06-10-2021

WedneSday

DHAKA: October 6, 2021; Ashwin 21, 1428 BS; Safar 28,1443 Hijri

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www.bangladeshtoday.net

Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.19; N o. 158; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00

international

Taliban unlawfully

killed 13 ethnic

Hazaras

>Page 7

SPortS

Australia's World

No. 1 Barty to skip

Billie Jean King Cup

>Page 9

art & culture

Nayeem, Shabnaz

passes 27yrs of

togetherness

>Page 10

Flowers & banners

welcome students as

DU reopens dorms

DHAKA : After nearly 18 months of

Covid-forced closure, Dhaka University

Tuesday morning welcomed back its

residential students to the dormitories

with flowers and banners, reports UNB.

Only vaccinated final-year honours and

master's students were allowed to check

in, after production of valid documents

and proof of at least a dose of a Covid vaccine.

UNB found students in a cheerful

mood as they queued up to enter the residential

halls, wearing face masks and

adhering to other mandatory Covid-safety

protocols like social distancing.

Inside halls, provosts were seen asking

them to refrain from hanging out in

groups or crowding a particular place.

The DU syndicate, the highest policymaking

body, on September 18, decided to

reopen the residential halls for examinees.

The university has not yet taken a call on

the resumption of physical classes.

After visiting Bijay Ekattor Hall, DU

Vice Chancellor Prof Akhtaruzzaman

told UNB, "Today is a day of happiness.

The university is the campus of students.

It has again come back to life."

"The decision of allowing the first, second

and third-year students to the residential

halls will be taken soon. The Covid

infection rate is decreasing and students

are taking vaccine shots," he added.

Several residential halls like Fazlul

Huq Muslim Hall, Jagannath Hall,

Salimullah Muslim Hall and Bijoy

Ekattor Hall have set up handwashing

basins at entrances only. Dining rooms,

canteens, cafeterias, reading rooms, toilets

and bathrooms have all been kept

sparkling clean.

Drive to be launched

from Wednesday to

ensure airing ad-free

foreign TV channels:

Info Minister

DHAKA : Information and

Broadcasting Minister Hasan

Mahmud has said the government

will launch mobile court drive again

from Wednesday to ensure that adfree

foreign TV channels get back to

air, reports UNB.

"Mobile court drives will be conducted

again from Wednesday to

check whether foreign channels having

clean feed are being broadcast in

the country," he told a delegation of

Broadcast Journalist Centre (BJC) at

the Secretariat on Tuesday.

Mobile courts will take legal action

against those found violating the conditions,

he said adding "Legal steps

will be taken if anyone found involved

in spreading rumours."

There are many clean-feed foreign

channels but the cable operators shut

down them since October 1, he said.

"Now some cable operators are airing

clean-feed channels and we have

given time to others for complying

with the law."

Zohr

04:39 AM

11:55 PM

04:05 PM

05:48 PM

07:00 PM

5:51 5:43

after nearly 18 months of Covid-forced closure, Dhaka university Tuesday morning welcomed

back its residential students to the dormitories with flowers and banners. Photo : Courtesy

Foreign Minister talks tough

against smuggling along

Bangladesh-Myanmar border

SYLHET : Foreign Minister Dr AK

Abdul Momen on Tuesday said the government

will take tougher steps to prevent

illegal arms and drugs smuggling,

and human trafficking along the

Bangladesh-Myanmar border and

warned of "firing shots", if necessary.

"There was a decision not to open fires

along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

But now, firing shots will be allowed (if

necessary) to prevent illegal activities,"

he said.

The Foreign Minister came up with

the warning while talking to reporters at

a function here.

Dr Momen said there has been a discussion

with the Home Minister to take

tough action to stop all kinds of smuggling

along the Bangladesh-Myanmar

border. "The Home Ministry will take a

decision in this regard."

Two ambulances, gifted by the Indian

government, were handed over to Sylhet

MAG Osmani Medical College and

Hospital.

Earlier, a decision had been taken to

stop firing along the Bangladesh-

Myanmar border but illegal smuggling is

still carried out along the border, said

Momen.

Indian High Commissioner to

Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami

was present.

Talking about the incomplete Sylhet

Airport-Badaghat bypass, the Foreign

Minister said the officials of Roads and

Highways Department should quit their

jobs for failing to complete the work.

The construction work on the 12-km

Sylhet Airport-Badaghat bypass started

in 2010 during the tenure of former

Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

He also expressed dissatisfaction over

the delay in implementing many development

works and the negligence of the

authorities concerned.

Referring to the development work on

Sylhet Specialized Mother and Child

Hospital, Momen slammed the authorities

concerned for failing to upgrade the

hospital to a 200-bed one hospital from

the existing 100-bed hospital.

An amount of Tk 110 crore had been

allocated for the development of the hospital

but the authorities concerned spent

only Tk 10 crore and returned the rest of

the amount without upgrading it.

"They've just wasted the money allocated

for the health sector of Sylhet and

it happened just due to negligence of the

authorities concerned," he said.

Referring to the six-lane work of the

Dhaka-Sylhet highway, Momen said the

work has been divided into 13 sections

and tenders for that of eight sections

have been floated.

'Dhaka Nagar Paribahan' to

launch in December

Shafiqul iSlam (Shafiq)

The first phase of bus route rationalization

will start from December 1 with 120 new

buses called 'Dhaka Nagar Paribahan'.

This transport will run from Ghatarchar in

Keraniganj to Kanchpur. On this route of

about 21 kilometers, the fare per kilometer

will be TK 2.20 paisa. The information was

given to reporters after the 16th meeting of

the Bus Route Rationalization Committee

at Dhaka South City Corporation's (DSCC)

Nagar Bhaban on Tuesday (October 5).

Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh,

chairman of the committee and mayor of

DSCC, said, "We have fixed a piloting

route from Ghatarchar to Kanchpur. This

route will have new rules and procedures.

We have been able to come this far with

the efforts of everyone.

We have worked tirelessly for the last

one year to restore order in the city's way.

The matter was extremely complex and

difficult. Now we are close to fill the goal.

"We have finalized that the bus service

on this route will start on December 1," he

said. The buses will be operated through a

joint venture.

Later, buses will run through several

companies all over Dhaka. No old bus will

run from Ghatarchar to Kanchpur route.

New buses will be added here. The transport

owners have agreed in this regard.

Participating in the 16th meeting of

the Bus Route Rationalization

Committee, Dhaka North City

Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said

new horizons are being opened in public

transport in Dhaka.

This will bring order in public transport

in the city. Drivers will not have a

competitive attitude. The new route will

accommodate more than 40 passenger

camp.

Next neutral nat’l

poll to be held on

time: Quader

SAVAR : Road Transport and Bridges

Minister Obaidul Quader on Tuesday

said the next parliamentary polls will

be impartial to be held in due time as

per the constitution, reports UNB.

"No matter who comes or not, the

poll will not be delayed," the minister

said.

Quader came up with the remarks

while talking to reporters after inspecting

the construction work of the second

bridge at Gabtali Aminbazar in the

Aminbazar area of Savar on the

Dhaka-Aricha Highway on Tuesday

morning.

He further said that the government

is ready to suppress any attempt of

BNP to create chaos in the name of

movement.

"Everyone knows the history of BNP.

The BNP activists earlier had set fire to

many cars, houses, land offices and

other facilities. And so, they completely

got alienated from people," he said.

"So, there is no need to make evil

attempts to make chaos unnecessarily

centring the election," the minister

said.

Quader also warned that if any party

creates any chaos in the name of movement

in the country, it will be crushed

with iron hands.

Senior officials of the Roads and

Highways Department were present

during the inspection.

Slow progress in Kushtia medical

college project:PM orders action

DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned

to take action against those responsible

for the slow progress in implementation

of Kushtia Medical College and

Hospital Project, reports UNB.

She issued the order while approving

the 2nd revision of the much-talked-about

project with an additional cost of Tk 71.38

crore at a meeting of the Executive

Committee of the National Economic

Council (Ecnec).

Sheikh Hasina, also the Ecnec chairperson,

presided over the meeting held at the

NEC conference room, joining it virtually

from her official residence Ganobhaban.

"The final notice was served to complete

the work on Kushtia Medical College. The

Prime Minister issued a tough directive in

this regard. She directed the Planning

Commission to take punitive action

against those responsible for its slow

implementation," said Planning Minister

MA Mannan while briefing reporters after

the meeting.

He said IMED launched an investigation

and finally submitted its report over

the alleged irregularities in the work of the

medical college project.

Mannan said the Prime Minister asked

the authorities to take action against all

those involved in the irregularities in

implementing the project and asked them

not to spare anyone, even if one goes on

retirement.

Hasina asked the implementing agencies

to complete the work on the project

within the new timeframe.

According to its original layout, the project

was supposed to be implemented from

January 2012 to December 2014 with a

cost of Tk 275.44 crore.

In the 2nd revision, the project cost was

raised to Tk 682.46 crore and the deadline

was extended up to December 2023.

The Ecnec meeting approved a total of

nine projects with the overall estimated cost

of Tk 6,551.27 crore (only additional costs of

the revised projects were counted here).

"Of the total cost, Tk 3,742.29 crore will

be drawn from the government portion,

while Tk 26.22 crore will come from the

fund of organization concerned and the

rest of Tk 2,782.76 crore as project assistance

from foreign sources," said the

Planning Minister.

Among the nine projects, four are new,

while five are revised ones.

US ambassador hands over 2.5 mn

Pfizer vaccine doses to Bangladesh

DHAKA : US Ambassador to Bangladesh

Earl R. Miller has handed over a donation

of 2.5 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19

vaccine to Bangladesh, a gift from the

American people, reports UNB.

The Pfizer vaccines build on earlier US

COVID-19 vaccine donations for a total of

11.5 million doses donated by the U.S.

government and the American people.

Ambassador Miller and the U.S.

Agency for International Development

(USAID) Mission Director Kathryn

Stevens handed over the vaccine donation

to Additional Secretary of the

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Syed Mojibul Huq and Director General

at the Directorate General of Health

Services (DGHS) Professor Dr. Abul

Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam during

a ceremonial handover event at

the Expanded Programme on

Immunization (EPI) headquarters in the

city on Tuesday.

"The United States is pleased to donate

these additional 2.5 million doses of lifesaving

Pfizer vaccine to Bangladesh and

continue our support to the national vaccination

campaign. We are also proud to

support the global COVAX vaccine initiative

to make sure the proper infrastructure

is in place to store and administer

these Pfizer vaccines safely and effectively,"

said Ambassador Miller.

The U.S. government and Government

of Bangladesh officials also toured the EPI

COVID-19 vaccine storage facility where

Pfizer doses are being stored in 26 ultracold

freezers supplied through the global

COVAX vaccine alliance partnership.

This delivery of Pfizer vaccines comes as

part of the broader commitment by the

United States to lead the global COVID-19

response by donating a billion doses of

Pfizer vaccine around the world - free of

charge - through 2022.

In addition to vaccine donations, the

United States continues to work closely

with Bangladesh to support the national

COVID-19 vaccination campaign and

strengthen the government's response to

the pandemic.

The United States has provided training

for more than 6,000 service providers

and healthcare professionals to help them

administer vaccines safely and efficiently,

and protect the health of Bangladeshis.

The Narai river, which flows through the capital's Rampura, is now known as Rampura canal or Begunbari canal in various

official documents. The river is shrinking due to encroachment and pollution as well as getting into the canal from the river.

So an environmentalist organization is protesting by floating paper boats to protect the river.

Photo : Star mail

wEDNEsDAy, OCtObEr 6, 2021

2

Italian Ambassador

calls on DU VC

Italian Ambassador Enrico Nunziata called

on Dhaka University (DU) Vice-Chancellor

Prof. Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman on Tuesday

at the latter's office of the university.

Director of DU Institute of Modern

Languages Prof. Dr. A. B. M. Razaul Karim

Faquire, Registrar Probir Kumar Sarker,

Proctor Prof. Dr. A. K. M. Golam Rabbani

and DU PR Director Mahmood Alam were

present on this occasion.

During the meeting they discussed

matters of mutual interest and exchanged

views regarding Italian Language

Programs at DU Institute of Modern

Languages. They stressed the need for

undertaking joint collaborative academic

and research programs among Dhaka

University and the leading universities of

Italy. They also held fruitful discussion

about the possibilities of exchange of

faculties, researchers and students among

DU and Italian universities.

GD-1468/21 (6x3)

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Md.

Akhtaruzzaman apprised the Ambassador

of brief history of Dhaka University and its

academic and research activities. He

emphasized on expansion of Italian

Language programs at DU Institute of

Modern Languages. Italian

Ambassador Enrico Nunziata informed DU

VC Prof. Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman that a

seminar would be arranged at DU Institute

of Modern Languages on October 21, 2021

in observance of the 700th death

anniversary of Italian famous poet, writer

and philosopher Dante Alighieri. He

invited DU VC Prof. Dr. Md.

Akhtaruzzaman to inaugurate the seminar

as the chief guest.

DU VC Prof. Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman gladly

accepted the invitation. He thanked the

Italian Ambassador for his visit to and keen

interest in undertaking joint and collaborative

academic programs with Dhaka University.

Italian Ambassador Mr. Enrico Nunziata called on

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Md.

Akhtaruzzaman today October 05, 2021 at the latter's

office of the university. Photo : Courtesy

3 get life term in murder

case in Sirajganj

SIRAJGANJ : A Sirajganj Court on Tuesday was sentenced a

man and his two sons to life imprisonment in a case over killing

his brother in Tarash upazila of the district in 2016.

The lifers are- Nurul Islam, 48, of Mohishluti Uttarpara

village in Tarash upazila and his two sons Md Hasmatullah, 30

and Md Hasan Ali, reports UNB.

Sirajganj District and Sessions Judge Fazle Khoda Md Nazir

handed down the verdict in the presence of the convicts at

12pm.

The convicts were fined Tk 20,000 each, in default, to suffer

another year of rigorous imprisonment.

Public Prosecutor (PP) of Sirajganj District Sessions Judge

Court Advocate Gazi Abdur Rahman confirmed the verdict.

According to the case, the convict Nurul Islam along with his

two sons stabbed his brother Rahmat Ali dead over a land

dispute on March 4 in 2016.

Later, a case was filed at Tarash Police Station. After an

investigation, police submitted charge-sheet before the court in

this regard.

No Covid casualty in last

24 hours in Rangpur

RANGPUR: Rangpur division

recorded no Covid-19

casualty during the last 24

hours ending at 8 am

yesterday as the coronavirus

situation continues

improving during the last

eight weeks, reports BSS.

"Earlier, Rangpur division

witnessed Covid-19 fatalityfree

days on May 16 last and

again no deaths on

September 12, 13, 14, 20, 22,

26, 29 and 30 last," Rangpur

Divisional Deputy Director

(Health) Dr Abu Md Zakirul

Islam told BSS here today.

The number of Covid-19

fatalities remained steady at

1,234 in the division where

the overall Covid-19 satiation

continues improving

consistently.

The district-wise break up

of the 1,234 fatalities stands at

293 in Rangpur, 80 in

Panchagarh, 88 in

Nilphamari, 67 in

Lalmonirhat, 68 in Kurigram,

250 in Thakurgaon, 325 in

Dinajpur and 63 in

Gaibandha of the division.

The average fatality rate

currently stands at 2.24

percent in the division.

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WeDneSDAY, OCTOBeR 6, 2021

3

RU starts

admission

test results

publishing

Oct 10

RAJSHAHI : Rajshahi

University (RU) is going to

start publishing results of the

ongoing admission test for

the first year honours courses

under 2020-2021 academic

session from October 10.

The varsity authorities took

the decision in the admission

committee meeting with Vicechancellor

(VC) Prof Golam

Sabbir Sattar on Wednesday

last, a RU press release said.

According to the decision, the

results announcement will start

from October 10.

Admission of the students will

begin from October 25 and it will

continue until November 29, the

release added. Classes are

expected to start from December

1, 2021.

Meanwhile, the three-day

admission test is going-on since

last Monday.

Students appeared in the

admission test under 'C' unit for

enrolling in the faculties of

Science and Agriculture on

Monday.

The tests are being held in

three shifts - from 9.30 am to

10.30 am, 12 noon to 1 pm and

3 pm to 4 pm - every day.

A total of 1,27,647 students

are taking part in the admission

tests against 4191 seats in 59

departments under 12 faculties

and two institutes as 31 students

are vying for each seat this year,

RU sources said.

On the second day on

Tuesday, 43,558 students are

appearing in the examinations

under 'A' unit for the faculties of

Arts, Law, Social Sciences and

Fine Arts and Institute of

Education and Research.

Fire breaks out

at Peninsula

Chittagong

CHATTOGRAM : A fire

broke out in the basement of

a luxury hotel in the port city

on Tuesday morning.

Fortunately, no casualties

have been reported.

Chattogram fire service

officials told UNB that the

fire started around 6.45 am

at The Peninsula Chittagong

and was contained within an

hour and a half.

Shamim Ahasan

Chowdhury, deputy director

of the fire service, said, "Five

fire tenders were pressed

into service to bring the

blaze under control."

"The extent of damage is

yet to be ascertained. A

probe has been ordered to

find out the exact cause of

the fire," he added.

Founded on July 25, 2002,

The Peninsula Chittagong is

the first and among the very

few luxury hotels in the port

city.

Located near the famous

GEC circle of Chattogram,

the hotel is popular for its

delicious cuisine, top notch

services and attractive

outlets.

The discussants were photographed during the meeting at the conference

room of Department of Meteorology of University of Dhaka. Photo: TBT

FEES holds joint research

collaboration meeting with

concerned stakeholders

TBT REPORT

The quality of research at the

tertiary level of education has

been a defining factor of a

country's overall research

output.The Faculty of Earth

and Environmental Sciences

(FEES) of Dhaka University

took the initiative to organize

a discussion on joint research

collaboration with stakeholders

from government and research

organizations.

The meeting held at 11 am on

Monday in the conference room

of Department of Meteorology

Call to take steps for

ending all kinds of

violence against children

DHAKA: As the Children Act-

2013 lacked proper guideline on

punishment for mental and

physical harassment of

children, a Petition was

submitted to keep clear

provision of punishment in the

Act regarding the harassment

in order to halt all kinds of

violence against children.

The Petition along with 5000

signatures was handed over to

Shamsul Haque Tuku,

Chairman of Parliamentary

Caucus on Child Rights (PCCR)

and Standing Committee on

Ministry of Home Affairs, at his

parliament office on Tuesday, a

press release said.

On behalf of INCIDIN

Bangladesh and Shishu

Surokhay Amra (SSA), A.K.M

Mustaque Ali, Executive

Director of INCIDIN

Bangladesh and Focal of SSA,

handed over the Petition.

Local people from Dhaka,

Khulna and Chittagong signed

the Petition.

The Petition hoped that

Parliamentary Caucus on Child

Rights (PCCR) will take

necessary steps for including

at Mokarrom Hossain

Khandoker Science Building of

the university. The meeting was

attended by Dr. Towhida

Rashid, Chairperson of the

Department of Meteorology,

Dhaka University; Md. Jobaer

Alam, Chairman, Department

of Oceanography, University of

Dhaka; Saeed Mahmud Belal

Haidar, DG of Bangladesh

Oceanographic Research

Institute, Ramu, Cox's Bazar;

Professor Dewan A. Kadir,

Department of Meteorology,

Dhaka University; Shamsuddin

Ahmed, Director, Bangladesh

clear provisions in the Children

Act to ensure punishment for

physical and mental

harassment of children.

The petition also demanded

the implementation of the High

Court verdict in 2011 for

stopping physical and mental

harassment of children;

activating student council and

student cabinet at educational

institutions; establishing One

Stop Service and making it

effective for ending physical

and mental punishment of

children.

Besides, it pressed for

hanging notice board at

educational institutions with a

directive for banning physical

and mental punishment of

children and taking steps for its

proper monitoring.

Mushfiqur Rahman,

Advocacy Focal of INCIDIN

Bangladesh; Mahboob Mirza,

Project Coordinator; Nurjahan

Akter, Case Manager cum

Counselor, INCIDIN

Bangladesh; and Hamid Al

Mahboob, Personal Secretary of

Shamsul Haque Tuku; were

present on the occasion.

Meteorological Department,

Agargaon, Dhaka; Commodore

Golam Sadeq, Chairman

Bangladesh Inland Water

Transport Authority; Dr. Md.

Abdul Mannan, S M Kamrul

Hasan, Md. Bazlur Rashid, Md.

Monoar Hossain, Dr. Md. Abul

Kalam Mallik of Bangladesh

Meteorological Department.

With a vision to improve its

position in the international

ranking of the universities,

the FEES authority is taking

such persuasive measures

engaging all the concerned

parties.

IU to reopen

residential

halls on Oct 9

ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY :

After a gap of nearly 18

months, Islamic University

(IU) in Kushtia is all set to

reopen its residential halls to

students on October 9,

reports UNB.

Regular classes of all

departments, however, will

resume from October 20, IU

information publication and

public relations office

director Ataul Hoque said.

The decision to reopen the

residential halls was taken at

IU's 263rd syndicate

meeting held at vice

chancellor Professor Shaikh

Abdus Salam's official

residence Monday. The

meeting was chaired by the

VC.

Students will have to

produce proof of at least one

dose of a Covid vaccine to

access the residential

facilities and attend the

classes, Ataul said. The

central library of the

university, however,

reopened on Tuesday.

"All arrangements have

been made to reopen the

residential halls. But no

student will be allowed to

stay at the 'gana room' as it

could cause a surge in Covid

infections, the vicechancellor

said.

As the Children Act-2013 lacked proper guideline on punishment for mental and physical harassment of

children, a Petition was submitted to keep clear provision of punishment in the Act regarding the harassment

in order to halt all kinds of violence against children.

Photo : Courtesy

Court defers pronouncing

judgement in graft case against

former CJ Sinha, others

DHAKA : A court on Tuesday

adjourned

the

pronouncement of

judgement till October 21 in a

case against former Chief

Justice (CJ) Surendra Kumar

(SK) Sinha and 10 others for

allegedly embezzling Taka

four crore from the then

Farmers Bank and

laundering the money

abroad.

Acting judge Ali Hossain of

Dhaka Special Judge Court-4

passed the order as the

regular judge Sheikh Nazmul

Alam was on leave on

Tuesday.

Earlier on September 14,

Dhaka Special Judge Court-4

had set on Tuesday to

pronounce the judgement as

both prosecution and

defence concluded their

closing arguments in the case

on that day.


four accused, former

chairman of then Farmer's

Bank's Audit Committee Md

Mahbubul Haque Chisty

alias Babul Chisty, vicepresident

M Lutful Haque,

managing director AKM

Shameem and senior

executive vice-president Gazi

Salauddin placed written

statements in their defence

before the court.

Seven accused out of the

total 11 in their statements in

self defence on August 29,

had pleaded not guilty and

demanded justice from the

court. These seven accused

are- Babul Chisty, AKM

Shameem, M Lutful Haque,

Gazi Salauddin, first vicepresident

of the then

Farmer's Bank Swapan

Kumar Roy and bank clients

Md Shahjahan and Niranjon

Chandra Saha.

Dhaka Special Judge

Court-4 on August 13, 2020,

framed charges in the case.

ACC director Benjir

Ahmed had filed the chargesheet

in the case with the

court of Dhaka Metropolitan

Sessions Judge KM Imrul

Qayes on December 10,

2019. The court, however, on

February 20, 2020,

transferred the case to Dhaka

Special Judge Court-4 for

further proceedings.

The Anti-Corruption

Commission (ACC) filed the

case on July 10, 2019, for

embezzling Taka four crore

from the then Farmers Bank

and laundering the money

abroad.

The other accused are

AKM Shameem, Swapan

Kumar Roy, Shafiuddin

Askaree, Gazi Salauddin, M

Lutful Haque, Md Mahbubul

Haque Chisty alias Babul

Chisty, Md Shahjahan,

Niranjan Chandra Saha, his

uncle Ranajit Chandra Saha

and Ranajit's wife Santi Roy.

According to the allegation,

Md Shahjahan and Niranjan

took the money on loan from

the then Farmers Bank,

which was later transferred

to Justice Sinha's Sonali

Bank account, showing it was

earned from selling of his

(Sinha's) house.

State Minister for Religious Affairs Md. Faridul Haque Khan addressed the preparatory meeting on

the use of information technology for the smooth and efficient conduct of the holy Hajj in the conference

room of the ministry as the chief guest.

Photo: PBA

Indictment hearing

in Khaleda's Niko

graft case on Nov 4

DHAKA : A court yesterday

adjourned the hearing on

charge framing in Niko graft

case against BNP

chairperson Begum Khaleda

Zia and others, till

November 4, reports BSS.

Tuesday was fixed for

holding the hearing, but

acting judge Nazrul Islam of

Dhaka 9th Special Judge

Court adjourned the matter

as the regular judge Sheikh

Hafizur Rahman was on

leave.


the court had adjourned the

hearing till Tuesday as the

defence started their part of

hearing but failed to

conclude on that day.

The Anti-Corruption

Commission (ACC) filed the

case against five including

Begum Khaleda Zia with

Tejgaon Police Station on

December 9, 2007, for

abusing power in signing a

deal with Canadian

company Niko for exploring

and extracting gas.

The ACC on May 5, 2008,

submitted the charge-sheet

against 11 people including

Khaleda Zia. The ACC

accused them of incurring a

loss of more than Taka 13

thousand crore of state

exchequer by that deal.

The other accused in the

case are- Barrister Moudud

Ahmed, AKM Mosharraf

Hossain, Kamal Uddin

Siddiqui, Khandaker

Shahidul Islam, CM Eusuf

Hossain, Mir Moinul Haque,

Md Shafiur Rahman, Gias

Uddin Al Mamun, MAH

Selim and Kashem Sharif.

Mamata thanks Momen, highlights

Bengal's proximity to Bangladesh

DHAKA : Bengal Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee has thanked Bangladesh Foreign

Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen for his

congratulatory message over her recent win

in the assembly bypoll.

In her letter to Dr Momen, Mamata said

that Bangladesh and Bengal "are very close

to each other in terms of thoughts,

consciousness and mind beyond

geographical boundaries".

"People of Bengal have put their trust in us,

they put their trust in us again. We will give

due respect to this trust and love of the

people. We will always be there by their side

in happiness and sorrow," Mamata wrote.

She also greeted Dr Momen and his family

Man held

for raping

6-yr-old in

Natore

NATORE : A 32-year-old

man has been arrested for

allegedly raping the sevenyear-old

granddaughter of

his elder brother in Natore,

reports UNB.

The arrestee has been

identified as Rabiul, a

resident of Gurudaspur in

the district.

Family sources told UNB

that Rabiul lured the girl to

an under-construction

building adjacent to her

house and allegedly raped

her. Hearing her screams,

local people rushed to the

rescue of the girl.

Though the accused

managed to flee the spot, a

team from Guudaspur police

station arrested Rabiul from

Jumainagar village in the

early hours of Monday.

Officer-in-charge of

Gurudaspur police station

Abdul Matin said that a rape

case has been registered

against the accused. "The

rape survivor has been

admitted to the Upazila

Health Complex," he said.

members ahead of Durga Puja.

Earlier, Dr Momen congratulated the

Bengal Chief Minister and her party

Trinamool Congress for the win in the byelections.

In his congratulatory message to

Mamata, the Foreign Minister hoped that

Bangladesh's relations with Bengal would be

closer and complementary in the days to

come in the interest of mutual welfare and

development.

Mamata won the Bhabanipur assembly

seat on Sunday by a record margin of 58,832

votes against Priyanka Tibrewal of the

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This victory ensured her continuance as

the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

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WeDneSDAy, OCTObeR 6, 2021

4

Universities are going to reopen:What are the challenges ahead?

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

PM is expected to

stay the course

We have been observing with great satisfaction the

crackdown that was initiated from last March

with actions against casino operators. Gradually,

the crackdown spread into other sectors as well. But at that

time, overthinking and undue pessimism was noted in

some quarters that the crackdown would soon peter out

and all would be business as usual. But blissfully the

juggernaut against crime and corruption launched from

the highest level of power in the country has only grown

stronger and stronger.

Day after day the dragnet against the czars of corruption,

fraud, illegal amassing of wealth, bribery, misuse of official

power, etc. has ben rolling on sparing nobody. Most

importantly, the drive has shaken off attempts at influence

peddling in favour of identified guilty ones

notwithstanding their political connections or profiles.

Indeed, in the entire history of Bangladesh there is no

record of a government moving so undauntingly or

fearlessly against members of its own political partysuch as

the presentanti crime and anti corruption drive under the

leadership of Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina.

Indeed, people of the country are one in hoping that no

power will be able to prevent the PM from staying the

course all the way. The same have only reaffirmed the

reality that in Bangladesh todaynobody is the above the law

and the arm of the law will grab any one otherwise

wrongfully perceivedas untouchable.

While deeply appreciating this fact, there is one aspect to

which the people expect their government's attention must

be directed fully. This is their keen expectation that not

only the sultans of crime and corruption be caught with

their arrests and starting of cases against them. People

expect that simultaneouslythe arrested ones or their family

members must not be allowed to use their illegally amassed

wealth in the slightest to cover up their misdeeds or to go

on enjoying their ill gotten wealth in other ways. We have

seen very recently initiatives taken by a specialised agency

of the government to freeze the bank accounts of certain

crime lords and their family members. But we believe that

such initiatives must not be limited to tokenism only.

For example, the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC)

has started a case against an alleged delinquent and

murderer in the police service, one former OC Pradeep on

charges of owning a mere 4 crore Taka in excess of his

declared sources of income. But realistically and according

to fair media reports he indirectly owns properties worth

hundreds of crores of Taka not to speak of hundreds of

crores hemoney laundered into other countries to be

stashed away in secret accounts or for buying real estate.

People want that ACC should start investigating all such

monies and properties in entirety , gained through crime

and corruption and lay claim to these or make any further

sale or use of such properties by them, impossible.

Media has reported credibly on the great corruption

indulged in by the so called managing director of as non

bank financial institutions. (DFIs). He has allegedly

misappropriated hundreds of crores of Takain this manner

from other DFIs and laundered them abroad to buy

properties and other assets. This man is currently living

comfortably in Canada and the hands of the law cannot

reach him there.

Our point is : should our legal process be limited to only

starting or investigating cases against them ? Or should we

feel a smug satisfaction that some of them could be arrested

? No, certainly not. There would be people's satisfaction

and appreciation from only knowing that these nabobs of

corruption and crimewill never be in a position to enjoy or

use their ill gotten wealth again, even partly.

Government's relevant agencies and the Central Bank

must track down each and every secret or open bank

account of such individuals within the country and freeze

them instantly. All out efforts must be made in

collaboration with foreign governments and authorities to

bring back to Bangladesh the monies and values of

properties of these persons in foreign territories. The same

would then be deposited in our public treasury for

spending as deemed fit by our government.

No leniency should be tolerated in the process. Any effort

to help the accused in these matters from bribery and other

means, also will have to be sternly investigated, prevented

and punished. Of course the accused may be allowed to

spend with official permission reasonable amounts from

the seized or frozen funds to pay for their allowable legal

expenses and family maintenance. But the seized amounts

of cash and properties to remain on settlement of the cases

against them, the same must be deposited in the public

exchequer for spending on country's development

activities and projects for the welfare of common people.

We believe that doing such things, fully and successfully,

will earn for the government of the day in Bangladesh sky

high recognition for a good deed done and lasting support

from the rank and file of the people.

We also call on the governments and people of those

countries which are proving to be shelter givers of the crime

lords of our country to wake up to their responsibilities.

These front rank countries of the world are regarded as so

for their achievements in so many things. But such profiles

are likely to be tarnished soon as more and more people in

developing countries like ours find out that the

administrations and certain people in these countries do

not mind complicity with law dodgers in our country for

pecuniary gains. So, it needs to be wake up time for the

authorities in those countries as well.

Happily, the country

has coped with the

latest outbreak of

COVID-19 pandemic.

Since April-May this

year, the country has

faced two severe

outbreaks of COVID-

19. In the first phase,

the surge was due to

the South African or beta variant. Since

mid-March, the rate of infection has been

rising sharply. For the first time in the

country, the number of daily cases

exceeded seven thousand and the number

of deaths one hundred. The detection rate

compared to the number of tests has been

20 percent or above for several weeks in a

row.

Though the outbreak had subsided by

the end of May, the experts were not

relieved. This was because at the same

time neighbouring India was facing the

worst attack ever of the pandemic with the

delta or Indian type of the virus. It was

pretty much expected that the outbreak

will spread to Bangladesh. All that

remained was to see when it would arrive

and how horrible it would be. However, it

did not take long. The attack started in

June and took a dangerous turn in July-

August. The country saw more than 10, 00

new cases a day for several weeks in a row,

what even exceeded 15,000 at some stage.

Day after day the number of deaths stood

at over two hundred. At the same time, the

detection rate was around 30 percent. The

severity of the outbreak and the death

march caused outcry across the country.

The health care system of the country was

on the verge of collapse.

Since the onset of the pandemic in

March last year,this deadly bug struck the

country in three phases. The first outbreak

started in March last year when the first

COVID-19 patient was detected in the

country and lasted for almost the whole

year. At this phase, the original form of the

coronavirus is thought to have played a

key role. The second and third outbreaks

have already been discussed above.

During April-May this year, the second

outbreak came with a strange speed and

intensity at a time when people started

thinking that perhaps the pandemic is

over. The third outbreak, which lasted

from mid-June to mid-September this

year was so severe in agility and intensity

that if it had endured for a long time, the

overall structure of the health care system

and economy of the country might have

collapsed totally.

By the grace of Allah, this last and most

severe attack of the pandemic has finally

come to an end in September. The timely

intervention in the middle through nearly

one month of country-wide lockdown

might have played an important role here.

The ongoing mass immunization program

in the country also has undoubtedly

DR MOhAMMAD DIDARe AlAM MuhSIn

contributed to this. According to media

reports, Dr Firdausi Qadri, a 2021 Ramon

Magsaysay Award-winning scientist,

estimates that 60 to 70 percent of the

country's population has developed herd

immunity against COVID-19, which

played a role in controlling infection.

The question is if that was the final

outbreak of the pandemic, or we may see

more of them in future. And what should

we do to prevent re-emergence of such an

outbreak? What makes this question

more important is the fact that after

remaining closed for almost one year and

a half, the government has finally taken a

cautious attempt to reopen schools and

colleges from September 12. The

government has also signalled for

reopening universities after September

27. However, the education minister has

warned that educational institutions may

be closed again if the infection rate soars.

It may be mentioned here that in many

countries of the world, including

neighbouring India, the infection has

picked up again after the opening of

educational institutions or lifting of

lockdowns / restrictions. Even,

somewhere the restrictions had to be reimposed.

It is important to understand the causes

before deciding on remedies. The game of

sunshine and rain that we see with

COVID-19, I mean re-emergence of

outbreaks after one subsides, broadly may

have two major grounds --- scientists

believe. First, when an outbreak of the

pandemic subsides, restrictions are lifted

and educational institutions are reopened,

people begin to show reluctance to follow

health protocols. As they are set free on a

sudden after a long shutdown, some

people start behaving reckless paying no

heed to anything. As a consequence, the

people, who were confined at home and so

protected from the bug, become exposed

to it and start getting infected.

Second, the emergence of new variants

of the virus through mutation. Though

most of them did not cause any significant

problems, some proved to be dangerous.

The last two outbreaks of the pandemic

hitting Bangladesh this year were due to

such newly emerged variants. Although

these variants initially emerged in some

other regions of the world, they spread

around the world in a very short time due

to their high infectivity and

transmissibility. Scientists believe that the

more the virus spreads from person to

person, the more likely it is that new

variants will emerge through mutation.

Therefore, in order to prevent fresh

outbreaks, it is necessary to quickly bring

the entire population under vaccination,

so that the chances of spread of the virus

could be halted. At the same time, it is

important to continue to follow the health

protocols, such as wearing masks and

maintaining physical distance, without

paying much attention to the statistics.

Because, even if you have completed the

dose of vaccine, there is no guarantee that

you will not be infected with any new

variant.

The schools and colleges have already

opened. Universities are also going to

open soon. There is great excitement and

joy in the eyes of the students. The

guardians and the general public are also

breathing a sigh of relief. The question is:

will this joy and excitement last? Will

there not be a situation like closing down

educational institutions again? What do

we need to do? Covid-19 is nothing new

any longer. Everyone knows more or

lesswhat happens from what, or what are

the safeguards. However, from the above

discussion, it is clear that still there are

risks. With a little carelessness,

universities can become hot spots for the

spread of infection. As a precaution, the

government has strongly instructed to

ensure 100 per cent vaccination of

students, teachers, officers and staff

before opening the universities. After

opening, the main challenge will be to

ensure the wearing of masks, maintaining

social distance and avoiding public

gatherings.

For this purpose, it may be necessary to

conduct classes with a half or one-third of

the students in the classroom. There may

be a need to take classes in multiple shifts

or apply online-offline (hybrid) method.

There is no scope for continuing culture of

the 'public room', sharing the bed or lying

on floor that has been going on in the

hostels for so long. The question is: how to

sort out accommodations for the students

used to live this way? If the administration

takes the responsibility, a solution will

come out. There should be a plan in

advance. Food shops on and around

campus, including dining halls, canteens,

and cafeterias, can be a source of

contagion due to uncontrolled crowds and

unhealthy serving. Proper management of

VIjAy PRAShAD

this area will not be easy without a precise

and detailed action plan. With the

opening of the campus after a long break,

there will be a tendency among students

to gather in hostels, shops, and hangouts.

That, too, needs to be controlled.

In a country like ours, university level

teachers and students are the most

conscious and progressive part of the

society. Traditionally, they have been the

leaders of the nation in the arena of

thought and consciousness at any critical

juncture. Therefore, they are not at all

unaware of the issues mentioned above.

But, in spite of that, you may see that a

significant part of this community is

unnecessarily neglecting these issues. As if

they want to say: does it really matter?

Therefore, the university administration

needs to take special measures to ensure

hygiene on campus. The university always

has a proctorial team. However, there is a

need to consider whether it is sufficient in

terms of manpower and the type of work.

Unless university students voluntarily

extend a helping hand, it may not be easy

to enforce rules and regulations on them.

Therefore, formation of sufficient number

of patrol teams comprising teachers and

students for various departments, halls

and, above all, for the entire campus,

deserves serious consideration.

In the reality of this country, the

university campuses are a lot like

gunpowder. Suddenly even a very small

incident may give rise to huge unrest here.

It is not uncommon for some teachers and

students to fall ill after the campus opens,

despite all the precautionary measures.

Some cases may even need

hospitalization. Even a single accident

here may lead to a fatal reaction.

Therefore, it is important to have an

arrangement within the university

premises for immediate examination and

necessary care to deal with any teacher or

student presenting with COVID-19

symptoms. COVID-19 pandemic has

forced policymakers across the world to

place special emphasis on health care.

In this changed reality, initiatives can be

taken to transform the existing medical

centres in the country's universities into

kind of small hospitals with state-of-theart

facilities. These in turn will be able to

provide healthcare to the university family

as well as surrounding localities. In many

countries of the world, university health

centres provide such services. If it could be

introduced in this country, the pressure

on the conventional public and private

health care centres will also be reduced.

Besides, students studying health related

subjects at the university level will also get

the opportunity to receive hands-on

education in various fields here.

The Writer is Professor and Chairman,

Department of Pharmacy,

Jahangirnagar University.

Why all eyes are on the Afghan-Tajikistan border

Afghanistan and Tajikistan share a

1,400-kilometer border. Recently,

a war of words erupted between

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and the

Taliban government in Kabul. Rahmon

censures the Taliban for the

destabilization of Central Asia by the

export of militant groups, while the

Taliban leadership has accused

Tajikistan's government of interference.

This summer, Rahmon mobilized

20,000 troops to the border, and held

military exercises and discussions with

Russia and other members of the

Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Afghan

government, Zabihullah Mujahid,

tweeted pictures of Afghan troops

deployed to Takhar province on the

border of the two countries.

The escalation of harsh language

continues. Prospects of war between these

two countries should not be discounted,

but given the role Russia plays in

Tajikistan, it is unlikely.

On September 3, former Afghan vicepresident

Amrullah Saleh tweeted, "The

RESISTANCE is continuing and will

continue. I am here with my soil, for my

soil & defending its dignity." A few days

later, the Taliban took the Panjshir Valley,

where Saleh had taken refuge for the past

two weeks, and he slipped across the

border into Tajikistan. The resistance

inside Afghanistan died down.

Since 2001, Saleh had worked closely

with the US Central Intelligence Agency

and then had become the head of

Afghanistan's National Directorate of

Security (2004-2010). He had previously

worked closely with Ahmad Shah

Massoud of the right-wing Jamiat-e

Islami and of the Northern Alliance.

Saleh fled by helicopter to Tajikistan

with Massoud's son Ahmad. They were

later joined in Tajikistan's capital

Dushanbe by Abdul Latif Pedram, leader

of the National Congress Party of

Since the onset of the pandemic in March last year,this deadly bug

struck the country in three phases. The first outbreak started in

March last year when the first COVID-19 patient was detected in the

country and lasted for almost the whole year. At this phase, the original

form of the coronavirus is thought to have played a key role.

Afghanistan. These men followed the lead

of the Northern Alliance, which had taken

refuge in Tajikistan's Kulob region after

the Taliban victory in 1996.

The personal ties between Ahmad Shah

Massoud and Tajikistan's President

Rahmon go back to the early 1990s.

In March this year, Afghanistan's

ambassador to Tajikistan, Mohammad

Zahir Aghbar, remembered that in the

early 1990s Massoud told a group of Tajik

fighters in Kabul, "I do not want the war in

Afghanistan to be transferred to Tajikistan

under the banner of Islam. It is enough

that our country has been fraudulently

destroyed. Go and make peace in your

country."

That Massoud had backed the antigovernment

United Tajik Opposition, led

by the Islamic Renaissance Party, is

conveniently forgotten.

After the Taliban took Kabul on August

15, and just before Saleh and Massoud

escaped to Dushanbe, on September 2

Rahmon conferred upon the late Ahmad

Shah Massoud the highest civilian award

of Tajikistan, the Order of Ismoili Somoni.

This, the protection afforded to the Salehled

resistance movement, and Tajikistan's

refusal to recognize the Taliban

government in Kabul sent a clear signal to

the Taliban from Rahmon's government.

Rahmon says the main reason is that he

is dismayed by the Taliban's anti-Tajik

stance. But this is not entirely the case.

One in four Afghans is Tajik, while half of

Kabul claims Tajik ancestry. The economy

minister, Qari Din Mohammad Hanif, is

not only Tajik, but comes from

Badakhshan province, which borders

Tajikistan. The real reason is Rahmon's

concerns about regional destabilization.

On September 11, Saidmukarram

Abdulqodirzoda, the head of Tajikistan's

Islamic Council of Ulema, condemned the

Taliban as being anti-Islamic in its

treatment of women and in its promotion

of terrorism.

Abdulqodirzoda, the lead imam in

Tajikistan, has led a decade-long process

to purge "extremists" from the ranks of

This summer, Rahmon mobilized 20,000 troops to the border, and held

military exercises and discussions with Russia and other members of the

Collective Security Treaty Organization. Meanwhile, the spokesman for

the Afghan government, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted pictures of Afghan

troops deployed to Takhar province on the border of the two countries.

mosque leaders. Many foreign-trained

imams have been replaced

(Abdulqodirzoda had been trained in

Islamabad, Pakistan), and foreign funding

of mosques has been closely monitored.

Abdulqodirzoda frequently talks about

the bloody civil war that tore Tajikistan

apart between 1992 and 1997. Between

1990, when the USSR began to collapse,

and 1992, when the civil war began, a

thousand mosques - more than one a day

- opened across the country. Saudi

Arabia's money and influence rushed into

the country, as did the influence of the

right-wing Afghan leaders Massoud and

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Rahmon, as chairman of the Supreme

Assembly of Tajikistan (1992-1994) and

then as president (from 1994), led the

fight against the Islamic Renaissance

Party (IRP), which was eventually crushed

by 1997.

The ghost of the civil war reappeared in

2010, when Mullah Amriddin Tabarov, a

commander in the IRP, founded Jamaat

Ansarullah. In 1997, Tabarov fled to join

the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

(IMU), one of the fiercest of the extremist

groups in that era.

The IMU and Tabarov developed close

ties with al-Qaeda, fleeing Afghanistan

and Uzbekistan after the US invasion of

2001 for Iraq, later Syria. Tabarov was

caught by the Afghan government of

Ashraf Ghani in July 2015 and killed.

As the Taliban began to make gains in

Afghanistan late last year, a thousand

Ansarullah fighters arrived from their

sojourn with Islamic State in Syria and

Iraq. When Darwaz fell to the Taliban in

November 2020, it was these Ansarullah

fighters who took the lead.

Tajikistan's Rahmon has made it clear

that he fears a spillover of Ansarullah into

his country, dragging it back into the war

of the 1990s. The fear of that war has

allowed Rahmon to remain in power,

using every means to squash any

democratic opening in Tajikistan.

In mid-September, Dushanbe hosted

the 21st meeting of the Shanghai

Cooperation Organization Council of the

Heads of State. Pakistani Prime Minister

Imran Khan had several talks with

Rahmon about the situation in

Afghanistan. As the war of words

escalated, Khan called Rahmon on

October 3 to ask that the tension be

reduced. Russia and China have also

called for restraint.

It is unlikely that guns will be fired

across the border; neither Dushanbe nor

Kabul would like to see that outcome. But

both sides are using the tension for their

own ends - for Rahmon, to ensure that the

Taliban will keep Ansarullah in check, and

for the Taliban, for Rahmon to recognize

their government.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian

historian, editor and journalist

WEDnEsDay, oCtobEr 6, 2021

5

CathErInE PEarson

A new report published last week revealed just

how much content promoting eating disorders

to women and teens lives on Instagram. And

unsurprisingly: There's way too much. The

data, from the advocacy group SumOfUs, lands

on the heels of an explosive Wall Street Journal

series alleging that the company is fully aware

of its platform's negative impact - including the

toxic impact it has on teenage girls.

And while eating disorder experts have long

warned that Instagram can help fuel eating

disorders, taken together the new reports paint

a picture of a problem that is spiraling out of

control.

"Eating disorder experts are exceedingly

concerned about the detrimental impacts of

social media on not only those with eating

disorders, but also those with disordered

eating, mood disorders, and poor body image,"

psychologist Samantha DeCaro, director of

clinical outreach and education for The

Renfrew Center, a residential treatment center

for eating disorders, told HuffPost.

"Although these platforms can be used as a

tool to develop and maintain relationships,

they can also be used to self-objectify, compare

themselves to peers, motivate harmful

behaviors, and seek external validation

through the number of likes, views and

comments," she said.

The new SumOfUs report looked at a sample

of 720 Instagram posts, 240 of which were

related to eating disorders. The report also

looked at posts about plastic surgery and skin

whitening.

Researchers found that 87.6% of the eating

disorder-related posts pushed unapproved

appetite suppressants, while nearly 53%

directly promoted eating disorders.

They included a few examples of harmful

posts, including those that directly promote

extreme diets (like a daily meal plan that comes

How toxic Instagram is for body image

Facebook has stopped plans to launch Instagram Kids - for now. Experts say that's not

enough. Photo: Getty

in at well under 200 calories a day), as well as

pictures of teenage girls with captions full of

negative self-talk.

But there are millions of posts being shared

with eating disorder-related hashtags that

Facebook (which owns Instagram) does little to

combat, the report argues.

"While Instagram takes action to remove the

most obvious hashtags that promote eating

disorders, Instagram users can easily get

around this by using creative hashtags ... to

evade attempts to suppress their content," the

researchers write.

And mental health experts warn that even

content that does not seem obviously toxic can

be profoundly damaging to teens. For example,

when Instagram influencers post videos about

what they eat in a day, many teenagers closely

follow their advice even though the poster is

not a nutrition expert or medical professional -

and they learn to dismiss their own preferences

and hunger cues, DeCaro said.

"There is also research that suggests that the

mere act of editing and posting a photo can

potentially increase anxiety, weight concerns,

and urges to restrict," she added.

It's unclear to what extent Facebook or

Congress will make changes to better protect

tweens and teens from the impact of social

media on mental health and body image.

Facebook has previously pushed back on

claims that its platforms are harmful to teens,

saying that research linking declining teen

mental health and social media is not

conclusive.

Still, company executives have been

gathering for emergency meetings in recent

weeks, The New York Times reported. The

company recently shelved plans for Instagram

Kids, a service aimed at tweens, at least for the

time being.

But for now, much of the burden of buffering

the toxic impact of Instagram on teens' mental

health falls squarely on parents and on children

themselves. "When I read the report I

continued to be shocked and distressed ... but

it's not new," said Jillian Lampert, chief

strategy officer of The Emily Program, an

eating disorder treatment program. "We know

that social media, and particularly images,

have a really significant impact upon people

viewing them. Particularly young, developing

brains."

Parents can start by simply knowing what

accounts kids have - including any "finstas" -

and follow them, Lampert urged. Talk to teens

directly about what they're seeing, about what

they're posting, and how they feel about all of it.

(She noted that she is a mom of teenagers

herself, and was unaware of her kids' had other

Instagram accounts for a year.)

Also, putting clear limits around when they

can use their devices can help. "Do they have

their phone in their room all night long? Is the

WiFi on all of the time?" Lampert said. "We

know it's enticing! We know kids won't just put

down their phone and say, 'Hm, I probably

shouldn't do this anymore. It's not good for my

developing brain.'"

Because ultimately, while Instagram can be a

toxic environment for tweens, teens and young

adults, social media is an important part of

connection and socializing for them - and can

be a powerful way for them to connect with

therapists and reputable treatment facilities,

for example, DeCaro said.

"Social media can also be a way for younger

folks to seek out and follow creators who are

diverse in body types, abilities, genders, races,

ethnicities and sexualities to help challenge the

toxic narratives pushed on us by the beauty and

diet industries," she added.

The challenge is helping teens tap into those

potential upsides while avoiding content that

promotes destructive behavior - and that

cannot be done by parents alone. Advocacy

groups like Fairplay are working to make the

internet safer for young people, and very

publicly pushed back against the Instagram for

kids along with child development experts.

The company itself also needs to make

moves. Earlier this year, Instagram tested

hiding "likes" as a way to help promote better

mental health when using the app. Some have

suggested other changes to the app ? like

calling out photos that have been cosmetically

altered ? could also make a difference. It's on

everyone to take this problem seriously.

Reminding tweens and teens that social media

is not a reflection of reality, and setting limits

can also help.

Best products to help you

in the toilet

nIColE PajEr

Everybody poops, so we may as well

make it as enjoyable as possible. Or, at

the very least, as unmemorable as

possible. Enter these items, which will

help get things moving and

undoubtedly elevate the experience

when they do (even if you think you

have zero issues in the No. 2

department). We've rounded up stools,

bidets, toilet paper, sprays and more

products that will help. Take a look

below.

The Squatty Potty is a stool that hugs

the base of your toilet seat and is

designed to help you plant your feet to

get into a natural squatting position.

It's meant to help you achieve the

posture most conducive to a healthy

bowel movement, which may improve

symptoms of constipation and

hemorrhoids.

When it comes to keeping you

regular, doctors are big fans of fiber.

Cedrek McFadden, a board-certified

colorectal and general surgeon in

Greenville, South Carolina, suggests

finding the best version that works for

you.

"If you prefer fiber gummies, use

them. If you prefer a fiber pill, take that

one. If you can tolerate a fiber powder

mixed in water, use that. Ultimately,

pick the fiber product you can do and

tolerate every day," he said.

You can also get tons of fiber through

your diet: Pears, apples, broccoli,

avocado and artichokes are all healthy

sources of the nutrient. There are also

cereals out there specifically made to

bring you a healthy dose of fiber,

including this Poop Like A Champion

Ultra Fiber cereal, which contains an

impressive 22 grams per serving.

McFadden said the goal should be to

get about 25 to 35 grams of fiber per

day, but it's best to speak to your doctor

to find a recommendation that most

suits your specific needs.

Dehydration can cause your stools to

harden, leading to constipation, so

drinking enough water is key to having

healthy bowel movements. Keeping a

water bottle on your desk while you

work and bringing one with you when

you leave the house ensures you've

always got some H2O around to sip.

Using the bathroom doesn't leave the

air behind you smelling so fresh.

Spritzing a little lavender vanilla in the

air just might help you relax, knowing

that you'll be leaving some pleasant

smells behind. This air freshener

conceals anything ? just use a little

before you go and it's like you never

even entered the bathroom in the first

place.

It's not the most pleasant activity in

the world, but looking at your poop can

tell you a lot about your health. "The

Good Sh*t" informs you all about how

your stools should look. This book will

teach you what a proper poo looks like,

how to have one and how to create an

action plan to help you attain your

pooping goals.

This may seem like a stretch, but hear

us out: High stress levels can cause an

array of issues, including digestive

upset. And a multitude of studies have

found that yoga can go a long way in

helping to ward off anxiety. So why not

try a flow to get things, well, flowing?

Heidi Kristoffer, creator of the

CrossFlow Yoga app, suggested trying a

happy baby pose, a wide knees child

pose and a supine spinal twist if your

stomach is bothering you. Of course, a

yoga mat makes all of this a little easier.

Go for something that has a natural

grippy surface to help it stick to the

floor while you're doing your twists.

What if you could be charitable,

environmentally friendly and wipe

your behind at the same time? Who

Gives a Crap uses 100% bamboo fibers

instead of trees. And 50% of the

company's profits help build toilets and

help improve sanitation in developing

countries around the world.

Everyone's pooping habits are

unique. Some people get in and get out,

while others like to sit on the john and

relax. If you're one of the latter, you

might be looking for something to

entertain you. The Potty Putter toilet

golf game can help you pass some

phone-free time on the pot. Just make

sure to wash your hands after you use

it.

Giving your gut a healthy dose of

good bacteria may help you out in the

bathroom department. One study

showed that probiotics in yogurt can

improve stool frequency and

consistency. You can also take a

probiotic supplement to help promote

regular, healthy and comfortable bowel

movements. Ask your doctor for a

recommendation.

Sometimes a simple piece of toilet

paper won't cut it. Many people keep a

package of wipes next to their toilet, but

the majority of these are not septictank

friendly. Fohm is a touchless

dispenser and gentle cleanser designed

to replace flushable wipes. To use,

simply stick a piece of toilet paper

under the device. There's also a toilet

topper kit for those who don't want the

look of a dispenser hanging on the wall.

If you want to give your bum a good

wash, the Whisper Bidet prides itself on

being "a tiny shower for your butt." It

attaches to your toilet seat and turns

any toilet into a toilet/bidet combo.

relieve constipation or solve your other bathroom woes with these game-changing items.

Photo: Collected

Practicing good sleep hygiene is the key to alleviating some of your CoVID stress-related sleep problems.

Photo: Getty

How to deal with COVID sleep problems

KylI roDrIGuEz-Cayro

If you've found yourself tossing and

turning more over the past few months,

you're not alone. With the resurgence

in COVID-19 cases, the constant

reassessment of your own risk levels,

and the ongoing conversations about

booster vaccines, it's normal to feel

anxious ? and for your sleep to take a

hit as a result.

"Clients have experienced a variety of

sleep problems including insomnia,

nightmares, twitching, irregular sleep

patterns, sleep apnea and teeth

grinding during the pandemic," Merryl

Reichbach, a psychotherapist and

member of the Alma ment al health copractice

community, told HuffPost.

"Many have had nightmares, especially

ones related to contamination and

fears about being in public places. It's

been pretty striking."

A good night's rest plays an essential

role in physical and mental wellness, so

it's important to tackle sleep issues

before they become unmanageable.

From insomnia to teeth grinding, here

are expert-approved ways to cope with

all your COVID stress-related sleep

problems.

Yes, "coronasomnia" (as some people

call it) is a very real phenomenon. An

estimated 50 to 70 million American

adults have a sleep disorder such as

insomnia or night terrors, according to

the American Sleep Association. And

research suggests that sleep problems

have become more prevalent since the

start of the pandemic.

A systematic review of studies

conducted in 39 countries found that

around 18% of the general population

has experienced sleep issues this year.

What's more, the same review showed

that 31% of health care professionals

and 57% of patients with the

coronavirus reported struggling with

sleep.

Suzanne Bertisch, the clinical

director of behavioral sleep medicine at

Brigham and Women's Hospital and an

assistant professor of medicine at

Harvard Medical School, explained

that insomnia is often paired with a

"level of daytime dysfunction." For

instance, poor sleep can hinder

cognitive functioning, worsen

depression and negatively affect the

immune system.

You could also develop issues

involving your mouth: If you wake up

in the morning with a tender or tense

jaw, facial pain, headaches or sensitive

teeth, you may be grinding your teeth

while you sleep.

Many experts believe that these

COVID-related sleep disturbances are a

result of the chronic stress and trauma

that people have experienced

throughout the pandemic. When

people are exposed to stressors, the

body will adapt to "survive" this stress

and trigger the fight-or-flight response,

according to Ernesto Lira de la Rosa, a

licensed clinical psychologist who is

also part of the Hope for Depression

Research Foundation.

"This can lead to our bodies not

knowing when to stop engaging in

these survival strategies. As a result,

our bodies may not be able to rest," Lira

de la Rosa told. A universally

productive approach to combating

sleep issues is by practicing good sleep

hygiene. That means adopting

healthier nighttime habits and creating

a relaxing bedroom environment that

promotes quality sleep.

For example, reduce your phone

usage. COVID-19 has made

doomscrolling that much easier to do,

so Lira de la Rosa said it's a good idea to

try and avoid your phone 30 minutes to

one hour before you hit the hay.

"You can also try to help your body

relax before bed by taking a warm bath

or shower, drinking some soothing tea,

or by engaging in some deep breathing

exercises," he added. If you find

yourself ruminating about the ongoing

pandemic in the middle of the night,

Reichbach suggested "doing an activity

that engages the mind, but that is

boring." Some ideas include listening to

less engaging podcasts or looking at

guided imagery to get back to snoozing.

Though it may be counterintuitive, it

can help to briefly get out of bed when

you find yourself tossing and turning.

Lira de la Rosa said this technique

"helps your body associate the bed with

the place you go to rest and sleep,

rather than worry."

While improving your sleep hygiene

can combat COVID-related sleep

problems, Bertisch said that complex

or clinically significant sleep issues -

such as chronic insomnia - typically

require medical intervention. If sleep

troubles persist for more than a few

months and begin to significantly affect

your daily functioning, she said, speak

with a doctor about potential evidencebased

behavioral therapies, medication

or both.

For excessive teeth grinding, seeing a

health provider can help you determine

if you need a mouthguard or if you need

dental care. That said, it's important to

address the underlying cause overall.

Experts agree that sleep struggles

cannot be effectively treated without

tackling the anxieties or fear related to

the coronavirus.

"People have lost loved ones, jobs,

their health, their place of residence.

Many have also lost a sense of

grounding and security in the world.

These feelings … resurface at night,"

Reichbach said. "A counselor will

support you through your sleep issues

[and] make recommendations."

It's nearly impossible to avoid all

COVID news coverage or quell every

fear you may have at any given

moment, but your evening slumber

doesn't have to suffer. Creating a

nighttime routine that works for you as

an individual and seeking support are

steps you can take to ease COVIDrelated

sleep issues.

"I want to encourage people to be

compassionate and gentle with

themselves. We are going through

something very difficult, and we are all

trying to cope the best we can," Lira de

la Rosa said.

It may require time and patience, but

you can learn to quiet your mind and

body so you can experience restful and

restorative sleep - even in the middle of

all this.

WeDNeSDAY, OCTOBeR 6, 2021

6

The sheds of low quality houses were blown away by the storm before they were handed over to the beneficiaries.

Photo: Badrul Alam Dulal

Allegations of irregularities in cluster

village project Shahjadpur UNO, PIO

BADRUL ALAM DULAL, SIRAJGANJ CORRESPONDENT

Sirajganj's Shahjadpur Upazila Nirbahi

Officer and Project Implementation

Officer have been accused of

irregularities in cluster village project.

Gala UP Chairman of the Upazila has

lodged a written complaint with the

Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner

seeking necessary action including

investigation into the irregularities of

these two officers.

The complaint also alleges

irregularities in cluster village project

and giving preference to a UP member

backed by the ruling party without

consulting the chairman in the list of

beneficiaries.

On September 15, Gala UP chairman

valiant freedom fighter Abdul Baten

lodged a written complaint with the

Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner.

According to the written complaint

sent to the Divisional Commissioner,

the cluster village project was

MASRAKUL ALOM, JOyPURHAT

CORRESPONDENT

After 26 long years, the

leadership of Joypurhat

district Mohila Awami

League's committee has

changed. After 13 long

years, the tri-annual

conference of Joypurhat

Mohila Awami League was

held at Shilpakala Academy

auditorium on Monday.

At the occasion, Shamim

Arif Saj was elected

president and Sabina Akhtar

Chowdhury as general

secretary. The conference

was inaugurated by former

MP and President of

Bangladesh Mohila Awami

League, valiant freedom

fighter Safia Khatun.The

chief guest was Jatiya

Sangsad Whip and

Bangladesh Awami League

Organizing Secretary Abu

Saeed Al Mahmud Swapan

RANGPUR: Rangpur division recorded no

Covid-19 casualty for the third consecutive days

on Monday as the coronavirus situation

continues to improve in recent weeks, reports

BSS.

"Earlier, Rangpur division witnessed no

Covid-19 fatality on May 16 last and again on

September 12, 13, 14, 20, 22, 26, 29 and 30,

October 2 and 3 last," Rangpur Divisional

Deputy Director (Health) Dr Abu Md Zakirul

Islam said yesterday. The number of Covid-19

fatalities remained steady at 1,234 for the last

three days in the division.

The district-wise breakup of the 1,234 fatalities

stands at 293 in Rangpur, 80 in Panchagarh, 88

in Nilphamari, 67 in Lalmonirhat, 68 in

Kurigram, 250 in Thakurgaon, 325 in Dinajpur

and 63 in Gaibandha of the division. The average

fatality rate currently stands at 2.24 percent in

the division.

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 cases

reached 55,019 as 40 new patients were

diagnosed after testing 998 samples of

Rangpur division at the daily positivity rate of

4.01 percent on Monday.

Earlier, the daily Covid-19 positivity rates

were 1.42 percent on Sunday, three percent on

Saturday, 4.74 percent on Friday, 2.87 percent

on Thursday. 2.26 percent on Wednesday, and

undertaken in 2020 at Brihatkora

Mouza of Gala Union in Shahjadpur

Upazila of Sirajganj. An allocation of

306 metric tons of rice was provided for

filling the soil to make it suitable for the

construction of hoises prescribed by the

project.As per the rules, Gala UP

Chairman Abdul Baten completed the

soil filling work and after completing

the soil filling work, Upazila Nirbahi

Officer (UNO) Shah Md. Shamsuzzoha

and Project Implementation Officer

(PIO) Md. Abul Kalam Azad started the

construction work under their

supervision. A total of Tk 70 lakh was

allocated for the construction of 50

houses at a cost of Tk 1 lakh 40

thousand for the construction of each

house. During the construction of the

house, the house was built with the help

of Abul Hossain, a UP member of the 2

no. ward of the union and general

secretary of the union Awami League.

Before the construction was completed

Joypurhat district Mohila Awami

League’s tri-annual conference held

Shamim Arif Saj was elected president and Sabina

Akhtar Chowdhury as general secretary of Joypurhat

district Mohila Awami League recently. Photo: TBT

MP while the keynote

speaker was Mahmuda

Begum General Secretary of

Bangladesh Mohila Awami

League.

Joypurhat District Mohila

Awami League President

Rebeca Sultana presided

over the function while

Bangladesh Awami League

Organizing Secretary SM

Kamal Hasan, district

Awami League President

and Zila Parishad Chairman

Arifur Rahman Rocket and

General Secretary Zakir

Hasan Mandal, Vice

President SM Salaiman Ali

were among others also

present at the time.

No Covid casualty for 3rd

straight day in Rangpur

2.30 percent on Tuesday last in the division.

The district-wise break up of total 55,019

patients include 12,407 of Rangpur, 3,766 of

Panchagarh, 4,422 of Nilphamari, 2,733 of

Lalmonirhat, 4,631 of Kurigram, 7,534 of

Thakurgaon, 14,675 of Dinajpur and 4,851 of

Gaibandha in the division. Talking to BSS,

Divisional Director (Health) Dr Md Motaharul

Islam said a total of 2,84,048 collected samples

were tested till Monday, and of them, 55,019

were found Covid-19 positive with an average

positivity rate of 19.37 percent in the division.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the

number of recovered Covid-19 patients

reached 52,227 with recovery of 58 more

infected patients on Monday in the division

where the average recovery rate currently

stands at 94.93 percent. The 52,227 recovered

patients include 10,956 of Rangpur, 3,585

Panchagarh, 4,324 Nilphamari, 2,615

Lalmonirhat, 4,515 Kurigram, 7,131

Thakurgaon, 14,313 in Dinajpur and 4,786

Gaibandha districts in the division.

Among the 55,019 patients, 58 are

undergoing treatments at isolation units,

including 12 critical patients at ICU beds and

seven at High Dependency Unit beds, after

recovery of 52,227 patients and 1,234 deaths

while 1,500 are remaining in home isolation.

and handed over to the beneficiaries,

two sheds were blown away by the

storm. Adjacent toilets with most of the

houses have become unusable.

Abul Hossain, a member of Ward 2 of

Gala UP, said, "The chairman was on

the committee.He will be able to tell if a

low quality houses has been built, I

have never been to the project area.

UP chairman valiant freedom fighter

Abdul Baten said, "I am the PIC of the

project in my union, the landfill project,

but I was not involved in the

construction and allocation of houses."

1 lakh 40 thousand taka has been

allocated for the construction of each

house but low quality houses have been

constructed at only 40 to 50 thousand

taka.

Shahjadpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer

(UNO) Shah Mohammad

Shamsuzzoha said, "The cluster village

project is still going on, it would not be

right to comment on it now.

Ctg records

lowest 1.93pc

Covid-19

positivity rate

CHATTOGRAM: The

district recorded lowest

Covid-19 positivity rate of

1.93 percent while 29 fresh

cases of virus infection were

reported after testing 1,500

samples during the last 24

hours till last morning,

reports BSS.

"The Covid-19 situation is

improving consistently

during the last few weeks in

the district," civil surgeon Dr

Sheikh Fazle Rabbi told BSS.

With the new infection,

the Covid-19 cases reached

101,879.

"The number of cured

patients from the lethal virus

stood at 86,898 in the

district with the recovery of

13 more patients in the last

24 hours," Dr Rabbi said,

adding that the percentage

of recovery is 85.23.

With one more fatality in a

day, the death toll reached

1,305 here.

A total of 2165 infected

patients are now undergoing

treatment at designated

hospitals in the district.

New UNO

joins office

in Nakla

SHAHAJADA SWAPAN, NAKLA

CORRESPONDENT

Mostafizur Rahman joined

as the new Nakla Upazila

Nirbahi Officer at the

Deputy Commissioner's

Office on October 3. He was

succeeded by Upazila

Nirbahi Officer Zahidur

Rahman.

Earlier, he was working as

Trishal Upazila Nirbahi

Officer. After realizing his

responsibilities on October

4, he is holding regular office

as usual on Tuesday

(October 5).

His hometown is in Atpara

upazila of Netrokona

district. He is the youngest

of 6 brothers. Meanwhile,

the staff of the Upazila Land

Office greeted the newcomer

UNO.

Preparations for

smooth Puja

celebration in

Narsingdi

NARSINGDI: All sorts of

preparations have been

taken for celebrating Durga

Puja, the biggest religious

festival of Bangalee Hindu

community, in a befitting

manner in the district,

reports BSS.

Hindu community leaders

and district administration

sources said the five day

festival will start on October

11 and conclude on October

15 through the immersion of

the idols on the day of Bijoya

Dashami.

A preparatory meeting to

arrange the festival

smoothly was held at the

conference room of district

superintendent of police

(SP) on Monday with SP

Kazi Ashraful Azim in the

chair.

District level high police

officials and leaders of

district and upazila units of

Puja Utjapan Parishad were

present in the meeting.

General secretary of

district Puja Celebration

Parishad Subrata Das said

that 355 puja mandaps

would be erected in the six

upazilas of the district this

year.

The number of puja

mandaps increased by 14

percent than the previous

year.

Subrata said 98 puja

mandaps will be set up in

Sadar upazila, 46 in polash

upazila, 70 in shibpur

upazila, 51 in Monohardi

upazila, 23 in Belabo upazila

and 67 in Raipura upazila.

In observance of World Teachers' Day a discussion meeting was held in Bochaganj on Tuesday.

Photo: TBT

RAJSHAHI: Thirty more

people were tested positive

for Covid-19 in seven

districts of the division on

Monday, taking the caseload

to 98,417 since the pandemic

began in March last year,

reports BSS.

However, the new positive

figure shows a declining

trend compared to the

previous day's 46, while on

Saturday the figure was 22,

which was lowest-ever since

the second wave of the

pandemic hit the country

1,500 corona-affected

households to get

assistance in Rajshahi

RAJSHAHI: Some 1,500 marginalized

households badly affected by the adverse

impact of Covid-19 will get assistance,

including monetary and incomegenerating

training and assets, as

emergency response in Rajshahi, reports

BSS.

The stimulus support will be given on

behalf of a project titled "Resilience to

Economic Volatility of Indigenous and

Vulnerable Populations through

Empowerment (REVIVE)" so that the

target group of people can recoup their

losses.

They will also be motivated to improve

hygiene practices for COVID-19

prevention through providing 1,500 hand

washing devices.

The project is being implemented in six

unions of Nachole and Gomostapur

Upazilas in Chapainawabganj district, said

Narayan Chandra, Coordinator of the

project.

DASCOH Foundation has started

implementing the project in cooperation

with HEKS/EPER supported by

Switzerland since July last for contributing

to the holistic development of

disadvantaged communities, including 80

percent ethnic minorities.

The ultimate goal of the two-year project

is to contribute to the economic recovery

and resilience of indigenous and other

marginalized communities.

"We have started to divide the

beneficiary households into 50 groups by

primary selection of beneficiaries through

social mapping, wellbeing ranking and

prioritization for successful

implementation of the project," said

Chandra, adding each of the households

will be brought under cash incentives

30 more test positive

for COVID-19 in

Rajshahi division

around six months back, said

Dr Habibul Ahsan Talukder,

divisional director of Health.

Meanwhile, the recovery

count rose to 94,266 in the

division after another 17

patients were discharged

from the hospitals on the

same day.

The death toll reached

1,665, including 685 in

Bogura, 314 in Rajshahi with

191 in its city, and 172 in

Natore, as one fresh case of

fatality was reported during

the period, Dr Talukder

added.

Besides, all the positive

cases of Covid-19 have, so

far, been brought under

treatment while 22,791 were

kept in isolation units of

different dedicated hospitals

for institutional supervision.

Of them, 19,100 have been

released.

Mostafizur Rahman joined as the new Nakla Upazila Nirbahi Officer recently.

Photo: Shahajada Swapan

worth Taka 4,000.

They will be imparted training on

various income-generating activities,

including agriculture, vegetable farming,

homestead gardening, fisheries, livestock,

vermicompost and horticulture, based on

their interest and choice.

Apart from this, the beneficiaries will be

given post-training materials and logistic

support so that they can engage

themselves in the incomegenerating

activities for improving their living and

livelihood condition through best use of

their knowledge acquired from the

training.

Akramul Haque, Chief Executive Officer

of DASCOH Foundation, told BSS that the

project has a provision of establishing

market linkage between the beneficiaries

and the line departments for generating a

market chain as well as value chain of the

farm products.

Emphasis has been given on

strengthening coordination and

collaboration among the project

stakeholders and local authorities.

He said the project is intended to

enhance sustainable livelihoods and

climate resilience through economic and

social empowerment.

"We will also work on improving waste

management for alternative livelihoods

and reducing environmental degradation,"

he added.

HEKS/EPER Country Director Dora

Chowdhury said the project is expected to

help improve social inclusion and human

rights situation of indigenous and other

marginalized communities as long term

impact.

World Teachers'

Day celebrated

in Bochaganj

SUMAN CHANDRA, BOCHAGANJ

CORRESPONDENT

World Teachers' Day has

been observed in Bochaganj

of Dinajpur on Tuesday.

This day was celebrated by

Good Neighbors Bangladesh

Bochaganj CDP at 11am at

the office of Good Neighbors

Bangladesh Bochaganj CDP

in Ishania Union No. 2 of the

upazila.

Bishwa Nath Roy,

Headmaster of Setabganj

Government Pilot Model

High School spoke as the

Chief Guest under the

chairmanship of Bipul

Rema, Project Manager,

Bochaganj CDP and

conducted by Ashikur

Rahman, Internship

(Program) of Bochaganj

CDP.

Batasan Government

Primary School headmaster

Mst Hasna Hena, Asha Girls

School in-charge Libya

Sharmin Talukder,

Bochaganj Upazila Press

Club Joint General Secretary

Suman Chandra were also

present at the time.

In the discussion meeting,

the speakers highlighted the

importance and significance

of the teacher.

WeDNesDAY, OCTOber 6, 2021

7

Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, most of them Afghan soldiers who had surrendered

to the insurgents, a prominent rights group said Tuesday.

Photo : AP

Afghan security forces capture

11 IS-affiliated militants

KABUL : Security forces

located and captured 11

militants affiliated with the

hardliner Islamic State (IS)

group in Afghanistan's

capital Kabul, spokesman

for the Interior Ministry

Qari Sayed Khosti said

Tuesday.

Personnel of special

forces, according to the

official, captured IS

operatives from Bagh-e-

Daud area and its vicinity on

Monday.

The official did not

provide more details.

The arrest of the alleged IS

operatives is taking place in

the wake of a bomb blast in

Kabul and operations

against the IS on Sunday.

A bomb blast, which

targeted a memorial service

inside a mosque in Kabul on

Sunday reportedly claimed

eight lives and injured 20

others.

Similarly, the security

forces stormed an alleged

hideout of the rival IS outfit

inside a house in the PD 17 of

Kabul city, killing all who

used the house as their

hideout, spokesman of the

new administration in Kabul

Zabihullah Mujahid said in

his Twitter account.

Nobel physics prize

goes to 3 for

climate discoveries

STOCKHOLM, Oct 5

(AP/UNB) - The Nobel Prize

for physics has been

awarded to scientists from

Japan, Germany and Italy.

Syukuro Manabe, 90, and

Klaus Hasselmann, 89, were

cited for their work in "the

physical modeling of Earth's

climate, quantifying

variability and reliably

predicting global warming".

The second half of the

prize was awarded to

Giorgio Parisi, 73, for "the

discovery of the interplay of

disorder and fluctuations in

physical systems from

atomic to planetary scales."

The panel said Manabe

and Hasselmann "laid the

foundation of our

knowledge of the Earth's

climate and how humanity

influences it.

Starting in the 1960s,

Manabe demonstrated how

increases in the amount of

carbon dioxide in the

atmosphere would increase

global temperatures, laying

the foundations for current

climate models.

About a decade later,

Hasselmann created a

model that linked weather

and climate, helping explain

why climate models can be

reliable despite the

seemingly chaotic nature of

the weather.

He also developed ways to

look for specific signs of

human influence on the

climate.

Parisi "built a deep

physical and mathematical

model" that made it possible

to understand complex

systems in fields as different

as mathematics, biology,

neuroscience and machine

learning.

After the announcement,

Parisi said that "it's very

urgent that we take very

strong decisions and move

at a very strong pace.

Rights group: Taliban unlawfully

killed 13 ethnic Hazaras

CAIRO : Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13

ethnic Hazaras, most of them Afghan

soldiers who had surrendered to the

insurgents, a prominent rights group said

Tuesday.

The killings took place in the village of

Kahor in Daykundi province in central

Afghanistan on Aug. 30, according to an

investigation by Amnesty International.

Eleven of the victims were members of the

Afghan national security forces and two were

civilians, among them a 17-year-old girl,

reports UNB.

The reported killings took place about two

weeks after the Taliban took control of

Afghanistan in a blitz campaign, culminating

in their takeover of Kabul. At the time,

Taliban leaders sought to reassure Afghans

that they had changed from their previous

harsh rule of the country in the late 1990s.

The world has been watching whether the

Taliban would live up to their initial

promises of tolerance and inclusiveness

toward women and ethnic minorities,

among them the Shiite Hazaras. However,

Taliban actions so far, such as renewed

restrictions on women and the appointment

of an all-male government, have been met

with dismay by the international

community.

Hazaras make up around 9% of

Afghanistan's 36 million people. They are

often targeted because they are Shiite

Muslims in a Sunni-majority country.

Amnesty's secretary general, Agnes

Callamard, said that "these cold-blooded

executions (of the Hazaras) are further proof

that the Taliban are committing the same

horrific abuses they were notorious for

during their previous rule of Afghanistan."

Taliban spokespersons Zabihullah

Mujahid and Bilal Karimi did not respond to

calls from The Associated Press seeking

comment.

The rights group said Sadiqullah Abed, the

Taliban-appointed chief of police for

Daykundi, denied any killings had happened

and only said that a member of the Taliban

had been wounded in an attack in the

province.

UNICEF: Battered by

pandemic, kids need

mental health help

PARIS : Governments must pour more

money and resources into preserving the

mental well-being of children and

adolescents, the U.N.'s child protection

agency urged in a report Tuesday that

sounded alarms about blows to mental

health from the COVID-19 pandemic that hit

poor and vulnerable children particularly

hard, reports UNB.

The United Nations Children's Fund said

its "State of the World's Children" study is its

most comprehensive look so far this century

at the mental health of children and

adolescents globally. The coronavirus crisis,

forcing school closures that upended the lives

of children and adolescents, has thrust the

issue of their mental well-being to the fore.

UNICEF said it may take years to fully

measure the extent of the pandemic's impact

on young people's mental health.

Psychiatrists quickly saw signs of distress,

with children and adolescents seeking help

for suicidal thoughts, anxiety, eating

disorders and other difficulties as lockdowns

and switching to remote learning severed

them from friends and routines and as

COVID-19 killed parents and grandparents.

"With nationwide lockdowns and

pandemic-related movement restrictions,

children have spent indelible years of their

lives away from family, friends, classrooms,

play - key elements of childhood itself," said

UNICEF's executive director, Henrietta Fore.

"The impact is significant, and it is just the

tip of the iceberg," Fore said. "Even before the

pandemic, far too many children were

burdened under the weight of unaddressed

mental health issues. Too little investment is

being made by governments to address these

critical needs."

Pediatric psychiatrists say they were

already short of resources before the

pandemic brought a surge in caseloads.

UNICEF said spending on promoting and

protecting mental health "is extremely low"

yet the needs are pressing. Citing prepandemic

figures from 2019, UNICEF

estimated nearly 46,000 children and

adolescents ages 10 to 19 end their own lives

every year.

The scale of pandemic-related distress

among children and adolescents has jolted

some governments into action. France, which

is hosting a two-day global summit on mental

health this week, has offered free therapy

sessions for children and young people and

pledged to extend that help from next year to

everyone with a doctor's prescription.

Elsewhere, counseling hotlines - some newly

opened to help people struggling with their

mental health during the pandemics - saw

surging demand.

Governments must pour more money and resources into preserving the

mental well-being of children and adolescents, the U.N.'s child protection

agency urged in a report Tuesday that sounded alarms about blows to mental

health from the COVID-19 pandemic that hit poor and vulnerable children

particularly hard.

Photo : AP

Japan's Kishida to

call general

election on Oct. 31

TOKYO : Japan's new Prime

Minister Fumio Kishida said

Monday he plans to call a

general election on Oct. 31.

Kishida made the

announcement at a press

conference on Monday

evening after he was elected

as the 100th prime minister

in the Japanese political

history in the afternoon.

As the term of the

members of the House of

Representatives is set to

expire on Oct. 21, Kishida

said he will dissolve the

lower chamber of the

parliament on Oct. 14.

He also said that the

campaigning for members

of the House of

Representatives is slated to

begin on Oct. 19.

Biden slams Republicans

for blocking Democrats'

efforts to raise debt limit

WASHINGTON : U.S.

President Joe Biden on

Monday urged the Congress

to raise the debt limit, lashing

out at Republicans for

threatening to use their

power to block Democrats'

efforts, reports UNB.

"Not only are Republicans

refusing to do their job,

they're threatening to use the

power-their power to prevent

us from doing our job: saving

the economy from a

catastrophic event," Biden

said in a speech at the White

House State Dining Room.

"I think, quite frankly, it's

hypocritical, dangerous, and

disgraceful," he said.

Biden said Republicans are

threatening to use a

procedural power called the

filibuster, which means

Democrats would need to get

60 votes - instead of a simple

majority - to increase the debt

limit in a 50-50 split Senate.

In a letter to the president on

Monday, Senate Minority

Leader Mitch McConnell,

however, reiterated that his

party won't help Democrats

on the issue, complaining

about Democrats' lack of

bipartisanship in crafting

major legislations.

"All year, your party has

chosen to pursue staggering,

'transformational' spending

through unprecedented use

of the party-line

reconciliation process,"

McConnell said. The

reconciliation process only

requires a simple majority in

the Senate to pass a

legislation, which allows

Democrats to approve a

measure without Republican

support.

"For two and a half months,

we have simply warned that

since your party wished to

govern alone, it must handle

the debt limit alone as well,"

McConnell said.

"Senate Democrats do not

need Republican cooperation

in any shape or form to to

their job," said the

Republican leader.

'Pandora Papers' bring renewed

calls for tax haven scrutiny

WASHINGTON : Calls grew Monday for an

end to the financial secrecy that has allowed

many of the world's richest and most

powerful people to hide their wealth from tax

collectors.

The outcry came after a report revealed the

way that world leaders, billionaires and

others have used shell companies and

offshore accounts to keep trillions of dollars

out of government treasuries over the past

quarter-century, limiting the resources for

helping the poor or combating climate

change.

The report by the International

Consortium of Investigative Journalists

brought promises of tax reform and

demands for resignations and investigations,

as well as explanations and denials from

those targeted.

The investigation, dubbed the Pandora

Papers, was published Sunday and involved

600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117

countries. Hundreds of politicians,

celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers

have used shell companies or other tactics to

hide their wealth and investments in

mansions, exclusive beachfront property,

yachts and other assets, according to a

review of nearly 12 million files obtained

from 14 firms located around the world,

reports UNB.

"The Pandora Papers is all about

individuals using secrecy jurisdictions,

which we would call tax havens, when the

goal is to evade taxes," said Steve Wamhoff,

director of federal tax policy at the leftleaning

Institute on Taxation and Economic

Policy in Washington. The tax dodges can be

legal. Gabriel Zucman, a University of

California, Berkeley, economist who studies

income inequality and taxes, said in a

statement one solution is "obvious": Ban

"shell companies - corporations with no

economic substance.

Calls grew Monday for an end to the financial secrecy that has allowed

many of the world's richest and most powerful people to hide their wealth

from tax collectors.

Photo : AP

Refugee admissions hit record

low, despite Biden's reversal

SAN DIEGO : Refugee admissions to

the United States fell to a record low

during the 2021 budget year, despite

President Joe Biden's pledge to reverse

the sharp cuts made by the Trump

administration, according to figures

obtained by The Associated Press.

A total of 11,445 refugees were

allowed into the United States during

the budget year that ended on

Thursday, according to a person with

access to the information who spoke on

condition of anonymity because they

were not authorized to release the

figure. That number does not include

the tens of thousands of Afghans

brought to the United States as

American troops withdrew from

Afghanistan, ending the 20-year war

there. Many of those Afghans were

allowed into the country under a

different legal status known as

humanitarian parole, which is why they

are not included in the refugee tally.

Still the number highlights Biden's

challenges in reversing the restrictive

refugee policies set by former President

Donald Trump's administration, which

Records show slow response

to report of California oil spill

HUNTINGTON BEACH : The U.S. Coast

Guard received the first report of a possible oil

spill off the Southern California coast more

than 12 hours before a company reported the

major leak in its pipeline and a cleanup effort

was launched, records show, reports UNB. Oil

spill reports reviewed Monday by The

Associated Press raise questions about the

Coast Guard's response to one of the state's

largest recent oil spills as well as how quickly

Amplify Energy, the company operating three

offshore platforms and the pipeline,

recognized it had a problem and notified

authorities.

Two early calls about the spill came into the

National Response Center, which is staffed by

the Coast Guard and notifies other agencies of

disasters for quick response. The first was from

an anchored ship that noticed a sheen on the

water and the second, six hours later, from a

federal agency that said a possible oil slick was

spotted on satellite imagery, according to

reports by the California Office of Emergency

Services.

The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons (572,807

liters) of heavy crude into the ocean off

Huntington Beach and it then washed onto

miles of beaches and a protected marshland.

The beaches could remain closed for weeks or

targeted the program as part of a

broader campaign to slash both legal

and illegal immigration to the United

States.

The U.S. president determines the

cap on refugee admissions each budget

year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

Biden didn't take office until almost

four months after the last fiscal year

began.

The State Department did not

immediately respond to a request for

comment about the number.

The 11,445 refugee admissions total

falls far below the nation's cap of

62,500 for the 2021 budget year that

Biden set in May. It's also below the

record-low ceiling of 15,000 that

Trump had initially set for the year.

Biden initially indicated he would not

override the 15,000-person cap, saying

in an emergency determination that it

"remains justified by humanitarian

concerns and is otherwise in the

national interest."

But that brought sharp rebuke from

Democratic allies who criticized him for

not taking the symbolic step of

longer, a major hit to the local economy.

Coastal fisheries in the area are closed to

commercial and recreational fishing. Gov.

Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of

emergency in Orange County, directing state

agencies "to undertake immediate and

aggressive action to clean up and mitigate the

effects" of the spill.

Experts say it's too early to determine the full

impact on the environment but that so far the

number of animals found harmed is minimal.

Investigators are looking into whether a ship's

anchor may have struck a pipeline on the

ocean floor, Coast Guard officials said

Monday. Amplify Energy CEO Martyn

Willsher said company divers were inspecting

the area of the suspected leak reported

Saturday, and he expected that by Tuesday

there would be a clearer picture of what caused

the damage. Willsher said an anchor from a

cargo ship striking the pipeline is "one of the

distinct possibilities" behind the leak.

Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los

Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass

through the area. Backlogs have plagued

the ports in recent months and several

dozen or more of the giant vessels have

regularly been anchored as they wait to

enter the ports and unload.

authorizing more refugees this year.

The White House quickly reversed

course and raised the cap, though

Biden said at the time that he did not

expect the U.S. would meet the new

62,500 ceiling with only four months

left in the 2021 budget year, given the

ongoing restrictions put in place due to

the coronavirus pandemic and work

the administration says is needed to

rebuild the program.

Refugee advocates said the recordlow

number reflects the damage done

by the Trump administration to the

program. Before the 2021 budget year,

the lowest number of refugees allowed

in was during the 2020 budget year

when the number hit 11,814.

The historical yearly average was

95,000 under previous Republican and

Democratic administrations.

The Biden administration has

expanded the narrow eligibility criteria

put in place by his predecessor that had

kept out most refugees, among other

steps. But critics say it's not enough and

that the Biden administration has

moved too slowly.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2021

8

A seminar titled ''Skills Development for Inclusive Growth in Bangladesh' was organized by National

Skills Development Authority (NSDA) on Monday at the Multipurpose Hall of Bangladesh

Investment Development Authority (BIDA).

Photo: Courtesy.

Libya kicks off

construction

of oil refinery

TRIPOLI : Libya on Sunday

said work has begun on the

construction of an oil refinery

in the south of the conflictridden

desert country,

reports UNB.

The project will cost

between $500 million and

$600 million and become

operational within three

years, according to the head

of Libya's state oil company

Mustafa Sanalla.

He said an annual income

of $75 million was expected.

Libyan leader Abdelhamid

Dbeibah, speaking at a

ceremony in the capital

Tripoli, said: "This project is

important, the effective start

of construction of a refinery

in the south."

The refinery will be built

near Al-Charara, a major oil

field in the Oubari region,

which produces an average of

some 300,000 barrels of oil a

day.

Announced in the early

1980s, the project for a

refinery in southern Libya

had been put on hold for

years before being revived in

2017.

Libya, which has the most

abundant oil reserves in

Africa, has been trying to

emerge from a decade of

chaos since the fall of

Moamer Kadhafi's

government in 2011.

Libya was gripped by

violence and political turmoil

in the aftermath of the

NATO-backed uprising

against Kadhafi.

In recent years, the country

has been split between two

rival administrations backed

by foreign powers and

myriad militias.

The

Bangladeshi

multinational electronics

brand Walton has further

expanded its brand business

in Europe by commencing

export of its own brand

television to Croatia. a nation

at the crossroads of central

and southeast Europe on the

Adriatic Sea, says a press

release.

In this context, Walton

inked a partnership with a

Croatian renowned

electronics brand named

Smartphone I Tablet Servis

D.O.O.

Recently, Walton

International Business Unit

(IBU) President Edward Kim

and Smartphone I Tablet's

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Mario Kralj signed the

agreement virtually on behalf

of their respective sides at a

signing ceremony programme

held at Walton Corporate

Office in the capital.

Among others, Walton's

Senior Executive Director SM

Zahid Hasan, Walton TV's

Chief Business Officer (CBO)

Engineer Mostafa Nahid

Hossain, IBU's vice-president

Engineer Tauseef Al

Mahmud, Operative Director

Razaul Islam and

Smartphone I Tablet

Company's Product Manager

Marin Maltaric. Walton's

Croatia Country Concern

Aminul Islam moderated the

program.

Mentionable, Europe is the

Seminar held on ‘Skills Development

for Inclusive Growth in Bangladesh’

organized by NSDA

A seminar titled ''Skills Development for

Inclusive Growth in Bangladesh' was

organized by National Skills Development

Authority (NSDA) on Monday at the

Multipurpose Hall of Bangladesh

Investment Development Authority (BIDA)

with a view to achieve the economic growth

of Bangladesh by accelerating the skills

development activities, and promoting skills

to the youth and wider community.

Principal Secretary to the Honorable

Prime Minister Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus was

present as chief guest in the seminar. The

Secretary of the Department of Technical

and Madrasa Education Aminul Islam Khan

was present as a special guest at the seminar,

says a press release.

The Member (Admin & Finance), NSDA

Md. Nurul Amin, delivered the welcome

speech and the key paper was presented by

the President, Bangladesh Chamber of

Industries Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury

(Parvez), The Vice Chancellor of Dhaka

University of Engineering and Technology

Professor Md. Habibur Rahman was

present as key discussant. Department of

Industrial and Production Engineering,

SUST Prof. Dr. Ahmed Sayem and

Department of Economics, Dhaka

University Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shahadat

Hossain Siddiquee shed light on the

presentation by providing their expert

knowledge.

The Seminar was chaired by Dulal Krishna

Saha, Executive Chairman (Secretary),

National Skills Development Authority. The

seminar was attended by secretaries of

various Ministries/Divisions, Directors

Generals of departments, officials of

different levels of government,

largest exports market for

Walton televisions as the

company have TV exports to

this market worth over three

million US dollars. Walton

has already expanded its TV

exports market to 12

European countries. Walton

has started television exports

to Croatia under its own

brand name along with the TV

exports to other European

nations as an OEM (Original

Equipment Manufacturer).

The Croatian company has

joined Walton as a business

partner in this process.

Aminul Islam said that

Croatia is a potential market

geographically for Walton

with a huge consumer

electronics market in that

country worth of US$221m

projected in 2021 with the

projected market volume of

US$292m by 2025. Under its

NOA brand, the Smartphone I

Tablet company with their 20

years of experience in the

competitive market is set to

work as the distributor of

Walton. The company has 33

percent market shares in TV

and mobile segment in

Croatia market. According to

the partnership agreement,

they will market various

products including, Walton

brand TVs, refrigerators, air

conditioners, washing

machines, mobile phones and

microwave ovens in Croatia.

Edward Kim firmly believed

that Walton will soon lead the

electronics market in different

regions of Europe, including

Croatia as there is a huge

opportunity to expand

Walton's export market in

central Europe and the

Adriatic Sea regions.

Mario Kralj said Europe has

Development Partners, representatives of

Industry Skills Councils and people involved

in skills development. Those who could not

attend the event directly joined online. The

event was broadcast live on Facebook.

In his key presentation, Anwar-ul Alam

Chowdhury mentioned that, there are

approximately 169 million people living in

Bangladesh out of whom 70% are

employable. But currently the

unemployment rate is nearly 12.3%. It has

been forecasted that 60 million people will

live in the age quartile of 18-35 by 2030.

He mentioned the necessity of making

them skilled to meet the demand of

national and international market.

Business leaders should come forward and

work hand-in-hand in formulating and

implementing policies regarding skills

development which in turn will help

achieving economic growth.

Chief Discussant Professor Md. Habibur

Rahman said that, there is no alternative to

increase the productivity of the workers in

order to sustain the growth rate including

survival in the competitive world. Advanced

technology and skilled manpower are

required to increase productivity. At

present, about 22 lakh youths are being

added to the labor market in Bangladesh

every year. So, now is the real time to take

advantage of Demographic Dividend.

The Chief guest Ahmad Kaikaus said,

Deshratna Sheikh Hasina, the worthy

daughter of Bangabandhu, is all about the

role that skill development has played in

achieving economic growth of the country.

Many said it would take us 200 years to

reach the GDP target where we had achieved

it in 50 years of independence.

Walton TV expands its brand business to Croatia

Walton's high officials pose for a photagraph with the document just after

signing a business agreement with a Croatian renowned company for

exporting own brand television to Croatia.

Photo: Courtesy.

always been a competitive

market with many challenges.

We are working to expand

market more and more in

other European regions.

Walton is producing TVs

following European

standards, maintaining high

quality in its own factory.

Walton TV's quality and our

long-standing business

experience will greatly work in

these competitive and

developed markets.

Mostafa Nahid Hossain said

that Walton will provide all

kinds of supports to this

company to expand business

in Croatia. Walton's target is

to boost TV market share in

Europe as now Walton has the

largest market share in

Bangladesh. Walton is

exporting TVs through over

100 business partners in

different countries.

‘Let’s GO Mart’ launched in the market

to revive e-commerce instability"

"Let's GO Mart" has officially

launched focusing Business

to Customer (B2C) model to

revive the ongoing e-

commerce turmoil in the

country's market with the

slogan "Never let go of your

needs". On Tuesday, the

company started its e-

commerce business with a

commercial launch at AHM

Mahmudul Haque

Auditorium at the Daily Star

Center in the capital.

Customers can buy any

product they need from this

e-commerce platform.

Chairman of Let's GO Mart

Major (Retd.) Mohammad

Rabiul Alam, Managing

Director Golam Mostafa,

Director SM Asaduzzaman,

Director and Chief Operating

Officer Syed Ashraf-Us-

Saleheen, Senior officials of

the organization and Brand

Ambassador Bidya Sinha

Mim were present at the

commercial launching

ceremony.

Managing Director of Let's

GO Mart Golam Mostafa,

said: "Let's GO Mart" will now

provide quality products with

the aim of making it easier,

hassle-free to get products in

the fastest time possible for

the customers in the current

e-commerce industry of the

country. The significant

services of "Let's GO Mart"

are the assurance of fast

delivery, the combination of

quality products, the

opportunity to deliver the

products produced by small

entrepreneurs. From fashion

accessories to electronics,

home

appliances,

smartphone gadgets,

handicrafts and all the daily

necessities will be available."

The overall activities of Let's

DHAKA : The Asian

Development Bank (ADB)

has appointed Edimon

Ginting as its new Country

Director for Bangladesh.

Ginting assumed office

today. He succeeds

Manmohan Parkash who

recently joined ADB's South

Asia Department as Deputy

Director General.

Ginting will lead ADB's

operations in Bangladesh and

policy dialogue with the

government, development

partners, and other

stakeholders, said an ADB

press release.

He will oversee the

implementation of ADB's

upcoming country

partnership strategy for

Bangladesh, 2021-2025,

which focuses on a rapid

socioeconomic recovery from

the COVID-19 pandemic,

boosting competitiveness by

improving infrastructure for

private

sector-led

development, promoting

green growth and climate

resilience, and strengthening

human capital and social

protection, among others.

"Mr. Ginting brings strong

strategic leadership skills as

ADB's Country Director for

Bangladesh in helping the

country to reduce poverty and

promote inclusive,

sustainable, and climate

resilient socioeconomic

development," said ADB

Director General for South

Asia Kenichi Yokoyama.

GO Mart will be governed by

the "You Shop We Drop"

policy. "While presenting

Let's GO Mart's business plan

at the opening ceremony

Company's Director and

Chief Operating Officer

(COO) Syed Ashraf-Us-

Saleheen, said, "Every

Business has its own ecosystem,".

The better the

business eco-system is the

more sustainable the business

environment will be.

Currently, instability exists in

the eco-system of e-

commerce industry in

Bangladesh. We shall work

with our stakeholders to

overcome this e-commerce

crisis. In continuation of this,

we have emphasized two

issues in our business model.

One is cash on delivery.

Where we shall buy the

products from the merchants

and corporates in cash and

deliver the product to the

customers and shall receive

cash from them. The other is

in Zero Ware House and Zero

Advance system, where no

product will be stocked and

no advance will be taken."

He added, "In our country's

E-commerce platform it is a

common fact that, many

"The ADB team led by Mr.

Ginting will further widen

and deepen the strong

Bangladesh-ADB partnership

by managing the sovereign,

private sector, and knowledge

operations effectively."added

Kenichi.

"I look forward to working

closely with the government

traders are acting as re-sellers

and for this issue the

country's e-commerce

business has faced various

problems. But there is no

chance of doing business as a

re-seller in "Let's GO Mart".

In our e-commerce platform,

we shall always be

transparent to encourage

consumers and buyers-sellers

to do business in the right

way. This will play a strong

role in reviving the e-

commerce industry in the

country. In other words, we

shall "Revive" and highlight

the core nature of this e-

commerce industry. At the

same time, through this e-

commerce, we shall continue

to work to help the country's

new women entrepreneurs to

survive in the competitive

market and create more

entrepreneurs."

Asked how to restore trust

among consumers in the

distrust or instability that

created towards e-commerce

in the country, he said, "In the

current environment, one of

the most difficult tasks is to

earn people's faith." The rest

of the e-commerce in the

country's market has taken

the advance money from

and the people of Bangladesh

to overcome the COVID-19

pandemic, restore high

economic growth, and

achieve the country's

development goals, including

becoming an upper middleincome

country in 2031 and a

developed nation in 2041,"

Ginting said.

customers and advance

products from the merchants,

which is causing problems in

delivering the products. None

of which we will do here. Our

business model is very

unique. Every customer

wants to purchase products in

cash. Which we have brought

in Let's GO. You do not have

to pay any advance to

purchase from Let's GO . As a

result, the customer will be

able to purchase the product

with ease. Our belief is that we

will be able to bring the

customer back to faith very

quickly.

Let's GO Mart's app and

web site has a user interface

that no other e-commerce

web platform has in the

country. Users of Let's GO

Mart can personalize the app

and web site in any color they

want. Customers will also

have a category option on the

left after accessing the Let's

GO Mart's website. From that

option you can go to any

category and buy the product

of your choice. Let's GO has

more than 8 thousand

products in 10 categories. The

product will reach your

address as soon as you order

following the next process.

Recently ONE Bank Limited signed an Agreement with US-Bangla Airlines Limited. Md. Shafiqul Islam,

Head of Marketing & Sales of US-Bangla Airlines Limited and Md. Kamruzzaman, Head of Retail Banking

of ONE Bank Limited, signed the Agreement on behalf of their respective organizations. Under this

Agreement, OBL Debit, Credit & Prepaid card holders will enjoy 10% discount on the base fare of domestic

air tickets. Beside this, ONE Bank's Credit Card holders can avail "0%" Smart EMI facilities for 3 & 6

month's tenure on domestic & international air tickets along with holiday packages round the year. High

officials of both the organizations were also present in this occasion.

Photo : Courtesy

ADB appoints Edimon Ginting as country director for Bangladesh

"Inclusive, climateresilient,

and environmentfriendly

development will be

pursued in close collaboration

with the government and

development partners to

promote a more harmonious

and sustainable growth

process in the country."he

added.

Nathalie Chuard, Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladeshalong with

Thomas Baumgartner, Counsellor - Head of Political, Economic & Cultural

Affairs recently visited the Surma Plant of LafargeHolcim Bangladesh (LHB)

at Chhatak in Sunamganj. Asif Bhuiyan, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer & HR

Director and Harpal Singh, Head of Industrial Operations and Plant Manager,

Surmaof LHB welcomed her at the plant. During the visit Her Excellency was

briefed on manufacturing process, quality control system and innovation facilities

of the integrated cement plant. Later she took a tour to the cement plant,

aggregate plant, Geocycle facilities andcommunity development center. She

praised the state of the art manufacturing facilities and sustainable community

development initiatives of the company at the end of her visit. Lafarge

Holcim Bangladesh is a joint venture of Holcim based in Switzerland and

CementosMolins based in Spain.

Photo : Courtesy

WeDNeSDAY, oCtoBer 6, 2021

9

Italy and Spain will again face off in a semi-final on Wednesday when they take to the field at the San

Siro for the Nations League Final Four opener.

photo: Ap

Italy and Spain open Nations League

Final Four with replay of Euro 2020 epic

SportS DeSk

Italy and Spain will again face off in a

semi-final on Wednesday when they

take to the field at the San Siro for the

Nations League Final Four opener, a

replay of their epic Euro 2020 semifinal,

reports BSS.

Spain finished on the losing side back

in July's European Championship

semi-final as the Azzurri prevailed on

penalties and went on to win the

tournament, beginning an

unforgettable summer of sport for Italy.

Roberto Mancini's Italy are on a

world-record run of 37 matches

without defeat and have a squad

predictably stuffed full of players who

took part in their run to glory in the

Euro final over England at Wembley.

"We'll be facing a great Italy team:

they deservedly beat England in the

final of the Euro and they've kept their

long unbeaten run going," said Spain

coach Luis Enrique after announcing

his squad on Thursday.

"But like our psychologist says, defeat

comes to every team. And that means

that they're closer to losing, that time is

getting nearer." Mancini admitted that

"Spain were the team we struggled

against most during Euro 2020".

"They are a good team with good

Beijing Games

organisers admit

'great pressure'

over Covid

SportS DeSk

Beijing Winter Olympics

organisers said Monday they

face "great pressure" because

of Covid-19, as China ramps

up preparations with a series

of test events, reports BSS.

February's Games could be

the most restricted mass

sporting event since the

pandemic began, with no

international spectators

allowed and a vaccine

mandate for anyone entering

a strictly enforced "bubble".

Those who have not been

vaccinated, including

athletes, must quarantine for

21 days on arrival in the

Chinese capital before they go

into the bubble.

Olympic organisers will

trial many of the measures in

a series of domestic test

events, international

competitions and training for

overseas athletes that will

begin on Friday and last

several weeks.

"We expect that over 2,000

overseas athletes, team

officials, international

technical officials, and timing

and scoring professionals will

come to China to participate

in various competitions," Yao

Hui, venue management

chief on the Beijing Winter

Olympics organising

committee, told a briefing.

"We face great pressure in

epidemic prevention and

control."

China has virtually sealed

off its borders to keep Covid

infections out.

players. It will be a good match," he told

uefa.com. The only different face from

the Euro crowd was supposed to be inform

Roma midfielder Lorenzo

Pellegrini, who on Sunday scored his

sixth goal of the season in all

competitions.

However injuries in the run-up to

and during the weekend's Serie A

fixtures mean Juventus striker Moise

Kean, AC Milan defender Davide

Calabria and Inter Milan youngster

Federico Dimarco have all been drafted

in at the last minute.

The trio have respectively come on

board in place of Italy's usual starting

centre-forward Ciro Immobile and

Atalanta's Rafael Toloi and Matteo

Pessina.

For Dimarco it's a first ever call up

and comes from the man who in 2014

gave the 23-year-old his debut at Inter

Milan, where he has impressed so far

this season. - Similar philosophies -

The match will also see the return of

Gianluigi Donnarumma to the San Siro

after leaving AC Milan on a free

transfer to go to Paris Saint-Germain

this summer. Asked whether he might

be harangued by Milan fans following a

move which left a bad taste in the

mouth of supporters, Donnarumma

said: "It would be sad if that happened.

"I always gave everything for Milan

and I hope the subject can be put to one

side," he added.

Luis Enrique has too had injury

problems with club matches coming

thick and fast between last month's

international break and the Final Four.

Teenage sensation Pedri will not take

part after getting injured for the second

time in less than a month, missing out

on similarly young squad to the one

which surpassed expectations at the

Euro.

Pedri was one of the best performers

of the tournament and gave a

celebrated Italy midfield of Jorginho,

Marco Verratti and Nicolo Barella a

tough time for much of their thrilling

semi-final. Tottenham's Bryan Gil has

also been brought in after Marcos

Llorente picked up a thigh injury

during Atletico Madrid's 2-0 win over

Barca at the weekend, while the Catalan

giants' 17-year-old midfielder Gavi has

been picked despite only having four la

Liga appearances to his name.

Former Barca coach Luis Enrique

was lauded by the Italians after he

heaped praise on them despite what

must have been a painful defeat at

Wembley, and he continued his charm

offensive ahead of what promises to be

a worthy opener

Australia's World No. 1 Barty

to skip Billie Jean King Cup

SportS DeSk

World number one Ash Barty will miss the

maiden edition of the Billie Jean King Cup in

Prague next month, Tennis Australia said

Tuesday, increasing doubts about whether

she will play again this season, reports BSS.

The Australian's withdrawal from the

women's team tennis competition formerly

known as the Fed Cup comes hot on the

heels of her decision to sit out this month's

Indian Wells tournament in California.

Tennis Australia gave no reason for Barty's

absence, simply saying world number 47 Ajla

Tomljanovic would lead Australia's fiveplayer

team in the Czech Republic at the

November 1-6 event.

The decision raises doubts about 25-yearold

Barty's participation in the rest of the

2021 season, including her defence of the

WTA Finals title she won in 2019 before last

year's version was cancelled due to the

Covid-19 pandemic.

Barty had a stellar start to the year,

winning five titles including Wimbledon,

which gave her a second Grand Slam to add

to her 2019 French Open crown. But she has

not played since suffering a shock thirdround

loss to American Shelby Rogers at the

US Open in early September, when she said

the year had been a "rollercoaster".

Barty's coach Craig Tyzzer said in the

weeks after the US Open that her priority

was to get ready for the Australian Open,

which is set to resume its traditional January

timeslot in 2022 after a pandemic-enforced

delay this year.

Her best performance at her home Grand

Slam is a semi-final appearance in 2020.

If Barty did travel to Mexico for the seasonending

WTA Finals, Australia's strict border

controls mean she would face two weeks

quarantine upon returning home, potentially

disrupting her training.

World number one Ash Barty will miss the maiden edition of the Billie

Jean king Cup in prague next month.

photo: Ap

Mbappe says he

told PSG in July

he wanted to leave

SportS DeSk

Kylian Mbappe on Monday

confirmed that he told Paris

Saint-Germain in July he

wanted to leave the club,

reports BSS.

"I said at the end of July that I

wanted to leave," Mbappe

said in an interview with RMC

radio.

"My position has been clear. I

said I wanted to leave and I

told them (PSG

management) quite early on."

The French World Cup

winner has not extended his

contract at PSG, fuelling

speculation he will seek a

move to Real Madrid at the

end of the season.

The Spanish giants bid 180

million euros ($209 million)

for Mbappe in August but

PSG, who had just signed

Lionel Messi from Barcelona,

turned down the offer.

At the time, PSG's sporting

director Leonardo said

Mbappe could "leave or stay

on our conditions".

Mbappe said he eventually

told PSG "if you don't want

me to leave, I will stay".

"People said I had refused

six or seven offers to extend

and that I never talk to

Leonardo,which is absolutely

not true," he added.

Ashes still in the balance

as ECB prepares to make

final tour assessment

SportS DeSk

The ECB board is set to meet later this week

to determine whether this winter's Ashes can

take place, after appearing to concede that

several of the team's leading players remain

unwilling to submit to Australia's stringent

Covid-19 protocols, reports AP.

In a statement issued on Monday morning,

the ECB said that it had been in discussions

with England men's players and

management - some of whom will be

departing for the UAE later the same day

ahead of this month's T20 World Cup.

And while the statement insisted that the

board's dialogue with Cricket Australia

remained "regular and positive", it also

appeared to express public doubt about

whether the conditions that have been put in

place will "enable the selection of a squad

befitting a series of this significance".

"Over the weekend we have been talking to

England men's players and management to

provide them with the latest information

about the proposed arrangements for this

winter's scheduled Ashes tour," the

statement read.

"We remain in regular and positive

dialogue with Cricket Australia over these

arrangements as the picture is constantly

evolving. With health and wellbeing at the

forefront, our focus is to ensure the tour can

go ahead with conditions for players and

management to perform at their best.

"We will continue talking to our players

this week to share the latest information and

seek feedback. "Later this week the ECB

board will meet to decide whether the

conditions in place are sufficient for the tour

to go ahead and enable the selection of a

squad befitting a series of this significance."

Australia's government has outlined plans

to ease entry and quarantine restrictions to

fully-vaccinated citizens in November, but

this provision isn't expected to be extended

to overseas travellers until a later date.

Last week, England's captain Joe Root

expressed his own doubts about the series,

stating that he was "desperate" for the tour to

go ahead, but that he could not yet commit to

leading the team.

Writing on Instagram prior to the whiteball

squad's departure for the UAE, Paul

Collingwood, the team's assistant coach,

summed up the dilemma being faced by

many of the players, particularly those with

young families. "I love my job and I'm so

excited for the winter of cricket ahead but

saying goodbye to your daughters for

potentially 3 months is not easy, no matter

how tough you feel you are," he wrote. "We

all make sacrifices in life. Looking forward to

meeting up with the team tomorrow because

I know we will try to help each other like a

family."In response, Cricket Australia issued

a statement of its own, reiterating the

"regular and positive" discussions of the past

six months, and stressing that the "health

and wellbeing of both squads ... is a priority."

"We especially thank our government

partners for all their support in this regard,"

the statement continued.

the photo shows James Anderson and Chris Woakes during the Adelaide test in 2017-18. photo: Ap

Players' union deplores

'lack of vision' with

biennial World Cup

SportS DeSk

The world footballers' union FIFPro

attacked the "lack of holistic vision" of the

game's institutions, including FIFA's

proposal for a biennial World Cup, with

its general secretary, saying the debates

were prompted by "commercial

interests", reports BSS. Speaking by

videoconference on the sidelines of the

presentation Tuesday of a report on the

playing demands of professional players,

Jonas Baer-Hoffmann called for a

"reasonable and effective reform" to

lighten the burden on footballers and

reduce the chance of injury. "There is an

absolute lack of holistic vision and

leadership from most of the institutions,"

he said about FIFA's proposal for a

biennial World Cup.

"It is very much a transactional affair in

which proposals, whether good, bad or

ugly for football have very little basis for a

conversation or consultation, because

everything is aligned to the commercial

interests of different competitions.

"That really undermines our chance to

have a reasonable and effective reform.

"We would really like to try to

differentiate between conversations

about the calendar and that about

competitions. These are two very separate

conversations."

The debate around the international

calendar and a World Cup every two years

has been revived in recent weeks by ex-

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger, FIFA's

head of global development.

Wenger says the idea would be to have

a final phase every summer from 2025-

2026, alternating World Cups and

continental tournaments like the

European Championships and Copa

America. Qualifying matches would be

grouped together in October, or in

October and March. He refutes the

argument that the players would face

increased strain, arguing that they would

have to make fewer long journeys and

would have a minimum of 25 days rest

after playing in summer tournaments for

their countries. A full report is due to be

released by FIFA in November, ahead of a

"global summit" by the end of the year.

The idea has already led to widespread

criticism from managers, while UEFA has

been scathing in its response but FIFPro

struck a more pragmatic approach.

"Condensing windows is an interesting

one," said Jonas Baer-Hoffmann.

"We had a first meeting with FIFA

about this about a week ago. There is a lot

in this whole proposal we still need to

look at and analyse. "Reducing windows

would be a positive as it would reduce

travel. FIFA are also suggesting going

from 10 games we have in the current

window down to seven.

"I see upsides for coaches who would

have more time to work with players, so

there is merit." He warned, however, that

the biennial competition could just make

the rich football nations richer at the

expense of developing countries.

"The entire potential thought process

for innovation is being put into the peak

of the pyramid," he said. "The notion

seems to be: 'let's generate as much

money there as possible and then there

might be some trickle-down to help the

pyramid out'. "I don't think that's working

particularly well."

NWSL team owner

apologizes, regrets

'systemic failure' in

abuse handling

SportS DeSk

Portland Thorns owner

Merritt Paulson issued an

apology on Monday to two explayers

for his team's role in

the handling of sexual

coercion allegations against

former soccer coach Paul

Riley, reports BSS.

Paulson said the team

should have been more open

about the sacking of Riley in

2015 and that a lack of

accountability and

transparency and the

subsequent inaction that

followed shows a "systemic

failure across women's

professional soccer."

"We then made an opaque

announcement about not

renewing Riley's contract as

opposed to explicitly

announcing his termination,

guided by what we, at the

time, thought was the right

thing to do out of respect for

player privacy," Paulson

wrote in an open letter on the

team's website on Monday. "I

deeply regret our role in what

is clearly a systemic failure

across women's professional

soccer."

Paulson said the Thorns

didn't disclose the

investigation publicly, which

led people to believe Riley's

dismissal was the result of

poor results on the field.

He said the Thorns

conducted an internal

investigation into Riley after

then-players Sinead Farrelly

and Mana Shim made the

alleged accusations.

WeDNesDAY, ocToBeR 6, 2021

10

Nayeem, Shabnaz

passes 27yrs of

togetherness

Bangladeshi films called for

94th Oscar submission

TBT RepoRT

The 94th Oscar Bangladesh Committee has invited

Bangladeshi films made in Bengali language to

nominate Bangladeshi films in the Best

International Feature Film (Foreign Language

Competition) category of the Oscars.

Authorities said in a mail that they would be able

to participate in the selection process of any fulllength

film, including English subtitles, which will

be screened for seven consecutive days in

Bangladeshi cinemas released after January 1 of

this year.

Filmmakers interested in participating in the

selection process are requested to collect the photo

submission form and detailed rules from Ashirbad

Britney Spears and her attorney

successfully drove her father

from the conservatorship that

has run the singer's life and

controlled her money, but

they say they are not done

scrutinizing him and the

actions he took over the

past 13 years.

After a Los Angeles

Superior Court judge

suspended James

Spears as conservator,

attorney Mathew

Rosengart said his legal

team would perform a

"top-to-bottom"

examination of his

behavior now that they

have access to years of

books and records.

Some allegations, he

added, could bring a

"hard look" from law

enforcement.

"Jamie Spears and

others are going to

face even more

serious

ramifications for his

misconduct,"

Rosengart said

Wednesday outside

court.

But legal acts may

pose problems too.

Experts say some of

the allegations that

have emerged have

exposed the

shortcomings of the

conservatorship system,

which gives conservators

Cholochitro's office (7/9 Eastern Commercial

Complex, 73 Kakrail; email: info.bffs@gmail.com)

by October 14, 5 pm.

A nine-member committee has been formed

under the chairmanship of media personality

Habibur Rahman Khan at the initiative of

Bangladesh Federation of Film Societies to

nominate Bangladeshi films in the Best

International Feature Film category of the Oscars,

like every year.

The 94th Academy Awards ceremony, presented

by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and

Sciences, will honour the best films released since

March 1, 2021, and is scheduled to take place at the

Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles,

California.

Britney's father is out, but scrutiny

of him just beginning

vast control over people deemed mentally

incapable of making major life decisions, as

Britney Spears was found to be in 2008. "There

are safeguards in place," said Sarah Wentz, a

probate attorney who works on many

conservatorship cases. "I think the failings

in this case show us where they can be

manipulated. I am disappointed in our

system." Few of the allegations against

James Spears, which range from

mismanagement of funds to fierce

control of his daughter's every move,

have been publicly proven. His attorneys

say they range from unsubstantiated to

impossible, and that he only ever acted

in her best interest.

Judge Brenda Penny

was legally allowed

to suspend the

elder Spears at her

discretion and

held no factfinding

hearing

before ousting

him, citing only

the "toxic

environment"

that he created

around his

daughter.

His suspension

could now allow

evidence to be

gathered,

however. "They

needed to have

him out of the

way," Wentz said.

"He has too direct

a conflict."

Source:Times of

India

TBT RepoRT

Nayeem-Shabnaz, the popular

pair of 90s' Dhallywood, is one

of the ideal star couples in

Bengali cinema. They got to

know each other while acting

together in a movie, fell in love

and finally tied the knot. The

star couple has spent 27 years

under the same roof since then.

Although they are not acting,

they are still seen in several

movie-related events, even the

two have no plans to return to

the movie. They are now busy

with two daughters and family.

There is a page named

TBT RepoRT

Tanzika Amin is a popular face of

television dramas. Though she acted in

movies but till now she is popular among

the viewers as a television actress. Hailed

from Rajshahi, Tanzika Amin is selective

of her works. According to her, she always

feels comfortable to act in selective works.

In 2016, Tanzika acted in Imraul Rafat

directed daily soap Calling Bell, which was

aired on Desh TV. After five years, she

again worked under same director's

direction in six-episode serial scripted by

Hasib Hasan Chowdhury. Shooting of the

serial was done in different locations in

the capital's Uttara area. Tanzika took part

in its shooting for four days in a row.

Tanzika informed that stories and titles

of these six episodes are different from

each other. She acted in all six episodes of

this serial where Saju Khadem, Tamim

Mridha, among others, were her coactors.

While talking about working under

Imraul Rafat's direction after five years

Nayeem-Shabnaz on social

media Facebook. The star

couple shared two pictures of

the wedding time and the

present time on the Facebook

page on Tuesday.

In the caption, Nayeem-

Shabnaz wrote, "'Alhamdulillah,

we have been together for 27

years. Happiness, sorrow, joy,

sacrifice, love has been made

possible to spend the same

mind and Allah's mercy. May

Allah guide us all.Ameen."

Nayeem-Shabnaz duo made

their film debut by starring in

the film titled 'Chandni' directed

by Ehtesham which was

released on October 4, 1991.

Nayeem and Shabnaz's love

affair deepened when they acted

in the movie 'Bisher Bashi'.

While at the peak of their

popularity, Nayeem and

Shabnaz tied the knot on

October 5, 1994.

The Nayeem-Shabnaz duo

has gifted the audience several

popular movies; their notable

movies are - 'Dil', 'Sonia',

'Chokhe Chokhe', 'Bisher Bashi',

'Anutapta', 'Takar Ohongkar',

'Sakkhat', 'Jid'.

They acted as a couple in the

last movie 'Ghore Ghore

Juddho'. Naeem starred in the

latest film 'Meyerao Mastan'

and Shabnaz in the latest film

'Dactar Bari'.

For now, they have no plans to

return to the movie industry.

Both of them are busy with their

present life. In their 27 years of

marriage life, they have two

children, Namira and Mahadia -

both are studying in Canada.

Tanzika to star in six episode serial

Shehnaaz Gill

gears up to shoot

Honsla Rakh song

After not being seen in the public eye for a month, actor,

singer and TV personality Shehnaaz Gill will soon be shooting

a song for her upcoming Punjabi movie, Honsla Rakh.

Shehnaaz, who has been in mourning since the death of her

close friend and colleague Sidharth Shukla on September 2,

has confirmed to the makers of the film that she will be

completing her prior work commitments.

Speaking to the Times of India, producer DiljitThind said,

"I was constantly in touch with Shehnaaz's team and they

regularly updated us about her. She is a thorough

professional and I am glad that she has agreed to shoot the

promotional song with us. We will be shooting either in the

UK or India depending on her visa."

Thind also commented about her current frame of mind

and added he only wishes the best for her.

"She has been through a very difficult phase and is still

grieving the loss. It must have taken a lot of courage for her to

agree to fulfill her professional commitment. She is like

family and that's the reason we don't wish to impose anything

on her. I just want her to get back to her normal work

schedule for her own sanity," the producer concluded.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

Tanzika Amin said, "Imraul Rafat works

in organized way. He works in details.

For this reason, I enjoy working under

his direction. After Calling Bell, I did not

work under his direction. This time I got

the opportunity to work under his

direction in this serial. Six episodes are

consisted of six stories. I have liked all

these stories. I believe viewers will also

enjoy these."

Director Imraul Rafat said that these six

episodes will go on air in OTT platform

soon.

Tanzika has already finished shooting of

Imran Hawlader directed drama Shodh

Bodh. She is regularly acting in Sagor

Jahan directed Maasranga TV's ongoing

serial Online Offline and Al Hazen

directed NTV's ongoing serial Mehman.

Therefore, within very soon Tanzika will

start shooting of a new serial under

Mizanur Rahman Aryan's direction. She is

also anchoring a special show based on

women empowerment on RTV titled Nijer

Namey Houk Porichoy.

H o R o s c o p e

ARIes

(March 21 - April 20) : Something may

get your dander up today. There are hot

tempers and strong opinions right and

left. Try to see the big picture. You'll

seek extra attention from others, especially when it

comes to your needs and emotions. People will be

irritable, but arguing will only make the situation

worse. Give everyone some time and you'll find that

many issues work themselves out.

TAURUs

(April 21 - May 21) : Cooperate today

even if it seems easier said than done.

People will have hot tempers and be

very focused on themselves. There's a

me-first attitude around, and relations will be much

better if you let people have their time in the

spotlight. You might find that you have an

important message to express. Make sure your

voice is heard

GeMINI

(May 22 - June 21) : People will be

focused on themselves, leaving you

wondering what all the fuss is about.

You have a strong desire to express your

emotions. It may feel like you're on stage in

some way. You wish to be recognized and

appreciated for your sensitive, devoted, and

passionate nature. Speak up.

cANceR

(June 22 - July 23) : The energy

flows smoothly today. Obstacles

seem to have dissolved. There's a

great deal of energy at your

disposal. You have strong thoughts and

powerful emotions backing you up. Work with

partners and promote your ideas. Speak your

passions out loud. Help your dreams manifest

by writing them down.

Leo

(July 24 - Aug. 23): This is a fantastic

day for you, so celebrate. You're the

star of the show, and you'll be up on

stage more than usual. People will

look up to you and respect you for your incredible

leadership skills. Be confident and express

yourself from your heart. Actions should run

smoothly. You can accomplish quite a bit. Don't

waste this day. Do some creative work.

VIRGo

(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Your emotions

are piqued today. You're spurred to

take action. People might have a mefirst

attitude that may get on your

nerves. You're more interested in the collective and

improving the situation for all. Someone may be

working counter to this mode of action, causing

friction in your dealings. Stick to your principles

and act confidently.

LIBRA

(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): Cooperate today

even if it seems easier said than done.

People will have hot tempers and be

very focused on themselves. There's a

me-first attitude around, and relations will be much

better if you let people have their time in the

spotlight. You might find that you have an

important message to express. Make sure your

voice is heard.

scoRpIo

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22) : This is a fantastic

day. Assert yourself with confidence

and move toward your goals. Your

emotions are working harmoniously

with your outer-directed nature. You may want

more attention from others today. Enjoy jovial

times with friends and loved ones. Plan an activity

with children if you can. Break free from your

normal routine and create your own fun.

sAGITTARIUs

(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): People may seem

a bit more stubborn and emotional

than usual. Try not to contribute to

it by being vain and stubborn. This

isn't the time to contemplate. It's time to act.

You have all the information you need. Make

sure you're actively getting the attention you

deserve and you're giving credit to the people

who've helped you along the way.

cApRIcoRN

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): This is a very

opportune day for you. Say hello to the

stranger in line or follow through on a

tip or comment. Opportunities are

there. All you have to do is grab them. You'd do very

well in a group situation today. In fact, you'd do well

leading others. You understand the need for action.

Be decisive and confident.

AQUARIUs

(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19) : People might step

on your toes today, but try not to react.

Go with the flow. This may be the only

way they know how to act. Express

your feelings. Open yourself up to the world. There

are people who want to get closer to you, but they

might feel too intimidated to do so. Take it one step

at a time, but realize that you're probably the one

who needs to take the first step.

pIsces

(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20) : This is a

fantastic day for you, so celebrate.

You're the star of the show, and you'll

be up on stage more than usual.

People will look up to you and respect you for

your incredible leadership skills. Be confident and

express yourself from your heart. Actions should

run smoothly. You can accomplish quite a bit.

Don't waste this day. Do some creative work.

wedneSday, OCTOBer 6, 2021

11

9 best officers have been honored in recognition of their good work in the September work evaluation

in Jashore.

Photo : Shahid Joy

Iqvmv-R:Z: 331/2021

GD-1463/21 (7x3)

GD-1465/21 (7x3)



9 best officers honored

in the monthly police

meeting in Jashore

Shahid Joy, Jashore Correspondent

The monthly crime meeting

of Jashore district police was

held on Monday morning in

the conference room of the

superintendent of police to

discuss the crime statistics of

September, law and order

situation, crime prevention,

case review and settlement

review, progress of

important and sensational

case investigation. From the

meeting, 9 best officers have

been honored in recognition

of their good work in the

September work evaluation.

The meeting was chaired

by Superintendent of Police

Proloy Kumar Joardar BPM

(Bar) PPM and was attended

by CID Jashore Special

Superintendent of Police

Zakir Hossain, PBI Jashore


Reshma Sharmin, Jashore

Special Branch Additional


Jahangir Alam, Additional

Superintendent of Police, K

Circle Mohammad Belal

Hossain, Additional Police

Super Kha Circle Mukit

Sarkar. Moreover, Highway

Police Officer, Circle Officer

Navaran, Circle Officer

Monirampur, DIO 1,

Officers in charge of all

police stations, traffic

inspector (administration)

and senior officers of the

district police were present.

Afghan security forces

capture 11 IS-affiliated

militants

KABUL : Security forces

located and captured 11

militants affiliated with the

hardliner Islamic State (IS)

group in Afghanistan's

capital Kabul, spokesman for

the Interior Ministry Qari

Sayed Khosti said Tuesday.

Personnel of special forces,

according to the official,

captured IS operatives from

Bagh-e-Daud area and its

vicinity on Monday.

The official did not provide

more details.

The arrest of the alleged IS

operatives is taking place in

the wake of a bomb blast in

Kabul and operations against

the IS on Sunday.

Mason dies falling from

under-construction

building in city

DHAKA : A mason on

Tuesday died after

fallingfrom the first floor of

an under-construction

eight-storey building in city's

Rampura area, police said,

reports UNB.

The dead was identified as

Shakil Ahmed, a mason by

profession.

Inspector Bachchu Mia of

Dhaka Medical College and

Hospital (DMCH) police

camp said Shakil fell from

the building while working

around 8 am. When he was

taken to DMCH the doctors

declared him dead.

Teachers most abused and

neglected: Rizvi

TBT report

The BNP's senior joint secretary

general advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi

said that at present the teachers are

the most neglected and oppressed

people in the country. The teacher

community must also be ready for the

great struggle that is coming up

against the injustice of the country.

Because the teacher society is the most

neglected and oppressed. Those who

are oppressed how will be the

backbone of the nation? The backbone

of the nation will be those who run

casinos. Nowadays, they are being

made the backbone of the nation by

smuggling TK 2,000 crore by

becoming the district president of

Chhatra League. And those who are

the true backbone of the nation are

today oppressed and neglected. Even

the MPs threaten them by holding

their hairs.

He said this at a representative

meeting organized by Bangladesh

Teachers Association and Bangladesh

College Teachers Association at the

auditorium of the National Press Club

on Tuesday noon. Former Vice

Chancellor (VC) of Dhaka University

GD-1464/21 (5x4)

GD-1467/21 (8x4)

Anwarullah Chowdhury, Convener of

Nagorik Oikkya Mahmudur Rahman

Manna, Former President of National

Press Club Shawkat Mahmud, BNP

Co-Publicity Secretary Shamimur

Rahman Shamim, DUJ President

Quader Gani Chowdhury and others

also spoke at the discussion meeting

chaired by Teachers and Employees

Unity Chairman Principal Selim

Bhuiyan.

Addressing the teachers, Rizvi said

the people of the country need to be

awakened. And the power to awaken

is in you. Teachers have to work to

awaken the people against the

injustice in the present country. Just

as you educate a person, you also have

to be ready for the great struggle and

movement that is coming against

injustice in this country. He said this

government is hypocritical about

education. Cause they only want

passing the examinations. They do not

care if the quality of a student has

increased. Just pass it with GPA-5. See

you later. The government has taken

the country into this situation.

Rizvi said the way the government

has come to power by imitation it is

Invitation for e-Tender (OTM)

pushing the entire nation towards

imitation and destroying the

education system. Today's Education

Minister Dipu Moni cannot give a

good answer as to whether the collegeuniversity

will open. She could not

give a good answer to the question of

what action has been taken for the

students. This is our education

minister!

Why people will vote for BNP?

Responding to a question from Prime

Minister Sheikh Hasina, Rizvi said,

"You have to make it clear who casts

the vote." In fact, who votes? police,

RAB, BGB or government

organization boys? Say it before you.

Who will vote for BNP? The people

who owner the country will vote for

the BNP if there is a fair election. You

have come to power by force like a

robber. You don't know who the voters

are. Cause you voted in the middle of

the night. You are the Prime Minister

of Midnight. So you don't have to

know the voters. So if there is a fair

election and the people get back the

ownership of the country, Prime

Minister, you will see who says vote

and how many kinds of vote?

1853 03/09/2021

Wednesday, Dhaka: October 6, 2021; Ashwin 21, 1428 BS; Safar 28, 1443 Hijri

Hasina's climate leadership lauded

at CVF-COP26 dialogue

DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina's climate leadership and the

Mujib Climate Prosperity Decade Plan

2021-2030 have been highly praised at

the 4th CVF-COP26 Dialogue in

London, reports UNB.

Former British Prime Minister David

Cameron said Bangladesh as the CVF

Presidency should make a powerful

statement at the COP26 to ensure that

world leaders take heed of the extreme

climatic vulnerabilities of the 48 CVF

countries contributing less than 5% of

global emissions.

Recalling his visit to Bangladesh in

2017, Cameron praised Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina's leadership, paying tribute

to the country's economic progress

and development.

Maldives former President Mohamed

Nasheed came up with a strong opinion

that climate vulnerable countries should

be provided with fresh financing under

the loss and damage initiative in order to

avoid falling into debt due to climaterelated

loss and the impact of Covid on

the economy.

He suggested decolonizing climate

dialogue to give all parties a fair chance.

Bangladesh High Commission in

London in partnership with the Climate

Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Secretariat

organized the Dialogue recently, said the

Bangladesh High Commission in

London on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul

Momen joined the dialogue virtually

from Washington DC while prominent

global climate leaders and eminent climate

experts including CVF Thematic

Ambassador on Ambition and former

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed;

the UK's Shadow Secretary of State for

Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Edward Miliband; Commonwealth

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland;

and Chair of the CVF Expert Advisory

Group Prof. Dr. Saleemul Huq, participated

in the dialogue as co-panelists.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to the

UK Saida Muna Tasneem made a presentation

on the Mujib Climate

Prosperity Decade Plan 2021-2030,

announced by Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina at the CVF Leaders' Summit on 7

October 2020 under Bangladesh's CVF

Presidency during the Mujib Year.

Hajj management

in 2022 to be

tech-based : State Minister

DHAKA : As Hajj management in 2022

will be technology based, necessary

training will be given to pilgrims and

others concerned , said State Minister

for Religious Affairs Md Faridul Haque

Khan on Tuesday, reports UNB.

"Pilgrims will perform hajj using different

apps due to Covid-19 pandemic

and currently Umrah activities are being

performed by using apps in Saudi

Arabia," he said at a programme over

Hajj management at the conference

room of the ministry.

The junior minister also said that the

Saudi government also expressed its firm

expectation that the Hajj will be held in

2022 due to improvement in Covid situation.

Concerned officials, guides, representatives

of Hajj agencies and pilgrims will be

made aware of technology use in Hajj

management and steps will be taken to

give them training , he said.

Mozammel for renaming

organisations named after

anti-liberation people

NILPHAMARI : Liberation War Affairs

Minister AKM Mozammel Haque yesterday

said the names the organisations

named after anti-liberation people must

be changed. "It is a matter of disgrace for

the nation to have any organisation

named after any anti-liberation person

in independent Bangladesh. No organisation

can be named after any anti-liberation

person. The name of such organisations

should be changed," he said.

Mozammel was speaking at a freedom

fighters' rally here as the chief guest after

inaugurating newly constructed two

freedom fighters complexes at

Nilphamari sadar and Syedpur upazila.

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is

working relentlessly to increase the status

and benefits of the valiant freedom fighters.

Works are underway to build 30,000

Bir Nibas (houses) for insolvent freedom

fighters, the minister said, adding that

free medical treatment is being ensured

for the freedom fighters.

Online lies leave 1 in 5 girls

in safety fear: Survey

DHAKA : False information online has left

one in five girls (20%) feeling physically

unsafe, according to The Truth Gap, a new

report by Plan International, reports UNB.

The research includes a landmark survey

of over 26,000 girls and young women from

26 countries, which also found that exposure

to lies and mistruths are having a profound

impact on how they engage with issues ranging

from Covid-19 to politics.

Plan International, which says the findings

lay bare the 'real life consequences' of misinformation

and disinformation on girls and

young women, is calling on governments to

educate children and young people in digital

literacy. One in three reports that false information

is affecting their mental health, leaving

them feeling stressed, worried and anxious.

In-depth interviews carried out by Plan

International suggest that girls are feeling

unsafe because online exchanges are

increasing social tensions within communities.

Others reported concerns about fake

events advertised on social media placing

them at physical risk, or unreliable medical

advice that could harm their health.

More than a quarter (28%) of those surveyed

have been led to believe a myth or 'fake

fact' about Covid-19, and one in four (25%)

have questioned whether to get vaccinated

against the virus.

One in five (19%) say mistruths are so rife

that they have distrusted election results,

while one in five (18%) have stopped engaging

in politics or current affairs as a result.

Girls and young women from low- and

middle-income countries were more likely to

be affected by unreliable or false information

online, and twice as likely to have questioned

whether to get the vaccine (31%) than those

in high income countries (16%).

In the first large-scale global study to examine

the gendered impact of misinformation

and disinformation online, it was found that

nearly nine in 10 (87%) of girls and young

women think it has had a negative impact on

their lives. Globally, there was no online source

that the majority of those surveyed trusted to

provide reliable information.

The most trusted source was mainstream

news media, selected by 48%, above educational

institutions, family members and

national governments.

The survey found that Facebook was the

social media platform that girls believe to

have the most misinformation and disinformation,

selected by 65% of respondents, followed

by TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube -

all at 27%.

According to Charlotte, 23, from Wales,

the abundance of false information on the

internet can leave people "very, very vulnerable".

"I think sometimes there's that lack of

accountability in the online world where

people can just do things without getting

repercussions," she explains.

Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director of

Gender Transformative Policy at Plan

International, said the internet shapes girls'

opinions about themselves, the issues they

care about and the world around them.

"Our research makes clear that the spread

of false information online has real life consequences.

It is dangerous, it affects girls'

mental health, and it's yet another thing

holding them back from engaging in public

life." Every day, girls and young women in all

their diversity are bombarded online with

lies and stereotypes about their bodies who

they are and how they should behave.

"Images and videos are manipulated to

objectify and shame them. Rumours are

spread as a form of abuse. And girls have

very real fears that fake events and profiles

will lure and trick them into danger offline,"

Dengle said.

As part of its Girls Get Equal campaign,

Plan International is supporting girls worldwide

in calling on governments to take

immediate action to increase children and

young people's digital literacy, equipping

them with the knowledge and skills to identify

false information and engage confidently

in online spaces.

The organisation's survey found that seven

out of 10 girls and young women (67%) have

never been taught how to spot misinformation

or disinformation at school.

Mia, 20, from Kenya said: "We're in a

world where everything is being done on the

internet. We're doing everything digitally. So,

I think [digital literacy] should be taught in

the schools from...the primary schools to secondary

schools to universities.

The people of the Golakhali village of Shyamnagar in Satkhira are constantly fighting for their lives.

Natural disasters, cyclones, tidal surges, river erosion bring curses in the lives of people in the area

almost every year. Not just natural disasters, man-made disasters cause terrible disasters in their

lives due to the extreme indifference of the Water Development Board.

Photo: PBA

Sylhet hospital

India hands over

2 Life Support

ambulances

SYLHET : Indian High Commissioner to

Bangladesh Vikram K. Doraiswami on

Tuesday handed over two Life Support

ambulances to the Sylhet Osmani Medcial

College and Hospital and Khadimpara 31-

Bed Hospital, Sylhet Sadar.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul

Momen joined the function held at the

Sylhet Osmani Medical College and

Hospital (SOMCH).

The brand new ambulances, fitted with

modern, critical life-saving equipment, can

be used by paramedics and first responders

to provide quality emergency care and

trauma life support to patients en-route to

hospital for treatment.

These ambulances are part of the overall

programme for supply of 109 Life Support

ambulances, as announced by Indian

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his

state visit to Bangladesh in March 2021.

India has assisted Bangladesh in its fight

against Covid-19 in a wide variety of

means, including the supply of PPE kits,

medical equipment, testing kits, vaccines,

and through capacity-building and experience-sharing

workshops.

Bangladesh too responded when India

needed assistance during the second

wave of Covid earlier this year.

As a close friend of Bangladesh,

India remains committed to doing all

it can to assist Bangladesh, within the

limits of its capacity, in its response to

improving public health and welfare of

its people, said the Indian High

Commission in Dhaka.

Sundarbans tourism

Now focus on automation

to improve services

KHULNA : The government will launch

a pilot project in December next, aiming

to bring tourism management in the

Sundarbans under automation with a

smart app, reports UNB.

Using the app, 'Sundarbans', one can

get all the travel formalities done sitting

at home. This will not only save the time

of travellers but also ensure hassle-free

booking process and make things easier

for the forest department to provide better

services to tourists.

According to the Forest Department,

this automation programme on

Sundarbans travel management is being

implemented under the Skill

Development Project of Mobile Games

and Applications by the Department of

Information and Communication

Technology.

Mihir Kumar Dey, the forest conservator

of Khulna region, said, "The

Sundarbans tourism management is

being automated as part of building a

Digital Bangladesh. It's being implemented

under the A2I programme of the

Prime Minister's Office."

This will further improve the tourism

activities of the forest department and

will benefit all those involved in tourism.

A tourist from any part of the country

or abroad can access all the information

about Sundarbans travel through this

app. Here one can find the lists of

tourism centres and vessels, including

the addresses and phone numbers of

vessel owners and other information as

this mangrove forest has certain tourist

attractions for one or three-day trips.

If a tourist wants to visit the

Sundarbans for just one day, he or she

can enter the apps and click on the oneday

travel option and the names of

Karamjal, Harbaria, Kalagachia and

Shekhertech tourist centers will come.

The place of departure and the names,

addresses and vessel fares will be displayed

in detail.

Two hundred tourists can travel

together every hour through the one-day

tourist centre as it is aimed at preventing

crowds and maintaining biodiversity of

the forest.

In the case of more than 200 tourists

per hour, they will be registered for the

next hour. This is how 1,600 tourists can

visit the Sundarbans in eight hours every

day.

Similarly, those who want to visit the

Sundarbans for three days can also see

the names of Katka, Kachikhali, Dublar

Char and Nilkamal (Hironpoint) tourist

centres and access the names and

addresses of the vessels, names of their

owners and the number of seats available.

Dr Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain,

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of

Sundarbans West Division and the focal

person of the automation project, said

about 1.5 to 2 lakh of tourists visit the

Sundarbans every year.

Progress at snail's pace 2 years

after govt opens smart prepaid

gas metres to private competion

The construction work of the newly constructed third exit terminal at Hazrat Shahjalal International

Airport in the capital is progressing at a fast pace. Photo: PBA

DHAKA : Two years after the government

opened the prepaid gas metre market to the

private completion, none has been able to

enter the fray due to lack of enough preparation,

reports UNB.

The government's policy, announced in

2019, initially got enthusiastic response.

Many local and foreign companies came

forward to enter the lucrative market with

import, development, manufacturing, marketing

and supply of smart prepaid gas

metre for consumers. None of these companies

has so far succeeded in their ventures.

Officials at the state-owned Petrobangla,

responsible for setting the standard and

technical specifications for the metres, said

they are still hopeful about the arrival of the

private sector.

"Already a good number of companies

made demonstrations of their metres and

those were enthusiastic. We hope they will

be able to meet our standard and technical

specifications and finally come to the market",

said Habib Uddin Ahmed, general

manager (engineering), and head of the

technical committee of the Petrobangla.

He, however, said it takes some time to

meet our compliances as the things are new

and such ventures involve huge investment.

Many of the companies are studying the

market first and then they will either move

for importing metres or setting up plants to

manufacture locally. So they need time for

their preparation, he added.

Sources said local Beximco and

Bangladesh Smart Electrical Company Ltd.,

a joint venture of West Zone Power

Distribution company and Chinese firm

Hexing Electrical Co. Ltd, are among those

showing interest in the business.

They said the Energy and Mineral

Resources Division under the Ministry of

Power, Energy and Mineral Resources took

up the move for opening smart prepaid

metre market for private sector in 2019.

After a long discussion with the stakeholders,

it published a gazette notification on

December 4 in 2019 setting a detailed standard,

technical specifications and compliances

for the smart pre-paid metres.

It also invited private companies to come

to the market with their own devices by taking

approval from the Petrobangla.

The Energy and Mineral Resources

Division brought some amendments to the

previous specifications and published the

new gazette "Policy on Purchase and

Installation of Prepaid / Smart Gas Metres

from Open Market at Residential Level,

2019 (Amended 2021)" on Sep 23 this year.

About the private sector's involvement in

smart pre-paid metre, State Minister for

Power, Energy and Mineral Resources

Nasrul Hamid said the government opened

the market for the private sector for pre-paid

gas metres following success in prepaid electricity

meters.

"Actually if the market is open for all, it

will create a competition and ultimately

price of metres will come down automatically",

he said. He also mentioned that initially

Titas Gas's each prepaid metre costs $80.

"Now, we hope, this cost will come down to

$30 if a fair competition is ensured", he told

UNB.

06-10-2021

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