HOME AND ABROAD

Illegally Yours

Dhaka. Five thousand. That's how many illegal buildings there are in the capital city. This, by the way, is an official count, as the Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain is the one to have stated the number at the parliament on Sunday. In Hossain's own words, these building have been constructed without authorisation or in violation of the rules of Rajuk. He further said that Rajuk detected some 321 buildings in the capital as risky. However, the minister has also claimed that drives for evicting the illegal buildings are underway. For a country which frequently finds itself under threats of natural and manmade disasters, it's a shame that our government and the capital development authority have yet to take any proper action against such illegal structures.

Heroes Turn Villains

Savar, Dhaka. This seems to be a twisted version of Robin Hood. A new breed of criminal gangs led by some current and former members of the army, RAB, and the police force has surfaced all over the country, say RAB sources. The main targets of these gangs are other criminals, especially those involved in gold smuggling and illegal transactions of foreign currency. Posing as personnel of law enforcement agencies, they usually abduct other criminals and snatch their illegal possessions. One such gang came on the radar screen of law enforcers following the arrest of a police officer and three of his cohorts in a RAB operation in Savar on February 15. RAB arrested Faziqul Islam, assistant sub-inspector at Savar Model Police Station, and his three accomplices while they were abducting a smuggler, who was illegally carrying US dollars, in Savar. The other three gang members are Rezaul Haq, a former army soldier, Sujan Sheikh, a police informer, and Miran Khan, a local criminal.

For the Want of a Bridge

Jamalpur. Villagers of five villages of Jamalpur are still waiting for a proper bridge to be built on the Saguna-Bongshi Beltail road of Melandah upazila. The bridge, built over a canal at Nagerpara village in 1962, collapsed during floods in 2010, and although the 10-metre-long foot-bridges with earthen approaches were built at Bongshi Beltail village in June, 1998, floods washed away the approaches the same year. The communication on the four-kilometre road has remained disrupted, much to the woes of the five villages. Students suffer as they have to cover additional distances to attend their classes  Patients including pregnant women become the worst sufferers while going to the upazila health complex and other treatment centres. LGED engineer Mobarak Hossain informed that even though a proposal was sent to higher authorities, no steps have been taken to repair the bridge.

The Snowball Effect

Oregon, USA. This snowball fight went way out of hand. Two math majors at Reed College lost control of a massive snowball that rolled into a dorm, knocking in part of a bedroom wall. There were no injuries, but college spokesman Kevin Myers said that it will cost $2,000 to $3,000 to repair the building. Students started building the giant snowball on a campus quad near the dorm. Urged by a crowd, the math majors tried to make the snowball as big as possible by rolling it down the sidewalk that goes past the dorm. "And the ball just got away from them," Myers said. After escaping their control, the boulder-sized snowball rolled about 15 yards before slamming into the building. Three students heard the smack and discovered the fractured bedroom wall. The student whose dorm was damaged has not had to move. The students responsible for the runaway snowball reported the incident and won't be disciplined. Myers said they didn't intend to cause damage and feel awful about what happened.

Karzai Says No to Controversial Law

Kabul, Afghanistan. Women in Afghanistan barely have the freedom to step out of their house, and their rights would have been further curbed if the president of the country hadn't intervened. The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has blocked a law that would silence victims of domestic violence, forced marriage and child abuse and demanded major revisions after a campaign by Afghan activists and western diplomats. The law was awaiting Karzai's signature after being passed by parliament last month. One article in the proposed law would have banned family members from testifying against male relatives in cases where women were abused. “The law is sent back to the MoJ (ministry of justice) for amendment," said Adela Raz, a presidential spokeswoman, without giving details.

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Playing With Fire

Puning, China. Different cultures have their own, unique way of celebrating a child's fist steps towards adulthood. A Chinese boy jumps over a bonfire at a village in Puning, southern China's Guangdong province during an annual ritual to mark their coming of age and also to bring good luck to their families.