United News of Bangladesh

The longest Boi Mela in memory, running for 31 days including a two-day extension, wrapped up on Sunday (March 2), publishing a total of 3751 new books from the book fair and welcoming 60 lakh (6 million) visitors in total. The concluding ceremony was held at the main stage of the Book Fair at the premises of the Bangla Academy where Bangla Academy director general Mohammad Nurul Huda delivered the welcome speech and expressed satisfaction while prime minister’s adviser for education and cultural affairs Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury attended the closing ceremony as the chief guest. Dr. Sahed Mantaj, deputy director of administration sub-division of Bangla Academy disclosed the figure of this year’s sales and the overall information of this year’s fair in the closing ceremony. The book fair's organizer, Bangla Academy, reports that sales at this year's event exceeded Tk 60 crore, compared to 47 crores the year before and 52 crores in 2022. This indicates that the publishers were somewhat relieved by the lack of buyers throughout the Covid and pre-Covid periods of this year. In the fair, out of the total 3,751 books, there were 1262 poetry books, 106 rhymes books, 76 researches, 69 Liberation war related books, 64 history books, 71 children’s novels, 64 travel books, 61 translations, 44 science books, 36 science fictions, 29 compositions, 33 books of religious category, 31 of comics category, 34 of dramas, 27 about Bangabandhu, 29 books on politics, 29 books on health, and 19 dictionaries related books were released in this fair so far along with 222 books on other categories. However, Bangla Academy itself sold books worth Tk 1.36 crore in the 30 days which was Tk 1.33 crore in 2023 and Tk 1.35 crore in 2022. In the concluding ceremony of the fair, Bangla Academy distributed awards in four categories to eight publishing houses where Kothaprokash was with Chittaranjan Saha Smriti Puraskar-2024 for publishing a maximum number of quality books in terms of subject and quality. Besides, Prothoma Prokasona, JourneymanBooks and Oitijjho Publication were given Munir Chowdhury Smriti Purasker for publishing best books in terms of art and quality. Moyurpankhi Publication was awarded with Rokonuzzaman Khan Dadabhai Smriti Purasker for publishing the highest number of quality books for kids while Annyaprokash Prokasani, Nymphea Publication and Bengal Books Prokasani received Qayyum Chowdhury Smriti Award for best interior designs which were aesthetically rich among the participating publishing houses.

A Dhaka court on Saturday granted two-day remand for four people including Kacchi Bhai’s manager and coffee shop Cha Chumuk’s two owners each in a case filed in connection with the devastating fire accident on Dhaka’s Bailey Road on Thursday night that claimed 46 lives and burnt dozens of people. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Nurul Huda Chowdhury passed the order after the accused were produced before the court with a prayer for remand, said Sub Inspector Md Nizam Uddin, officer at the court’s general registration section. Those who remanded are Kacchi Bhai's manager Jisan, Cha Chumuk’s owners Anwarul Haque and Shakil Ahmed Rimon, and Green Cozy Cottage’s manager Hamimul Haque Bipul. Of them, the first trio was arrested on Friday and the last one was on Saturday. On Thursday night, a massive fire broke out reportedly in the Cha Chumuk on Dhaka's Bailey Road leaving at least 46 people dead and injuring dozens of people. Of the deceased, there were two students of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and five members of a family. Later, a case was filed in connection with Ramna police station.    

The four-day annual conference of the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) is going to kick off tomorrow morning (March 3, 2024). Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to open it at 10:30 am at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka, said Cabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain while briefing reporters at the Secretariat on Saturday. He said a total of 56 ministries, divisions, organizations and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) will take part in the conference. This time there will be a total of 30 sessions, including 25 working sessions, with various ministries in the DC conference that will end on Wednesday. On the occasion of the conference, the DCs will meet the Chief Justice and the Speaker and take instructions from them, said the cabinet secretary. Though every year there had been a session with the President, this time it was excluded due to the President's stay at abroad. In the conference the deputy commissioners will exchange views with the relevant ministries for the implementation of various policies, strategies and instructions of the government, he said. The secretary informed that they received 356 proposals from the DCs, divisional commissioners for the conference. The proposals included increasing public services, reducing public suffering, constructing roads and bridges, developing tourism, amending laws or rules and protecting public interest. Most of the proposals are related to the road transport and highways division. There are a total of 22 proposals in this regard, he said. It may be mentioned that the DCs conference is organised every year to exchange views between the policy-makers of the government and the DCs and to provide necessary directions.    

Bangladesh reported 34 more COVID-19 cases in 24 hours till Saturday morning. With the new numbers, the country's total COVID-19 caseload rose to 2,048,551, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The official death toll from the disease remained unchanged at 29,491 as no new fatalities were reported during this period. The daily case test positivity rate stood at 7.25 percent as 469 samples were tested, said the DGHS. The recovery and death rates remained unchanged at 98.39 per cent and 1.44 percent, respectively.

Fire fighters has doused the fire, which broke out at Gausul Azam Market in the capital's Nilkhet area on Saturday afternoon, within one hour. Sources at the Fire Service headquarters' control room said, the fire broke out around 4:36 pm. Two fire fighter units rushed to the spot and doused the flame at around 5:35 pm, said Fire Service Headquarters control room Duty Officer Ershad Hossain. The fire was originated due to electric short circuit and no causality was reported in the incident, he added.

State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam Titu said that the retail price of edible oil will be Tk 163 per litre in the retail market. He said this to reporters after a program organised by women entrepreneurs at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Dhaka’s Agargaon on Saturday. The state minister said that 50000 tonnes of onion will come from India this week. As a result, the prices of onions will be under control in the market. Apart from this, in the next two days, edible oil will be sold at the rate of Tk 163 per litre in the retail market. He said that he had a bilateral discussion with India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal during the thirteenth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  There, India's commerce minister said that he had ordered to issue a letter to send 50,000 tonnes of onion to Bangladesh. They received that letter yesterday. The state minister for commerce said that onions will come to the country from this week. The government has taken the initiative to reduce the prices of certain types of dates in the market by giving duty exemptions. The state minister said, there are at least 10 types of dates in the market. Among these, an initiative has been taken to reduce the price of Zaidi dates, which come in sacks.    

Thirteenth Inter-school Bangla Olympiad 2024 has been completed with the distribution of more than 150 awards from 9 am to 3 pm at International Hope School premises in Uttara. The prizes were handed over to the winners at the International Hope School auditorium. Like every year, the Inter-School Bangla Olympiad was held in grand style with the participation of a large number of students from English medium and English version schools. Organized by International Hope School Bangladesh, the 13th Inter-School Bengali Olympiad was held in a very crowded event with the participation of 1628 students from 105 schools across the country. This time the International Mother Language Institute was the partner of this event. During the day-long program, contestants participated in age-wise categories of Essay Writing, Recitation, Dance, Singing, Drawing, Quiz and Present Speech. Competitions are held in a few categories in 7 categories – Essay, Recitation, Music, Painting, Impromptu Speech, Dance and Bengali Quiz. Director General of International Mother Language Institute Mr. Dr. hakeem Arif was present as the chief guest while Chairman of International Hope School Bangladesh Mr. Abdil Aziz Jaldoshov and Principal Roksana Zarin gave welcome speech. Ekushey medalist distinguished reciter Shimul Mustafa conducted the programme Apart from award distribution, there was a mesmerizing cultural performance by the winners of the recitation, music and dance competitions. In the recitation competition, Soma Advitya, a student of Sunnydale School, won first place in the recitation competition, Tazkia Humaira Adra of Abdul Quader Mollah College, Narsingdi first in the B category and Shamayla Chowdhury, a student of BF Shaheen English Medium School, won the first place in the C category. Indian student of Australian International School Semayuta Dheram, Sri Lankan student HPNH Nanayakkara of Gulshan branch of International Hope School Bangladesh who won the foreign student category in the music competition performed music. Sifat Rizwan Nafi, student of BF Shaheen English Medium School, first runner-up in category B, Ariba Shams, first runner-up of Summerfield International School, group A, Sumat Saqlain Pardika, first runner-up of Mastermind School, group C also performed music. International Hope School and Play Pen School won joint first place in Group A of the dance competition by performing team dance. Group dance was also performed by the students of First Navy Anchorage School and College B Group. Arav Ariz Haque of BF Shaheen English Medium School in Group A, Lami Najum of St. Joseph International School in Group B, Fabiha Tasneem of Halishahar Cantonment Public School and College in Group C won the first place in the Bangla Quiz competition. Sehrish Rahman of Australian International School won first place in drawing, Ranvijoy Dhar of Mastermind English School first in B category and Maisha binte Rashid of Navy Anchorage first in C category. Noor Nabi of South Point School and College and Fahmiah Fahreen of Play Pen School jointly won first place in Essay Competition, Abian Aydin of Cardiff International School and Uzayer Faraz Mansoor of Alor Dhara School jointly won first place in B category. Raisa Rahman of Navy Anchorage School won first place in Improvised Speech. Director general of the International Mother Language Institute Hakeem Arif said, "Bangla Olympiad is one of the best events in the country about Bengali language and culture. International Mother Language Institute has been associated with this glorious event since last year.We believe that these students will shine our face in the country and abroad in the future." Roksana Zarin, Principal of International Hope School Bangladesh, said, "International Hope School Bangladesh is happy and proud to organize this competition of Bengali language practice every year. In the meantime, the Olympiad has become a national competition of English schools. Not only nationally, I would say, Bengali Olympiad is spreading in the international arena as well. The judges of the competition were the country's best poets-literary-artists-educators. This year Ekushey medalist reciters Shimul Mustafa, Rupa Chakraborty, prominent.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is the leading risk factor for heart disease and accounts for more than 240,000 deaths annually in Bangladesh. This preventable cause of heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease can be tackled by strengthening the primary health care system and increasing allocation in the health budget. Such information was highlighted during a Meet the Press event titled "Improving Cardiovascular Health in Bangladesh" held at the InterContinental Dhaka in the capital on Saturday (02 March 2024).  The event was jointly organized by the National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh (NHFB), PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), and Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL). “In Bangladesh, one out of every four adults has hypertension. Bangladesh has made rapid progress preventing deaths from infectious diseases. Now the country can also be a world leader preventing heart attacks and strokes. Bangladesh has made dramatic progress by increasing 20-fold the number of patients on treatment while also doubling the quality of treatment. Investing in the strengthening of primary care services to provide blood pressure treatment can prevent heart attacks and strokes, saving many lives,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The prevalence of hypertension and other hypertension-related non-communicable diseases in Bangladesh is rapidly increasing due to an aging population, rapid urbanization, increases in sedentary lifestyle, processed food consumption, and other socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. To alleviate the burden of non-communicable diseases imposed by hypertension, it is imperative to control blood pressure within the primary healthcare system and ensure the necessary financing is in place to sustain this effort. Highlighting sodium as one of the major risk factors for hypertension, Dr Frieden said, “Government policies can reduce sodium intake and prevent hypertension. Globally, excess sodium consumption leads to almost 2 million deaths each year. Four out of five of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.”  Non-Communicable Disease Control Program (NCDC), Directorate General of Health Services (NCDC DGHS) of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the NHFB have been collaborating with RTSL, a global health non-profit organization, to implement a program that strengthens the detection, treatment and follow-up of hypertension in primary care since 2018.  “Substantial progress has been made over the past several years with the Bangladesh Hypertension Control Initiative,” said Professor Dr. Sohel Reza Choudhury, Head of Department of Epidemiology & Research, National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh. “The program is now active in 171 Upazilla Health Complexes and the blood pressure control rate has doubled from 26% to 52%. Scaling this program will mean more lives improved and saved throughout Bangladesh.” GHAI, along with its partners, also advocates for the improvement of cardiovascular health in Bangladesh. “Health programs must be comprehensive,” said Muhammad Ruhul Quddus, Bangladesh Country Lead of GHAI. “We look forward to supporting the continued progress in Bangladesh in controlling blood pressure, increasing medication access, and reducing salt consumption.” ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA, delivered the closing remark at the event.    

Salman F Rahman, Private Industries and Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister, on Saturday said the government wants to achieve a target of 30 percent adoption of electric vehicles in the country by 2030 and materialize Smart Bangladesh vision by 2041.  “For both these things to happen, it’s important that electric vehicles are made available in the country so that people can make smart choices by buying EVs in great numbers. For this reason, I welcome BYD’s move to open its first showroom in the country,” he said while inaugurating a showroom as the chief guest. Bangladesh's Fawzia Karim named among International Women of Courage Award recipients for 2024 Global NEV giant BYD officially opened its first showroom in Bangladesh, making it easier for conscious people to experience electric vehicles and contribute to sustainable living. The Bangladesh government has a vision to phase out traditional fossil fuel-powered cars and introduce electric vehicles instead to tackle carbon emission.  But the adoption of electric vehicles is still in the early phase owing to the lack of EVs in the domestic market.  This step (of opening up a showroom in the domestic market) will help in adoption of EVs in the country. CG Runner BD Ltd has taken the initiative to introduce global NEV giant BYD in the country.  The showroom is located in the Tejgaon industrial area in Dhaka (340, Haque Centre, Shahid Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani). Covering 8,400 square feet, it can accommodate 5 cars at a time.  At the beginning, the brand’s flagship model BYD Seal (sedan) with its two variants — Premium Variant with an extended milage of 570 Km (Rear Drive) and Performance Variant with a milage of 520Km AWD (All-Wheel Drive) — will be up for sale at the showroom.  Health Minister calls for Rajuk and Public Works Ministry to intensify inspections after Bailey Road Blaze The BYD SEAL showcases a distinctive "Ocean Aesthetics" design and seamlessly integrates a suite of state-of-the-art technologies developed by BYD including their e-platform 3.0, innovative CTB (Cell-to-Body) technology, Blade Battery and iTAC (intelligent Torture Adaptation Control). It comes with a slanted roofline, panoramic glass roof, short rear deck, waterdrop mirrors, wave waistline, and LED lights.   Customers can experience the cars in the showroom.  The showroom will house two charging stations (AC and DC) to be installed inside for the convenience of BYD car owners.  CG Runner BD LTD is planning to open more showrooms and service centers in near future so that the adoption of EVs can be expedited.

In the wake of the devastating fire on Bailey Road that claimed 46 lives, Health Minister Dr. Samanta Lal Sen has called for stringent action from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and the Public Works Ministry to avert future catastrophes.  Speaking on Saturday, the Minister expressed profound concern over the tragedy and the necessity for rigorous safety measures. “Rajuk and the Public Works Ministry must adopt a proactive stance to ensure such a tragedy is never repeated,” Dr. Sen remarked after his participation in the 23rd International Scientific Seminar held in Dhaka. He emphasized the critical need for these authorities to conduct thorough inspections to identify buildings at risk of fire. By doing so, Dr. Sen believes, the frequency of fire incidents can be significantly reduced in the future. In addition to fire safety, Dr. Sen addressed the state of healthcare facilities in Bangladesh, advocating for the coexistence of private and government hospitals to meet the public's healthcare needs. However, he insisted that all healthcare institutions must adhere to established regulations and standards. “The regulation of hospitals is non-negotiable. Our drive against irregularities and non-compliance in healthcare facilities will persist to ensure the safety and well-being of our citizens,” he affirmed.