After a week of the government announcement to procure rice and paddy from the local market, the Directorate General of Food sent letters to its offices in different districts fixing targets to buy the Boro crops.
"The launch of the drive to buy rice and paddy needs completion of particular processes after the decision is taken. We sent the letters after finishing the process on Tuesday," Director General of Food Directorate Ahmad Hossain Khan told .
He claimed that the letters had reached the local offices.
The crop procurement committees at district and upazila levels had already finished preparations, he said adding the drive to buy the crops would start next week.
At a meeting on Apr 30, the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee (FPMC) of the food ministry had decided to collect rice and paddy of the Boro season from May 3.
Food Minister Abdur Razzak had said the government would procure rice at Tk 28 a kg and paddy at Tk 18 a kg until September.
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Tenth witness in the sensational 10-truck arms haul case, a police official, told a port city court on Tuesday that a number of National Security Intelligence (NSI) officials had pressured against the seizure.
Then deputy commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Abdullah Hel Baki made his submission in the court of S M Mojibur Rahman, the Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge and Senior Special Tribunal-1 judge.
Baki said the NSI officials were at the jetty of state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (CUFL) during the seizure on the night of Apr 1, 2004.
Six people, including the then deputy director, Maj Liakat Hossain, came to meet him with two police officials on duty at the police camp at the coal depot northeast of the jetty.
"Maj Liakat asked me, 'Why are you making the seizure? DG [NSI director general] Brigadier General Abdur Rahim knows about this.' He then passed me his mobile phone and asked me to talk with the DG on line."
Baki, who is currently the Sylhet Metropolitan Police's additional commissioner, added that they got very irritated when he declined to talk over phone with Rahim.
He continued that his senior, then CMP Commissioner Sabbir Ali, told him not to get into conflict with the NSI officials without proper evidence.
"They were not arrested as I thought that NSI's involvement would come out during the probe anyway. Also, Maj Liakat put pressur on me."
"Even the probe committee led by the home secretary did not accept my claims about their involvement," Baki added.
The police official also identified Liakat Hossain in the court, who is accused of overseeing the unloading of the cache of arms at the jetty that night.
Former NSI chiefs Rahim and Rejjakul Haider, Liakat, then Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and State Minister for Home Lufozzaman Babar are accused in the case.
The project cost of the 1.8-km Mirpur-Airport Road flyover through the restricted Dhaka Cantonment zone, an overpass and a connecting bridge at Banani rail crossing has doubled.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved the revised Construction of Flyover at Mirpur-Airport Road and Overpass at Banani Rail Crossing project, for which the cost has gone up to Tk 3.6 billion from the original outlay of Tk 1.92 billion.
The approval was given at its meeting held in the NEC conference room in city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, with ECNEC chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The deadline to implement the project has also been extended by one year.
The top economic policymaking body of the government approved a total of seven development projects, including one for the construction of the flyover, Acting Planning Division Secretary Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam told reporters after the meeting.
The army's Special Works Organisation (SWO), and the Roads and Highways Department of the communications ministry took charge of the project last June 2010 with the target of completing it by June 2012.
In the revised project plan, the implementation deadline has been extended by one year. The total project cost be borne by the national exchequer.
Installations from about seven acres of land are being removed and relocated from the restricted Dhaka Cantonment zone to implement the project.
The project cost have been revised due to more space required for two additional lanes dedicated to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, inclusion of a new connecting bridge, increased width and length of the flyover and overpass and the overall increase in the cost of the project work.
The revised project aims to ease the city's nagging traffic jam, ensure signal-free uninterrupted traffic operation, and to reduce road mishaps and development of traffic management at the Banani railway crossing and its neighbouring areas including Army Stadium and Naval Headquarters.
Starting from Matikata, the flyover ends at Radisson Hotel. People using the flyover would not face the cantonment's check posts. At present, the residents of Mirpur and Pallabi have to take a long detour at Bijoy Sarani or Agargaon to go to airport putting extra pressure on the busy Airport Road.
The 0.8-km Banani overpass will have six lanes and a designated road. A link bridge will connect the overpass with the flyover.
BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other senior leaders met Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Monday night after being granted a seven-day reprieve by the High Court.
He was accompanied by A S M Hannan Shah, Mirza Abbas, Amanullah Aman and other top brass of the party during the visit to Khaleda's Gulshan office.
Fakhrul and other senior BNP leaders, after spending a week in 'hiding', appeared before the High Court earlier in the day to press for their anticipatory bail plea in two cases filed over bomb blasts, arson and vandalism during Apr 29 countrywide shutdown.
The bench of justices Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Mohammad Nazrul Islam Talukder gave a split verdict on the petition but gave them respite for seven days by ordering police not to harass them during the intervening period.
Immediately after the order, the BNP spokesperson went to the party's headquarters in Naya Paltan and vowed to continue anti-government demonstrations on the streets.
A Political Science lecturer of the Dhaka University has allegedly been abducted.
Proctor Amzad Ali told bdnews24.com: "A student told us about the abduction of Nur Uddin Alo around Monday midnight. The police have been informed and the steps have been taken on the part of the university"
The reportedly abducted lecturer has no fixed residence. He is said to be running a school at Tongi. "No one was found there," the proctor added.
A general diary was filed with Shahbagh police on Tuesday evening over the incident.
Officer in charge Shirajul Islam told bdnews24.com, a Political Science Department student of DU, Enamul Haque, filed the GD.
Haque claimed in the diary that his teacher sent a text message over mobile phone saying he had been kidnapped.
Islam continued that Alo was at Tongi when the SMS was sent. However, police could not find him there.
With the assistance of Rapid Action Battalion, police traced the mobile at Noakhali last, the official said.
"Nur Uddin Alo and his wife have filed a number of cases against each other earlier and police are looking into the matter," he added.
Jatiya Party (JP) chief Hussein Muhammad Ershad has spoken in favour of initiating national poll dialogues in parliament, a senior party leader has said.
Ershad spoke his mind on the poll dialogues during an hour-long visit to ruling Awami League chief and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office on Tuesday, a leader attending the meeting said.
JP presidium members Anisul Islam Mahmud and Ziauddin Bablu accompanied the former president to the prime minister.
"Discussions or dialogues, whatever you call it, the opposition will have to start it and start it in parliament", he quoted Hasina as saying.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also emphasised on the need for talks between the government and the opposition to resolve political differences, during her recent Bangladesh visit. Foreign diplomats and businessmen operating in Bangladesh have also been making similar appeals.
BNP, which has been pressing for reinstatement of the caretaker government provision, said that they were ready for the talks. However, one of the party's senior leaders, Moudud Ahmed, said on Tuesday that the government should initiate the talks.