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Rapid Action Battalion seized around 3 lakh litres of furnace oil which was being hauled for black market in Chittagong Sunday night.

Rab also arrested 23 people for their alleged involvement with the illegal sale of the furnace oil of the state-run Padma Oil Company Ltd.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-7 conducted a drive at the Karnaphuli river bank known as Anu Majhir Ghat under Double Mooring Police Station at around 11:30pm and captured the people when they were loading the stolen furnace oil in an oil-tanker.

The Rab personnel also seized an oil-tanker named OT Prianka and 11 fake vouchers of the oil.

“They collect oil from Padma Oil Company depot and sell it to various vessels in Karnaphuli River,” said Rab-7 Commanding Officer (acting) Major Ziaul Ahsan.

He said the law enforcers were trying to trace them for the last four days.

The arrestees, in primary interrogation, denied their involvement with the incident and said that they collect furnace oil from different shipyards at Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong.

“We are investigating that whether any official of the company is involved with hauling oil from the company,” said the Rab official.

CNG refilling stations revert to their previous 4-hour shutdown on Tuesday as the government order on 6-hour shutdown expired on Monday.

All the CNG stations in the city and elsewhere will remain closed from 5:00pm to 9:00pm everyday from Tuesday instead of the existing 3:00pm to 9:00pm.

“We’ll follow the 4-hour shutdown schedule from Tuesday,” Zakir Hossain Nayan, president of Bangladesh CNG Association, told journalists on Monday.

He said the association leaders had a meeting with Petrobangla officials on May 16 where the authorities concerned endorsed the new shutdown schedule of CNG refilling stations.

Petrobangla chairman Dr Hussain Monsur could not be reached for comments in this regard despite repeated attempts to contact him on Monday evening.

The Power and Energy Ministry in March at a high-level meeting decided that all CNG stations across the country will remain shut for six hours from 3:00pm to 9:00pm from March 21 to enhance gas supply to power plants to boost power generation.

The meeting also decided that the 6-hour shutdown will remain effective for two months only and after the expiry of the period, the 4-hour shutdown at CNG stations will be reintroduced.

The cabinet approved in principle the draft Bangladesh Water Act, 2012 on Monday with a provision of maximum five-year jail term or Tk 5 million in fine or both for wasting water.

The draft act, prepared in light with the National Water Policy to give the policy a legal framework for better management and use of water resources, was passed in a meeting of the cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Cabinet Division Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuyian told reporters.

The draft would be presented to the cabinet again for final clearance after vetting by the law ministry, he said.

It stipulates that those violating the law would be sentenced up to five years in jail or fined Tk 5 million or both, depending on the level of violation, he said.

It also proposes fixing price for 'extra' water used from any source for meeting basic requirements like irrigation or personal use, the secretary said.

The cabinet had sent back the draft to the National Water Resource Council for correction when it had been placed in August last year.

The then government passed the water policy in 1999.

"It (the act) will prevent people from wasting water. After implementation of the law, it will be possible to supply pure water to the people," Bhuyian said.

"Underground and ground water levels are decreasing due to wastage of water. It happens as there is no law to check the wastage," the secretary said.

"This is a bad omen for us. The risk of quake increases when the level of water decreases," he added.

According to the draft act, the price of water would be fixed depending on the quantity of water used, the secretary said. "No one will have to pay for water used in household or farming."

In line with the policy, the draft proposes to keep the price of water 'logically less' for poor or underprivileged people, he said.

The price would be higher in case of commercial or industrial use, he added.

Former Director-General of the Water Resources Planning Orgnaisation Mohammad Shahjahan said the draft proposes to form a special tribunal to prevent water pollution and retention of water resources.

"The tribunal will take steps to assess damage caused by wasting water, try the violators of the act and collect fines," he added

He said the price of water would be fixed to ensure government's control over water.

Slapping fine on mobile phone operators has been proposed for the SIM cards used for illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service.

"We'll take a final decision on slapping fine for illegal VoIP action soon," Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Zia Ahmed told  on Monday after a meeting of the telecom regulator.

Bangladesh government currently does not offer VoIP licences. BTRC has sent a draft guideline to the telecom ministry for issuing licences to VoIP service providers.

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the internet.

Asked about the amount of fine per SIM card used for illegal VoIP service, the commission chairman said they would sit later to fix the amount.

Why mobile phone operators

Ahmed said every SIM card has to be sold after registration in line with the law.

"But this law is not followed many a time," he said.

"It will be possible to prevent illegal VoIP service up to a certain extent if SIM cards are sold after proper registration," he added.

BTRC officials said around one million SIM cards were closed in drives against VoIP in the past three years. Of them, BTRC closed around 600,000 while the operators closed the rest.

"Illegal VoIP service will decrease if the operators strengthen monitoring. Besides, they will become more alert if we fine them," Ahmed said.

Bangladesh has six mobile phone operators - Grameenphone, Banglalink, Airtel, Robi, Citycell and state-owned Teletalk.

According to the BTRC, the average daily legal international calls were of around 35 million minutes in April. The amount had been over 50 million minutes previously, BTRC officials said. Every international call gets $0.3 for Bangladesh, according to them.

The foreign ministry has strongly protested opening fire by India's Border Security Force (BSF) and killing of two unarmed Bangladeshi nationals recently.

Md Durul Islam (38) of Chapainawabganj received bullet wounds on May 16 as BSF personnel opened fire when he was inspecting his own maize field. He succumbed to the injuries the same day. Another Bangladeshi national, Faruk Ali, also died as a result of firing by the Indian border guards in the same area on April 14, according to a media statement of the ministry.

The ministry has requested India to conduct an inquiry into the incidents and take appropriate action against the BSF personnel responsible for such deplorable acts.

It has also called for immediate effective action to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the future.

While registering its protest over continuation of such killings by BSF, the ministry recalled the commitment of the Indian leadership to put an end to such acts of violence.

The ministry reminded that the Indian side had reiterated its assurance with respect to incidents of firing by BSF at various forums, the most recent one being at the Joint Consultative Commission meeting between Bangladesh foreign minister and external affairs minister of India on May 7-8.