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To the Editor
Thy name is father...
Can you remember your childhood when you just started walking? Who was your first partner in playing at that time? Do you know how to swim or ride a bicycle? If you know, tell me from whom did you learn this? The answer of all these questions is 'father'.
In this world there are certain things that cannot be ignored. One of them is father's love, affection and his contribution in our lives. Most of the children get the knowledge of alphabets from father. Many of them want to be a man like him. So father is a key figure in life. He acts as the biggest shadow. At every stage, every step of life his contribution is enormous. Every cell of our body bears the testimony to the loving influence of father.
But we are so ruthless that we can easily ignore our father during his old age. We are so heartless that often we consider him a burden. He
gets ill treatment from us. Sometimes some ungrateful people rebuke their old father due to lack of his working capability.
My old, sick father is 400kms away from me now. I miss you, father.
Sadat Shahriar
Dept. of EEE, RUET
Canada's stand
The Daily Star reported last year that Canada had threatened Bangladesh with serious consequences over alleged wrong doings against a Canadian company during the tender evaluation for a power plant in Fenchuganj. This pressure eventually led to the cancellation of the tender.
Now that Niko, another Canadian company, is involved in less than reputable practices in Bangladesh trampling the rights of many, I wonder what the stand of the Canadian government is. Since it didn't hesitate to get involved at the highest
level of the Bangladesh government to protect the interests of a Canadian company, shouldn't it be now its responsibility to get involved in settling the misdeeds of Niko?
Anisul Haque
Tokyo, Japan
"Don't run stories.." "Don't run stories that tarnish image even if they're objective" (The Daily Star, July 11 2005): Justice Abu
Sayeed Ahmad's astonishing pronouncement should remind us that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
The lesson here cannot be overstated: a free press is an essential condition for democracy. How else can the body politic inform itself sufficiently to make the best choices for the country? Here's how it works: when bad people do bad things, journalists tell us about them; we vote for the politicians whom we think will stop the bad things and do good things; if the
journalists convince us that the politicians are not doing a good job, we vote them out and replace them with better politicians. This spirals upward through decreasing corruption, better-spent resources, economic improvement and a better life for everyone.
Thank you, dear Editor, for printing that story. We must insist always that you keep showing us the tarnish so that we can remove the rot within.
Sid Tupper
Baridhara, Dhaka
"Akbar's decison
sees Ctg port lose Tk 14cr"
Those penal charges are basically the storage charges imposed on the containers. Any imported container / cargo enjoys 4 days free-time at the port upon landing from any vessel. Any importer requires to pay cumulative storage charges on the
imported container/ cargo on expiry of the free-time till the date the container/cargo is cleared from the port. The storage charge is mandatory and it constitutes a large segment of the port revenue.
Any importer is aware of the storage charges and that is why importers in general always clear their goods within the free-time to avoid huge cumulative storage charges.
Port Authority has no "authority" to waive the storage charges. Again, there is no provision under the port Schedule of Charges to grant any exemption of the storage charges to any cargo, including any perishable item.
Moreover, any importer is required to clear any perishable item at the earliest to avoid any contamination of the goods, besides avoiding the huge cumulative storage charges.
Any importer is very much aware of the fact that his goods would be
disposed in Auction by the Customs Authorities in the event the goods are not cleared from the Port within 30 days of landing at it . No importer can, therefore, afford to cause any congestion at the Port by delaying the clearance of the goods.
May I, therefore, urge the Parliamentary Committee to kindly look into the following covering all the cases of waivers (amounting to Tk 14.69cr):
1.Does the Port / Shipping Ministry have the "authority" to waive the storage charges on the con-tainer/cargo and did the Ministry act in accordance with that "authority" to grant those waivers (amounting to Tk.14.69cr)?
2. Was each case of waivers processed from the Chittagong Port Authority to the Shipping Ministry on the application filed by the authorised Clearing & Forwarding Agent of the Importer? It may be noted that no importer/exporter is allowed to process any docu-
ment/paper directly for any transaction at the port and all businesses must be conducted through the authorised Clearing & Forwarding Agents only as required by both the Customs & Port Authority.
3. The Parliamentary Committee will find it much easier to analyse each and every case if it summons all the files of such waivers both from the Shipping Ministry & the Chittagong Port Authority & alsosummonsthe relevant Clearing & Forwarding Agents, Importers & the concerned officials of the Chittagong Port & the Ministry.
4. How long each & every container /cargo remained at the Port & enjoyed the waiver granted by the Minister? Did the Port Authority & the Customs Authority issue any Auction Notice on the Con-tainer/Cargo? Was any cargo put on auction?
5. How many Clearing & Forwarding Agents in total were involved in processing the waiver cases?
6. How many cases of such waivers were processed to the Ministry between July 2002 & May, 2005 & what was the total amount of waiver asked for & what was the total amount of waiver granted?
7. What sort of recommendation the Port Authority gave on each case of waiver, specifically by the Director of Traffic, Chittagong Port &Ethe Chairman?
8. Was there any case of waiver granted by the Ministry directly without the file being initiated & processed by the Port Authority?
I am really baffled by the waiver of such huge amount, thereby causing a substantial loss of the public revenue and I sincerely urge the Parliamentary Committee on the Shipping Ministry to look into the above meticulously and also to close the loopholes to safeguard revenue.
Concerned citizen
Brooklyn , New York