19-10-2020

monday

DhAkA : October 19, 2020; kartik 3, 1427 BS; Rabi-ul Awal 1, 1442 hijri

www.thebangladeshtoday.com; www.bangladeshtoday.net

Regd.No.DA~2065, Vol.17; N o.197; 12 Pages~Tk.8.00

InternatIonal

NZ to form new

gov't before official

election results

>Page 7

art & culture

'Aina' to be filmed on

backdrop of rural

setup: Achol

>Page 8

sports

Real Madrid slump

to shock defeat

against Cadiz

>Page 9

Working to provide better

future for children: PM

Narendra Modi may

visit Bangladesh

next year : Foreign

Minister

TBT RePoRT

On the occasion of 50th anniversary

of Bangladesh's independence,

Indian Prime Minister Narendra

Modi may pay a visit to Bangladesh

on March 17 or 26 next year.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul

Momen made the remarks after a

meeting with newly-appointed

Indian High Commissioner to

Dhaka Vikram Kumar Doraiswamy

at the state guest house 'Padma'

here on Sunday.The Foreign

Minister said Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi has been invited ON

50th anniversary of Bangladesh's

independence.

Besides, Narendra Modi may have a

virtual meeting with Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina on the occasion of the

glorious Victory Day on December 16.

Preparations have been made for

Narendra Modi's virtual meeting with

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the

Victory Day in December, the foreign

minister said.

On October 8, he presented his

identity card to the President on

October 8. This is his first meeting

with the Foreign Minister after newly

appointed Indian High Commissioner

Vikram Doraiswami joined as a high

commissioner in Dhaka.

4 govt officials, as

many contractors,

under ACC

scanner

DHAKA : Anti-Corruption Commission

(ACC) on Sunday issued a notice seeking

accounts of the assets of four government

officials and four contractors

involved in various illegal businesses,

including casino scandals, reports

UNB.

ACC Public Relations (Director)

Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya

confirmed the matter to UNB.

They are the joint head of the

Ministry of Youth and Sports Sajjadul

Islam, Deputy Assistant Engineer of

Public Works Circle-4 Ali Akbar,

Tangail Ghatail Food Inspector

Khorshed Alam, Dhaka South City

Corporation Tax Officer Sheikh

Quddus Ahmed, Munshiganj

Contractor Moazzem Hossain Sentu,

Chittagong Patiya Contractor Nur Ur

Rashid Chowdhury Ejaz, Munshiganj

Srinagar Contractor Zakir Hossain

and Contractor Abdus Salam.

Zohr

04:44 AM

11:50 PM

03:52 PM

05:33 PM

06:50 PM

5:57 5:30

DHAKA : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

on Sunday said the government is working

relentlessly to provide a better future

for the children so that they could

become the leaders of the country.

"Every childwill be the steersman of

the country in the coming days by getting

proper education. They'll live a beautiful

life. We're working keeping that as our

aim," she said.

The Prime Minister said this while

addressing a programme virtually marking

the birth anniversary of Sheikh

Russel, the youngest child of Father of

the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh

Mujibur Rahman, from her official residence

Ganobhaban, reports UNB.

Sheikh Russel Jatiya Shishu Kishore

Parishad organised the programme at

the Bangabandhu International

Conference Center (BICC).

Sheikh Hasina said that the children of

the country will be patriot, good human

being, worthy citizen, serve the people

and educate themselves with modern

education.

Talking about the coronavirus pandemic

that forced the schools to be shutdown,

she said, this is very much painful

for the children.

She advised the children to continue

their studies at home with utmost attention,

and other activities so that whenever

the schools open they can join without

a hitch.

She urged all to pay proper attention in

this regard.

Sheikh Hasina requested the

guardians to look after the studies of

their children along with ensuring their

sports and excercise.

She also asked all to wear mask in any

crowded area and follow the health safety

measurers.

Sheikh Russel Jatiya Shishu Kishore

Parishad chairman Raquibur Rahman

and a little boy Nil Kabyo also spoke at

the programme.

Earlier, the PM inaugurated the

screening of 'Bubur Desh' (animated

documentary on Sheikh Russel),

unveiled the cover of a book titled

'Sheikh Russel Amader Abeg, Amader

Valobasha' (book on the life of Sheikh

Russell), and unveiled the mural of

Sheikh Russel and inaugurated 'Shahid

Sheikh Russel' building at University

Laboratory School and College.

All 41 spans to be set up on

Padma bridge by next 2 months

DHAKA : All 41 spans will be installed on

the Padma Multi Purpose Bridge by the

next two months as three more spans to

be set up this October, officials said. "We

have a plan to install all of the 41 spans on

the bridge, only 9 spans were left to be set

up," Project Director of Padma Bridge

Md Shafiqul Islam told BSS.

He said three more spans will be

installed on the Padma Bridge over the

mighty river by this month. As per the

schedule the 33rd span of the bridge will

be placed on the 3rd and 4th pier on

October 20, the 34th span will be lifted

on October 25 and the 35th span on

October 30.

The project director said now over 4.8

kilometers of the bridge became visible

with installing the 32nd span-linking the

4th and 5th piers at Mawa end on 11

October.

"A total 41 spans will become visible on

the bridge together in December, as the

pace of work is going fast with maintaining

proper health guidelines during the

coronavirus pandemic," he said.

According to project details, the 34th

span of the bridge will be placed on 4th

November, the 38th span on 11th

November, 38th on 16th November,

39th on 23rd November and the 40th on

2nd December.

Besides, the last and 41st span of the

Padma Bridge will set up on the 12th and

13th piers of the bridge on 10th

December, it said.

According to the Padma Bridge

authorities, the 6.15km-long bridge with

a total of 41 spans will become visible in

December and the entire Padma Bridge

will be seen by the beginning of 2021.

The Padma Bridge is the largest construction

infrastructure since the independence

of Bangladesh, which was initiated

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The construction work began in

December, 2014 with own fund.

The construction of the main bridge is

being made by China Major Bridge

Engineering Company (MBEC), a

Chinese contractor Company, and the

river management is being done by Sino

Hydro Corporation of China.

The 6.15 km long bridge will have two

segments over which road and railways

will be set up.

Crowd of people to buy TCB's products. The photo is taken from the National Press Club area on

Saturday.

Photo : TBT

Case against Nixon

Sec 144 imposed in

Bhanga upazila

FARIDPUR : The local administration

has imposed section 144 in Bhanga

upazila headquarters on Sunday after

two groups arranged programmes at

the same venue and time.

The restriction will remain in force

until 5pm of Sunday, said Bhanga

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Rakibur

Rahman Khan.

The supporters of local MP Md

Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury Nixon's

party have arranged a programme at

the hospital intersection area. Besides,

another organisation, Muktijoddha

Mancha, also fixed at the same venue at

the same time for their programme.

The administration imposed the ban

on gathering to avoid any untoward situation.

Meanwhile, Nixon, an independent

MP from Faridpur-4 constituency,

sought an anticipatory bail from the

High Court in a case filed by the

Election Commission (EC).

On Sunday, his lawyers filed the bail

petition with the High Court bench of

Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain and

Justice KM Zahid Sarwar.

The court has fixed Tuesday for hearing

on the petition.

A case was filed on Thursday against

Nixon for violating electoral code of

conduct during by-election to the post

of chairman of Charbhadrasan Upazila

Parishad.

The road from Kalihati to Barachona in Tangail is an important regional road as it is an easy road from Kalihati

to Sakhipur upazila. But the road is now impassable for the Bailey Bridge. As there is no alternative road, all

the vehicles including thousands of people of the two upazilas are running at the risk of their lives. Photo: PBA

HC turns down writ challenging

reappointment of Wasa MD

DHAKA : The High Court on Sunday

rejected a writ petition challenging the

legality of the process for reappointing

Taqsem A Khan to the post of managing

director (MD) of Dhaka Water Supply

and Sewerage

Authority (Wasa)

, reports UNB.

The HC bench

of Justice JBM

Hassan and

Justice Md

Khairul Alam

passed the order.

A d v o c a t e

Tanvir Ahmed

appeared for the

writ petitioner in

the court while

Deputy Attorney

General Nur-us

Sadiq represented the state.

Earlier on Wednesday, the same

bench fixed Sunday for passing an order

after concluding hearing on the matter.

On September 24, former additional

chief engineer of Bangladesh Water

Development Board Khandker Monjur

Morshed submitted the writ petition to

the HC.

SYLHET : Raihan, who was beaten to

death in police custody at the Bandar

Bazar police outpost, had 111 injury

marks and two of his nails were pulled

off, according to the autopsy report,

reports UNB.

His stomach was empty and there was

only acidity liquid. He had severe internal

bleeding because of excessive physical

torture. He was tortured between two

and four hours before his death. About

two litres of blood was found underneath

his skin, said Dr Mohammad Shamsul

Islam, head of the Forensic Department.

The autopsy report was handed over to

the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI)

on Saturday night.

Surveillance cameras at Bandarbazar

Police outpost show Raihan being

brought in around 3:09am on October

10 in normal condition. He was seen

being taken to Osmani Medical College

Hospital at 6:24am and he died around

7:50am.

In the petition, he prayed to the HC to

stay the proposal for extending the

tenure of Taqsem as Wasa MD by three

more years.

In a virtual meeting on September 19,

the board of Dhaka Wasa made the recommendation

to reappoint Taqsem as

its managing director.

On 14 October 2009, Taqsem was

appointed as the Managing Director of

Dhaka Wasa.

He has been serving the post since

2009. His tenure was extended as the

Managing Director of Wasa five times.

Raihan's body had 111 injury

marks: Autopsy report

Later, the hospital authorities conducted

an autopsy and found that Raihan

died due to physical torture.

"His organs were damaged due to

hypovolemic shock and neurogenic

shock," said Dr Shamsul adding, "the

actual reason will be known after getting

a viscera report."

Raihan, 34, a resident of Akharia in

Sylhet city, was beaten to death in police

custody at the Bandar Bazar police outpost

on October 11, his family said.

His body was exhumed for a second

post-mortem examination and buried

again on October 15. The district administration

allowed the exhumation following

an appeal by Kotwali police Sub-

Inspector (SI) Abdul Baten, the investigation

officer of the case.

PBI is currently investigating the case

at the instructions of the police headquarters.

The Sylhet Metropolitan Police

has handed over the documents of the

case to PBI.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2020

2

Sheikh Russel's Mural and Sheikh Russel Bhaban inaugurated at Du uLAB School and College on

Sunday.

Photo : Courtesy

4 arrested for

hilsa fishing

during ban

in Narail

NARAIL : Detectives arrested

four people from Narail for

catching hilsa during the 22-day

ban on fishing. The drive was

conducted from Jamrildanga

to Baroipara in Kalia upazila

overnight, reports UNB.

The arrestees were identified

as Tutul Sheikh, 38, Morshekh,

32, Jony Sheikh, 25 and Irfan

Sheikh, 22 of Bishnupur village

in the upazila.

Anisuzzman, assistant subinspector

of DB, said the drive

would continue for protecting

mother hilsa and jatka. The

government has imposed a 22-

day ban on catching, selling,

hoarding and transporting of

hilsa from Oct 14 to protect

hilsa with eggs. The ban will be

effective until Nov 4.

Fisheries and Livestock

Minister SM Rezaul Karim on

October 12 said no one will be

allowed to catch mother hilsa

during this period.

"No boat will be allowed to

ply spots in the river where

mother hilsas roam. Members

of Navy and the coast guard's

special monitoring team will

work to prevent catching of

hilsa," he said at a press

briefing on the implementation

of 'mother hilsa conservation

drive-2020'.

Dhaka ranks worst in

air quality index

DHAKA : Dhaka, one the

most polluted cities in the

world, ranked worst in the

Air Quality Index (AQI) on

Sunday morning, reports

UNB.

It had a score of 188 at

10:24am. The air was

classified as 'unhealthy'.

When the AQI value is

between 151 and 200,

everyone may begin to

experience health effects.

Members of sensitive

groups may experience

more serious health

effects.

Pakistan's Lahore and

India's Delhi occupied the

second and third spots in

the list with scores of 178

and 176 respectively.

The AQI, an index for

reporting the daily air

quality, informs people

how clean or polluted the

air of a certain city is and

what associated health

effects might be a concern

for them.

In Bangladesh, the AQI

is based on five criteria

pollutants - Particulate

Matter (PM10 and

PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2

and Ozone.

Bangladesh topped the

list of the world's most

polluted countries in 2019

for PM2.5 exposure,

according to an IQAir

AirVisual report.

The 2019 World Air

Quality Report is based on

data from the world's

largest centralised

platform for real-time air

quality data, combining

efforts from thousands of

initiatives run by citizens,

communities, companies,

non-profitorganisations

and governments.

It includes only PM2.5

(fine particulate matter)

data as acquired from

ground-based air quality

monitoring stations with

high data availability.

To track outdoor air

quality, the report focused

on the concentrations of

two pollutants in

particular: fine particle air

pollution (particulate

matter measuring less

than 2.5 micrometers in

aerodynamic diameter, or

PM2.5) and ozone found

near ground level

(tropospheric ozone).

This assessment also

tracked exposure to

household air pollution

from burning fuels such as

coal, wood, or biomass for

cooking.

Air

pollution

consistently ranks among

the top risk factors for

death and disability

worldwide. Breathing

polluted air has long been

recognized as increasing a

person's chances of

developing heart disease,

chronic respiratory

diseases, lung infections,

and cancer, according to

the report.

As per the World Health

Organization (WHO), the

air pollution kills an

estimated seven million

people worldwide every

year largely as a result of

increased mortality from

stroke, heart disease,

chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease, lung

cancer and acute

respiratory infections.

Over 80 percent living in

urban areas which

monitor air pollution are

exposed to air quality

levels that exceed WHO

guideline limits, with lowand

middle-income

countries most at risk,

WHO estimated.

BSF kills Bangladeshi

along Chuadanga border

CHUADANGA : A Bangladeshi

national was reportedly

gunned down by the Indian

Border Security Force (BSF)

along the Thakurpur border in

Damurhuda upazila of

Chuadanga early Sunday,

reports UNB.

The deceased was

identified as Omedul Islam,

26, son of Shahidul Islam of

Thakurpur village.

Mohammad

Khalekuzzaman, director of

Border Guard Bangladesh

(BGB)-6, said the BSF

members opened fire on

some Bangladeshis when

they, along with Omedul,

went to the zero point.

Omedul died on the spot.

However, the BGB is

preparing to send a letter to

BSF protesting against the

incident, he said.

Shahidullah Khan

elected Chairman of

ONE Bank Limited

The Board of Directors of

ONE Bank Limited has

elected A.S.M. Shahidullah

Khan as its Chairman for

one-year term from October

15, 2020. The Board has also

re-elected Asoke Das Gupta

as its Vice Chairman and

ZahurUllah as the Chairman

of the Executive Committee,

a press release said.

A.S.M. Shahidullah Khan is a

A.S.M. Shahidullah Khan

son of eminent Late Justice and

Ex-Speaker Abdul Jabbar

Khan. He was a brilliant student

and at all levels of his academic

life, he secured 1st division/

class. He has graduated from

the University of Dhaka with a

brilliant academic track record.

He stood 1st in the combined

merit list in SSC examination

under the Dhaka Board and

obtained 1st class in Physics

(Hons) from Dhaka University.

He was a valiant freedom

fighter. He actively participated

in the liberation war of

Bangladesh under sector-2.

Shahidullah Khan is the

Managing Director of Media

New Age Ltd and the

publisher of the Daily New

Age. He is a Director of

Holiday Publication Limited.

Khan has been involved in

extra-curricular, socio-cultural

and voluntary activities since

his student life.

Global deaths

from Covid-19

crosses 1,108, 607

NAKiBuL AhSAN NiShAD, JNu

Students of 2015-16 academic year of

Jagannath University (JnU) on Sunday

have demanded immediate start of

honours final year second semester

examination.

Under the banner of 'Students of 2015-

16 academic year of Jagannath University',

they raised their demand at a human chain

held in front of Shaheed Minar of the

university around 11:00 am. Students of

different departments took part the

human chain.

They chanted different slogans in favour

of their demand.

Moderated by RabiulAlam of English

department, H.M Shahin, Kajol Rani

Sarker, Imran Roni, Kamal, Mahbub of

2015-16 academic year addressed the

human chain.

Kajol Rani Sarker, a final year student

of Anthropology department said, most of

the students of the university have come

fro m middle class family, students of

DHAKA : The global death toll

from coronavirus hit 1,108,607

as of Sunday, according to the

latest tally from Johns Hopkins

University (JHU), reports UNB.

Besides, the total caseload

from Covid-19 surpassed

39.5 million as 39,589,400

more cases have been

confirmed around the world,

shows the JHU data.

Globally, 27,148,927 patients

infected from the virus have

recovered by the time.

The US continues to be the

worst-affected country due

to the virus with 8,102,142

cases and 219,157 fatalities,

which are the highest

number of single-country

deaths in the world.

Besides, India's total

caseload reached 7,432,680

while the South Asian

country has recorded

112,998 deaths as of Sunday

morning. India has been the

second worst-hit country by

the Covid-19 pandemic.

The death toll from Covid-

19 reached 153,675 in Brazil

since the country has

GD-1361 (7 X 4) counted 5,224,362 cases, GD-1362/20 (6 X 3)

according to the JHU data.

Students demand for

honours final year exam

several departments of 2015-16 academic

year have appeared in 8 semester

examination and already became

graduate. Due to incompleteness of our

final 8 semester examinations we are

deprived of applying for several jobs and

scholarship programs in abroad.

For the incompleteness of examinations

we along with our family fell into

depression.

JnU Vice-chancellor Professor Dr

Mijanur Rahman said, we couldn't do

anything beyond the government

directives in the regard. A software was

developed by BSMRSTU authorities to

take the stuck examinations easily,

authorities of different universities gave

positive impression on it.

While asked when the software would be

launched, the VC replied that

examinations could be arranged at the end

of November or in December using the

software following the approval of UGC

and other authorities concerned.

Students of 2015-16 academic year of Jagannath university (Jnu) on

Sunday demanded immediate start of honours final year second semester

examination.

Photo : TBT

2 sisters killed in

wZZvm M¤vm/Rbms hvMt

MOnDAY, OCtObeR 19, 2020

3

KOICA holds seminar on

road maintenance,

management system issues

DHAKA : The Korea International

Cooperation Agency (KOICA) recently

organised a de-briefing online seminar on

road maintenance and management

system issues of Bangladesh, reports

UNB.

'Strengthening and Building the

capacity of Roads and Highways

Department (RHD), Bangladesh

officials focusing on Road Maintenance

and Management System issues

(Bangladesh)' was held on Thursday,

said a press release. It was co-hosted by

RHD.

"In this de-briefing seminar, two

fellows who attended nine-day long

online training from September 21 to

29, 2020 from Roads Transport and

Highways Division (RTHD) shared their

experiences and knowledge gained from

the training.

Also, Roads and Highways

Department (RHD) officials shared

their Action plans for improvement of

RHD sectors in Bangladesh."

Due to the current COVID-19

pandemic, KOICA organised the

training virtually through online

platform.

For the smooth implementation of the

training, KOICA has granted learning

devices such as Samsung Notebook and

other accessories for better access in the

online learning environment.

KOICA's Fellowship Program is

designed to nurture key leaders in

developing countries who can

contribute to their respective

organisations for better result.

This country-focused fellowship

programme has been launched in 2019

and will be continued until 2021. The

total number of the direct beneficiaries

will reach around 75, according to the

release.

This year, total 21 fellows from RTHD

and RHD got this opportunity.

As transportation sector is the one of

Korea's development priority areas for

Bangladesh, KOICA is about to finance

$8.9 million from 2020 to 2023 to an

upcoming project titled "Improving the

Reliability and Safety in National

Highway Corridors of Bangladesh by

Introduction of ITS (Intelligent

Transport System)", the press release

says.

Through this comprehensive support

from Korea, it is believed that Bangladesh

can develop Road and Safety Masterplan

along with establishment of effective road

management system which will reduce

time and accidents for much-needed

improved road conditions in the country.

Russel was an

obedient polite

boy : DU VC

DHAKA : Vice-Chancellor

(VC) of Dhaka University

(DU) Md. Akhtaruzzaman

said Shaheed Sheikh Russel

was very modest and

humble boy who was also

very respectful and obedient

to his teachers.

"Little Russel was a very

compassionate boy . . . his

classmates liked him very much

as he shared tiffins with them,"

said Akhtaruzzaman while

speaking at the inaugural

ceremony of a mural of

Shaheed Sheikh Russel at

University Laboratory School

and College on Sunday.

Prime Minister Sheikh

Hasina unveiled the mural and

inaugurated 'Shaheed Sheikh

Russel Bhaban' through video

conference from his official

Ganabhaban residence

marking the 56th birth

anniversary of Sheikh Russel,

the youngest son of Father of

the Nation Bangabandhu

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The event was jointly

organised by the University

Laboratory School and

College and Awami League's

(AL) sub-committee on

Relief and Social Welfare

with DU VC Prof. Md.

Akhtaruzzaman in the chair.

Milad and Doa Mahfil was held on the occasion of the 57th birth anniversary of Shaheed Sheikh Russel, the

youngest son of Father of the nation bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, at the Juba League Central Office

on Sunday.

Photo : Courtesy

Postage stamp released

marking birth anniv of

Sheikh Russel

DHAKA : The Directorate of Posts on

Sunday released a commemorative

postage stamp marking the 56th birth

anniversary of Sheikh Russel, the

youngest son of Father of the Nation

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,

reports UNB.

Posts, Telecommunications and

Information Technology Minister

Mustafa Jabbar inaugurated the stamp

worth Tk 10 at a programme. He also

unveiled an envelope worth Tk 10 and a

data card worth Tk 5.

Initially, the postage stamp and

envelope will be available at the Philatelic

Bureau of Dhaka GPO from Sunday and it

will be gradually made available in all

GPO's across the country.

Russel, the youngest brother of Prime

Minister Sheikh Hasina, was born on

October 18, 1964, at the historic

Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi. He

was killedon August 15, 1975, along with

most of his family members, including his

father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman.

Satkhira 4-murder

Deceased's younger brother

put on 5-day remand

SATKHIRA : A Satkhira court

on Sunday placed Raihanul,

the younger brother of

Shahinur Rahman who was

killed with his wife and two

children in Khalsi village of

Kolaroa upazila, on a five-day

remand, reports UNB.

Satkhira judicial magistrate

court-2 Senior Judicial

Magistrate Yeasmin Nahar

passed the order on Sunday

after hearing of a 10-day

remand petition filed by Tariqul

Islam, inspector of CID, also

investigation officer of the case.

A team of CID arrested Raihanul

on Friday and he was shown

arrested in the murder case.

Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock Raunak Mahmud talked to reporters after visiting

Rangpur Zoo on Sunday afternoon.

Photo: PbA

VGF rice being distributed to

fishermen in Gaibandha

GAIBANDHA: Rice under Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF)

activity is being distributed for last few days to the fishermen

who are residing on the bank of the river Brahmaputra and

whose families are fully dependent on catching fishes in the

river, reports BSS.

The government imposed a 22-day ban on Hilsha catching,

selling, hoarding and transporting across the country from

October 14. As the livelihood of most of the fishermen is

dependent on catching fishes in the river and selling the fishes

to the customers at nearby hat and bazaars, the fishermen face

more trouble during the ban period for want of food.

gd-1363/20 (5 X 4)

GD- 1364/20 (10 x 4)

MoNdAY, oCToBeR 19, 2020

4

elections 2020: American politics has hit the rock bottom

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam

e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com

Monday, October 19, 2020

Multi-faceted

strategy to promote

investments

Indeed, progress in economic growth and its

accompanying benefits namely income and job

creation, calls for a multi-faceted approach specially

as we are going through an unprecedented pandemic.

Growth may be lower in a certain area, but that can be

compensated by higher growth in other areas. This has

been provenby our efforts of trying to be timely,

innovative and diversifying traditional modes of

income.

For example, Bangladesh caught the world's

attention by exporting Bangladesh made sophisticated

ventilator machines to the USA market recently. This

was a very timely smart move when the USA was

running out of ventilator machines during a height of

the epidemic in May and exploring all global sources of

supply.Some of our shout down garments factories

from recession in importing countries took to

producing masks, personal protective equipment,

gloves, etc. as alternatives to making garments. Some

of our pharmaceutical industries started producing

and exporting drugs used in Corona virus treatment.

Other examples of the dynamism and spirit of our

private sector can be found on searching in these

troubled times.

The government of Bangladesh (GOB) needs to

further promote these scattered moves of private

dynamism with its all round macro level moves

causing a significant further improvement in the

business climate. For example, while giving highest

priority to augmenting energy supplies, it should also

pay serious attention to other growth supporting

factors.

Given that corruption and bureaucracy are big

hurdles to attracting foreign direct investments (FDIs)

into Bangladesh, policymakers must make it a priority

to reduce corruption at all levels of the government

and improve the efficiency of the administration.

Bureaucratic red tape must be cut down.

The state of existing infrastructures or the sheer lack

of them are impediments to investments. Government

must go on taking the lead in improving and adding to

infrastructure building.

Macro economic stability is an outstandingly

important condition for influencing investment

decisions. Our government deservers a high positive

score in this pivotal area of concern.But it should not

turn complacent by successes already achieved. It

should sustain the progress attained and keep on

adding to them. Government has the biggest role to

play in this area bycontinuing execution of its policies

with unstinted efficiency to retain this stability and

improve on it.

Foreign investors and even many local ones are

sophisticated and look for markets that are friendly for

the long run security of their investments. Therefore,

the risk elements-political instability and conflict must

be controlled to project signs of political stability long

into the future. But this prospect of maintaining and

enhancing political stability is still seen to be under a

stress in Bangladesh. Thus, the government is

expected to take the initiatives with patience and even

make concessions to create this stability to provide a

major stimulus for investment by building hopes of a

longer term stable and conducive environment for

investments not to be rocked by politically induced

violence.

Government should also vitally signal to investors by

retaining the good policies and even improving upon

them or adding to them to help confidence among

investors about the continuity of good and useful

governmental policies.

An educated and skilled labour force is the key to

success for attracting investments. Therefore,

adequate investment in appropriate types of education

and training to this end should become a high priority.

Private educational institutions have done well in

some cases to create some competition for the public

educational institutions that have been hopelessly

mired in politics and violence. But greater importance

should be attached to creating more opportunities for

technical education, training and skills by increasing

and adding to capacities of public institutions

particularly with an eye for the emerging economic

sectors.

Bangladesh can learn a valuable lesson from India

and China where an important source of investments

has been their expatriate nationals. The numbers for

India are also impressive, but not nearly as large as for

China given that the Indian policymakers until 2002

were not welcoming their expatriate citizens. The

lesson for Bangladeshi policymakers is to welcome the

non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) citizens, especially

those interested in investment and business

opportunities.

It is clear, therefore, that there are many factors that

drive investment flows. This information is important

for policymakers and should be utilized while devising

multi layered strategies to promote investments for

economic growth.

There's unrest in the streets and

vicious partisan division in

Washington. Vast numbers of

people are out of work. The reality TV

billionaire who occupies the White House

is tossing aside fundamental democratic

norms, even hinting he might not accept

the election results. He's been

impeached, to no avail. And all the while,

a deadly virus is stalking the nation.

Surely this must be the most dramatic,

dangerous moment ever in American

politics. Surely we are more bitterly

divided than in the past and facing the

most consequential election ever.

But is that really true? "Every

generation thinks of itself in the

superlative. Best, worst, most corrupt,

most stressed, most polarised. It's a form

of collective narcissism," says H.W.

Brands, a professor of US history at the

University of Texas at Austin. "But not all

the generations can be right. Are we more

polarised than ever? Not more than the

election of 1860, which caused a third of

the states to leave the union. Is this the

most consequential election ever? If it

stops short of causing a civil war, then no.

Is politics more bitter now than ever? No.

No one has been killed in a duel or beaten

nearly to death on the floor of the

Senate."

The last thing I want to do is downplay

the seriousness of our present mess, but

it was mildly comforting to be reminded

in conversations with several historians

in recent days that, as bad as things are,

they've been just as bad if not worse in

the past.

Brands' reference to abolitionist Sen.

Charles Sumner being beaten

unconscious with a cane in 1856 by a

proslavery member of the House of

NICHolAS GoldBeRG

Representatives is a reminder of just how

deep fissures can get. And Brands was

not alone in mentioning the fraught, presecession

election of 1860 and the

subsequent Civil War, in which some

750,000 Americans died. All the

historians I spoke to cited those events.

And there have been other times, too,

when tensions ran dangerously high. In

some cases, it was not clear that

democracy would survive.

Jack Rakove, a history professor at

Stanford, pointed to the final years of the

1700s, a period of intense and bitter

partisan competition between the

Federalist Party and the opposing

Democratic-Republicans. The election of

1800 between John Adams and Thomas

Jefferson tested for the first time whether

the United States would be able to

transfer power peacefully from one

political party to another. The outcome

was by no means certain.

David Greenberg, a professor of

American history at Rutgers, offered

1968 as another time of extraordinary

turbulence. President Lyndon Johnson

had decided unexpectedly not to seek

another term. There was growing anger

and division over the war in Vietnam.

HAfed Al-GHWell

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was

assassinated in April, followed two

months later by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Riots broke out at the Democratic

convention in Chicago. Then, in

November, Richard Nixon was elected

president.

"I think there was a sense that

revolution was at hand, that the wheels

were coming off, that something crazy

was going on," said Greenberg. "There

were ominous feelings about what lay

around the corner for America and for

the future of democracy."

Other historians pointed to periods of

violent labour unrest in the late 1800s as

well as to the Great Depression as

moments of crisis and anxiety in the

United States.

Yet, in each case, the nation survived.

Of course, today we're facing what

Princeton history professor Sean Wilentz

called a "triple whammy" - the pandemic,

the worst economic downturn since the

Great Depression and a wave of racial

unrest - just at a moment when we have a

president whom historian Robert Dallek

calls a "malignant narcissist" and a

"psychological mess." (Dallek compared

the election of Trump to the election in

1920 of Warren Harding, whom he called

"an inconsequential and unqualified

nonentity.")

Wilentz noted that the country had

Abraham Lincoln to guide it through the

Civil War, and that when it faced the

Great Depression, Franklin Delano

Roosevelt rose, somewhat unexpectedly,

to the challenge. "We've been very lucky,"

Wilentz said. "But as with gamblers, so

with great nations: Your luck can run

out."

The historians I spoke to expressed

concerns about voter suppression and

potential violence in the weeks ahead.

Several said they believe Trump will

challenge the outcome of the election

even if he loses fairly.

But for what it's worth, they expressed

mostly confidence - though tinged with

concern, caution and caveats - that the

United States would muddle through.

Dallek put his hope in the institutions

of democracy; Wilentz (quoting Bill

Clinton) cited the character of the

American people. Greenberg reiterated

that we shouldn't buy into the myth of an

"utterly stable American history with a

clear arc of progress.""We've had a lot of

ups and downs and dark moments and

doubts about our future as a nation," said

Greenberg. "I think we can gain

perspective by taking the long view of

history."

On a related subject, it is my view that

Trump is the worst president of my

lifetime. But is he the worst president

ever? I don't know the answer. In the

coming days, I'll put that question to

historians, and we'll see if the long view of

history cuts Trump some slack.

Source : Gulf News

lebanon's inept elite risk descent into chaos

If the stakes were already high in

Lebanon, they only became higher after

President Michel Aoun delayed

consultations with members of parliament

on naming a prime minister. Despite

intense socioeconomic and political crises,

the coronavirus pandemic, and the

aftermath of the Beirut port blast, Lebanon

has not had a functioning government

since Aug. 10.

The resignation of Hassan Diab and his

Cabinet has not allayed the frustrations of

an increasingly disillusioned public. An

attempt at transition to a French-backed

Mustafa Adib administration faltered

when political parties failed to reach

agreement on a non-partisan Cabinet.

Aoun then hoped to nominate former

prime minister Saad Hariri, who resigned

a year ago in response to anti-corruption

protests.

There is some merit to this thinking,

considering Lebanon's historic tripartite

power balance. Hariri briefly became a

serious frontrunner with the support of the

two prominent Shiite political parties,

Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, but he

failed to inspire any enthusiasm from the

Christian third of that tripartite; the Free

Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Forces

were opposed to a new Hariri

administration. For a concerned public, it

signaled a return to the dreaded

intransigence and gridlock. Even pledges

to name a government of technocrats

failed to convince Hariri's detractors, not

convinced by the former prime minister's

lack of technocratic credentials.

Hariri - surprised by Aoun's decision to

delay consultations - has now withdrawn

his candidacy and the whole process has

been postponed until Oct. 28. This latest

episode underscores a growing,

insurmountable divide between those in

power and the Lebanese people.

The ruling elites still appear out of touch

with the public's most pressing concerns.

Food poverty and declining public health

leave Lebanon teetering on the edge of a

famine-level disaster. The explosion at

Beirut port in August, which cost at least

$15 billion worth of damage, has severely

diminished Lebanon's capacity to receive

shipments of critical aid, let alone maintain

exports at levels sufficient to sustain a

depressed economy.

The costs to revitalize Lebanon's

economy could top $60 billion, and the

longer it takes to settle a stable, competent

government in Beirut, the larger that figure

will grow. Unemployment is at 35 percent

and climbing, and hyperinflation has sent

prices soaring by as much as 120 percent.

An inevitable increase in imports and

rising inflation results in wage

depreciation, destroying wealth and

overall confidence - not helped by an

unprecedent banking crisis.

It is unsurprising to see the Lebanese

take to the streets in an attempt to pull the

country back from total collapse. By any

measure, Lebanon is already a

dysfunctional state, exacerbated by

political gridlock, negligence, rampant

corruption and general incompetence.

This latest round of musical chairs has

left Lebanon primed for even more

political squabbling, even with the French

at the periphery, seeking to influence the

trajectory the country will take. Mustafa

Adib's appointment would have placated

French demands for a consensus reformist

government focused on implementing

urgent structural, economic and political

reforms in order to access international aid

and restore confidence.

However, Lebanon's political oligarchs

are perturbed by any mention of reform

However, lebanon's political oligarchs are perturbed by any

mention of reform and demands for them to commit to initiatives

that erode their power. There is little hope that pressure

from the international community will dislodge an

entrenched political elite from the levers of power, when the

lebanese themselves have repeatedly tried and failed.

RICHARd d Wolff

and demands for them to commit to

initiatives that erode their power. There is

little hope that pressure from the

international community will dislodge an

entrenched political elite from the levers of

power, when the Lebanese themselves

have repeatedly tried and failed.

The "French initiative" is under threat as

political parties justify their rejection of

Adib's agenda as refusing to bow to

external pressure from the overbearing

French. Such an argument would be more

convincing if there were viable alternatives

to navigating Lebanon out of its crises.

There are none.

The only way out is implementing

comprehensive reforms engineered by a

technocratic body, unaffiliated to any

political entity and with sufficient authority

to carry out such a hefty mandate. Given

the gridlock and intransigence in the face

of woeful circumstances, the merits of such

a caretaker government are obvious, but its

establishment runs counter to Lebanon's

consensus-driven political processes.

Unfortunately, when the major political

parties cannot even rise to the urgency of

forming a government, and take comfort in

backing politically untenable positions, it

does not bode well for the future.

Christian parties are not keen on

caretaker governments or band-aid

solutions requiring extended debates or

compromises. Instead, they have called for

elections in a bid to change the names and

faces of Lebanon's legislature. The bet is to

have a fresh crop of representatives, more

in touch with the plight of the Lebanese

and amenable to external initiatives to

stabilize the country. The Shiite third -

notably Hezbollah and Speaker Nabih

Berri's Amal Movement - leans more

toward forming a government but will not

support any arrangements that prevent

them from nominating individuals to key

posts, such as finance minister.

However, calling for snap elections or

trying to scrape together an independent

government in such an environment will

just widen the divide. Elections will simply

follow sectarian lines, which risks

entrenching the current cast of political

entities. A caretaker government with

Christian, Sunni and Shiite blessing will

not be independent nor sufficiently

empowered to carry out critical reforms.

With little room to budge either way,

protests or not, Lebanon is accelerating

towards a "Lebanzuela" scenario, where a

makeshift government and a political elite

insulate themselves from the worst of the

crises regardless of the citizens' plight. In

turn, the international community will

simply keep the taps on aid and donor

funds closed. Eventually, any existing

funding will simply dry up, resulting in

mass emigration, high unemployment,

unrest, currency depreciation and runaway

hyperinflation. Beyond such a scenario is a

replay of the 1975-1990 civil war with

belligerents divided along sectarian lines.

Source : Arab News

The looming specter of fascism in capitalist states

The approaching US election has

brought forward intensifying debates

over a capitalism in crisis, rising

nationalism and state power, and the

possibility of a renewed fascism. Polarized

politics and ideologies alongside longaccumulated

social problems and

movements shape the objects and tones of

debate. Can fascism happen in the US; is it

under way? Or can current capitalism avoid

a return to fascism? Such questions reflect

the high stakes of the election and this

moment in history.

Should the state - the institution that

organizes, enforces, and adjudicates the rules

governing our behavior in society - exist in

capitalism? That question has been

important chiefly for certain ideologues who

Brands' reference to abolitionist Sen. Charles Sumner being

beaten unconscious with a cane in 1856 by a proslavery member

of the House of Representatives is a reminder of just how

deep fissures can get. And Brands was not alone in mentioning

the fraught, pre-secession election of 1860 and the subsequent

Civil War, in which some 750,000 Americans died. All

the historians I spoke to cited those events.

defend capitalism. Their major idea is that

the problems of modern society are caused by

the state. They are not caused by the

employer-employee structure of capitalist

enterprises or the markets, unequal

distributions of wealth, and other institutions

those enterprises support. Those ideologues

imagine a pure, perfect, or good capitalism

undistorted by any state apparatus.

The capitalism they seek to achieve is very

utopian. They conclude that by reducing the

state (bad by definition), modern

capitalism's problems can also be reduced.

By eliminating the state, a thereby purified

capitalism will solve those problems. From

libertarians to US Republican Party hacks,

this ideology serves to deflect the justified

resentment and anger of capitalism's victims

away from capitalism and on to the state.

A contrary view holds that the state always

existed throughout the history of societies in

which the capitalist economic system

prevailed. In them, the state - like other

institutions - reflected each society's

particular conditions, conflicts, and

movement. The capitalist economy rested on

a foundation of enterprises whose internal

organization divided participating

individuals into a minority (employers) and

a majority (employees).

The minority owned and operated the

enterprises, making all of its basic decisions:

what, how, and where to produce and what

to do with output. The majority sold its labor

power to the minority, owned little or

nothing of the enterprise, and was excluded

from the basic enterprise decisions.

One result of that basic economic structure

was the existence of a state. Another result

was a pattern of state interventions in society

that reproduced its prevailing capitalist

economic system and the employers'

dominant position within it.

Of course, the many internal

contradictions of societies in which

capitalism prevailed also influenced and

shaped the state. Employees, for example,

could and often did press the state for

interventions that employers did not want.

Struggles over the state and its

interventions ensued. Individual outcomes

varied, but the pattern that emerged over

time was a state that reproduced capitalism

Source : Asia Times

MONDAY, OCtOBER 19, 2020

5

New global index shows

inequality across countries

Herbaria provide window into climate future.

ChRiSToPhE aSSoGBa

Dried and pressed plants are being

matched with artificial intelligence to

help researchers predict climate change

impacts. Scientists use herbaria -

collections of preserved plant specimens

- to study the phenology of plants, which

reveals the timing of seasonal events,

such as flowering, leafing and

reproduction. The manual analysis of

herbaria is a time-consuming process

that involves annotating the number of

visible reproductive structures.

But, the mass digitisation of herbaria

will boost the field of phenology, says

the international team taking a new

approach to the analysis of the world's

almost half a million identified plant

species. "With access to all known

herbaria, we could obtain data across

very large geographical and temporal

scales, which would enable us to develop

phenological models capable of

predicting plant behaviour in response

to current climate change," says Pierre

Bonnet, a botanist at France's

agricultural Research Centre for

international Development (CiRaD).

These climate models will be built by

drawing on information relating to the

number, or proportion, of reproductive

structures - particularly buds, flowers

and fruit - that can be observed on each

specimen.

Bonnet says the database of

annotations could be integrated into

predictive models. Plant phenology is a

major indicator of climate change and

its effects and is viewed by many as an

'early warning system' for future

extreme weather events or changes in

climate. aristide adomou, a lecturer

and researcher in botany at the

University of abomey-Calavi in Benin,

who is not part of the project, agrees that

digitisation will enable herbaria-based

climate projections.

katelin D. Pearson, a researcher at

California Polytechnic State University,

says that "finding more and more

applications for digitised specimens

only serves to enhance the value of

herbaria in the public sphere and, at a

very low level, for potential funders".

"The digitisation of african herbaria,

allied to continued botanical exploration

and cataloguing, would be a huge

Photo: Kerstin Riemer

Preserved plants predict future

advantage in terms of prediction

capacity," she says. Bonnet

acknowledges that images of plants

cannot capture the full picture. he says

that artificial intelligence is no substitute

for botanical and environmental

expertise, and the all-important physical

specimens.

as adomou notes, this raises the issue

of conservation - one of the major

challenges affecting herbaria in West

africa. adomou says that plant

specimens are deteriorating in most of

the region's countries, due to a lack of

appropriate conservation equipment.

he believes there is even a risk many

samples could be lost completely if

environmental degradation is not

stopped.

This is concerning as, according to

botanists, herbaria are "irreplaceable"

evidence of plants' histories. Bonnet

suggests that digitisation, coupled with

machine learning and analysis of

herbaria, will make it possible to

digitally preserve physical specimens

that are prone to degradation due to

heat, insects and physical handling.

DEvEloPMENT DESk

very low spending on public

healthcare, weak social safety nets and

poor labour rights meant the majority of

the world's countries were woefully illequipped

to deal with CoviD-19,

reveals new analysis from oxfam and

Development Finance international

(DFi).

The index ranks 158 governments on

their policies on public services, tax and

workers' rights, three areas pivotal to

reducing inequality and weathering the

CoviD-19 storm. it is being launched

ahead of the World Bank and

international Monetary Fund (iMF)

virtual annual Meetings next week.

Chema vera, oxfam international's

interim Executive Director, said:

"Governments' catastrophic failure to

tackle inequality meant the majority of

the world's countries were critically illequipped

to weather the pandemic. No

country on earth was trying hard

enough to reduce inequality and

ordinary people are bearing the brunt of

this crisis as a result. Millions of people

have been pushed into poverty and

hunger and there have been countless

unnecessary deaths."

The index highlights that no country

in the world was doing enough to tackle

inequality prior to the pandemic and

while CoviD-19 has been a wake-up

call for some, many countries are still

failing to act. This is helping to fuel the

crisis and has increased the

vulnerability of people living in poverty,

especially women.

The United States ranks last out of the

wealthy G7 countries and trails 17 lowincome

countries like Sierra leone and

liberia on labor legislation due to antiunion

policies and a very low minimum

wage. The Trump administration gave

only temporary relief to vulnerable

workers with its april stimulus package

after having permanently slashed taxes

which overwhelmingly benefitted

corporations and rich americans in

2017. The index's findings compound

oxfam's broader concerns that the

pandemic landed on a healthcare

system that excludes millions of people

living in poverty, which most affects

Black and latinx communities ?only 1

in 10 Black households has health

insurance compared with 7 in 10 white

households.

Nigeria, Bahrain and india, which is

currently experiencing the world's

fastest-growing outbreak of CoviD-19,

were among the world's worst

performing countries in tackling

inequality going into the pandemic.

india's health budget (as a percentage of

its overall budget) is the fourth lowest in

the world and only half of the

population has access to even the most

basic healthcare services. Despite an

already disastrous track record on

workers' rights, several state

governments in india have used

CoviD-19 as a pretext to increase daily

working hours from 8 to 12 hours a day

and suspend minimum pay legislation,

devastating the livelihoods of millions of

poor workers now battling hunger.

kenya, which had ranked highly (9th)

on progressive tax policies, has

responded to the crisis with tax cuts for

the wealthiest and big business and

negligible additional funding for social

protection and health measures. Nearly

two million kenyans have lost their job

and tens of thousands of people living in

Nairobi's slums and in the countryside

have received almost no help from the

government and are struggling to feed

themselves.

in Colombia, which ranks 94 out of

158 countries on labor rights, 22 million

informal workers don't have sick pay

and have been forced to work to feed

their families ?even if ill with CoviD-19.

Meanwhile, Colombian women are

bearing the brunt of the economic

slowdown, with an unemployment rate

of 26 percent compared to just 16

percent for men.

Togo and Namibia, which were

already taking strides to tackle

inequality before the pandemic, have

provided monthly cash grants to

informal workers who lost their jobs

because of lockdown measures.

Ukraine, which has one of the lowest

rates of inequality in the world despite

its relatively low GDP, has increased

frontline healthcare workers' pay by up

to 300 percent.

Since the pandemic, Bangladesh,

which ranks at just 113 on the index, has

stepped up by spending $11 million on

bonus payments for frontline

healthcare workers, most of which are

women. Both Myanmar and

Bangladesh have added more than 20

million people to their social protection

schemes.

While some countries were taking

positive steps before CoviD-19 ?South

korea boosted the minimum wage,

Botswana, Costa Rica and Thailand

increased health spending and New

Zealand launched a 'well-being' budget

to tackle issues like child poverty and

inequality, many countries had made

little progress in the fight against

inequality and some are going

backwards. Many countries near the top

of the index, such as Germany,

Denmark, Norway and the Uk, have

been back-tracking on policies that

reduce inequality like progressive

taxation for decades.

Women, who generally earn less, save

less and hold insecure jobs, have been

particularly hard hit by the lockdowns

introduced in response to the pandemic

while unpaid care work and genderbased

violence have increased

dramatically. Nearly half of the world's

countries do not have adequate

legislation on sexual assault and 10

countries, including Singapore and

Sierra leone, have no laws on equal pay

or gender discrimination.

Matthew Martin, Development

Finance international's director, said:

"Extreme inequality is not inevitable,

and you don't have to be a wealthy

country to do something about it. We

know that policies such as free public

healthcare, safety nets for people who

can't work, decent wages and a fair tax

system, have been proven to fight

inequality. Failure to implement them is

a political choice ?one that CoviD-19

has exposed with catastrophic

economic and human costs".

Carbon emissions mapped from Amazon deforestation

MEGhiE RoDRiGUES

Remote light sensing

technology has revealed that

the fragmentation of the

amazon rainforest

contributed one-third of

deforestation carbon

emissions in the region

between 2001 and 2015.

Deforestation fragments

forests, creating artificial

edges and altering forest

ecologies - known as 'edge

effects'.

"Forest edges are more

exposed to the sun, which

dries vegetation out and

raises local temperatures,"

Celso Silva Junior, lead

author of a study published

in Science advances, tells.

Fishbone-like forest cuts

create many edges,

accelerating forest

degradation. according to a

new study, this geometry

should be avoided in order to

limit 'edge effects'. This

image shows the acceleration

of deforestation around the

Fishbone-like forest cuts create many edges, accelerating

forest degradation. Photo: Lauren Dauphin

BR-163 road in Pará from

2000 to 2019.

"Forests that were used to a

and trees start to die. So,

edge effects are quite strong

in newly deforested areas,

specific climate become but they continue over time

exposed to a different one until the trees adapt to this

new environment," aragão

says.

liDaR - light Detection

and Ranging - is used to

measure distances and is

most commonly found in

satellites and aeroplanes, but

is also used for laser guidance

and self-driving cars. Silva

Junior's international team

of researchers used liDaR to

map biomass loss in new and

older forest edges, and

compared the findings with

neighbouring, undisturbed

regions to calculate carbon

losses.

liDaR is "as accurate as

measurements made by

researchers measuring trees

on the ground. The

difference is that it can cover

more area in less time," says

aragão. The technology

works like a large 3D

scanner, emitting a 'cloud' of

infrared lasers - similar to the

way radar uses radio waves

and sonar uses sound waves -

aragão explains.

NORWAY tops index, United States flails at 26, South Sudan ranks last.

Photo: Internet

PiPPa GalloP

Back in early april this year, 18

environmental organisations

working in the Western Balkans put

forward a set of recommendations on

the EU's Green agenda, covering the

five areas set out by the European

Commission.

While the devil lies in the numerous

details that are yet to be hammered

out, what sticks out overall is that the

Green agenda has plenty of good

ideas, but a conspicuous absence of

enforcement mechanisms.

anyone dealing with governments

in the Western Balkans must be

aware that they are not really

overachievers in environmental

issues. Commitments made back in

2005 under the Energy Community

Treaty to cut pollution in coal plants

remain woefully unfulfilled, two

countries still plan new coal plants,

and the whole region is suffering

from a tsunami of destructive and

unnecessary hydropower plants.

Recycling and waste prevention are at

miserable levels, while energy

wastage is rampant. Rail and other

public transport is being neglected,

while overpriced and oversized

motorways inflate the countries'

debts.

A green agenda for the Western Balkans

against this background, change

can be made, but usually only if

politicians see clear consequences of

not doing so. This has been proven

again and again by the Energy

Community Treaty. The Treaty has

been in force since 2006 and has seen

some progress with applying EU

energy and environmental legislation

in the region, but enforcement is

seriously lagging due to the lack of

penalties. a discussion is currently

ongoing about introducing monetary

penalties, which could finally speed

up implementation as long as they

are set at a dissuasive, effective and

proportionate level.

The only clear sign of extending the

countries' binding commitments is to

"facilitate their swift alignment with

the EU Climate law". This is certainly

a very welcome move, but only covers

one of the five agenda areas, and still

doesn't mention how it will be

enforced.

another issue is a lack of coherence

between the Green agenda and the

Economic and investment Plan for

the Western Balkans. it is hard to

Recently, the European commission published its economic and investment plan for the western

Balkans.

Photo: Collected

overstate how unreasonable this is in

a region which does not have a

tradition of widespread gas use. The

European Commission is knowingly

encouraging a set of not particularly

rich countries to waste their limited

resources on complex network

infrastructure that will be obsolete in

a couple of decades' time and would

call for yet another "transition".

another contradiction is on

hydropower. The Green agenda

highlights the need to diversify away

from hydropower and bioenergy,

while the investment Plan's

renewable flagship projects consist

entirely of hydropower - except for in

North Macedonia.

and while the Green agenda

mainly promotes rail and urban

transport, half the investment Plan's

transport projects are motorways.

Whether this is through existing

mechanisms like the Energy and

Transport Communities or by

changes in the Stabilisation and

association agreements with the

accession countries doesn't matter

much - the important thing is to

make it stick. This way, the Western

Balkans' environment wins but the

EU wins too, by finally convincing

people that it means business.

MoNDAY, oCToBeR 19, 2020 6

Payra port takes initiative to make

vulnerable families self-reliant

goUtaM haLder, kaLaPara

CorreSPondent:

Mechanical workshop and lathe

machine training has been

completed for 50 affected family

members to make them self-reliant

in land acquisition for construction

of Upazila Payra Port at kalapara.

Certificates were distributed to the

trainees at the kalapara kiit

auditorium after six months of

training on Saturday.

Shyamal Chandra Pal, deputy

team Leader of development

organisation of the rural PoordorP,

presided over the certificate

distribution ceremony organized by

the Payra Port authority in

collaboration with dorP. Ma Saleh,

Principal, kiit spoke as the chief

guest at the occasion while among

others journalist amal Mukhaji, Md.

Shamsul alam, Md. abul kalam

azad and Md. ruman of droP.

during the six-month training, each

member was given tk 72,000 and

certificates.

earlier, on october 14, 50

members of the 5th and 6th batches

of the Basic Computer Course were

awarded certificates at the

Multipurpose Building in Payra Port

after six months of training.

Members of Bangladesh Army in a drive arrested an UPDF (Main) toll collector along with arms and ammunition

from Manikchhari-Ramgarh border area recently.

Photo: Zakir Hossain

terrorist arrested with arms in Manikchhari

Md. Zakir hoSSain, ManikChhari CorreSPondent:

Bangladesh army is working

relentlessly to establish peace in the hilly

areas. UPdf (Main) toll collector konj

Marma (24) has been arrested from

Manikchhari-ramgarh border area in

an army operation at Batnatali camp in

Sindukchhari zone.

during the time, an Lg, 4 rounds of

ammunition, 6 mobile phones, 15

receipt books, tk 2,500 in cash and a

stock register of regular dues were

seized from him. according to police

and army sources, Captain Md. Wali

Ullah, Batnatli Camp Commander,

conducted the operation on friday night

on a tip-off about the location of armed

terrorists on the Manikchhari-ramgarh

border. during the time, in the middle of

the night, UPdf worker konj Marma

(24) of ramgarh Upazila was arrested

with arms and ammunition.

Later on Saturday at 9:30 am in

Manikchhari sub-zone, the army

officials revealed the details of the

detainee along with weapons and

recovered weapons. Later, as the place

of detention of the detainee was

ramgarh, the detainee and all the

equipment were handed over to

ramgarh police station. they said that a

case was being prepared against the

detainee.

Mechanical workshop and lathe machine training has been completed for 50 affected family members

to make them self-reliant in land acquisition for construction of Upazila Payra Port at Kalapara

on Saturday.

Photo: Goutam Halder

Bit policing rally against rape and

torture of women held in jashore

two-day long online workshop

held in kishoreganj

Mafe Sheikh, kiShoreganj

CorreSPondent:

a two-day online workshop titled

"Strategic Communication for good

governance" was concluded in

kishoreganj Upazila of nilphamari.

Shahin islam, ndC, director

general of national institute of Mass

Communication delivered the closing

speech at the workshop through the

Zoom app from dhaka last Saturday.

during the time, ayesha akhter,

joint-Secretary of the Cabinet

division, abuzar gaffari, deputy

director (radio Program) of national

institute of Mass Communication,

abdul Mannan and assistant director

(Visualization and Lineage training)

were among others also present at the

occasion.

the program was moderated by

Munjurul alam, director

(administration and development) of

national institute of Mass

Communication and focal Point

officer of the project.

Later, certificate was distributed at

the local press club by abuzar gaffari,

deputy director (radio Program) of

national institute of Mass

Communication, abu hassan Sheikh,

Convener of the Press Club and

others. the workshop was attended

by 25 journalists working in

kishoreganj Upazila.

Shahid joy, jaShore

CorreSPondent:

a bit policing rally against

rape and torture of women

has been held in jashore.

the rally was organized by

kotwali Model Police Station

and jashore Municipal

Ward 5 Community Policing

at Shamsul huda Stadium

premises on Saturday.

district Superintendent of

Police Mohammad ashraf

hossain as the chief guest

said jashore district Police

has adopted Zero tolerance

Policy to prevent violence

against women. not only the

police department, but also

the government has not

given any concession in such

activities. Violence against

women is increasing at

different levels of society. it

has emerged as a social

collapse today. We all have to

work towards how we can

get rid of it. We need to work

with the utmost importance

on how women feel safe in

society, in school and college

and at work. the rally called

for building a social

movement to prevent rape

and torture.

jashore kotwali Model

Police Station officer-in-

Charge (oC) Moniruzzaman

presided over the function

A bit policing rally against rape and torture of women has been held in Jashore on

Saturday.

Photo: Shahid Joy

while among others, jashore

Press Club President Zahid

hasan tukun, jashore

Municipal Ward no. 5

Councilor habibur rahman

Chakladar Moni, district

Policing forum Member

Secretary and dr. abdur

razzak, Municipal College

Principal jM iqbal hossain

and Stadium Para regional

Policing forum President

advocate Badruddoza Badar

were also present at the

occasion.

Certificates were distributed after completing a two-day online workshop titled "Strategic Communication

for Good Governance" in Kishoreganj Upazila of Nilphamari recently.

Photo: Mafe Sheikh

Matri puja held at central raghunath

jiu temple in Mohadevpur

M ShakhaWath hoSSain,

MohadeVPUr CorreSPondent:

Matri puja was held at the

central raghunath jiu

temple in Mohadevpur,

naogaon on Sunday. Md.

Salim Uddin tarafdar Selim,

Member of Parliament for

naogaon-3 constituency

inaugurated and addressed

the function as the chief

guest under the

chairmanship of ajit kumar

Mandal, President of

Upazila Puja Udyapan

Parishad.

during the time, Upazila

Parishad Chairman ahsan

habib Bhodan, Upazila Vice

Chairman anukul Saha

Budu and Women Vice

Chairman rabeya rahman

Polly, Upazila agriculture

officer arun Chandra roy,

Md. Salim Uddin Tarafdar Selim, Member of Parliament for Naogaon-3 constituency

as the chief guest inaugurated Matri puja at the central Raghunath Jiu temple in

Mohadevpur on Sunday.

Photo: M Shakhawath Hossain

Upazila awami League joint

general Secretary Babul

Chandra

ghosh,

Mohadevpur Sadar UP

Chairman Mahbubur

rahman dholu, Cheragpur

UP Chairman Shibnath

Mishra, Bhimpur UP

Chairman ram Prasad

Bhadra, Matri Prasad

Chatterjee, nirmal Chandra

Biswas, Babul Banerjee and

amit Chandra Mandal were

among others also p resent

at the occasion.

at the end of the

discussion, the children

from 11 upazilas of the

district performed Matri

puja with their own hands

out of love for their mother.

rCC to provide tk 10,000 to each

Puja mandap in rajshahi

Like the previous year, rajshahi

City Corporation (rCC) will also

extend taka 10,000 to each of the

Puja mandaps in the city this year

aims at making the forthcoming

Celebration of durga Puja, largest

religious festival of the hindu

community, more festive and

enthusiastic among the devotees,

reports BSS.

City Mayor ahM khairuzzaman

Liton revealed this while addressing

a meeting with all the officials

concerned including the leaders and

members of puja udjapan parishad

to mark the ensuing Sharodiya

durga Puja-2020 at the city bhaban

conference hall here on Saturday

afternoon as the chief guest.

he also announced that the city

bhaban and the important crossings

of the city will be eliminated on the

occasion.

Besides, closed-circuit cameras

will be added to all the immersion

points side by side with full-proof

security.

With rCC Ward Councilor Belal

ahmed in the chair, the meeting

was addressed, among others, by

additional deputy Commissioner

Shariful haque and deputy

Commissioner of rajshahi

Metropolitan Police Sazid hossain.

the meeting was told that the

durgotsob will be celebrated in 69

Puja mandaps in the city this year

from october 22 to 26. each of the

Puja mandap was given 500

kilograms of rice by the district relief

and rehabilitation office this year.

Mayor Liton urged the puja

committee leaders to set up closed

circuit cameras in the important

puja mandaps alongside metal

detectors in the main entrances.

there should be separate gates for

male and female.

he asked the police

administration to keep close

coordination with the puja

committee round the clock. he also

gave instruction to the traffic

division to enhance traffic

management.

"We have to put in our level best

efforts to ensure communal

harmony for all faiths in each of the

puja mandaps," he added.

Meanwhile, preparation for

celebrating the durga Puja is going

on everywhere in the metropolis at

present. People of the community

are passing their busiest days with

the works of decorating and

painting idols and Puja mandaps

ahead of their festival.

idol makers commonly known as

Pauls are passing their busy days in

the final touch works of idols of

hindu deities. With only five days

left, the Pauls are working round the

clock to make sure that the idols are

ready in time.

decorations of temples, lighting,

and setting up of mandaps are

expected to turn the city into a

festive look within the next couple of

days.

Police administration has chalked

out elaborate security measures to

make the celebration a total success.

"We have adopted tight security

measures to make the rajshahi

city's durga Puja celebration

festive and successful," said Sazid

hossain.

MONDAY, OCTOBeR 19, 2020

7

Labor Party leader Jacinda Ardern, the incumbent prime minster, reacts during a press

conference in Auckland, New Zealand, on Oct. 18, 2020. Jacinda Ardern said at a press

conference on Sunday she expected to form a government within the next two to three

weeks before the release of official election results.

Photo : Xinhua

New Zealand to form new gov't

before official election results

AUCKLAND, New Zealand : New

Zealand Labour Party leader Jacinda

Ardern said at a press conference on

Sunday she expected to form a

government within the next two to

three weeks before the release of official

election results.

According to the preliminary count

results for the New Zealand 2020

General Election and Referendums

released by the Electoral Commission,

New Zealand Labour Party won 49

percent of the vote, which transfer to 64

seats in the 120-member parliament in

a Mixed-Member Proportional voting

ICC prosecutor

arrives in Sudan

to discuss

Darfur charges

CAIRO : The International

Criminal Court's prosecutor

arrived in Sudan late

Saturday to discuss

cooperation with local

authorities over bringing to

trial those internationally

wanted for war crimes and

genocide in the country's

Darfur conflict, the

Sudanese official news

agency said.

Prime Minister Abdallla

Hamdok's office said in a

statement that ICC

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

and other court officials

would stay in Sudan until

Wednesday. It is the first

announced visit for

Bensouda to Sudan, reports

UNB.

"The ICC delegation will

discuss methods of

cooperation between the

Government of Sudan and

the ICC with regard to the

suspects against whom the

ICC has issued arrest

warrants," read the

statement, which did not

name any of the suspects.

Among those wanted by

the international court is

former Sudanese President

Omar al-Bashir, who has

been in jail in Khartoum

since his ouster last year and

is facing several trials in

Sudanese courts related to

his three decades of

strongman rule and the

uprising that helped oust

him.

The conflict in Sudan's

Darfur region broke out

when rebels from the

territory's ethnic central and

sub-Saharan African

community launched an

insurgency in 2003,

complaining of oppression

by the Arab-dominated

government in Khartoum.

Al-Bashir's government

responded with a scorchedearth

campaign of aerial

bombings and unleashed

militias known as

Janjaweed, who are accused

of mass killings and rapes.

Up to 300,000 people were

killed and 2.7 million were

driven from their homes.

system, with the opposition National

Party lagging behind at 27 percent, or

35 seats.

While addressing media in Auckland

on Sunday afternoon, Ardern said the

work would begin and the Labour

caucus will meet on Monday.

"My expectation is that we will form

government within the next two to

three weeks," said Ardern. "We clearly

have a mandate on behalf of New

Zealand to crack on with government

formation."

Official results for the 2020 General

Election and referendums will not be

published until Nov. 6, according to the

Electoral Commission.

Ardern did not rule out the possibility

to form a coalition government with the

Green Party, which won 7.6 percent of

the vote or 10 seats in the parliament.

There was a range of options for

agreements with the Greens, said

Ardern.

After the 2017 New Zealand General

Election, the Labour Party, which won

46 seats in the parliament, formed a

coalition government with the support

from New Zealand First Party and

Green party.

Protestors burn Kurdish

party's HQ in Baghdad over

anti-Hashd Shaabi comment

BAGHDAD : Protesters set fire to the

headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic

Party (KDP) in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on

Saturday after a senior KDP official

criticized the Hashd Shaabi forces in TV

comments, reports UNB.

Dozens gathered this morning in front of

the KDP headquarters in the Karrada

district in central Baghdad, chanting

slogans against Hoshyar Zebari, a

prominent Kurdish official and former

Iraqi foreign minister, who demanded an

end to the presence of Hashd Shaabi in the

Green Zone in central Baghdad, an Interior

Ministry source told Xinhua.

The source said that some demonstrators

stormed the headquarters, destroyed

certain things inside, and set fire to the

building.

Civil defense teams and fire engines

rushed to the site and managed to

extinguish the fire, he said, adding that

there is no casualty in the incident.

Later in the day, regional Kurdistan

President Nechirvan Barzani condemned

in a statement the attack on the KDP

headquarters in Baghdad, saying it

"attacked the peaceful coexistence and

undermined societal and political peace

and is inconsistent with the principles of

the constitution, democracy and human

rights."

The Hashd Shaabi said in a statement

that "we understand the feelings of Iraqis

who support the Hashd Shaabi forces, and

we support the protest and peaceful

demonstration as stipulated in the

constitution, but we reject the use of

violence and sabotage in any form."

The source said that some demonstrators

stormed the headquarters, destroyed

certain things inside, and set fire to the

building.

Civil defense teams and fire engines

rushed to the site and managed to

extinguish the fire, he said, adding that

there is no casualty in the incident.

"We call on everyone to preserve the

prestige of the state, societal peace, and

respect for security men in this sensitive

circumstance," the Hashd Shaabi said.

The demonstration came a few days after

Zebari said in an interview with local media

that the rocket attack on Erbil late in

September was due to the close relations of

the Kurdish region with the United States

and because it houses U.S. military bases.

Moreover, Zebari demanded to end the

presence of the Hashd Shaabi in the Green

Zone, where the main Iraqi government

offices and some foreign embassies are

located.

Protesters set fire to the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party

(KDP) in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday after a senior KDP official

criticized the Hashd Shaabi forces in TV comments.

Photo : AP

Brazil reports

461 more deaths

from COVID-19

RIO DE JANEIRO : Brazil

registered 461 new deaths

from the novel coronavirus

in the last 24 hours, bringing

the death toll to 153,675, the

Health Ministry said on

Saturday, reports UNB.

The ministry said that

24,062 more cases were

registered, bringing the

nationwide count to

5,224,362.

The state of Sao Paulo, the

most populous in the

country, has been the most

affected by the disease, with

1,062,634 cases and 37,992

deaths, followed by Rio de

Janeiro, with 289,569 cases

and 19,715 deaths.

Brazil has reported the

second highest death toll

from COVID-19 in the

world, after the United

States, and the third largest

number of cases, after the

United States and India.

Analysts at the state-run

research center for diseases,

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation,

said that despite the

downward trend in COVID-

19 cases and deaths, both

curves are still high, and

they will likely remain high

over the coming months.

5 injured in

U.S. shopping

center gas

explosion

WASHINGTON : Five

people including three

college students were

injured in a gas explosion at

a strip mall in Harrisonburg,

Virginia, on Saturday

morning, local media

reported, reports UNB.

The two-story shopping

center, which is just a few

blocks west of the James

Madison University campus,

was a "complete loss",

Michael Parks, a spokesman

for the city, said at a news

conference.

Parks said that a threealarm

fire spread to at least

two other commercial

buildings in the city.

Among the injured are

three James Madison

University students, said the

reports. One of the students

reportedly received

treatment at a hospital,

while the other two were

treated and released at the

scene.

Virginia Governor Ralph

Northam tweeted that the

incident was a "gas

explosion."

Russia shuns tough

restrictions even as

infections soar

MOSCOW : It's Friday night

in Moscow, and popular

bars and restaurants in the

city center are packed. No

one except the staff is

wearing a mask or bothers to

keep their distance. There is

little indication at all that

Russia is being swept by a

resurgence of coronavirus

infections.

"I believe that everyone

will have the disease

eventually," says Dr.

Alexandra Yerofeyeva, an

internal medicine specialist

at an insurance company,

while sipping a cocktail at

The Bix bar in Moscow. She

adds cheerfully: "Nothing

ventured, nothing gained."

The outbreak in Russia

this month is breaking the

records set in the spring,

when a lockdown to slow the

spread of the virus was put

in place. But, as

governments across Europe

move to reimpose

restrictions to counter rising

cases, authorities in Russia

are resisting shutting down

businesses again. Some

regions have closed

nightclubs or limited the

hours of bars and

restaurants, but few

measures have been

implemented in Moscow.

Iranian UN mission

announces termination of

travel, arm restrictions

UNITED NATIONS : The Iranian mission to

the United Nations announced on Saturday

the termination of travel and arms

restrictions imposed upon the country as

contained in Security Council Resolution

2231 starting Sunday, reports UNB.

"Oct. 18, 2020 marks the fifth anniversary

of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of

Action, known commonly as the Iran nuclear

deal or Iran deal) Adoption Day," according

to a press release of the mission.

From this date and in line with UN

Security Council Resolution 2231, states are

no longer required to seek in advance caseby-case

approval by the Security Council to

engage in activities described in paragraphs

5 and 6 (b) of Annex B of Resolution 2231,

which include the supply, sale or transfer of

arms or related materiel to and from Iran,

the press release said.

"Moreover, travel restrictions on the

individuals named in the 2231 List is

terminated," it added. During the last few

months, the United States had attempted, in

violation of Resolution 2231, to impose a

new arms embargo on Iran but to no avail, as

the Security Council has rejected illegal U.S.

move, the press release said.

The attempt to "reinstate terminated

Security Council resolutions against Iran

failed when 13 members and three

consecutive presidents of the Council

rejected the U.S. claim," it said.

"As a responsible member of the

international community, the Islamic

Republic of Iran engages in legitimate tradein

accordance with international law and on

the basis of its national interests-with other

countries, including in the realm of arms

trade," added the press release.

On Aug. 15, the UN Security Council

rejected a resolution proposed by

Washington to extend the current arms

embargo on Iran.

Under UN Security Council Resolution

2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iranian

nuclear deal, the arms embargo on Iran will

expire on Oct. 18.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations announced on Saturday the

termination of travel and arms restrictions imposed upon the country as

contained in Security Council Resolution 2231 starting Sunday. Photo : AP

Bolivia’s vote a high-stakes

presidential redo amid pandemic

LA PAZ : Bolivians vote Sunday in a highstakes

presidential election redo that could

determine its democratic future and bring a

return of socialism to the country as it

struggles with a raging pandemic and

protests over last year's annulled ballot,

reports UNB.

Bolivia, once one of the most politically

volatile countries in Latin America,

experienced a rare period of stability under

former President Evo Morales, the country's

first Indigenous president who resigned and

fled the country late last year after his

claimed election win was annulled amid

allegations of fraud. His ouster set off a

period of unrest that caused at least 36

deaths. Morales called his ouster a coup.

Sunday's vote is a re-run of last year's

election and an attempt to reset Bolivia's

democracy. "Bolivia's new executive and

legislative leaders will face daunting

challenges in a polarized country, ravaged by

COVID-19, and hampered by endemically

weak institutions," said WOLA, a

Washington-based human rights advocacy

organization.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

has urged Bolivians to respect the electoral

process, and in particular the final result.

Ballots, ballot boxes and other materials

were delivered to polling stations Saturday

by police and military units without incident,

officials said. Police and soldiers took to the

streets hours later seeking to ensure calm.

The country's Supreme Electoral Court

announced late Saturday that it had decided

unanimously against reporting running

preliminary vote totals as ballots are

counted. It said it wanted to avoid the

uncertainty that arose when there was a long

halt in reporting preliminary results during

last year's election.

Council President Salvador Romero said

promised a safe and transparent official

count, which could take five days.

To win in the first round, a candidate

needs more than 50% of the vote, or 40%

with a lead of at least 10 percentage

points over the second-place candidate.

A runoff vote, if necessary, would be held

Nov. 28.

Bolivia's entire 136-member Legislative

Assembly also will be voted in. The election

was postponed twice because of the

coronavirus pandemic. On a per capita basis,

few countries have been hit harder than

impoverished, landlocked Bolivia: Nearly

8,400 of its 11.6 million people have died of

COVID-19. The election will occur with

physical distancing required between

masked voters - at least officially, if not in

practice.

Vietnam landslide hits

army camp, buries 22

personnel

HANOI : A landslide in central Vietnam

on Sunday buried at least 22 army

personnel, just a week after another

landslide killed 13 as heavy rains

continued to pound the region, state

media reported.

The latest landslide sent rock and earth

crushing into an army camp at the foot of

a mountain following a week of incessant

rain in Quang Tri province, the official

Vietnam News Agency reported.

Eight people were able to escape while

the 22 others are believed to be trapped

underneath the rubble, reports UNB.

Three bodies have been retrieved as

about 100 rescuers dug through the mud

in search of the missing.

On Thursday, rescuers recovered 13

bodies, 11 of them army officers, from a

landslide in Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Tri's

neighboring province.

The team was on its way to another

landslide that was reported to have buried

16 workers at a hydroelectric plant

construction site, which remains

inaccessible.

Torrential rains have caused

widespread floods in central Vietnam

since last week and weather forecasters

say more rain is on the way.

MONDAY, OCTOBeR 19, 2020

8

‘Aina’ to be filmed on backdrop

of rural setup: Achol

TBT RePORT

'Aina', the new upcoming

movie's shooting has started in

Savar, near Dhaka, on Sunday,

maintaining health rules . The

shooting of this lot will continue

till October 30. After that

shooting will be done in Dhaka

and other locations of the

country. Actress Achol Akhe will

be seen in the title role of movie

called 'Aina'. Actress Achol said,

'the character resonates with my

name 'Aina' and am playing this

role for the first time. The story

of movie 'Aina' to be filmed on

backdrop of rural setup. The

story has made the movie very

interesting. I have prepared

myself for the movie 'Aina'. I

want to work regularly if I get

good films and characters. '

Regarding the story of the

movie, Montazur Rahman Akbar

said, 'due to financial crisis,

actress Aina work in people's

homes. At one point he fell in

love with the zomidar. This

creates complications. That's

how the story of the movie goes

on. " The film is directed by

Montazur Rahman Akbar. In

this movie, Achol paired up with

actor Joy Chowdhury for the

second time with this film.

Earlier, Joy and Achol were

earlier seen in Wazed Ali

Sumon's movie 'Ajab Prem'.

Actress Achol Akhe has been

seen playing various roles in her

career. However, she was never

in the title role in any film.

Joy Chowdhury said, 'An

ordinary man of a village who

works hard. His family is at the

root of everything, honest and

loyal. I works as a farmer on

other people's land to feed my

family twice a day. At one time,

when I went to work and saw

injustice, I stood up against

injustice and corruption. I

protected the housemaid from

abuse. Later a good relationship

was formed between us. From

good relation to love as it took

different forms. Viewers will get

a lot of messages in this movie.

There is a lot to learn.

Payal Ghosh claims Richa Chadha’s

lawyer is ‘trolling’ her

Earlier this week Richa Chadha

and Payal Ghosh decided to

settle their dispute filing

consent terms at Bombay High

Court. As per the settlement,

Payal had withdrawn her

statement against Richa

tendering an unconditional

apology. In response, Richa

cancelled her defamation suit

against Payal she filed earlier.

Richa had accused Payal for

making a false, baseless,

indecent and derogatory

statement against her while

sought

monetary

compensation as damages.

Now, in her recent tweet,

Payal Ghosh has claimed that

she had sent her apology only

as a 'woman and human'

because Richa Chadha's lawyer

had 'begged' her lawyer, since

Richa Chadha was being

trolled over the Payal Ghosh

case stating what 'Anurag

Kashyap had told her about

Richa Chadha.'

Payal has also shared

screenshots of a Twitter user

saying that she has been

defaming Anurag Kashyap for

money and that she is ready to

'compromise'. The person even

showed how Richa Chadha's

lawyer Saveena Bedi was

backing the netizen. Terming it

a 'modus operandi of the

Kashyap gang', Payal claimed

it's a 'contempt of court.'

Earlier, Payal Ghosh claimed

that in 2014 filmmaker Anurag

Kashyap tried to molest her

once, recalling an incident

when he got naked in front of

her and tried to get intimate

with her. She even took to

Twitter to appeal to Prime

Minister Narendra Modi for

help as she fears that the 'mafia

gang' would kill her.

Source: timesofindia.com

excited about ‘Tumi

Acho Tumi Nei’: Dighi

TBT RePORT

Prathna Fardin Dighi has recently

signed a contract as the heroine of

Delwar Jahan Jhantu's 89th movie

'Tumi Acho Tumi Nei'.

Dighi has expressed her

excitement after signing a contract

for the movie 'Tumi Acho Tumi

Nei'. She told that Delwar Jahan

Jhantu is a very talented director. It

is a great pleasure to have the

opportunity to act in his movies.

The full script of the movie has not

been received yet. But I am

preparing myself according to the

idea of the character.

Directed by talented producer

Delwar Jahan Jhantu, the film is

being produced under the banner

of SK Films International. The

shooting of movie is scheduled to

start from November 15 outside

Dhaka. Delwar Jahan Jhantu told

that the new movie is a romantic

TBT RePORT

movie. We want to complete the

whole work in 25 days with one lot

and release it quickly. I am

planning accordingly.

The veteran director added that

the story needed a girl just like

Dighi. That's why I thought Dighi

will be right. Dighi is very popular

as a child artist, I hope she will do

better as a heroine. If all goes well,

this could be her first released

movie as a heroine.

The story and script of the movie

was written by Delwar Jahan

Jhantur himself. In this Dighi is

getting Bappi Chowdhury as the

hero. The producer said that 'Tumi

Acho Tumi Nei' may be released on

Valentine's Day next year.

Dighi currently has a total of 6

movies including this movie. Of

these, five film production

companies are Shapla Media.

Besides, Dighi will be seen as Renu

in Bangabandhu's biopic.

Masud Hasan Ujjal's movie, Unoponchash Batash, is finally going to

be released in theatres on Friday, October 23 which was delayed due

to coronavirus outbreak. Initially it was scheduled to be released on

March 13.

Director Masud Hasan Ujjal said, "We have an agreement with

them. Talking to Jamuna Blockbuster, but not finalized yet. The

movie will be released in phases if more. "

Regarding the naming and type of 'Unoponchash Batash', the

maker said, "Everyone has some feelings in their life, which cannot

be expressed in language, symbols or words. Feelings change as

People will have a

great time with Suicide

Squad: Jai Courtney

Actor Jai Courtney, who essays

the role of Captain Boomerang

in the upcoming The Suicide

Squad, says director James

Gunn's interpretation of the

DC anti-hero team is hilarious.

Gunn, best known for

helming the Guardians of the

Galaxy series for Marvel

Studios, has directed and

penned the much-anticipated

Suicide Squad relaunch.

"It's a big-a** movie again,

as was the first. It's cool to see

a bunch of new characters and

characters (Gunn has) plucked

from the depths of the canon,

which is cool and just kind of

different and interesting.

James like creatures and

monsters and things as well. I

felt like there was an injection

of that kind of stuff with this

take on it. It's very funny. It's

what you've come to expect

from this kind of film," the

actor told Collider.

The first Suicide Squad

movie, directed by David Ayer,

released in 2016. The film that

featured Will Smith, Margot

Robbie and Viola Davis was

‘Unoponchash

Batash’ to release

on October 23

soon as they are felt. This kind of feeling can be translated into as

Incomplete Breath. Unoponchash Batash tells the story of this

incomplete breath. The story is about love, the love that can turn

noise into solitude.''

Star Cineplex, the largest and most popular multiplex in the

country, is going to welcome moviegoers with the movie

'Unoponchash Batash'. After a long six months and 28 days, the

government has given conditional permission to open all the

cinemas in the country on October 16. However, due to the lack of

new and quality pictures, the doors of most theaters in the country

are still locked this week.

Sharlin Farzana and Imtiaz Barshan are the lead actors of this Red

October production. However, the filmmaker Masud Hasan Ujjal

started filming the movie in October 2017. He was successfully

making dramas and telefilms on the small screen for a decade and a

half. The film was ready for release earlier this year. But, due to

Corona it was delayed.

met with poor reviews.

In the upcoming relaunch,

Robbie will return as Harley

Quinn, Davis as Squad

mastermind Amanda Waller,

Courtney as Captain

Boomerang, and Joel

Kinnaman as Rick Flag. They

will be joined by an equally

impressive list of newcomers -

Idris Elba, John Cena, Nathan

Fillion, Peter Capaldi, David

Dastmalchian, Taika Waititi

and Pete Davidson.

Courtney said even though

he missed reuniting with the

remaining cast members, he

had a great time working on

the new film and hopes it

becomes "massively"

successful.

Source: indianexpress.com

H O R O S C O P e

ARIeS

(March 21 - April 20) : You've had a

strong propensity for war lately, Aries.

Your drive toward getting things done

has rallied and you're anxious to make

progress. The problem is that you might have to hold

back a bit today, since there is a great force at work

encouraging to you to take a break from your current

trajectory. Slow down and make a plan instead of just

plowing blindly ahead toward the unknown.

TAURUS

(April 21 - May 21): Your balancing

powers will be put to the test today when

your desire to fight conflicts with your

need to plan, Taurus. You might be even

more indecisive than usual as a result of this internal

tension. Be aware of time and the restrictions that it

puts on you. Devise a plan that uses your energy in

the most efficient way possible. It's especially

important for you to think before you act.

GeMINI

(May 22 - June 21): Try not to get too

frustrated by the indecisiveness that

plagues you today, Gemini. The longer

you stand still, the harder it will be to get

moving. The key is to find a balance between planning

and forcefulness. There's an incredible need for you

make progress now. If you're met with resistance, you

should probably just back off for now. Fighting won't

yield positive results now.

CANCeR

(June 22 - July 23): Indecisiveness could

be your biggest nemesis today, Cancer.

The general tone of the day is apt to be

quite explosive as a feeling of

restriction and discipline comes into conflict with a

need to fight and conquer. You might find that your

go-with-the-flow, easygoing attitude is exactly what

saves you on a day like this. Lay low and let

someone else take the lead now.

LeO

(July 24 - Aug. 23): Your plans

meet with harsh opposition today,

Leo. You've been going along at a

slow and steady pace, but you will

find that abrasive tension arises the more you try

to force your will on others. Gridlock is quite

likely due to the fact that there are strong forces

coming to a head. Neither one of them is in the

mood to yield now.

VIRGO

(Aug. 24 - Sept. 23): Getting your

opinions out now may stir up the

maelstrom even more, but ultimately, it's

for the best, Virgo. There is an explosive

tone in the air right now that's difficult to ignore. You

need your strong will to combat the abrasive forces at

work today. You have the opportunity to initiate control

over the situation. Other people might be too unsure of

themselves to make a move.

LIBRA

(Sept. 24 - Oct. 23): Your best plan of

attack today is to not attack at all,

Libra. There is enough

aggressiveness out there. You don't

need to add any more to the fray. Let others duke

it out. Your job is to wait until the dust settles. Try

not to get involved in other people's disputes. You

might get dragged further into the situation than

makes you feel comfortable.

SCORPIO

(Oct. 24 - Nov. 22): You might need to

put on the brakes today, Scorpio. Your

present trajectory isn't quite in line

with the people and energy around

you. Make sure you aren't stepping on other

people's toes with your abrasive behavior. This is a

day to consider a more disciplined approach. You

might need to establish a better structure, so you

use your energy more efficiently in general.

SAGITTARIUS

(Nov. 23 - Dec. 21): If you've been

reluctant to make a move, Sagittarius, you

should consider why. What has been

holding you back? Fear of failure? A

negative comment from someone else? Feeling like you

aren't quite prepared for the consequences of your

actions? It's time to free yourself of these mental barriers

that keep you from making progress. Don't let self-doubt

get in the way of your plans.

CAPRICORN

(Dec. 22 - Jan. 20): Discipline and a solid

plan are your friends today, Capricorn.

Slow your approach and consider the

consequences of your actions. This is the

time to concentrate on what you need to get done and

devise a plan to make it happen. There is restlessness in

the air that might cause you to act hastily. Don't forget

the old saying that says haste makes waste. This is an

important lesson.

AQUARIUS

(Jan. 21 - Feb. 19): You might experience

a bit of an internal conflict today and

be you're unsure how to proceed,

Aquarius. One side feels an urge to

fight, while another side - a more mental aspect -

asks you to keep this urge under wraps. It could be

that this conflict keeps you immobile because of

your lack of confidence in either camp. Try not to

get stressed out over any one issue.

PISCeS

(Feb. 20 - Mar. 20) : It may be hard to

connect with others today, Pisces.

People may be rather indecisive. On

the other hand, people are apt to be

more malleable. This could be a good time to take

charge. Be sure that you keep in mind the best

interests of all parties involved. It isn't fair for you to

take advantage of people who can't make up their

own minds about something.

MonDAY, oCToBeR 19, 2020

9

Dhawan ton condemns CSK

to sixth defeat of the season

Cadiz moved level on points with LaLiga leaders Real Madrid after they overcame the

defending champions thanks to Anthony Lozano's goal.

Photo: AP

Real Madrid slump to shock

defeat against Cadiz

SportS DeSK:

real Madrid suffered their first

LaLiga defeat of the season as they

went down 1-0 in dismal fashion at

home to minnows Cadiz on

Saturday, reports Ap.

promoted Cadiz set about

disrupting the defending

champions from the off and took a

deserved lead through Anthony

Lozano's 16th-minute effort.

thibaut Courtois denied Lozano a

second before half-time, when

Zinedine Zidane made four

substitutions with an injured Sergio

ramos among the players to make

way.

prior to his injury, ramos came to

Madrid's rescue inside two minutes,

hooking Alvaro Negredo's effort off

the line.

Negredo went close with a header

and Juan Cala tested Courtois with

a shot as Cadiz kept up the pressure,

though, and the visitors were

rewarded for a brilliant start when

Lozano prodded in over Madrid's

onrushing goalkeeper.

Lozano looked set to double his

tally just after the half-hour, but

Courtois made a fine save at his

near post, though Madrid's

goalkeeper had a lucky escape when

he dropped a cross which no Cadiz

attacker could pounce on.

With four new players on, Madrid

stepped up the tempo, though

Vinicius' wayward strike was the

closest they came to troubling Cadiz

early in the second half.

Vinicius should have restored

parity after the hour, only to head

wide from toni Kroos' left-wing

cross, the Germany midfielder

creating five chances as his teammates

struggled.

Jovic's introduction looked to

have sparked the comeback, yet the

substitute's goal was rightly

disallowed for an offside from

Benzema, who then struck the

woodwork as Cadiz held firm to join

Madrid and Granada on 10 points.

Madrid had not lost in 15 LaLiga

matches heading into this clash, but

Cadiz did the damage to end Los

Blancos' run and claim a first win

over the capital club since 1991.

on a dismal day for Madrid, they

had fewer attempts (13-14) and

shots on target (2-5) than Cadiz.

Cadiz played with no fear in the

first half, and a huge part of that

was down to Negredo, who at 35

was a thorn in Madrid's side. It was

his header which teed up Lozano -

one of two chances the veteran

campaigner created. Negredo also

had four attempts as he posed a

constant threat, tied for a game

high.

Lewandowski continues hot scoring

streak as Tolisso sees red

SportS DeSK:

robert Lewandowski

maintained his magnificent

goalscoring form as Bayern

Munich eased to a 4-1

Bundesliga victory over

Arminia Bielefeld on

Saturday, reports Ap.

Lewandowski scored four

times in Bayern's 4-3 win

over Hertha Berlin in their

last match before the

international break and

struck twice for poland in a

victory over Bosnia-

Herzegovina in midweek.

the prolific striker took his

goalscoring tally for the

season to nine goals in seven

matches with a first-half

double at Bielefelder Alm

after playing a big part in

thomas Muller's opener.

He then set up Muller for

Bayern's fourth as the

champions, who conceded

to ritsu Doan's low drive

before losing Corentin

tolisso to a straight red card,

made it four wins in a row in

all competitions and

climbed into second place.

Lewandowski played in

Muller with a first-time pass

in behind and the attacker

converted just eight minutes

in after his initial pass to

Kingsley Coman - earlier

denied a penalty - was cut

out.

tolisso and Muller wasted

good opportunities to extend

Bayern's lead before clinical

striker Lewandowski did

exactly that with a thumping

strike from 18 yards.

the pair were at it again at

the end of the first half as

Muller squared to

Lewandowski to score his

second from a near identical

position to the first, helped

by a telling deflection.

Lewandowski was denied

a third by the crossbar early

in the second half but

crossed for Muller to volley

in from six yards out 100

seconds later.

Bielefeld, previously

unbeaten in 10 home games

in 2020, did manage to pull

one back on the counter just

before the hour mark

through Doan's shot across

Manuel Neuer.

tolisso was then

dismissed with 14 minutes

to play for bringing down

Fabian Klos as the last man,

but Hansi Flick's men came

closest to scoring the sixth

goal of the match as

substitute Javi Martinez

nodded against the

woodwork late on.

Bayern's 32-match

unbeaten run was ended by

Hoffenheim in their most

recent away league outing

but they have responded in

style. Flick's side are a lethal

attacking force, managing 17

shots in total here as they

made it 14 goals in four

consecutive wins.

they are now a point

behind leaders rB Leipzig,

who beat Augsburg 2-0

earlier in the day.

Lewandowski has now

scored 213 goals in 258

Bundesliga matches and has

found the net against every

Bundesliga side - including

Bayern - with this double

against Arminia.

He had six shots in 86

minutes on the field, half of

those on target, and created

a joint-high three chances

for his team-mates -

including key passes for

Muller's two goals.

Stefan ortega, formerly on

the books of 1860 Munich,

was beaten four times but

could arguably have kept out

two of those goals.

His positioning for

Lewandowski's first goal was

questionable and he got a

touch to the striker's shot for

the second, though he did

make five other saves.

Holders Bayern host

Atletico Madrid in their

opening Champions League

group match on Wednesday,

while Arminia travel to

Wolfsburg in their next

league outing in eight days'

time.

Bayern Munich cruised to a 4-1 win over Arminia Bielefeld on Saturday, Robert Lewandowski helping

himself to another couple of goals.

Photo: AP

Sports Desk: With the rub of the green

on his side, Shikhar Dhawan's free

flowing unbeaten 101 off 58 - his first IpL

century - carried Delhi Capitals to their

seventh win, and the top of the table as

they chased down Chennai Super Kings'

179/4 in a final-over thriller. Dhawan

was on course to take DC over the line

with some comfort, until Marcus

Stoinis's exit in the 16th over threatened

to turn the tables on DC at the very end.

Sam Curran bowled an exceptional

penultimate over for just four runs, but

Dhoni's Jadeja gamble in the 20th saw

DC hit the required 16 off the last six,

reports Cricbuzz.

CSK didn't do themselves any favours

by offering him three reprieves - when he

was on 27, 50 and 79, and he cost them

two valuable points that could've given

them some breathing space in the midtable

fight they've found themselves in.

Like CSK's rayudu, Shikhar Dhawan

saw the benefits of giving the quicks the

charge early on, to pick boundaries off

Sam Curran, Deepak Chahar and

Shardul thakur. Dhawan also very

confidently unfurled the cut and pull shot

every time the bowlers offered him

width, with good effect in Sharjah's short

boundaries.

MS Dhoni went one bowler short -

relegating piyush Chawla to the bench -

which meant the onus was on Karn

Sharma and ravindra Jadeja to end his

flying start and clip DC's wings. Jadeja

nearly pulled it off when Dhawan topedged

a slog sweep, but Chahar couldn't

get under it at fine leg.

the DC opener toyed with Karn

Sharma and his lengths. He danced

down to a full ball and hit it straight down

the ground, and forced Karn to shorten

his length. When the leggie did that, he

camped back and cut it through extra

cover for another boundary. MS Dhoni

had the chance to cut Dhawan's essay

right at 50, but he let one edge slip past

his gloves to allow the DC opener to carry

on past the halfway stage of the chase.

Shreyas Iyer's exit in the 12th over after

a 68-run stand didn't change the course

of the game - or the route Dhawan had

chosen to take today. He carried on in the

company of Marcus Stoinis, continuing

to drive with disdain and flatbat any

short deliveries attempted against him.

It came with Stoinis's exit in the 16th

over. Alex Carey has played the last two

games in the absence of rishabh pant

and Shimron Hetmyer but hasn't found

himself in such a pressure situation as

today - when he walked out with DC

needing 41 off the last four overs.

Dhawan still cut down the deficit with

two gorgeous hits against Curran - a

pick-up hit over mid-wicket and a six

over long-on. He also second-guessed

Shardul thakur and his wide yorker in

the 18th over to shuffle across and sweep

it to the backward square leg fence.

However, Curran's penultimate over

nearly undid all of Dhawan's incredible

knock in the space of just six balls. the

left-arm pacer nailed the wide yorker

throughout the over, giving away just

four in it. Despite Dhawan standing tall

with a century to his name, DC were left

with a mountain to climb in the final

over, with 17 to get.

At that time, it did look like a left-field

punt, but the CSK captain would later

reveal that his go-to death bowler had

hurt himself and wasn't fit to bowl the

last over. Between throwing the ball to

Karn and Jadeja - both of who would

turn the ball into the two left-handers in

the middle (Dhawan and Axar patel),

Dhoni picked the latter.

Jadeja stuck to his guns of bowling

wide outside the off-stump but Axar

connected with each of his three big hits

- two over the leg side and one towering

six off a fuller, flatter ball over extra cover

to close the game.

Sending Sam Curran to open didn't

yield desired results this time around, as

he was hurried with a pacy short ball

outside the offstump from tushar

Deshpande. the urge to show intent

pushed Curran to take a stab at it, but he

ended up top-edging it to Anrich Nortje

at third man. Kagiso rabada started with

a maiden over, as CSK were headed

towards another passive end to a

powerplay. But then, Faf du plessis

found his touch again - after a mini threematch

slump - to help CSK move on

quickly.

ravichandran Ashwin bowled a series

of carom balls and Axar patel kept Shane

Watson on his toes as DC conceded just

eight runs in two overs right after the

powerplay. But once CSK's veteran pair

of Watson and Du plessis got used to

Ashwin, they went after him in his

second over, fetching 15 runs in the

process. they targeted tushar

Deshpande next to fly away to 85/1 in 11

overs.

Shikhar Dhawan's free flowing unbeaten 101 off 58 carried Delhi Capitals to their seventh

win.

Photo: AP

Klopp hopes derby

unites virus-hit

Liverpool

SportS DeSK:

Jurgen Klopp says football

can help bring people

together in tough times as

Liverpool gear up to face

everton on Saturday in a city

placed under tough

coronavirus rules, reports

BSS.

Klopp's champions travel

to face Carlo Ancelotti's

premier League leaders for a

second Merseyside derby

behind closed doors in four

months.

Liverpool has been placed

under the "very high" alert

level of the British

government's new three-tier

system to check the spread

of Covid-19.

Under the strict rules

many pubs and bars are

closed and people are not

allowed to socialise with

anybody beyond those they

live with.

the Liverpool squad itself

has been hit in recent weeks,

with Sadio Mane and thiago

Alcantara testing positive.

"I like to think that here

football is always a massive

point in this city," said

Klopp. "I think months ago

we discussed 'is football

really necessary, does

football play a role in

society?'

pakistan’s ‘Gul-dozer’

calls time on topsy-turvy

journey

SportS DeSK:

pakistan bowler Umar Gul, who earned the

nickname 'Gul-dozer' for his rattling of stumps,

has called time on his 17-year cricket career,

reports BSS.

With no crowds to bid farewell to the national

hero because of coronavirus restrictions, the

twenty20 World Cup winner bowed out to a

guard of honour from teammates and opponents

after his final match - a disappointing defeat - in

rawalpindi on Friday.

"I want to be remembered as someone who

tried his best for the country and it's flattering

that I was called 'Gul-dozer' during this

memorable journey in cricket," the 36-year-old

told AFp. It was a topsy-turvy journey for Gul,

whose affair with cricket began on the crowded

streets of peshawar.

He entered the international arena exactly a

month after the legendary pace duo of Wasim

Akram and Waqar Younis retired following

pakistan's disastrous 2003 World Cup.

It was like the baton of swing bowling had been

passed from one generation to another, Gul

recalled.

"It was tough to fill those shoes but I tried my

best and it was great to lead pakistan to the final

of the twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and then to

the title two years later," he said.

He finished with 163 test and 179 oDI wickets,

but he achieved his greatest success in twenty20

cricket, the start of his career coinciding with the

launch of the shortest format in 2003.

Gul was at his destructive best in england in

2009, finishing as the top wicket taker of the

twenty20 World Cup with 13. that included a

mesmerising five wickets for just six runs in the

semi-final win over New Zealand.

"Winning the World Cup was the highest point

of my career," he said. "I remember those were

very tough days and there was unrest in our

country so our win brought smiles back on the

faces."

At the time, pakistan's military was fighting an

insurgency from militants in the northwestern

region of the country.

Gul attributes his twenty20 skills to the early

days of his love for the game.

"I grew up playing 20-20-over matches in the

streets and then ramadan cricket where you

look for wickets in a 20-over innings," he said.

But his baptism was in test cricket, where he

became an instant hero in 2004.

In only his fifth test, Gul destroyed a starstudded

Indian batting order in a Lahore test

with figures of 5-21. His victims included the

great Sachin tendulkar, rahul Dravid, Virender

Sehwag and VVS Laxman.

the feat almost halted a burgeoning career,

causing a stress fracture in his back.

He later featured in the inaugural Indian

premier League in 2008, topping the chart for

the Kolkata Knight riders with 12 wickets in six

games - the only time pakistan players were

allowed to feature in the world's most lucrative

league.

But the 2011 World Cup semi-final against

India - in the one-day format -turned out to be

the most bitter of his career.

He was targeted by the top order and finished

with figures of 0-69 in eight overs for the match

in Mohali, India.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2020

10

Amid e-commerce boom, anti-

Amazon Shopify takes flight

TORONTO : The

pandemic has forced

businesses worldwide to

pivot online to survive,

and many have turned to

Shopify, a Canadian

company that has

emerged as a thriving

alternative to Amazon.

Founded 15 years ago in

Ottawa, Shopify allows

businesses to create an e-

commerce site in just a

few clicks. Already

growing with more than

one million e-stores at the

end of 2019, its user base

has exploded.

"The retail world that

would have existed in

2030 has really been

pulled back into 2020,"

Shopify president Harley

Finkelstein said in an

interview with AFP.

"It feels like Covid has

permanently accelerated

the growth of online

commerce."

Amid a lockdown of

bricks and mortar stores,

online commerce has

boomed this year.

Consumers have grown

accustomed to buying

over the internet, and

industry giants, led by

Amazon, have seen sales

rocket.

At the same time, many

businesses that did not

have a presence or a direct

online sales channel took

the plunge as the

pandemic took hold.

Popular with

entrepreneurs, Shopify

saw the number of new

stores created on its

platform jump 71 percent

in the second quarter

compared to the previous

one.

One of these new e-

merchants is Tariq Al

Barwani, creator of

Plentea, a tea bar in

Toronto that remained

open in March at the start

of the lockdown.

But with only a handful

of customers a day, the

situation quickly became

untenable, forcing him to

go out of business in May.

The same month,

supported by a municipal

program helping small

businesses affected by the

crisis to go digital, he

opened a store on

Shopify.

"It took us a week," he

recalls from his living

room, overlooking Lake

Ontario, where he now

works. "If you are used to

going on the internet, it is

easy to understand."

Shopify has become a

resounding success far

from Silicon Valley.

It was co-founded in

2006 by Tobias Lutke, a

young German who'd

moved to Canada for love

and designed the software

originally to sell

snowboards over the

internet.

Hailed for its simplicity,

it has seen the number of

stores on its platform

grow from 150,000 in

2014 to over one million -

in 175 countries - in 2019,

asserting itself in the eyes

of many independent

merchants as an

alternative to Amazon.

"For retail to thrive, it

has to be in the hands of

the many, not the few,"

Finkelstein said.

The Quarterly Business Conference of Dhaka South and Dhaka North zone of First Security Islami

Bank Limited held recently by using digital platform. The conference was presided over by Syed

Waseque Md. Ali, Managing Director of the bank. Among others, Abdul Aziz and Md. Mustafa Khair,

Additional Managing Director(s), Md. Zahurul Haque, Deputy Managing Director, Divisional Heads

of Head Office, Zonal Heads and Branch Managers of Dhaka South and Dhaka North zone participated

in the Conference. The conference reviewed the operational performance of individual branches

for the period of July-September, 2020 and delivered directions to attain targets set for next periods

of the year.

Photo : Courtesy

Traders trickle back to Wall Street

after pandemic confinement

The inaugural ceremony of 6-day "BUP Career and Education Fest-2020" organized by the BUP

Career Club under the supervision of the Business Administration in General Department of

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) held yesterday at BUP Bijay Auditorium. The fest is

organized to create employment opportunities for new graduates in the job market and to provide

necessary advice for higher education in abroad.BUP Vice Chancellor Major General Major General

Ataul Hakim Sarwar Hasan, SBP, SGP, ndc, afwc, psc, PhD was present as the chief guest and

General Manager, Head of Operations of Beximco Yello Hadi S A Chowdhury was present as the chief

guest at the inaugural function.Hon'ble Vice Chancellor inaugurated the official website of BUP

Career Club. Noted that more than 22 various reputed companies attended in the fest. Among other,

BUP high officials, faculty members, alumni members and students were also present at the inaugural

ceremony.

Photo : Courtesy

Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) arranged a two days long Business Conference of the 3rd Quarter

of 2020 to evaluate the business position of the Bankthrough virtual platform recently. Quazi Osman

Ali, Managing Director and CEO of the Bank, was present in the program as Chief Guest and inaugurated

the conference. Abu Naser Chowdhury, Md. SirajulHoque and Md. ShamsulHoque, Deputy

Managing Directors, and Abdul Hannan Khan, Company Secretary, KaziObaidul Al- Faruk, Head of

HRD were also present in the program. Divisional Heads and Managers of different branches virtually

joined the program. The Conference reviewed last nine months' business progress of the Bank

of 2020 and chalked out various policy measures to achieve yearly target. The MD & CEO alsosaid

that SIBL has been maintaining a steady growth in all its business indicators by rendering modern

and technology-based services at the doorstep of the people of the country and this trend of innovation

will continue.

Photo : Courtesy

BSCIC estate to generate 5,000 jobs in Rajshahi

RAJSHAHI : Development works of the second industrial

estate of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries

Corporation (BSCIC) are progressing aimed at generating

employment opportunities for more than 5,000 people in

Rajshahi, reports BSS.

The estate being developed on 50 acres of land at Parila

Kechuatoil area under Paba upazila in the district will also

help the flourishing industrial sector in the city and its

outskirts. The development works are being implemented

under a project titled "Rajshahi BSCIC Industrial Estate-2?

involving around Taka 131.74 crore since July, 2015.

Rajshahi Regional Office of BSCIC has been implementing

the project setting a target of developing 296 plots for

accommodating 250 industrial units coupled with

generating employment opportunities.

BSCIC Chairman Mustaque Hassan revealed this while

sharing his view with Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation

AHM Khairuzzaman Liton at the latter's city bhaban office

here on Saturday.

Among others, BSCIC Director (Industry Development

and Extension) Khalilur Rahman, Regional Director

Mamunur Rashid, Deputy General Manager Jafar Bayazid

and Director of the project Haider Ali were present on the

occasion. Giving a salient feature of the project Mustaque

Hassan said the government has taken the decision of

providing industrial plots to the actual entrepreneurs as per

the necessity.

Under the project, there will be three types of plots. The

number of A-type industrial units is 83 having 6,000 square

feet each while 89 units will be B-type with 4,500 square feet

each and the remaining plots will be S-type with the size of

3,500-8,000 square feet.

The industrial plots will be developed considering the

country's socio-economic condition and future necessity, as

the entrepreneurs are expanding the SME gradually in the

region," he added.

Mustaque Hassan said all sorts of necessary infrastructural

facilities for industrial units including roads, drains, culverts,

water, gas and power supply, boundary wall, pump house,

office and water reservoir will be ensured before handing

over the plots to the entrepreneurs.

Speaking on the occasion, Mayor Liton urged the officials

concerned to implement the project properly so that the

entrepreneurs can derive its total benefits.

NEW YORK : The life of a

Wall Street trader was once

one of business trips and

work dinners, but now it is

anything but, reports BSS.

The culprit, as with so many

of the economic and financial

disruptions the United States

has faced over the past

months, is the coronavirus

pandemic, which has

rendered life for the brokers,

bankers and businesspeople

fueling the world's largest

economy much more lonely.

People working on highpriced

transactions like IPOs,

bond deals or mergers and

acquisitions "used to travel a

lot to meet with clients" who

would typically only sign

agreements in-person, recalls

Karl Haeling of LBBW bank.

The local electronics manufacturer

Marcel has kicked off the Season 8 of its

nationwide ongoing 'Digital Campaign,'

a initiative of bringing its after sales

services under the online automation to

ensure quick service, says a press

release.

Like the campaign's previous

seasons, Season 8 was also commenced

with some special customers' benefits.

Under this season, a customer could

will get either free appliances like

fridge, TV, AC, home appliances or sure

cash vouchers through purchasing a

Marcel brand's fridge, washing

machine or microwave oven from any

branded outlets across the country.

Customers will enjoy these benefits

on the purchase of those Marcel's

products from October 15, 2020. The

benefits will be prevailed until the

further announcement of Marcel

authorities.

The announcement was made at the

'Declaration Programme of Digital

Campaign Season-8' held at the Marcel

Corporate Office's conference room in

the capital on Wednesday (October 14,

2020).

"Now they would very

happily give mandate without

seeing you," said Haeling.

Wall Street sits in the heart

of New York City, an early

epicenter as the US Covid-19

outbreak turned into the

world's worst, with more than

218,000 deaths and eight

millions cases nationwide as

of this week.

The

pandemic's

intensification in March

temporarily cleared the

market makers from the New

York Stock Exchange's

boisterous floor and forced

traders across Wall Street to

retreat indoors, relying on

their phones, email and

instant messaging systems to

talk with clients.

"People are doing

brainstorming on these

various video platforms and

they are coming up with

product ideas remotely," said

Daniel Alpert, founding

managing partner at

investment bank Westwood

Capital. But that hasn't held

indices back: the Nasdaq and

S&P 500 have both recovered

from their massive plunges in

March, while the Dow has

also regained most of its

strength, though millions

remain jobless and

unemployment is at a high 7.9

percent.

Aided by a secure internet

connection, Haeling holds

30-minute meetings twice per

day to keep up with

colleagues about the markets,

politics and the omnipresent

The declaration programme was

attended by Marcel's Deputy Managing

Directors Eva Rezwana Nilu, Nazrul

Islam Sarker and Amdadul Haque

Sarker, Marcel's Brand Ambassador

Film Actor Amin Khan and Marcel's

Head of Sales Dr. Md. Shakhawat

Hossen.

Executive Director (ED) Md Firoj

Alam moderated the programme while

the company's some other ED's

Mohammad Rayhan, Ariful Ambia and

Refrigerator's Chief Executive Officer

(CEO) Engineer Anisur Rahman

Mallik, Deputy ED Shahjada Selim,

Home Appliances' CEO Engineer Al

Imran, First Senior Additional

Directors Robiul Islam Milton and

Faruk Azam, Additional Director

Augustin Sujon, Digital Campaign's

Coordinator Nazmul Hossain Evan,

among others, were also present.

Marcel's Head of Sales Dr. Md.

Shakhawat Hossen said, they the prime

objective of conducting the campaign is

to bring the after sales service operation

under online automation to ensure the

deliberation of quick services.

During the campaign, he said, some

coronavirus threat, a workfrom-home

routine he says

suits him fine.

"I went back (to the office)

for three days in the summer

because of a storm which cut

the power out at home, and I

realized how inefficient it is

because I spent three hours

on the train," Haeling said.

But even with the virus still

a threat across the US, traders

are slowly trickling back to

Wall Street.

The New York City

Economic Development

Corporation estimates there

are 460,000 people

employed by the financial

sector in the city, and their

work is considered an

essential service under state

law.

Marcel Digital Campaign

Season- 8 kicks off

Free products, sure cash vouchers offered on

fridge, washing machine, oven purchase

details such as customer's name,

contact number and the product's

model number have been stored on

Marcel server. As a result, the users of

Marcel products will easily get the

desired after sales service even if they

have lost the product's warranty card.

Customer database will also help the

service center's representatives getting

customers' feedback about their

respective Marcel products' service.

To encourage customers'

participation in the campaign, the local

brand has been offering special

customers' benefits like free fridge, TV,

AC etc. and sure cash vouchers.

Marcel is now manufacturing and

marketing around 100 models of frost

and non-frost refrigerator, freezers and

beverage coolers with advanced

technologies and features such as BSTI

'Five Star' energy rating certified

refrigerator, huge energy saving

inverter technology's Side by Side Door

and Glass Door non-frost refrigerators.

Marcel is giving one-year

replacement guaranty as well as 12

years compressor's guaranty.

Marcel's higher officials attend a 'Declaration Program of Digital Campaign Season 8'. Photo: Courtesy

MONDAY, OCtOBER 19, 2020

11

DIG of Barishal Range Md Shafiqul Islam BPM (Bar) as the chief guest addressed a bit policing rally

against rape and torture of women in Banaripara on Saturday. Banaripara Police officer In-charge

Md Helal Uddin chaired the occasion while among others, Banaripara Upazila Nirbahi Officer

Sheikh Abdullah Sadid, Municipality Mayor Advocate Subhash Chandra Sheel, Upazila Awami

League President Golam Saleh Monju Mollah, Upazila Vice Chairman Nurul Huda and Banaripara

Degree College Principal Afroza Khanam were also present at the occasion. Photo: S Mizanul Islam

Pandemic, politics lead to closure

of storied Hong Kong bar

HONG KONG : Nearly 15 years ago,

Grace Ma decided to name her bar Club

71, in commemoration of a July 1, 2003

rally where hundreds of thousands of

Hong Kongers protested a proposed

national security law for the semiautonomous

Chinese city, reports

UNB.

"I took the name Club 71, because

somehow it is more hopeful, with half a

million Hong Kong people having a

demonstration, a rally, to stand for

themselves, not to ignore what's going

on in Hong Kong," said Ma.

For years, the storied bar has served

as a watering hole for the city's prodemocracy

activists and intellectuals,

who could freely engage in discussions

over a round of beer or two.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit

and, in a blow to the city's Westernstyle

freedoms, the central

government in Beijing in June

imposed sweeping national security

legislation targeting political

expression in response to massive

anti-government protests last year.

For Ma, the troubles meant it was

time to shutter the business for good.

Months of government-mandated

bar closures as part of coronavirus

restrictions had pushed Club 71's

finances deeper into the red, and

operating the bar no longer made

financial sense, she said. The bar will

close at the end of October.

Germany's COVID-19

cases soar by 5,587 to

361,974

BERLIN : Germany's

COVID-19 cases rose by

5,587 to 361,974 over the

past 24 hours, the Robert

Koch Institute (RKI) for

infectious diseases said on

Sunday, reports UNB.

The death toll from the

disease went up by 10 to

9,777, the RKI added.

Germany recorded on

Saturday 7,830 new

infections of COVID-19 in

the last 24 hours, the highest

daily spike since the

pandemic began.

Armenia,

Azerbaijan

agree on new

"humanitarian

ceasefire"

YEREVAN : Armenia and

Azerbaijan have agreed on a

new "humanitarian

ceasefire" in the Nagorno-

Karabakh region starting

midnight (2000 GMT)

Saturday, the two countries'

foreign ministries

announced on Saturday

evening via identical

statements, reports UNB.

It is the second ceasefire

both sides have agreed on in

weeks. The first came on

Oct. 10, following lengthy

negotiations in Moscow on

Oct. 9. Armenia and

Azerbaijan have been at

loggerheads over the

Nagorno-Karabakh region

since 1988. Peace talks have

been held since 1994 when a

ceasefire was reached, but

there still have been

sporadic minor clashes.

Organizers exhort women to

vote for change at US rallies

Thousands of mostly young women in masks

rallied Saturday in the nation's capital and

other U.S. cities, exhorting voters to oppose

President Donald Trump and his fellow

Republican candidates in the Nov. 3

elections, reports UNB.

The latest of rallies that began with a

massive women's march the day after

Trump's January 2017 inauguration was

playing out during the coronavirus

pandemic, and demonstrators were asked to

wear face coverings and practice social

distancing. Rachel O'Leary Carmona,

executive director of the Women's March,

opened the event by asking people to keep

their distance from one another, saying that

the only superspreader event would be the

recent one at the White House.

She talked about the power of women to

end Trump's presidency. "His presidency

began with women marching and now it's

going to end with woman voting. Period,"

she said. "Vote for your daughter's future,"

read one message in the sea of signs carried

by demonstrators. "Fight like a girl," said

another.

BSCIC Chairman NDC, (Additional Secretary) Md. Mushtaq Hasan as the

chief guest addressed a view exchange meeting with industrial entrepreneurs

after inspecting industrial plots in Joypurhat BSCIC industrial city

On Saturday. BSCIC Deputy Director General Abu Hashem presided over

the occasion while among others, BSCIC Director Industrial Development

and Extension (Joint Secretary) Md. Khalilur Rahman, Joypurhat Deputy

Commissioner Md. Shariful Islam, BSCIC Rajshahi Regional Director

(Deputy Secretary) Md. Mamunur Rashid and Joypurhat Chamber of

Commerce and Industry President Anwarul Haq Anu were also present at

the occasion.

Photo: Masrakul Alom

As fishing, buying and selling and stocking of hilsa are prohibited in the river for 22 days

during the main breeding season, 4,700 registered card holders fishermen of Rajbari have been

given 20 kg of VGF rice as food aid. Rajbari Deputy Commissioner Dilsad Begum inaugurated

the food aid program by distributing 20 kg of rice to 506 fishermen at Chandani union in

Rajbari Sadar Upazila on Saturday. Chandani Union Parishad Chairman AKM Sirajul Alam

Chowdhury presided over the inaugural meeting while among others, District Fisheries Officer

Joydev Pal, Sadar Upazila Parishad Chairman Adv. Imdadul Haque Biswas, Acting Upazila

Nirbahi Officer Md. Arifur Rahman and Upazila Senior Fisheries Officer Md. Roknuzzaman

were also present at the occasion.

Photo: Md Moniruzzaman

GD-1360/20 (6 X 4)

GD-1359 (10 X 4)

Monday, Dhaka, October 19, 2020, Kartik 3, 1427 BS, Rabi-ul Awal 1, 1442 Hijri

IOM, UK EMT

continue Covid

health support

for Rohingyas

COX'S BAZAR : The joint efforts

between the International Organisation

for Migration (IOM) and the

UKEmergency Medical Team (EMT)

greatly benefit Covid-19 response

efforts, especially for the most vulnerable

in Cox's Bazar, said the migration

agency on Sunday, reports UNB.

"The support provided by UK EMT

on capacity building, technical guidance

and supervision of clinical teams

enhances the quality of service provided

to both the host community and

refugee populations," said Dr Charles

Erik Halder, a National Programme

Officer for IOM's Emergency

Preparedness and Response

Programme in Cox's Bazar.

The first confirmed case of Covid-19

in Cox's Bazar was found on March 23,

2020. As of October 11, 4,602 cases

among the host community have been

confirmed in the district.

In the Rohingya refugee settlements,

a total 276 Covid-19 cases have been

found and eight deaths have been officially

recorded. Of the 276 confirmed,

134 patients have recovered and 134 are

isolated in health facilities within the

camp.

The UK EMT is the frontline of the UK

government's response to a humanitarian

crisis overseas-funded by UK aid from the

Foreign, Commonwealth and

Development Office (FCDO).

The first UK EMT served in Cox's

Bazar from May to July 2020, while the

second team of experts arrived in July

2020 and remain on the ground, working

with IOM to enhance the quality of

care in SARI ITCs, improve Risk

Communication and Community

Engagement (RCCE) and IPC initiatives,

provide training and capacitybuilding

for health workers and

strengthen the local capacity for active

case surveillance and home-based care.

Sarah Collis, Health Lead of UK

EMT's first team, said of the partnership:

"Working with IOM was an

incredible experience for the UK EMT.

We were quickly welcomed into the

team which enabled us to get straight to

work, sharing our technical knowledge

and immediately driving the response

forward."

Collis said the relationship was open

and collaborative from the beginning

and it was clear that both teams were

committed to ensuring the Rohingya

and host populations had access to quality

Covid-19 services in Cox's Bazar.

Covid-19: Bangladesh reports

1274 new cases, 14 deaths

DHAKA : Bangladesh's coronavirus

fatalities reached 5,660 on Sunday

with the deaths of 14 more patients in

the last 24 hours until morning,

reports UNB.

The health authorities reported

1,274 new cases, taking the caseload to

388,569. Currently, there are 78,937

active cases in the country, said the

Directorate General of Health Services

(DGHS).

Bangladesh reported its first cases

on March 8 and the first death on

March 18. The cases reached the

300,000-mark on Aug 26 while the

death toll exceeded 5,000 on Sept 22.

The fatality rate is 1.46 percent.

So far, 21,63,568 samples have been

tested -- 11,866 in the last 24 hoursand

17.96 percent of them have turned

out to be positive.

Bangladesh's recovery rate is steadily

increasing with 1,674 new recoveries.

So far, 303,972 patients have

recovered with a recovery rate of 78.23

percent, the health authorities said.

Of the total victims, 4,357 are men

and 1,303 are women. Among the latest

victims, 13 are above 50 years of

age and one other is aged between 31

and 40 years.

So far, 2,895 people have died in

Dhaka division, 1,134 in Chattogram,

362 in Rajshahi, 457 in Khulna, 196 in

Barishal, 240 in Sylhet, 257 in

Rangpur and 119 in Mymensingh .

Currently, 12,265 people are in isolation

and 39,776 in quarantine.

The Bangladesh Awami League paid homage to the martyrs of August 15, including Sheikh

Russell, the youngest son of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, at the Banani Cemetery in

the capital on Sunday morning.

Photo: PBA

Modern technology

coming soon for

sewerage wastes

management : Minister

DHAKA : LGRD Minister Md Tajul

Islam on Sunday said modern technology

will be used in the country for sewerage

wastes management like the developed

countries, reports UNB.

The minister came up with the

remark joining an online awareness

workshop for the mayors and engineers

of the municipalities on the work plan

prepared for the waste management of

the municipalities.

He said advanced technology is being

used in waste management in different

countries of the world. The use of

advanced technology is also being

examined in Bangladesh, the minister

added.

Tajul said considering all the advantages

and disadvantages the necessary

equipment will be brought into the

country for achieving the sustainable

development goals and building a clean

and tidy country .

The minister also said all types of

wastes including sewage and solid

wastes must be managed in such a way

so that the environment is not polluted

and those can't do any harm to human

health. "The government will provide all

necessary logistical support to build a

clean and environmentally friendly

Bangladesh."

The local government minister listened

to the mayors about the problems

in the municipalities of the country and

promised to resolve them.

He also stressed the need for raising

the municipalities' own revenue.

Covid-19 puts half a mn

more girls at risk of early

marriage : Report

DHAKA : An estimated 500,000

more girls are at the risk of being

forced into child marriage globally

and as many as one million more are

expected to become pregnant in

2020 as a result of the economic

impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,

a study from the Save the Children

revealed the information, reports

UNB.

The increase comes on top of the

previously estimated rates of child

marriage, which already anticipated

12 million girls being forced into

marriage this year.

While this increase represents a

conservative estimate, it marks a significant

surge in child marriage rates

with an expected spike in teenage

pregnancies and school dropouts to

follow. The increase is set to reverse

25 years of progress, which saw child

marriage rates decline.

Up to 2.5 million additional girls

are expected to marry over the next

five years and together with the 58.4

million child marriages taking place

on average every five years, this

amounts to a staggering 61 million

child marriages by 2025, said a press

release from Save the Children

International.

"The pandemic means more families

are being pushed into poverty,

forcing many girls to work to support

their families, to go without food, to

become the main caregivers for sick

family members, and to drop out of

school-with far less of a chance than

boys of ever returning," said Inger

Ashing, CEO of Save the Children

International.

According to the report, 78.6 million

child marriages have been prevented

over the last 25 years across

the globe but even before the coronavirus,

progress to end the practice

had slowed to a halt.

The report titled 'Global Girlhood

Report 2020: COVID-19 and

progress in peril' was released on

October 12.

Despite significant progress in

recent years, Bangladesh has the

highest prevalence of child marriage

in South Asia and ranks among 10

countries in the world with the highest

levels, said UNICEF on

Wednesday.

A new UNICEF report calls for

accelerated action to end child marriage

in Bangladesh by 2030.

The report "Ending Child

Marriage: A Profile of Progress in

Bangladesh" was launched on

Wednesday at a virtual event which

was attended by representatives

from the UN, the Government,

Development Partners and

Adolescent Clubs.

Bangladesh

vaccine goes

into WHO list

The World Health Organisation

(WHO) has included three vaccines

of coronavirus prepared by the

Globe Biotech Limited of

Bangladesh in its vaccine candidate

list. The three vaccines are- D614G

variant mRNA vaccine, DNA

Plasmid vaccine and Adenovirus

Type-5 Vector vaccine, reports

UNB.

Globe Biotech is the only medicine

company who received the

approval for its three vaccines, said

a press release of Globe Biotech

Limited.

The other details will be available

on the website of Globe Biotech.

The landscape documents (vaccine

candidate list) have been prepared

by the WHO for information

purposes only concerning the 2019-

2020 global of the novel coronavirus.

The inclusion of any particular

product or entity in any of these

landscape documents does not constitute,

and shall not be deemed or

construed as, any approval or

endorsement by WHO of such

product or entity (or any of its businesses

or activities).

WHO will verify the accuracy of

the information presented in these

landscape documents.

Overhead cables

of DSCC to go

underground by

November : Taposh

Dhaka South City Corporation

(DSCC) mayor Barrister Sheikh

Fazle Noor Taposh on Sunday said

they have reached a consensus with

the concerned parties over taking all

overhead cables underground by

November, reports UNB.

The DSCC mayor said this after a

meeting with leaders of Internet

Service Providers Association of

Bangladesh (ISPAB) and Cable

Operators Association of Bangladesh

(COAB) at Nagar Bhaban today.

The mayor said, "We want to make

Dhaka free from overhead cables."

ISPAB and COAB will start working

on their own initiative to take

overhead cables underground from

Monday, said the mayor adding that

the work will start from Dhanmondi

area and will be implemented in the

entire South City by November.

DSCC will extend all possible cooperation

to them, said Taposh.

The DSCC also allow them to use

all their infrastructures upon their

request free of cost, he said.

The mayor also reiterated his hope

that the entire South City would be

freed from the rubble of hanging

wires by next November.

Brahmanbaria paddy farmers'

struggle to protect their land

Dragon fruit cultivation is being popular in the local areas. There is a huge demand in the fruit

market. It is delicious and nutritious to eat. The picture was taken from Hawli field in

Damurhuda upazila of Chuadanga on Sunday.

Photo: PBA

BRAHMANBARIA : The farming community

in Brahmanbaria's Bancharampur

upazila is at its wit's end. The reasonnearly300

hectares of agricultural land

in the upazila have been rendered

uncultivable by a group of "illegal" fish

farmers who have erected unauthorised

dams to divert water from the Bariadah

beel, thuscausing financial distress for

the 4,000-odd local paddy cultivators

andthreatening their livelihoods,

reports UNB.

Despite repeated complaints, the

farmers alleged, authorities have turned

a blind eye to their problems. What's

more annoying is that these illegal elements

have recently imposed restrictions

on the movement of boats on the

local beel.

UNB has learnt that theFardabad-

Rupsdi Dhibor Cooperative Association

had taken the Bariadah beel on lease for

three years from the local administration.

But one of its members has subleased

the beel to illegal fish farmers,

violating the lease agreement. Those

who illegally took the land on lease have

erected bamboo fences with nets for

farming fish on the four kilometre area

of the beel. As a result, water hyacinths

and weeds have got stuck on the arable

lands, making a vast tract of arable land

uncultivable, say the paddy farmers.

Abdul Jalil, who owns a small parcel of

agricultural land along the beel, said he

would need at least Tk 5k-7k for getting

the hyacinthsremovedfrom water. "But

we can't afford to spend that amount

also. Moreover, using the beel is next to

impossible these days," he said.

Mamun Mia, another affected farmer

inFardabadvillage, had the same story

to share. "I used to harvest 300 mounds

of paddy on my 15 kani land but it has

now been rendered unfit for cultivation.

Now, we (farmers) are staring at starvation."

All the affected farmers have demanded

immediate action. "Steps to remove

the dam over the beel are needed at the

earliest," saidMohiuddin Ahmed Selim,

the chairman of Fardabad union.

When contacted, Ismail Hossain

Sujon, deputy-assistant agriculture officer

of the District Agriculture

Department (DAE), said some 2000

metric tonnes of paddy used to be produced

from the farm lands every year.

But he admitted that now the production

has come to a halt.

Authorities say action is

inevitable."We have given a deadline to

the association to remove the dam and

clear the hyacinths. If they fail to comply

with the order, necessary steps will be

taken," saidMohammad Nasir Uddin

Sarwar, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of

Bancharampur.

Pison Das, a member of the Fardabad-

Rupsdi Dhibor CooperativeAssociation,

assured: "We will clear the weeds and

hyacinths."

Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam, Executive Editor : Sheikh Efaz Ahmed, Managing, Editor: Tapash Ray Sarker, News Editor : Saiful Islam, printed at Sonali Printing Press, 2/1/A, Arambagh 167, Inner Circular Road, Eden Complex, Motijheel, Dhaka.

Editorial and News Office: Bangladesh Timber Building (3rd Floor) 270/B, Tejgaon I/A Dhaka-1208. Tel : +8802-8878026, Cell : 01736786915; Fax: + 880244611604, Email: Editor : editor@thebangladeshtoday.com, Advertisement: ads@thebangladeshtoday.com, News: newsbangla@thebangladeshtoday.com, contact@thebangladeshtoday.com, website: www.thebangladeshtoday.com

19-10-2020

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