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PEELKHANA MASSACRE
Credibility of government is at stake
Sadeq Khan
A New Nation report on CID investigation of the Peelkhana massacre by Mamunur Rashid dated March 31, 2009 claimed: "The law enforcement agencies found some ruling party leaders' direct conversations with the BDR mutineers over mobile phone after examining the mobile phone call lists of the detained BDR jawans.
The law enforcement agencies identified the names which are Home Minister Sahara Khatun, State Minister for Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Awami League leader Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Dhamnondi-Hazaribagh MP Barrister Fazlee Noor Taposh and Mirza Aza...[ FULL STORY ]
THE MYSTERY VISIT
Why couldn't Menon wait for next
Delhi govt.?
M I Ali
Last week Shiv Shankar Menon, the Indian Foreign Secretary, came on an unannounced and unscheduled visit to Bangladesh. This is the first of its kind and supposed to be indicative of the close relationship that the Awami League government enjoys with its super power wannabe neighbour India.
This relationship is now so close that the Indian Foreign Secretary did not feel the need to go through the formality of making formal announcements. It must be noted here that such unannounced visits to 'friendly' countries is not a new phenomenon; US and NATO officials regularly visit Iraq and Afghanistan unscheduled and unannounced...[ FULL STORY ]
Menon's Dhaka mission
M. Shahidul Islam
Nothing happens out of the blue, excepting miracles, so believe conscientious humans.
The sudden visit to Dhaka on April 13-14 of the Indian foreign secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon has given rise to a lot of suspense and wild speculations.
Suspense in politics, however, often ends up in misery, unless pre-empted in time. The same opinion was rendered by Aristotle who, in his epic composition, Poetics, wrote that suspense would end up either in danger, or in happiness...[ FULL STORY ]
18 KILLED ON FIRST DAY
Indian polls begin amidst violence in Maoist areas
Holiday Desk
India began its staggered general election on Thursday to elect its 15th Lok Sabha (Lower House) for which 16 per cent of the candidates are contesting with criminal background.
According to Kolkata-based Anandabazar Patrika, a total of 222 candidates are accused in 306 cases including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and extortion. Of them 24 have filed nomination from Congress and 23 from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
Meanwhile, on the first day of the staggered elections, Maoists struck in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, killing 18 people including five election officials and ten security personnel...[ FULL STORY ]
MP's authority on Upazila invites trouble
Special Correspondent
The amendment to Upazila Parishad Act giving the members of the parliament (MP) an authority to control the local government has started backfiring with the elected Chairmen threatening to declare the MP's persona non grata and wage a movement against the Act.
Amidst cheers from the rejoicing lawmakers, parliament on April 6 passed the amendment Bill keeping MPs as advisers of the local-government bodies to play the overlord despite protest from the newly elected Upazila chairmen. ..[ FULL STORY ]
JS standing committee, ACC
at loggerheads
Amanullah Kabir
It appears now to be the turn of the awfully humiliated politicians who are determined to trim the wings of the disobliging Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) further to bring it down to the ground reality. That they anyhow managed to get rid of the wrong-headed ACC chief, retired general Hasan Mashhud Choudhury, has given them little leverage to reduce it to a lame duck. The ACC headed by its acting chief Habibur Rahman, toeing the line of his former boss, has challenged the authority of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Undertakings (PSCPU) and turned down its invitation to face it at a meeting on April 12. The ACC has thus emerged as an uncompromsing stand threatening to take the battle to the court while the PSCPU asked them to explain their conduct apparently giving them a chance to reverse their present position. The ACC's decision to refrain from attending the scheduled meeting prompted the PSCPU to seize the opportunity to charge them with the offence of denying its access to relevant documents and information for examining the functions and activities of the ACC which is largely responsible for subjecting the politicians, mainly of the two mainstream political parties, to humiliation and persecution. The PSCPU has also decided to hold a joint meeting with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry to take appropriate legal actions against the defiant members of the ACC...[ FULL STORY ]
China blocks ADB's India loan plan
Fazle Rashid in New York
Bilateral ties have always been a factor of immense significance for lending by multilateral funding agencies like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank. There are ample examples when funding has either been delayed or totally abandoned as a result of the pressure of donors like USA on the multilateral funding agencies.
China has blocked ADB's India loan plan. "The ADB has never deferred any loan to India. There is nothing like that [in the past]," said an ADB official in New Delhi...[ FULL STORY ]
BUDGETARY SURPLUS STEADILY DECLINING
Govt. should switch to new
development model
Faisal Rahim
As the budgetary surplus to make available more resources for development projects to be implemented under Annual Development Programme (ADP) is steadily on the decline, the government should switch to a new development model under public-private partnership or entirely under private sector initiatives. This is gradually going to be inevitable as the need for development is still high in many sectors but the steady rise in revenue expenditure is only elbowing out fund for development.
The overseas development assistance (ODA) may suffer a big setback this year and over the coming years. So also the foreign direct investment (FDI) may dry out posing the question how to overcome the resource shortfall for development. Many people suggest that the Government may try to handle the issue allowing more projects to be funded under public-private partnership or entirely under private initiative in areas like highway and seaport building or in installation of power plants...[ FULL STORY ]
Peelkhana probe report delayed
Abdur Rahman Khan
Delay in completion of the inquiry and the contradictory statements from responsible authority like the coordinating Minister Col. (Rtd) Faruuk Khan is making the people sceptical about the outcome of the probes into the killings at Peelkhana BDR headquarters on February 24-25.
Only last week, more than one and a half month after its formation, the government's probe body sought information from the public on the late February Peelkhana massacre. When contacted the home ministry, officials told Holiday that there was no new development and that the report would be available after the expiry of the new one-month period...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Lord Macaulay
K. Z. Islam
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) had various achievements. His Essays, his History of England and the Lays of Ancient Rome are among the best known works in English.
Macaulay entered politics being elected to the House of Commons at the age of 30 and very quickly distinguished himself as an effective Parliamentarian. But while he was making a big name for himself in Parliament and the country, his family at home was falling on hard times when his father's business collapsed thus making Macaulay entirely dependent on his own exertions. He made about £200 a year by his writing and had a salary as a member of the Board of Control, the government department concerned with Indian affairs. In this impoverished state he jumped at the offer of a seat in the Supreme Council of India that carried with it the princely salary of £10,000 a year, out of which he estimated that he should be able to save £30,000 in his 5 year term. This money Macaulay badly needed to look after his two sisters. ..[ FULL STORY ]
ICT opens new opportunities for visually impaired persons
Abdur Rahman Khan
Khairul Azam is a handsome 32 year old graduate and employed as a telephone operator like many others. But he is different. He is blind and used Braille technique to read, write and carry on his study. He is a brave man and firmly believes that given the opportunity, and of course, necessary training he can do anything.
His is a fascinating story and many others with impaired vision like him can learn from his experience, how not to lose heart and regain faith in themselves - they too can achieve this. What they would need is little support from the society.
Let's go back to Khairul's story. Third among his six brothers and sisters, Khairul was unfortunate to have a retina detachment problem from his boyhood. It required a couple of surgical operations but in vain. This resulted in total blindness for Khairul in 1995.
At that time he was a science student of higher secondary class in a city college, Dhaka. He had to abandon his final examinations and suffered a mental break-down that took almost a couple of years to overcome...[ FULL STORY ]
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