& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

TO THE EDITOR
Shuttle train
Mr. Masum Ahmed's letter on “Effective Solution” published in your daily on 2nd Nov.09 makes much sense. The introduction of shuttle trains can significantly reduce traffic in Dhaka at the minimum possible time and cost.
The prime minister has announced that overbridges will be built at six level crossings of Dhaka city. This will allow road traffic to ply without having to stop at level crossings. As a start Bangladesh railway can adjust their schedule with other inter district trains giving priority during office hours to the shuttle trains for the city dwellers.
Next, as Bangladesh Railway has sufficient land on either side of the existing railway lines, special rail lines for the shuttle can be introduced from Tongi station to Kamalapur station. This will be a circular line having a round about at Tongi and another at Kamalapur. Shuttles can run like sky rails having a stop for a minute at each station which should be less than two minutes travelling time apart So a shuttle would be available at a station
every two minutes.
Each shuttle train should have five buggies with a capacity to seat 40 persons and another 20 to stand like the tubes in London. Tongi and Mohakhali already have over-bridges. Azampur, ZIA, Cantonment, Banani, Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Karwanbazar, Moghbazar, Malibagh, Khilgaon and Kamalapur have' stops. Ten shuttles can run in a circular route on the two sides of the present railway lines with only five trains running on one side at any time.
The shuttle can coexist with sky rails which is proposed to be introduced later. This will save time and money like the road which now connects the PM's office with the Rokeya Sharani and solve the increasing gridlock seen daily on the roads of Dhaka.
Md. Mahmoodul Haque Gulshan, Dhaka
Tortured journalist
I feel I should wage another war against all those who are taking away our right to personal dignity and freedom. How can we tolerate a police-man in independent Bangladesh torturing an
innocent reporter (Mr. Masum of New Age) in public in a way that will even put to shame the most barbarous people on earth.
The ruling party cannot evade the responsibility by merely rendering lip service. Tinku
On e-mail
Credibility at stake
There has now been a big credibility gap between what the govt, says and what actually is happening all over the country. When an engineer was gunned down the other day in the city the home minister termed it as a stray (bichinno) event but when Barrister Tapash miraculously survived a bomb attack only a couple of days later in front of his own office at Motijheel, none believed it to be so as the latter is a sitting MP and nephew of the PM herself. What is notable is that the incident took place only a few hours after the departure of the PM on an official visit abroad. Besides, everybody knows Mr. Tapash has been playing a very vital role in all important cases including those of the BDR mutiny, war criminals and the
Bangabandhu murder case. Whatever the nature of the incidents, they all indicate that our law and order situation is far from normal and the failure of the home ministry is quite obvious.
Extortion and tender manipulation including fierce fight for the same even in Dhaka(recent DCC incident, for examplejappear to be unbelievable after repeated warnings of the PM against all these activities. The home minister also sounded the same cautionary signals but why no action has yet been taken against the criminals is difficult to understand. As a result, rent seeking, extortion and illegal occupation of public land and property are going on unabated. Isn't stern action necessary before it is too late and the credibility gap widens beyond repair?
The border movements of the Nasaka forces along our common frontier have been termed as routine by Myanmar and our foreign minister has also stated it to be nothing worth worrying but the question is why have they moved a large number of forces along the border, dug hundreds of bunkers and erected barbed wire fences? The media may be blamed for many things but how can we disbelieve our own eyes even after seeing the live pictures? So it is better to keep our forces alert and we hope the govt, has already taken all necessary steps in this regard. What is noteworthy is that all these Myanmar activities, routine or otherwise seem to have something to do with our efforts at looking for deep-sea oil and gas. In fact, they have already claimed a part of our maritime territory as theirs. Our government's seeking UN arbitration in this regard appears to be a wise decision but the problem is will Myanmar heed to international advice, as they are a strange nation under army rule for ages and giving a damn to all rights and norms--national and international. Still let's hope for the better and wait for the best.
Former economic advisor Bangladesh Bank
Check population boom
Bangladesh is a small and poor country. There are thousands of problems here. But it is a matter of regret that we do not find out the main problem in Bangladesh. Actually, population boom is the main problem that the country is facing. We will not be able to change our country if we do not check our population growth.
Policy makers should think and plan on this issue without crying hoarse for development.
Bakul Chandra Kabira]
Un iuersity of Dhaka
Education commission Education is said to be the backbone of a nation. But it is a matter of great regret that even after 38 years of liberation no specific and effective education commission has yet been formed. As a result, the learners are being deprived of proper education and they will lag behind in any competition in the age of globalisation. So the govt, should take necessary steps to form such an education commission which will be acceptable to all and will continue for 50 years at least. Having no such commission, changes are coming in the syllabus over and over again which are really harmful for the students. In light of it, I can't but mention a point here that education policy makers have included 40 marks in the syllabus for grammar for the learners of class 9 and 10 and there are 9 items of grammar for 40 marks and any 8 items carrying 5 marks each are set up in the question papers. Transformation of sentences Is one of them. Here the thing to be noticed is that for 5 marks the students have to study at least 4 items of grammar. They are- sentences (according to meaning), sentences (according to structure), voice change, degree of comparison, etc. But in another 7 items this is not done. Now it can be said that this type of questions is quite unreasonable. In this case my suggestion is that it would be better to increase the number of grammatical items to 12 items (existing 9 items + i. sentences-both kinds, ii. voice change, iii. degree of comparison) instead of 9 and the students will answer the same items out of 12. And if it is done, the students will be benefited. Above all, a specific education commission is a must to develop the nation.
Md. Abdus Salam
Senior Assistant Teacher (English)
Joypara Pilot High School Joypara, Dohar, Dhaka
Set things right We can't accept this injustice. (2001,2003 SSC, HSC issue)
What the education ministry has done to us is not fair. We are the batch with which the grading system had been started. And the then ministry was not sure what would be the examination's pattern, reviewing style, whether the 3rd subject's number was going to be added or not etc. But before taking these decisions, the examination had been taken and the third subject's number was not added. And that led to only 68 A pluses (A+) in entire Bangladesh (SSC) and a lowest percentage of pass compared to the later years.
And now they have come up with a gazette where it has been declared that students who completed SSC and HSC in 2001 and 2003 with GPA below 2.5 would be considered to have scored third division and below 3.5 second division.
It can't be accepted. This is not fair. They can’t do this to us. This is about our future. Different organisations are asking for the applicant's required qualification, say result, considering all grade years under the same scale. But we can't be measured that way.
There are thousands of A pluses now days where we hardly had any and even a board like Chittagong didn't have A+ at all. We want justice. ArafathShahrior Department of marketing and international marketing Un i ver sityofChittagong
Kakoli to Gulshan
It's a daily routine that thousands of passengers drop at Kakoli centre from northern part of greater Gazipur & Dhaka city. Among them most are office going and they gather at Kakoli point to go to Gulshan 2 and Banani Bazar. But it's a matter of regret that the number of vehicles is insufficient for thousands of passengers, especially in the morning.
Time is valuable! In the interest of a huge number of sufferers there should be some more transports at the Kakoli point to quickly move to Gulshan-2.
The authorities concerned should look into the matter. Mohammed Anowarul Azim Dhaka
Saifur Rahman's death
With reference to a few learned readers' comments about Awami League leaders, particularly the prime minister's not issuing an official condolence message on the sad demise of Mr. Saifur Rahman. One gentleman felt hurt and expressed his feelings in the letter column of your daily published on 21 October.
Well, Sir, 1 understand it is not a gentlemanly thing to speak ill about any dead man, but I feel constrained to point out a few things about late Mr. Saifur Rahman. I would rather not talk about his misdeeds and failures as the longest serving finance minister of our country, since that would take eternity to narrate.
I would only like to refresh the memory of the 'aggrieved 'ones that Mr. Saifur Rahman referred to Awami League MPs as penguins during a session of parliament as they were wearing Father of the Nation's trademark Mujib coat.
And again Saifur Rahman had the mentality to insult Syed Nazrul Islam, the first acting President of Bangladesh and one of the four national leaders. To refresh the memory of fellow readers, a mere bridge was named after this great leader. Late Saifur Rahman .while proposing to change the name of the bridge, had the temerity to say, "Who is Nazrul Islam and wherefrom he is that a bridge has to be named after him?" In Bangla his exact words were "Kotheker kay Nazrul Islam jay tar namey bridge kortey hobey''
We should not forget that it is because of Bangabandhu and leaders like Syed Nazrul Islam that we got independence and Saifur Rahman could become a minister, otherwise he would have remained an obscure figure.
Mufazzel Hossain On e-mail
Our doctors
Recently some surgeoii(s) at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital stitched up a patient after surgery with a scalpel blade in the patient's abdomen (DS October 22). A small schoolgirl lost her life in the same hospital due the negligence of the doctor(s) on duty (TV news October 22). Almost every day many such incidents of criminal negligence, indifference, malpractice and incompetence by the doctors in Bangladesh are taking place in government and nongovernment hospitals. For obvious reasons it is not possible for the media to report all these unfortunate incidents.
Since the liberation of Bangladesh we have not heard of any single case wherein any recalcitrant medical practitioner has been taken to task either by the government (ministry of health) or by the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC), the two guardians of our national healthcare system. In some cases, after the incidents were reported in the media, inquiry committees were constituted. Reports and recommendations submitted by these committees were never made public, nor did we ever hear that any actions were taken against any wrongdoing doctor. Some cases were taken to the court of law by those aggrieved parties who could afford such litigation, but with no result. Because the relevant laws in our country do not protect the rights of the patients. Whenever the health ministry or the BMDC is asked about such an incident the bosses who run these offices always come out with the pet reply that they have not received any such complaint in writing from the aggrieved patient or his/her next of kin. The other very common reply to such a query is that the existing laws in this regard are not adequate to take a recalcitrant doctor to task.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that the people of our country, even after 38 years of our independence, are still helpless hostages in the hands of our doctors. Our present health minister, the health advisor to the Honourable prime minister and the state minister for health are all from the medical profession. (It is not understood why so many doctors are necessary to run one single ministry like the health ministry. The appointing authority might be reminded of the old proverb: Too many cooks spoil the broth.) The leading bureaucrats at the health ministry and the health directorate are all doctors. Being doctors themselves, all These (doctors turned) politicians and medical bureaucrats probably do not see anything wrong or unethical in the professional activities of their brothers and sisters in the medical profession. Their track record bears testimony to the fact that, for decades, they have been giving protection to the wrong doing doctors. Otherwise, the situation could not turn so bad, as it is today.
We had enough of it. The nation can no more bear with the irresponsible and unethical activities of our doctors and their leaders. It is high time the government takes necessary action to discipline
the doctors before it is too late.
Before I finish I must apologize to those of our doctors who have been rendering dedicated service to our people. This letter is not meant for them.
Syed Ashrafuzzaman San Francisco, USA
Anime Society
1 am sure we all are very much aware about anime films. It is a popular item for today's young people. In Bangladesh, we have not yet started making anime films in a fully-fledged way but there are many anime fans around.
The anime industry has grown significantly in the last few years, especially outside of Japan. It has spread rapidly across the world. Bangladesh is no exception.
The young people love anime films and with this thing in mind a popular group has been developed on Facebook called: BANGLADESH ANIME SOCIETY. Most of the members are university students and they simply share their ideas and opinions about animes. The group's main intention is to create a huge anime fan base in Bangladesh.
If anyone is interested then you can visit the group's page by typing the words: Bangladesh Anime Society. This is the first of its kind in Bangladesh.
We appreciate the group's effort in creating awareness about anime.
Minhaj Ahmed Uttara, Dhaka
Bangladeshi workers in Sudan Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi workers are working in Sudan and most of them are illegal. Until recently, the Sudan government was generous enough to allow them to work despite their illegal status. However, unfortunately, some Bangladeshis were involved in criminal activities. As a result, it is expected that the Sudaq government will tighten the immigration rules and possible expulsion of illegal immigrants is also imminent.
The decision of opening Bangladesh embassy in Khartoum should be expedited to resolve the manpower issue. Sudan could be a potential garments, medicine and leather product market for Bangladesh.
In addition, agriculture is expanding here and there is a high demand for agriculture workers.
AshfaquI Wahab Khartoum Sudan