United News of Bangladesh

Biman Bangladesh Airlines Managing Director and CEO Shafiul Azim has said that Biman is fully equipped and ready to provide ground handling services at the iconic third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. He was speaking at a programme on commissioning of new ground support equipment and vehicle exhibition at the Motor Transport department on Monday.

Muslims in Bangladesh will start observing the month of Ramadan, the lunar month of self-purification through fasting and abstinence, from tomorrow (March 12). The moon was sighted on Monday. Lailatul Qadr, the night of divine blessing and benediction, will be observed on the night of April 6. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Moon Sighting Committee at the conference room of Islamic Foundation (IF) at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque here this evening, reads a press release. Muslims are meant to fast from dawn to dusk during the lunar month, a time of restraint and austerity.  

Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury has directed the officials in the power sector to set a target under a specific plan to convert the country’s diesel-fired irrigation pumps into solar-run ones. “You have to set a goal under a plan to increase the number of solar-run pumps in the irrigation,” he told officials at a discussion meeting organised by the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (Sreda) on Monday. He also advised the farmers not to use excessive waters than required for the irrigation. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamidalso addressed the event at the Sreda office. The energy advisor said that a committee will be formed after Eid from the Prime Minister's office so that an effective role can be played in reaching the desired goal in the renewable energy sector. Emphasising the mobilization of the climate fund, he said there should be an initiative to collect promised amounts of money from the Loss & Damage Fund announced in Cop-28. Nasrul Hamid said there should be united efforts for promotion of solar irrigation pumps He said that reducing the use of diesel pumps will also reduce carbon emissions. “At the same time saving the environment will save a huge amount of foreign currency,” he added. He mentioned that there are 12.43 lakh diesel pumps in operation across the country. This is a tough challenge to convert a huge number of solar irrigation pumps into solar-run ones. “We have to move forward with specific targets. Each diesel pump consumes 1023.34 liters of diesel per year,” he said, adding, the government has to import huge quantities of diesel which is a waste of foreign exchange and also harmful to the environment. Senior Secretary of Power Division Md. Habibur Rahman, Senior Secretary of Rural Development and Cooperative Department Hamida Begum, Chairman of Sreda Munira Sultana, Chairman of BADC Abdullah Sajjad, Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Md. Mahbubur Rahman, Chairman of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) Ajay Kumar Chakraborty, Director of Agriculture Extension Department Badal Chandra Biswas, Director General of Power Cell Mohammad Hossain were also present in the meeting.  

Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, has emphasized the prompt resolution of grievances by departments and organizations under the purview of the Ministry lodged by the common people.  He stressed the need for expeditious action to enhance the system and address complaints received via the national hotline number 333-4. The Minister called for regular monitoring of grievance redressal progress, ensuring swift resolution and subsequent evaluation of complainant satisfaction. All parties must come forward to combat climate change: Saber These directives were articulated during the minister's address at a meeting convened to assess the advancement of the smart ministry construction program. The meeting, held at the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Conference  room in the secretariat, highlighted the government's commitment to efficient administration in environmental matters. He urged citizens to utilize the National Call Center 333 to report environmental and forest-related grievances. He advocated for the customization and utilization of the Grievance Redressal System (GRS) software provided by the Cabinet Division to streamline ministry activities. Furthermore, he set a target for the full implementation of the 333-4 environment-related complaint settlement process within the month of March. Besides, he emphasized the redesign of the ministry's website to enhance accessibility for the public. Fund allocated for combating climate change is not sufficient: Saber The meeting was attended by key officials including Additional Secretary (Administration) Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Director General of the Department of Environment Dr. Abdul Hamid, Joint Secretary (Climate Change) Lubna Yasmine, Joint Secretary (Environment) Mohammad Abdul Wadud Chowdhury, and Joint Secretary (Forest) Shahanara Begum, as well as Conservator of Forest (Administration) Abdul Awal Sarkar. They underscored the collaborative effort towards efficient governance and environmental stewardship.

State Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, has stated that the government is committed to bringing high-speed broadband internet to every home. He said, “The Digital Bangladesh initiative has already connected high-speed broadband internet to almost every union in the country, covering over three lakh square kilometers with optical broadband internet connections. In 2006, the country had only 50,000 kilometers of optical fiber connections. The cost of internet service for the general public has been set at Tk 60 per Mbps to make it affordable and easily accessible." He mentioned that the cost was previously Tk 78 per Mbps in 2006. Palak made these remarks as the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of the private office of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) in the capital on Monday. Before any unforeseen incidents occur, Palak urged ISPs to inform the relevant authorities immediately and emphasised the need to take precautions to prevent any disruptions to internet services. He mentioned that the architect of Digital Bangladesh, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, has played a crucial role in the country's remarkable success in the last 15 years. He highlighted the significant achievements of Bangladesh in the information sector since the inception of the V-Sat in 1996 under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Under her dynamic leadership, 98 percent of the country's area is now covered by 4G networks. The backbone of a Smart Bangladesh will be the internet, said Palak. Presided over by ISPAB President Imdadul Haque, the function was addressed, among others, by BTRC Chairman Engineer Md Mohiuddin Ahmed and ISPAB General Secretary Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan.

A number of non-government organizations (NGOs) have demanded the government allocate funds to solar and wind power instead of LNG-run power plants and LNG terminals. The demand was made in a joint meeting of the ISDE-Bangladesh, Coastal Life and Environment Alliance (CLEAN) and Bangladesh External Debt Alliance at Halda Conference Hall of Hotel Saikat in Chattagram on Sunday. It was informed in the meeting that annually about Tk 55,000 crore is spent to import LNG for power generation. The government approved 11 more LNG power plants in the last four years despite gas shortages in operating plants. Of these, four are under construction and seven are awaiting construction. Currently, per cubic meter of LNG import costs Tk 79.33 while it is being sold to the power sector at Tk 14.75. As a result, the loss per cubic meter is Tk 64.58. If LNG cannot be supplied, the power plants under construction will sit idle. Even if there is no electricity, the government has to pay the capacity charge. In the financial year 2022-23, private power producers had to be paid Tk 17,650 crore capacity charges. With the increase in idle power plants, the capacity charge is also increasing exponentially. With Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Central Committee Vice President SM Najer Hossain in the chair, the meeting was addressed by Hasan Mehdi, Mahbubul Alam Prince, Bahlul Alam, Jasmine Sultana Paru, Abida Azad, Kazi Iqbal Bahar Chhaberi, Rezia Begum, and Helal Uddin Mahbub. The NGO leaders said that after the Russia-Ukraine war and the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East, the supply of LNG and petroleum is becoming increasingly difficult. In this situation, if new LNG terminals and LNG power plants are built, it can become a thorn in the neck of the country's economy. In addition, fuel imports of about $6 billion per year are putting unbearable pressure on foreign exchange reserves. With increasing pressure of energy import and capacity charges on the national budget, the allocation to the most essential sectors like agriculture, health, communication and education is decreasing, which is having a negative impact on overall public welfare and human resource development. During production, transportation and consumption, LNG emits an average of 950 grams of carbon dioxide per unit of electricity generation, which is close to that of coal. On the other hand, generating electricity using solar or wind energy produces zero emissions. In addition, solar or wind power does not require any fuel to produce, which can save at least $2 billion per year. As capacity charge is not given in the renewable energy sector, the possibility of money laundering can also come down to zero. The speakers also said that due to last year's Cyclone Mokha, when the LNG terminal of Maheshkhali was damaged, gas supply to the entire country including Chittagong was stopped for 3 days. People's livelihoods and industries were disrupted. On the one hand, LNG has to be imported by spending a huge amount of foreign currency. Again, LNG is causing extreme environmental disaster in the fossil fuel sector of the country. This is causing serious damage to the country's overall economy and environment. The speakers strongly demanded the government to immediately cancel the proposed LNG power plants and terminals and allocate an equal amount of funds for the solar and wind power sector.

After confusion over the identity of a female journalist who was burnt to death in the devastating fire on Bailey Road on February 29, police finally confirmed her real name was Brishty Khatun,  and she used a pen name Ovisruti Shastri. The result came as the samples of her DNA matched those collected from her parents on Sunday, Additional DIG of Dhaka Metro CID Md Jahangir Hossain Matubbar confirmed. Later on Monday afternoon, 11 days after the incident, the body was handed over to her father Sabuj Sheikh from the Dhaka Medical College morgue. In response to a question from the journalists,  Additional DIG said, the victim worked in various places using the name of  Ovisruti Shastri. That's why confusion was created over her identity and her colleagues claimed she was Hindu. Later they understood and wrote to the police station, to hand over the dead body to her parents. Read more: High Court issues rule on compensation for Bailey Road fire victims Sabuj Sheikh said the truth has been established: “I am her father, I thank Allah thousands and millions.” “Finally I received the body today, I will take it to my village home. There, she will be buried in the family cemetery with a Janaza according to Islamic Shari'a,” he added. Brishty Khatun was the eldest among his three daughters. Habibur Rahman, sub-inspector (SI) of Ramna Police Station, was present at that time. After due procedures, at 2.55 pm, Sabuj Sheikh left Dhaka with Birshty’s body. Read more: Why Fire Safety Audit is Essential for Commercial Buildings

Amid a conflict between the Myanmar military and the armed rebel group in Myanmar’s Rakhine, 29 members of  Border Guard Police (BGP) took shelter again in Bangladesh on Monday, said BGB. A total of 29 BGP members have taken refuge in Bangladesh from Angthapaya Camp of the BGP force through the border area of Bandarban's Jamchari union under Naikhongchhari BGB's Battalion 11, said Shariful Islam, public relations officer (PRO) of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). BGB returns four BGP members to Myanmar Earlier in February, 330 members of Myanmar security forces including BGP, army personnel and immigration officials had taken shelter in Bangladesh. On February, 15, they were handed over to Border Guard Police of Myanmar amid tight security. Bangladesh hands over detained Myanmar BGP man 

Market authorities should be held responsible for fire incidents in the markets, said Helal Uddin, president of Shop Owners Association. “If the fire incident occurred at any market due to negligence of the authorities concerned, then the market will be closed,” he said while speaking at a meeting held at Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) headquarters on Monday. Shoe factory catches fire in Old Dhaka “We can’t close any market, so we request police to conduct their drives regularly to check whether any market building is fit or not. There is no space for movement and water storage places are also found closed in many markets,” he said. He also urged all concerned to stay alert to prevent occurrence of fire incidents in markets during the month of Ramadan and guard at night, if needed. ‘Harassment in the name of crackdown’: Restaurant owners allege disarray in fire incident response DMP Commissioner Habibur Rahman and high official concerned were present at the meeting.

Discrepancies have shown up in the results of the Supreme Court Bar Association’s election for 2024-25, announced past midnight on Saturday, following tremendous controversy that arose around the vote counting over the weekend. Votes were cast on Wednesday and Thursday.  Now it emerges that the voting tallies announced by senior advocate Abul Khair, convenor of the SCBA’s election sub-committee, do not match the reported number of votes cast. Specifically, they exceed the number of votes cast, 5319, that was reported widely across the media on Thursday and Friday. Talking to UNB on Monday morning, Advocate Abul Khair denied ever disclosing the number of votes cast in the election, even though a number of outlets did quote him as the source of that information. UNB was not among them. “You will find no such announcement in my voice,” he asserted.  There was also no objection from the SCBA to the reported number of votes cast, till the discrepancies came to light. Some outlets have continued reporting the 5319 figure even after the results were announced, seemingly oblivious to any discrepancy.  “Even if someone from the committee said so, it was wrong. The number of votes cast is what came out in the final announcement,” he said, without disclosing the number. A video of the final announcement can be found on the SCBA's Facebook page. In it, we find that Advocate Abul Khair starts off by commenting on the controversy surrounding the election, and what they had to go through in order to overcome it. He then proceeds to announce the names of the candidates elected as members, without offering their vote tallies. SCBA election: Khokon, Monjurul elected president, secretary After reporters present at the auditorium insist on hearing the vote tallies, Advocate Khair does start announcing them for the more important positions.  Once he gets to the important post of secretary, for which there were four candidates, he announces: “Number 1 on the ballot Farhaduddin Bhuiyan won 60 votes. Number 2 Ruhul Quddus Kajol won 1702 votes. Third on the ball Nahid Sultana Juthi won 269 votes. Fourth on the ballot Shah Manjurul Haque won 3319 votes.” He then proceeds to declare Shah Manjurul Haque, from the pro-Awami League Bangabandhu Awami Ainjibi Parishad (White Panel), the winner of the election for the secretary post. But using a calculator, we find that the votes announced in each candidate’s favour add up to 5350, exceeding the reported number of votes cast by 31.  Coming to the president’s post, which also had four candidates, Advocate Abul Khair started in reverse order this time: “Ballot number four, MK Rahman, got 229 votes. Third on the ballot, Eunus Ali Akhond, got 46 votes. Number 1 on the ballot, Abu Sayeed Shagor received 2539 votes. And number 2 on the ballot, one who is always lucky in the voting, Mahbubuddin Khokon, received 2622 votes.” He then proceeds to declare Khokon, from the the pro-BNP Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum (Blue Panel), the winner of the president’s post.  But if you add up the votes declared on each candidate’s behalf, they add up to 5436 - 117 more than the reported votes cast. This is especially significant because in the vote for president, the margin of victory was just 83 votes.  The total size of the electorate for the SCBA election was 7883. Although Advocate Abul Khair is now denying it, reportedly 3261 lawyers voted on the first day of polling, on Wednesday, March 6. Another 2058 cast their votes on Thursday, for a total of 5319. Case filed against 24 pro-BNP lawyers over scuffle at SCBA iftar party The aggregated votes of the candidates in an election can never exceed the number of votes cast.  That brings us to another discrepancy. On Sunday, while answering an unrelated question, Advocate Abul Khair told a private television channel that not a single ballot was found where a vote was cast for president, but not for secretary. This video can still be found on the internet.  If that is correct, the number of votes cast in total for secretary and president should be equal. But that is not the case. As we've seen, the number of votes cast for president was 5436, while for secretary it was 5350.  When this was put to Advocate Abul Khair, he said the votes were cast, but they must have been disqualified as ‘invalid’.  “For example, they may have double-crossed the name of their chosen candidate for secretary, instead of ticking it,” he said.  Even though they followed the correct method in their vote for president, on the same ballot? “Yes, it happens,” he said.   He was loath to disclose the number of invalid votes, saying they kept no account of it, and that although everything has been preserved, they were now sealed for security purposes. Finding out would require unsealing them, he said. “There were invalid votes for president also,” he added. So how many votes were actually cast in the election? “For now we can only say the number of votes cast for each post," Advocate Khair said, without quoting any numbers. "There is no scope to declare an overall total. And the number of votes cast for each post was the total that came out during the announcement on Saturday night.” Barring the ‘invalid’ ones, of course.