BANGLADESH

India has postponed the proposed Teesta water sharing deal with Bangladesh amid opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Indian foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told the press in New Delhi Monday afternoon that nothing will be done without acceptance by West Bengal. Talking to The Daily Star following the airing of the news Monday afternoon, Mashiur Rahman, the prime minister’s economic affairs adviser, said: “We are not officially informed about this.” Indian Tara TV quoted the foreign secretary as saying the pact scheduled to be signed during Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s two-day visit to Dhaka from Tuesday has been scrapped. This is mainly because of the objection raised by the West Bengal chief minister. Mamata had expressed her unhappiness about equally sharing of Teesta waters with Bangladesh and had refused to accompany the PM to Bangladesh. Beside Mamata, chief ministers of Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Sikkim are scheduled to accompany the prime minister. Despite the scrapping of the treaty Mamata will not go to Dhaka, the television channel reports. Mamata is not pleased with equal sharing of the Teesta waters and she strongly believes that Bangladesh should get only 25 percent of the water of Teesta. She thinks that the pact is unfair. Indian National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon was in Kolkata last week to ally Mamata’s concern but is seems now that it did not work.

 

Bangladesh might not sign the 'letter of exchange' regarding transit for India as the Indian government has postponed the Teesta water sharing deal at the last moment.
The letter of exchange regarding providing India with transit facilities under the protocol signed in 1980 was finalised earlier after a series of discussion with the Indian counterparts and was due to be signed on Tuesday, a highly placed source at the Bangladesh foreign ministry said.
Meanwhile, Indian National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday confirmed Indian journalists who are accompanying their premier in Dhaka that the proposed Teesta water sharing deal is not going to be signed during this visit.
There is no meaning of signing a treaty which will not bring any result or which will be hard to implement, Menon told the Indian journalists at a hotel on Tuesday, said one of the journalists.
When he was quizzed about Bangladesh's disappointment about postponing the Teesta deal, he however said, India will sign the deal as quickly as possible.

Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Tareque Masud was laid to eternal rest in Bhanga upazila of Faridpur Wednesday afternoon. Tareque was buried at his family graveyard at Nurpur village around 2:40pm after his third and final namaz-e-janaza on Bhanga Pilot High School premises.
An ambulance carrying the body of Tareque reached the school premises around 12:00pm, reports our Faridpur correspondent.
Tareque's wife Catherine Masud, Catherine's mother and brother-- Alfreda Shapere and Alfred Shapere-- and a host of Tareque's friends went to Bhanga along with the body to attend the last ritual.
Catherin's mother and brother came from US to attend the burial.
Earlier, the body of Tareque Masud, which was kept in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) mortuary, was taken to the residence of eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain at Bailey Road in the capital around 7:00am as Catherine was staying there.
The ambulance left Dhaka for Faridpur around 8:00am.
Tareque, ATN News chief executive officer Ashfaque Munier Mishuk, film production crew Wasim and Jamal, and microbus driver Mostafizur Rahman were killed on August 13 when a Chuadanga-bound bus collided head-on with their microbus on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Ghior in Manikganj.
On Sunday, namaz-e-janazas for Tareque and Mishuk were held at Dhaka University Central Mosque and on Zahir Raihan Laboratory premises of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC).
Mishuk was buried at Banani graveyard in the capital on Tuesday.
Catherine, painter Dhali Al Mamun, his wife Dilara Zaman Jolly and film production staff Saidul Islam were injured in the accident.
They were on their way to meet the Manikganj deputy commissioner for permission to shoot for Tareque's new film Kagojer Phool after visiting a shooting spot.
Born in 1956 in Faridpur, Tareque Masud directed a number of acclaimed films including Muktir Gaan (The Song of Freedom) in 1995 and Matir Moina (The Clay Bird) in 2002 which won a FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival of the year.

Communications minister Syed Abul Hossain says he is sorry for the rundown roads but will not resign as demanded by several quarters including ruling alliance MPs. He made the comment on Saturday when he visited Gazipur to see repair work of Dhaka-Maymensingh route. Replying to queries posed by reporters on whether he would apologise to the people, the minister said he was sorry.

Hossain, however, questioned the logic of the demand of his resignation and blamed the finance ministry once again for not allocating 'sufficient' fund for his ministry.

Asked whether he wants finance minister A M A Muhith to resign, he denied to answer.

Muhith at a cabinet meeting last week disputed Hossain's allegation of being cash-strapped.

He had blamed a 'lack of supervision by the communications ministry' for the current conditions of the roads.

Hossain also came under fire from party MPs at parliament. The ruling alliance's MP Rashed Khan Menon went as far as to demand that the minister step down for his failure.

The transport owners had stopped running buses on the Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-Tangail and 11 other routes touching Gazipur since Aug 10 and 13 respectively, demanding repairs.

Hossain rushed to Gazipur and then sat with the Mohakhali Bus Terminal Transport Owners' Association at the terminal after the prime minister earlier ordered to settle the issue.

The worn-down roads became the subject of fresh discussion after celebrated filmmaker Tareque Masud and ATN News CEO Ashfaque (Mishuk) Munier and three others died last week in a road crash in Manikganj.

Time, a prestigious American news magazine, has rated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the 7th among 12 top world women leaders across the world. The Prime Minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra, topped the list followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Argentine President Cristina Fernández. The other nine leaders are Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Johanna Sigurdardottir, Prime Minister of Iceland, Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica, Tarja Halonen, President of Finland, Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. About the Bangladesh Prime Minister, the magazine wrote: “Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the 63-year-old leader of the left-of-center Awami League, has a history of surviving. During a 1975 coup d’état, assassins killed 17 members of her family —including three brothers, mother and father, then President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. “Hasina, then 28, happened to be abroad at the time. She later survived a grenade attack that killed more than 20 people, dodging the bullets that sprayed her car as she fled,” it stated. Time also said, “Hasina was first elected Prime Minister in 1996. But in 2001, Transparency International named Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world, and Hasina was ousted in a landslide.” “That wasn’t the end of her, though. In January 2009, the Awami League won 230 of 299 parliamentary seats, and the consummate survivor found herself Prime Minister —again,” it added.

 

The government is planning to make the lottery system mandatory for admission to class-I in all schools from the next academic year. The system was introduced in 317 government schools for the current session. The feedback the government has got from all quarters is positive.   “We have received very positive response from guardians and students, as the lottery system was transparent. There were numerous allegations of corruption in admission tests for class-I. Besides, children were put under pressure and had to face stiff competition in the tests,” said professor Noman-Ur-Rashid, director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education.
The Holy Cross School and College, SOS Herman Mainer and YWCA Schools introduced the lottery system long ago. Viqarunnisa Noon started the new system from this year, said Rashid. “We would make the lottery system mandatory for all schools from 2012. The admission process must be completed by December, and classes should start from January 1, 2012,” he said.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, said the government was planning to make it mandatory for all schools from next year. A circular will be issued after a meeting is held at the ministry soon. In case of violation, the school concerned would be penalised.
Rashed Khan Menon, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee of the education ministry and also chairman of the governing body of the Motijheel Ideal School and College, said: “Early this year, we decided in principle that the lottery system will be implemented for class-I from the next academic session. We are ready to implement the education ministry decision. For various reasons, we could not implement it this year.”

A day after the Khilgaon flyover was closed following a partial subsidence, experts said it is not risky and all types of vehicles can ply. "There is no structural fault in the flyover," a nine-expert team told a press conference Saturday afternoon in the capital's Nagar Bhaban after a preliminary investigation.
The subsidence might have taken place due to the lack of constructional engineering experience, the team added.
It also opined that the fault might be there since its construction.
Earlier around 1:00pm, the authorities allowed light vehicles to ply the country's largest flyover nearly 18 hours after the closure.
It was closed around 7:00pm on Friday after a part of the six-year-old structure slightly sank displacing three shuttering plates.
A team comprising experts from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED), Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and the Army Engineering Corps inspected the fault.
The experts are: Three professors of civil engineering department at Buet Dr Abdul Jabbar Khan, Dr Munaz Ahmed Noor and Dr Moazzem Hossain, and Superintendent Engineer of circle-1 of the DCC Md Abul Hasnat, Chief Engineer Brig Gen Abul Hossain of the DCC, Superintendent Engineer of LGED (Retd) Md Haider Ali, former senior technical adviser of LGED ASM Abdul Hamid, Superintendent Engineer of LGED, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, and Senior Instructor of Military Institute of Science and Technology Col Shahidul Islam.
Locals said traffic congestions created on the nearby roads due to the closure, causing suffering to people.
DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka will hold a press conference at 3:00pm to give detailed development of the incident.
Visiting the spot Friday night, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, superintendent engineer of the LGED, said concretes plates on the surface at the junction of the flyover subsided by a couple of centimetres at three places.
The authorities concerned formed the expert committee at that night to find out why it sank and what can be done to fix it.
Mukta Dhar, assistant commissioner (traffic) of Sabujbagh Police Station, said they first got information around 7:00pm that there was something wrong with the flyover.
The 1.9km long and 14-metre wide flyover was designed by local engineers and they supervised and monitored its construction.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, the then prime minister, in her flyover inauguration speech lauded the efficiency and skill of the LGED engineers and hoped they would contribute more through similar projects.
Visiting the spot at the night, DCC Chief Engineer Brig Gen Abul Hossain said the sinking could be blamed on many things including plying of overloaded vehicles, soil condition, and vibration caused by trains that run under the structure.
After visiting the spot, chief technical adviser of the flyover Eng Abdul Hamid said it is a minor problem. Initiative to repair the structure will be made on Saturday after scrutinising the information gathered and discussion with officials concerned.
Following the discovery of the sinking, panic gripped the people living around the flyover. They gathered near the structure in hundreds wishing to know if the situation would deteriorate.
The flyover was opened to traffic on March 23, 2005. It was seen as a relief by people living in Rajarbagh, Malibagh, Shahjahanpur, Khilgaon, Goran, Bashabo and Sabujbagh of the capital as it reduced congestion and was a safer way to cross the Khilgaon Level Crossing. source: The Daily Star

At April 2010, USA – based ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) awarded Bangladesh a BB- for a long term in credit rating which is below India and well over Pakistan and Sri Lanka in South Asia.^[61] And, despite continuous domestic and international efforts to improve economic and demographic prospects, Bangladesh remains a developing nation.^[62] However, Bangladesh gradually decreased its dependency on foreign grant and loan from 85% (In 1988)^[63] to 2% (In 2010) ^[64] for its annual development budget. Its per capita income in 2010 was US$641 compared to the world average of $8,985.^[65] But, if purchasing power parity (PPP) is taken into account, Bangladesh's economy is the 44th largest in the world at US$257 billion according to the IMF.
Jute was once the economic engine of the country. Its share of the world export market peaked in the Second World War and the late 1940s at 80%^[66] and even in the early 1970s accounted for 70% of its export earnings. However, polypropylene products began to substitute for jute products worldwide and the jute industry started to decline. Bangladesh grows very significant quantities of rice, tea, potato, mango, onion and mustard. According to FAOSTAT, Bangladesh is one of world's largest producers of:^[67] Rice (4th), Potato (11th), Mango (9th), Pineapple (16th), Fruit, Tropical (5th), Onion (16th), Banana (17th), Jute (2nd), Tea (11th).
Although two-thirds of Bangladeshis are farmers, more than three quarters of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the garment industry,^[68] which began attracting foreign investors in the 1980s due to cheap labour and low conversion cost. In 2009–10 fiscal year the industry exported US$ 12.6 billion^[69] worth of products where in 2002 the exported amount was US$ 5 billion. Recently^[when?] Bangladesh has been ranked as the 4th^[70] largest clothing exporter by the WTO (The World Trade Organization) .^[71] whereas, according to The Economist Bangladesh is world’s third-largest clothes-export industry^[72] The industry now employs more than 3 million workers, 90% of whom are women.^[73] A large part of foreign currency earnings also comes from the remittances sent by expatriates living in other countries.
Obstacles to growth include frequent cyclones and floods, inefficient state-owned enterprises, mismanaged port facilities, a growth in the labour force that has outpaced jobs, inefficient use of energy resources (such as natural gas), insufficient power supplies, slow implementation of economic reforms, political infighting and corruption. According to the World Bank, "among Bangladesh’s most significant obstacles to growth are poor governance and weak public institutions."^[74] Despite these hurdles, the country has achieved an average annual growth rate of 5% since 1990, according to the World Bank.
Bangladesh has seen expansion of its middle class (world's Fifty Forth largest, just below of Singapore & Vietnam), and its consumer industry has also grown. In December 2005, four years after its report on the emerging "BRIC" economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), Goldman Sachs named Bangladesh one of the "Next Eleven",^[75] along with Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam and seven other countries.
Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment. A number of multinational corporations and local big business houses such as Beximco, Square, Akij Group, Ispahani, Navana Group, Transcom Group, Habib Group, KDS Group, T.K Group Of Industries, Dragon Group and multinationals such as Unocal Corporation and Chevron, have made major investments, with the natural gas sector being a priority. In December 2005, the Central Bank of Bangladesh projected GDP growth around 6.5%.^[76] In order to enhance economic growth, the government set up several export processing zones to attract foreign investment. These are managed by the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority.
One significant contributor to the development of the economy has been the widespread propagation of microcredit by Muhammad Yunus (awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2006) through the Grameen Bank. By the late 1990s, Grameen Bank had 2.3 million members, along with 2.5 million members of other similar organisations.^[77]