Katowice (Poland), Dec 11 (UNB) - Bangladesh and a number of other nations affected by climate change have called for the formation of a guideline to implement the Paris Agreement.

The call was made at the high-level meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) in Poland.

“Affected countries have been pressuring the developed nations to implement the Paris Agreement,” said Abdullah Al Mohsin, Bangladesh’s environment and climate change secretary heading the country’s delegation. “We will continue the discussion in the last three days of COP24.”

The plan on Nationally Determined Contribution under mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, climate induced displacement, finance, technology framework, transparency framework, global stocktake were also discussed in the meeting.

Mohsin hoped some rules or guideline will be formed to implement the Paris agreement—a historic deal that united the world's nations in a single agreement on tackling climate change.

At Monday’s COP24 meeting, speakers emphasised urgent action by developed countries to keep global warming below 1.5 degree Celsius.

Negotiators from around the world met in Poland on December 2 for talks on climate change – three years after landmark Paris deal that set a goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius.

Envoys gathered in Katowice for the UN meeting that runs until December 14. It received a boost over the weekend after 19 major economies affirmed their commitment to the 2015 Paris climate accord at the G20 summit. The only holdout was the US.

Dhaka, Dec 11 (UNB) – Courses on foreign languages offered by the Institute of Modern Language (IML) of Dhaka University (DU) are gaining huge popularity among students who want to explore them internationally.

The IML is currently offering courses on 14 foreign languages, including English, Chinese and German.

Around 2,000 students are pursuing different foreign language courses at the institute.

Apart from Mphil and PhD courses, the institute is offering one-year junior and senior certificate courses, diploma and higher diploma courses in Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

Recently, it has introduced four-year honours courses on Chinese, Japanese, French and English languages.

Students who passed Higher Secondary Certificate or equivalent examination with minimum GPA 2.5 on a scale of five can apply for the junior courses.Students have to sit for an admission test under the institute to enroll for the senior, diploma and senior diploma courses. 

Those who want to pursue newly launched four-year honours courses must obtain pass marks at the DU admission testsunder either B or D unit and meet othercriteria.

“Learning a specialised language not only helps one explore opportunities in academic life but also in the corporate life. One can think of becoming a translator and interpreter. I personally want to work with the Spanish,” said Maliha Sultana Ohi, who completed a course on Spanish language from the IML.

“I think it’s important for us to learn a third language apart from English and Banglaas it’ll help get scholarship for higher study in foreign countries like European and Western ones. If you want to go abroad, you must have enough skills on the language of that particular country,” she said.

DU IML Director Prof Dr Shisir Bhattacharja said, “We’re now living in a global village where people are connected with each other. A huge number of our people are going abroad for workor pursuing higher study. But language is an obstacle for us. If you want to go to any European country, you must have proper knowledge on this country’s language. Or else, you can’t cope up with them.”

Underscoring the need for learning foreign languages, Prof Bhattarcharja said, “Every year, we’re sending a huge number of people to the Middle East, Malaysia and other countries as workers who have no any skill on that county’s language. And we have no institution to learn Malaysian national language Malay. Had they learned that language, obliviously they would have earned more.”

Many students believe that foreign language courses help them get foreign scholarship and get admitted into higher educational institutions abroad.

“To know the Hindi language and culture deeply, I’ve enrolled on his course. This course helps me translate Hindi books and literature into Bangla,” Tonmoy Saha Joy, who is studying a senior certificate course in Hindi, told UNB.

Dhaka, Dec 11 (UNB) – With the allocation of election symbols, the candidates of the 11th parliamentary elections hit the campaign trail on Monday to woo voters, just 20 days before the national election.

But the ruling Awami League will formally kick off its campaign on Wednesday while BNP and its alliance still could not finalise the schedule for it though informal campaign is going on in various parts of the country.

Most candidates of various political parties and independent ones started visiting houses and localities of their respective areas to seek votes with the removal of the campaign ban at the midday.

Many areas of the country, especially the upazila headquarters and district towns, are resounded with rallies, loudspeakers, and supporters of the candidates on Monday with the start of the election campaign.

Political observers think the election is going to be competitive unlike the previous one as all the political parties are joining it under alliances, including two major ones – the Grand Alliance and Jatiya Oikyafront.

They suggested the candidates to remain alert and exercise restraint to avoid any kind of violence over the electioneering so that the festive mood over the polls does not get affected.  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the President of Awami League, will formally inaugurate her party’s election campaign from Tungipara on December 12.

Awami League sources said they are publishing leaflets highlighting their government‘s successes and its huge development activities carried out over the last 10 years to woo voters.

As majority of the voters are young, the ruling party leaders said they will give various messages during their campaign to attract them.

Awami League joint general secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak said the Prime Minister will go to Tungipara in Gopalganj on Wednesday morning (Dec 12) by road. She will start the formal election campaign after paying tributes to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s grave.

 The Prime Minister will also address a rally at her own constituency while another rally at Kotalipara at noon, the AL leader said.

Sheikh Hasina will also travel different parts of the country as part of her hectic electioneering, Nanak added.

BNP and its alliance partners still did not formally announce when and where they will formally start the election campaign.

However, BNP and Gano Forum leaders said they have a plan to kick off the campaign from Sylhet.

“Dr Kamal Hossain and other senior leaders of Oikyafront are likely to launch the election campaign from Sylhet by offering fateha at the shrines of Hazrat Shahjalal (R) and Shah Paran (R) and at the grave of General MAG Osmani, but we still could not finalise the schedule,” Gano Forum executive president Subrata Chowdhury told UNB.

A BNP leader, wishing anonymity, said as their chairperson is in jail, Dr Kamal Hossain will spearhead their campaign and visit some districts along with party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to seek votes for Oikyafront candidates.

However, a Gono Forum leader said Dr Kamal will not go to the constituencies where Jamaat candidates are contesting the election with BNP’s tickets. “After Sylhet, Sir will mainly conduct campaign in seats in Dhaka due to his illness.”

Opposition alliance leaders said they will to try to get people’s sympathy by talking about the release of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia. “We’ll also tell voters about the misrule and repressive acts of the government apart from our plan to develop the country,” said Nagorik Oikya Convener Mahmudr Rahman Manan.

Besides, he said, they will try to appease young voters with many promises and making them aware of their voting rights.

At a press conference in the evening, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said he will start electioneering at his home constituency Thakurgaon-1 on Tuesday. “I’ll also go to Bogura for conducting campaign.”

Earlier in the day, electoral symbols were allocated among candidates allowing them to begin electioneering.

A total of 272 candidates are going to contest the 11th parliamentary elections with 'Boat', Awami League's electoral symbol, while 298 with BNP’s polls symbol 'Sheaf of Paddy'.

Out of total 300 constituencies, Awami League has fielded its own candidates in 258 while shared the rest 42 with its partners from the Grand Alliance.

BNP has shared 59 seats with its partners from the Jatiya Oikyafront and the 20-party alliances and fielded its own candidates in 241 parliamentary seats.

As per the EC rules, no candidate can spend more than Tk 10 per voter during the electioneering, but the total election expenditures, including the party's donation, of a candidate cannot exceed the limit of Tk 25 lakh.

The Commission has already deployed 600 judicial magistrates and nearly 1,000 executive magistrates to punish the violation of the electoral code of conduct during the campaign.

As part of the election campaign, the candidates can hang only black-white posters of the maximum 60cmX45 cm size, but no poster can be pasted. Neither any colourful poster nor a banner-size one can be used.

In case of banner, the highest size is 3X1 metre as per the electoral code of conduct.

A total of 3,065 candidates -- 2,567 from all the 39 registered political parties and 498 independent ones -- filed nomination papers to contest the election from 300 constituencies in the country.

A total of 272 candidates are going to contest the 11th parliamentary elections with 'Boat', Awami League's electoral symbol, while 298 with BNP’s polls symbol 'Sheaf of Paddy'.

Dhaka, Dec 11 (UNB) – Bibiyana (South) power plant project, a 400-MW mega project, is likely face further delay as only 22 percent work has been completed so far although the scheme’s simple cycle unit was supposed to be completed by December, 2016.

According to official sources, the state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) had initially appointed Spanish-Korean joint venture firm—Isolux Ingenieria of Spain and Samsung  C& T Corporation of South Korea—as its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor at a contract value of US$ 288.26 million to install the project within 30 months.

In the first phase, the simple cycle 252.264 MW capacity unit was supposed to come into operation within 24 months and the combined cycle unit of 131.246 MW was scheduled to start operation within 30 months from the signing date of the contract.

But, at one stage of the implementation, the Spanish firm opted out from the deal. Later, an Indian firm joined the consortium with renaming the joint venture as—JV of Samsung C&T Corporation, Korea and Larson and Toubro Limited (L&T), India.  

For this, the Power Development Board (PDB) had to sign an amended contract to approve the new Joint Venture as its EPC contractor.

After the development, it was expected the project work will gather pace. But, the new JV failed to create any impression about its efficiency in its work, the officials added.

The issue was discussed in a recent review meeting at the Power Division with Power Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus in the chair.

According to a progress report placed at the review meeting, piling works are going on in the project and 856 units of piles were put in place out of 1281, while the progress in financing is only 14.45 percent.

However, project director Ranada Prasad Roy claimed that the piling work has already been completed and major equipment of the project have already reached the site.

As per the new amended contract, the modified commercial date of operation (COD) was fixed for September 19, 2019 for simple cycle unit while July 29, 2020 for combined cycle unit.

On completion of the project, Ranada Prasad said, the whole project will be evaluated by the authorities concerned and a committee headed by a chief engineer will determine who are responsible for the delay in the project.

“If the EPC contractor is found to be responsible for the delay, the committee will recommend penalty as liquidity damage (LD) for the project,” he added.

The power project will consume 62.55 MMSFD gas which will be supplied from Bibiyana gas field.

The production cost of electricity in the project will be Tk 1.13 kilowatt per hour (kWh) considering the plant factor at 85 percent while the power tariff was estimated to be Tk 4.70 per unit.

The Bibiyana South project’s implementation process started 6-8 years back and it was initially named as Bibiyana-1 and awarded to local power conglomerate Summit Group to implement it as an independent power producer (IPP) plant.

But due to fund constraint and other complications, Summit could not implement the project. Finally, the government terminated the contract with Summit and renamed the project as Bibiyana South Power Plant.

Narayanganj, Dec 10 (UNB) – Julekha Begum claims she is at least 100 years old. In this stage of life bed should be her friend but she was left alone at the railway station which is difficult to believe without seeing in own eyes. In the cold winter her old body shivers and curls up but there is no one to look after her.

In the busy metropolitan city many pass their days on the footpaths, beg from others out of hunger but Julekha Begum is not like them. Her own son and daughter-in-law left her at the railway station.

For past few days at the platform of Chashara railway station the poor woman was seen screaming and asking one question – “Will Abul come to take me back?” Who is this Abul ? He is Julekha Begum’s son.

A shopkeeper of the station also a witness said on December 6 (Thursday) Julekha’s son and daughter-in-law brought her to the station in the morning.

The shopkeeper asked about her identity while Julekha’s daughter-in-law said that Julekha, who is her mother-in-law, had been staying with them after death of her six elder brothers-in-law.

And from now on they are unable to look after her, she said and immediately left the place with her husband.

Julekha with her blur eyesight managed to see her son leaving her and started crying while Abul returned once not for taking her back rather to shut her pitiful screams which possibly felt disturbing to him. Abul finally left the spot and never came back.

He who once felt secure under the arm of his mother now took shelter under arms of his wife while Julekha was still hoping for his return. Even she is unable to believe that her son has left her alone in the last stage of life.

Julekha asks only one question all the time “Will Abul come to take me back?” Maybe she was still unaware that her son had thrown her away just trash meant for the dustbin. She can never believe what her son did to her and still waits for Abul’s return.

Locals took her to Khanpur Hospital where primary treatment was provided to her as she was suffering from the wounds she bore on her leg and police was informed.

Later, local social activists found out the address of Julekha’s grandson Amjad Hossain at Masdair area in Sadar upazila who was also unwilling to carry her responsibilities.

It was also learnt that Abul, a worker of iron market in Masdair area and his wife left their home for village in Faridpur after leaving her at the railway station.

Reading reports of the incident in the newspaper, Syeda Selina Sheli, Executive Director of ‘Apan Nibas’, an old home of Uttara in the capital showed interest to take responsibility of Julekha. 

Meanwhile locals demonstrated in front of Abul’s house in the morning and demanded justice as the incident triggered an outcry on social media.