Himu's Window

Saturday, September 19, 2009   Wealthy leader took lease of govt plot meant for landless An Awami League leader of Bagmara, who possesses two small industries and ancestral property, managed to get lease of a piece of government land (Khas land), depriving the genuine landless people. Abdur Razzak, AL general secretary of Goalkandi union, obtained lease of a five-decimal plot of land for 99 years claiming himself landless and now constructing a two-storey building on it flouting the lease contract. Locals said Razzak has long been trying to grab the land by living in a temporary house there. After Awami League came to power, he applied for a lease of the land. The district administration approved his prayer last May following recommendations of the Upazila Committee for leasing khas lands, headed by the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO). At one corner of the land, bicycle mechanic Govinda runs his workshop. But he has lately been under tremendous pressure to leave ...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 An otter (udbiral) was electrocuted inside its cage at Rajshahi Central Zoo yesterday due to alleged negligence of the zoo authorities. The 13-year-old male otter died instantly as it came in touch with a falling power-line. Its body was taken out from the cage an hour later, zoo sources said. "The loosened electrical line fell over the cage at around 9:30am when crows sat on the line, and the otter was trying to chew it," said Farhad Uddin, veterinary surgeon of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) that operates the zoo. M Sadekul Islam, an RCC official and in-charge of the zoo, acknowledged that RCC's electricity department is responsible for the incident as they draw line from the main source without any concern for the safety of animals as well as visitors. The otter was buried behind the zoo control room at 12:00noon after its autopsy, he said. The female partner of the otter perhaps could not recover from the shock of this tragic incident an...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Over a thousand members of the indigenous Mahali community observed Jitia Parbon (a Mahali festival) at Baganpara village under Godagari upazila last Saturday amidst much fanfare. Mahali children, women, and men from some 18 villages of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainwabganj participated in the daylong festival that started from midnight. The remote Baganpara village reverberated with life as groups of Mahalis danced with the beats of dhol, madol and other traditional instruments. The festival formally started with a prayer for the well being of the country. Although the festival is considered to be the biggest social event of the Mahali community, it was not observed for about half a century until the celebration resumed last year. "Mahalis withdrew from celebrating the festival since many of them converted to Christianity. But now, we find our existence as Mahalis is at stake and this festival is part of our identity," said Zakar...

Monday, September 14, 2009    Police yesterday pressed charges against six militants including two top leaders of Islam O Muslim, the new JMB offshoot, revealing that they were raising the secret outfit and accumulating small weaponry from India to kill opponents of JMB. Police submitted the charge sheet to the third court of judicial magistrate against the accused Abdur Rahim alias Shahadat, 32, chief of Islam O Muslim, and former JMB's Rajshahi regional commander, and Selim alias Saifullah alias Harun Mistri, 26, chief military commander and mastermind of the outfit, former JMB's military commander Abdul Momin and Abdur Rakib alias Sumon, 28, of Chapainwabganj, Jalal Uddin alias Sagor, 38, of Naogaon and Hafez Sajedur Rahman alias Hanif of Bagmara. Sub-Inspector Babul Akhtar of Bagmara Police Station has been investigating the affairs of Islam O Muslim for the last three months and charged them under sections 8, 9 and 10 of Anti-terrorism Ordinance 2008. A...

Monday, August 31, 2009   Almost all private hospitals and clinics in frontier Rajshahi and other 15 northern districts are remaining out of the government's preparedness programme against H1N1 swine flu epidemic in terms of isolation capacity and clinical assessment. "Private hospitals and clinics are yet to be instructed for the preparedness. We expect them to respond to the common call for creating isolation wards in advance," said Dr AKM Nur Kutubul Alam, director of health for Rajshahi division. "In case of any steep rise of positive cases, we might need extra health infrastructure that the private hospitals can ensure," he said with an alert for flu outbreak in the country as its detection is increasing. Following the government directives, the authorities of all public hospitals in the region are creating separate isolation wards and making inventory of essential drugs and preventive equipment, but there is no arrangement for diagnostic...

Monday, August 31, 2009   Rajshahi Education Board Chairman Dipakendranath Das left the city Saturday night for Dhaka after filing general diaries with two police stations following threats on his life allegedly from the city Mayor Khairuzzaman Liton. The Rajshahi mayor asked the board chairman repeatedly over the phone to upgrade his daughter's SSC results, Dipakendranath alleged. Khairuzzaman also acknowledged that he had requested Dipakendranath to look into the result of his daughter but denied the allegation of threatening the board chairman. The mayor, on the other hand, brought allegation against Dipakendranath of not observing the National Mourning Day in a befitting manner at the Rajshahi Education Board this year. In his identical GDs filed with Boalia and Rajpara police stations in Rajshahi the education board chairman alleged that he had been asked to leave Rajshahi forever over the phone since August 27. The callers also threatened him with death. ...

Sunday, August 30, 2009 Share trading is gaining popularity in Rajshahi as more people are now investing in stocks. State-owned Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) and its subsidiaries, which are providing brokerage services with an aim to help small investors, are now struggling to cope with pressure from a rising number of investors. Beginning in 1984, ICB roped in around 7,000 investors from northern districts until 2005. Then there was a big jump. The number of investors increased by 4,600 in only four years to 11,600 after ICB Securities Trading Company Ltd (STCL) and ICB Capital Management Ltd (CML) opened up IT-enabled brokerage services. The services enabled investors in Rajshahi and its surrounding areas to get direct access and trade on the Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) through internet trading service modules. Investors -- mostly small and from remote areas -- transacted Tk 108 crore in turnover in the last one and a half ...