09-03-2021

Tuesday, Dhaka, march 9, 2021, falgun 24, 1427 BS, Rajab 24, 1442 hijri
CFO drives Kafco crisis
TBT RePoRT
footover bridges are built for public road crossings. But the bridges are being used as a business area.
Shopkeepers are doing business on the top and bottom of the bridge.
Photo : PBa
Int’l Women's Day
Google doodle
honours firsts in
women's history
DHAKA : Search engine giant Google is
celebrating International Women's Day
by replacing its regular home page
graphic with a special video doodle.
Google makes the doodle in honor of
the trailblazers of the past, present, and
future making Happy International
Women's Day!
Today's International Women's Day
Doodle takes a journey through a series
of firsts in women's history-highlighting
female pioneers who have challenged
the status quo and paved the way in education,
civil rights, science, art, and so
much more, reports UNB.
The video Doodle pays homage to
these (s)heroes by depicting the hands
that have opened the doors for generations
of women. While some firsts
achieve something spectacularly new,
others are receiving a recognition or
right that is long overdue.
Suffragists, academics, gold medalists,
entrepreneurs and more-Monday's
Doodle celebrates the women around
the world who overcame the obstacles of
their time to create a lasting legacy.
These firsts stand on the shoulders of
countless others-women who laid the
foundation, in the past, for today's doors
to be finally opened and glass ceilings
broken. Google marks many special
occasions with customised doodles,
changing its logo on the homepage to
reflect the occasion.
The International Women's Day is
being observed in Bangladesh as elsewhere
across the globe on Monday celebrating
women's achievement, raising
awareness against bias and taking
action for equality.
Karnafuli Fertilizer Company Limited (Kafco), country's
largest urea fertilizer producer, deprived from profits as staffer
including chief financial officer (CFO) involved unreported
coruptions.
To make the businesses a lose venture, chief financial officer
Habib Ullah Manzur played vital role controlling with
various forgeries, sources informed. The CFO allegedly
obtains 'high commissions'
from bank deposits of Kafco,
let alone the local insurances,
source claimed.
Besides, the clever official
handled all the international
insurance positions of the
companies jointly owned by
the Government of
Bangladesh, Japan, the
Netherlands and Denmark
taking an unfair percentage
from the deals. Habib is in
charge of the company's collection
of chemicals like liquid
caustic soda. He is also accused of taking large commissions
to purchase UF-75 chemicals from Egypt, Oman and
Saudi Arabia. Kafco has own jetty for exporting liquid ammonia
abroad and shipping urea fertilizer to different parts of
the country by ship. Surprisingly Habib Ullah has signed a
contract with the company for the repair of a single pillar
worth about 6 million US dollars without any Tender. The
concerned people think that it is a ploy to make Habib's pocket
heavy by diverting unusual money to repair this jetty without
tender. In addition, complains were received against sex-
2 Indian Navy ships to
visit Mongla port
March 8-10
DHAKA : Two Indian Naval ships - INS
Kulish and INS - will visit port of Mongla
till March 10 from Monday to celebrate
'Mujibo Barsho' and 50 Years of
Bangladesh's Independence.
This is the first visit by Indian Naval
Ships to Mongla, reports UNB.
The visit will boost the strong and
flourishing ties between Indian and
Bangladesh Navies, said the Indian
High Commission in Dhaka on
Monday.
The last time it happened 50 years ago
when on 09/10 Dec 1971, the two gunboats
Padma and Palash, jointly
manned by Indian Navy and Mukti
Bahini personnel, in a covert operation
sailed up the Pusur river attacking various
Pakistani installations at the Port.
To signify the importance that Indian
Navy accords to its fraternal relationship
with Bangladesh Navy, other than two
ships, a Senior Officer from Indian
Navy, Cmde Mahadevu Goverdhan
Raju, NM, Naval Officer-in-Charge,
Andhra Pradesh is embarked onboard
INS Sumedha, an indigenously built
Offshore Patrol Vessel.
The ship is commanded by Cdr
Gaurav Durgaprasad and is designed for
patrolling and surveillance of India's
vast EEZ.
Along with main gun and anti aircraft
guns, the ship also carries an integral
ALH/Alouette helicopter.
The second ship, INS Kulish is also
indigenously built for anti-surface warfare
operations.
The ship is commanded by Cdr
Sanjeev Agnihotri and is armed with
surface to surface missiles, main gun,
anti aircraft guns and missiles. It is also
capable of operating helicopters.
During the visit, the Senior Officers
from the Indian side will be paying homage
to Father of the Nation
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
by laying wreaths at his mausoleum at
Tungipara.
They will also lay wreaths at the grave
of Bir Shrestho Ruhul Amin who sacrificed
his life while fighting onboard the
gunboat Palash at Mongla on 10 Dec
1971.
The Indian ships will also honour
Bangladesh Navy Veterans of the
Liberation War, during onboard reception
and gift Bangladesh Navy items of
historical value for displaying at the
Armed forces Museum.
There will also be professional discussions
with Bangladesh Navy and courtesy
calls on Senior Officers at Mongla
and Khulna.
Both navies will also have friendly
sports fixtures and visits to each other's
ships.
While departing on March 10, both
navies will conduct a joint passage exercise.
ual harassment by Habib Ullah Manzur.
Allegedly, he not only sexually harassed his female subordinates
in the workplace, but also tried to seduce them in
tactics.There are also allegations that they were threatened
with dismissal if they did not agree to the proposal.
According to sources, Habib lost his job from various institutions
including Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel and ICB
Islamic Bank allegedly due to corruption sexual harassment
to women workers. It
is known that he also resorted
to big fraud to get a job in
Kafco.
He lost his job in the previous
workplace and hid the
names of the employers of
those companies, according
to the source. Contracted
regarding the issues, Habib
declined all allegations saying
that someone may be
spreading propaganda
against me because of personal
enmity. "I can prove
that these allegations are
false. I have enough evidence in this regard, which I can give
you if you want or come to my office,"'
However, Habib did not send any documents as promised,
rather later changed the tone when contacted again.
Linkshttps://en.newsnowbangla.com/2021/02/22/kafco-inswindling-hand/
https://www.redtimes.com.bd/kafco-cfo-accused-in-multiple-grounds/
Klaauw takes
charges as UNHCR's
representative in
Bangladesh
DHAKA : Johannes van der Klaauw on
Monday took charges as the representative
of UNHCR, the UN Refugee
Agency, in Bangladesh after presenting
his credentials to Foreign Minister AK
Abdul Momen.
Klaauw becomes UNHCR's 11th representative
in Bangladesh, a UNHCR
press release said.
Following the presentation of his credentials
to the Foreign Minister, Klaauw
visited the Liberation War Museum in
Dhaka to pay his respects and met with
the trustees of the Museum.
Klaauw, a national of the Netherlands,
brings more than 25 years of experience
with UNHCR in diverse assignments
around the world. Most recently, he was
the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator
in the Republic of Mali, where he led
efforts to support principled and effective
humanitarian aid across the country,
for the displaced and vulnerable
local populations.
1,17,148 administered
COVID-19 vaccines
on Monday
DHAKA : A total of 1,17,148 people
were administered COVID-19 vaccines
across the country on March 8.
Among the vaccine recipients,
72,358 were male and 44,790
female, according to the data of
Management Information System of
Directorate General of Health
Services (DGHS).
As of March 07, the number of vaccine
receivers is 39,06,500. Among
the vaccine receivers, 24,93,211 are
male and 14,13,289 female as the
countrywide vaccination campaign
was launched on February 7. People
aged 40 years and above now can get
registered to receive COVID-19 vaccines,
the health ministry sources
said.
The vaccination drive was conducted
at 50 hospitals in Dhaka city and
1,005 hospitals outside the capital on
Monday, the DGHS said, adding that
the immunization programme will
begin at 8am and it will continue till
2.30 pm every day.
Charge-sheet in arms
case against Golden
Monir accepted
DHAKA : A court yesterday accepted
charge-sheet filed in an arms case
against vehicle and gold trader Md
Monir Hossain alias Golden Monir.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions
Judge KM Imrul Qayesh accepted
the charge-sheet and set March 16 for
holding hearing on charge framing.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)
arrested Monir on November 20,
2020, and recovered a foreign-made
pistol, bullets, foreign liquor, currencies
of ten countries, eight kilograms
of gold ornaments and Take 1.9 crore
in cash from his Merul Badda residence.
RAB later filed three separate cases
including this one with Badda Police
Station.
The abundance of baby
Hilsha in fish markets!
Shafiqul iSlam
The markets of the capital are still full
of baby Hilsha, locally known as
Jhatka. The fish sellers in the market
are bidding hundreds of kilos of Jatka
with much hype. However, the government
has announced a ban on
catching baby Hilsa for two months
from March 1 (Monday) to April 30 of
this year. The question of the general
buyers: despite the government ban,
where does the huge amount of
Jhatka are coming from in the market.
Also what will happen to the huge
amount of Jhatka that is already in
stock of the traders while the ban is in
place?
Visiting few markets of the capital it
has been observed that, these Jhatka
sellers are not acknowledging them as
Jhatka to the buyers so as not to fall into
the hands of law enforcement agencies.
They are selling these as Chapila fish.
Jhatka is being sold at 250 to 300 taka
per kg.
However, if the size is a little bigger, it
is being sold at three and a half to four
hundred taka per kg. These are so small
that 12 to 14 are accumulating in a kg.
However, the Ministry of Fisheries and
Livestock has banned all types of fishing
to conserve Jhatka in 5 Hilsha sanctuaries
in 6 districts of the country. The ban
will continue till June 30.
An order issued by the Ministry of
Fisheries and Livestock on Sunday
(February 28th) said that, under the
ban, all types of fishing, including Hilsa,
will be stopped in the rivers of Barisal,
Chandpur, Laxmipur, Bhola,
Shariatpur and Patuakhali districts.
The five sanctuaries are 100 km in the
lower basin of the Meghna River from
Shatnal in Chandpur district to Char
Alexander in Laxmipur district, 90 km
from Madanpur or Char Ilisha in Bhola
district to Char Pial in the Shahbazpur
tributary of the Meghna river, from
Veduria in Bhola district to Patuakhali
in Patuakhali district An area of about
100 kilometers.
There is also an area of 20 km of
Padma river between Naria and
Vederganj upazilas of Shariatpur district
and Matlab upazila of Chandpur
district and about 72 km of Kalabadar,
Gazaria and Meghna rivers of Hijla,
Mehendiganj and Barisal Sadar upazilas
of Barisal district.
>(Contd. on page-2)
March 7 speech source
of inspirations to rout
radicals: Quader
DHAKA : Awami League (AL) General
Secretary and Road Transport and
Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday
said the historic March 7 speech of
Bangabandhu is the source of inspiration
to eliminate the communal evil forces and
all conspirators from the country.
He was addressing a discussion
arranged by AL marking the historic
March 7 at the AL's Bangabandhu Avenue
central office here.
Prime Minister and Awami League
President Sheikh Hasina chaired the discussion
joining from her official
Ganabhaban residence through a videoconferencing.
Quader urged the people to build strong
unity imbued with the spirit of March 7 to
build a prosperous Bangladesh under the
leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina. He also called upon the people to
remain alert against communal evil forces
who are still hatching conspiracies against
the country.
"Conspiracies are still going on likewise
the previous periods. March 7 speech is
our source of inspirations to root out the
communal forces from the society," he
said. The AL general secretary said the history
of the country's independence and
Liberation War was distorted after the
assassination of Father of the Nation
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in
1975.
The conspirators created barriers in
playing the record of the historic March 7
speech of Bangabandhu for long, he said.
"Our many leaders had to die and many
others were tortured brutally for playing
the March 7 speech," he said.
Quader said but the perpetrators could
not be successful to suppress the speech
which gave the guidelines for emancipation
of repressed people not only of this
soil but also all over the world.
Chattogram-Sylhet
flight from Mar 17
for first time
DHAKA : Biman Bangladesh Airlines
has decided to launch direct flights on
Chattogram-Sylhet-Chattogram route
for the first time in country's aviation
history. To mark the birth centenary of
the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the national
flag carrier took the initiative to operate
flights two days a week on March 17
from the port city Chattogram to Sylhet,
a press release said.
Biman's route will create a bridge
between the country's northeastern part
Sylhet and South coastal city
Chattogram for the rapid expansion of
tourism and commercial development,
said the release. Earlier, Biman initiated
direct flights on Sylhet-Cox's Bazar-
Sylhet route to give a boost the country's
tourism sector.
The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) launched a region-based integrated crush program on monday
to control Culex mosquitoes.
Photo : PBa
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam, Executive Editor : Sheikh Efaz Ahmed, Managing, Editor: Tapash Ray Sarker, News Editor : Saiful Islam, printed at Sonali Printing Press, 2/1/A, Arambagh 167, Inner Circular Road, Eden Complex, Motijheel, Dhaka.
Editorial and News Office: Bangladesh Timber Building (3rd Floor) 270/B, Tejgaon I/A Dhaka-1208. Tel : +8802-8878026, Cell : 01736786915; Fax: + 880244611604, Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com