Archive for August, 2011

Dhaka, Aug 30 (bdnews24.com) — Dhaka has been rated third least liveable city in the world, crawling one step ahead from the previous review in 2009, according to a worldwide survey.

The Australian city of Melbourne has become the world’s most liveable one beating Canada’s Vancouver, after almost a decade, out of 140 cities surveyed, UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said on Tuesday.

Vancouver, which topped the annual Global Liveability Survey since 2002, fell to third behind Vienna this year. The Canadian city was in joint first position with Melbourne in the 2002 survey, reported BBC, quoting the survey, which is conducted twice a year.

Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, was the least liveable city, just ahead the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby.

Cities were scored on political and social stability, crime rates, access to quality health care, cultural events, the environment, education and the standard of infrastructure.

In 2009, Dhaka stood second while Harare was topped the list of the least liveable cities.

Living standards in the Bangladesh capital – a highly dense one — has been said to be deteriorating gradually with unplanned urbanisation, lack of utilities and burden of overpopulation.

Besides those, the problems of transport, environment and safe drinking water, law and order have pushed the city near the bottom.

Vancouver missed out on the top spot because its infrastructure score had fallen due to periodic closures of a key motorway.

Australian cities featured prominently in the top 10, with Sydney ranked sixth and Perth and Adelaide in joint eighth place, according to the survey.

Canada also did well, with Toronto and Calgary holding fourth and fifth places respectively. Helsinki in Finland (seventh) and New Zealand’s Auckland (10th) rounded out the top 10.

The survey company said scores in Europe had been pushed slightly down by the eurozone crisis, while the Arab Spring had affected ratings across the Middle East and North Africa.

The Greek capital Athens dropped five places to 67th due to recent government cutbacks and protests.

Among other well-known cities, Paris came 16th, two places ahead of Tokyo. The top-ranked American city was Honolulu which came 26th, while London was a lowly 53rd, just behind Singapore.

This is most apparent in the scoring for Tripoli (Libya), where the descent into civil war has caused such a significant deterioration in the liveability rating as to put the city into the bottom ten locations for the first time, the EIU said.

Cities were scored out of 100 and the report noted that the top 10 cities were only separated by 1.8 percentage points.

The concept of liveability is simple: it assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses. The survey originated as a means of testing whether Human Resource Departments needed to assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.

While this function is still a central potential use of the survey, it has also evolved as a broad means of benchmarking cities. This means that liveability is increasingly used by city councils, organisations or corporate entities looking to test their locations against others to see general areas where liveability can differ, the survey report added.

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New Delhi, Aug 29 (bdnews24.com)—Opposition political parties in Indian states bordering Bangladesh have opposed New Delhi’s plan to clinch an interim deal with Dhaka to share water of Teesta and resolve the issues related to land boundary between the two neighbours.

With just about a week to go before Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s much-awaited visit to Bangladesh, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Asom Gana Parishad in the northeastern Indian state of Assam strongly opposed the “give-and-take” formula New Delhi and Dhaka apparently working on to resolve the issues related to land boundary, including the un-demarcated stretches of the border between the two countries.

The Revolutionary Socialist Party – a constituent of the opposition Left Front in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal – too expressed reservation about Delhi’s plan to strike an interim agreement with Dhaka for sharing water of river Teesta and stated that it would oppose any deal that would adversely affect people in northern region of the state.

The interim agreement for sharing of water of Teesta and the deal to resolve the issues related to border are likely to be the major highlights of Singh’s visit to Dhaka on Sept 6 and 7.

Singh is likely to be accompanied by Mamata Banerjee, Tarun Gogoi, Manik Sarkar, Mukul Sangma and Lal Thanhawla, Chief Ministers of the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram respectively. All the five Indian states share border with Bangladesh.

Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram are ruled by Indian National Congress, which also leads a coalition government at the centre in Delhi.

Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress, an ally of the Congress, last May defeated the Left Front in the state assembly polls and came to power in West Bengal — after 34 years of rule by the Left Front since 1977.

Tripura however is still ruled by Left Front, which is led by Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Gogoi recently told media-persons in Assam’s main city Guwahati that New Delhi was looking for an exchange of enclaves and adversely possessed land between India and Bangladesh to settle the issues related to border between the two countries.

The chief minister of Assam also said that India would get back more land than what Bangladesh would receive in the exchange.

This triggered protests by opposition BJP and AGP with both stating that they would oppose any move by New Delhi to concede Assam’s land to Bangladesh.

The AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said that people of Assam would “oppose tooth and nail” any move by India’s central government in New Delhi to give away even “an inch of land” of Bangladesh, even if such an initiative was endorsed by the State Government headed by Gogoi. The AGP – a regional party – staged a protest demonstration in Guwahati on Monday, denouncing the purported move by New Delhi to strike a swap-deal with Dhaka to resolve the issues related land boundary. Patowary said that any such a move on the part of the governments in the centre and the state could lead to serious turmoil in Assam.

Even the BJP – the principal opposition party in Indian Parliament – strongly opposed New Delhi’s purported plan to strike an exchange agreement with Dhaka to settle the issues related to enclaves and adversely possessed land between Bangladesh and India. Pradyut Bora, the general secretary of the BJP’s state unit in Assam, said that the party would oppose the government’s plan both legally and politically.

With purported illegal migration from Bangladesh to India and alleged encroachment of Indian territories by people of Bangladesh along the Bangladesh-India border being a major political issue in Assam, both the AGP and BJP are likely to step up their offensives against the Congress governments in the state and centre, protesting their moves to settle the issues between New Delhi and Dhaka by a give-and-take formula.

There are 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh with 17,160 acres of land and a population of about 37000 people. India on the other hand has 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with 7110 acres of land and a population of about 14000 people.

Altogether 1880.81 acres of Indian land are in adverse possession of Bangladesh. India adversely possesses 1165.49 acres of land of Bangladesh.

During prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi in Jan 2010, Bangladesh and India agreed to comprehensively address all outstanding land boundary issues, keeping in view the spirit of the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement.

The Bangladesh-India Joint Boundary Working Group has since been trying to work out a swap deal to resolve the border dispute once and for all.

Meanwhile, Revolutionary Socialist Party – one of the four leading parties of the opposition Left Front in West Bengal – already expressed concerns over the proposed interim deal that Dhaka and Delhi are planning to strike for sharing of water of Teesta during Indian prime minister’s visit to Bangladesh.

Prashanta Majumder, an RSP leader and a member of Indian parliament from Paschim Bangla, said that if India agreed to share with Bangladesh 50 percent of water of Teesta, it would result in great difficulties for about 15 million people in northern region of the state he was elected from.

Majumder recently raised the issue in Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Indian parliament, and urged Singh to safeguard the interests of the people of northern region of West Bengal while giving go-ahead for signing of the deal for sharing of water of river Teesta during his visit to Dhaka.

Teesta flows through Sikkim and northern part of West Bengal before entering Bangladesh.

As West Bengal is also largely dependent on Teesta for irrigation and hydropower generation, India’s central government has been factoring in the views of the state government while negotiating the interim treaty with Bangladesh for sharing of the water of the river.

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Dhaka, Aug 17 (bdnews24.com) – A Bangladeshi-born religious leader has been charged with a number of sexual offences against his students in Canada.

Mohammad Masroor, 48, was arrested on Aug 10 in a case involving sexual abuse of five people, both male and female, local newspapers said.

Masroor, believed to have travelled extensively around the world, faces 13 charges, The Canadian Post reported on Wednesday.

A department of education and training official Karen Armstrong said Masroor had abused his position of authority when he taught the Quran to students at Baitul Mukarram Islamic Society and in private homes in Toronto.

He has been living in Canada since 2008.

Armstrong said apart from Bangladesh, Masroor also worked and lived in France, Germany, Hungary, Singapore, Sri Lanka and most recently in Florida and Michigan in the United States.

“We are appealing to the public to help us find other victims,” Armstrong was further quoted by the website as saying.

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Dhaka, Aug 17 (bdnews24.com) – The High Court has summoned top officials of LabAid Specialised Hospital and Ibn Sina Hospital on charges of negligence in treatment of patients.

The bench of justices A H M Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Gobinda Chandra Tagore issued the order on Wednesday.

In response to a writ petition, the court asked the chairman of LabAid Hospital, all its governing council members and two doctors to appear before it on Aug 23 to explain the treatment they provided to Mridul Kanti Chakrobarty, noted musician and professor of Music Department at Dhaka University who died in the hospital on Monday.

The same bench in a suo motu rule also directed the chairman of Ibn Sina Hospital, all its Trustee Board members and two physicians – Syeda Sultana and Anwarul Abedin – to appear before it the same day to explain their alleged negligence in treatment of a child.

RULE UPON LABAID

The court asked the government to explain why it should not be directed to take legal action against those responsible for the death of the university teacher, why the family of the teacher should not be compensated for the painful death and why it should not be directed to ban the operations of the hospital if the allegations of negligence in treatment are found true.

Eight people including the health secretary, director general of the health directorate, the president and the general secretary of the Medical and Dental Council, Dhaka division director of the health directorate and the chairman of the hospital have been asked to respond to the rule within three weeks.

Mridul Chakrobarty was rushed to LabAid Specialised Hospitals with dehydration complain on Monday. But he died there before getting proper treatment.

The court in another rule directed the government to form a committee, comprising representatives of the health ministry, physicians of public hospitals, professors of medical colleges and expert physicians, within two weeks to ensure speedy and standard treatment in private hospitals and formulate a guideline in this regard.

The health secretary and the director general of the health directorate and the Dhaka division director of the directorate were also asked to visit private hospitals in the city regularly.

Advocate Manzill Murshid argued for the petitioner.

ORDER ON IBN SINA

In a suo motu rule, the High Court bench asked the government to explain why it should not be directed to take legal action against the officials of Ibn Sina Hospital for their negligence in the treatment of a child.

The officer-in-charge of the Dhanmondi Police Station and other concerned were asked to respond to the rule within 12 days.

In this regard, deputy attorney general A B M Altaf Hossain told bdnews24.com that on Aug 15, private television channel Boishakhi TV ran a report on an infant, who died at the hospital allegedly due to negligence in treatment.

The court took cognizance of the report.

Dhaka University teachers and students, at a protest procession and solidarity rally on the campus on Wednesday, claimed that Mridul Chakrabarty died for wrong treatment and negligence. They also demanded sufficient compensation and a fair investigation into the incident.

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Dhaka, Aug 16 (bdnews24.com)—A British government-funded international study says there is no credible evidence that microcredit has helped cut poverty and empower women.

The ’systematic review’ dismissed well-known studies done so far claiming positive impacts on women.

The report says “unreliable impact estimates” based on “weak methodologies” and “inadequate data” have contributed to the creation of perception that micro-funding worked.

It also blames the myth of microcredit on “anecdotes” and “inspiring stories” propagated by the powerful microcredit industry.

The damning report, Evidence of the impact of microfinance: a systematic review, was supported by the UK’s overseas development arm DfID, the University of London and the University of East Anglia.

bdnews24.com has obtained the full report, dated Aug 2011.

“Despite the apparent success and popularity of microfinance, no clear evidence yet exists that microfinance programmes have positive impacts,” said the report, co-authored by by Maren Duvendack, Richard Palmer-Jones, James G Copestake, Lee Hooper, Yoon Loke and Nitya Rao.

This report seemingly pours cold water on the rigorous microcredit campaign especially in the West and lends further credence to the contention that is fast gaining ground that microfinance fails to pull the poor out of poverty.

Late last year, Danish director Tom Heinemann in an investigative TV documentary “Caught in Micro debt”, which was aired on Norwegian television, questioned microcredit operations.

It uncovered documents revealing nearly US $100 million in aid funds to Grameen Bank were transferred out to a private entity, Grameen Kalyan, set up by its founder Muhammad Yunus, without the knowledge of the donor, Norway’s NORAD.

The DfID review said the concept of microcredit was “first introduced in Bangladesh by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus”.

“Professor Yunus started Grameen Bank (GB) more than 30 years ago with the aim of reducing poverty by providing small loans to the country’s rural poor (Yunus 1999).”

The Department for International Development, DfiD, is the UK government ministry that manages Britain’s international aid and works to get rid of extreme poverty.

“There have been four major reviews examining impacts of microfinance (Sebstad and Chen, 1996; Gaile and Foster 1996, Goldberg 2005, Odell 2010, see also Orso 2011).

“These reviews concluded that, while anecdotes and other inspiring stories (such as Todd 1996) purported to show that microfinance can make a real difference in the lives of those served, rigorous quantitative evidence on the nature, magnitude and balance of microfinance impact is still scarce and inconclusive (Armendáriz de Aghion and Morduch 2005, 2010).

The review continued: “Overall, it is widely acknowledged that no well-known study robustly shows any strong impacts of microfinance (Armendáriz de Aghion and Morduch 2005, p199-230).”

Bangladesh’s top microcredit operators include Association for Social Advancement (ASA), Grameen Bank, Brac, which together wield enormous power in the country’s socio-political life.

Critics put the stunning loan recovery rate of nearly 98 percent down to the harassment of villagers from the debt collectors. Some argue that people can quickly sink into a cycle of debt, with many lenders charging exorbitant rates of interest.

In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, numerous reports of suicides amongst loan takers have spread around the world, calling into question the benefits from microcredit.

“Because of the growth of the microfinance industry and the attention the sector has received from policy makers, donors and private investors in recent years, existing microfinance impact evaluations need to be re-investigated.

“The robustness of claims that microfinance successfully alleviates poverty and empowers women must be scrutinised more carefully.”

The study found “no robust evidence of positive impacts on women’s status, or girl’s enrolments”.

“Our report shows that almost all impact evaluations of microfinance suffer from weak methodologies and inadequate data (as already argued by Adams and von Pischke 1992), thus the reliability of impact estimates are adversely affected.

“This can lead to misconceptions about the actual effects of a microfinance programme, thereby diverting attention from the search for perhaps more pro-poor interventions.

“Therefore, it is of interest to the development community to engage with evaluation techniques and to understand their limitations, so that more reliable evidence of impact can be provided in order to lead to better outcomes for the poor,” the study concluded.

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Dhaka, Aug 16 (bdnews24.com) – The prime minister has said the government is earnestly trying to keep the prices of essential commodities within people’s reach.

“I seek cooperation from the countrymen so that we can run the state affairs properly and actually build ‘Sonar Bangla (Golden Bangladesh),” Sheikh Hasina said on Tuesday.

The prime minister was speaking at a discussion organised by ruling Awami League at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre marking the National Mourning Day (Aug 15).

Referring to the success of the government in rooting out militancy and terrorism, Hasina, also the president of Awami League, urged all to be cautious against a possible return of the menace.

She expressed her satisfaction at the law and order situation in the country.

Blaming the previous BNP-Jamaat government for the existing problems in the service sector, the prime minister said, “They looted national property, laundered money and did nothing for the country.”

“They looted the money received as donation to establish a fund for the orphan after the name of late president Ziaur Rahman. Development is totally impossible by those who loot even the money of orphans.”

Expressing surprise over BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s birthday celebration on Aug 15, which coincides with Bangladesh’s founder president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s death anniversary, Hasina questioned the motive of celebration “when it is not her actual birthday”.

“What does she want to convey through the birthday celebration? Do they want to express happiness as they had assumed power by killing the Father of the Nation, or they want to express solidarity with the killers of Bangabandhu?”

According to the marriage certificate of Khaleda, her birthday is Sept 5, 1945 and in her first passport, it is Aug 19, 1946, while in the matriculation exam form she gave Aug 9, 1944 as her birth day.

The programme was addressed, among others, by Awami League presidium member and deputy leader of parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Awami League general secretary and local government minister Syed Ashraful Islam, presidium member and agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, advisory council member Suranjit Sengupta, executive council member Mohammad Nasim, Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASAD) president Hasanul Haque Inu and Bangladesher Samyabadi Dal (ML) general secretary Dilip Barua.

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Dhaka, Aug 16 (bdnews24.com)—The government has fined real estate giants Sheltech, Rangs Properties and another realtor Tk 100,000 each for causing sound pollution at construction sites.

Washing factory Jeans Culture Limited of Mirpur was fined Tk 720,000 for dumping its toxic wastes directly into Rupnagar Jheel, the Department of Environment (DoE) in a statement said.

The factory was also warned that it would be forced to shut down and the owner arrested if its effluent treatment plant was found operating in future.

A DoE team led by director (enforcement) Mohammad Munir Chowdhury slapped the fines on Tuesday.
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They found that the piling works of construction firms Sheltech, Rangs and Instars Limited were causing noise on Road No. 11 of Banani at 95.5, 96 and 95 decibels, way beyond the limit of 50 decibels in the area.

The steps were taken on the basis of complaints from the local residents, the statement said.

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Dhaka, Aug 16 (bdnews24.com)—Md Shahjahan has taken over as the acting managing director of micro-finance institution nearly a month after he was made deputy MD, the bank’s chairman says.

The bank’s chairman Khondker Mozammel Haque confirmed bdnews24.com of the takeover on Tuesday.

The former general manager was catapulted into the office after acting MD Nurjahan Begum went on retirement on Aug 14.

Shahjahan did his master’s in accounting at Dhaka University in 1977. He also completed master`s degree from finance there.

On Mar 2 this year, the government removed Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus as managing director after a Norwegian media documentary on shady fund transfer rattled his position in his micro-finance institution.

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Sumon Mahbub
bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent

Dhaka, Aug 15 (bdnews24.com) – Home tutor Gitali Dasgupta never thought that August 14 night would be the last day with Sheikh Russel and others at 32-Dhanmondi residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“Russel had used to call me ‘Apu’ and to me he was ‘Buchu’. On Aug 14 evening, he was not at home when I reached around 7pm. I was told that Russel was at the house of Abdur Rab Serniyabat.

“To find me waiting, Bangabandhu asked me ‘Master, why are you sitting alone, where is your student?’ Then he phoned and asked Russel to come home,” said Gitali.

“‘Master, you won’t get a leave,’ he uttered the last words for me. But we have given him a rest,” she said in an exclusive interview with bdnews24.com.

She was recalling 36-year old memories, which are still so fresh in her mind as if it happened only days ago.

Gitali had been tutor of the youngest child of Sheikh Mujib for over three years. “I left the house around 11:30pm and was supposed to go the next day.”

But within hours, then president Sheikh Mujib, his family, personal staff and guests were killed by a handful of renegade army officials.

Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russel, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal Khuki and Parveen Jamal Rosy, Mujib’s younger brother Sheikh Abu Naser, nephew Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, Moni’s pregnant wife Begum Arju Moni, Mujib’s brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniyabat, Serniabat’s daughter, son, nephew and grandson, Mujib’s security chief Col Jamiluddin Ahmed, three guests and four domestic workers were the others to fall to the brutality.

Sheikh Mujib’s daughter prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana were in Europe, and thus escaped the massacre on that fateful night.

Gitali had started teaching the University Laboratory School student in Aug or Sept 1972.

She was a postgraduate student of Bangla at Dhaka University in 1972 and started teaching at Begum Badrunnesa Govt Girls College in 1974.

“Before Russel had returned, Begum Mujib, who I called Kakima (aunt), spoke to me. She talked of several not known and important issues, with a deep trust in me.

“Around 11:30pm, I was escorted back to my house by a security guard.”

“That was my last day with them,” Gitali told bdnews24.com with tearful trickling down her cheeks.

She said whenever they had met, Bangabandhu would ask her, “Master, what about your student, and you?”

“He was very simple.”

She started private tuition in 1969 to bear the expense of her education by tutoring three daughters of Mohammad Mohsin, then treasurer of the Awami League. It was Mohsin who recommended Gitali as the home tutor for the third son of Mujib.

Begum Mujib would be very worried about Russel’s education, as he did not like those coming to teach him. She came to know about Gitali from the family of Mohsin and wished that she came to guide him.

Initially she could not give her consent as she had to teach three others.

“Kakima came and we got introduced to each other. She called Russel a kid of five or six. He came with his aide ‘Roma’, wearing a pyjama and a house-coat with unkempt hair.

“Kakima let Russel sit beside me, apparently making that the first day of my teaching. We studied for some 15 minutes, I guess,” Gitali recounted the moments in a longing way, with her eyes lost into the past.

But as she denied on account of her three other students, Begum Mujib asked “if I could teach for at least 15-20 minutes”.

“When I told her that I would get late in returning to my home, she assured me that I don’t have to bother for that,” said Gitali. “And I was left with no option, so started teaching the kid regularly from the very next day.”

“Despite his disliking for his teachers, he had great fondness for me.”

Once, when Russel was suffering from fever, he did not take any food until Gitali reached there. “Kakima smiled at me and asked me jokingly ‘what have you done to my son?’”

Turning to Rehana, Gitali said the Badrunnesa student was ’so down to earth’ that none could realise her identity. “She used to see me during tiffin periods.”

“…But Sheikh Hasina was very notorious. She was lively,” said Gitali, adding that all the members of the family were “very passionate to me”.

But the affection of Bangabandhu was different. “There was not a single day he wouldn’t see me.” He also stopped her from standing as a mark of respect to me. “He would always ask me to keep sitting, saying ‘Sit, sit, sit in your seat Master’.”

He used to come to see his son, his studies regularly, she added.

“Russel had such an indescribably big heart.”

“One day, we discussed Gautam Buddha. And the next day Bangabandhu told me that I had done him harm, and cuddled me by telling Kakima that they had got the perfect teacher for their child.

“‘Russel asked me last night why I do not become Gautam Buddha’, Bangabandhu told me.”

The kid had sympathy for the poor. He used to give away gifts as donations. “Whenever he found any poor being cheated, Russel would take him to his father and complain.”

Russel had strong determination of mind. In Gitali’s words: “Once he failed to pass in mathematics in the half-yearly examinations. So Rehana snubbed him. But when I told him that I would take the poison, he promptly told me to wait until next time [final exams].

“And he did it. Showing the result card, Russel told me not to take poison. ‘I’ve succeeded’, he said.”

The association with Russel so complete that “most of the time during Sheikh Kamal’s wedding, I would not go due to fever, but he would keep standing at the entrance…waiting for me, Kakima told me later”.

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Dhaka, Aug 15 (bdnews24.com) – Bus services on Mymensingh, Tangail and several other routes from Mohakhali may resume from Wednesday, transporters say.

“We’ve decided to resume transport from Wednesday considering the passengers’ sufferings and Eid-ul-Fitr ahead. Declaration to this effect will come on Tuesday,” said Mohammad Abul Kalam, president of Mohakhali Bus Terminal Transport Owners’ Association, on Monday.

He, however, said that they were not happy with the initial repair work to make the highways motorable, temporarily, with bricks and sand. “We are told that those would be renovated after Eid.”

Buses and minibuses on 12 routes on Dhaka-Mymensingh and on Dhaka-Tangail highways are not plying since August 10 and 13, respectively, which apparently paralysed movement of thousands of people, demanding repair of the rundown roads.

Following this, state-run BRTC launched 20 buses on Dhaka-Mymensingh and 10 others on Dhaka-Tangail routes — hardly a match with the 300 buses run by private operators.

Passengers were seen waiting at the terminal for the BRTC buses, and the workers of private buses enjoying a leisure time.

‘STRIKE WITHOUT REASON’

A day after communications minister Abul Hossain was censured for battered roads, the BRTC chairman echoed him. “The bus owners have stopped running buses for no reason,” said M M Iqbal.

After a regular discussion in the cabinet on Sunday, several ministers and state ministers slammed Hossain for the wretched condition of roads and asked for the prime minster’s intervention.

Hossain earlier in the day told reporters at the Secretariat that the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway was ‘not unfit’, and to hammer his point, he said, “The government-run BRTC buses are still operating.”

Iqbal on Monday told bdnews24.com that people were bound suffer as the number of buses in operation was small as against the demand.

He also promised to increase the number of buses ahead of Eid.

Bus owners allege that some 25 buses have gone out of order on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in the recent days. “The slow speed of buses due to the holes on the roads also triggers jam. We’re facing losses due to increased fuel consumption,” said Abul Kalam.

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