11th South Asian Games concludes in Bangabandhu Stadium

Dhaka, 9 February : The 11th South Asian Games conlcuded in Dhaka on Tuesday, with India on top of the medal list. India won 90 out of the 157 gold medals. Pakistan finished second on the medal tally with 19 golds while host Bangladesh grabbed 18. Sri Lanka won 16 while Nepal and Afghanistan both earned 7 golds. Bhutan and Maldives didn't won any gold medal.

At the closing ceremony held on Tuesday afternoon in Dhaka Bangabandhu National Stadium, General Abdul Mobin, Bangladesh Olympic Association President, handed over the South Asian Games flame to Suresh Kalmadi, president of Olympic Association of India, the next host country of the games. Bangladeshi President Zillur Rahman said at the closing ceremony he believed the South Asian Games created an opportunity for more closer relations among the people of the region and deepened their fraternity.
The 11th South Asian Games opened in Dhaka on29 January Around 2000 players from 8 South Asian countries and regions competed in 23 games. န Photo : Courtesy

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Halt violence for talks, P Chidambaram tells Maoists

Kolkata, 9 February : Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the government would be ready to talk to Maoist guerrillas if they called a halt to their violence. "If you abjure violence, that is if you call a halt to violence, we are not asking you do anything more, we are prepared to talk to you on any (subject)," the minister told reporters after a meeting of top officials of West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar in Kolkata. Chidambaram said that since such an offer had been spurned earlier, the government was obliged to continue with its anti-Maoist operations. "As long as the Naxals indulge in violence, these operations will continue."

Taking part in the meeting to discuss the Maoist threat were the chief ministers of West Bengal and Orissa, the two deputy chief ministers of Jharkhand and top officials of all four states.
Chidamabaram said the anti-Maoist crackdown in all these states had seen "slow but steady" progress, and cited the arrests of several key leaders of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist to back his assertion. "And contrary to what sections of the media and NGOs propagated a few months ago that there would be a massive carnage, no such thing has happened. We have made it very clear that the purpose of these operations is not to kill anyone.
"These are our own people, we care for them, we care for their lives. The object is to re-establish civil administration in areas now dominated by Maoists. I think progress will be slow but steady," he said.
He added: "You cannot measure the progress of the operation like a scoreboard in a cricket match. Progress is steady and slow. We will continue to make progress. In fact considerable progress has been made..."
The minister admitted that there were inadequacies in the security offensive but added that these would be overcome. န Photos : Avijit Mondal, AP

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Manik Sarkar calls for hike in North Eastern Council outlay

Guwahati, 9 February : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Tuesday called for increasing the proposed outlay of the North Eastern Council (NEC) for 2010-11 to at least Rs.2,000 crore, of which Rs.1,500 crore should be allocated for new projects for the NEC to achieve its stated targeted goal.
Speaking at the 58th NEC meeting here, Mr. Sarkar said the proposed outlay of Rs.1,002 crore for 2010-11 was not up to the expectation to attempt any desired and relevant action on most recommendations of the North Eastern Region (NER) Vision 2020 or to meet the 11th Five Year Plan targets.
He was also surprised that against an allocated outlay of Rs.7,394 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan, the actual allocation during the first three years was Rs.1,848 crore, a mere 25% of the total plan outlay. န Photos : Chinmoy Roy

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Maoist sympathisers burn effigies of WB CM, Chidambaram
Kolkata, 9 February : Hundreds of Maoist sympathisers, including “intellectuals” led by noted writer Mahasweta Devi, APDR's Sujato Bhadra today jostled with the police and burnt effigies of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee while a meeting to discuss strategy to combat the Maoists was on in the metropolis.
Shouting anti-government slogans, the sympathizers paraded through the city streets protesting against the proposed “Operation Greenhunt” and demanded an end to “torture of innocent people in the name of combating Maoists”.

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Bihar and Jharkhand CMs stay away from anti-Maoist meet
Kolkata, 9 February : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Jharkhand counterpart Sibu Soren today failed to turn up for a key meeting in Kolkata of chief ministers of four Maoist-affected states to fine tune the proposed offensives against the Maoists.
The meeting, convened by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to help states to coordinate their campaign against Naxals, began an hour behind schedule as Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik arrived late. Soren, who did not attend due to illness, sent his two deputy chief ministers Raghubar Das and Sudesh Mahto, while the Bihar government was represented by its home secretary Amir Subhani and DGP Anand Shankar.

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Army deploys new contingent at UN mission in Sudan
BSS, Dhaka, 9 February : Bangladesh Army has deployed a new contingent of 175 personnel at UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan (UNIMIS).
Members of the contingent, BANBAT-4, led by Major Jahangir Hossain of Artillery, left for Sudan on Sunday night by a UN chartered flight, said an ISPR release. Bangladesh Army contingents have been deployed at UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan since 2005. Now eight contingents of Bangladesh Army are working there, the release added.

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Nonstop transport strike in Khagrachhari district
UNB, Khagrachhari, 9 February : Parbatya Bangali Chhatra Parishad enforced a nonstop transport strike on two routes of Khagrachhari district on Tuesday.
The leaders of the parishad called the strike to press home their four-point demand, including ending torture on Bangalis. Transport movement on Dighinala-Baghaihat and Dighinala-Baghaichhari routes came to a halt following the strike. No untoward incident was reported till filing of this report at 1:00pm(BDST).

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BNP denounces reports on Tarique-Paresh Barua meeting

Dhaka, 9 February : BNP Parliamentary Party on Tuesday trashed the reports on different newspapers that BNP's Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman had a meeting with Ulfa leader Paresh Barua.
Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque at a press briefing at the media center of the parliament told journalists that an intelligence agency tortured Md Hafizur Rahman to concoct the story. Hafiz is the prime accused in Chittagong 10-truck arms haul case. Farroque urged the intelligence agency not to assist the government in the plot against the family members of late president Ziaur Rahman.

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7 th anniversary of 'Bangalee Shamagra' tomorrow
Dhaka, 9 February : Bangalee Shamagra, a museum dedicated to preserving the works of best Bangalees, will celebrate its seventh anniversary tomorrow.
On the occasion, the museum will hold the publication ceremony of a book entitled 'Puber Janala', an autobiography of the first Bangalee Muslim artist Kazi Abul Kashem. Prof Kabir Chowdhury will launch the book at Nazrul Mancha at the Bangla Academy. Drama personality Atiqul Haque Chowdhury, litterateur Hasan Azizul Haque, Prof Anisuzzaman and Director General of Bangla Academy Shamsuzzaman Khan will speak at the programme.

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Four arrested, arms seized at Kalyani in Nadia district
Kalyani, 9 February : Four persons were arrested and a huge cache of arms and ammunition were seized from them at Kalyani in Nadia district today, just a day ahead of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's visit to the town.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is scheduled to visit here tomorrow to inaugurate Gayeshpur stadium and a community hall named after Jyoti Basu.

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NABARD grants W Bengal Rs 857 cr for rural infrastructure

Kolkata, 9 February : India's National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned West Bengal Rs 857.81 crore during the year 2009-10 so far, the highest ever sanctioned to the State under Rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF). Recently, it has sanctioned Rs 197.51 crore under the fund, which includes Rs. 10.19 crore for cost escalations in respect of earlier tranches, to the state government. The projects sanctioned by Nabard includes construction of brick paved roads, bridges, development of agricultural farms rural markets, rural industrial estate projects, and one joint forest management project. For improving rural connectivity in the Sundarban area, an amount of Rs 40.69 crore has been sanctioned for 19 brick-paved road projects in North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts. A road length of 218 km is expected to be created under these projects. Non-recurring employment generation is expected to be 15.26 lakh man days and the projects would benefit 208 villages, according to a press release by Nabard.
An amount of Rs. 12.52 cr has been sanctioned for nine rural bridge projects in Bardhaman, Malda and Paschim Medinipur districts of the State. A total bridge length of 289.14 metres will be created under these projects. The non-recurring employment generation under this is expected to be 5.31 lakh man days and the projects would benefit a population of 1.03 lakh in 78 villages.

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Four killed as train crashed into a tempo in Tangail
Tangail, 9 February : Four people, including a four-year-old girl, were killed and another was injured as a train crashed into a tempo at Dantnazar rail crossing in Basail upazila of Tangail Tuesday morning.
Police said a Dhaka-bound train 'Silk City' from Rajshahi rammed a tempo at about 11:00am(BDST), killing the four people on the spot. The tempo was going to Korotia from Dantnazar.

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Bangladesh signs four treaties with Kuwait at Bayan Palace

BSS, Kuwait City, 9 February : Bangladesh and Kuwait signed four treaties after the official talks held between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah at Bayan Palace here Monday night.
The two countries inked the agreements on cultural promotion, economic and technical cooperation, tourism and joint commission on bilateral relations, said Prime Minister's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad after signing of the deals. Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and State Minister for Forest and Environment Hasan Mahmud initialed the treaties with their respective Kuwaiti counterparts.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah witnessed the signing ceremony. န Photo : TV grab

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Insurgent camps remain intact in Bangladesh : Tripura CM
Agartala, 9 February : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has alleged that insurgent camps continue to remain intact in neighbouring Bangladesh and those infrastructures needs to be demolished. "Insurgent infrastructure continue to be intact in Bangladesh and insurgents and their leaders having permanent bases there have not been nabbed despite red corner notices against them," Sarkar said on 7 February at the conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security in Delhi.

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