National budget and the disabled
Salvation for the Deserving (SFD) requests to allocate 5 per cent of the national budget for the development of the disabled.
After coming to power through a critical situation on 11 January 2007. the caretaker government is going to present the national budget for the fiscal year 2008-2009. .After assuming power, the caretaker government has taken many significant initiatives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and for sustainable development. In the pervious national budget, the government issued a special grant like 3 per cent of development budget and 5.8 per cent of revenue budget for social security and welfare. That proves the strong commitment of the government to ensuring sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
But it is very’ much disappointing for us that the present government, like the previous ones, has not been considering the role of the disabled people, a big portion of the total population, in the development process. According to the censusof2001. about 12 percent of the total population is disabled in some way or the other. It is clear that no sustainable development will be possible by ignoring the huge section of the population. We believe that the disabled people can be treated as asset rather then burden through proper planning.
It may be mentioned that the present caretaker government signed the 'UN Convention on the rights of the people with disabilities’. Furthermore, the national office of the 'National Foundation for the development of the disabled persons' was shifted from the 3rd floor of a multi-storeyed build-
ing to a separate one-storied building. Such kind of initiatives shows the government's sensitivity to the disabled. Now, it is time to implement the clauses of the UN Charter. For the successful implementation of the Charter, special allocation in the coming budget is very much essential.
Besides,' we’ also request' the government to use a portion of Jakat funds and other benevolent funds for the development of the disabled and the deserving. We hope that the government will consider our proposal and take necessary steps for the development of the deprived groups.
Nasir-Ur-Rahman Sinha Founder and Chairman Salvation for the Deserving (SFD)
Lively cricket!
As Shoaib Akhter picked up the wicket of the ace (Indian) batsmen Virender Shehwag and Gautam Gambhir, the entire Eden-Garden crowd burst into a roar, vociferously cheering a distant glimpse of victory. Perhaps, for the first time in their lives the crazy cricket lovers of Calcutta applauded the triumphs of the nightmarish Pakistani fast bowler. Subsequently, megastar SRK was seen to be dancing to celebrate the crucial turn of the match. No, I'm not depicting a bizarre dream sequence. DLF IPL has successfully obliterated the fragile boundary that existed between the facts and fantasies of the cricketing world. In this groundbreaking competition we have witnessed the glorious return of legends like Shane Warne, Pollock, Glen McGrath, and Gilchrist, as if they have been reincarnated to represent this exciting version of cricket, we have also seen world-class cricketers of the same national squad aggressively battling against each other, and we
have seen the gracious intermingling of cricket and the glamorous world of Bollywood I think DLF IPL is a creative concept that's not only promoting the prospect ofTVventy-Tvventy cricket but it's also providing an opportunity to the international cricketers to get used to this relatively new: format of the game. At tiie’s!m1trtimeTYh*torft,n^ is entertaining the cricket lovers around the world to a great extent.
Asef Safa Kabir
Lalmatia, Dhaka
FBCCI's demand
Recently, the FBCCI president requested the government to offer black money whitening facility for the last time. Interestingly, it is also the last year of the current non-political government
Now who will give the guarantee that their undue demand will not go further high under the next political government?
Saif Tinku
Baridhara, Dhaka
Our football
The Bangladesh football team left Dhaka on May 27 to take part in the upcoming SAFF football championship. With the deterioration in world ranking every month, the tournament appears to be an acid test for our booters. Now, the team will play in a situation when the Football Federation has an organiser like Salahuddin as its leader. Besides, this time the booters seem to be more confident than before.
However, 1 was shocked to see the booters being taken to the airport by an obsolete local bus! When our cricketers travel by air-conditioned bus, the booters deserved something better. I would request the current sponsor Nokia and others to come forward and to arrange something good for our
football
1 would like to convey my good wishes to the boys. I am very much optimistic that the mission to retrieve our lost glory shall commence with this tournament.
Moinul Alam Dhanmondi, Dhaka
VIPs and roads
1 had just got out of a screening of the film “Brick Lane” on May 13, when my cell rang. It was my sister. Without listening to her, 1 started telling her about the movie which I liked quite a bit. But, on the other end, she didn't seem to be listening and was rather quiet. 1 soon learnt that she was at the local clinic with her five-year old daughter who was being given saline. My heart jumped I remembered that, in the afternoon when I last saw them, she had vomited a few times and now the doctor is saying that she is dehydrated. 1 felt so bad for her -the poor little thing!
Immediately I remembered the scene of that afternoon. I was on my regular visit to my ailing mother at lunch time. My car was on one of those few school free roads in Gulshan, a rare thing in our residential areas. But that afternoon, the road was chaotic and jam-packed with all kinds of vehicles and pedestrians. I didn't understand what was going on. So I got out of the car to see what was happening. I found that all lanes leading to Gulshan 2, road number 71 were blocked. My heart started thumping! I knew that this was the time when my 71 year old mother comes back after her 4-hour dialysis from the Apollo Hospital. After her dialysis she is usually very sick & weak and hardly waits to come home and lie down. What will happen to her if she is stuck in this chaotic traffic?
So I left my car behind on road number 74 & started walking towards road number 71 where my parents live. The road looked very scary to me with not a single moveable thing on the road 71 except some armed soldiers standing all over the road. As soon as 1 reached the intersection a soldier came to me & said that I could not even walk on this road because a WIP was coming to the United Hospital. 1 was v so concerned about my mother‘that I*3idn’t listen to Kin* & walked away from him towards my parents' building. I thought it was very unfair that, at this time of the day, the WIP would be sitting in an air conditioned car while these little kids & their parents, who have already been out waiting in the hot weather to pick up their kids from school, would be sitting for a long period under the blazing sun! There could be very sick people on the road too.
I finally managed my way through that restricted area & was relieved to see that my mother had managed to escape this horrific situation by just a couple of minutes. But the thought of poor sick people who were still on the road after their dialysis or after other medical procedures made me feel sick.
My sister's kids regularly come to my parent's house since it is close to their school. They are privileged and don't have to fight through heat & traffic every day like other kids. But on that day it took them 45 minutes to get home after school. They were cranky, dehydrated & sick. After seeing them 1 couldn't dare to imagine how many other kids & their parents, who arc not as privileged as my sister's kids, are heading for extra miseries due to that day's 20 minutes road block! Any sensible person living in Dhaka could easily imagine how horrific the spill over impact of this 20 minutes road block could be. Still these miseries are not worth to be considered for the sake of our
WIP security!!
Initially, I thought that maybe there was an emergency; maybe our WIP was so sick that they needed this kind of traffic free road. So 1 turned the TV on to see Whether anything was wrong. No news, apparently it was his regular check up. If it was essential to have a traffic free road, couldn't they find another time to bring him to the hospital when you could mini mize the sufferings of others? With some thought and planning, people who are responsible for the WIP security could do their job while also showing sympathy for these innocent people.
Atiya Mahmood Gulshan-2, Dhaka
Female commuters' problem
The number of women coming to the job market is increasing. Their daily commuting often becomes a nightmare as most of them cannot get on a bus easily and they are often harassed by the men surrounding them. Several attempts had been made to introduce separate female bus service in the city but they failed for obvious commercial reasons.
In the mid sixties, I was serving as an apprentice marine engineer at a marine workshop in Karachi. In those days bus was the mode of transport I had to use. It was uncomfortable but I could not afford anything better
In all the buses in Karachi I saw that the front compartment of the bus was separated from the rest of the bus. There was a front door for the front compartment which was reserved for the female passengers. If there was no female passenger then the space would remain vacant but no male passenger would be allowed to enter the compartment. I think this could be a solution to the sufferings of the female commuters of the city. It can be made mandatory for all buses to have separate compartment for female passengers.
I hope our policy planners would give our women folk the break they badly need Salahuddin Ayubi One-mail
Fraudulent 'tuition ., .„. media'
Workingas tutor is a vital source of income for many students. Students, who don't get notable financial support from their families, often depend on tutoring to get themselves through their student days. Some others, despite being well off, prefer it as a source of some extra income. In Dhaka and some other cities, many organisations are playing the role of mediators in providing such jobs to the people, largely students, who are interested in tuition. These organisations call themselves 'Tuition Media'. Nevertheless, how reliable are they?
In June 2007, my roommate decided to earn some extra money by tutoring during our summer vacation. We went to a renowned tuition media in Kakrail and met the head of the organisation. He demanded Tk. 200 as membership fee and said that one has to pay half the first month's salary in advance. My friend accepted all his terms and conditions and paid the membership fee. The director assured that he would get a tuition job with a salary ofmorethanTk. 5,000 (Five thousand) per month within one week and took another Tk 1,000 in advance. Since then, my friend has been going to that office almost every week but he still does not have the tuition job. When he demanded his money back in October, he was advised to contact them next year! Recently I found out that another friend of mine had
I
paid the same amount of money to the same organisation and was cheated. He was given an address that turned out to be a fake one. I became sure of the fraudulent nature of the organisation by seeing their same advertisement in newspapers over and over again.
F 'NDtyTwisfi’fi?' warn other *«^t dents about such cheats in our society. I don’t want others, like my friends, to fall victim to these fake businesses and I also request the authorities concerned to take necessary measures against these fraudulent'media'.
Syed Rajaul Akmal Sajid Department of Economics Dhaka University
City transport system
The CTG has taken a bold and practical decision to construct link roads between the old airport road and Agargaon. by using the marginal strip of the old airport at the cityend.
But the long-term outlook is bleak. There are several (uninten-tionaDhuman bottlenecks between the old and the new airport roads: a) the PMO’s office complex; b) the Jahangir Gate (Cantt zone); c) the old airport strip extending into the city area.
The PMO complex is occupying a vita) area needed for more roads— hence relocation (with BMRE) review has to be kept in mind on long term basis (why not shift to Sher-e-Bangla Nagar).
The proposed elevated highway there is not an elegant solution for future development.
The cantonments in old Dacca city were located well out of the then town areas. Now the situation is different (population around 12 million). Hence some marginal areas should be surrendered to the civil authorities for town planning, including the old airport area. Dhaka'iSYutrourtded by wthttitli'' and has to expand northwards into higher grounds. Without decentralisation, new projects would be a waste of funds (the floating population in Dhaka is too high).
Now we are facing new economic problems- the high cost of fuel might increase greater use of cycle rickshaws! The social and economic impacts of the suburban zones around metropolis Dhaka cannot be detected easily as in the industrialised countries (families with own transport, and excellent public transport systems). The LDCs and DCs cannot blindly imitate the West, as the average income slabs of the vast majority of the families are much lower, whether in the cities or in the villages.
We badly need bicycle and rickshaw lanes in future planning at all divisional headquarters (labour incentive ventures to provide employment). In Dhaka, underground rail system is difficult to operate and maintain, as O&M have large systems losses (also the underground water levels are going down rapidly). Elevated rail maybe considered; first as a pilot project. But the problem with mega projects is the percentage syndrome (we have had bitter experience for
several decades!).
Can't imagine how Dhaka city would look by the end of the century!
A Mawaz
On e-mail
Unfair
The CNG fares in Chittagong are being raised abnormally. It happens every day because the CNG-drivers are reluctant to take the meter-based fare. Consequently, the passengers have to pay excessively high fares.
The matter deserves a closer look.
S.M. Rumen
Invigilator. Examinations Services British Council, Chittagong
Manpower export
The decision to cancel licences of 32 agencies for manpower export irregularities was made at a time when the issue has become cause for great concern.
Law enforcing agencies in an investigation have found that those travel and recruiting agencies were involved in illegal human trafficking. Some other agencies also send people abroad illegally, including women and children. Those are also under investigation.
It is no secret that a section of recruiting and travel agencies in Bangladesh indulges in manpower export through illegal means.
Mahmud Kabir
New High School Road
Gopalgonj