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Head lines Bangladesh requires strong Air Force: PM BSS, Dhaka, The New Nation
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia addressing the Officers of the Bangladesh Air Force at Falcon Hall at Tejgaon on Sunday. Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in city on Sunday said keeping in view the country's geo-political and strategic position, Bangladesh requires to turn its Air Force into a stronger force through optimum utilisation of its limited resources under a well-thought and well-planned programme. Addressing the officers of Bangladesh Air Force in Falcon Hall at Tejgaon, Begum Zia said her government would take up all measures as per its ability for modernising and strengthening of the Air Force to meet the demand of the time and incongruity with the overall defence system and national security. Begum Zia urged the officers to imbibe them with patriotism, honesty, self-confidence, firmness and discipline to overcome everything on way to turning the Air Force into a unique and standard force. The Prime Minister, who is also in charge of the ministry of defence, underlined the need for procuring latest equipment and attaining professional skill to enable the Air Force to keep pace with other modern air forces of the globe. Keeping this in mind, she said, her government has given permission to the Air Force to participate in joint exercises and training with other countries to make the country's Air Force into a time-befitting and stronger one. Begum Zia hoped that the Air Force would be able to attain gradually professional, technical and organisational skill and ability of global standard through participating in such exercises and training. She asked all concerned to work in a body to build a strong armed forces and a peaceful and prosperous Bangladesh. The Prime Minister said the country's defence system is not offensive but defensive and added keeping this reality in view the Air Force has a significant role to play as regards the national security. Earlier, on her arrival at the Air Headquarters at Dhaka Cantonment, the Prime Minister was received by Chief of the Air Staff Air Vice Marshal Fakhrul Azam. Begum Zia was given a guard of honour by a smartly turned out contingent of Bangladesh Air Force. She took the salute. Later, Chief of the Air Staff welcomed the Prime Minister at Air Headquarters and paid tributes to Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman for his valuable contribution towards the development of the Air Force and making it into a modern force. He also expressed gratitude for taking up similar measures by the past BNP government during 1991-96 for the modernisation of the force. The Prime Minister also witnessed a presentation on the activities of Bangladesh Air Force at the Air Headquarters. The Prime Minister paid tributes to Shaheed Birshresta Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman and also those members of Air Fore who had laid down their lives in the country's war of independence. Begum Zia also recalled the contribution of members of the armed forces for their supreme sacrifices in the country's liberation war. Lauding the role of Air Force in the country's independence war, the Prime Minister said "Bangladesh Air Force has now become a national pride." The Air Force, she said, has now become an inseparable part of the country's national security and safeguarding system. The Prime Minister said Bangladesh as a nation is freedom loving and self-dignified and at the same time peace-loving too. She also recalled the steps undertaken by Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman in building a strong air force and opening up doors of cooperation in the field of defence with its friendly countries. Begum Zia said her past BNP government had also taken necessary efforts in the light of the steps undertaken by Shaheed Zia for expanding and strengthening of the Air Force. She said in the recent past massive corruption and irregularities were entertained in the purchase and procurement of military equipment, resulting in the limitless wastage of resources. The Prime Minister said her government would spend the money allocated for the Air Force for its development and welfare of the members of the force. She reminded the members of Air Force that procurement of the latest technology would not suffice in attaining desired ability and urged them to ensure effective application and optimum utilisation of national resources through their professional skill, obedience and honesty. Begum Zia assured them of resolving their problems and inconveniences, and announced the abolition of flight sergeant post and introduction of warrant officer, senior warrant officer and master warrant officer instead from October next. Lauding the role of the members of armed forces of the country in the UN Peace Keeping Force, the Prime Minister said the government would take steps to enable more officers of the Air Force to participate in the UN Peace Keeping Force in future. Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman, Political Secretaries to the Prime Minister, Haris Chowdhury and Mosaddek Ali, and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr Kamal Siddiqui were present. Dengue in alarming stage: 14 die Staff Reporter, The New Nation
Dengue patient being treated at DMCH.:New Nation photo Dengue fever has reached an alarming state in the metropolis claiming fourteen lives, 12 of them in Dhaka. Some 1038 persons were infected so far. Every day more and more people are getting infected with dengue fever with government and private hospitals and clinics overcrowded with dengue patients. Prominent virologist Dr. Tauhiduddin Ahmed says the dengue situation has taken a serious turn. However, Prof Tofael Ahmed said that the situation was not alarming. This year the number of people getting infected with haemorrhagic dengue is comparatively higher than previous years. This type of dengue fever is life threatening and causes deaths, according to Dr. Tauhid. An Associate Professor of BSMMU, Dr. ABM Abdullah said since more and more people were taken with this fever the patients were not getting beds in hospitals. Meanwhile, Minister for Health Dr. Khandokar Mosharraf Hossain has said many doctors have already been trained in dengue fever treatment. So the number of deaths caused by dengue fever this year is less, the minister says. The Minister said, "though not alarming the dengue fever has caused concern because an increasing number of people are getting infected." He said necessary directives had been given to hospitals to deal with the situation effectively. Moreover, Dr. Mosharraf said, steps had also been taken to create awareness among the people on how to prevent the disease and the DCC had been requested to take appropriate measure to destroy mosquitoes. The DCC plans to undertake special spraying programme to combat the Aedes mosquitoes. There are also reports of outbreaks of Dengue fever in Chittagong and Khulna. AAA awards scholarships to 3 students Staff Reporter, The New Nation
Mr Christopher W. Webster (5th from right), Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy, Dhaka along with members of the AAA Executive Committee and recipients of AAA scholarships are seen at a function held at AAA office at Banani in the city. The American Alumni Association (AAA) awarded scholarships of Tk 75,000 each to three students who had received admission in American universities for the coming fall semester. The three students are Farah Josephine Saleh (Undergraduate at University of Illinois, Urbana Champaigne), Munzarin Fatema Qayyum (Undergraduate at Wellesley College) and Khandaker Rakibur Rahman (Ph.D at Princeton University). Mr Christopher W. Webster, Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy was present during the scholarship-giving ceremony held at the AAA office in Banani (House No. 145, Road No. 13B, Block-E). Members of the AAA Executive Committee--Dr Azizur Rahman Khan (President), Mr Syed Almas Kabir (Secretary) and Mr Paul Poletes (standing in for Treasurer, Karl Fritz) were also present to hand over the scholarships. A fourth scholarship of the same amount will be awarded at the end of the month. DCC to manage waste at community
level Staff Correspondent, the Daily Star The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) will undertake a pilot project on community-level solid waste management, involving ward commissioners and civil society. The project will focus on construction of community transfer stations at three municipal wards, yet to be specified. The DCC will manage the stations with technical assistance from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The decision came following a delegation of four members from the BUET Centre for Environmental and Resource and The Daily Star met Mayor Sadek Hossain Khoka yesterday. "We will start construction of the stations immediately. Lessons learnt from the pilot projects will be used to spread community-level waste management to other areas and eventually to all the 90 wards," Khoka later told The Daily Star. "I believe this is a good initiative and we would definitely support such an idea." The delegation met the mayor to place the five-point recommendation, put forth recently at a roundtable on management of solid waste and storm-water drainage, held under the banner 'Make Dhaka Liveable'. An action plan to implement the recommendations was also presented to the mayor, who also took part in the July 18 roundtable. The roundtable recommended 'implementation of integrated approach to solid waste management' at Matual site as well as other planned waste disposal sites and immediate construction of 'community transfer station' at two or three locations in Dhaka, with more to follow as land become available. Other recommendations were for re-excavation of khals and lakes removing illegal encroachment and cleaning of drainage network and box culverts; protection of retention pond areas through proper demarcation and fencing and ensuring operation of pump-stations at full capacity and increasing people's awareness through electronic and print media and involving people in all relevant activities. Each community transfer station will have about ten kathas of government land on which a huge storehouse will be constructed to accommodate empty waste containers placed at the ground level. Each van carrying garbage, mostly organic waste, will drive straight into the storehouse or station and empty the garbage into each empty container. As soon as a container is filled out a truck will carry it to a waste disposal site located at a different place. "The advantage of this design is to avoid the nuisance created by containers placed on the streets. The station will act as a place where all the containers will be housed to transfer the collected waste to a disposal site," said Professor Md Mujuibur Rahman, the leader of the delegation and also chief architect of the community transfer station. "We don't know yet how much it would cost but the idea is to avoid dumping waste into roadside containers and unnecessarily creating traffic jam as we see now," he said. The mayor along with the delegation members will pay a visit to the Waste Concern, an NGO making compost from solid waste at Mirpur, Thursday afternoon.
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