29-07-2022

Friday, Dhaka : July 29, 2022; Srabon 14, 1429 BS; Zilhaj 29 , 1443 Hijri
Bangladesh Bank raises farm loan
disbursement target by 8.88pc
DHAKA : Bangladesh Bank (BB) has
raised the agriculture and rural loan
disbursement target by 8.88 percent to
Taka 30,911 crore for the current 2022-
23 financial year (FY23).
The disbursement target for the immediate
past 2021-22 financial year
(FY22) was Taka 28,391 crore, said a
BB press release issued.
Considering the increased demand
of agricultural and rural credit, disbursement
target for the state owned
and specialized commercial banks has
been fixed at Taka 11,758.00 crore
while the private and foreign commercial
banks at Taka 19,153.00 crore.
In the previous financial year (2021-
22), all the scheduled commercial
banks disbursed agricultural and rural
credit of Taka 28,834.21 crore Taka
against the target of 28,391.00 crore
Taka, which is approximately 101.56
percent of the fixed target.
The agricultural and rural credits
were disbursed among 33, 04,811
persons in total, of which 17, 97,052
DHAKA : Detectives of the Dhaka Metropolitan
Police (DMP) in a drive have
arrested the mastermind of the gang
with huge counterfeit currencies and fake
money-making equipments from a flat
in House No-11 of Chand Udyan Housing
Area under Mohammadpur Police
Station. Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid,
the chief of Detective Branch (DB) of
the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP),
told newsmen that they arrested Md Humayan
Kabir, mastermind of the gang
last night.
Counterfeit currency, worth about
Taka 16 lakh, one laptop used for making
fake note, one printer, one laminating
women borrowers have received
Taka 10,829.39 crore. Beside this, 24,
99,945 small and marginal farmers
have received around Taka 20,182.30
crore from different banks. Moreover,
Taka 19.59 crore was disbursed among
4,073 farmers of char, haor and less
developed areas of the country.
Agriculture is one of the driving
forces of Bangladesh’s economy. The
importance of agriculture is being
seen more and more in the wake of the
Covid pandemic and the recent global
situation. Therefore, Bangladesh Bank
is always trying to help the agriculture
sector through necessary financing.
Besides these, to achieve the government’s
three prime objectives of
sustainable development goals (SDGs)
- eradication of poverty, ensure safe
and nutritious food and ensuring good
health and well-being - Bangladesh
Bank on Thursday published the annual
Agricultural and Rural Credit Policy
and Program for the financial year
2022-2023 for mobilizing plenty of
Govt presents low population
to show high per capita
income : Fakhrul
DHAKA : BNP Secretary General Mirza
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday
alleged that the government has kept
the population low in the country in
the just-published ‘6th Population and
Housing Census 2022’ only to show high
per capita income, reports UNB.
“The country’s population is presented
lower (than the actual figure) to show
high per capita income. We usually calculate
18 crore people in our country. But
it’ll be helpful to show much more per
capita income if the population is counted
16 crore,” he said. The BNP Secretary
General made the remarks at a press
conference at the party chairperson’s
Gulshan office in Gulshan reacting to the
preliminary results of the census.
He also said the planning minister
himself admitted that the census calculation
was not correct. “The data was not
collected properly by going from house
to house.” Earlier on Wednesday, the
provisional data of the ‘6th census was
revealed by the Bangladesh Bureau of
Statistics (BBS).
According to the preliminary report of
the population and household census, the
county’s total population is 16,51,58,616,
with a 1.22 per cent growth rate in place
of the previous 1.37 per cent.
Fakhrul said a national population
census should be conducted properly by
collecting authentic information from every
house.
“But the government is misleading
and deceiving people with incorrect information.
The entire government is
based on deception. It is a totally fake
government,” he observed.
Fake note-making factory
seized, owner held
machine, one kauta pasting gum, three
money-making dices, two bundles of foil
paper, two packets of paper for money-making,
one cutter and two mobile
sets from the house.
The DB head said they have been doing
this illegal business for long. They use
to make Taka 60 lakh every month. He
said these fake notes are being spread
across the country through 4-5 control
groups. Factory owner gets Taka 10,000
for every Taka 100,000 fake.
An accused of four fake money-making
cases, another case was filed with the
Special Powers Act at Mohammadpur
Police Station in this connection.
credit in the rural area.
To ensure the food security of the
people and to develop a sustainable agricultural
credit system, there are some
new inclusions in the current agricultural
credit policy.
These are inclusion of Credit Norms
for rearing Duck under the poultry
subsector; inclusion of credit norms
for cultivating Chia Seed, Teen Fruit,
Sugarbit; inclusion of credit norms for
cultivating Vietnamese Hybrid Coconut,
Coffee and Sweet Corn; inclusion
of credit norms for cultivating Sea
Weed; inclusion of credit norms for
cultivating Lobster under the fisheries
subsector; inclusion of group loan disbursement
for providing agricultural
Credit to a bunch of farmers at a time
easily and increased credit limit per
acre for crop cultivation.
The Agricultural and Rural Credit
Policy and Program for the FY 2022-
2023 published by Bangladesh Bank
will be helpful for the banks for financing
the agricultural sector.
Six Khulna men to
die for war crimes
KHULNA : The International Crimes
Tribunal (ICT) Thursday sentenced
six Khulna men to death for their involvement
in crimes against humanity
during the 1971 Liberation War.
The three-member tribunal, led by
Justice Mohamamd Shahinur Islam,
handed down the punishment to the
six—Amzad Hossain Hawladar, Sahar
Ali Sardar, Atier Rahman, Motasim
Billah, Kamal Uddin Goldar and
Nazrul Islam—after holding them
guilty. Of them, Narzul was tried in
absentia. Public prosecutors Haidar
Ali and Mokhlesur Rahman Badal
represented the state, while advocates
Abdus Sattar Paloan and Hazi
MH Tamim appeared for the six.
Prosecutor Mokhlesur said, “We are
satisfied with the judgment.”
Bus driver remanded
over molestation of
female passenger
DHAKA : A court on Thursday placed
a driver of a bus of Bikash Paribahan
on one-day remand in a case lodged
over alleged molestation of a female
passenger on the moving vehicle.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate
Syed Mostafa Reza Noor passed the
order, placing accused Md Mahbubur
Rahman on one-day remand as police
produced him before the court
and pleaded for five-day remand.
Earlier on July 27, police arrested
Mahbubur from Balur Math area of
Turag thana and also seized his bus
later.
The victim was molested on the
moving bus on July 24 as she boarded
the bus at around 8.40pm at
Dhanmandi to go Azimpur. As she
was feeling drowsy, around 9.10
pm, she realized someone touching
her inappropriately and came to her
sense promptly.
Detectives of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in a drive have arrested the mastermind of the gang with
huge counterfeit currencies and fake money-making equipments from a flat in House No-11 of Chand Udyan
Housing Area under Mohammadpur Police Station.
Photo : Star Mail
Director General of Bangladesh Coast Guard, Rear Admiral Ashraful Hoq Chowdhury, ndu, afwc, psc, on
behalf of the Bangladesh Coast Guard, handed over a cheque of one day’s salary of all the members of the
Coast Guard to the Prime Minister for dealing with floods and disasters.
Photo: Courtesy
Petrobangla to get Tk 2000 cr
from GDF to import LNG
Smokeless tobacco control needs tougher
modified law - Anti-Tobacco Agency
Pinky Akter
‘
Bata bhore pan dibo gal vore kheo, babur
chokhe ghum nei ghum dia jeyo’
The mothers of rural Bengal used to
use a rhyme that is still popular when
putting their children to sleep.
From this rhythm, it can be understood
that the tendency of women to
consume betel leaf is high, which has
not decreased yet. Amena Begum, a
70-year-old resident of Mohammadpur
in the capital, has been using betel
leaf with Hakimpuri Zorda for more
than 40 years. Currently, due to health
reasons, the doctor advises him to give
up this habit, but he is unable to give
up her bad habit. This elderly woman
refuses to accept the fact that Zorda is
smokeless tobacco.
There is no health awareness and
anti-tobacco campaign about the harm
of smokeless tobacco like Gul, Saadapata,
Zorda. There is no such obligation
in the existing law. And so day
by day its use and damage is increasing.
As smokeless tobacco is cheap
and readily available among women,
especially rural poor and uneducated
DHAKA : The Finance Ministry has
given its consent to provide Tk 2000
crore to the Petrobangla from Gas
Development Fund (GDF) to import
liquefied natural gas (LNG).
An official order, a copy of it obtained
by UNB, reveals that as per
proposal of the Energy Division, the
Finance Ministry agreed to provide
the fund as loan to the state-owned
Petrobangla.
The approval from the Finance
Ministry came against the backdrop
of the severe fund crisis the Petrobangla
has been facing following
the excessive price hike of gas in the
international market as a fall out of
the Russia-Ukraine war. The price of
LNG has crossed US$39 per MMBtu
from below US$10 after the Russia-Ukraine
war began on 24 February
2022.
About the Finance Ministry’s approval,
Consumers Association of
Bangladesh (CAB) CAB Vice President
M Shamsul Alam said this is an
indication that the government is in
a serious crisis in dealing with the
energy sector. Recently the Energy
Division announced its decision not
to import any LNG from the international
spot market because of the
price hike.
As a result, it has to go for reducing
power generation from gas-fired
plants that forced the power entities
to resort to planned load shedding.
However, it continued importing
LNG from Oman and Qatar under
long term contracts where price is
fixed, but varies to some extent on
different conditions.
Now, it’s not clear whether Petrobangla
will use the new fund to resume
import of LNG from the spot
market or utilise it to import gas
from long-term suppliers.
The Gas Development Fund
(GDF) was created by the order of
the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory
Commission (BERC) a few years
back to allow the Pertrobangla to receive
additional money with gas bills
from the consumers to use the fund
for gas exploration in the country.
The BERC also created some other
funds by the consumers’ additional
money and the regulator is highly
against the use of such funds for any
other purpose than gas sector development.
But all operation of such funds
was taken up by the Energy Division.
But the Petrobangla used some of the
funds for different other purposes
while deposited to the government
exchequer as per a Finance Ministry
order. The BERC is against the
operation and control of the Energy
Division on such funds.
The BERC in June directed stateowned
Petrobangla to return a total
of Tk 12,227.44 crore to its two original
funds-the energy security fund
(ESF) and the Gas Development
Fund (GDF). The energy regulator’s
latest directive which came as the
BERC Order No-2022/7, in detail,
was released on June 27 and uploaded
on its website on the same day.
As per the BERC Verdict, the
Petrobangla has to return Tk 9227.44
crore to ESF Fund and Tk 3000 crore
with interest to the GDF fund which
the organization had taken away and
used for different purposes.
women are most addicted to it. Many
of those who consume smokeless tobacco
do not know how harmful it is or
what problems it can cause to the body.
The Prime Minister has announced
that Bangladesh will become a tobacco-free
country within 2040. This decision
has been taken considering the
health risks of tobacco. But when we
talk about the health risks of tobacco,
cigarettes come to our mind first. But
Gul, Sadapata can cause serious health
complications. Maybe even death. This
is the claim of health professionals.
In this regard, Dr. Arup Ratan
Chowdhury said, ZORDA or SADA
Pata directly attacks the cells in the oral
cavity, which can lead to various complex
diseases of the mouth, including
cancer, and the most alarming thing
is that women’s reproductive health is
also at mortal risk due to tobacco consumption.
Tobacco also poses many health
risks for women. Adverse effects on premenstrual
syndrome symptoms. Studies
have shown that smoking increases
the duration of periods such as cramps
by 50%. The problem lasts two or three
People will not
respond to BNP’s
movement called
thru ‘remote
control’: Quader
DHAKA : Awami League (AL) General
Secretary and Road Transport
and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader
yesterday said the country’s people
will not respond to the movement
called by BNP using ‘remote control’.
He made the remark while speaking
at the triennial conference of the
AL units of Ward No. 14 and 22 of
Dhaka South City through videoconferencing
from his official residence
here.
Quader urged BNP acting chairman
Tarique Rahman, who is staying
in London, to return home and call a
movement against the government if
he has the courage.
Mentioning that the BNP leaders
get upset when the country remains
in a good state, he asked them to
keep faith in the people and participate
in elections.
The state power will change only
through elections, he added.
Responding to an allegation of the
BNP leaders that there is no democracy
in the country, the AL general
secretary said finally the BNP leaders
will join the elections to protect their
existence and the party as well.
AL organising secretary Mirza
Azam, Dhaka South City Corporation
(DSCC) mayor Barrister Sheikh
Fazle Noor Tapos, Dhaka South City
AL president Abu Ahmed Mannafi,
its general secretary Humayun Kabir
and Nurul Amin Ruhul, MP, among
others, spoke at the conference with
Hazaribagh Thana AL acting president
Haji Mohammad Salim Ahmed
in the chair.
days in women who smoke compared
to women who do not smoke. It reaches
the body through inhalation during
smoking. Some of these chemicals have
been found to be very dangerous for
female smokers. This affects their reproductive
health. These chemicals not
only decrease the chance of ovulation,
but they also decrease the movement of
the egg through the fallopian tubes to
the uterus. Due to which the fetus develops
outside the uterus. This is called
an ectopic pregnancy. Such conditions
can prove fatal to the fetus.
Doctors say that tobacco affects the
health of women more than men. In
this regard, Dr. Shekh Md Mahabubs
Sobhan of National heart Foundation
Hospital & Research institute said that
women’s reproductive health is the
most affected by tobacco consumption.
Smokeless tobacco is just as harmful as
smoked tobacco. Low birth weight babies,
miscarriages, abortions, and even
complications in newborns. He even
said that there is a fear of being affected
by uterine cancer and breast cancer by
consuming this tobacco.
>(Conted. on page-2)