Himu's Window

Saturday, December 26, 2009 Declining groundwater hits irrigation The drought that hit aman production in the Barind region this season is likely to affect the forthcoming boro too. The anxiety deepens as the irrigation machines cannot pump up water properly due to drop in the underground water level in the Barind tract under Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj districts. Against this backdrop, Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) has started recommending boro growers to cultivate other crops like wheat, maize and pulses that are relatively less dependant on irrigation. The BMDA also sent notices to its branches in 25 upazilas in the three districts asking them to ensure irrigation of no more than 100 bighas of land with every deep tube-well despite the growers' demand for more. "We are urging farmers to divert to other crops that hardly need irrigation with an aim to reduce pressure on the deep tube-wells," said BMDA Executive Director Ab...

Saturday, December 26, 2009   "And the winner is ...Konal," TV presenter Farzana Brownia dramatically announced at end of the four-hour grand finale of "Channel i Shera Kontho 2009", a musical talent hunt, held at Rajshahi District Stadium on Thursday night. With the announcement, the chilly winter night in the northwestern city warmed up for some moments as 25000 people at the stadium and some 50,000 outside jumped up in joy and fireworks lit the sky. It was a night to remember in Rajshahi. The announcement came as a relief to millions of Bangladeshis at home and abroad glued to the TV screen, waiting for the result. Somnur Monir Konal from Dhaka won the title, while Chaitee Mutsuddi Liza and the youngest finalist Moumita Tasrin Nadiraj won the first and second runner-up positions respectively. Konal received a cheque worth Tk eight lakh, while Chaitee got Tk five lakh and Nadiraj got Tk three lakh. They also received monetary and other gifts f...

Friday, December 25, 2009 Different quarters yesterday demanded reinvestigation into the killing of Rajshahi University teacher Prof Muhammad Yunus while the trial process of the case against eight JMB militants is at final sage at Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal. The tribunal fixed December 31 for holding argument between the lawyers of both sides on completion of recording statements of 26 prosecution witnesses and examining the accused on Wednesday. "After the argument, the tribunal will fix the date for delivering the verdict in the case", said Public Prosecutor Entajul Haque Babu. Teachers and students of RU economics department demanded reinvestigation into Prof Yunus murder case while observing his fifth death anniversary on the campus yesterday. Hundreds of students and teachers of the department brought out a silent procession on the campus at around 11:00am and held a rally in front of the department. Addressing the rally, Prof M Moazzem Hossain Kh...

Friday, December 18, 2009 Ritwik Kumar Ghatak, the Bengali master filmmaker was born in Dhaka on November 4, 1925 and stayed in Rajshahi for several years. He and his family moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in West Bengal in the 1940s. Partition (1947) had a major impact on Ghatak and is a recurring subject in his works. Ghatak's films are now celebrated in India and beyond. His stature among Bengali film directors is comparable to that of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. Nevertheless, he is rarely remembered ceremonially in Bangladesh. Starting from yesterday, Rajshahi Film Society has begun a three-day Ritwik Ghatak Film Festival at Rajshahi Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital at Ghoramara. Ghatak used to stay in the house that was later turned into the medical college. "Our aim is to celebrate the life and works of Ghatak who maintained a bond between Bangladesh and West Bengal," said Dr FMA Zahid, convenor of the film society. Eminent litterateur Ha...

Friday, December 18, 2009 The nation as a whole had the final victory on December 16 in 1971 but the people of Rajshahi and Pabna had to wait for two more days to have the taste of freedom as the Pakistani occupation troops were desperately holding on a few camps there. On the night of December 17 and early December 18, Pakistani forces fled to Natore from Shahid Shamsuzzoha Hall of Rajshahi University, their last camp in Rajshahi, reports our staff correspondent from Rajshahi. Local people rescued a number of injured people including many tortured and abused women from the hall. The Pakistani forces surrendered to the allied forces in Natore on December 20. Sporadic clashes between the local people and Pakistani forces started in early March of 1971. On March 28, Pak forces killed a number of policemen at Rajshahi Police Lines for their refusal to surrender arms. As the freedom fighters under leadership of the then Captain Giasuddin Chowdhury and Captain Rashid sta...

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Farmers in Chapainawa-bganj earned an additional Tk 15 lakh last fiscal year simply by changing their product packing system. Farmers now use plastic crates instead of traditional straw-cushioned bamboo baskets covered with jute sacks. The plastic crates help farmers cut losses. In fiscal 2007-08, the growers packed around 205 tonnes of fruits for sale. But they had to throw away around 10 tonnes, as those were rotten due to the poor traditional packing system, said an official of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The crates were provided by USAID under its project Poverty Reduction by Increasing the Competitiveness of Enterprises. But the farmers were able to sell all of their 250 tonnes of fruits in fiscal 2008-09 thanks to plastic crates, the official added. In each plastic crate, 25 kilogram of mangoes can be packed. The traditional baskets are costlier than the new ones but not suitable for sending the fr...

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 In a sequel to heists in five public offices in Rajshahi and Natore over last two nights, criminals ransacked another government office at Sutrapur in Bogra town on Sunday night and stabbed its night guard to death. Meanwhile, the government sent alerts to all district and upazila administration offices and law enforcement agencies to remain vigilant. Police and officials concerned in Bogra told our staff correspondent that a gang forced their way into the public works department (PWD) office, sometime on Sunday night, and stabbed night guard Jamaluddin, 35, to death and tied up another guard Abu Taleb. They also ransacked 33 almirahs in 14 rooms of the office. Earlier on Friday and Saturday nights, criminals also ransacked five government offices in Rajshahi and Natore, including Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner's office after tying up their night guards. Police of the three districts could not ascertain the motives behind the robbers...

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Family members of several Liberation War martyrs have demanded steps for protection and proper maintenance of Babla Bon mass grave site in Rajshahi city so that people can pay homage to the great sons of the soil, who were buried there. The Pakistani army with the help of their local collaborators picked up 17 people including intellectuals and politicians from their houses on the night of November 25 in 1971. Their bodies were found after local people discovered the mass grave near Boalia Club in the city on December 30. Bodies of the 17 martyrs including Prof Mir Abdul Quayyum of Rajshahi University, Nawrose-ud-Doula Khan, Taslim Uddin, Abul Hossain, Alauddin, Taiyab Ali, Mirja Sultan, Azizul Haque Chowdhury and Aminul Haque Chowdhury were dumped at the site. "I can still remember the day well when I went to the grave site riding a bicycle in the morning of December 30, 1971. I could identify my father's body by seeing the ring on ...

Monday, December 14, 2009 In mysterious incidents of a series of heists, criminals ransacked three more government offices in Natore early yesterday, just a day after similar incidents of robberies at two other public offices in Rajshahi. Tying up four on-duty night guards, the gang swooped on Natore District Secondary Education Office, Natore Technical School and College at Madrasa crossing and a warehouse of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) at Kanaikhali in the town in between Saturday midnight and 2:00am yesterday. They also ransacked nine rooms of these government establishments. Officials concerned and police could not trace any clues to the incidents as nothing went missing from the offices except Tk 40,000 in cash from the technical school and college. Similarly, criminals broke into the offices of the Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner and LGED early Saturday and ransacked a total of 32 rooms. The officials concerned said nothing was missing...

Sunday, December 13, 2009 Criminals broke into the offices of Rajshahi divisional commissioner and Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in the city's Srirampur area early yesterday and ransacked 32 rooms of the two adjacent buildings. The gang tied up the on-duty night guard and confined him to the mosque on the ground floor of the three-storey LGED building and ransacked 20 rooms while other night guards were asleep during the incident. Police rescued the night guard, Khalilur Rahman, from the mosque at around 8:00am. Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Commissioner Nawsher Ali visited the scenes and told reporters that the criminals entered the rooms of the two building sometime between 3:00am and 4:00am. He declined to give details for the sake of investigation. According to sources, criminals broke into the divisional commissioner's office by breaking open the main collapsible gate. They broke door locks of 12 rooms on the ground, first and second floors...

Friday, December 11, 2009 Young one of gharial, one of the most critically endangered crocodilians on the globe and a near extinct species in Bangladesh, was captured from River Padma in Rajshahi on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a new fishing cat was brought to the Rajshahi Zoo recently after Atghoria Upazila Nirbahi Officer rescued the animal that was caught and injured by villagers. After fishermen netted the two and a half feet-long baby gharial from Gohomabona under Godagari upazila on Wednesday morning, local youths Arifuzzaman and Ismail took it and handed over to Rajshahi Zoo, said Forhad Uddin, veterinary surgeon of the zoo. "It is too early to understand the baby gharial's gender. Male gharials have a knot on their snouts, and the knot develops in one year. It is being fed dead fishes as per food chart prescribed by Dhaka Zoo," he said. The creature is feigning dead in human presence, and seldom wandering in water as it is kept in the cage of tortoise, s...

Tuesday, December 8, 2009    America Week opens in Rajshahi A three-day 'America Week', featuring activities of the US embassy and US agencies in Bangladesh begins in Rajshahi today. According to government officials, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister GM Quader is likely to inaugurate the colourful programme that will continue until December 10 at Parjatan Motel. On the inaugural day, US Ambassador to Bangladesh James F Moriarty will visit Martyrs' Memorial Archive at Rajshahi University and take part in a discussion with students on education in America and visa procedures, said RU sources. Youths in Rajshahi showed enthusiasm about the programme as many of them yesterday visited the Parjatan Motel. Following a tradition of past America week, people could visit more than 40 booths run by the US embassy, USAID and its development partners and some US business houses. In a press conference in November, Cultural Affairs Officer of the US embassy in...

Monday, December 7, 2009 Passengers halted an intercity train for three hours at Panchbibi station in Joypurhat yesterday protesting carrying of smuggled goods in trains and alleged harassment by border troops in the name of raids. Hundreds of passengers got down from Barendra Express that runs between Nilphamari and Rajshahi when it arrived at Panchbibi station at around 10:00am and staged demonstration for three hours until 1:00pm. They sat on the rail track just in front of the locomotive of the express train and held a rally, said sources in the headquarters of Bangladesh Railway's west zone in Rajshahi. The agitators said the smugglers were carrying Indian fertiliser at different compartments of Barendra Express since it started from Nilphamari. Half an hour before the train reached Panchbibi, some members of Bangladesh Rifles challenged the smugglers, they said. At this stage, the smugglers spread the fertiliser inside the compartments by cutting sacks and t...

Thursday, November 26, 2009 Ahle Hadith man held Detective Branch (DB) of police yesterday arrested the secretary general of Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith, suspecting his hand in giving death threat to Attorney General Mahbubey Alam. Md Rezaul Karim, also a teacher of Bogra Government Azizul Haque College, was shown arrested under Section 54 and produced in Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, seeking a 10-day remand. Judge Ruhul Amin granted seven days' remand for Jamaat-e-Ahle Hadith leader. Talking to The Daily Star, Mahfuzur Rahman, Assistant Commissioner of DB of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said a copy of the handwritten letter conveying the death threat to the attorney general was also posted to a local daily. "We took samples of Rejaul's handwriting and sent those to CID's handwriting experts two days ago. The experts verbally confirmed us that the samples matched", said Rahman. Police claimed they arrested Rejaul on secret info...

Wednesday, December 30, 2 The five and a half hour cultural evening at Rajshahi Bholanath Bisheswar Hindu Academy was abuzz with nearly 2,000 of former and present students of the 111-year old school and almost all were immersed in nostalgia. Although performances by noted vocal artiste Rafiqul Alam and composer Anup Bhattacharya, who were students of the school in the '50s, were the main attraction, presentations of current students like Pial, Sangeeta Pal and Mousumi seemed no less important to the cheerful audience. The academy organised the cultural evening, to celebrate its 111 years of glory and heritage at the school premises. Beginning at 6pm, the programme ended at 11:30pm on December 26. The evening began with "Karna Kunti Sangbad" where young student Mousumi Moitra played the role of Kunti and Shukhen Mukhopadhyay performed as Karna. Former student Tarun Kumar Das, a disciple of Pundit Raghunath Das, and music director of Rajshahi Betar enthral...

Friday, January 1, 2010 Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader Emdadul Haque was sent to jail after he was hauled before a court yesterday on charges of beating up a Rajshahi University teacher and attempting to extort an admission seeker. The First Court of Metropolitan Magistrate Amirul Islam also rejected his bail prayer in connection with the case filed by the assaulted folklore department teacher Anupam Hera Mondol. Meanwhile, the RU unit BCL suspended membership of Haque, mass education affairs deputy secretary of the university unit. They also wrote to the central committee for his expulsion terming the attack on a teacher a heinous crime, said Ibrahim Hossain Moon, president of RU unit BCL. Both police and RU BCL leaders say Suman, another accused in the case, could not be properly identified as his father's name and hometown remained unknown. RU Proctor Prof Chowdhury Zakaria, meanwhile, served Haque with a show-cause notice asking him to clarify in seven...

Wednesday, December 30, 2 The five and a half hour cultural evening at Rajshahi Bholanath Bisheswar Hindu Academy was abuzz with nearly 2,000 of former and present students of the 111-year old school and almost all were immersed in nostalgia. Although performances by noted vocal artiste Rafiqul Alam and composer Anup Bhattacharya, who were students of the school in the '50s, were the main attraction, presentations of current students like Pial, Sangeeta Pal and Mousumi seemed no less important to the cheerful audience. The academy organised the cultural evening, to celebrate its 111 years of glory and heritage at the school premises. Beginning at 6pm, the programme ended at 11:30pm on December 26. The evening began with "Karna Kunti Sangbad" where young student Mousumi Moitra played the role of Kunti and Shukhen Mukhopadhyay performed as Karna. Former student Tarun Kumar Das, a disciple of Pundit Raghunath Das, and music director of Rajshahi Betar enthral...