Bangladesh
Bangladesh hopeful of France's support for its bid for GSP+ facility beyond 2029
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has expressed his optimism that France will continue to support Bangladesh's bid for a GSP+ facility beyond 2029 under the European Union's new GSP Regulation.
Bangladesh is widely considered as a success story for the EU’s Everything-but-Arms (EBA) scheme.
The EBA scheme removes tariffs and quotas for all imports of goods (except arms and ammunition), coming into the EU from least developed countries (LDCs).
Read more: Dhaka-Tokyo relations to reach new heights; hopes Shahriar Alam
BNP leader Jamal Uddin murder: Accused sent to jail on expiry of bail
A Chattogram court on Tuesday sent Abul Kashem, former chairman of Fatikchhari upazila to jail in connection with the sensational Jamal Uddin murder case.
Chattogram Additional Metropolitan Session Judge Nargis Akter sent Kashem to jail after rejecting his petition for extension of his bail when he surrendered before the court in the morning, said an assistant of the court Farid Uddin.
Kashem had been absconding for 20 years and recently returned home.
Read more: Teacher assault: USTC student sent to jail
On November 22, Abul Kashem surrendered before the High Court in the case. The court granted six weeks' bail and asked him to surrender before the lower court on completion of his bail, which was today.
On July 24, 2003, Jamal Uddin, a south district unit BNP leader was abducted by some miscreants while returning to his home in Chandgaon from Chawkbazar business establishment.
Police arrested Shahidul Islam, former chairman of Anwara Sadar union and Mahbub alias Kala Mahbub, a Shibir cadre, two years after the abduction.
Read more: Suspended PBI official sent to jail over Khulna college girl’s rape
Following their confessional statement, police recovered the skeleton of the BNP leader from a hilly area in Fatikchhari upazila on August 24, 2005.
BGB man kills himself with service weapon in Satkhira
A Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel apparently ended his life by shooting himself with his service weapon at a camp in Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira early Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Lance Naik Parvez Alam, 30. He hailed from Noakhali and was posted at the BGB camp in Nildumur.
Read more: ‘Need some rest now,’ BGB man says in suicide note
Other BGB members at the camp rushed severely injured Parvez to Shyamnagar Upazila Health Complex around 4:30am.
He died on the way to another hospital, said Nurul Islam Badal, officer-in-charge (OC) of Shyamnagar police station.
The body was handed over to the BGB officials after an autopsy at Satkhira Sadar Hospital, said the OC.
Dr Ahmed Ali and Dr Tamim Hossain, physicians of Satkhira Sadar Hospital, said that Parvez died due to the bullet injury on the left side of his chest.
Read more: BGB personnel shoots self with service gun in Naogaon, dies
An unnatural death case was filed in this regard, the OC added.
1 killed, 5 others in family injured in Shariatpur road accident
A man was killed and five others in his family were injured when the private car carrying them overturned at Konekshwar union in the Damudya upazila of Shariatpur district.
The deceased, Kawsar Majhi, 26, was a resident of the Char Voyra area of Damudya upazila and son of Barek Majhi.
Read more: Road accidents in Khulna, Magura leave 3 dead
The family was returning home from Dhaka Airport after receiving Al-Amin Majhi, the elder brother of the deceased.
According to locals and police, the car turned upside down and fell into a nearby pond after the driver lost control due to dense fog at around 3 am.
Police rescued them with the help of locals and rushed them to hospital. Kawsar died on the way to hospital, said Sofi Ullah, SI of Damudya police station.
Read more: Bangladesh sees 9,951 road accident deaths in 2022, highest in 8yrs: Report
One of the injured was sent to Dhaka for advanced treatment.
BFIU suspends bank accounts of 15 individuals
The operation of bank accounts of 15 individuals including Universal Financial Solutions (UFS) Managing Director (MD) Syed Hamza Alamgir have been suspended for allegedly fleeing after embezzling Tk 158 crore, said BFIU on Tuesday.
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) has sent a letter to all the financial institutions of the country in this regard. BFIU is the central agency of Bangladesh responsible to halt money laundering and terrorist financing.
An official of the BFIU told UNB on Tuesday that a letter was sent to banks and financial institutions, in order to suspend all accounts of 15 individuals and institutions, including Universal Financial Solutions. The name, address and TIN number (Tax Identification Number) of the organisation are given in the letter.
Also read: BFIU suspends cash out from 230 MFS accounts over transactions through hundi
Before this, news published in different print media that an asset management company named UFS embezzled Tk 158.37 crore of four mutual funds in the stock market.
The company's MD Syed Hamza Alamgir left for Dubai on October 13 with this money. He is currently in Singapore, according to media reports.
Adani’s 750 MW power to come to national grid in March: Nasrul Hamid
The electricity of Indian Adani Group’s Jharkhand power plant will cost Tk 22 per unit as import to Bangladesh is expected to start from March this year, according to a Power Division media statement issued on Tuesday (January 03, 2023).
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid visited the Jharkhand power plant on Tuesday.
Power secretary Habibur Rahman and BPDB chairman Mahbubur Rahman accompanied the state minister during the visit.
During the visit, Nasrul told reporters that Bangladesh will receive the electricity from March this year for which a dedicated transmission line has been installed.
Read more: The Tk 700 crore per month hole in the deal with Adani Power
“Power import from the Adani’s Jharkhand plant will be possible from March”, a Power Division media statement quoted him as saying.
“Initially we’ll get about 750 MW from the plant. We need more electricity to meet our demands in the coming summer”, it said.
Adani's Jharkhand coal-fired power plant will have a total of 1,600 MW capacity from two units, each having 800 MW.
“We’re looking for alternative sources of energy. We’ve been working giving priority on uninterrupted power supply at affordable prices”, Nasrul said.
Read more: Introduce smart management system in power grid: Nasrul Hamid
The Adani Group, very close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, set up the 1600 MW power plant in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand under a deal signed on November 5 in 2017 to export its entire electricity to Bangladesh.
Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) constructed two substations at Chapainawabganj and Bogura in Bangladesh and also a transmission line to import the electricity.
Meanwhile, officials of the BPDB are concerned about the tariff of the imported electricity from the Jharkhand plant as its cost will be almost double of the electricity to be generated from locally installed Payra power plant, a joint venture of Bangladesh and China.
They said Bangladesh will incur a huge financial loss to the tune of about Tk 700 crore per month, once it starts importing electricity from the Adani 1,600 MW thermal power plant in Godda, Jharkhand state - due to the ‘flawed’ deal the government signed with the private Indian company.
Read More: Pay production cost to get smooth supply of gas, electricity: PM Hasina tells industries
“Including the cost of coal and its transportation, we have to pay Tk 2,100 crore per month to import 1,600 MW from Adani's plant at a 75 percent plant factor considering the existing rates of coal in the international market," a top official of the state-owned BPDB told UNB.
If some rules and provisions observed in other similar deals (from the private sector, coal-fired) had been maintained here, the cost could have been kept down to Tk 1400 crore per month. The country has to count a loss of about Tk 700 crore per month, working out to Tk 8400 crore annually for the flaws in the deal, he added.
Over the project’s life cycle of 25 years, the loss in terms of the increased cost and hidden components in the tariff Bangladesh will ultimately incur Tk 2.10 lakh crore - a third of the national budget - considering the current coal price, the senior official noted.
The BPDB official said the lack of a provision for discounts in the purchase of the coal that will be used to fuel the plant is an oversight, considering such a provision was made mandatory in other deals that Bangladesh signed with independent power producers (IPP), where the price of coal to be purchased was kept as “pass-through”.
Read More: Ensuring access to electricity at an affordable cost is govt’s prime goal: PM’s Energy Advisor
Explaining the matter, he said Adani will purchase the coal for its power plant as primary fuel and Bangladesh will pay the price of the coal.
Normally, the coal price is calculated on the basis of the Newcastle Price Index, and if any company purchases coal at a higher quantity with higher calorific value, then it gets upto 55 percent discount on the bulk value.
This was the provision kept in the power purchase deal from the 1320 MW Payra power plant, a joint venture project of Bangladesh and China, where BPDB is benefiting from the discount in the price of coal.
“But BPDB will not get any discount in coal price which ultimately pushes up the electricity tariff from the Adani plant by at least 50 percent,” said the official who has been involved in handling the project from BPDB.
Read More: Electricity generation disrupted as Kaptai Lake’s water level decreasing
As a result, if the price of electricity from Bangladesh's Payra Power Plant is calculated at Tk 12-13 per unit including the cost of coal, the price of per unit electricity from Adani plant will be about double at Tk 20-22 per unit, he added.
10 Minute School launches ‘Online Batch 2023’ for Class 6-10
10 Minute School, an e-learning platform of Bangladesh, has launched Online Batch 2023, a comprehensive year-long study program for students of classes 6-10.
Online Batch 2023 (https://10minuteschool.com/online-batch/) will cover the entire National Board curriculum, through 800+ live classes conducted throughout the year on the 10 Minute School app where students will be able to learn without any distractions, according to a press release.
Read more: 10 Minute School courses: bKash offers 20% cashback on payment
State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak inaugurated the programme at the BCC Auditorium of Dhaka's ICT Tower on Tuesday.
Classes will be taken by teachers with years of offline and online teaching experience, who studied in some of the most prestigious universities of Bangladesh, including BUET, Dhaka Medical, and Dhaka University.
A total of six subjects will be taught to students to complete their full syllabus in eight months. Students of classes 6-8 will have 22 live classes every month, 6 days a week while students of classes 9-10 will have 40 live classes every month, five days a week, reads the release.
Read more: Robi-10 Minute School launches exam preparation course for grades 6-9
10 Minute School started its journey in 2015, and has taught over millions of students in the country through various academic, skill development and job preparation courses.
Dengue: 48 more patients hospitalised in 24 hrs, zero death
Fourty-eight more people were hospitalised with dengue in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
Of the new patients, 17 were admitted to the hospitals of Dhaka and 31 outside it, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Read more: Dengue fatalities now 281 with three more deaths
A total of 237 dengue patients, including 135 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country
So far, DGHS recorded 127 dengue cases and 110 recoveries this year with zero death.
The country reported 281 deaths from the mosquito-borne disease last year, the highest ever dengue fatalities recorded in a single year in Bangladesh. The previous record of 179 deaths was reported in 2019.
Read more: Dengue death toll in Bangladesh reaches 182, surpassing previous record
The DGHS has recorded 62,423 dengue cases and 61,971 recoveries in the past year.
Bangladesh logs 31 more Covid cases
Bangladesh registered 31 more Covid cases in the 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
With the new numbers, the country's total caseload rose to 2,037,187, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Read more: Lack of info on China’s COVID-19 surge stirs global concern
However, the official death toll from the disease remained unchanged at 29,440 as no new fatalities were reported.
The daily case test positivity fell to 0.74 per cent from Monday's 0.84 per cent as 4,189 samples were tested during the period.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.45 percent while recovery rate rose to 97.59 per cent, it added.
Read more: Cautionary measures taken at Sonamasjid land port to prevent new sub-variant of Covid-19
In December last year, the country reported seven Covid-linked deaths and 540 cases.
Bangladesh registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 in 2021 and daily fatalities of 264 on August 5 the same year.
Road accidents in Khulna, Magura leave 3 dead
Three people were killed in road accidents in Khulna and Magura districts on Tuesday morning.
In Khulna, two people died in separate accidents that took place at Parchalna village of Chalna municipality in Dakope upazila and on Notun Rasta Mor area in the city.
According to locals, a woman died after being hit by a speeding motorcycle in front of her house at around 11 am at Parchalna village.
Read more: Bangladesh sees 9,951 road accident deaths in 2022, highest in 8yrs: Report
Parul Biswas, 60, was seriously injured and later died on the way to a hospital.
In another road accident at around 9 am motorcyclist Aksar, 26 was killed following a collision with a tank lorry in the city, said Kazi Kamal, officer-in-charge of Daulatpur Police Station.
The driver and helper of the tank lorry flee the scene immediately.
In Magura, Md Pappu, 19, a college student, was killed in a collision between two motorcycles in Sreepur upazila of the district.
Read more: Mother, daughter among 3 killed in Faridpur road crash
Officer-in-charge of the Sreepur police station Shukdev Roy said Pappuwas seriously injured following the collision.
Later he died at Faridpur Medical College and Hospital.