Himu's Window

Anwar Ali, Rajshahi With announcement of the schedule for Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) polls on Friday, all probable candidates for the post of mayor and councillors have beefed up electioneering. Probable candidates from the Awami League and BNP-Jamaat coalition too passing busy days meeting people as part of their election campaign even though the major parties are still dragging feet from taking part in the elections. Several of them, speaking in return for anonymity, said, their parties would soon understand the necessity of taking part in the elections, otherwise, they would join the polls independently. At least 17 probable candidates from seven political parties, including two newly formed ones, have already informed newsmen that they are keen to take part in the fray. Workers' Party's politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha is seen to be enjoying advantageous position in the present situation. "One can call it electioneering, but I am meeting pe

    Divisions within the major political parties including Awami League (AL) and BNP seem growing with the local ranks vying for nominations to contest the August 4 polls to four city corporations and nine municipalities. Alongside intra-party disputes, rivalry between prospective candidates within alliances too is obvious. In four divisional headquarters, AL and BNP leaders seeking nomination for mayoral elections brace themselves for challenges coming from components of the 14-party and four-party alliances. In Rajshahi, dispute between the Workers Party politburo member Fazle Hossain Badsha and city AL General Secretary AHM Khairuzzaman Liton for mayor nomination has already grown intense. As many as eight candidates in BNP have begun informal election campaign for the mayoral post. Of them, party insiders said, Central Office Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi who has long been working for the mayoral fray has a better chance. In Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal, Jamaat-e-Isla

A truck opts for the adjoining lane to avert the jerks on the main road of Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway in Tarash union in Sirajganj district...STAR Five years into opening, the country's first and longest 'toll road' connecting Natore and Sirajganj on Rajshahi-Dhaka Highway has become risky for thousands of commuters due to substandard construction and poor maintenance. Pitch and carpeting on the 55-km road started to be dislocated and large craters appeared within one year of its inauguration in May 2003, locals and Roads and Highways Department (RHD) officials said, adding that some 27km of the highway is now hard for vehicles to ply. In five years, the road authorities earned over Tk 12.70 crore as toll with around Tk 71,000 daily average collection from movement of 2000 vehicles. But the road with large potholes, craters and ditches is now causing one-hour sufferings to passengers from and to the Capital. In the rainy seasons, the situation turns worse as rainwater remains s

  Intelligence agencies fear that militancy might rear its head again as the 12 decisions the government took to step up its campaign against the menace about a year ago remain unimplemented. There is a strong possibility that the militants still at large might mount fresh attacks. Their leaders behind bars might pass them instructions to that end, taking advantage of slow trial of the cases against them, observed intelligence officials. Besides, they added, absence of motivational and reorientation programmes for over 500 detained militants, mostly operatives of banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (Huji), keeps alive the threat of militancy even though it has been on the wane for some time. "Since there are no motivational programmes for the militants in jails, they might become sucked into militancy again on return to society after serving out terms. Not only that, they might try to brainwash the other inmates to join the