|
PARLIAMENTARY TEAM'S VISIT A MERE EYEWASH?
India secretly hands over Tipai project to state-owned entity
Moinuddin Naser in New York
Just prior to the visit of the Bangladesh parliamentary team to India to discuss the Tipaimukh dam issue, India's state-owned hydro-electric entity National Hydel Power Company (NHPC) completed a deal on takeover of the 1,500 mw Tipaimukh hydel project involving Rs 9,000 crore in Manipur from the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO).
The NHPC also initiated a joint venture, Loktak Downstream Project, with the Manipur state government to construct a barrage for withdrawal of water for irrigation purpose. The hydel project with a barrage component will definitely turn Bangladesh's north-eastern part into a dry region. It is feared that the Bangladesh parliamentary team was not allowed to land at Tipaimukh as the barrage component of the project could be exposed. Though India cares a little about Bangladesh's endorsement regarding the project, they do not want to give the chance of raising a hue and cry on this issue. The NHPC has also entered into talks with the Nepali government for taking up new hydro-electric projects there, which will obstruct the normal flow of the Himalayan rivers enormously...[ FULL STORY ]
'If you're going through hell, keep going'
M. Shahidul Islam
Winston Churchill once said, "If you're going through hell, keep going." That the world-class British statesman has had a stint in the military may partly explain for his mindset to cruise ahead amidst dire adversity.
Ironically, soldiers in Bangladesh must heed more to Churchill's homilies now than any time before.
It is no secret that the members of the Bangladesh Armed Forces have been going through hell since the BDR mutiny on February 25-26, 2009 and, there is no discernible sign in the horizon of an end sooner of this nightmarish sojourn...[ FULL STORY ]
New law gives Dhaka largest number
of VVIPs
Shahriar Noori
The reintroduction of a law giving protections to Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujib's offspring has given the country an opportunity of having the largest number of VVIPs (very very important persons) in the contemporary world. The number of the adult members of the Sheikh family is now 10.
It may be pointed out in this context that the Queen of England is perhaps less fortunate than the Sheikhs of Bangladesh though her United Kingdom inherits an uninterrupted legacy of running the British Empire effectively since 16th century when Queen Elizabeth -1 ruled the kingdom...[ FULL STORY ]
Maoists returning to power in Nepal?
Shamsuddin Ahmed
Are the Maoists returning to power or taking over power in Nepal? UCPN Maoist supreme leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda has claimed Tuesday his party will soon form a national government. He did not elaborate how UCPN (Maoist) will form the national government. Will he succeed to rally support of the majority members in parliament or the President will install the party in power by virtue of its single majority in the House by a decree.
"We will soon form a national government with the power of people's movement," he told a party meeting. After ruling the country for 8 months Prachanda resigned as Prime Minister on May 4 in a row over reinstatement of the Army Chief Katwal by the President. He was sacked by Prachanda...[ FULL STORY ]
Hasina sends old guards into LPR
Faisal Rahim
Awami League (AL) is sending its senior leaders who organized the Liberation War as student leaders and fought the occupation forces at all levels, to leave preparatory to retirement (LPR) replacing them with post-liberation political cadres.
The party is moving towards a new direction to consolidate power with more family members surrounded by a new loyalist camp and expelling old guards from the party mainstream...[ FULL STORY ]
Awami League for short tenure
of parliament
Abdur Rahman Khan
Ruling Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, who is also the Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, has stirred the political circles by floating an idea of shorter tenure for local government bodies and the parliament.
According to Syed Ashraf, the five-year tenure of parliament and local government bodies is too long and should be shortened. "I think the tenure of local government bodies should be three-year. The five-year duration of parliament is also long," Ashraf said Tuesday, but he did not suggest any timeframe for parliament...[ FULL STORY ]
Back home from China empty-handed
Special Correspondent
An official delegation with a large list of big projects visited Beijing. It went there on July 28 for the Bangladesh-China Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting. Finance Minister AMA Muhith prepared the list of projects worth US$ 4.68 billion assistance to be sought from China before dispatching the delegation led by ERD secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. The assistance in the form of grants and loans is to implement some ambitious projects including the Rooppur Nuclear Plant and the Ganges Barrage.
But on return, the delegation has not informed the nation about the outcome of the JEC meeting. The Daily New Age got very scanty information from the delegation leader, which is discouraging. The Chinese side at the meeting has expressed dissatisfaction over the slow process of approving projects funded by them. However, Musharraf said that the Chinese had shown interest in three out of the 14 projects placed in the JEC meeting - a fertiliser plant, a water and sewerage treatment plant and a telecommunication project. About the other projects they said they need to conduct feasibility study. No accord or MoU was signed on any of the projects or assurance was given in the meeting...[ FULL STORY ]
Human malaria started in chimpanzees
Plague, tertian fever, quartan fever, paludism. Malaria has been known about since ancient times and has gone under many names. Today, it kills over a million people a year, most of them young children. Where it originally came from, though, has been a matter of scientific debate for half a century.
In 1958 Frank Livingstone, a noted anthropologist, suggested that Plasmodium falciparum (which is by far the deadliest of the several parasites that cause human malaria) had jumped into Homo sapiens from chimpanzees. He speculated that the rise of agriculture had led to human encroachment on wild forests, giving the chimp version of the bug, P. reichenowi, the chance to find a new host. A rival camp, however, argued that P. falciparum was a variant of P. gallinaceum, a parasite found in chickens...[ FULL STORY ]
Manipuri activist interviewed
Maruf Mallick
With the planned Tipaimukh Dam putting 70 million people "at risk" in northeast India and Bangladesh, people of the region must co-ordinate efforts to safeguard sustainable development in the face of such projects, says veteran Indian campaigner Anastasia Cristalina Pinto.
Pinto, executive director of the Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE) in Manipur, told bdnews24.com, during a recent visit to Dhaka, the contentious dam also threatens to heighten existing tensions between the Indian government and ethnic groups in Manipur. ..[ FULL STORY ]
 ^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^
|
