Fishing in Kaptai Lake resumed on Tuesday at the end of a three-month ban imposed by the local administration to boost fish production.

Manager of Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation (BFDC) Lieutenant Commander M Touhidul Islam said fishermen went out to catch fish after midnight and returned with their catch at the BFDC ghat around 5am.

BFDC imposed a three-month ban on fishing in the Kaptai Lake from April 30 to allow the fish population to thrive. BFDC has released 30 tonnes of carp variety of fish fry in different parts of the lake during this year’s fishing ban.

Touhidul said they were optimistic about high production this year.

BFDC have set up seven check-posts and six mobile monitoring centres to ensure breeding of fishes and assure that no-one can catch fish during the ban, he said.

Udoyon Barua, a fish trader and general secretary of Rangamati Fisheries Association, said some 22,000 fishermen are dependent on the Kaptai Lake.

The workers and fish traders are passing a busy time since morning, he said.

Also read: 30-ton fish fry to be released in Kaptai Lake: BFDC

Another 23 people, including a staff of deputy commissioner office and a bank official, have been infected with coronavirus in Thakurgaon.

With the new cases, the district's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 545 till Monday evening, said Civil Surgeon Mahfuzar Rahman.

Two staff of Haripur and Baliadangi upazila health complex, were among the newly-infected patients.

Meanwhile, 94 more samples have been sent to Dinajpur M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital on Monday for test.

Read Also: Bangladesh’s confirmed coronavirus cases surpass 2.6 lakh

So far 3,984 samples have been tested in the district.

Bangladesh’s officially confirmed coronavirus cases went up to 260,507 with the detection of 2,907 new patients in 24 hours until Monday.

Besides, the death tally rose to 3,438 with 39 new deaths in the country.

Gonoforum MP Mokabbir Khan came under attack reportedly by some ruling party activists at Bishwanath upazila in Sylhet on Monday.

“My vehicle got damaged in the attack carried out around 11am, but I’m unhurt,” Mokabbir told UNB.

Describing the incident, he said, “I was going to BRDB hall at Bishwanath upazila headquarters to join a meeting on law and order situation. As my vehicle got close to the meeting venue with police protection, a group of local Awami League activists, led by Shamim and Siraj, attacked my vehicle. They threw a big piece of brick targeting me, badly damaging my vehicle.”

Later, the MP said police quickly encircled his car and protected him from the attack while the attackers left the scene without any obstruction.

Mokabbir said police saved him from the attack, but they did not take any action against the attackers or made any attempt to arrest them.

He said he did not file any case in this regard as local Awami League leaders assured him of ensuring punishment of the attackers.

Meanwhile, Gonoforum President Dr Kamal Hossain and convener Dr Reza Kibria condemned the attack.

In a joint statement, they voiced concern over the attack though there was a police protocol.  

The duo demanded the government put the offenders under trial through a proper investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, Reza Kibria talked to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan who assured him of taking the matter with due importance

Mokabbir Khan was elected MP from Sylhet-2 with Gonoforum’s ticket in the last general election. In 26 years of history of Gonoforum, Mokabbir is the only leader of the party who became MP with its ticket and symbol.

Bayazid Bostami is the most searched area to live in Chattogram with 13.32 percent of all property searches being made for that area, a data analysis shows.

Khulshi ranks second among the most searched locations in Chattogram with 11.97 percent searches and Double Mooring comes third with 6.37 percent searches.

The research data was collected via the number of users, listings added and queries made at bproperty.com, both online and offline, over the past six months, from January to June.

Bproperty, Bangladesh’s only property solutions provider, has come up with an in-depth trend analysis that shows the current demand for real estate in Chattogram.

Further analysis indicates that a significant portion of people in Chattogram prefer smaller homes, with Bproperty receiving requests as high as 42.84 percent for properties between 1,000 and 1,500 square feet.

Apartments less than 1,000 square feet come second with 38.75 percent of all searches. Flats ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 square feet get the third most searches with 15.34 percent.

In terms of rooms, people of Chattogram have a high demand for three-bedroom homes.

About 45.80 percent of property requests made at Bproperty were for three bedrooms.

When it comes to average price for houses people of Chattogram wishes to buy, Bproperty’s analysis have shown that about 22.01 percent of all incoming property purchase requests had a budget between Tk 62 lakh and Tk 72 lakh.

The second most common budget range (19.38 percent) was between Tk 42 and Tk 52 lakh. And to the round of the top three price ranges, 15.77 percent of property searches were in the range of Tk 72 lakh and Tk 82 lakh.  

Areas such as North Kattali, Pachlaish and Jamal Khan are seeing a growing demand for property purchases.

Kotwali, West Sholosohor, North Pahartali popular with renters

The analysis of data also gives an idea of the average rent that people of Chattogram are willing to pay.

For property renting, 30.26 percent of all searches are in between Tk 10,000 to Tk 15,000. Another 21.81 percent of searches were for rent between Tk 15,000 to Tk 20,000 and 19.97 percent of searches were for renting houses less than Tk 10,000.

Also read: Own Your Dream Nest: Home Loan in Bangladesh

Areas such as Kotwali Thana, West Sholosohor and North Pahartali are growing rapidly in terms of popularity for renting homes.

Speaking on the initiative, Bproperty CEO Mark Nosworthy said the opening of their Chattogram marketplace last year was a signal of intent on their part that they wanted to put more focus on the Chattogram market.

"The real-estate industry here has been growing rapidly for a while now,” Nosworthy said.

He said on average, they receive over a thousand verified property requests a month. “This trend analysis gives us a more in-depth idea regarding the demand for properties in Chattogram. We are hopeful that we will be able to serve our customers even better from now onwards."

Also read: Coronavirus: Dhaka residents favour smaller, affordable houses for rent

Three members of Border Guard Bangladesh and a doctor among 18 people, have been infected with coronavirus in Thakurgaon.
 
With the new cases, the total coronavirus cases have risen to 522, said civil surgeon Mahfuzar Rahman on Sunday afternoon.
 
So far 276 patients recovered in the district while eight people died from coronavirus.

Read Also: UNO among 26 infected with coronavirus in Thakurgaon
 
The death tally from coronavirus in Bangladesh reached 3,399 on Sunday with the death of 34 more patients in the last 24 hours.
 
During this period, 2,487 new cases were confirmed.
 
Besides, 1,766 patients have made full recovery from Covid-19, raising the number of recoveries to 1,48,370.