Biswa Ijtema begins
January 14, 2012
6 devotees die
Prayers and sermons marked the first day of Biswa Ijtema — one of the largest congregations of Muslims — as it opened on the banks of the river Turag at Tongi yesterday morning.
Six participants died of cardiac arrest and old age complications on Thursday night and early yesterday, organisers said, as the Ijtema opened after Fajr prayers.
Lakhs of devotees from home and abroad are attending the congregation being held in two phases. The banks of Turag — 20 km from the capital — turned into Read more
People usher in 2012
January 1, 2012
People ushered in the year 2012 as the clock struck 12 midnight past Saturday amid jubilation.
Security was heightened to fend off any untoward incidents on the New Year’s Eve. The police early today said that there had been no untoward incidents in the capital.
Hundreds of people, especially the young, started thronging the campus of the
University of Dhaka, clubs and posh hotels and restaurants in the evening to bid farewell to 2011 and ring in the new year, witnesses Read more
Falling Aman prices add to farmers’ plight
December 31, 2011
Good harvest brings no smile
As about 98 per cent of Aman harvest is over, the growers have no way but to count losses as the prices they are getting are much below the production cost. The production of rice would exceed the target of 132.6 lakh tonnes this season, said officials of the department of agricultural extension (DAE).
The gross production of rice would increase due to the increased acreage of rice (56.43 lakh hectares) this Aman season although farmers in some regions are experiencing a slightly Read more
Fresh grabbing narrows Turag
December 28, 2011
Wrongly Set-up Pillars
Fresh grabbing narrows Turag
Land grabbers have occupied a large portion of the Turag river after the Gazipur district administration “wrongly” put up boundary pillars along the dry-season waterline, excluding much of the river land.
Since the pillars were set up nine months ago, river grabbers in their dozens have been filling up the river bed and the foreshores on both sides along Tongi-Ashulia road, thus reducing the river into a canal.
The foreshore, an integral part of a river, is the soil between the low-water Read more
Cracks come under fixing
December 13, 2011
The repair of cracks on Bangabandhu Bridge is now going on in full swing with a target to be completed by June next year.
Traffic on the bridge has got slower as vehicles instructed by various signs are diverted at two points for the repair work that began last month.
On an average, 15,000 vehicles use the country’s largest bridge built on the river Jamuna.
In 2006, a team of experts detected numerous cracks on the bridge and asked the authorities to urgently fix those to ensure the Read more
Rab to get 2 copters
December 12, 2011
The government has procured two copters for Rapid Action Battalion so the force can perform better in fighting crime and militancy.
This is the first time a Bangladeshi law enforcement agency is getting choppers of its own. Commander M Sohail, director of Rab’s legal and media wing, said the police authorities signed a contract with Bell Helicopter Asia (Pvt) Ltd on June 23 for purchase of two Bell-407 single engine helicopters.
Bought for Tk 57 crore, the copters are now being assembled in Singapore Read more
Fog cripples waterway, road links
December 11, 2011
Ferry services suspended
A blanket of dense fog shrouded different regions of the country crippling traffic on the highways and inland waterways from Friday night to Saturday morning.
Low visibility forced the suspension of ferry services between Paturia and Daulatdia as well as Mawa and Kawrakandi, linking key highways, for more than 11 hours beginning 11PM Friday keeping thousands of travelers stranded on both the banks of the mighty river Padma.
This was the third time in one month that that the key ferry services were Read more
Garos dance away harvest festival
December 10, 2011
Dancing and singing, hundreds of jubilant Garos yesterday celebrated the conclusion of their two-day long Wanna (harvest) festival at Askipara of frontier Haluaghat upazila of Mymensingh.
Wanna, one of the greatest Garo festivals, marks the beginning of the harvesting season. This festival is the ninth of its kind.
On Thursday evening, William Hanna, ambassador, Head of Delegation, European Union, inaugurated the festival celebration.
Sanjib Drong, the convener Read more
43 Dhaka canals grabbed
December 3, 2011
Task force hopes to reclaim only 13 canals
Encroachers have gobbled up 43 of the 54 canals that once crisscrossed through Dhaka city interconnecting the four rivers surrounding it, resulting in the destruction of almost the entire natural sewage system of the city.
Most of the land of the 43 canals has been registered as owned by individuals and public-sector agencies in different land surveys, particularly the Dhaka City Survey 1995–2009, leaving no sign that the land was once canal beds.
Even the authorities concerned Read more
All eyes on rich nations
November 29, 2011
Climate-hit countries count on their promises as Durban meet gets underway
As the stories emerging from Africa to Americas, Asia to Australia tell the same grave situation of ever increasing drought, floods, storms and hot spells, a Climate Change Conference began here yesterday with hopes that the rich nations will keep their commitments to extend helps to the poor and that they would themselves pledge to reduce carbon emission.
As negotiations will roll on for the next two weeks, the key focus will be on breathing a new life to Kyoto Protocol, the only legally Read more
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