fund for not being the clients of IFC-nominated banks.

He requested the Alliance to look into the issue and to ensure equal treatment in getting fund for all of its member factories to com-plete the remediation works.

In its second year, Alliance completed the � rst remediation veri� cation visits in 528 factories and found that the remediation pro-gress at 154 factories was less than 20% while 251 factories made progress between 21% to 40% and 133 between 41%– 60%.

The platform has so far completed the sec-ond remediation veri� cation visits to only 17 factories, said the report. l

Tofail: Bangladesh to regain GSP in US market soon n Tribune report

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said foreign buyers have got back their con� -dence in Bangladeshi export items.

If the trend continues the country’s export amount will reach $60bn by 2021, he said.

The minister was speaking to reporters after a meeting with a delegation of North American Alliance for Bangladesh Workers Safety (Alliance) headed by its Executive Di-rector James Moriarty, also former US ambas-sador to Bangladesh.

Moriarty focused on social safety of gar-ment workers while taking to the reporters.

In reply to a question on whether Bangla-desh will be o� ered GSP facilities in US mar-ket, he said some issues relating to workers’ safety are yet to be addressed.

But Tofail claimed that the government has already ful� lled the conditions to regain GSP from the US government.

“We have accomplished a set of 16 condi-tions from the US authority and hope that GSP will be regained shortly.”

The salaries of workers in Bangladesh have been increased by 219% over the last couple of years, he said.

Now, each garment worker earns over 7,500 per month and there is no complaint from them, the minister said, adding that a good working environment prevails in the factories.

If necessary, the US delegation can talk to garment workers, Tofail suggested, adding that talks as regards GSP will be held in Dhaka in October.

Accord and Alliance have already inspect-ed 400 garment factories to maintain safe work environment. l

BB: No more loan rescheduling facility n Tribune Report

There will be no more loan rescheduling fa-cility under any special consideration as the economy of the country has become normal with the prevailing political stability.

The decision to stop the facility was made at the bankers’ meeting with Bangladesh Bank (BB) held at the central bank’s headquarters with BB Governor Atiur Rahman in the chair.

The top managers of all the scheduled banks and management of Bangladesh Bank attended the meeting.

“We have given no objection against 600/700 institutions to reschedule loans un-der special consideration in the last several months,” said governor at the meeting.

Asking the bankers not to allow any more

loans rescheduling case at any condition from now on, he opined that the country’s econo-my was mobilising.

He drew attention of the bankers as saying, “From now on, banks will have to follow the master circular properly in case of any loan rescheduling.”

When the country’s economy was bleeding because of the political unrest in December 2013, the central bank relaxed its resched-uling policy and continued the facility until June last year. During that period, loans above Tk18,000 crore were rescheduled.

Though the relaxed loan policy expired in June, the banks were still rescheduling loans since then.

The bankers at the earlier board meeting sought from the Bangladesh Bank a further

relaxed policy to bring down their default loan rate to a single digit by the end of Decem-ber last year.

The central bank suggested them to take the advantage on case-by-case basis for big groups, taking its consent. l

BUSINESS16DT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Tax fair kicks o� in 86 Upazilas on September 16 n Tribune Report

Taxpayers in 86 upazilas across the country will get tax-related education along with dif-ferent services from the annual income tax fair from September 16-22.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is now set to organise the � rst-ever weeklong income tax fair 2015 at the Upazila level to encourage more people in paying income tax regularly.

Income tax fair, which was introduced by NBR only in Dhaka and Chittagong cities in 2010, was extended up to the district and di-visional headquarters gradually.

As part of its expansion process, the NBR has � nalised a list of 86 upazilas under 49 dis-tricts for holding the income tax fair this year to make people more aware about the signi� -cances and bene� ts of paying taxes.

The upcoming income tax fair will help the tax authorities to bring more people under the tax net as there are many individuals at upazilas who are capable of paying their due

taxes, hope the NBR o� cials.The NBR is assigned to collect a gigantic

revenue collection target of Tk176,370 crore for the � scal year 2015-16. Of the amount, the lion share of Tk65,932 crore will come from income tax.

This year, the tax fair will be organised for seven days in divisional headquarters while four days at the district headquarters.

However, a daylong fair will be organized in all the selected upazilas as per convenient schedule in between September 16 and 22.

The upazila income tax o� ces will organ-ise the fair at their respective premises and in case of having no o� ces, there will be an ar-rangement for organising a mobile fair.

The taxpayers will be able to receive di� er-ent one-stop services including registration of electronic taxpayers identi� cation number, submission of income tax return and online payment facilities etc.

The NBR introduced the tax fair in 2010 to provide tax-related assistance and motivating people to contribute to the national exchequer.

During the central fair in Dhaka, there will be separate booths for E-TIN registration, E-pay-ment, income tax return � ling, help and inquiry desks, emergency health services, form distri-bution section and media to facilitate tax-relat-ed transactions and to help the visitors.

Along with the regular activities, the fair will also have the booths of value-added tax and customs wings of the NBR. The Depart-ment of National Savings will also set up its booth at the fair.

There will be booths of Sonali Bank and Ja-nata Bank to facilitate � nancial transactions.

The tax authorities last year bagged over Tk1,675crore revenue from 1,49,309 income tax returns submitted in a weeklong tax fair.

The amount is expected to be much higher this year, as 86 upazilas have come under the fair jurisdiction.

A total of 6,49,185 people received di� erent services from the income tax fare last year while a total of 15,907 people registered with the elec-tronic taxpayers’ identi� cation numbers while 10,838 people re-registered with e-TINs. l

Soft house � nancing for freedom � ghtersn Tribune Report

All the scheduled banks have been asked to introduce a soft house loan for the country’s freedom � ghters.

The instruction came at a meeting be-tween the top managers of all the scheduled banks and the Bangladesh Bank held at its headquarters in the city yesterday.

Bangladesh Bank will relax the loan mar-gin ratio in case of such loan product, assured governor Atiur Rahman while presiding over the meeting.

He also suggested banks to bring loan product of buying cycle for school and college going students under consumer � nancing.

Governor proposed the bankers to take an initiative of establishing a hospital collective-ly for the o� cers of the � nancial sector.

In this regard, he said explained that banks should be involved in human banking through establishing such hospital where o� cers from � nancial sector and their fami-ly members would get medical facilities at a lower cost. l

BUILD: Power, gas price hike to raise business costsn Tribune Report

The recent price hike of power and gas will push up living cost of people and also the business start-up costs, said BUILD, a pub-lic-private partnership platform.

It said the hike would have diverse impacts on living as there would be rise in costs of transport, foods, education, house rents and other related household needs. It would also prevent industrial expansion.Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) made the observation in a press re-lease signed by its Chief Executive O� cer Fer-daus Ara Begum yesterday.

On August 27, the government raised the price of electricity and gas 2.93% and 26.29% respectively on an average at the consumer level, e� ective from September 1.

Since then, a number of political parties and di� erent rights bodies have been saying that the price hike will adversely a� ect living standard of people.

Referring to the recent graduation of Bang-ladesh to a lower middle income country, BUILD said a signi� cant number of people, who were able to raise their standard of liv-ing, might again be thrown to their earlier liv-ing standard due to the price hike.

The small marginal families, who can only a� ord a light and a fan spending at least 60-70 kw of electricity, would be a� ected with it as well, it said.

The entrepreneurs using their own gen-erators will face challenges and the situation would be worse for entrepreneurs based out-side Dhaka.

“The utility price hike may also make Bang-ladesh uncompetitive in the export growth, which became slow in recent months,” it added.

BUILD suggested the government to follow a proper guideline in increasing cost of utilities and to have a detailed discussions with private sector before making such type of changes so the business could get enough time to redesign their investment plan accordingly. l

Low in� ation back in focusn AFP, Frankfurt

The European Central Bank may have to con-sider fresh policy measures to prevent de� a-tion in the single currency area, but will not move at its meeting yesterday, analysts said.

“After all the Greek excitement over the summer, the ECB had probably been hop-ing for a very ordinary and dull meeting this week; to slowly move from vacation into business mode,” said ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski.

“Unfortunately, � nancial markets did not meet the ECB’s wishes. Latest market turmoil

and, above all, the plunge in commodity pric-es should revive the de� ation debate within the ECB’s governing council,” he said.

While Brzeski was con� dent that ECB chief Mario Draghi would not announce any new policy action Thursday, “on the back of lower in� ation projections and increased un-certainty, Draghi will – in our view – open the door for stepping up QE,” or the contested bond-purchase programme known as quanti-tative easing, he said.

UniCredit economist Marco Valli agreed.“We expect no policy change at Thursday’s

meeting,” he said. l

BUSINESS 17D

TFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Gazprom gets lucrative trio of deals without tender n Aminur Rahman Rasel

Three state-owned gas production companies have signed three separate deals with Russia’s Gazprom to drill � ve onshore gas wells – at double what Bapex would have cost.

Gazprom will be the � rst foreign company to work with state-owned companies in such a drilling exercise without a production-shar-ing contract (PSC).

Gazprom’s drilling of the � ve wells will cost around Tk150 crore per well, where-as Bapex could do the same job for Tk70-80 crore per well, a Bapex o� cial said, asking not to be named.

The job was awarded under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provi-sion) (Amendment) Act, 2014 without going through a tender procedure.

The deal with Russia’s state-run gas explo-ration company was signed in Dhaka on Sep-tember 1.

In a bid to raise gas output by up to 150 mil-lion cubic feet per day (mmcfd), the local gas production companies opted for the costlier Russian alternative over state-owned gas and oil exploration company Bapex.

Previously in 2012-14, Gazprom failed to

extract the amount of gas that it had expected to add to the national grid.

The company was signed by the Bang-ladesh government to drill 10 wells and ex-tract around 300 million cubic feet per day

(mmcfd) of natural gas, but managed to ex-tract only around 146mmcfd, said sources at Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, commonly known as Petrobangla.The Russian company will work as a contrac-tor for the turnkey scheme. Local gas compa-nies will pay Gazprom upon the completion of the drilling of each well, o� cials said.

Gazprom must complete drilling the wells within 15 months, o� cials said.

The � ve gas wells to be drilled under the contract – Bakhrabad 10, Rashidpur 9, 10 and 12, Srikail 4 – are owned by three di� erent

state-owned companies.Under the contract, Gazprom will drill

one well in Bakhrabad � eld which belongs to Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited (BG-FCL), three in Rashidpur � eld which is owned by Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd (SGFL) and one in the Srikail � eld of Bangladesh Petroleum Ex-ploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex).

“We signed a deal with Gazprom to drill � ve onshore wells including three BGFCL wells,” Md Mosta� zur Rahman, managing director of BGFCL, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.“Gazprom will start drilling 10 months from now. We hope they � nish the work on time,” Md Atiquzzaman, managing director of Bapex, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

According to the proposal, Gazprom’s av-erage drilling cost per well will increase to $19.64m (around Tk150 crore) from $19.35m in 2012 – a 1.47% rise, o� cials said.

Gazprom International Investment BV will spend Tk22.05 crore to construct a new road and for the development of Rashidpur wells 9, 10 and 12.

Civil work will be carried out by Gazprom instead of Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd, the state-owned company that owns the wells. l

‘We signed a deal with Gazprom to drill � ve onshore wells including three BGFCL wells’

Remittance in� ow drops 14% in August n Tribune Report

Remittance in� ow dropped by 14% in August compared to previous month due to stronger local currency against dollar while currencies are tumbling in the Asia region.

Moreover, the fall in oil price contributed to lower remittance as lion share of remittanc-es come from gulf region – the largest labour market for Bangladesh, said a senior execu-tive of a private bank.

The country received remittances of $1.18bn in August compared to $1.38bn in July. The re-ceived amount was slightly higher than $1.17bn in the same month previous year, according to the Bangladesh Bank data released yesterday.

The in� ow is expected to turn higher from September ahead of the Eid festival, a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank said.

Bangladesh Bank projected 10% growth in remittances for the current � scal year in its re-cent monetary policy for � rst half.

The foreign reserves are projected to keep rising to reach $26bn in the FY16 from $25bn in the FY15. The country received $1.43bn in remittances in June, which is the second highest in a single month. Earlier in July last year, the country received highest $1.49bn re-mittances in one month.

Expatriate Bangladeshis sent comparative-ly more remittance home in June due to ob-serving Eid festival, said a senior executive of Bangladesh Bank. l

Economists: Develop port city now for better economyn Tribune Report

Economists stressed the need to develop the port city of Chittagong to global standard as early as possible, which has enormous eco-nomic potentials.

The city accounts for about one-quarter of the gross domestic product, 25% of national revenue and 40% of heavy industrial activ-ities, revealing its importance as an engine that could be a driver for the country’s eco-nomic growth, they said.

“The country needs to develop 4-5 cities to global standard for faster economic growth,” said economist Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman at a roundtable yesterday in Dhaka.

The discussion on “Global Port, Global City: Prioritising Chittagong For Accelerat-ing National Growth” was jointly organised by Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), a think-tank, and Bonik Barta, a Bang-la business daily.

“In this context, priority should be given right now for building Chittagong as an attrac-tive city,” he said.

Dr Hossain Zillur said Bangladesh could learn from Asia’s some successful cities that economic competitiveness would be boosted with development of a city.

He also laid emphasis on improving e� -ciency of Chittagong port to cope with the economic growth.

“The infrastructure of the port and the city are poorly aligned, and the port’s contribu-tion to the city’s infrastructural development is marginal. If the port becomes global stand-ard, the city has to be global standard.”

“The Chittagong port handles more than 80% of the external trade. The deep seaport

is a distant future. “So, the current Chittagong port has to bear

the principal burden of higher growth in the me-dium term and has ample opportunities for ex-pansion and improvement to global standards.”

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the government was considering Chit-tagong as a hub while the country would reach its goal of middle income country tak-ing the port city as an important place.

Highlighting development projects taken by the government for furnishing the port city, he said, “The government is implementing 139 pro-jects in Chittagong at a cost of Tk158,000 crore. These will be implemented in next three years.”

Former Bangladesh Bank Governor Sale-huddin Ahmed blamed the centralisation of development and decision-making for in-

creasingly turning Dhaka as “Bangladesh,” leaving other parts of the country deprived of development works.

“The whole country can be divided into a number of parts to drive development pro-cess. Chittagong will be preeminent in that process,” he said.

Chittagong Stock Exchange Chairman Muhammad Abdul Mazid said: “The Chit-tagong-based businesses even don’t make at-tempt to develop the city. Rather, they have shifted their head o� ces to Dhaka.”

AK Khan & Company Managing Director Salahuddin Kasem Khan said there was a se-rious lack of coordination among agencies running the city. “But the city governance is important to build a city.”

President of Chittagong Samity MM Na-

siruddin said the infrastructure in the city had not improved much since the British rule.

“Projects have been taken, but their im-plementation is slow. When the Dhaka-Chit-tagong four-lane road will be open for public, perhaps the utility for the lane will be over.”

Former director general of Asian Develop-ment Bank Sultan Hafeez Rahman suggested empowering Chittagong City Corporation so it could have tools and � nance to run the city as well as spur development.

Urban specialist of the World Bank Chris Pablo said the key institutions had to be in-volved to develop a city.

“The plan to develop a city has to be man-ifested in national policies. Besides, a dia-logue has to be held to identify who should do what.” l

Planning Minister Mostafa Kamal listens to Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman at a roundtable on development of Chittagong in Dhaka yesterday RAJIB DHAR

BUSINESS18DT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

SECTORAL TURNOVER SUMMARY

Sector DSE CSE TotalMillion Taka % change Million Taka % change Million Taka % change

Bank 341.16 6.84 32.17 8.31 373.33 6.95NBFI 264.95 5.31 13.14 3.39 278.09 5.18Investment 98.57 1.98 2.21 0.57 100.78 1.88Engineering 523.12 10.49 50.32 13.00 573.44 10.67Food & Allied 349.03 7.00 26.84 6.93 375.87 7.00Fuel & Power 679.61 13.63 36.84 9.51 716.44 13.33Jute 10.41 0.21 0.00 10.41 0.19Textile 486.36 9.75 33.37 8.62 519.74 9.67Pharma & Chemical 636.98 12.78 35.05 9.05 672.02 12.51Paper & Packaging 26.00 0.52 1.57 0.41 27.57 0.51Service 142.77 2.86 6.79 1.75 149.56 2.78Leather 112.13 2.25 7.94 2.05 120.07 2.23Ceramic 67.13 1.35 10.22 2.64 77.35 1.44Cement 134.62 2.70 8.14 2.10 142.76 2.66Information Technology 27.98 0.56 2.25 0.58 30.23 0.56General Insurance 20.66 0.41 2.70 0.70 23.36 0.43Life Insurance 23.03 0.46 3.63 0.94 26.67 0.50Telecom 87.24 1.75 11.16 2.88 98.40 1.83Travel & Leisure 53.24 1.07 5.71 1.47 58.95 1.10Miscellaneous 900.46 18.06 97.10 25.08 997.56 18.57Debenture 0.48 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.49 0.01

Prepared exclusively for Dhaka Tribune by Business Information Automation Service Line (BIASL), on the basis of information collected from daily stock quotations and audited reports of the listed companies. High level of caution has been taken to collect and present the above information and data. The publisher will not take any responsibility if any body uses this information and data for his/her investment decision. For any query please email to biasl@bol-online.com or call 01552153562 or go to www.biasl.net

News, analysis and recent disclosuresMODERNDYE: The Board of Directors has recommended 10% cash dividend for the year ended on 30.06.2015. Date of AGM: 15.10.2015, Time: 11:00 AM, Venue: Spectra Convention Center Ltd, House#19, Road#7, Gulshan#1, Dhaka#1212. Record Date: 23.09.2015. The Company has also reported pro� t after tax of Tk. 1.59 million, EPS of Tk. 1.16, NAV per share of Tk. 11.49 and NOCFPS of Tk. (0.37) for the year ended on 30.06.2015 as against Tk. 2.14 million, Tk. 1.56, Tk. 11.13 and Tk. 3.83 respectively for the year ended 30.06.2014.KOHINOOR:Credit Rating In-formation and Services Limited (CRISL) has further informed that it has rated the Company as “A+” in the long term and “ST-3” in the short term along with a stable outlook in consideration of its audited � nancials up to June 30, 2014, unaudited � nancials up to March 31, 2015 and other relevant quantitative as well as qualitative informa-tion up to the date of rating declaration.BEACHHATCH: As per Regu-lation 19(1) of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (Listing) Regula-tions, 2015, the Company has informed that a meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on September 09, 2015 at 3:00 PM to consider, among others, audited � nancial statements of the Company for the year ended on December 31, 2014.PTL: The Company has informed that the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to purchase the

Capital Machineries as per following speci� cation: Name of Machinery: Travelling Cleaners, Supplier Name: ELECTRO-JET, S.A; Country of origin: Spain, Mode of Payment: 100% Irrevo-cable & con� rmed L/C, payable at sight and Total Price: Euro 1,13,000.00.IDLC: BSEC has given consent to IDLC Finance Limited for issuance of IDLC Infrastructure & SME Zero Coupon Bond amounting to Tk. 5,000.00 million only through private placement. The consent has been accorded subject to compliance with the relevant laws and regulatory requirements and also adherence to the conditions imposed by BSEC under Section-2CC of the Securities and Exchange Ordinance, 1969.IPO subscription schedule of Simtex Industries Ltd.: BSEC has permitted to re-open the subscription schedule of IPO of Simtex Industries Limited from September 6, 2015 to Septem-ber 14, 2015.Dividend/AGMGPHISPAT: 17% cash, AGM: 08.11.2015, Record date: 20.09.2015.SAIHAMCOT: 5% cash and 10% stock, AGM: 28.10.2015, Record date: 17.09.2015. BBS: 20% stock, EGM & AGM: 15.10.2015, Record date for EGM & AGM: 20.09.2015.APEXFOODS: 20% cash, AGM: 30.09.2015, Record date: 13.09.2015. APEXTANRY: 45% cash, AGM: 04.10.2015, Record date: 09.09.2015.

CSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Beach Hatchery -A 9.18 6.72 21.91 22.60 22.70 20.90 11.178 1.29 17.0Anwar Galvanizing-B 8.87 5.23 62.60 62.60 63.20 61.00 0.759 0.68 92.1Fu-wang Ceramic-A 8.53 6.36 13.72 14.00 14.10 12.90 4.766 0.36 38.1Samata LeatheR -Z 8.30 8.30 30.00 30.00 30.00 30.00 0.005 -0.05 -veAIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A 7.41 7.54 5.85 5.80 5.90 5.80 0.136 4.76 1.2Asia Pasi� c Insu. -A 7.25 7.25 14.80 14.80 14.80 14.80 0.053 2.32 6.4Golden Harvest Agro-N 6.96 5.73 28.62 29.20 29.50 26.30 0.940 1.32 21.7Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 6.29 4.75 1164.21 1180.00 1180.80 1121.00 0.158 32.00 36.4Salvo Chemicals-B 5.59 3.46 14.96 15.10 15.30 14.30 2.527 0.58 25.8First Finance- A 5.36 8.83 12.08 11.80 12.30 11.70 0.061 0.94 12.9

DSE GAINER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

Modern Dyeing -Z 72.98 41.97 129.53 158.10 175.00 98.10 3.670 1.16 111.7Anwar Galvanizing-B 9.88 3.80 61.68 63.40 63.40 58.20 28.333 0.68 90.7Meghna Con. Milk -B 9.88 6.80 8.64 8.90 8.90 8.00 0.779 -4.49 -veBeach Hatchery -A 9.76 7.24 21.91 22.50 22.50 20.70 65.606 1.29 17.0AIBL 1st Is. M. F.-A 8.93 6.87 5.91 6.10 6.10 5.60 9.312 4.76 1.2Fu-wang Ceramic-A 7.69 5.17 13.63 14.00 14.20 12.90 24.618 0.36 37.9Legacy Footwear -A 7.44 2.96 31.96 33.20 33.60 30.10 40.752 0.20 159.8GeminiSeaFood-B 7.24 6.47 449.33 457.60 462.00 428.00 8.335 11.77 38.2Apex Foods -A 7.22 0.58 153.37 157.50 159.50 145.30 42.655 12.60 12.2MBL 1st M. F.-A 6.67 4.44 4.70 4.80 4.80 4.60 3.955 5.08 0.9

CSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

IFIL Islamic M.F.1-A -9.86 -8.87 6.47 6.40 6.50 6.40 0.010 0.95 6.8ICB Sonali Bank 1 MF-A -9.86 -9.86 6.40 6.40 6.40 6.40 0.010 0.97 6.6ICB Emp. PMF-A -9.84 -9.84 5.50 5.50 5.50 5.50 0.006 0.61 9.0ICB AMCL 2nd NRB -A -8.97 -8.97 7.10 7.10 7.10 7.10 0.014 0.87 8.2NLI 1st M F-A -8.14 -8.14 7.90 7.90 7.90 7.90 0.174 1.50 5.3ICB AMCL3rd NRB MF-A -7.14 -8.88 3.90 3.90 4.00 3.80 0.201 0.48 8.1Eastern Cables-A -6.67 -6.60 126.09 126.00 135.00 126.00 0.013 1.12 112.6Aman Feed-N -6.57 -10.95 82.79 79.60 90.00 78.00 66.265 3.60 23.0EBL NRB M.F.-A -6.25 -6.67 4.48 4.50 5.20 4.40 0.005 0.43 10.4Meghna Life Ins. -A -6.01 -5.93 54.74 54.70 56.00 54.00 0.139 6.45 8.5

DSE LOSER

Company Closing (% Change)

Aver-age (%

Change)

Closin-gAvg. Closing DHIGH DLOW Turnover

in MillionLatest

EPSLatest

PE

ICB AMCL 1st NRB -A -10.00 -10.08 19.80 19.80 19.80 19.80 0.004 2.61 7.6Phoenix Fin. 1st MF-A -10.00 -8.48 4.53 4.50 4.60 4.50 0.912 0.65 7.0ICB Sonali Bank 1 MF-A -9.72 -8.26 6.55 6.50 6.70 6.50 1.609 0.97 6.8IFIL Islamic M.F.1-A -8.57 -9.46 6.32 6.40 6.70 6.30 24.932 0.95 6.7Prime Bank 1st MF-A -7.55 -7.81 4.84 4.90 4.90 4.80 2.513 0.75 6.5ICB AMCL3rd NRB MF-A -6.98 -5.81 4.05 4.00 4.20 3.90 5.319 0.48 8.4Aman Feed-N -6.80 -13.17 82.12 79.50 90.00 76.80 605.801 3.60 22.8AMCL 2nd MF-A -6.38 -7.61 4.37 4.40 4.70 4.30 1.335 0.71 6.2ICB Emp. PMF-A -5.17 -8.29 5.42 5.50 5.70 5.30 3.263 0.61 8.9ICB AMCL 2nd NRB -A -5.13 -8.58 7.14 7.40 7.60 7.10 4.072 0.87 8.2

DSE key features September 3, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

4,985.92

Turnover (Volume)

131,508,909

Number of Contract

125,525

Traded Issues 314

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

177

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

128

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

9

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,685.95

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

32.56

CSE key features September 3, 2015Turnover (Million Taka)

387.16

Turnover (Volume)

12,039,507

Number of Contract

17,449

Traded Issues 246

Issue Gain (Avg. Price Basis)

133

Issue Loss (Avg. Price Basis)

110

Unchanged Issue (Avg. Price Basis)

3

Market Capital Equity (Billion. Tk.)

2,586.87

Market Capital Equity (Billion US$)

31.36

BUSINESS 19D

TFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Stocks end � at in high volatilityn Tribune Report

Stocks closed � at in high volatility yesterday after ral-ly in previous session.

The market opened sharply lower but recovered well immediately riding on mainly low-cap stocks be-fore edging higher at close.

After rally in previous session, the Dhaka Stock Exchange benchmark index DSEX inched almost 2 points up to 4,765.

The Shariah index DSES witnessed a fractional gain of 0.8 points to 1,177.

The blue chip comprising index DS30 lost marginal-ly about 2 points or 0.1% to 1,823.

The Chittagong Stock Ex-change Selective Category Index, CSCX, gains margin-ally 4 points to 8,890.

Newly listed Aman Feed Limited fell for the second straight day, shedding near-ly 7% to over Tk79 a share after unusual 172% rise in its debut day Tuesday.

The company was the most traded share for the third consecutive day with turnover worth Tk60.6 crore, accounting for over 12% of the total DSE turn-over that stood at almost Tk500 crore.

The DSE turnover was two weeks high and 43% higher over the previous session.

The large cap sectors showed a mixed perfor-mance. In the � nancial sec-tor, non-banking � nancial institutions surged 1.3% and banks lost 0.6%.

Low cap cement sector posted a gain of almost 1%. Both food and allied and pharmaceuticals closed marginally higher. Telecom-munications and power sec-tor declined slightly.

IDLC Investments said the session was indecisive as the market moves appeared to lack any conviction in in-vestors’ mindset.

The bourse opened with a rush of sell-o� in the be-ginning moments, which recovered as fast as it fell, it said, adding that with some pressure afterwards, indi-ces kept on and ultimately closed � at.

The peculiar broad mar-ket movement can be attrib-uted to large gains in micro caps, neutralised by strict � atness in large caps, it said.

After Aman Feed, other top turnover leaders include SPCL, Emerald Oil, Square Pharmaceuticals and Khan Brothers PP Woven Bag In-dustries Limited. l

The session was indecisive as the market moves appeared to lack any conviction in investors’ mindset

ANALYST

Daily capital market highlightsDSE Broad Index : 12436.30290 (+) 0.05% ▲

DSE - 30 Index : 1823.58674 (-) 0.08% ▼

CSE All Share Index: 14601.34840 (+) 0.05% ▲

CSE - 30 Index : 12436.30290 (-) 0.06% ▼

CSE Selected Index : 8890.24870 (+) 0.05% ▲

CSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change % ClosingY DHIGH DLOW AvgPrice

Aman Feed-N 800,382 66.27 17.12 79.60 -6.57 85.20 90.00 78.00 82.79UCBL - A 676,640 14.31 3.70 21.10 -1.40 21.40 21.40 21.00 21.15United Power-N 86,122 12.76 3.30 147.30 -1.87 150.10 152.00 146.90 148.21Emerald Oil Ind. -A 234,948 11.18 2.89 48.40 4.09 46.50 49.00 46.50 47.58Beach Hatchery -A 510,243 11.18 2.89 22.60 9.18 20.70 22.70 20.90 21.91Olympic Accessories -N 180,713 10.01 2.59 55.00 -1.96 56.10 56.70 54.70 55.41BD Submarine Cable-A 85,313 10.01 2.58 117.00 -2.26 119.70 119.00 116.60 117.29National Feed-A 406,789 9.80 2.53 23.60 -4.84 24.80 25.20 23.00 24.09Khan Brothers-N 326,288 9.43 2.44 29.00 2.11 28.40 29.30 28.20 28.89BSRM Ltd. -A 78,728 8.47 2.19 106.70 -2.29 109.20 109.50 106.00 107.55Shahjibazar Power-N 38,490 7.19 1.86 185.60 -2.26 189.90 188.50 184.60 186.67BEXIMCO Ltd. -A 217,528 6.55 1.69 30.00 -1.64 30.50 30.50 29.90 30.12Appollo Ispat CL -N 252,782 5.57 1.44 22.10 1.84 21.70 22.30 21.60 22.02Keya Cosmetics -A 285,472 5.20 1.34 18.10 -1.63 18.40 18.60 18.00 18.20UNITED AIR-A 513,128 5.04 1.30 9.80 -1.01 9.90 9.90 9.70 9.82

DSE TURNOVER LEADERS

Company Volume-Shares

Value in Million

% of Total-Turnover ClosingP Change

% ClosingY DHIGH DLOW Avg-Price

Aman Feed-N 7,377,320 605.80 12.15 79.50 -6.80 85.30 90.00 76.80 82.12Shahjibazar Power-N 725,486 135.51 2.72 185.50 -2.16 189.60 190.20 185.00 186.79Emerald Oil Ind. -A 2,786,556 133.59 2.68 48.80 4.95 46.50 49.10 46.60 47.94Square Pharma -A 506,994 128.41 2.58 253.20 -0.47 254.40 254.40 252.00 253.27Khan Brothers-N 3,895,374 112.51 2.26 28.90 2.12 28.30 29.40 28.00 28.88IDLC Finance -A 1,851,466 110.83 2.22 59.50 0.17 59.40 60.90 59.10 59.86Linde (BD) Ltd. -A 80,882 94.64 1.90 1176.60 6.24 1107.50 1176.70 1100.00 1170.04United Power-N 612,065 90.64 1.82 147.30 -1.93 150.20 151.50 147.00 148.09LafargeS Cement-A 761,710 86.68 1.74 113.70 0.26 113.40 114.40 112.90 113.79FAR Chemical-N 1,504,921 82.24 1.65 55.30 2.60 53.90 55.50 53.60 54.65The Ibn SinaA 523,856 76.45 1.53 148.20 4.15 142.30 149.20 139.10 145.93Orion Infusions -A 1,232,889 71.62 1.44 58.60 4.09 56.30 59.80 55.60 58.09Islami Bank BD - A 2,489,866 68.08 1.37 27.00 -4.59 28.30 28.20 26.80 27.34Titas Gas TDCLA 894,152 66.24 1.33 73.90 -0.27 74.10 74.40 73.50 74.08SAIF Powertec-N 794,108 65.83 1.32 82.90 0.97 82.10 83.60 81.70 82.90

BUSINESS20DT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

CORPORATE NEWS

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) has recently signed a contract for two projects with Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) in Dhaka. Managing director of DWASA, Engr Taqsem A Khan and Professor Dr M Monowar Hossain, executive director of IWM signed the contract

Modhumoti Bank Limited has recently signed an agreement with Rancon Motors Limited, an authorised dealer for Mercedes-Benz in Bangladesh, for providing discounts on Mercedes-Benz for its priority clients. The bank’s head of corporate & investment banking, Javed Khan and Shoeb Ahmed, COO of Rancon Motors Limited have signed the agreement

IMF: Impact of China slowdown larger than expectedn AFP, Washington

China’s economic slowdown is having a broader impact on the global economy than originally expected, especially on emerging markets, the International Monetary Fund said early yesterday.

In a report for Group of 20 � nance chiefs meeting this week in Ankara, the IMF said the turmoil in China and other factors like capi-tal � ow reversals were increasing the risks to economic growth around the world.

It warned that advanced and emerging economies need to continue to support de-mand with reforms and investment to ensure that the turbulence in markets and China’s troubles do not stall economic activity in the rest of the world.

“China’s transition to a lower growth, while broadly in line with forecasts, appears to have larger-than-previously-envisaged cross-border repercussions, re� ected in weakening com-modity prices and stock prices,” the Fund said.

Especially, “near-term downside risks for emerging economies have increased” from China-related fallout, sinking commodity prices, the strong US dollar, and sharp rever-sals in � nancial markets, it said.

The report, which will be used for discus-sion at the meeting on Friday and Saturday of the � nance ministers and central bankers from the G20 leading economies, did not re-vise the IMF’s previous estimate for global growth this year of 3.3%.

But earlier this week IMF Managing Direc-tor Christine Lagarde said in Indonesia that global growth would be “likely weaker” than forecast.

“Now the situation is changing yet again, and we are all feeling the impact of China’s rebalancing and moving to a revised business model,” she said.

The report expressed continued con� dence

that growth is picking up “modestly” in ad-vanced economies in the second half of 2015 and in 2016, helped by the impact of cheaper oil.

But the oil price plunge, along with oth-er commodities, is hurting emerging market economies, and they are also being bu� eted by the impact on their currencies of China’s renminbi devaluation and the strong dollar.

The dollar’s strength, the Fund warned,

could take a toll on companies with dollar li-abilities.

The Fund highlighted an increase in risks to overall global growth: that China would not confront its slowdown with growth-support-ing policies; that commodity prices would slide further; that the US dollar would contin-ue to rise; and that companies would su� er from higher debts.

“Simultaneous materialization of some of these risks would imply a much weaker out-look,” the Fund said.

It recommended that advanced countries stick to very loose monetary policies and maintain “growth-friendly” � scal policies.

It also stressed structural reforms that would free up various markets and encourage investment and consumption.

In emerging economies, choices are tough-er, and leaders “need to strike an appropriate balance between fostering growth and man-aging vulnerabilities.” l

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks at the start of a � nance conference in Jakarta REUTERS

‘Now the situation is changing yet again, and we are all feeling the impact of China’s rebalancing and moving to a revised business model’

Hit by cheap oil, Canada’s economy falls into recessionn Reuters, Ottawa

The Canadian economy shrank again in the second quarter, putting the country in reces-sion for the � rst time since the � nancial crisis, with a plunge in oil prices spurring companies to chop business investment.

The con� rmation on Tuesday of a modest recession will � gure heavily into the elec-tion campaign as Canadians head to the polls Oct 19 and poses a challenge to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is seek-ing a rare fourth consecutive term.

Still, there was a silver lining as growth picked up for the � rst time in six months in June, underscoring expectations the reces-sion will be short-lived.

Harper was quick to downplay what some supporters and economists have dismissed as a “technical” recession, pointing to the upbeat June � gures during a campaign stop. “The Ca-nadian economy is back on track,” he said.

But politicians from the opposition New Democrats and Liberals said the numbers were evidence Harper’s economic policies were failing. Economists mostly agreed the 0.5% pickup in June put Canada on good foot-ing for a better third quarter.

“Despite the technical recession material-izing, it does look like the Canadian economy is jumping back, is rebounding strongly in the third quarter,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

The Canadian dollar initially rallied to a session high against the greenback following the data before giving up ground later in the

day as oil prices fell.The last time Canada was in recession was

in 2008-09, when the US housing market meltdown triggered a global credit crisis.

This time around, Canada has been pri-marily hit by the slump in crude prices, with weakness concentrated in energy-related sec-tors. Oil-exporting provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan have been particularly hard-hit.

Gross domestic product contracted at an an-nualized 0.5% rate in the second quarter, Statis-tics Canada said. That was better than forecast, though revisions showed the � rst quarter’s contraction was steeper than � rst reported.

Two consecutive quarters of contraction are typically considered the textbook de� ni-tion of a recession. But some economists have argued that such a de� nition is too narrow.

They note unemployment has remained relatively subdued at 6.8%, and housing mar-kets outside of Alberta and retail sales have been reasonably strong.

“The weakness in the � rst half of the year does appear to be fairly narrowly based, with weakness in the energy sector weighing on in-vestment activity,” said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.

The Bank of Canada has cut interest rates twice this year in an e� ort to revive the econ-omy, though most analysts expect it to hold rates at 0.5% when it meets next week.

While the price of oil and other natural re-sources have weakened since June, many ex-pect non-commodity Canadian exports to ben-e� t from a strengthening US economy, which grew at a 3.7% clip in the second quarter. l

news

22TantaliseHomemade ice-cream

24NewsWeeklong Pizza Fest at Dhaka Regency

Open Recruitment Day at the Westin

INSIDE

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Pureed to perfection

Nana restaurant is o� ering some excellent oriental cuisine to satisfy your palate. Nana has a number of 167 items on o� er including splendid Mogul and Chinese cuisine. Located in Old Town, the restaurant also includes the traditional Bengali and the Mogul cuisine. Nana has a convention centre, where marriage

ceremonies, birthday parties, seminars, conferences and so forth can be arranged.

For more details visit 3, Wise Ghat, Patuatuli, Islampur, Old-Dhaka, 1214. Contact details: 01190152222, 01190162222; www.facebook.com/nana.dhaka.l

Nana’s party centre and restaurant

Photo: Tasmia Momin

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

n Tasmia Momin

Ice-cream has always seemed like that one territorial sweet dish that most home cooks steer clear of. You’d be surprised to know just how easy it is to make a � avour you crave. A few quick additions to any regular ice-cream can quickly turn a generic ice-cream � avour into a creamy dish of decadence. Vanilla, strawberry and chocolate are certainly the most commonly available � avours in the market. Why not make our own funky variation to celebrate the end of summer?

Salted CaramelOreo Ice-creamYes, you’ve gotten that right. We’ve combined the dark beauty of oreos with the malted goodness of caramel to create an ice-cream that can cure more than just a bad break up.

Ingredients• 2 cups of whipped cream (I used Foster

Clark sachets for this)• ½ can of cold sweetened condensed milk• 4-5 drops of vanilla essence• 1 packet of Chocolate Oreo Cookies• A few drizzle of salted caramel• Chocolate chunks

Homemade ice-creamTwo refreshing treats to beat the heat this weekend

MethodCrush up the oreo cookies  and set aside.Beat the cold whipped cream and cold condensed milk in a stand mixer or using a hand mixer.

Stir in the vanilla essence and whisk until the mixture is smooth and thick with more or less sti� peaks.Fold in the crushed oreo cookies and drizzle in some

salted caramel sauce.Top it o� with more crushed cookies, caramel and chocolate chunks. For extra chocolaty goodness, drizzle over a hefty amount of chocolate syrup!

Place it in a refrigerator and freeze it for at least four hours before eating! Totaly worth the wait!

The world considers Japan as the country of technologies. Japan is also a land of peace and harmony that continues to evolve in a positive uni� cation of tradition and modernisation. With its elaborate and colourful history and culture, Japan has formed a distinct model of hierarchy, honour and etiquette that are still re� ected in many educational, social and business practices today.

Japan has plans to concentrate on skilled population of the third world countries as they get skilled employees with a competitive price. Japanese companies have started hiring employees from countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Philippines, Malaysia, etc.

On the other hand, the educational institutions in Japan are also enrolling more foreign students. The economic and trade ties between Bangladesh and Japan are also getting stronger day by day, as a result interactions between the businessmen of both countries are gradually increasing. This reality has opened opportunities for Bangladeshis looking for jobs or pursuing

higher education overseas.Considering this opportunity, Da� odil

Japan IT (DJIT) a Japan based company is working with Da� odil Group as a pioneer for overseas recruitment and higher studies in Japan. Norio Murakami, former chairman of Google Japan is the honourary chairman of DJIT and Sabur Khan (chairman of Da� odil Group) is the vice chairman.

Da� odil Japan IT (DJIT) is determined to create an e� cient manpower in the IT sector through potential professional IT/software, language training and career counselling. DJIT has already successfully invited several Japanese companies to recruit Bangladeshi IT engineers and arranged several interview sessions for their students. It has been a successful journey for DJIT so far.

Interested candidates are requested to visit www.djit.ac. E-mail - info@djit.ac. Contact number - 01847140110, 01847140111. Address: 12 BDBL Bhaban, Level 6 , Karwan Bazar, Dhaka l

n Tribune Desk

This weekend, Shopfront Social, an IT company, is organising “Women’s Horlicks Presents Allure Eid Fest,” featuring some of the biggest online-based fashion and jewellery houses in Dhaka.

The Women’s Horlicks Presents Allure Eid Fest will feature 26 stores that have a large fan base, including Opal Fashion, Samara Hyder, Tahoor, and Orange Theory.

The fair will be held in Eden Hall at Amari Dhaka in Gulshan, from 10am to 10pm on Friday and Saturday.

Shopfront Social is an IT company that works as an e-commerce facilitator and aims to facilitate stores that are functioning through e-commerce in Bangladesh.

“A big hurdle for many of these stores is acquiring customers as they don’t have a physical store,” Siffar Sarwar, founder

and director of Shopfront Social, told the Dhaka Tribune. “So this is a platform for them to showcase their work and acquire customers who will eventually buy from their websites.”

She added that women form a big part of the F-commerce (businesses generated through Facebook) section in Bangladesh, and they usually don’t have a good platform to showcase their work.

“It’s about giving them that grand storefront for one day,” she said.

Shopfront Social has a special focus on women empowerment in Bangladesh.

“Facilitating F-commerce is in one way of facilitating women entrepreneurship, and helping women who cannot go out to work,” Siffat said, adding that that is also the reason they chose Women’s Horlicks as one of the partners.

The Dhaka Tribune is a media partner of the event. l

news

recipe

Studying and working in Japan Allure Eid Fest this weekend

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Minty Mango Ice-creamThis one’s all about refreshment. If you love ripe mangoes and can’t wait to reach for a cold treat once you reach home – this minty mango delight can easily be your go-to treat for those days when the sun is bearable and life feels like a drag. Not limited to just adults, this can also be served as a treat for the little ones after they’ve come back from a tough day out.

Ingredients• 2 cups of whipped cream • ½ can of cold sweetened condensed milk• 4-5 drops of vanilla essence• 1 cup of cubed mangoes• ¼ cup of mango puree• Handful of fresh mint leaves

MethodBeat the cold whipped cream and cold condensed milk in a stand mixer or using a hand mixer.

Stir in the vanilla essence and whisk until the mixture is smooth and thick with more or less sti� peaks.Add the cubed mangoes and chopped up mint leaves. Create ripples while slowing adding the mango puree.Top it o� with more mangoes and sprigs of mint leaves.

Place it in the refrigerator and freeze it for at least four hours before eating! l

Photos: Tasmia Momin

NewsT-JUNCTION24DT

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Weeklong Pizza Fest at Dhaka Regency

Open Recruitment Day at the Westin

It is no secret that Dhaka Regency always strives to please your taste buds and this time around, they are hosting a weeklong Pizza Fest. From September 4 to September 11, the hotel will be all set with an array of homemade Pizzas and other specialties cooked to perfection. A new menu will be featured this time, along with some old favourites like Dhakaia Nababi Special (roasted chicken, onion, green chilli, capsicum, coriander leaf, fresh mint, ginger, korma sauce, tomato sauce and mozzarella), Sea Food Pizza, Meat & More Meat (smoked chicken, ground beef, pepperoni, roast lamb, capsicum, onion, olives, oregano and mozzarella), Tandoori Prawn (Tandoori king prawns, onion, capsicum, mushroom, olives, oregano and mozzarella), etc. An exclusive 20% discount is o� ered to all who are planning to enjoy the ultimate selection of authentic Pizzas at Dhaka Regency. Find out more by visiting Dhaka Regency’s Facebook page (facebook.com/dhakaregencyhotel) and con� rm a reservation by calling 01713332661. l

The Westin Dhaka is organising an Open Recruitment Day for the aspiring women of Bangladesh who want to advance high in their career. The event will be hosted at the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Dhaka from 10am to 4pm, on Sunday, September 6.

Being theindustry leader, The Westin Dhaka believes that gender diversity is important in the workforce, armed with the right tools; it is high time for women to aspire to become leaders in Bangladesh.

“The hospitality sectors are � ourishing in Bangladesh, and we highly encourage everyone to come out and see what the Westin has to o� er and show these candidates that we have a skilled and eager workforce that can support them,” says Daniel Muhor, general manager.

He also adds, “Since success is all about the right attitude there is no restriction in degrees, or specialised experience. At the Westin Dhaka, we bring out the best in our associates through intuitive care and signature service. Our associates are partners in our guests’ well-being ensuring they leave feeling better than when they arrived.”

Unilever Bangladesh Ltd’s water puri� er brand Pureit promises to ensure safer than boiled water in every household. Aligned with the brand’s philosophy, Pureit has organised a service oriented camp, “Pureit Service Camp.” The Service Camp is active in a total of 13 spots all around Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. Dhanmondi and Baily Road in Dhaka, Hillview Residential Area and Access Road in Chittagong and Jindabazar in Sylher are some of these spots. Everyday from 10am till 7pm, consumers will

receive di� erent services and information regarding pure water and Pureit Water Puri� er at these camps. Available services include Buy Back O� er, Upgrade O� er, Discount O� er, Real Time Service, Expert Advice and any information service related to pure water. Pureit Service Camp will continue till September 16. Details on Pureit Service Camp are available at 09-613-105105, from 8am to 12am every day. All consumers are cordially invited to get the services o� ered at the Pureit Service Camp.

Pureit Service Camp

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GOALS AS IT HAPPENED

6’ Leckie’s goal. Rogic from the centre slid a ball to

Elrich on the right. Elrich, in turn, found Luongo overlapping. From the edge of the box he squared to Leckie who, from the edge of the 6 yard box, clipped the ball past the keepers’ right.

8’ The second started with a Mooy cross from the left.

Leckie headed behind him to El-rich who squared to Rogic stand-ing at the top of the box. He took a touch and hit a low shot into the right corner. It may have taken a de� ection, but it hardly matters does it? This could get ugly.

20’ It gets uglier for Ban-gladesh as Rogic’s � rm

shot took a stark de� ection o� Topu Barman to beat Sohel and go down as an own goal.

29’ Davidson crosses as Leckie forces a � ne

diving save from Sohel, but the ball drops at the feet of Burns and he smacks it home.

62’ Mooy turns smartly outside the area and

whacks a half volley past Sohel and into the roof of the net. That was travelling.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

MILAN WERE ‘DESPERATE’ TO SIGN ME: IBRA

WAUGH BACKS PONTING, HOLDING TO DUMP TEST TOSS

26 2927

Tottenham forward Emmanuel Adebayor has been dropped from the Spurs’ Europa League squad as the out-of-favour striker remains in

limbo at the club

OUT OF FAVOUR

SportCRICKETERS TO GET PARTIAL BPL-2 WAGES SUNDAY

Australia striker Tom Rogic tries to shield the ball from Bangladesh’s Tapu Barman (L) and Monayem Khan Raju during their 2018 Fifa World Cup second round quali� er at NIB Stadium in Perth yesterday COURTESY

5-star Socceroos breeze past Bengal Tigersn Rashad Banna

Bangladesh produced a rearguard action in the second half to come out with an un-shameful 5-0 defeat at the hands of mighty Asian champions Australia in the 2018 Fifa World Cup second round quali� er at NIB Sta-dium in Perth yesterday.

Having shipped four goals in the � rst half, the Bengal Tigers were determined to avoid a cricket score in the second half and were suc-cessful as Sheikh Jamal DC goalkeeper Sha-hidul Alam Sohel put in an impressive shift, denying the opponent attackers on numerous occasions.

In front of a capacity crowd of 19,495, the Socceroos got o� to the perfect start as QPR mid-� elder Massimo Luongo distributed a � ne pass towards the path of Ingolstadt forward Methew Leckie. All Leckie had to do was tap in to give the home side the lead in the � fth minute.

Two minutes later, Luongo provided his second assist of the game when he laid a

beautiful pass for Celtic striker Tom Rog-ic and the forward made no mistake ri� ing home from outside the box to double the home side’s lead.

Rogic bagged his second, and Australia’s third, in the 19th minute when he unleashed a � erce shot that de� ected o� right-back Tapu Barman before sailing past Sohel.

Rogic nearly completed his hat-trick but Sohel denied him in the 28th minute, only for winger Nathan Burns to latch on to the re-bound and steer home to make it 4-0.

In the meantime, the tourists were strug-gling to enter the opposition terrain. By the 37th minute of the tie, interim captain and defensive mid� elder Mark Milligan and mid-� elder Aaron Mooy had exchanged 110 passes between them. During the same duration, the entire Bangladesh starting XI managed 71.

With the ticking of the clock, Bangladesh’s fortunes seemed to be on the decline. Young mid� elder Hemanta Vincent Biswas and left-back Nasirul Islam Nasir broke down in the

� rst half and were replaced by mid� elder Monayem Khan Raju and centre-back Yeamin Munna respectively.

Australia did not get their � rst corner be-fore the 41st minute but it was only because they were orchestrating most of their attacks down the middle of the park.

Milligan set up Mooy for the � fth goal at the hour-mark. Receiving a pass from Milli-gan, Mooy braced himself and let go a scorch-er from the edge of the box to complete the scoreline.

Veteran striker Tim Cahill, who plays his football these days in China with Shanghai Shenhua, was surprisingly left out from the starting XI and only entered the fray in the 62nd minute in place of Leckie. The Bangla-desh defenders held their illustrious oppo-nents at bay for the remainder of the game.

The Bengal Tigers, who dropped three plac-es to 173rd in the o� cial world rankings after the game, will now turn their attention to Jordan, whom they host at Bangabandhu Na-

tional Stadium this Tuesday at 5pm. Australia remained at their previous position of 61st. l

AUSTRALIA BANGLADESH 32 Total shots 2 10 Shots on target 1 81 Possession (%) 19 7 Corners 0 787 Total passes 192 90 Passing accuracy 53 40 Total crosses 0 16 Foul 6 1 O� side 0

5-0

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Cricketers to receive ‘partial BPL-2 wages’ from Sunday n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh Cricket Board is likely to start clearing the outstanding Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 wages of the local cricket-ers from this Sunday onward. The payment however, will only be a portion of the base-price and not the full amount.

Even a few days ago, the cricketers re-served very little hopes of recovering their previous wages from the second edition of the controversial tournament, held two years ago. The scenario though changed drastically after the BCB recovered some of the outstand-ing money from two previous BPL franchises Sylhet Royals and Rangpur Riders.

BPL governing council chairman Afzalur Rahman Sinha informed the media yesterday that the cricketers will start pocketing their payment from Sunday as all the necessary ar-rangements have been made.

The outstanding payment totalled Tk50m but with consent from the cricketers, it was decided that a total of Tk25m will be paid up.

It has been a little over two and a half years since BPL 2 was held. Following irregularities in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2012, the BCB undertook some steps to amend the situation but the franchises con-tinued to make life di� cult for cricket’s gov-erning body in the country.

“It is not possible for us to clear the hun-dred percent payment. To be honest, many cricketers were overrated in the auction. This is why we have decided to clear an amount based on a player’s base-price. We are trying to pay more to those cricketers who had a small contract. We believe the money is more important to the player who had a low base-price,” BCB cricket operations committee chairman Naimur Rahman explained.

Ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan is one

of the cricketers who was paid less com-pared to his selling-price in the auction. The Bangladesh ODI vice-captain was bought for $295,000 by two- time BPL champions Dhaka Gladiators but was paid only $71,000. How-ever, there are some cricketers who were not paid a single penny for their services.

According to the BCB, the third edition of the BPL is likely to begin on November 25 this year and conclude on December 25. BCB president Nazmul Hassan was scheduled to sit for a meeting alongside the BPL GC today to decide the line-up of the new franchise owners. Nazmul said last Wednesday that � ve new companies are interested in buying a BPL franchise.

Earlier, � ve other companies had already submitted the necessary documents – pay order and bank guarantee – in order to buy a franchise in the premier domestic T20 com-petition of the country. l

Grass will help us in a big way: Rubeln Minhaz Uddin Khan

Bangladesh fast bowler Rubel Hossain is a key member of the one-day squad, but he has been missing white-dress cricket for some time now. Despite not having adequate qual-ity seamers in the country, the 25-year-old Rubel was not part of the last four Tests Bang-ladesh played. His last appearance with the red cherry was against Pakistan in April.

However, the right-arm Khulna-born Rubel is optimistic of making it to the Tigers squad for the upcoming home series of two Tests against Australia and said quickies like him have to work extra hard to cement a place in the national side.

On what level is the competition among the Bangladesh pacers at the moment?

The competition between the pacers is very high and intense at the moment. I will try to give my best output if I get the opportunity to play against Australia (next month).

Are you worried of not playing enough Test matches?I don’t think about it too much to be honest. My job in the team is to bowl fast and reverse swing the ball when it gets old. That’s my job and I am only concerned about that. I am working on my strengths.

How are you preparing yourself for the upcoming assignment against Australia?At the moment I am working on how to be consistent bowling in long periods and bowling in good areas consistently during a Test match.

Picking up 20 wickets of the opponent in a Test is very important, but Bangladesh have failed in the majority of the matches. What should be the strategy according to you? It is true that we rarely bowl out the opponents in a Test match. We are working on the blocks and hope for a good result in the series against Australia. And if you are talking only about the pacers, I think a little grass on the pitch will make a huge di� erence and help us in a big way.

What does the pacers bring to the table?Bangladesh is a changed side now as far as the pacers are concerned. In the past we used to count on our spin attack but the time has changed. The pacers are attacking from the front to help the side to success. The change is positive and I hope the trend will continue for a long time to come. l

World champs call for help for Germany’s refugeesn AFP, Berlin

Germany’s WC-winning footballers have con-demned xenophobic attacks on the thousands of foreigners pouring into their country and led calls to help the refugees amidst the ongoing cri-sis here. Led by captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, a group of players appear in a video holding up signs condemning violence and calling for “re-spect”, “help”, “integration” and “fairplay” to-wards any refugee arriving in Germany.

Europe’s biggest economy this year ex-pects a record 800,000 asylum applications, more than any other EU country. More than 100 migrants an hour arrived in Germany early Wednesday amid a record in� ux travelling on packed trains to the southern city of Munich, said police. So far this year, German police have recorded over 125,000 illegal entries, more than double last year’s total of about 57,000, with many coming from war-torn Syria, followed by Eritrea, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Serbia. l

Bangladesh goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel and veteran Australia striker Tim Cahill vie for the ball during their 2018 Fifa World Cup second round quali� er at NIB Stadium in Perth yesterday COURTESY

n Tribune Report

The Asian champions maintained their unbeaten start on the long road to Russia as they eased-past Bangla-desh 5-0 in their World Cup quali� er in Perth yesterday. The Socceroos led the � rst-half 4-0 but managed just one goal after the breather as the men in Red and Green sat in their half and resisted all the home side e� orts.

“It could have been easy to go out there and try and get some cheap goals and do things on an individual basis,” Socceroos head coach Ange Postecoglou said.

“We had a physical advantage, we could have used that to win the game. It just shows the players are really focused on what we’re trying to do and what the team is trying to be.“

The medical team was very busy in the last quarter of the game with the Bangladeshis falling on the ground, either with a pulled muscle or just lack of stami-na, every alternate minute. “For the most part the boys kept their discipline but sometimes it’s di� cult when the opposition is just sitting back and obviously there were a lot of stoppages,” said the coach.l

‘WE HAD THE PHYSICAL ADVANTAGE OVER BANGLADESH’

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Germany mid� elder Marco Reus breaks toe in left foot Borussia Dortmund attacking mid� elder Marco Reus has been ruled out of Germany’s European Championship quali� ers against Poland and Scot-land after breaking his big toe in his left foot. The German Football Federation says Reus su� ered the injury while playing for Dortmund against Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga on Sunday.

–AP

Greek Super League side Veria’s teenage ‘keeper diesHighly-regarded goalkeeper Stelios Markousis who was on the verge of breaking into Greek Super League side Veria’s � rst team died of a suspected heart attack aged just 18 during Wednesday’s training session, Athens News Agency reported. Markousis, who had a trial with second tier German side Karlsruhe last month, had been elevated to Veria’s senior squad after impressing for the Under-20 side.

–AFP

Injury-hit Ribery needs patience: Bayern bossBayern Munich boss Matthias Sammer has told Franck Ribery he needs to be more patient as the French winger’s persistent ankle injury refuses to heal. The 32-year-old has not played since limping out of a Champions League match in March with an injury to his right ankle. Ribery has described the situation as a “catastrophe” with no date set for his return despite constant treatment, while new-signing Douglas Costa of Brazil has become a shoo-in on Bayern’s left wing in his absence.

–AFP

‘Pogba could be worth more than 100 million’Mid� elder Paul Pogba could be worth more than 100 million euros ($112.84 million) in the future, Juventus chief executive Giuseppe Marotta predicted on Wednesday. “As we want to win, we have decided to keep hold of a player as important as Pogba, although we have had o� ers from some very important clubs,” Marotta told a news conference.

–REUTERS

My family more nervous than me: United’s MartialThe family of Manchester United’s latest signing Anthony Martial were more nervous than he was about him becoming the world’s most expensive teenager by moving from AS Monaco. The fee for the 19-year-old, dubbed the new Thierry Henry despite barely 50 � rst-team games for the Ligue 1 side, was put at 36 million pounds by British media and as high as 80 million euros by French media.

–REUTERS

Berahino given time o� to consider Albion future West Bromwich Albion’s England under-21 striker Saido Berahino will be given time o� until next Monday to consider his position after suggesting he would not play for the club again, sources close to the player said on Wednesday.

–REUTERS

QUICK BYTES

Atapattu resigns as SL coachn Cricinfo

Marvan Atapattu has resigned as Sri Lanka coach, Sri Lanka Cricket has announced. His resignation was accepted by the board, though the release did not state a reason for the same.

Atapattu had held the position since Sep-tember last year. Before that, he had worked as batting coach of the team since 2011 and interim head coach for a three-month peri-od. During his term as interim coach, he had overseen Sri Lanka’s � rst Test series win in England. He was Sri Lanka’s � rst full-time lo-cal coach in 15 years.

Sri Lanka have endured a less than satisfac-tory home season though, having lost four Tests out of six and both series, to Pakistan and India. The only other time Sri Lanka lost two home se-ries in a calendar year was back in 1993. l

Lillee quits as Tests moved away from WACAn AFP, Sydney

Dennis Lillee quit as president of the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) as a new plan unveiled Thursday showed Tests against India, England, and South Africa will move to the new Perth Stadium.

The cricket legend abruptly resigned ahead of the release of the WACA’s Vision 2030 re-port, telling the West Australian newspaper: “I cannot stand by and watch what is happen-ing at the WACA. I do not wish to be part of it any longer.”

Under the new plan, international limit-ed-overs games and Test matches involving South Africa, India, and England will move from the existing WACA ground to the new Aus$1.2 billion (US$840 million) Perth Stadi-um, which will be completed by 2018 and have a 60,000 capacity. Big Bash League matches will also shift from the ageing WACA ground, but it will still host She� eld Shield matches and Test and one-day internationals not in-volving South Africa, England, and India.

WACA chairman Sam Gannon said the re-port, which he endorsed, followed a 14-month review that will also see the WACA ground re-developed into a “modern boutique stadium” with a capacity of up to 15,000.l

Pakistan press India for cricket seriesn AFP, Lahore

Pakistan’s cricket chief Wednesday wrote a let-ter to the Indian cricket board secretary press-ing him for an update on a proposed series between the arch rivals in December this year.

A two Tests, � ve one-day and one Twen-ty20 series in United Arab Emirates is shroud-ed in uncertainty with volatile relations be-tween the South Asian nuclear rivals at one of their lowest ebbs.

Pakistan accused India of killing nine ci-vilians on the border last week, barely a week after talks between the countries’ national se-curity advisers were called o� . The two coun-tries have not played a full series against each other since 2007, though Pakistan toured In-dia for a short series in December 2012.l

Waugh backs Ponting, Holding call to dump Test tossn AFP, Sydney

Steve Waugh has backed calls from fellow for-mer Australia captain Ricky Ponting and West Indies great Michael Holding for cricket chiefs to rid Test cricket of the toss.

Under Ponting’s proposal, suggested dur-ing the recent Ashes series in England, the away side would choose who bats � rst in order to counteract any advantage the hosts may gain from preparing a pitch that suits them best. Waugh said he was open to the radical idea.

“I don’t mind that, I think that’s not such a bad thing,” Australian Associated Press quot-ed him as saying late Wednesday.

“At the end of the day I think there’s prob-ably too much emphasis placed on the toss and the conditions away from home. I don’t mind the authorities looking at some other options.”

“The concerned authorities must look at what Ricky Ponting suggested - no more tosses,” he said in a column for Wisden India last week.

“The minor setback there in my opinion,

is that tosses are big for television. It makes for good tension, everyone is focused on that coin when it’s in the air and the winning cap-tain’s decision and so on.

“For that, there should be no toss and the visiting captain should be allowed to decide what he wants to do after inspecting the pitch.”

Despite backing Ponting, Waugh said los-ing the toss was not entirely to blame for Aus-tralia’s Ashes series defeat, rather their failure to adapt to English conditions had cost them dearly.l

Legendary Italian footballer and brand ambassador of Vespa Global, Alessandro Del Piero, rides the new 150 cc Premium Vespa range scooter in Mumbai on Tuesday AP

28DT Sport

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return to Diego Schwartzman of Argentina during their match at the US Open Championships in New York on Wednesday REUTERS

Mayweather lashes criticsn AFP, Washington

Floyd Mayweather said Wednesday that he is more likely to end up in movies than keep boxing, as he rounded on his critics ahead of what he insists will be his last � ght.

The unbeaten pound-for-pound king takes on massive underdog Andre Berto on September 12 in Las Vegas in a welterweight world title showdown that has so far failed to capture the public imagination.

The brash American, 38, will make it 49-0 with victory -- equaling the record of heav-yweight legend Rocky Marciano -- and has consistently said he will hang up his gloves afterwards. Few believe him.

In a conference call with reporters, May-weather and Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweath-er Promotions, said there had been “sign� cant”

entertainment possibilities for the champion for when he calls it quits - including three “major” movie o� ers in the last week alone.

“I’ve been approached on numerous oc-casions (to act) but I’d rather be behind the scenes. I’ve had my time to shine,” said May-weather, reiterating Berto would be his last bout and he is having no second thoughts about giving up the � ght game.

Boxing fans and pundits have hit out at the self-styled “Money” and “TBE” (“The Best Ever”) Mayweather’s choice of Berto (30-3), who has lost three of his last six � ghts and was cherry-picked ahead of more exciting -- and more dangerous - men.

“When you are in my shoes, they are al-ways going to criticize, that comes with the territory,” said Mayweather, the highest-earn-ing sportsman in the world.l

I feel lucky to be through, says Nadaln AFP, New York

World number one Serena Williams shook o� a woeful start Wednesday to advance her quest for tennis history while Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal joined her in

the third round of the US Open.Spanish eighth seed Nadal, a 14-time

Grand Slam champion, ousted Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 7-5, for his 750th career tour-level match triumph while top-ranked Djokovic stayed on a last-eight collision course with Nadal by dispatching Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.

The reigning Australian Open and Wim-

bledon champion, whose only US Open title came in 2011, won 14 of the � nal 17 games.

“From that 4-all moment, I played really well,” Djokovic said.

Nadal was down 5-4 in the � rst set tie-breaker before battling back against Schwartzman.

“Happy to be through,” Nadal said. “Was a tough battle. I feel lucky to be through.... To take that � rst set was very important to me.”

Nadal, the 2010 and 2013 US Open cham-pion, improved to 22-1 in his past 23 US Open matches after missing 2012 and 2014 due to injury and � nishing as the 2011 runner-up.

Williams, trying to complete the � rst cal-endar Grand Slam singles sweep since Ste� Graf in 1988, defeated 110th-ranked Dutch

quali� er Kiki Bertens 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium despite 34 unforced errors and 10 double faults.

“I just kept � ghting for each point, not for a lot but just one at a time,” Williams said.

“I had been pretty relaxed. Today I was a little tight. I think it showed. Hopefully I can get back to where I was before.”

The 33-year-old American, trying to match Graf’s Open Era record of 22 career Slam sin-gles titles and win an Open Era-record sev-enth US Open crown, improved to 50-2 on the year with her 30th Slam match win in a row and sustained her march toward history.

Canadian 10th seed Milos Raonic, who could meet Nadal in the fourth round, � red 18 aces in dispatching Spain’s Fernando Ver-

dasco 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/1).Defending champion Marin Cilic and sev-

enth seed David Ferrer neared a fourth-round meeting as well.

Croatian ninth seed Cilic � red 19 aces in defeating 139th-ranked Russian quali� er Evg-eny Donskoy 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

Spain’s Ferrer, the 2013 French Open run-ner-up who missed the past 2 1/2 months with an elbow injury, downed 102nd-ranked Serb Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).

Serena Williams could reach a Grand Slam singles � nal without facing a top-10 rival for the � rst time in her career, but her quarter-� -nal foe could be 35-year-old sister Venus or Swiss 18-year-old Belinda Bencic, who in� ict-ed Serena’s most recent defeat.l

Warne tells Kyrgios ‘you’re testing our patience mate’n AFP, Sydney

Australian cricket great Shane Warne told tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios Thursday re-spect was more important than being liked and warned him “you’re testing our patience mate”.

Showman Kyrgios has been making head-lines for all the wrong reasons, with his sex slur at Stan Wawrinka last month sparking stinging criticism from fellow players.

Warne, no stranger to controversy himself, o� ered his fellow Australian some attitude tips, and urged him not to waste his talent.

“We all realise you’re only 20 & have a lot to learn buddy. But please don’t waste your talent, everyone in the world, especially us Australians want to respect u,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

“Remember respect is way more important than being liked, u need to respect the game of tennis & yourself. We all make mistakes, but it’s how we learn from them & the way we conduct ourselves when we lose that shows true character,” he said.

“You’re testing our patience mate, show us what you’re made of & how hungry you are to be the best in the world, it’s time to step up & start winning, no excuses. l

McIlroy gets Final Series clearancen AFP, London

Rory McIlroy will be able to play in the Eu-ropean Tour’s Final Series tournaments after being given special exemption due to his an-kle injury.

The injury, sustained in a football kick-about with friends in July, meant that the world number one was unable to meet the 13-event quali� cation standard in order to remain in the Race to Dubai even though he currently leads the rankings.

The Northern Irishman had to sit out the Scottish Open, the Open at St Andrews and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, which would have all worked towards his qualifying tally. However, after discussions with the Eu-ropean Tour, McIlroy has committed to play a further three events to take his tally to 12. l

Sport 29D

T

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

FIXTURES Georgia v Scotland Germany v Poland Gibraltar v Ireland Faroe Islands v Northern Ireland Greece v Finland Hungary v Romania Denmark v Albania Serbia v Armenia

Ten Sports9:00PM US Open 20153rd Round Session 1 Sony Six12:30AM UEFA Euro Quali� ers Azerbaijan v Croatia Star Sports 212:00PM FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup Russia v USA Star Sports 46:00PM

F1: Italian Grand PrixPractice Sessions

DAY’S WATCH

Chung claims ‘fraud’ in FIFA presidential polln AFP, Seoul

South Korean FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-Joon on Thursday accused the Asian Football Confederation of “election fraud” in backing rival candidate Michel Platini.

“It is an obvious case of election fraud infringing on the basic rights of other presi-dential candidates,” Chung told reporters in Seoul.

He urged FIFA’s Ad-hoc Electoral Commit-tee to launch an immediate probe into those involved in the case, including Sheikh Salman and Platini, describing the latter as an “arro-gant” man.l

Germany aim to settle Poland score in key Euro quali� ern AFP, Berlin

World champions Germany take on Poland in Friday’s key Euro 2016 quali� er with the hosts out to avenge last year’s historic defeat to their neighbours and go top of Group D.

The Germans have a score to settle in Frankfurt in the � rst of their two quali� -ers before playing Scotland in Glasgow next Monday.

Joachim Loew’s side � nd themselves in the usual position of being second in the ta-ble, just a point behind leaders Poland, who beat them 2-0 in the corresponding � xture in Warsaw last October, while Scotland are third.

The Germans are making no secret of their desire to take six points from their two games to wrest back control of the group from neigh-bours Poland.

“It’s business time now,” said Germany forward Thomas Mueller, with Germany set to name a near full-strength side.

“This is no friendly – we’re getting straight into it with what is supposedly the hardest game.

“After losing 2-0 last time, we have a score to settle against Poland, and that should tell you everything.

“And after that, the away game in Scotland – it doesn’t get much more interesting.”

“They are � rst, we are second, of course, we want to pass them in the table, but it’s go-ing to be tough work, we know that.

“We need to play the sort of football again which we haven’t seen for a while.” l

Milan were ‘desperate’ to sign me, says Ibrahimovicn AFP, Stockholm

Zlatan Ibrahimovic claimed on Wednesday that his agent was recently approached by AC Milan about a return to the San Siro, but that he was not interested in leaving Paris Saint-Germain.

“There was interest from other clubs. It’s Mino (Raiola), my agent, who looks after that. You need to ask him,” said the 33-year-old Swede at a press conference near Stockholm, where is currently on international duty.

“If I wanted something to happen, I would have got involved. I preferred to rest, enjoy

my holidays, look after my family. But I know Milan were a bit desperate. What I can say is that I took it as a compliment that there might be interest in me.”

Ibrahimovic, who played for Milan from 2010 to 2012 and won the Serie A title in his � rst season with the club, added: “It was con-crete from them. And they were really inter-ested in me from the start.

“I am going to stay at PSG and I’m happy there. We have a good team and the family are happy.” Ibrahimovic is in the � nal season of his contract at PSG and, when asked about his fu-ture plans, he simply replied: “We will see.”l

Wales ahead of England in world rankingsn AFP, Paris

Wales have moved ahead of England in the FIFA world rankings for the � rst time.

Chris Coleman’s side, on the verge of qual-ifying for their � rst major � nals since the the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, stayed ninth, their best-ever spot, while England slipped to 10th, swapping places with Chile.

The in-form Welsh top Group B in Euro 2016 qualifying and two victories in the next four days will secure their place at the � nals in France. England top Group E, having won all six games, and are already guaranteed of at least a play-o� place but will book their spot in France if they beat San Marino and Slovenia fail to defeat Switzerland this weekend.

Argentina retained the world number one ranking, while Belgium, behind Wales in their qualifying group, stayed in second with Ger-many third and Brazil � fth.l

Spain goalkeepers David de Gea (L) and Iker Casillas attend a training session at Soccer City Ground in Las Rozas, near Madrid on Wednesday REUTERS

WORLD TOP 10 RANKINGS1. Argentina 2. Belgium3. Germany4. Colombia 5. Brazil

6. Portugal7. Romania8. Chile9. Wales10. England

DOWNTIME30DT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

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

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 22 represents M so � ll M every time the � gure 22 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter 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 the 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.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Thespian (5)6 Sailor (3)7 Have being (5)10 Long lock (5)12 Undesired escape (4)13 Corolla leaf (5)15 Sour (4)16 Beverage (3)18 Large cask (3)20 Receptacle for � ow-ers (4)22 Drive back (5)23 Circle of light (4)25 Hooked claw (5)27 Barrier (5)28 Conclude (3)29 Ventures (5)

DOWN1 Bear witness to (6)2 Vehicle (3)3 Stratagem (6)4 Refractory (7)5 Employ (3)8 Unwell (3)9 Docile (4)11 Dry, of champagne (3)14 Made suitable (7)16 Bank employee (6)17 Corrects (6)19 American state (4)21 Briny (3)22 Slender stick (3)24 Zodiac sign (3)26 United (3)

SUDOKU

SHOWTIME 31D

TFRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

WHAT TO WATCH

CELEBS ON SOCIAL

Olivia Wilde@oliviawilde Hillary Clinton’s emails are about as scandalous as my grandmother’s rec-ipe for tater-tots. What a waste of newsprint. Focus on real issues.

Jacqueline Fernan-dez@Asli_JacquelineTime for some #health http://ift.t/1JOuQ6r 

Shraddha Kapoor@ShraddhaKapoorHappy birthday Baapu!!! #MySu-perHero. Here’s to growing younger and crazier

Jurassic Park Star Movies 12:00amDuring a preview tour, a theme park su� ers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Je� Goldblum

Mission: ImpossibleZee Studio 7:10pm An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organisation.Cast: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2WB 7:00pm Harry, Ron and Hermione search for Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes in their e� ort to destroy the Dark Lord as the � nal battle rages on at Hogwarts.Cast: Daniel Radcli� e, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

n Showtime Desk

Anushilan, a theatre troupe based in Rajshahi University, has been con� rmed to stage its 57th and latest production Donddo (The Shaft) at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on September 5 at 7:00pm. The play will be staged as part of Ganga Jamuna Theatre and Cultural Festival, an eight-day festival aimed at consolidating the harmony between Bangladesh and India through

theatre and cultural exchange.The play, scripted and directed by Malay

Bhowmik, focuses on the power dynamics of a contemporary society conveying a strong social-political message. It � nds a di� erent way to tell the story of the powerful and their abuse of privilege. It simultaneously portrays how power becomes accumulated and centralised.

Mostly consisting of sophomore actors, the troupe holds energetic and fresh-blood in its casting queue. Touhid Nobin plays

the role of DonddoNayak, while Rakibul Alam Milon and Tanzida Nahar Jui portrays the role of DonddoDhar and DonddoPal respectively. Ripon Ghosh, Dewan Ryhan, Udash Gowshami and Hashi Chakrabarti play other major roles.

Showbhik Roy and Shiladitya Bairagi directed the background music. Malay Bhowmik, a veteran playwright, director and professor of Rajshahi University, also designed choreography for the play. l

n Showtime Desk

The Indira Gandhi Culture Centre (IGCC) will host an evening of Bharat Natyam and Manipuri dance recital with Amit Chowdhury and Sweety Das at the centre’s auditorium in Gulshan today at 6:30pm.

Amit Choudhury obtained an MA degree in classical Bharatnatyam from Rabindra Bharati University in 2010. He is working for the past three years as a chore-ographer for Shadhona, one of the leading cultural institutions of Bangladesh. He is also a faculty member of Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology Dance Department and a guest teacher at the Department of Theatre and Performing

Studies in Dhaka University. He also teach-es in Kalpataru Dance School.

Choudhury has conducted three Tagore dance drama namely Mayar Khela, Fire-� ies, and Aai Amader Aongone under the supervision of Shadhona. He also played the main role in Tagore’s Tasher Desh for Shadhona.

Sweety Das, a Manipuri dancer who received her MA degree from Rabindra Bharati University. In 2005, she completed a senior course from the Mamata Shankar Ballet Troupe (Udayan). She has opened a dance school Nrityangan where both Mani-puri dance and ballet are taught.

The show is open for all. l

An evening of Bharata Natyam and Manipuri at IGCC

Anushilan brings Donddo on stage

n Showtime Desk

Achol, one of the sizzling starlets of Dhally-wood, puts an end to her short-term hiatus from the big screen by resuming � lming of her latest endeavour Sultana Bibiyana.

The romantic action � lm is sched-uled to go on the � oor from today at the Bangladesh Film Development Corpo-ration(BFDC). The directorial venture of Himel Ashraf will continue � lming for the next 10 days.

Achol’s last � lm Shopno Je Tui was released in November last year and ever since she went MIA from the big screen, although she has eight projects on hand. Bappi Chowdhury plays the male lead in the � lm Sultana Bibiyana.

Since February 16, when the team of Sultana Bibiyana started � lming, they have already covered two-thirds of the work and promise to wrap up the rest of scenes very soon. Sources suggest that the � lming of all the songs will take place at di� erent locations IN BFDC.

Talking about progress, Himel Ashraf says “The shooting was supposed to begin earlier, but somehow did not materialise before. If we could stick to our plan of wrapping up � lming in this session then the � lm would will be this year hopefully.”

Achol made her debut in acting by Bhool, an atypical art � lm released in 2011. Making her professional acting debut in 2013’s romantic � ick Jotil Prem, Achol made her early days in the � lm industry quite successful. l

Achol resumes her big screen venture

BACK PAGE32DT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

ANUSHILAN BRINGS DONDDO ON STAGE PAGE 31

CRICKETERS TO RECEIVE PARTIAL BPL-2 WAGES PAGE 26

GAZPROM GETS LUCRATIVE DEALS WITHOUT TENDER PAGE 17

Tazreen owner, sta� indicted, � nallyn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

Charges were framed against 13 people in-cluding the owner of Tazreen Fashions yester-day in a case � led for negligence that caused the death of at least 111 workers in the deadli-est factory � re incident of the country in 2012.

Dhaka’s District and Sessions Judge’s Court indicted the accused and set October 1 for re-cording depositions of prosecution witnesses. It also ordered to transfer the case documents to the First Additional District and Sessions Judge’s Court for further proceedings.

The Criminal Investigation Department � led the charge sheet on December 22, 2013 accusing the 13 people in the case � led by Ashulia police. It mentioned 104 people as prosecution witness.

According to the charge sheet, Tazreen Fashions Managing Director Delwar Hossain and his wife, Chairman Mahmuda Akter, con-structed the building following a faulty plan and illegally used the ground-� oor walkway as a warehouse.

There was no � re exit in the factory, al-though a provision of the labour law stipu-lates that there must be two exits in every factory. The � re extinguishers were also dys-functional at the time of � re.

The factory was built a mile away from the main road – at Nishchintapur of Ashulia – making it very di� cult for � re service vehi-cles to enter the factory compound.

Fire alarms went o� as soon as the � re broke out, and the panicked workers tried to leave the factory before the � re spread. But the accused managers and security guards told them it was nothing serious; they insist-ed that workers get back to work, even though smoke was billowing from the spot where the � re had started, the charge sheet says.

The � re killed at least 111 workers, mostly women, and injured scores of others on No-vember 24, 2012. Of them, 58 victims could be identi� ed prima facie immediately while 53 others identi� ed through DNA tests as the bodies had been charred in the � re.

Tazreen Fashions was a sister concern of

Tuba Group, owned by Delwar.Six government and non-government

agencies also probed the incident and sub-mitted their investigation reports to theHome Ministry.

The incident raised a wave of concern throughout the national and international community over factory building standards in Bangladesh.

Two cases were � led after the deadly inci-dent – one by Ashulia police against 15 o� cials and the other by relative of a missing worker against 31 people including Delwar. A court earlier ordered to run the cases together.

Of the 13, eight accused – Delwar, Mahmuda, Manager (admin) Dulal Uddin, Engineer M Mahbubul Morshed, store in-charges Md Hamidul Islam and Al Amin, security in-charges Al Amin and Anisur Rahman – are now on bail.

The fugitive accused are Production Man-ager Mobarak Hossain Manju, Factory Man-ager Abdur Razzak, Quality Manager Shahi-duzzaman Dulal, guard Md Rana and loader

Shamim Miah.The investigation o� cer dropped the

names of former chairman Abdul Kuddus, APM Sohel Rana and Cutting Master Sujan Hawlader failing to � nd any proof of their in-volvement in the incident.

During yesterday’s hearing, defence coun-sels � led discharge petitions terming the inci-dent an accident. They also claimed that their clients were innocent as the factory had been operational upon approval of the government authorities.

Judge SM Kuddus Zaman then said: “It is an internationally-sensitive case. So, there is no scope to discharge the accused in the case. They have to face the trial.”

After the prosecution read out the charges, the accused pleaded not guilty and prayed for justice.

One of the accused, Engineer Mahbub, who had been fugitive for a long time, surren-dered before the court yesterday and sought bail. The court granted his petition after a hearing. l

Publishers agree to print primary textbooksn Tribune Report

Publishers of primary-level textbook have agreed to print textbooks following the with-drawal of a some conditions set by the World Bank to maintain the quality of textbooks.

An alliance of the local printing press own-ers gave their consent to start printing the books by submitting a no-objection letter and started printing the books yesterday, sources at National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) told the Dhaka Tribune.

The World Bank, set to donate Tk18 crore for the textbook publishing, set a few condi-tions for the NCTB to follow on August 17 in order to be eligible for the money.

Among the conditions were payment of bills of the printers and publishers after the WB veri� ed the books’ quality, assessment of per-formance guarantee and increasing the securi-ty deposit of the donation from 10% to 15%; if the WB was satis� ed with the textbooks’ quali-ty, the money would be paid in full.

The WB’s decision was deemed o� ensive by the printers and publishers, who met with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Monday and urged him to resolve the issue, refusing to start printing otherwise.

The minister later had a meeting with repre-sentatives of the WB, ADB, and the NCTB, fol-lowing which most conditions were withdrawn.

Only the condition of raising the security deposit to 15% is going to be implemented.

Over 113 million textbooks will be printed for primary students for the 2016 academic year. l

Deutsche Welle starts TV channel in Dhaka

n Tribune Report

Germany-based broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) has launched a new television channel in Dhaka aiming to cater to the audience of Southeast Asia.

The 24-hour channel will feature English programmes focusing on news and regional content for Asia, o� cials of the DW said dur-ing the launching ceremony at a city hotel yesterday.

The channel, called DW News, will also cover all the international top stories.

“The new DW opens a window to the world for our viewers in South Asia,” said Dorothee Ulrichs, head of distribution in Asia at the DW.

“DW o� ers a unique perspective that is es-pecially valued by local business and opinion leaders, and DW News will now provide them with insights into international headlines and the details behind regional issues.”

Ulrichs highlighted the presence of DW globally and said they are looking for more in-depth stories.

Responding to a question, she said they would be happy to go for partnership and

co-production and encouraged independent journalists to contribute to the TV channel.

Addressing the event, German Ambassa-dor in Dhaka Thomas Prinz said Bangladesh needed to uphold freedom of press and pro-tect bloggers as blogging has become a new form of journalism.

“You know there is [a] new form of jour-nalism which is coming up, like blogs. It’s im-portant for the government of Bangladesh to uphold the freedom of press and protect the new media scene, especially the bloggers.”

He said Bangladesh has a very “lively” media scene and hoped that the government would play the due role to have a better scenario in terms of media freedom in the coming days.

The German envoy also laid emphasis on “check and balance” in a democratic society and highlighted media’s role.

Regarding the country’s RMG sector, Prinz said Bangladesh has shown a tremendous pro-gress in terms of working conditions and it has increased minimum wage for the workers.

“I think there’s room for further improve-ment and we should do something to increase prices,” he said.

The ambassador also said their call for im-proving working conditions in factories is not only for Bangladesh. “It doesn’t make sense only to ask Bangladesh to improve; rather it has to be made by all the producing countries.”

Two local activists Mahfuza Akter and Ko-rvi Rakshand shared their experiences to the attendees and hoped that their voices would be heard around the globe through DW News.

Deutsche Welle is Germany’s international broadcaster and a trusted source of reliable, news and information with content in 30 lan-guages. l

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle launches DW News, a 24-hour TV channel focusing on news and regional content for Asia, at a ceremony held at a hotel in the capital yesterday MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU

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: news@dhakatribune.com, info@dhakatribune.com, Website: www.dhakatribune.com