Himu's Window

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

Sunday, August 16, 2009   Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the country's constitution a unique one in the world by giving a new definition of secularism, said Shahriar Kabir, a noted journalist, in Rajshahi yesterday. "For him secularism did not mean abandonment of religion, but a separation of religion from state and politics," said Kabir, president of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, a forum for secular Bangladesh and trial of war criminals. He said Bangabandhu was a religious man and he believed in people's freedom of religion. Bangabandhu gave new definition of secularism to end Pakistani tradition of abusing religion for political gain, said Kabir. He said in the name of protecting Islam, Pakistani rulers and Jamaat-e-Islami men killed people, raped women and committed genocides during their 23-year regime and the liberation war. Kabir was addressing as chief guest at a discussion meeting organised on the occasion of the National

Saturday, August 15, 2009 Speakers at a view exchange meeting in Rajshahi yesterday said a culture of seeking information should be developed in society, especially for the grassroots-level people, for effective implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) law. RTI law would not leave any benefit unless it is properly implemented through creating awareness among mass people about their right of access to information, they added. Once RTI is properly implemented, the speakers said, it would take the country a step forward to ensure good governance as well as administrative transparency and accountability. They stressed the need for a strong role of the media in educating common people on appropriate methods of exercising their right. Campaign for Right to Information (CFRTI) and local vernacular daily the Mukto Chetona jointly organised the meeting on 'RTI law and role of media' in association with Asian Foundation at a city restaurant. Fazle Hossain Ba

Saturday, August 15, 2009   Asian University of Bangladesh (AUB) in Rajshahi was closed sine die yesterday following a clash between students and police that left at least 35 people injured. The clash ensued as students put a barricade on the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway demanding that the AUB authorities produce valid documents of government approval. AUB students said the Rajshahi campus of the varsity has no government approval and as the authorities failed to produce any valid papers, the legality of the university was questionable. At around 9.30am students boycotted their scheduled examinations and came out in their hundreds. The examinees along with other students marched in a procession on the campus and challenged the authorities whether they had any legal authority to run the campus. The angry students were not satisfied with the answer the AUB authorities gave and put a barricade on the Rajshahi-Dhaka highway at around 10am. The students staged a sit-in there f

Friday, August 14, 2009 Al Markajul Islami As-Salafi Madrasa at Nawdapara in the city was closed sine die by its authorities yesterday due to attempts of implanting extremism in students by Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh (Ahab), a militant outfit led by Asadullah Al Galib. Galib, arrested in 2005 on charges of militancy and now free on bail, has been sheltering outsiders, many of whom are students of Rajshahi University and Rajshahi College, in madrasa dormitories for last few months, said Principal of the madrasa Abdus Samad Salafi. These outsiders with assistance from some pro-Galib teachers used to assault students, sometimes the teachers who were not in Galib's favour, said Salafi, adding that they were also engaged in indoctrinating the students to defy madrasa rules and join Ahab. "Concerned about these men, we made the decision to close the madrasa indefinitely," said Salafi, former Nayeb-e-Amir who resigned from Ahab along with some 48 others in Ap