19-10-2022

Wednesday, Dhaka : october 19, 2022; kartik 3, 1429 BS; rabi-ul-Awal 22 , 1444 hijri
Rooppur power plant
PM to open
installation of
reactor pressure
vessel today
DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina will inaugurate the installation
of a reactor pressure vessel at the second
unit of the 2,400 MW Rooppur
nuclear power plant (RNPP) on
Wednesday amid high enthusiasm for
the country's maiden nuclear power
plant, officials say.
They say that the first unit of the project
has already made 70 percent progress in
physical work, and with the installation of
the reactor pressure vessel at the second
unit the project will have overall 53 percent
of physical work.
The country's lone nuclear power plant,
being constructed at Ishwardi of the
northern district of Pabna at a total cost of
US$ 12.65 billion, will have two units, each
having 1200 MW of power generation
capacity.
900 new Dengue
patients hospitalized
in 24 hrs; 3 die
DHAKA : Three more dengue patients
died in 24 hours till Tuesday morning,
raising this year's death toll from the mosquito-borne
disease in Bangladesh to 99.
During this period, 900 more patients
were hospitalised with viral fever as cases
keep rising, according to the Directorate
General of Health Services (DGHS).
Of the latest deaths, one each was
reported from Dhaka, Khulna and
Chattogram divisions.
The dengue death toll in Dhaka division
stands at 56, in Chattogram division at 35
and in Khulna at two while it remained
static in Barishal division at five and in
Mymensingh at one.
Of the new patients, 528 were admitted
to different hospitals in Dhaka and 372
outside it. A total of 3,227 dengue
patients, including 2,148 in the capital, are
now receiving treatment at hospitals
across the country.
Schoolgirl rape-murder in N'ganj
4 to die, another
gets life term
NARAYANGANJ : A Narayanganj court
on Tuesday sentenced four people to
death and another to life imprisonment
for killing a schoolgirl after rape in 2005 in
Fatulla. The death row convicts are
Kamrul Hasan, Rabiul, Ali Akbar and
Shukkur Ali. The lifer is Doli Begum.
Among them, Rabiul and Doli were
tried in absentia.
Women and Children Repression
Prevention Tribunal Judge Nazmul
Hoque Shyamal delivered the judgment.
The court also acquitted Nasrin Aktar.
According to the case, the four death
row convicts raped the sixth grader in a
cropland in Laxminagar area of Fatulla
after abducting her on June 3 in 2005.
Doli and Nasrin assisted them in killing of
the girl after rape.
Later, police recovered the body from
the spot and a case was filed in this regard.
In 2006, a chargesheet was submitted to
the court against the convicts.
the installation of a reactor pressure vessel at the second unit of the 2,400 MW rooppur nuclear
power plant (rNPP) will be inaugurated today.
Photo : Star Mail
3 SPs on compulsory retirement
DHAKA : Three police officers of the rank
of Superintendent of Police (SPs) have
been given compulsory retirement,
reports UNB.
Public Security Division under the
Home Ministry has already issued three
separate notifications in this regard signed
by its senior Secretary Md Akhtar Hossain
on Tuesday. Among the compulsorily
retired Superintendents of Police, two are
of the 12th batch and the other of the 15th
batch of BCS police cadre.
Among these three retired police
officers, Mohammad Shahidullah
Fugitive JMB member held in Gazipur
DHAKA : A team of the Anti-Terrorism
Unit (ATU), a specialized unit of
Bangladesh Police, arrested a fugitive
member of the banned militant outfit
Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
(JMB) from Mouchak area of Gazipur's
Kaliakair on Monday night.
The arrestee is Noor Alam Moaz,29,
son of Abdul Aziz of East Naodabas in
Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat.
Tipped off, the ATU members
conducted a drive in the area
around 11:30pm and arrested him,
said Mohammad Aslam Khan,
Chowdhury and Delwar Hossain Mia
belong to the 12th batch of BCS police
cadre and the other one Mirza Abdullahel
Baki, a 15th batch officer of BCS police
cadre.
Among them, Muhammad Shahidullah
Chowdhury has been working as
Superintendent of Police (TR) at Police
headquarters, Md. Delwar Hossain Mia
and Mirza Abdullahel Baki are working as
Special Super (SS) in the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID).
The order will be effected immediately
on public interest, the notification said.
Superintendent of Police (Media
and Awareness wing of the ATU).
He was an accused in a case filed at
Hathazari police station under the
Explosive Substances Act in 2011. The
trial of the case is underway.
On December 26, 2010, some JMB
men including Noor Alam carried out a
bomb attack on police in Chattogram's
Hathazari. Police arrested another JMB
member Shamim Hasan from the spot.
However, Noor Alam managed to flee
the scene and since then he remained
absconding, he added.
Gaibandha-5 by-polls
EC vows to
take offending
officials to task
DHAKA : Election Commissioner Md.
Alamgir on Tuesday said that action will
be taken against the officials who were
involved in irregularities in the by-election
of Gaibandha-5 seat. He said this in
response to questions from journalists in
his office in the election building.
Irrespective of the number of officers, disciplinary
action will be taken according to
the degree of offence based on the investigation
report, he also said.
Alamgir said that the EC is neither for
nor against anyone. It is the responsibility
of the EC to conduct fair and impartial
elections. Whenever voting becomes
unfair it will be suspended and a new election
will be held. The commissioner said
that they observed the election of
Gaibandha-5 seat through CCTV from the
election building.
"It was seen that polling agents were
pressing the voting button after giving the
voter's fingerprint in the secret polling
booth. Seeing this, instructions were given
to the presiding officer but he did not act
accordingly. The order to hand over the culprit
to the law enforcement agencies was
also not obeyed," he added. The commission
did not even see that the presiding officers
had restored order. So the EC has done what
it should have been done under law.
Saying that the investigation on all those
irregularities is going on, Alamgir said the
commission is finding the reason why did
the presiding officers commit those irregularities.
If the investigation proves that
they did it voluntarily and no one acted
even though there was an opportunity to
restore order, then action will be taken as
per law. He said that the EC can give them
temporary exemption up to two months.
Apart from this, it may recommend the
dismissal of the offending officers. The
authorities concerned should implement
it and inform the EC.
Little birdie Sheikh Russel's
killing stigmatises nation: Joy
DHAKA : Throwing back to history's
darkest chapter, the 1975-assassination
of Bangabandhu and his family,
Bangabandhu's grandson Sajeeb Wazed
Joy said that the murder of 10-year-old
Sheikh Russel is a stigma that the nation
is yet to overcome.
Joy, also Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina's ICT Advisor, said this in a
Facebook post from his verified account.
"Please take me to my mother"- how
Russel sobbed to those assassins on that
tragic night, the post said.
"We are taking you to your mother" -
how they lent false hope to Russel and
soon after fired bullets, a pointer to the
sheer barbarity unleashed in by the group
of assassins, part of a larger national and
international conspiracy, with the assassins
went unpunished for decades."
The post also includes an animated
video portraying the fateful night of
August 15 where little Russel is seen crying
fitfully amid a pool of blood at the
Dhanmondi 32 house.
Russel would have celebrated his 59th
birthday on Tuesday had the assassins'
bullets not ripped him apart.
The feeble voice of Russel begging for
life was drowned out by the beastly
laughters of assassins and the rattling
shots of brushfire. His head was dislodged;
the voice of the little angel was
silenced forever, said Sajeeb.
'Bangladesh's agriculture
sector needs Tk 15,000 cr
investment in next 5 yrs'
DHAKA : Bangladesh's agriculture sector
will need Tk 15,000 crore investment
in next five years, said Agriculture
Minister Abdur Razzaque on Tuesday,
urging the developed countries, international
donor agencies and private
entrepreneurs to invest in this sector.
Bangladesh has achieved unprecedented
success in agricultural production
under the government led by
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the
minister at the opening ceremony of
the 'Investment Conference' of the
World Food Forum of the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations in Italy.
But the agriculture sector is lagging
behind in processing and exporting
agricultural products where there are
huge potentials, he added.
Prioritizing four sectors-the cold
storage and post-harvest management,
agricultural products processing and
marketing, climate smart agriculture
and irrigation and water management,
the minister said , "The investment of
Tk 15,000 crore is required in these
sectors in the next five years. These sectors
are very promising and profitable
for investment in Bangladesh."
The minister sought immediate
investment in setting up of cold
A pack of traitors perforated the "little
birdie", along with other members of
Bangabandhu's family, to avenge the
defeat in the War for Liberation, added
the post.
"How can we, Bengalis, get rid of this
stigma? Please give sanity a chance," he
further said.
"May every child grow up safely. May
the altar of the bloodstained memory of
Russel ring in a new, humane world," he
concluded.
Bangladesh marked Sheikh Russel
Day yesterday in a befitting manner
coinciding with the 59th birthday of
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's youngest son
Shaheed Sheikh Russel.
Sheikh Russel, also the youngest
brother of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, was born on October 18 in
1964 at the historic Bangabandhu
Bhaban at Dhanmondi road number
32 in the capital.
But he was brutally assassinated along
with most of his family members,
including his father Bangabandhu, on
August 15, 1975 when he was a student
of class four at University Laboratory
School.
The Cabinet Division last year
declared October 18, the birthday of
Sheikh Russel, as Sheikh Russel Day
under the category "Ka".
storages, post-harvest management,
processing and marketing for
these of potatoes, onions, mangoes
and tomatoes.
Bangladesh doesn't have sufficient
technology and cold storages to store
vegetables including onions, mangoes
and tomatoes, he said adding 25-40%
of these products are wasted at the
post-harvest stage.
Highlighting the details of investment
infrastructures and government
facilities in Bangladesh, the minister
said the country has a conducive investment
environment. "So, come forward
to invest."
Working to increase investment in
agricultural sector transformation,
FAO organised the two-day
'Investment Conference' from
October 18-19. Twenty countries
from different parts of the world are
participating in this conference,
which need more foreign investment
in the agricultural sector.
Besides, representatives of various
international donor organisations,
banks and private entrepreneurs
including the World Bank, Arab Bank,
Inter-American Development Bank,
Latin American Development Bank are
participating.
Alamgir Apu is an idol for language lovers
by compiling vernaculars and proverbs
S M AkASh, ChAttogrAM BureAu
The significance of the regional language of
the golden gate of prosperity and the commercial
capital of the country, Chattogram
is a little different from the other ten
regional languages of the country.
The language of the inhabitants of
Chattogram, is Chatgaia also known as
Chattogram and Chatga, a region built on
the coast of the Bay of Bengal and divided
by the trade-friendly Karnaphuli River,
with a rich culture, language and tradition
of thousands of years of diverse history.
Many people assume that the language
is a dialect of Bengali because it is a mixture
of languages of several nations and
countries.
Research has shown that the history of
this language is more than six thousand
years and the history of Bengal is only
twelve hundred years.
Despite its rich history and widespread
popularity, the language has yet to receive
institutional recognition due to the lack of
its own alphabet and written form. More
than 16 million people in the region speak
in Chatgaia and the number is increasing
day by day.
A popular media activist of the region
has been working with the sentiments and
ideas of the Chattogram soil people for a
long time.
Alamgir Apu Chatgaon is known to the
whole town as a journalist.
In 2016, he created a channel called C
Plustv on digital platform to promote the
language. Initially the channel featured
only news content in Chantgaia language
but later diversified content through dramas.
Alamgir Apu popularized music,
punthi, poetry and many other arts of
Chatgaia culture.
Although many doubted that it would
be popular and effective for promoting the
language,the channel soon became very
popular among speakers of the Chatgaia
language and even other languages. Now
the channel is followed by over 2 million
viewers on Facebook and over 1 million
viewers on YouTube daily.
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Vehicular movement on Dhaka-Chattogram highway remained halted for two
hours as local people blocked the road protesting the drive against illegal gas
connection.
Photo : uNB.