United News of Bangladesh

The fire at Jhilpar slum of Mirpur-12 in Dhaka on Monday has been fully doused. The fire broke out at a one the shanties of the slum around 12:57 pm and spread soon, said Lima Khanom, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD). Mirpur’s Jhilpar slum catches fire On information, eight fighting units rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze around 2:55 pm, said duty officer Rashed Bin Khaled of FSCD. The origin of the blaze is yet to be known, the duty officer said, adding that there is no report of casualties till the filing of this report at 4 pm. A team of army personnel also joined  the firefighting units to bring the blaze under control, said a press release of ISPR. One dies in Feni gas cylinder blast 

A Joypurhat court on Monday sentenced five to death with fined of Tk 50, 000 each in a case over the killing of a man in Panchbibi upazila of Joypurhat district around 14 years back. Joypurhat Additional Sessions Judge Court Judge Md Nurul Islam passed the order in the presence of four out of the five convicts, said the court’s public prosecutor Nependranath Mandal. Read: 3 dead as truck hits autorickshaw in Gazipur’s Kaliakair  The convicts are Sahida Begum, her son Rabbani, Mozaffar Hossain, Amina Begum and her son Rafiul Islam, hailing from Koktara village of the upazila. All the convicts except Amina were on the dock during the delivery of the judgment. The court also acquitted four people as the allegations brought against them were not found to be true. According to the case statement, all the nine accused-equipped with lethal arms attacked neighbour Abu Taher over previous enmity  on March 25, 2010, leaving him injured. Read: One dies in Feni gas cylinder blast  The victim succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at a Dhaka hospital after a few days of the attck. Later, the deceased’s father Abu Hossain filed a case accusing nine people with the Panchbibi police station. 

A fire broke out in Jhilpar slum of Mirpur-12  in Dhaka on Monday (February 19, 2024) afternoon. Lima Khanam, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) headquarters media cell, said the fire started from one of the shanties of the slum around 12:57 pm. Fire damages foam factory on Char Patharghata  On information, four fighting units rushed to the spot and were trying to bring the flame under control and then four more units joined them. The origin of the blaze is yet to be known, the duty officer said, adding that there is no report of casualties till 1:30 pm. Read more: 50 shanties gutted in Begunbari slum fire

A female merchandiser of a readymade garment (RMG) factory was crushed to death by a truck in Uttar Manikdiya Club Intersection in Sabujbagh area of Dhaka on Monday morning. The deceased was Jarin Taslima, 27, wife of one Fakrul Hasan Rifat of Halta village under Mathbaria upazila of Pirojpur. The couple used to live in Jatrabari area. Fakhrul said Jarin fell off the motorbike driven by him on a road after he lost control over the bike in front of an autorickshaw stand near the club intersection and then was crushed under the wheels of a truck coming from opposite direction. She was rushed to the emergency department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital where physicians declared her dead upon arrival, he said. Confirming the matter, the hospital police outpost in-charge Md Bachhu Mia said the body was kept at the hospital morgue for autopsy.

A Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinee allegedly ‘died by suicide’ at her house in Tongi of Gazipur on Sunday night. Safia Tasnim, 16, daughter of late Shamim Haider of Tenguria village under Sirajdikhan Upazila of Munshiganj,  used to with her family in a rented house in Auchpara area Tongi. She was sitting for the SSC examination from Tongi Pilot School & Girls College. Safia told her family that she did badly in Sunday’s Bangla-II paper examination when they asked her. Then she entered her room and locked its door. Getting no response from inside the room despite repeated calls, the family members broke open the door and found her body hanging from the ceiling. Tongi west police station Sub-Inspector (SI) Taposh Kumar Ojha said being informed the recovered the body from the house.

The Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) has proposed a 70 percent tax on all types of cigarettes and tobacco in the next budget. The association reckons that doing so will reduce smoking by about 66 percent, alongside generating revenue of Tk1,700 crore for state coffers. The proposal was submitted to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) during the pre-budget discussion held at the NBR Building on Sunday (February 18). The General Secretary of the BEA Professor Dr. Md. Aynul Islam presented the budget proposal. Vice President of the association Professor Hannana Begum was present. Read more: Govt cut VAT, duty on import of 4 essential items ahead of Ramadan According to the BEA's proposal, imposing a single supplementary duty of 70 percent on all types of cigarettes would increase the price of cigarettes by an average of 130 percent. Smoking will be reduced by 66 percent. About 70 lakh smokers will quit smoking, and about 71 lakh young people will stop habituating to smoking. Also, the additional tax revenue of the government will be earned at least Tk1700 crores, the proposal stated. Similarly, the BEA demanded to impose a tax of 70 percent on all types of tobacco products including smokeless tobacco such as jorda, gul, sadapata, etc. On the other hand, in the case of bidi, if the tax is imposed at the rate of Tk 4.90 on the retail price of every 25 shalak (piece) packet, the government will be able to collect additional revenue of Tk 800 crore. Read more: ICMAB delegation takes part in pre-budget discussion with NBR The BEA thinks with such a tax increase; revenue earning will be raised and it would help to revive the economy from the ongoing economic crisis. The BEA has a total of 27 new sources of revenue income. At this time, Prof Aynul said, as a method of gathering resources for the upcoming budget, no pressure can be applied on the general population, such as the poor, lower class, lower middle class, and middle class. Due to various reasons, this class of people is now in a severe economic crisis. It would be unfair at this moment to rely completely on them as in the past for tax collection. In that case, the imposition of additional income tax on these three groups – the super-rich, the rich, and the upper-middle class – can be considered, said Prof Aynul. Read more: PROGGA, ATMA for imposing specific taxes on tobacco products

The Yunus Centre, a think tank dedicated to the flourishing of Prof. Md Yunus’s ideas on fighting poverty, has responded to issues raised at a press conference held on Saturday by Grameen Bank, where the main speaker was Prof AKM Saiful Majid, the current chairman of the board of directors of Grameen Bank. This followed a statement on Thursday signed by its media cell head, Anju Ara Begum, that itself was a response to a press conference held earlier in the day by Md Yunus and others at Grameen Telecom Bhaban, where the 8 social enterprises alleged to have been forcefully taken over by Grameen Bank (GB) are located. The most serious point of departure between GB and the social enterprises emerged over whether or not the former can still exercise certain rights it was granted when the social enterprises were set up. At the Telecom Bhaban press conference, Nazmul Islam, managing director of Grameen Telecom, revealed that the individuals claiming to represent Grameen Bank had cited the foundational documents from 1995/96 to justify naming new chairmen and directors for Grameen Telecom and Grameen Kalyan. However, Islam maintained that this claim was erroneous, as the relevant articles were amended after 2009 and Grameen Kalyan operates independently. Grameen Bank in its Thursday statement claimed this was ‘false, fabricated, misleading and deliberate’. On Saturday, Prof Majid said the Grameen Bank board approved appointing a chairman and directors for seven of the organisations and "these actions fully comply with the rules of Grameen Bank-created organisations as well as the laws of the country.” Yunus Centre has now responded by furnishing the details of when and how the changes to the articles of association were brought. It said: “Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Telecom are Not-for-profit organizations constituted under Section 28 of the Companies Act, 1994 having separate legal and accounting entities. Since the birth of Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Telecom, he has been engaged in the post of chairman of the two institutions. At the beginning of the two institutions, Grameen Bank had the power to nominate the chairman and some board members in their articles of association. “After taking into consideration the overall situation, in order to facilitate the management of the two institutions, in accordance with section 20 of the Companies Act, in the 3rd Extra General Meeting of Grameen Kalyan (held on 8th May 2010), Article 48 and Article 32 (iii) of the Articles of Association of Grameen Kalyan were amended, and this was notified to the Ministry of Commerce on 25/05/2011. Read: Grameen Bank statement responds to Yunus presser: The most significant points of departure “Similarly, at the 2nd extra general meeting of Grameen Telecom (held on 19th July 2009), Article 51 and Article 35 (iii) of the Articles of Association of Grameen Telecom were amended. So now Grameen Bank cannot nominate Chairman/Board members of these two institutions. The EGM at which this decision was taken was also attended by nominated representatives of Grameen Bank and previously nominated directors also signed the resolution on behalf of Grameen Bank. “According to the Articles of Association of the companies, Grameen Bank is not a party to these institutions and Grameen Bank has no ownership in them. Grameen Bank has no legal authority to nominate the chairman of these two companies in the board meeting of Grameen Bank as the articles of association of the companies are changed/amended according to the decision of the extra general meetings and as per the company law.” It may be mentioned the said articles are precisely the ones alluded to by Grameen Bank in its Thursday statement, as well as the ones asserted to have been changed by Abdullah Al Mamun, legal advisor to Grameen Telecom, on Thursday. At the GB press conference, it was asserted that they had found evidence of money laundering at Grameen Bank, during an audit of its entire finances starting from 1983 - probably the most serious charge of all. Yunus Centre has responded to this by saying “Grameen Bank as always has been audited annually by country's renowned auditors such as Rahman Rahman Haque, Hoda Vasi Chowdhury & Co., Eknabeen, A. Kashem & Company. They did not comment that there were any financial irregularities in this institution at any time. Also, the inspection team of Bangladesh Bank and the committee and commission formed by the government did not find any such irregularities.” It also pointed out that the Grameen Bank Board has always been chaired by respected persons of society appointed by the government, and they never raised any such allegation, that it said were not only completely false and baseless but also ridiculous and defamatory. Read: Grameen Bank has forcefully occupied 8 institutions housed in Grameen Telecom: Muhammad Yunus At the GB press conference, it was alleged that Telecom Bhaban “as well as everything else” had been built with Grameen Bank’s money. Yunus Centre described the statement as motivated and baseless. “No telecom building or any other establishment or any institution with Grameen Bank money,” it asserted. Another serious allegation raised at the press conference was that a ‘grant’ of Tk 24 crore was given to Grameen Telecom by Grameen Bank. Yunus Centre in its response said at the time of its establishment, Grameen Telecom received a financial assistance of Tk 19 lakh from the Norwegian Embassy in the name of NORAD Fund. Apart from this, an agreement was signed to take loans upto Tk 30 crore from the SAF (Social Advancement Fund) of Grameen Bank at an interest of 11%. Loan amounting to Tk 24.77 crore was taken from 1995 to 1997 under the said loan agreement. “In 1997, the SAF loan agreement was transferred to a loan agreement in the name of Grameen Kalyan in the light of Grameen Bank's board decision. The amount of loan taken from Grameen Kalyan for investment in equity sector is Tk 53,25,62,941, which is 42.65% of the total investment. Grameen Telecom has provided Tk 2,353 crore to Grameen Kalyan to support this investment. Also Palliphone has paid Tk 468 crore to Grameen Bank under the scheme till December 2023 and has been paying Tk 1.12 crore (less/more) every month,” it said. Since the loan agreement with Grameen Bank has been transferred to Grameen Kalyan, there is no applicability of payment to Grameen Bank anymore, Yunus Centre added. Another serious allegation was that Tk 447 crore was taken by Dr Yunus from Grameen Bank to establish Grameen Kalyan. Read more: ‘Faced many dangers before, but this is the greatest danger we ever faced’: Dr Yunus Yunus Centre in its response said an amount of Tk 447 crore was recorded from Grameen Bank in Grameen Kalyan's own Books of Accounts, to justify accounting matters in providing 2% of the money given by the donor organisations to Grameen Kalyan for the formation of the fund and implementation of various programs by the said fund. “Whereas in reality no banking transaction or any financial transaction took place, which is reflected in the accounts of Grameen Kalyan and Grameen Bank,” it said. Yet another serious allegation raised by Prof. Majid was that from 1990-99, Dr Yunus had destroyed or removed various important documents from the records of Grameen Bank. Again, Yunus Centre in its response pointed out Grameen Bank was always audited annually by country's renowned auditors Rahman Rahman Haque, Hoda Vasi Chowdhury & Co., Eknabeen, A. Kashem & Company. They have never made any statement that any documents of the organisation were not available or destroyed. Nor did the inspection team of Bangladesh Bank and the committee formed by the government. Even the Grameen Bank Commission, formed after Yunus left the Bank, did not bring any complaint in this regard. “Prof. Yunus duly handed over his responsibilities when he left Grameen Bank 13 years ago,” it added. The Yunus Centre statement also addressed the Grameen Bank's need to point out that Prof. Yunus did not own Grameen Bank - even though he never made such a claim. He has always maintained he has no ownership in any of the institutions created by him, including Grameen Bank.  At the same time however, it did point out that nor does Grameen Bank have any ownership over the social enterprises it is claiming to 'take back'. "It may be noted that except for Grameen Bank, the companies established by him are formed under Section 28 of the Companies Act, 1994 and do not have any form of ownership. Not Prof Yunus, no board members nor Grameen Bank own them. They have no owner. These companies are formed on the private initiative of the sponsoring members. Grameen Bank does not own any of these not-for-profit companies," Yunus Centre said.   

 Former Foreign Minister of Singapore George Yeo will deliver a keynote speech at a dialogue entitled "Bangladesh and ASEAN in a Multipolar World" on Monday in Dhaka. The discussions will be held as part of Cosmos Dialogue Distinguished Speaker's Series. The discussions will be chaired and conducted by Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, President, Cosmos Foundation and advisor on foreign affairs to the last caretaker government. The opening remarks will delivered by Cosmos Foundation Chairman Enayetullah Khan. Cosmos Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Cosmos Group, will host the event.From September 1988 to May 2011, Yeo served 23 years in government, and was Minister for Information and the Arts, Health, Trade & Industry, Foreign Affairs till May 2011 General Election. He started as a Signals Officer in the Singapore Army, crossed over to the Air Force, became Chief-of-Staff of the Air Staff, and attained the rank of Brigadier-General as Director of Joint Operations and Planning in the Defence Ministry before resigning to enter politics in 1988. George Yeo studied Engineering at Cambridge University on a President’s Scholarship, graduating with a Double First in 1976, and became a Signals Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces.

The authorities apprehend that additional traffic jams might occur on the routes to 21 districts including Dhaka during the renovation work of the Buriganga-1 bridge. More popularly known as Postagola Bridge, the renovation work will start next Thursday (February 22) and will continue till March 8. Seven concerned departments, including the Traffic Department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), held a meeting at the DMP headquarters to find out alternatives to avoid severe traffic congestion in those 21 districts during the renovation period. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Additional Commissioner (Traffic) of the DMP headquarters Munibur Rahman, said: "During the renovation work of the bridge, we have held a meeting with all those concerned about which way heavy vehicles will come to Dhaka from outside, possibly which route they may use. A public notice has already been published in this regard. How DMP can work, and how DMP can be supported by other partners was discussed." The public notice categorized the possible routes into two types: heavy vehicles and light vehicles. Alternative routes have also been discussed. Munibur Rahman, head of the traffic department of DMP, said that if there is any kind of problem with the routes mentioned in the public notice, the alternative routes have been discussed. The alternative routes are: 1. Vehicles entering and exiting Dhaka Metropolitan City (DMP) are requested to use Daulatdia, Paturia, Nabinagar, Aminbazar, and Gabtali routes. Passenger buses will stop at Gabtali instead of Syedabad. 2. In other districts of Dhaka division (Dhaka -partial), Manikganj, Gazipur, Narsingdi, Narayanganj, Kishoreganj, Tangail (partial) vehicular traffic has been asked to use Asian Highway via Daulatdia, Paturia, Nabinagar, Baipail, Chandra, Bhogra intersection. 3. Rajshahi, Rangpur Division-bound vehicles are asked to ply using Lalonshah Bridge (Kushtia, Pabna). 4. Mymensingh division and Tangail district (partial) are asked to travel through Lalonshah Bridge (Kushtia, Pabna) and Bangabandhu Bridge. 5. Vehicles in Sylhet division and Brahmanbaria district, Daulatdia, Paturia, Nabinagar, Baipail, Chandra, and Bhogra intersections are said to use the Asian highway. 6. To travel to Chittagong Division, it was asked to travel via Padma Bridge, Srinagar, Munshiganj, Muktarpur Bridge, Third Shitalakshya Bridge, and Madanpur.  7. People travelling to Chittagong Division were asked to go by Shariatpur and Chandpur Ferry.

Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) has demanded immediate action against extortion in the transport sector saying that illegal toll collection by different groups are pushing up food prices. “Although Bangladesh is self-sufficient in food, food inflation is the highest. One of the reasons behind it is extortion in goods transportation,” said  BCI  president Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury (Parvez) when he was leading a delegation to meet Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan at his office at the ministry on Sunday. If illegal extortions are checked, the price of goods will come down a lot, he told the home minister. He also mentioned that currently, some unruly groups called “Kishore Gangs” are deteriorating the law and order situation in the country and they are behind most of the crimes in Dhaka. He also drew the attention of the home minister to the poor traffic management of Dhaka city and the entire country. Discipline in the traffic system will actually reduce time,cost and also save fuel, he added. Bangladesh garment industry turning around rapidly: Salman F Rahman The BCI president said Bangladesh Bank does not need to adopt contractionary policy if inflation remains at a tolerable level. Currently, due to the various steps taken by Bangladesh Bank, the dollar current account has become positive, which is promising and the financial account will also become positive in the next few months, he noted. At the beginning of the meeting, the Minister was presented with floral greetings from the BCI Board of Directors and a frame with BCI's 'My Product My Country' logo. The BCI leaders said the industrial sector of the country is currently going through a challenging time. Sprezzatura, a world class standard crafted men’s upscale clothing brand, opens its outlet in city Any industrial company in the country is running at 60-70 percent of its capacity, sales of all companies have dropped due to high inflation, low gas pressure, high interest rate of loans and banks are not able to provide proper support. All together, the domestic industry is facing tough challenges, they said. According to BCI, the Home Minister patiently listened to the statements of the directors of BCI and said that the government is aware of the state of industries in the country. “We want to increase investment in the country and increase employment. Because if the country's industries survive, the country's economy will survive”, he told the BCI leaders. In the meeting, senior vice-president of BCI Preeti Chakraborty, vice-president Mohammad Yunus, board of directors, Shahidul Islam Neeru, Dr. Delwar Hossain Raja, Abul Kalam Bhuiyan, Zia Haider Mithu, Mizanur Rahman, Ruslan Nasir, Nazmul Anwar, Sohana Rauf Chowdhury, Md Salim Jahan and Additional Secretary (Political and ICT Division) AKM Tipu Sultan of the Home Ministry were present.