special
Undergrounding electricity wraps Sylhet in elegance
Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) has gone one step further towards building a modern and smart digital city by doing away with the lumber of wires and overhead cables and introducing underground electricity transmission system.
The Hazrat Shahjalal mazar area of Ward number–1 of SCC has been completely brought under the system whereby all the electrical pillars and wiring of other services have been removed from view.
Local Power Development Board (PDB) has been installing the underground electric wiring system under its “Power Distribution System Development Project, Sylhet Division”, said a press statement of PDB on Tuesday.
The statement signed by the project director MM Siddik said that the power supply under the new system commenced successfully on January 5 after moving all the overhead electric lines into underground in the Shahjalal mazar area.
Sylhet City Corporation also provided assistance in the project, it said.
EVM better than ballot, say experts
Amid a fresh political debate over the use of electronic voting machine (EVM) in the upcoming two city polls, election experts said fair polls are possible with the machine if a congenial atmosphere can be created.
Onion prices start to fall again in Dhaka kitchen markets
Prices of onions have started to come down again in Dhaka kitchen markets.
The rise of Bashundhara Kings
Bashundhara Kings have etched their name in the record books of country’s domestic football, securing their first title in the recently-concluded TVS 31st Federation Cup Football 2019-20. The season’s curtain raiser produced a new champion, to go with six former champions including two giants Dhaka Abahani Limited and Dhaka Mohammedan Limited.
Cumilla City battling new hazards of unplanned building construction
Unplanned and unauthorised construction of multistoried risky buildings with substandard materials have become a serious threat to city dwellers.
Govt to buy idle electricity from solar power plants
The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) has finalised a draft policy guideline for purchasing idle electricity from solar power plants now being used for running irrigation pumps.
Bogura agriculture at stake as topsoil goes to brick kilns
Dozens of illegal brick kilns, set up in arable land near schools and colleges, have formed a powerful clique who are removing the fertile topsoil for making bricks, rendering the fields unusable for agriculture.
Manpower export awaits a big boost in 2020: Secy
As labour migration saw a fall in 2019, the government is planning to send more workers abroad in 2020 since some closed labour markets are expected to reopen this year.
Khulna farmers losing interest in boro paddy cultivation
Low prices for crops in the previous season, the burden of loans and costly labour are discouraging an increasing number of farmers from growing boro paddy this year.
Agricultural experts said farmers in the southern region are turning away for various reasons, including increasing agriculture labour wage. This year, Khulna farmers did not buy 900 metric tonnes of boro seed of BADC.
Locals said aman paddy on 25,000 hectares and vegetables on 864 hectares of land were damaged during cyclone ‘Bulbul’. Besides, pest infestation damaged crops on several hundred acres in Rupsha, Botiaghata and Dumuria upazilas.
Farmers could not harvest anything but straws. Thousands of farmers were affected. Besides, they did not get fair prices for their produces in the aman season.
Md Liaqat Ali, Deputy Director of Khulna BADC (Seed), said cyclones ‘Fani’ and ‘Bulbul’ caused massive damage to farmers.
“There was a high demand for hybrid variety of,seed. Besides, many farmers opted for onion due to the unexpected price hike,” he said.
Sources at the agricultural office said 2,000 metric tonnes of seeds were allocated in the BADC’s warehouse of Satkhira, Kaliganj and Bagerhat for the current season. These include BR-26, BR-28, BRI-29, BRI-47, BRI-58, BRI-63, BRI-67, BRI-74, BRI-81 and BRI-86 varieties of paddy.
Untimely rain delaying onion harvest in Faridpur
The untimely rain which hit many parts of the country over the last three days since Thursday is delaying the harvest of locally-grown onion in Faridpur region.