The first train for Kolkata would leave on Pahela Baishakh, April 14 as planned. That’s just a few days away. If there are no more hassles this will open up a new horizon in the people-to-people relations between the two countries, especially those living on two sides of the border but speaking the same language and sharing common culture and heritage. Not many are aware that thousands of people cross the international border every day using buses and air routes.

Millions across Bangladesh were all praise for the anti-corruption drive after the 1/11 changeover. But, in fact, corruption remains where it was. This is because, most of people today tend to make extra money through illegal means only to survive. Morals fade away when rice and ata go beyond their reach. Empty stomachs hardly heed morals. Yes, none takes bribe openly today. It is taken through the backdoor.

A fundamental transformation of our administrative system and public agencies to create increases in their effectiveness, efficiency, adaptability is essential today. The very first aspect that needs transformation is that of the recruitment policies and procedures in the civil service cadres . One of the elements of the recruitment policy and procedures that needs immediate revision is the existing quota system.

The Education Adviser, Dr Hossain Zillur Rahaman, has rightly said that there was no alternative to quality education for prosperity. He was speaking at the prize giving ceremony of annual sports and cultural competition of the Ishpahani School and College in the city on Saturday. The Adviser said that the government was working with effective reforms and necessary supports to improve the overall state of education.

It is in fact, the responsibility of the government of the day to ensure food at prices the people can afford. Citing rise in international prices means sidetracking the issue. If international prices of essential food items are high, then the government shall have to find ways and means to subsidize the prices. All other things can wait. In fact, the coming days are going to be even more difficult.

Independence Day observed

This year independence day was observed in a way that adds importance. This was characterized by lighting of candles. Such national resolve to uphold the principles of the War of Liberation surely augurs well for our future. We note here the rekindling of the old wartime spirit in recent weeks among the people of Bangladesh by such bodies as the Sector Commanders' Forum.

The incidents of road accidents have of late been on rise. These claim some 1.2 million people annually across the world. It is much more shocking that as high as 85 percent of the accidents occur in developing countries like Bangladesh. Road mishap is a very dangerous peril of our country. Newspapers and TV channels almost daily cover incidents of road mishaps killing and injuring many people. Many of the survivors become permanently disable.

The draft of the proposed Right to Information Ordinance is full of contradictions and paradoxes. This is definitely disheartening. Panelists at a roundtable in the city on Saturday observed that if it comes out as a law it would never be able to ensure people’s right to information. They found the draft vague and full of unspecified terms. So they requested the authorities concerned either to define or omit such terms.

Anti-Corruption Commission has been collecting data and information about corruption in the fertilizer sector and irregularities in appointment of dealers, according to report. The report also says that the ACC will fix a way after receiving the data and information their divisional and district offices. We hope the officials concerned will not take much time in taking necessary actions. Fertilizer crisis has been hitting the farmers of the country very hard.

That Bangladesh Bank has asked commercial banks to provide fresh loans on an emergency basis to help rehabilitate the poultry farms is a welcome move. Poultry industry has to be protected at all costs as, apart from the economic recovery, it’’ll also help solve the nutritional problem as poultry birds and eggs meet much of our nutrition requirements.

As WFP predicts rising prices of food items trigger political and social unrest in Bangladesh, the interim government alone has to bear the responsibility for it. The govt. simply ignored all past warnings of economists, politicians and civil society members about it. It continued to bask under the glory of ‘saving the country from utter lawlessness before 1/11’.

It sounds confusing when Commerce Adviser says that that the government is seriously considering exemption of import duty on rice and that there could be duty cutbacks on some other essential commodities. The adviser's conditional statement appears out of steps with the urgency of the price issue requiring quick solution.

Demand for reform of the quota system in recruitment for the Bangladesh Civil Service cadres through the examinations conducted by the Public Service Commission has been strengthened in recent times. Only a couple of days back, There has been a sustained movement in support of the demand for reform of the quota system in recruitment. This movement has been spearheaded by the Dhaka University students under the banner of ‘Quota Reform Movement .

It is reported that Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority's project to excavate the Badda canal, in order to reduce water-logging across vast areas of suburban Dhaka is being scuppered by a one-kilometre stretch of canal land-filled by the company Eastern Housing for its Aftabnagar project. There is little debate that the circular waterway project is one of the most appropriate and innovative public transport projects that could greatly reduce the existing pressure on Dhaka's roads system by diverting all north-south and east-west passenger traffic through the river and canal systems that form the metropolis's periphery.

This year the theme of the Consumer Rights Day was the call to stop marketing of unhealthy food for children. The production and supply of what has been called junk food worldwide is known to be a health hazard and some recent findings have given fresh evidence of it. According to the Consumer International, about 22 million children of the world aged below five are overweight or obese. Junk food has been listed as the cause of obesity among grown up people as well and a predisposing factor in the growing spread of diabetes.

As social activists as wholesale banning of child labour was not practicable in a poor country like ours where alternative to a working child may be a starving child; they suggested that some regulatory mechanism should be introduced, like totally banning child labour for children up to a certain age, say 12 years, and permitting it selectively for more grown-up children in the less arduous kinds of jobs and for fewer hours than an adult worker would be reasonably detailed for.

Protests and demonstration of farmers across the country at one time or another during every crop season has come to be a common feature. The farmers had not been receiving fertiliser for the last two weeks. Such public assembly, which is prohibited by the prevailing emergency rules, bears greater significance because it only points to their utter desperation. Despite repeated assurances from the military-controlled interim government of renewed focus on agriculture and announcements that it would boost food production, fertiliser distribution and management remains riddled with loopholes and glitches that would have been expected to have been smoothened under a regimented and disciplinarian regime.

A good idea indeed

Admission of failure to curb not enough