BANGLADESH

The prime minister has dubbed children as 'change-bringers' and urged everyone to work towards creating a better future for them.

Sheikh Hasina, inaugurating a week-long programme to mark the World Children's Day at Osmani Memorial Auditorium, also urged people to stay vigilant so that education does not become a burden on the children and also ensure that they do not fall victim to political torture or terrorist activities.

"An enlightened and secured country is needed for every child. Come, let us sacrifice our present to build a better future for the future generation. All of us will work from our own areas to preserve child rights and their benefits," she said on Monday.

Hasina also urged children to love their country and grow up as good citizens.

Results for the first combined medical and dental admission test have been announced, a Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) official says.

The results were published on Sunday, two days after the test was held amid tension and strict invigilation, said medical information service director Abul Kalam Azad.

The results are available at http://www.dghs.gov.bd/InputRoll.php

According to DGHS, candidate Mohammad Sharafat Karim, roll number 110186, secured first position in the merit list.

He obtained highest 69.5 marks, lowest top score at least in the last five years, in the 100-mark one-hour examination consisting of multiple-choice questions

Tension ran high as intelligence sleuths arrested 21 people including medical students, a teacher of Jahangirnagar University and a doctor of Dhaka Dental College Hospital for selling the question papers of the entry test.

However, much to the relief of the authorities, the papers on sale turned out to be fake ones.

Some 51,236 candidates vied for 2,760 seats in the government medical colleges and 280 seats in dental colleges. Besides the private medical colleges have 3,663 seats and dental colleges 765.

This was the first time that the health directorate collected admission forms online.

However, the score took many by surprise as students after the examination cheered for 'easy' questions.

Rajib Saha, a doctor who taught medical admission seekers for the last five years, told that the top score was the lowest at least in the last five sessions.

"Maybe students were confident in answering easy questions. But their simple mistakes wiped off many numbers due to negative marking," he said.

This year 0.25 number was deducted for a wrong answer.

However, medical education department of the DGHS did not issue any media release on the details of admission process.

The director, Prof Shah Abdul Latif was also not available for comment.

The admission test was deferred by a week from Sep 23 after a staff in the DGHS printing press was caught with a question paper while leaving from his duty on Sep 13. Two other people were arrested in that case that led to printing fresh question papers.

Ruling Awami League's ally Jatiya Party's chairman has held a meeting with the prime minister, a day after he announced 'going solo'.

A source within the party told bdnews24.com on Sunday that chairman H M Ershad in the hour-long meeting at Sheikh Hasina's official residence Ganabhaban assured the Grand Alliance leader his party was staying in the fold.

This comes a day after Ershad's announcement at a programme in Rajshahi that Jatiya Party would 'no longer help anyone win elections'.

"In the future, the party will attend elections on its own," he had said.

At the meeting, the prime minister brought up Ershad's statement, the source said.

Ershad replied, "Everyone has to do their own politics. Everyone does politics to retain their existence."

"But I'm still with the Grand Alliance and wish to go to the polls with it," he said.

The prime minister said her government was taking all the necessary measures to curb inflation, in reply to Ershad's queries about inflation.

Handling nuclear power is one thing and ensuring day-to-day normal flow of electricity an entirely different one, both practically and figuratively.

And hammering the point is the case of Atomic Energy Centre Dhaka under Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), which has signed an MoU with Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation – Rosatom – for setting up a 600-1000MW power plant in Bangladesh.

The centre in Dhaka University area went out of power on Sep 13 due to a cable burn. Although the cable was fixed on Sunday, after 20 days, authorities at the centre say electricity is yet to be restored due to a transformer blast.

According to them, the centre is 'controlled' by the head office, BAEC. "The BAEC engineers are trying hard. Mr Chairman was out of the country," director Muhammad Ali told bdnews24.com without explaining why it took so many days to repair a cable.

Scientists would not talk to bdnews24.com as director of the centre forbade.

However, preferring anonymity they said the power cut would cause colossal damage to the centre that provides analytical services like measuring radioactivity in exported and imported food items, and licences to the hospitals and clinics for radiation installations like x-ray machines.

"If testing mechanism standards change due to lack of refrigeration, then it would give errors in analytical services," they said, adding, "a wrong measurement could cancel an export order, earning bad name to Bangladesh".

They held authorities responsible for the undue delay in restoration of electricity.

On a visit to the centre on Sunday, bdnews24.com correspondent found the laboratories closed and the office staff was seen chatting in various rooms to while away the time.

When asked, whether he contacted the chairman, Ali chose not to reply.

He, however, claimed the power cut is not hampering their activities, rather "it's saving government electricity".

"Emergency activities are being carried out in Savar centre while I have personally instructed scientists to preserve their chemicals wherever they can," the director said.

"But we are trying to restore power," he said, adding efforts are on to hire a transformer to restore electricity quickly.

A scientist told bdnews24.com that the director in their meeting said he could not connect to the chairman abroad.

Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Abu Sayeed Mohammad Firoz told bdnews24.com on Sunday that he returned on Thursday. "Today we had an emergency meeting and hope electricity would be restored shortly."

He, however, said the government procurement system might cause further delay in getting a new transformer.

"Our people tried hard," he said when asked why it took 20 days to restore electricity. "I returned on Sep 30."

He said he had been in a meeting in Vienna, the capital of Austria, from Sep 14 to Sep 29.

Breaking news
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee facing charges of crimes against humanity involving 1971 independence war has been indicted by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

The tribunal dealing with the crucial issue framed the charges on Monday after Sayedee was produced before the three-member panel of judges around 10:30 am amid tight security.

The indictment means the tribunal will now formally start the trial.

The trial will begin on Oct 30, the ICT announced.

He is the first man facing formal trial among five Jamaat leaders and two others from the main opposition BNP accused of similar charges. Sayedee denied the charges on Monday.

Earlier a prison van carrying Sayedee from Dhaka Central Jail reached the tribunal around 9:45am.

On the last day of filing income tax returns, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has extended the deadline by two weeks, according to a senior official.

"The NBR has extended the deadline for filing the income tax returns by two weeks to Oct 16," NBR member M A Quader Sarker told on Sunday.

The original deadline, which was Sep 30, was extended by one business day to Sunday following requests from business leaders.

The business community had been calling for an extension by a month, but the revenue chief had been firm against deferment of the deadline.

"We've received good response this time. But many said they could not file their tax returns. So the Board decided to extend the deadline," Quader Sarker said.

In line with the Income Tax Ordinance, individual taxpayers submit their returns until September-end every year but the cut-off time has been extended at the last minute following demands from various quarters.

Initially reluctant, the NBR had extended the time by a week last year and by one month in 2009.

According to the NBR, there are 2.6 million tax identification number (TIN) holders in the country, 0.9 million of whom pay income tax.

Some 815,000 taxpayers deposited Tk 170.87 billion by way of income tax during the 2009-10 fiscal. The government is hoping to receive Tk 210 billion in the current fiscal.

MASSIVE SUBMISSIONS ON SUNDAY

Sarker said primary estimations placed the number of tax return submissions on Sunday near 900,000, from which the government received more than Tk 10 billion in revenues.

Last year, there had been 800,000 submissions that fetched a revenue of Tk 8.98 billion.

He said the submission process would be made even easier next year.

The government will revise the Immigration Act within six months, the expatriates welfare and overseas employment secretary has said.

"We are taking everyone's opinion on the act and soon it'll be sent to the cabinet for approval," Jafar Ahmed Khan told the press on Sunday.

"The reformed act will let the aggrieved clients to lodge complaints at metropolitan magistrate's court if they are cheated or harassed when sent abroad. The existing law does not provide that authority," he said.

Khan also said the ministry will run its operations from Probashi Kalyan Building (currently Borak Tower) at Eskaton beginning on Dec 18.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the ministry activities at the new office, he told the press briefing at the ministry's conference room.

WORKSHOP ON EXPORT COSTS CUT

Khan said a two-day international workshop will begin on Monday on reducing the manpower export cost and developing bilateral relationship between manpower exporting and the importing countries.

Switzerland and Bangladesh will jointly organise the workshop. At least 50 representatives from 27 countries and 17 local and international and private organisations will attend the workshop.

Expatriates welfare minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain will inaugurate the workshop at 9:30am at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel which will end on Tuesday.

Khan said, "Bangladesh is trying to reduce the manpower export cost for long. The government will not compromise on it. But it's not possible for the country to fight alone."

"That's why the government is arranging this workshop with the manpower exporting and importing countries."

At least 11 countries from the Colombo Process including the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait will join the workshop.

Representatives of International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank would be joining the programme along with the representatives of locally acclaimed social and non-government organisations.

Secretary Khan said, "The sector contributes at least 12 percent to the country's GDP. Government statistics show that about 6.6 million Bangladeshis are working abroad while the actual figure is more than 10 million."

He said that many of them are working in several countries with which Bangladesh do not have any diplomatic relations.

According to a government statistics, earnings and exporting from this sector has increased 70 percent since 2001.

Ruling Awami League president Sheikh Hasina will decide who is to be pitted for Narayanganj City Corporation polls.

Prime minister Hasina's adviser H T Imam told bdnews24.com on Sunday following a long meeting at her official residence Ganabhaban that Hasina would be the one to finalise the decision.

Selina Hayat Ivy, former mayor of Narayanganj Municipality, and former MP Shamim Osman are vying for the party nomination.

Narayanganj-4 MP Sarah Begum Kabari backs Ivy, while Osman enjoys the support of his brother Nasim Osman, the Narayanganj-5 MP.

The candidacy was discussed in Sunday's meeting, where Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, joint general secretary Dipu Moni and other senior leaders were present.

Ivy declined to comment on the meeting when contacted, saying decisions would be announced officially.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) will not defer the date of the written test of the 31st Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) from Oct 5.

PSC public relations officer Mir Mosharraf Hossain on Sunday said that the PSC would like to change the examination date from Oct 5.

"But, it's not possible as there are some complications over getting examination halls for the test."

"The written test for Bangla second paper will take place on time that day," he said.

Hindu applicants have been demanding a delay to the test as it comes up right after their biggest religious festival Durga Puja. The festival would end on Oct 6.

Quoting PSC chairman Saadat Husain, Mosharraf said, "PSC was thinking about changing the date to Oct 10. But, we won't be able to manage examination halls due to the pre-scheduled Junior School Certificate (JSC) examinations."

The written test for the 31st BCS began form Sep 26 this year.

The World Bank announced on Thursday it had banned China First Metallurgical Group Co Ltd (CFMCC), a subsidiary of the China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC), from its projects for three years because of the company's 'fraudulent misconduct' in an urban transport project in Bangladesh.

The World Bank ban marked the latest setback for MCC in its 'venturing-abroad' process following the suspension of two of its construction projects in Libya this year and allegations of graft in an Afghan mining venture.

Chinese state-owned companies are encouraged by their government to 'go out' as part of China's grand plan of gaining international influence, but setbacks and misconduct allegations often accompany ambitious plans.

The World Bank's Integrity vice presidency, the anti-fraud unit of World Bank-financed projects, said last week that it had detected instances of irregularities in a CFMCC Bangladesh bridge project. It did not give further details.

CFMCGC stated that, the Mohakhali Flyover project in Bangladesh that involved in the resolution was obtained by CFMCGC in accordance with strict tendering procedures released by the World Bank, accompany with pre-audit of qualification and open bidding in early 2001.

The contract amount is US$20,700,000.

The approximately three year's construction project had finished (from the end of 2001 to November 2004) and the flyover is in good condition.

It was also awarded an Achievement Award by the local government.

The controversial part was the shock absorbing device STU installed under the flyover in the early stage did not meet the standard of the World Bank in terms of regulations of installation and construction.

The World Bank therefore queried and imposed the penalty. CFMCGC had reservations regarding the penalty.

According to the company's statement, the World Bank questioned its purchase and installation of shock bearing parts on the bridge after an investigation in December.

CFMCC said it purchased the equipment from TechStar, a US company, and the installation process was conducted under professional advice.

CFMCC also played down the financial impact of the World Bank decision, saying income generated from overseas projects only accounted for 6.5 percent of its total revenues in the last three years, and the Bangladesh bridge was the only World Bank project it had taken in the last decade.

MCC has come under scrutiny in 2008 over its $4.4 billion Aynak copper mine in Afghanistan and was accused of paying up to $30 million in bribes to the Minister of Mines and Industries to win the contract. The ministry denied the allegations.