The High Court today directed Election Commission to accept nomination of Awami League’s rebel-candidate Ahsan Habib Pranjol for Kachua municipality’s mayor election in Chandpur.

Khurshid Aslam Khan, lawyer for Ahsan, told The Daily Star that the returning officer of Chandpur cancelled his client’s nomination on December 6 over concealing information about the number of cases filed against him.

The appellate authority led by Chandpur deputy commissioner upheld the returning officer’s decision on December 12, lawyer Khurshid said.

Later Ahsan submitted the petition with the HC challenging the appellate authority’s decision.

Coast guards yesterday destroyed around 2,000kg of lobsters worth about Tk 10 lakh in Chandpur as those were found injected with jelly.

Lt Enayetullah, station commander of Chandpur coast guard, said they recovered the lobsters after raiding Harina Ferry ghat, Alurbazar and Chandpur Machh ghat on Thursday.

“Some traders used jelly to increase the weight of lobsters,” he said, adding that they conducted the drive acting on a tip-off.

Following test, they found that each lobster contained 100-150 grams of jelly.

Chandpur Executive Magistrate Litus Loren Chiran said the lobsters were buried under soil on the bank of river Dakatia in Ichli area.

Chandpur Deputy Commissioner Abdus Sabur Mondal said jelly was injected into the head of the lobsters. “We've sent a sample to a Chittagong lab to examine whether the jelly is poisonous."

The World Bank has approved US$360 million to help Bangladesh improve the navigability, year-round safe transport for passengers and cargo along Bangladesh’s busiest waterways.

The Bangladesh Regional Waterway Transport Project 1 will improve the navigability of 900 kilometres of inland waterways along Chittagong-Dhaka-Ashuganj corridor and connecting routes, which will help reduce travel time and cost for cargo, WB said in a press release yesterday.

The project will also help reduce cost for passenger transport and boost national and regional trade, the release added.

“Bangladesh can expand intra-regional trade with India, Bhutan and Nepal by improving connectivity through road, rail and inland waterways,” said Qimiao Fan, country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal of the global bank.

“As a riverine country, Bangladesh has a large inland water transport sector, which, if strengthened, can support the needs of its growing export-oriented economy. This project will modernise and improve the multimodal transport and logistics system in the country and with its neighbors.”

The project will build one new general cargo terminal at Pangaon and improve the existing cargo terminal at Ashuganj. It will also build new and rehabilitate existing passenger terminals at Sadarghat, Narayanganj, Chandpur, and Barisal.

To help the poor population living in remote areas, the project will construct 14 landing Ghats/stations in Chars (shoals), where often waterways are the only mode of transportation.  The terminals and landing stations will be built to improve the security, safety, and sanitation conditions, and incorporate the needs of female users, the elderly, and small traders, such as women-only toilets and waiting rooms, according to the press release.

The project is part of a Regional Connectivity and Integration Program supported by the WB for the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) countries. The project will also help build the capacity of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) to ensure modern and efficient management that matches international standards. It will also aim to achieve long-term operational and financial sustainability.

“High transport costs, low efficiency and delays in the logistics chain increase trade costs and reduce the competitiveness of Bangladesh’s products”, said Diep Nguyen-van Houtte, World Bank Team Leader for the project.

“By improving riverine connectivity, the project will make movement easier for traders, producers, passengers and cargo on multimodal transport networks in the sub-region, and help the poorest who rely on inland waterways as a mode of transport.”

The credit from the WB’s International Development Association, which provides grants or zero to low interest loans, has a 38-year term, including a six-year grace period, and a service charge of 0.75 percent.

Around five thousand families of agitating tea garden workers in Chandpur of Habiganj are passing their days in fear of attack by Chunarughat upazila chairman men who allegedly roughed up three protesters on Saturday.

The labourers are against a government move to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the area while locals say the chairman is supporting it.

Divided into small groups and equipped with sharp weapons and sticks, the males of the families have started to guard their houses and adjacent paddy fields at night to counter any possible attack.

Local students have also stopped going to their school three kilometres away.

The police are patrolling the area to avert any untoward situation.

On Saturday, the labourers chased away Chunarughat Upazila Chairman Abu Taher and around 200 of his men who had gathered on the proposed SEZ site in Chandpur to showoff their strength in favour of the government plan.

On their way, the chairman's men had beaten up three villagers, including two students involved in the ongoing demonstration, alleged tea garden workers who had blocked a nearby road for three hours in protest that day.

Avirat Bakti, convener of Chandpur Bhumi Rokhha Committee (a committee to save the land of the tea garden workers) yesterday said fear of further “attack” has gripped around five thousand families of tea garden workers in the area following the incident that day.

Swapon Santal, joint convenor of the committee, alleged that the upazila chairman is out to evict the workers, who have been cultivating rice in the arable land to supplement their meagre incomes for years, from Chandpur.

Faruq Mahmud Chowdhury, president of Sylhet unit Sushasoner Jonno Nagorik, a civil society platform, said, “This is a conspiracy against the tea garden workers who worked hard on the infertile land for over a century to turn it into an arable one.”

Talking to this correspondent yesterday, Prof Mesbah Kamal of Dhaka University's History Department demanded punishment for those behind Saturday's assault on three villagers in Chandpur.

He also claimed the land belongs to the workers as per the International Labour Organization Convention.

Contacted, Abu Taher, the upazila chairman, refuted all the allegations against him.

Amulya Kumar Chowdhury, officer-in-charge of Chunarughat Police Station, said additional members of law enforcement agencies were deployed, and the police were patrolling the area to avoid any unwanted situation.

He also said they were looking into Saturday's incident. 

A Chittagong court yesterday awarded death penalty to six people for killing Krishak League leader Oli Ullah in Chandpur in 2014.

Besides, a Gazipur court yesterday sentenced six people to death and three others to life term imprisonment for killing a schoolboy in 2001.

The six convicts in Chittagong are Md Abdul Hamid, Md Mehedi Hasan alias Shakil, Md Gourob, Md Harun Mridha, Md Abdul Kader Mridha and Nazmul Hasan alias Sharfin. The convicts were also fined Tk 5,000 each.

All six men are fugitives at the moment, reports our Chittagong correspondent.

The court also acquitted four other accused -- Md Aktar Hossain, Md Muazzem Hossain, Abu Taher and Md Jakir Hossain -- as the allegations brought against them were not proved, said court sources. Of them, Abu Taher is still in jail custody.

Fifteen witnesses testified in the trial before the Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Mohitul Haque Enam Chowdhury pronounced the verdict, prosecution lawyer Litan Ranjan Das said.

According to prosecution, the killing followed a long standing rivalry over land between the families of Krishak League Kachua unit's president Oli Ullah and his cousins Abdul Hamid and Harun Mridha. Many had tried and settle these disagreements between the two families and failed.

On July 29 in 2014 around 10:00pm, Oli Ullah was hacked to death on the road near west side of the residence of one Nurul Islam Gazi in Shankarpur village in Kachua.

Following the day, deceased's wife Joynab Begum lodged a case with Kachua Police Station accusing ten people in this connection.

After investigation, police submitted the charge sheet on March 31, 2015, while the charge was framed on January 6, 2016.

Complainant Joynab Begum talking to the media at Chittagong court building premises expressed her satisfaction over the verdict. “Now I want to see quick execution of the verdict”, she added.

Abu Taher, who was acquitted in the verdict, said he had no connection with the killing.

“Police did not arrest me. The family of the complainant handed me over to police station after picking me up from my house. And I have been in a jail for around 11 months”, Taher said.

6 TO DIE FOR KILLING GAZIPUR SCHOOLBOY

A Gazipur court yesterday sentenced six people to death and three others to life term imprisonment for killing a schoolboy in 2001, reports UNB.

The condemned convicts -- Rafiqul Islam, Atiqul Islam, Atique Sheikh, Selim Sheikh, Anwar Hossain Sheikh and Nayan Sheikh of Ghagtia village in Kapasia upazila -- were also fined Tk 5,000 each.

The lifers are Anwara Begum, Abdul Motaleb and Samsuddin of the village.

According to the prosecution, Sanaullah Sarkar, 19, an SSC examinee and son of Jashim Uddin of the village had developed a love affair with the daughter of Anwara Begum, and both families had been at loggerheads over the issue.

As a sequel to the enmity, the convicts strangled Sanaullah on February 9, 2001. Asaduzzaman, victim's brother, filed a case against 12 people the following day.