Rajuk gets acting chairman

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha member (estate) Akhter Hussain Bhuiya on Monday took over the charge at the acting chairman of the city development authority.

The Ministry of Housing and Public Works on Sunday issued a notification stating that board member (estate) Akhter Hussain Bhuiya would work as acting chairman until appointment of a new chairman.

The notification was issued after Nurul Huda had resigned as the Rajuk chairman on Sunday.

Nurul Huda was appointed Rajul chairman on March 23, 2009 for two years. Later his tenure was extended twice by one year each.

Akhter, an additional secretary, took the charge from Nurul Huda at his office.

Earlier in January, Nurul Huda, on request of the government, backtracked from his decision to resign and decided to continue as the Rajuk chairman till the end of his tenure in March 2013. (Source)

Towki Murder Case: HC refuses bail to Shamim Osman

A High Court bench on Monday refused to grant bail to former lawmaker and Awami League leader Shamim Osman, his son Ayon Osman and three others in the Tanvir Mohammad Towki murder case.

The vacation bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Badruzzaman also declined to grant an appeal of Shamim and the four others to pass an order so that they were not arrested or harassed until completion of the investigation of the case.

Shamim’s lawyer Abdul Baset Majumder told reporters that the bench had returned the bail petition to him and he would move the regular bench after March 31 when the Supreme Court would resume after vacation.

During the hearing, the bench questioned Baset Majumder why the petitioners had sought bails as they had not been made accused in the case.

The petitioners could not be treated as accused in the case until completion of inquiry into the case as they were named in the first information report, said the court.

The bench also brushed aside Shamin and other petitioners’ complaint that they feared arrest and referred to media reports that Shamim was holding press briefings regularly about the case.

Towki, 17, an A-level student of ABC International School in Narayanganj, went missing on March 6 from the town and police recovered his body on March 8 from a canal of the river Shitalakhya.

Towki’s father Rafiur Rabbi filed a murder case without naming anyone as suspect. 

On March 18, Rabbi submitted a complaint to the Narayanganj superintendent of police accusing seven people, including Shamim and his son Ayan, in the case.

In his complaint, Rabbi said that Shamim, Ayon, Zahirul Islam Parvez alias Kangaru Parvez, Mizanur Rahman Sujan, Rajib Das, Saleh Rahman Simanta and Rifat, and eight to 10 unidentified people had killed his son.

The accused were not named in the case primarily as he was depressed mentally after the killing of his son, said Rabbi in the complaint.    

Lawyer Baset Majumder prayed for bail for Shamim, his son, Zahirul, Mizanur and Rajib saying they were not named in the first information report of the case.

Baset said that the petitioners feared arrest after Towki’s father filed the complaint against them, which they said was politically motivated. (Source)

Sagar-Runi Killing: Journalists to hold rally April 29

Dhaka Reporters Unity will hold a protest rally on its premises on April 29, demanding immediate arrest and trial of the killers of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Mehrun Runi.

Announcing the programme at a rally on Monday, the organisation unity president Shahed Chowdhury said that the journalists would continue the protests until the perpetrators were punished.

Machhranga Television news editor Sagar Sarwar and ATN Bangla senior reporter Meherun Runi were killed at Razabazar in the capital on February 11, 2012.  

‘We hope that the government will ensure the arrest of the killers by April 29,’ Shahed said, adding that otherwise the unity would go for tougher agitations.

DUJ faction president Omar Faroque said that home minister did not keep his words he had given to the journalists for arresting the killers. (Source)

Bangladesh Power plants to get 100mmcfd more gas

The government has decided to shut down four fertiliser factories from April 1 to increase electricity generation during summer through increasing gas supply to the power plants by about 100 million cubic feet a day, officials said.

Petrobangla, the state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation, will stop gas supply to Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory (CUFL), Urea Fertiliser Factory (UFF), Palash Urea Fertiliser Factory (PUFF) and Karnaphuli Urea Fertiliser Company Ltd (KAFCO) from next month, they said.

The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting held at secretariat on Monday. The meeting was presided over by the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Md Enamul Huq. Officials of power and energy divisions, agriculture ministry and industry ministry attended the meeting.

The officials said that the government took the decision to increase power generation to meet the additional demand for power due to summer heat and for boro irrigation.

However, Natural Gas Fertiliser Factory (NGFF), Ashuganj Fertiliser and Chemical Factory (AFCL) and Jamuna Fertiliser Factory (JFCL) will get gas supply to maintain their production.

At the meeting, the officials decided to resume gas supply to CUFL from August 1.

Petrobangla will divert about 100mmcfd gas to the power plants in Chittagong and Narsingdi by suspending 46.3mmcfd gas supply to KAFCO, 4.5mmcfd to CUFL, 34.6mmcfd to UFF and 12.2mmcfd to PUFF.

Among other fertiliser factories, Petrobangla supplies 37.2mmcfd to JFCL, 49.6mmcfd to AFCL and 11.3mmcfd to NGFF.

Power Development Board Chairman Md Abdul Wahab Khan reportedly said that the demand for power had increased by 700MW in March this year from the same month of the previous.

The average demand for power was recorded at 5,600MW in March 2012 which has increased to 6,100MW this year, he said.

At the meeting, power division officials reported that Petrobangla supplies 850mmcfd gas to the power plants against a demand for 1,250mmcfd leading to a shortfall of power generation by more than 900MW.

On the other hand, officials of the industry ministry reportedly said that the government’s target for urea import would have to be increased from 1.5 million tonnes for 2012-13 financial year as the local factories would not be able to produce 1 million tonne fertiliser due to lack of gas supply.

At present, Petrobangla supplies about 2,270mmcfd gas against a demand for more than 3,000mmcfd.

Against the backdrop of a severe gas shortage, the government for a few years has been diverting gas to power plants from fertiliser factories on the ground that ‘it is cheaper to import urea than fuel oil for electricity generation.’ (Source)

Breach Of Privacy: The Economist to contest ICT rule

The chief editor and South Asia bureau chief of British weekly, The Economist, will contest the International Crimes Tribunal-1 rule as to why proceedings should not be initiated against them for breach of privacy.

The lawyer for the respondents stated this to reporters on Monday after submitting their reply to the tribunal.

Supreme Court lawyer Mustafizur Rahman, on behalf of the respondents, submitted the Economist’s reply to the tribunal’s rule issued on December 6, 2012.

The tribunal fixed April 24 for hearing on the explanation.

Answering to newsmen, Mustafizur said that his clients had not violated the law and so they were contesting the tribunal’s rule.

The tribunal’s former chairman Justice Nizamul Huq had passed the order on December 6, 2012 on Adam Roberts, South Asia bureau chief, and Rob Gifford, Chief Editor of The Economist, for serious breach of privacy, hacking computer, e-mail and Skype accounts and obtaining confidential information illegally, which, the tribunal said, ‘amounted to influencing a judge of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.’

The tribunal passed the order a day after receiving a phone call from the weekly’s reporter and asked them to answer in three weeks.

The order had said that the tribunal chairman had come to know that the e-mail accounts, Skype and computers of the chairman and Brussels-based international law expert Ahmed Ziauddin, with whom the chairman occasionally had discussions, had been hacked ‘which makes it clear that the persons who are disturbing the ongoing process of this tribunal are involved in this matter.’

Justice Nizamul stepped down from his post on December 11, 2012 amid controversy over publication of his alleged Skype conversation in a Bangla daily in Bangladesh. (Source)