Bangladesh's urban population may rise to 141 million by 2051

BSS, Dhaka, 17 July : More than 140.89 million people would live in the urban areas by 2051 when the Bangladesh's total population is projected to rise to 218 million.
Although Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) projects the population size to be 218 million, experts say it may swell to 243 million during the period. The rise in population, according to the experts, is determined by increase in middle age people, urban population as well as decrease in dependency ratio of the people.
The population is growing rapidly, particularly in the urban areas, mostly due to population momentum and migration from rural areas, Prof M Ataharul Islam of Statistics, Biostatistics and Informatics of Dhaka University, told BSS today.

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Tripartite talks on Darjeeling issue on 24 July in New Delhi
Kolkata, 17 July : The next round of political- level tripartite talks on the Darjeeling issue will be held on 24 July in New Delhi.
This will be the sixth round of talks to hammer out a solution on the vexed issue, West Bengal Home Secretary Samar Ghosh said here today. Talking to reporters, Ghosh said that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will decide who will represent the state at the talks.

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Two ULFA leaders arrested in Bangladesh's Kishorganj

PTI, Dhaka, 17 July : Bangladesh authorities arrested two suspected leaders of banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) from Bhairab sub-district of northern Kishorganj, officials said.
The two suspects were arrested with arms and small bombs by the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) troops in a pre-dawn raid. "We have arrested ULFA leaders Ranjan Chowdhury, more known as so-called Major Ranjan, and Pradip Marak from Lakkhipur area of Bhairab," RAB spokesman Lieutenant Commander Mohammad Sohail said. Without making any elaborate comments immediately, he said the two were arrested along with a sophisticated pistol, a revolver and four small bombs during the raid.
The announcement comes months after ULFA chief Arbinda Rajkhowa had been arrested from Bangladesh territory and subsequently handed over to Indian authorities. Another ULFA stalwart Anup Chetia was arrested from Dhaka during the past 1996-2001 Awami League regime and still is in "security custody" despite the expiry of his jail term for cross border intrusion. န Photo : Reuters

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Maharaja of Tripura opposes renaming 'Agartala airport'
IANS, Shillong, 17 July : Days after the Tripura assembly passed a resolution proposing renaming of Agartala airport after Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, a member of the Tripura royal family opposed the move terming it an attempt to “play communal politics”.
Maharaja Kirit Pradyot Deb Barman Manikya Bahadur Saturday said he opposed the proposal to rename Agartala airport after Tagore. He said the airport should be name after Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, who had built it. “A majority of the people of Tripura feel the airport should be named after the maharaja,” Pradyot told IANS.

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Passenger train services in northeast India still disrupted

IANS, Silchar, 17 July : Passenger train services between the northeastern states of Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam and the rest of India are yet to be restored even after one month of disruption following landslides, officials said Saturday.
The services were suspended in the region 15 June following heavy landslides and damage to tracks due to torrential rains. “We are unable to announce when passenger train services between Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam and the rest of India via North Cachar Hills district would resume,” Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Chief Spokesman Subrata Hajong told IANS over phone from Guwahati.
The metre gauge railway line from Guwahati passes through southern Assam’s North Cachar Hills district connecting landlocked Tripura’s capital Agartala and parts of Manipur and Mizoram with the rest of India.

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Again Maoists kill three persons in West Midnapur district
PTI, Jhargram, 17 July : Maoists killed three activists of CPI(M) in three separate incidents in West Midnapore district Saturday.
According to police, Bokui Murmu, a CPI(M) supporter and a farm labourer of Bhandradahi village in the district was murdered Saturday afternoon, while Sitaram Mandi, former CPI(M) Panchayat Pradhan and Sayan Pal were killed early Saturday. In a separate incident, a group of 10-12 heavily armed rebels raided Neguria village in the district and dragged Sayan Pal out of his house and murdered him.

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Five killed, five injured in a fatal road accident in Rajshahi
UNB, Rajshahi, 17 July : Five people, including a child, were killed and another five injured in a fatal road accident at Kamarpara in Godagari upazila Saturday morning.
Police quoting local people said the accident took place at about 10am(BDST) when a Rajshahi bound Mahananda Paribahan bus dashed a tempo coming from opposite direction, leaving three tempo passengers dead on the spot and seven others injured. Later, two of the injured died at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital while condition of four others was stated to be critical.

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Two elephant calves killed in Assam’s Kaziranga Natl Park
Guwahati, 17 July : Two elephant calves were killed in separate incidents in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park on Saturday, officials said.
According to report, a six-year old elephant calf died after it was hit by a speeding vehicle on NH-37 inside the park in the wee hours of Saturday. “When the killed elephant calf was trying to cross the NH-37 at Amguri under Burapahar Forest Range office in the Park, a speeding vehicle, coming from Jorhat to Guwahati, hit the calf. It died on the spot,” a senior forest official said. In a separate incident, a five-month elephant calf died after it fell into a deep pond in the northern range area inside the park on Saturday evening, officials said.

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TMC MP Subhendu Adhikari supplied arms to Maoists: CID

Kolkata, 17 July : West Bengal police’s criminal investigation department (CID) claimed on Friday to have received evidence against Trinamool Congress MP Subhendu Adhikari of supplying arms and ammunition to Maoists for countering CPI(M) during the Nandigram violence in 2007 which claimed over 70 lives. Tamluk MP Subhendu is the son of MoS for rural development Sisir Adhikari, who led the land movement in Nandigram.

The CID report submitted to the state home department said that during the Nandigram movement, Subhendu took the help of Maoists to counter CPI(M) activists in the region and in return supplied over 1,000 rounds of ammunition to the Maoists. The report also claimed that they recently arrested Madhusudan Mondal, the Maoist zonal committee secretary at Nandigram, who confessed that Subhendu had supplied arms to the rebels.
As per the report, Mondal also confessed that Maoists had set up base in Nandigram only after March 2007. As active supporters of the Trinamool-led Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (Land Eviction Resistance Committee), the rebels trained the committee activists on how to use arms.
Subhendu, however, called the report baseless. “It is a deliberate attempt to malign me and the image of my party. Our movement was always peaceful and hence only our activists were killed,” he said.
Not very long ago, there was ruckus in parliament following a news report that Sisir Adhikari had given money to a Bangladeshi arms dealer to supply arms to BUPC activists to fight CPI(M) cadres. Adhikari had denied the charge.

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Andaman's CARI gets ''Sardar Patel best institute award"
UNI, Port Blair, 8 July : The Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), Port Blair, has been awarded with ''Sardar Patel Best Institute Award'' by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for the year 2010, in recognition of work done by the institute in the last five years.
''In last 32 years, this institute has bagged this award for the first time,'' Dr SK Zamir Ahmed, senior scientist at CARI told UNI.

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Ready to answer Govt's unified command plan : Kishenji

PTI, Kolkata, 17 July : Top Maoist leader Kishenji on Friday said they are ready to tackle the government's decision to use unified command structures in four states to fight Maoists, and vowed to take revenge of Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad's death.
"We appeal to the Indian Army and Air Force not to use military power against the people of the country. We are also ready to answer the government's use of firepower against us," Kishenji told PTI from an undisclosed location. He claimed that the deployment of joint forces to combat Maoists was a blunder and has been unsuccessful.

Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal will have a unified command structure headed by their chief secretaries for better coordination among police, paramilitary and intelligence agencies.
Asked about talks with the government, he said, "The government doesn't want talks. It is very clear from the cold blooded murder of Azad." Noting that Azad had been negotiating with the government and preparing the ground work for talks, he said, "By killing him on 1 July in Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh all roads to dialogue had closed."
Vowing revenge, Kishenji said, "His sacrifice will not go in vain." He also claimed that the people had a right to minerals and natural resources of the country. "We will not let anyone to grab this. The people under the leadership of Maoists will fight this injustice."

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