Roadside food 'popular' source of diseases

Roadside food and beverages remain popular in the city as always in spite of the spread of food and waterborne diseases.

Consumers and sellers care very little about the hygiene and nutrition value of the foods. This has added to the worsening situation of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases this summer, experts said.

Day labourers, rickshaw pullers and people from low-income groups tend to drink unclean water from street side sources.

"It becomes secondary whether the water is boiled when I drink from roadside sources because most of the time I remain very much tired after carrying passengers in this sweltering heat," said Barek Molla, a rickshaw- puller from Shyamoli.

"I know that water should be boiled but I don't drink boiled water at home because I don't have the time to boil water," he said.

Asked about boiling water, Pradeep, a day-labourer from Green Road, said, "I will think about it if I catch a disease."

Md Rahim, another rickshaw-puller from Goran, said, "Everybody is drinking supply water so I am also doing the same."

Roadside fruit vendors do not maintain cleanliness. Most of the time the knives used for slicing fruits are seldom washed.

In roadside tea stalls, one bucket of water is used for washing the cups and plates all day long.

"I know that boiled water should be used to wash the sliced fruits. But I use a bucket of supply water for this purpose. If I want to keep clean and boiled water I will have to carry gallons of water for which I will have to buy some buckets and a big cart to carry those. Besides, I will have to boil the water," said Wahidur Rahman, a vendor selling white flesh melon on the Dhaka University campus.

"To tell you the truth I don't have money to arrange these. I am already burdened with the soaring price of rice," he said.

Other fruit and tea vendors voiced the same opinion.

Sliced green mango, watermelon, cucumber, chanachur, jhalmuri, pickles, chotpoti, sugarcane juice, aloe vera juice and beef kebab top the list of street side food lovers.

Many have the habit of munching on food while walking and buying roadside food without thinking whether those food are fit for eating.

“I need something to munch on while walking. Who cares whether those are healthy or not," said Rizvi, a private university student.

"I never think about the hygiene of the roadside food. They are more tasty than those cooked at home. May be because they add an extra spice made of street side dust!" Morshed, a student of Jahangirnagar University, said humorously.

According to experts, people from lower income brackets are main victims of diarrhoea for lack of awareness and poor sanitation.

Dr Iqbal Hossain, an associate scientist at the ICDDR,B said that diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid, hepatitis A and jaundice can attack after intake of unhygienic food and water.

The practice of boiling water is almost absent among those who use firewood and other means of fuel other than natural gas, he said.

"Hot tea is comparatively less harmful if the teacups are washed with full boiled water. But if washed with normal or merely warm water then the risk remains," said Dr Iqbal.

In summer rivers and brooks, that are sources of drinking water, are dried up and contain high concentration of bacteria, he added.

Sources at ICDDR,B said that patients are pouring into the hospital as diarrhoea situation has worsened in the city. Most of those admitted to the hospital are rickshaw-pullers and day labourers.

The number of diarrhoea patients peak in May every year, they said.

Rabindra Sangeet in the port city

Shila Momen and Sreyoshee Roy, two Tagore exponents in Chittagong belonging to different generations, believe that one needs much practice, devotion and greater understanding of Tagore's philosophy to master Rabindra Sangeet.

But both expressed their disappointment over the lack of practice of Rabindra Sangeet in the proper way.

Shila Momen, who has been working as a cultural activist in the port city since the Pakistan era, founded 'Raktakarabi' -- a training institute -- in 1999 with a view to ensure the proper practice of Rabindra Sangeet and other genres of Bengali music including their theoretical aspects.

“During the Pakistan era, the practice of Rabindra Sangeet to us was a fight against the hostile attitude of the then Pakistani government towards everything Bengali,” Shila said.

“We observed Rabindra Jayanti (Tagore birth anniversary) with much enthusiasm, commitment and passion at that time though the programmes lacked the grandeur that is prevalent now," she went on.

After the Liberation War the foremost task of the Tagore enthusiasts was to maintain the proper practice of Rabindra Sangeet in the country while several progressive cultural personalities like Wahidul Haque, Sanjida Khatun and others from Dhaka visited Chittagong in this regard.

Activists like Mihir Nandi, Nirmal Mitra, Shila Momen and many others worked tirelessly in teaching music and organising the cultural programmes while different institutions including Sangeet Parishad, Agrani Sangha and Alauddin Lalitkala Academy played a significant role.

Now with the passage of time Rabindra Sangeet is also affected by the ongoing trend of commercialisation, Shila observed.

She believes that Tagore songs are now attracting a large number of people and practice is on the upswing with increasing number of training schools.

But the problem is that very few care for the authenticity and strict maintenance of the original notations.

Referring to the changing mode of social environment, Shila said young singers are often after fast fame.

Shila, a member of the Muhtijuddho Sangrami Shilpi Sangstha during the Liberation War, also said that certain prominent singers of the country have become more commercial.

She said it is the duty of the senior artistes and teachers to practice what they preach and only then they can help the students to understand the depth of Tagore's philosophy.

Promising local artiste Sreyoshi Roy, who is the joint secretary of Rabindra Sangeet Shilpi Sangstha Chittagong, maintains the same view.

Sreyoshi who completed her honours from Rabindra Bharati University, said, "Lots of training institutions are operating but there is a lack of quality teachers. She also said young singers are not interested enough in extensive training and preparation."

The Tagore enthusiast expressed her frustration over poorly planned programmes on Rabindra Sangeet and substandard production of Tagore plays in Chittagong.

“The organisations remain confined in just observing birth and death anniversaries of Tagore and stay inactive for the most part all year round,” she said.

Both artistes however have not lost their hopes and are determined to work towards ensuring proper practice of Rabindra Sangeet in Chittagong.

Stop hill cutting, settlement in foothills to avoid disaster

Experts tell govt in their report

RECKLESS HILL CUTTING: The photo was taken from Lake City

Residential project in the Foy's Lake area on Sunday.

The technical and expert committee in its report has suggested introduction of a separate and complete rule for preservation and development of hills in Chittagong to avert casualties and damages of properties during landslides.



The committee sent the report to cabinet division on April 21 suggesting measures to stop hill cutting and not to allow housing in foothills, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Md Zafar Alam, also member secretary of the committee.



The 11-member committee headed by divisional commissioner of Chittagong also recommended formation of strong vigilance teams comprising experts and representatives from government, non-government organisations and civil society. It also underscored the need for creating mass awareness to check new settlements in the vulnerable foothill areas.



To discourage settlements in such areas it suggested to allow 30 percent of the land recovered through illegal levelling of hills for raising buildings having maximum three storeys and no structure on hills with slopes measuring 30 degree or more, said the sources in the committee.



The report also recommended that the people from vulnerable areas be evacuated in phases and rehabilitated keeping their employments in mind.



The cabinet division formed the expert and technical committee on August 26 last year seeking recommendations to avert landslides that cause huge casualties and damages to properties in the hilly areas every year.



The technical committee was formed after a 14-member probe committee submitted report on the rain-induced landslide that claimed 127 lives in the port city and its suburbs on June 11 last year.



Over 70 other people were also killed in landslides here since 1998.



Around 12 percent of the country's landscape is hilly while most of them are situated in Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet, said the sources.



The report said seven of the 12 planning zones under CDA master plan have more or less hills. The hills are divided into four categories untouched hills of H0 category, slightly changed hills of H1 category, hills of H2 category that witnessed massive levelling and seriously damaged hills of H3 categories where brick kilns were set up.



In line with the Detailed Area Plan of CDA master plan the technical committee emphasised on preserving the hills of H0 and H1 categories, allowing low density residential area on the levelled portion of H2 category hills and closing down the brick kilns at the H3 category hills to bring the damaged areas under immediate plantation programme.



It suggested developing buffer zone of 100m wide plantation along the bottom of hills to separate the hilly areas.



To stop illegal growth of brick kilns the report suggested that no brick kilns should be allowed inside the city area, amid the hills or within 500 meters of the bottoms of hills. The ditches created by the existing brick kilns should be turned into water reservoirs or forestland in a planned way.



The committee suggested identifying areas for brick kilns activities outside the city and legal measures against those who have already caused massive destruction of landscape with brick kilns.



For proper and safe management of hills the committee recommended for coordinated land-use plan and watershed management through development, renovation and preservation of canals and springs.



It suggested development of drainage system as per the master plan, developing water reservoirs in the foothills and slip-traps at regular intervals at the bottom of hills.



It also suggested giving rights to every citizen to lodge case against hill cutting.



The report has given guidelines and suggestions for introducing short-term, mid-term and long-term plans to be implemented in the current year, two years and three years respectively.

Commuters suffer as CNG drivers ignore new fare structure

Drivers of the autorickshaws are forcing the passengers to pay additional fares in the port city following the doubling of the price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).



They are not following the new fare structure fixed by the government on April 26.



The traffic department of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) succeeded to force the drivers use meters in their vehicles and charge the government-fixed fare since January 1.

Drivers of CNG-autorickshaws stop using meter following

price hike of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

But the commuters could enjoy the benefit only for four months as the drivers stopped using the meters and increased the fare on the pretext of price hike of CNG.



The government raised the price of a cubic meter of CNG to Tk 16.75 from Tk 8.50 on April 24, asking the owners and drivers of the CNG-driven transports not to increase the fares until the new rates are settled. But, the drivers made no waste of time to stop using meters and hike the fares by 50 per cent blaming the price hike of CNG.



Although the government promptly raised fares for CNG-run autorickshaws and other transports to adjust with the new price of CNG, but the drivers continue to realise extra fare.



Under the new fare structure, initial charge has been fixed at Tk 18 for any distance up to two kilometres as against Tk 13.50 previously. Fare for each extra kilometre has been raised to Tk 6 from Tk 5.50.



But the drivers are charging higher than the government fixed fare, causing sufferings to the commuters in the port city.



Sharfuddin, a passenger, said according to the new fare structure it might take not more than Tk 36 to reach Anderkilla from Choumuhani, a distance of five kilometres, but the drivers charge Tk 50 and on some occasions more than that.



Passengers said the meters have neither been calibrated according to the new fare structure nor the drivers have hung any chart of fares in their vehicles.



No meter was found calibrated in the autorickshaws in the city on Sunday. Besides, the drivers did not hang any price chart in their vehicles.



The autorickshaw owners and drivers said they have yet to get new price chart from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to hang it in their vehicles.



Deputy Commissioner (DC) CMP (traffic) Mohammad Ali Mia said they still did not get new price chart from the BRTA. He, however, said they will take steps in this regard immediately after getting the price chart.



Additional Director (AD) of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) Chittagong Sheikh Md Ataullah Chowdhury said they have taken steps to publish advertisement on the new fare list in the newspapers. He said they have sent letters to the leaders of CNG-auto-rickshaw owners association and the meter installation companies to start calibration of meters immediately according to the new chart.

Dhaka-Kolkata train

We got much enthusiastic as we heard about the introduction of Dhaka-Kolkata Moitree train service. We thought that now it would be easy, cheaper, and comfortable to go on a holiday trip to India. But what I have learned from some passengers who have availed of the opportunity is rather disappointing. The train service has a lot of problems, one being the transfer of passengers through the immigration. A huge time is wasted in completing formalities while entering and leaving India.

Would the authorities in the two countries please take effective measures to make the Dhaka-Kolkata train service hassle-free, comfortable and enjoyable?

Potato campaign launched to

A three-day ‘Bangladesh Potato Campaign 2008’ was launched on Wednesday to encourage farmers in growing the vegetable that promoters believe can reduce pressure on rice.

We are not asking the people to change their food habits, but if consumption of potato is increased, it will reduce pressure on rice’, said agriculture adviser CS Karim while kicking off the national campaign at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center.

The government launched the campaign in the wake of a bumper production of potato this season.

According to the statistics of the Department of Agriculture Extension, the production of potato this year was nearly 92.37 lakh metric tonnes from 5.2 lakh hectares compared to 44 lakh metric tonnes from 3.9 lakh hectares last season. The increase in production this year was about 40 per cent. Potato production in 2001-02 was only 35 lakh MT from 3.25 lakh hectares.

‘People look for alternatives during food crisis in every country and as we have a bumper potato harvest, a little change in food habit will help increase its consumption’, said the chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed.

An increase in potato intake will provide a double benefit – it will help the farmers who have reaped a bumper harvest and there will be a decline in the demand for the high-priced rice, Moeen said.

FAO representative AD Spijkers and a representative from potato farmers addressed the inaugural function of the campaign organised jointly by FAO and the army’s CSD Bangladesh. Agriculture secretary M Abdul Aziz chaired it.

The bumper potato harvest has created storage problems as the 16 cold storages of the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation have a maximum capacity of nearly 20 lakh MT while the nearly 300 cold storages in the private sector can store another 22 lakh MT.

The additional production of nearly 30 lakh MT cannot be exhausted quickly even if consumption increases considerably, the agriculture secretary noted in his speech and stressed the need for the farmers’ awareness about techniques to store potato in household conditions for at least three months.

There has been a surplus production of potato this year throughout the world and the United Nations has declared 2008 as the ‘World Potato Year’ urging the people to eat more of the starchy vegetable.

The per capita consumption of potato in the developed countries is about 100 kilogram compared to only 24 kg in Bangladesh.

The 3-day national campaign includes display and free sampling of potato products by top food processing companies, restaurants and hotels at the stalls set up at the BCFCC. Rally, talk shows, cooking competitions, and a number of cultural programmes, including concerts, are also part of the campaign to promote consumption of potato.

Free distribution of ice-cream and also spicy items made of potato by the army-run five-star Radisson hotel attracted a large number of visitors at their stall on the opening day of the campaign.

Armed Forces sends relief

A five-member delegation of the Bangladesh Armed Forces left Dhaka on Wednesday to participate in the relief and salvage operations in cyclone-hit Myanmar.

Under the government decision, the Armed Forces team, led by Brig Gen Taslim Uddin Khan, flew to the cyclone-ravaged country by a BAF-130 transport aircraft, an ISPR release said.

The chief of air staff, Air Marshal SM Ziaur Rahman, saw the team off at Kurmitola Air Base. The Myanmar ambassador to Bangladesh, U Nyan Lynn, the Quarter Master General of the Bangladesh Army, Lt Gen Jahangir Alam Choudhury, and senior military officials were present on the occasion.

The delegation will hand over relief goods to the Myanmar authorities on behalf of the Bangladesh government as a gesture of friendship and deepest sympathy for the neighbouring country.

The relief items include potato, medicine, oral saline, water-purification tablets, Burmese thami, lungis, pant, napkins and other clothes and shelter items.

BTRC won’t extend mobile

The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission will not extend the May 31 deadline for re-registration of mobile phone subscribers, said its chairman, Manjurul Alam, on Wednesday.

Manjurul told that the mobile SIM cards without re-registration would be blocked gradually after the 31 May deadline expires.

He also warned that if any of the SIM cards was blocked, it would not be allowed to open again.

The BTRC chairman said that as per the information provided by the mobile operators, 70 per cent of the subscribers had already been re-registered. He said that the re-registration of the rest of the subscribers could be completed by May 31.

The BTRC has so far extended the re-registration deadline for four times in response to the requests of the mobile operators.

The regulatory body in August, 2007 decided that the operators would complete re-registration by October 16, 2007. Then it extended by deadline till December 16 before setting the new deadline on February 16, 2008. Now it has fixed May 31 as the deadline.

A celebration of the soul

Tagore’s 147th birth anniversary today

The 147th anniversary of birth of poet Rabindranath Tagore will be celebrated today.

Tagore was a poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped the Bangla literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He was born on May 7, 1861 in Kolkata, India. But the occasion came to be celebrated on Baishakh 25 of the Bangla calendar. He died in Kolkata on August 7, 1941.

He was Asia’s first Nobel laureate by winning Nobel prize in literature in 1913 for his collection of verses called Gitanjali.

There is the primordial which comes with any remembrance of Rabindranath Tagore. Go beyond the clichés, the ordinary, the stereotyped. Yes, Tagore remains the foremost figure in Bengali literature. That only opens up a whole range of discussion, in the academic sense of the meaning of course. His place in history, in the overall Bengali scheme of things, then take centre stage. But leap across all that and in your own individual way try feeling Tagore in the soul. As the day wanes in the steep decline of twilight, sing Amar jey deen bheshe gechhey chokher-o joley; and a slight thump in your heart will speak to you once more of the eternal loneliness of man in a forbidding universe.

And yet there is Gogoney gogoney aponar-o mon-e ki khela, a veritable celebration of Creation. In Tagore, therefore, subsisted a man for all seasons, a being in whom came encompassed an entirety of life and thoughts of what lay beyond it. Listen to Himadri Shekhor recreate that Tagorean ambience with Tumi robe nirobe, with Aami ki gaan gaabo jey bhebey na pai. You get the sense once more of why the Bard continues to exercise such a powerful hold on the Bengali imagination. And that imagination, you will have noticed by now, is but a seductively charming combination of the lyrical and the romantic, interspersed with the magical. Debabrata Biswas brought it all out in his renditions of Tagore's songs. Go looking for his Gaaye amar pulok laagey or Aaji joto tara tobo akashey. Hum, if you will, Gopone dekhechhi tomar byakul noyon-e bhaaber khela. Chances are the universe will come to be symbolised in you; or you will move away, even if momentarily, from the banalities that afflict the world you are part of.

In our times, here in Bangladesh, if you have not heard Mohiuzzaman Chowdhury sing Diner sheshey ghoomer deshey, you have missed a whole lot. His is a voice which brings deep pathos with its flow; and there is then Mita Haque, for this generation a symbol of everything Tagore should be for all generations. When she sings Tumi kon bhangoner pothey ele shupto raatey, it is the coruscating stillness of the night that begins pounding away in your soul. In an earlier time there was Papia Sarwar in our part of the world. And, to be sure, individuals of a high calling --- and you have Waheedul Haque, Sanjida Khatun and Kalim Sharafi in mind --- responsible for a preservation and enrichment of the Tagore heritage have always been there. On the other side of this large pasture there has been the overwhelming presence of Suchitra Mitra, of others. Chinmoy may not have appealed to the perfectionists, but his songs have generally been our initiation into the world of Tagore music. Think of Amar mon kemon kore. And Sagar Sen? All these years after his passage into nothingness, he remains our claim on Tagorean romanticism, at least part of it. His soul comes searing through in Prokhoro topono taape akash trishaye kaanpe.

But you do not really recall Tagore without letting the mind travel back to the world of Subinoy Roy. In Tumi daak diyechho kon shokale, in Hridoy amar prokash holo ononto akashe, you get a sense of the pristine world that once defined life around us, in us. It was again pristine, soulful romance that came alive when Hemonto sang Tomaye gaan shonabo tai to amaye jagiye rakho. It is all part of the Tagorean ethos, this ability to raise love to the heights of sublimity. You appreciate the beauty that defines womanhood, you sing paeans to the beloved and then you give it a push of Olympian proportions to make it come level with the heavens. It is the gods who stand transformed into objects of your love. Close your eyes and hum Chiro bondhu chiro nirbhor choro shanti tumi he probhu. You will get a fairly good idea of things. Or there is that pure buzz of romance, as in Amar praaner pore chole galo ke boshonter batash tukur moto. Remember how in all the callowness of our youth we made amends, somewhat, by lip-syncing that evergreen number Amar-o poran-o jaha chaye tumi tai go?

On 25th Baishakh, therefore, we do more than celebrate Tagore. We celebrate the cultural traditions we are heir to. As the evening descends and we make our way to the banks of the river to rue over the loss of another day, the strains of a song are heard along the waltzing waves. Aaji shaanjher Jamunaye-go toruno chander kirono tori bheshe jaaye-go rekindles the sensibilities in us.

Chittagong businesses for speedy gas exploration to face crisis

Business leaders of Chittagong yesterday urged the government for expediting gas exploration to cope with the countrywide gas crisis.

The businesses of Chittagong that have a concentration on heavy industries are also apprehending that new investment in Chittagong may come to a standstill due to government's recent decision not to give any new gas connection in the region.

They said the decision would not only frustrate the entrepreneurs but also seriously hold back the flow of foreign direct investment in the country.

M Tamim, chief adviser's special assistant for power, energy, and mineral resources, on Monday said the government will follow a 'cautious' policy in giving new industrial gas connections in and around Dhaka and has decided not to provide any new gas connection in Chittagong region.

“We know that there is acute shortage of gas in the country. The situation has been aggravated due to a production dip at the offshore Sangu Gas Field in recent time. But that doesn't necessarily mean the government should deprive Chittagong of any new gas supply,” said Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), at a press conference.

He said, “The country's industrialisation is now under serious threat due to gas shortage. And Chittagong, the commercial hub of Bangladesh, is experiencing the brunt more than any other region. Therefore, we request the government to take immediate steps for offshore drilling to find new gas fields so that we can meet the ever-increasing demand for gas.”

Many newly built industrial units in Chittagong are now sitting idle, unable to go into production due to gas crisis, he said.

CCCI president said entrepreneurs of a large number of these units are now on the verge of bankruptcy due to unpaid bank loan.

He requested the government to arrange for gas supply to Chittagong from Baghabari and Begumganj gas fields as 'interim measures'.

Saifuzzaman also stressed the need for forming a cell, comprised of public and private sector representatives, for the greater development of the port city.

Terming the government's agreement with Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Ltd as 'inappropriate', he said the government should cancel it.