Buddhists celebrate the "Pang Lhabsol" festival :

န Rabangla, 4 September :

A Buddhist woman spins prayer wheels at Manelhakhing monastery in Rabangla town. Buddhists in the region will celebrate the "Pang Lhabsol" festival on Friday by offering the first harvested fruit of the season to Lord Buddha and Mountain Khangchendzonga to get their blessing for peace and prosperity.

န Photo : Reuters

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Tipaumukh, Trade, Transit to top India-B'desh talks

IANS, New Delhi, 4 September : India is keen to bridge differences with Bangladesh over sensitive issues like the Tipakimukh hydrolectric project and move ahead on trade and transit as Foreign Minister Dipu Moni arrives here Monday on a four-day trip, ahead of Sheikh Hasina’s visit here later this year.
This will be Moni’s first official visit to New Delhi after Sheikh Hasina rode to power in Dhaka on the strength of landslide victory in December polls last year. Moni will hold talks with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and also call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She will discuss an entire gamut of bilateral issues, including security, cooperation in combating terrorism, illegal migration, trade and investment.

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UN chief assures continued support to boost BD's democracy
UNB, Geneva, 4 September : United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon assured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of continued support for further strengthening parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh. He also gave the assurance that the United Nations would give all necessary support to Bangladesh to cope with the challenges of global climate change.
The assurances came when the Bangladesh Premier met with the UN Secretary General at the Palais des Nations here on Thursday evening. Press Secretary to prime minister Abul Kalam Azad briefed newsmen after the meeting. During the meeting, the UN secretary general invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to attend a special UN conference of heads of government and state of 25 countries to be held on 22 September in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly session. Ban Ki-moon highly appreciated the Bangladesh prime minister for her hectic efforts to improve the living standards of her country’s people and restoring democracy there. The UN secretary general recalled that he had an opportunity to meet Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1972.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, State Minister for Environment Dr Hasan Mahmud, Principal Secretary M A Karim, Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes and Permanent Representative to the UN offices in Geneva Md. Abdul Hannan was present on the occasion. န Photo : PID

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Nuke Sub, Aircraft Carrier in Kalam’s vision for A & N
Port Blair, 4 September : Former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on Friday unveiled a vision document for the strategic development of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by the year 2020.
Inaugurating a national seminar on ‘Security and Development of the Andaman and Nicobar islands’ here, Dr Kalam said that a 250 mw nuclear power station on one of the islands would form the core of the development programme. Dr Kalam said the islands being a vital part of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) of the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) would have “enhanced significance” in the next decade. He further said that the ANC should have bases for static aircraft carrier and a nuclear, Dr Kalam also called upon the Armed Forces to evolve an effective security plan for underneath the sea, at sea level and in air. “The security plan which you evolve should ensure that there is no unauthorised occupation of the vacant islands,”said Dr Kalam.
Meanwhile, Commander-in-Chief of the ANC, Vice Admiral Vijay Shankar, said that the location of these islands confers a geostrategic advantage. “Its economic and forest potential dictates a sound security presence,” he added.
Top defence and security experts, including Deputy National Security Advisor Shekhar Dutt, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India R Chidambaram, are attending the two-day seminar. န Photo : AP

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Special trains on Eid-ul-Fitr
BSS, Dhaka, 4 September : Bangladesh Railway (BR) will run seven pairs of special trains on various routes on the occasion of holy Eid-ul-Fitr. The special trains would be introduced three days before the Eid to help the homebound passengers reach their destinations smoothly.
The routes to get special trains are: Dhaka-Dewanganj, Dhaka-Mymensingh, Chittagong-Comilla, Chittagong- Chandpur (two pairs) and Joydevpur-Santahar. Bangladesh Railway Additional Director General (Operations) Kazi Asadullah said the special trains on the Joydevpur-Santahar route will carry the working people, particularly garment workers, along with general passengers.
Besides, additional compartments would be added to inter-city, express, mail and other passenger trains. The inter-city trains will ply on weekly holidays too.

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SAIL waiting for tax sops from W Bengal government

New Delhi, Kolkata, 4 September : Steel Ministry sources are disappointed with the West Bengal’s delay in offering tax incentives to SAIL.
The steel maker has taken up expansion at ISP Burnpur with an investment of INR 14,434 crore to raise capacity of the erstwhile Indian Iron & Steel Company to 2.5 million tonnes of crude steel. It is a Greenfield plant that SAIL is building and wants the State’s support. SAIL had wanted a sales tax and VAT deferral for 10 years. In a letter to the State Government last year, it had sought exemption from electricity duty payment, royalty and cess among others for a further period of five years from April 2008. It has written to the State again this year. It wants this exemption before the introduction of Goods and Services Tax which is expected to come into force next year. Under the GST regime, a tax exemption will not be possible.
Ministry sources said tax benefits have been offered to other steel makers such as Adhunik Metaliks and JSW Steel, which plan to set up an integrated steel plant in the State.

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Radio High back on air in Siliguri after five months

Radio and Music, Mumbai, 4 September : Siliguri based Radio High is back on air after staying off the airwaves for over five months.
Radio High, a broadcasting venture of Syntech Informatics, resumed operations on 25 August after shifting its studio to a different location and having sorted its differences with licensing bodies like the PPL and IPRS. Radio High managing director Milon Chakrabarty says the hiatus helped the station to refurbish itself with a new studio set up for both video and audio recordings in a location which helps it to reach a wider audience. READ FULL STORY

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Dunlop to resume Sahaganj factory production soon

Kolkata, 4 September : Kolkata-based tyre manufacturer Dunlop India will resume production at its Sahaganj factory in West Bengal around the Durga Puja festival in late September, a top company official said here in a statement Thursday.
"The Sahaganj plant will resume production either just before the Puja, or right after the Puja. Resumption of production will take about 15 days from the restoration of power supply, which may take three to four days," said Dunlop chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia in a statement."At the moment, we are evaluating whether to restart production before the Puja and then close again for the Puja holidays, or to start right after the Puja holidays and move ahead with uninterrupted production. We are open to both possibilities and look forward to an early restoration of power."
West Bengal State Electricity Development Co has disconnected power connection to the Dunlop unit on account of an outstanding bill of Rs.15.4 crore for the period when work remained suspended from last November because of the meltdown. Dunlop has re-inducted 250 workers out of its 1,100 work force after re-opening.

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Tk 68 lakh gold ornament found at Chittagong airport

Chittagong, 4 September : Customs officials found 283 tolas of gold ornaments worth around Tk 68 lakh beneath a seat of an Oman flight at Shah Amanat International Airport in the port city of Chittagong yesterday.
Sources said cleaners found four packets wrapped with polythene and black tapes beneath a seat No. 28 of an Oman air flight (No. WY895) that landed at the airport from Muscat around 9:00am. Suspecting explosives in the packets, the cleaners informed the customs and immigration police, who later called explosive experts of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

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