Himu's Window

Awami League is undeterred by the US visa policy and sanctions, said AL presidium member AHM Khairuzzaman Liton in Rajshahi yesterday. He was speaking at the triennial conference of Rajshahi Jubo League. The day-long conference, chaired by city unit Jubo League president Ramjan Ali, was held on Pathanpara Road. It featured discussions on the US visa policy, where party leaders criticised BNP's reliance on foreign powers and called for strong unity among party members ahead of the polls. Information Minister Hasan Mahmud expressed concern over the US ambassador's comments on media personalities and their inclusion in the visa policy. He viewed this as an interference with the nation's independent media. Meanwhile, JL Chairman Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash highlighted the challenges faced by the organisation due to intra-party feud. He stressed the importance of overcoming these challenges to ensure success in the upcoming elections. No new committee was announced during the

  A team of 50 Indian bicyclists visited the Mughal-era Bagha Mosque in Rajshahi’s Bagha upazila on Sunday. The team’s Rajshahi visit was a part of their two-week journey from Kolkata, India to Noakhali of Bangladesh under the banner of the India-Bangladesh Goodwill Cycle Rally. Snehalaya, an Indian NGO, organized the rally jointly with the Rotary Club of Belur and Gandhi Ashram Trust, to spread the teachings of Bapu Mahatma Gandhi and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The cyclists' team started their journey from Gandhi Bhaban in Kolkata on September 15. They ran some 420km inside India to reach to Malda on September 21. Entering Bangladesh on September 22, they visited Chapainawabganj before reaching Rajshahi. They would travel 475km through Lalpur of Natore, Kustia, Shariatpur, and Chandpur before reaching Gandhi Ashram of Noakhali district on September 28. On their way, the cyclists visit the spots that bear memories of Bapu and Bangabandhu and visit educational institutes t

Anwarul Haque allows me to see one of the mangoes inside the bag. The rising quantity of mango exports has been changing the farming practices of the fruit in the Rajshahi region as farmers are now opting for more chemical-free mango production, agriculturists say. Farmers are now gradually adopting organic farming methods as they intend to meet the high standards, required by the international markets. This year, a total of 92,913 hectares of land has been brought under mango cultivation in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Naogaon, and Natore, said Md Shamsul Wadud, regional additional director at Rajshahi Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). A farm labourer covers a mango with a fruit bag that protects the fruit from pests, insects, rains, storms, and hailstorms.   But, safe or chemical-free mangoes were grown on only 630 hectares of land this year, which was around 500 hectares last year, said the DAE official. They have a plan to extend the area to 728 hectares next year, he said.

দুবাইভিত্তিক বহুস্তর বিপণন বা মাল্টিলেভেল মার্কেটিং কোম্পানি মেটাভার্স ফরেন এক্সচেঞ্জ (এমটিএফই) গ্রুপ ইনকরপোরেটেড রাজশাহী শহরে দপ্তর স্থাপন করে শত শত মানুষকে তাদের প্রতারণার ফাঁদে ফেলেছিল। প্রতারণার শিকার শহরের বাসিন্দাদের বর্ণনা অনুযায়ী, এমটিএফই'র স্থানীয় কর্মীরা গত জুলাই পর্যন্ত অন্তত ৪ মাস প্রকাশ্যে কার্যক্রম চালিয়েছে। গত ২৩ জুলাই এমটিএফই'র বিরুদ্ধে 'আইনানুগ কর্তৃত্ব বহির্ভূত ই-ট্রানজেকশনের মাধ্যমে প্রতারণার' অভিযোগে আদালতে মামলা দায়ের করা হলে দুবাইভিত্তিক এই প্রতিষ্ঠানটির স্থানীয় কর্মীরা আত্মগোপন করেন। মামলা দায়েরের দিনই রাজশাহীর সাইবার ট্রাইব্যুনালের বিচারক মো. জিয়াউর রহমান ঘটনাটি 'গুরুত্বপূর্ণ' উল্লেখ করে রাজশাহী মেট্রোপলিটন পুলিশ (আরএমপি), পুলিশ ব্যুরো অব ইনভেস্টিগেশন (পিবিআই) ও পুলিশের অপরাধ তদন্ত বিভাগকে (সিআইডি) যৌথ দল গঠন করে তদন্ত করতে নির্দেশ দেন। তারপরও এমটিএফই'র কর্মীরা পাড়া-মহল্লায়, সামাজিক যোগাযোগমাধ্যমে 'রাতারাতি কোটিপতি হওয়ার স্বপ্ন দেখিয়ে' শত শত মানুষকে এমটিএফই স্মার্টফোন অ্যাপ্লিকেশন ও ওয়েবসাইটে 'লাখ লাখ টাকা বিনিয়েগে উদ্ব

A Rajshahi-based farming company is exporting Gourmoti and Katimon varieties of mango to Russia. An Air Arabia flight left Dhaka for Russia Saturday morning with 200kg of Gourmoti and 75kg Katimon mangoes, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).  "This is the first time Bangladeshi mangoes are making an entry to Russia," said Mafizul Islam, deputy director (export) at the Plant Quarantine Wing of the department. The farming company MTB Agro and Garden collected the mangoes from the orchards of a farmer named Najim Uddin in Nachole upazila of Chapainawabganj, he added. Md Mahtab Ali, CEO of the MTB Agro, said, a Russian company called National Electric LLC, which worked for the Rooppur power plant, is importing the mangoes. "We have been trying for the last three years. This time, we saw success by ensuring good farming practices through many laboratory tests, and overcoming bureaucratic tangles," he said. The embassies of the two countries worke

The Ponzi trading company Metaverse Foreign Exchange Group Inc (MTFE) operated freely, even by setting up offices, in Rajshahi city for four months till the end of July. On July 23, when a case was filed with a court over MTFE’s fraudulent activities of trapping hundreds of people with promises of unusually large returns, the Dubai-based organisation’s local operatives went underground. On the same day of filing the case, the Cyber Tribunal of Rajshahi ordered a joint investigation into the fraud by the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), and Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Still, MTFE operatives managed to remain active till August 17 when the company shut down swindling away the investments of hundreds of people. The law enforcers yielded on Thursday, over a week after MTFE shut down and one month after the court order, by arresting two suspects -- Debedranath Saha, 43, of Rajshahi, and Latiful Bari, 42, of Naogaon. “An investi

SME Foundation established a Common Facility Centre (CFC) for the shoemakers of Kaluhati village in Rajshahi’s Charghat upazila on Friday. The CFC, set up on a 3000 square-feet site at the village, was provided with 13 state-of-the-art machines for leather cutting, stitching, and finishing, said Dr Md Mafizur Rahman, Managing Director of SME Foundation. The facility would help the shoemakers to improve the quality of their products using modern technologies, he said. “Our dependence on imported leather goods will be lessened once the initiative turns out a success,” said Dr Rahman. The initiative is the first of its kind in the country, said Md Shohrub Hossain, Charghat upazila Nirbahi officer. Some 85 shoemaking entrepreneurs and 500 labourers dependent on them would directly get benefit from the CFC, built at a cost of Tk one crore, he said adding that the facility will function by a committee headed by him.   The shoemakers believe that the CFC will remarkably improve their lives b