৫৯ জন কোবরা কমান্ডো পালিয়ে গেছে

ভারত অধিকৃত কাশ্মীর থেকে প্রশিক্ষণ শেষে বিহারে কর্মস্থলে যাওয়ার পথে ৫৯ জন কোবরা কমান্ডো পালিয়ে গেছে।
নকশাল প্রতিরোধ স্কোয়াড কোবরা কমান্ডো। সপ্তাহ পাঁচেকের প্রশিক্ষণ শেষে কাশ্মীর থেকে বিহারের গয়ায় কর্মস্থলে আসছিল তারা। কিন্তু ফেরার পথেই পালিয়ে যাওয়ার সিদ্ধান্ত নেয়।
শিয়ালদহ-জম্মু এক্সপ্রেসে করে কমান্ডোরা বিহারে আসছিল। কিন্তু সোমবার রাতে ট্রেনটি মুঘলসরাই স্টেশনে ঢোকার পর, ওই ৫৯ জন জওয়ান পালিয়ে যায়।

India mulling cargo-train plying to Bangladesh

// Shamsul Basunia//

India is pushing for better land connectivity with neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh for effective sub-regional cooperation.Indian government ahead of prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s proposed visit to India either March-end or early-April has asked the state-owned Container Corporation to explore ways to run a cargo train to Bangladesh with an aim to enhance bilateral trade.Bangladesh has emerged as one of India’s closest neighbors after Bhutan and Container Corporation is further exploring ways to run a cargo train to Bangladesh. There are currently three rail links to Bangladesh -- all through West Bengal -- and all of them remain under utilized.Of the three, the Gede,India-Darshana,Bangladesh link, which opened in 2008 offers broad-gauge connectivity to the key consumption centre in Dhaka; it is used to run a passenger train four times a week. The Singhabad,India-Rohanpur,Bangladesh rail link connects northern Bangladesh but not the South. A passenger train -- Maitree Express -- connects Kolkata with Dhaka.A BIMSTEC Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation trade logistics study of 2010 pointed out that rail movement can be 30% cheaper than even sea freight which is normally considered the cheapest between the two nations.Railways have had little relevance so far to Indo-Bangladesh trade, which moves mainly on non-containerized trucks.But this situation can be altered and the near-term solution may lie in shifting the cargo from road to rail, as was visualized by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government while connecting Petra pole land port by rail in 2001, according to persons familiar with the developments.Bangladesh is looking to create a dry port or an inter-modal transshipment facility in Bangladesh.India has expressed interest to link Kathmandu with Delhi and Kolkata, using direct railway lines in a bid to strengthen cross-border connectivity and facilitate people movement between the two countries.

Thakurgaon Bazar sits in school ground

// Shamsul Basunia //

Lesson providing activities of two schools named Doulatpur Soleman Multilateral High School and Konpara Government Primary School situated at Khochabarirhat under Jagannathpur sadar upazila of Thakurgaon district go on amidst the bazar in Thakurgaon that mars the environment of education, the sufferers alleged. The bazar usually sits on two days Saturday and Tuesday in a week where tens of hundreds people come and selling and buying activities go on amidst huge hue and cry while the lesson giving activities continue at the two schools. Cattle market and market of fisheries emits bad smell that makes the students impossible to sit in the classes. After over the bazars on following days like on Sunday and Wednesday students and teachers usually come to classes with handkerchief because to avert the bad smell of cow dung and urine along with the wastage of meat and fisheries beside the class rooms. Doulatpur Soleman Multilateral High School and Konpara Government Primary School  locals said the schools started in the reign of the then Pakistan since then nobody uttered a word to shift the bazar as at that time the space was thinly populated. When the two schools and bazars grow in populous way after a certain span of time, the hazards have been surfaced to the people and now it becomes a irritation and place nuisance. Doulatpur Soleman Multilateral High School has been built during the year 1963 at 100 decimals of land while Konpara Government Primary School has been built during the year 1949 at 50 decimals of land. People of these two areas are gentle and they didn’t raise any voice against the nuisance. Over three hundred students male and female are studying in these two schools. When the Daily Tribunal correspondent travelled the spot found actually the teachers and students are suffering untold miseries here. The two educational institutions are situated at the side of local Jagannathpur Union Council office and beside the Thakurgaon-Dinajpur highways. The hue and cry rises when the commodities laden vehicles especially the cattle laden trucks come into the markets. There lies a Central Shaheed Minar beside the two schools at medicine selling hawkers assemble there and begin to shout through microphone that make listening and talking halted. Insiders of the two institutions said in most of the cases the authorities compel to announce schools are over and the students leave the premises without completing the lessons.  Class eight boy Shakhawat Hossain of Doulatpur Soleman Multilateral High School said cattle traders erect bamboo fencing for preserving the cattle at the school field that destroys the atmosphere of playground and that is why we stop playing though we have our own playgrounds. Class seven girl Afroza Begum said the school authorities compel to announce closure of the schools at 12 pm due to the assembling of the markets. Class five student Keya Begum, class four student Kartik Roy and Sumaya under Konpara Government Primary School said they are always got frightened while they walk amidst the cattle market as because the cattle might attack them at any time. Several times the cattle jump over the boys and girls and they become wounded, they added.

Headmaster Ganesh Babu of Doulatpur Soleman Multilateral High School told the bazaar sitting incidence certainly pollutes the education atmosphere. Headmaster Fatema Khanom of Konpara Government Primary School told the cattle spreads panic amidst the boys and girls and most of the learners stopped coming school for fear of attacks them. Jagannathpur UP chairman Alauddin Alal told government earns lot of revenue from the market. However there has scope to shift the markets to elsewhere. If the administration comes to solve the standing problem the atmosphere of the two schools might return to normalcy. UNO Ashraful Islam of Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila said no one complains against the market and bazaar so we don’t ever think over the matters. He assured to shift the place of bazaar and markets from the premises of schools after consulting to the superior bosses. http://www.basuniahumanist.blogspot.com  link: www.thedailytribunal.net

75 pc Litchi trees blossom: good Production expected in Natore

// Shamsul Basunia//

The farmers are now happy over the blooming of excellent litchi buds with a hope getting bumper production of the juiciest fruit this season in Gurudashpur, Baraigram, Lalpur, Bagatipara, Singra, Natore Sader, Natore District.

With advent of spring at the eve of departure of the winter, massive litchi blooming has been adequately favorable climate condition and sunny weather now everywhere in the region.

According to the department of Agriculture Extension DAE source, over 75 percent of litchi trees in about 1, 50,000 small, medium, and big sized litchi orchards and in home-stead areas have already bloomed massively in six Upzilla, Natore.

At least 1, 50, 000 farmers of the Gotia, Mohishmari, Bildoher, Pangashia, Singra, Natore, Mahamudpur, Bergangarampur, Juminagar, Nazirpur, Hamlikul, Jhawpara, Gopinathpur, Dudgari, Chandrapur, Dubarpara, Rasidpur, Brikashow, Chapila, Nawpara, Mowkhara, Teltupi, Imaderpara, Raninagar, Bripathuria, Khamarpara, Kumarkhali, Biaghat, Dashtananagar, Gurudashpur, Natore, Bonpara, Mowkhara, Boraigram upzilla, Natore are connected with the cultivation,  preparation and sale of litchi.

Deputy Director, Agriculture Extension DDAE, Natore Rafiqul Islam said to this correspondent, Mahamudpur, Bergangarampur, Juminagar and Nazirpur are main litchi zone in Natore district. Commercial litchi cultivation becomes popular as 50, 000 farmers already achieved self-reliance through farming the fruits in recent years. It is playing a vital role for earning home and abroad money.

The farmers are mostly cultivating high yielding verities like China-3, Bedana, Bomby, Mozaffarpuri and Madrazi and late variety Kanthali litchi on more lands following repeated bumper production and lucrative price.

He suggested the farmers to spray 75 per cent sulphur on litchi trees if mite attack is found following rise in temperature during fruit formation stage after budding from mid March for getting better production.

According to the statistics of the local unit of UAEO and DAE, the total production litchis in the district will 1.75 lakh metric tons.

There are 15 whole sell markets in the district. These are Nazirpur, Mahamudpur, Bergangrampur in Gurudashpur Upzilla, Mowkhara, Bonpara in Baraigram Upzilla, Natore.

The buyers are come to the various parts of the country. They buy litchis and loaded the basket and send to the sells market elsewhere in Bangladesh and abroad.

Litchi growers Md. Mohamad Ali, Ayub Ali, Mahmudpur said, they were expecting bumper litchi yield with good profits this year like in the previous time.  

BD Govt moves to quash 34 murder cases

// Shamsul Basunia // 

Awami League government has taken a renewed initiative to withdraw 206 cases including 34 murder cases, according to the home ministry’s records.During its 2009-13 tenure, the AL-led 14-party alliance government had recommended quashing of as many as 7,198 criminal cases including several sensational murder cases filed during the military-backed caretaker government or BNP-led four-party alliance government.However, the new list includes more than 150 cases that were filed by different government agencies and during the two tenures of AL regime. Some are as new as the ones filed only last year.The ruling party leaders, especially ministers and members of parliament, who recommended withdrawal of the cases, described these cases as  politically motivated ones—a claim that legal experts and human rights activists dismissed expressing their surprise how cases filed by the government agencies could be identified so by government itself.Alarmingly, these cases involved charges of murder, rape, anarchy, bribery, embezzlement of public money, robbery, possession of illegal arms, black marketeering, kidnapping, forgery, theft and possession and use of illegal arms.Upon dissolution of the inter-ministry committee formed earlier to recommend quashing of the cases, more recommendations for withdrawal of the cases came and the home ministry assigned another committee.The new committee’s convener and additional secretary Atiqul Haque said the decision was taken by forming new district level committees and a central committee to deal with such cases.“The terms of reference say the cases that were filed with a motive of political vengeance shall be withdrawn,” he the journalists. When contacted, human rights activist Sultana Kamal asked how a government itself could file politically motivated cases against its own people. “Who filed the politically motivated cases when only this government is in power for quite a number of years? This appears to be contradictory,” she added.She insisted those cases related to murder and rape should in no way be quashed.During 2001-06, the BNP-led alliance government reportedly withdrew 5,888 cases and as a result, 73,541 people managed to avoid trial.When asked about the latest initiative, lawyer Shahdeen Malik said it is absurd that the opposition leaders and workers would be able to file cases against the ruling party men during the tenure of the present government.“This is one step forward in politicizing the justice system. This will further stigmatize the ruling party,” he added.