န Bangladesh’s Cultural World Remembers Habib Tanvir

Dhaka, 25 June : Habib Tanvir will continue to live in the world he created through stage, eminent cultural personalities of Bangladesh said of the Indian theatre pioneer who died earlier this month.
They noted with deep appreciation Tanvir’s bringing to the cities indigenous theatre forms, using motifs and ideas from the rural areas. Syed Shamsul Haq, Ataur Rahman, Aly Zaker, Sayeed Ahmed and Ramendu Majumdar, among others, recalled the “inspiring presence” of Tanvir who had visited Dhaka to interact with them, The Daily Star newspaper said.
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Indian government sends 600 more security personnel to Lalgarh
New Delhi, 25 June : The Centre on Thursday sent an additional 600 security personnel to Lalgarh area of West Bengal as part of its operations against Maoists who had laid siege to nearly 50 villages there, home ministry sources said.
They said six companies of CRPF, which were put on stand by, have now been asked to proceed to Lalgarh, where the forces are almost in the final stages of their operations. With Thursday’s decision, the total number of central security personnel in Lalgarh region would be about 2,200 personnel.

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Hunger strike against Sourav's proposed school
Kolkata, 25 June : Former India captain Sourav Ganguly's ambitious school project in Salt Lake ran into further trouble as an NGO and local residents staged a hunger striker opposite the plot for the project.
The NGO, Humanity, joined hands with local residents and roped in eminent artistes like Shuva Prasanna and Sunanda Sanyal who took part in the hunger strike. A total of 115 protesters took part in the hunger strike, demanding reversal of the allotment and handing of the plot that allegedly flouted all rules by urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya.

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Eighth case of swine flu confirmed in Bangladesh

Kolkata's seven-year-old 'swine flu' patient stable

Dhaka, Kolkata, 25 June : The Bangladesh's eighth case of swine flu has been confirmed, the IEDCR said Thursday. "All bar one of the patients recently returned from the United States," Mahmudur Rahman, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told reporters.
In Kolkata, the seven-year-old girl diagnosed with the swine flu here is stable, an official of the state-run hospital where she is undergoing treatment said Thursday. The girl, who returned to the city from Australia via Bangkok Monday, was admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beliaghata after doctors at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport found her with symptoms of the disease.
This is the first confirmed case of swine flu in West Bengal. She has been kept in a designated isolation ward, the official said.

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Two killed, dozens injured in Brahmanbaria area

Brahmanbaria, 25 June : Two people died and dozens were injured when two groups of locals clashed Thursday at Shimrail village in Cosba upazila.
2 were killed in violence among two groups led by Mehari union parishad chairman Muhammad Alam Mian and influential businessman Mustafizur Rahman, a police official said. "There has long been a power struggle between chairman Alam and a wealthy local businessman Mustafizur Rahman," said Nikulin Chakma, assistant superintendant of Nabinagar circle.
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Government to continue tribal quota in NIT-Agartala

Agartala, 25 June : The Indian government has decided to continue reservation of seats for tribal and other backward community students in the National Institute of Technology (NIT) here after a high court ruling slashed the quota system for the institute, a state minister said Thursday.
The decision was taken at a meeting in New Delhi Wednesday between union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal and Tripura’s Higher Education Minister Anil Sarkar. “The minister has agreed to notify 27 percent seats for the other backward community (OBC), 15 percent for the Scheduled Castes and 7.5 percent for Scheduled Tribes students in NIT-Agartala,” Sarkar told Bengal Newz by phone from New Delhi.
The union minister has also assured to lower the cut-off marks for admission of students from Tripura. The reservation and cut-off-marks controversy cropped up last month following the Guwahati High Court’s order cancelling reservation and the Central Counselling Board’s (CCB) decision to follow a new system for admission in the NITs across the country.

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Bangladesh to protest Yangon’s maritime stand in Bay of Bengal
Dhaka, 25 June : Bangladesh is set to protest to the UN against Myanmar’s claim to the territorial sea in the Bay of Bengal, where maritime boundaries have caused disputes and led to stand-offs.
Foreign ministry officials told New Age newspaper Wednesday that Dhaka may send in its protest even before the next round of technical discussions with Yangon in mid-July. Bangladesh is sandwiched between India and Myanmar and the UN has set a deadline for the three neighbours to submit their claims by this year-end.
Apart from finalising its stance against Myanmar’s claim, Dhaka is also preparing to protest Yangon’s claim to a part of the Bay’s continental shelf. Due to the funnel-like shape of the Bay of Bengal, the claims of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar have apparently overlapped on the issue of the ’starting point’ on how to mark the exclusive economic zone from the coastline.

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Entire Indian North East region to be covered by railway network soon
Indian Railway Blog, 25 June : Indian Railways plans to bring the whole of North Eastern (NE) region on the country’s railway map within the next few years under Prime Minister’s ‘Vision 2020′ programme.
"Under the current mandate ‘Vision 2020′ all NE states will be brought under railway connectivity,” Shiv Kumar, General Manager (Construction), Northeast Frontier (NF) Railways, told UNI here today.
Work has already progressed under the scheme as Tripura’s capital Agartala has been connected to Kumarghat in August 2008. READ MORE