Himu's Window

Published On: 2008-09-06 National The Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) elections held on August 4 was a free, fair one and smoother than elections in the past, says findings of the country's first ever scientific exit poll revealed in the city yesterday. International Republican Institute (IRI), a US-based organisation for advancing democracy with assistance from Jatiya Nirbachon Parjobekkhon Parishad (Janipop), conducted the survey among over 10,000 voters exiting from 50 randomly selected polling centres, out of total 130, on the Election Day. Bangladesh Election Commission authorised for the international standard survey supported by the British High Commission. The exit poll has confirmed public confidence in conduct and results of RCC elections, claimed the IRI as the study shows 90 per cent voters consider the RCC elections 'free and fair' with 78 per cent reporting 'no problems, difficulties and irregularities'.   By all counts, people conside

Published On: 2008-09-06 Front Page     Many low-lying areas in the eastern part of the capital went under floodwater yesterday and more areas are likely to be inundated in the next couple of days as rivers around the city started flowing over danger levels from Thursday.   Read the story     Our staff correspondent in Rajshahi reports: The Padma has left only 25 yards of land between Bangladesh and India at Char Khanpur of Paba. There will be no land there between the two countries if the Padma devours this piece of land. Members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) at Char Khidirpur border outpost say that the outpost is also likely to be eroded by the Padma. "The major problem is that the border pillar-164 is at stake as the river is now flowing very close to the border pillar," said a BDR official. Acting Commanding Officer of BDR Battalion 37 Maj Yasin said there will be no land at this border point if the river erodes the 25 yards of land. Around 2,000 peop

Published On: 2008-09-05 Front Page Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has undertaken a Tk 5 crore household waste management project financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), officials said. Household waste would be properly collected everyday under the RCC-designed project. At present, residents dump their wastes onto roads and drains due to lack of sufficient dustbins. For proper collection of garbage, at least 20 new dustbins would be set up in different areas, including Terokhadia, Shaheb Bazar, Laxmipur, Mohishbathan, Kajla, Binodpur and Padma Housing area. Under the project, household waste would be transformed into natural fertiliser for agricultural use, sources in the RCC said, adding that the garbage collected from households in Rajshahi city can produce five tonnes of fertiliser every day. "To implement the project, we have already selected the land for acquisition and the city corporation has got a machine worth Tk 70 lakh for turning the waste into

Published On: 2008-09-03 National   Outlaws, Islamist militants active again in 18 groups in northern, southern districts Anwar Ali, Rajshahi Police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have launched special operations in 13 northern and southern districts as intelligence reports said outlaws and Islamist militants have become active again in 18 groups ahead of planned upazila and parliamentary elections. The law enforcing agencies have started the operations with a list of some 1000 outlaws and about 500 Islamist militants in hand, sources said. Of them, 350 outlaws and 150 Islamist militants are in Rajshahi division. Their numbers may be more as all the outlaws and militants could yet to be identified, sources in the law enforcement agencies said. The operations are going against both the outlaws and militants simultaneously. The special operations to dismantle the militant outfits and outlaws' organisations were taken following recent investigations into their a