Puran Dhaka, even today, possesses enough heritage treasures to be the envy of many cities known for their historic character. Unfortunately, over the last decade, despite earnest efforts of civil society, activists and the media, there has been a steady increase in the erosion of its historic urban fabric. In fact in many places, whole neighbourhoods have been cleared up—today not a single old building can be found there.

The lack of awareness about the significance of cultural heritage is one cause but that is hardly the only one. The absence of any support mechanism for the preservation of heritage properties has pushed many private property owners to resort to replacing old buildings with multi-storeyed apartment buildings to take care of their immediate financial and housing needs. Over the last decade, they thoroughly changed the urban fabric of the old town.

To understand real estate development in Old Dhaka, it is necessary to understand who these property owners are. A large share of the properties listed as vested properties were actually illegally acquired by land grabbers who exploited the situation. Taking advantage of this weak statutory framework, real estate developers moved in for the kill.

High-rise adjacent to Nawab Bari gate. Photo: Joybrata Sarker

The occupation began in 1947 when the city experienced a massive demographic change, as a majority of the Hindu population migrated to India while about 200,000 Muslims from India settled in Dhaka. The city's population practically doubled during this period. Migrant Muslims settled in the neighbourhoods belonging to the Hindu community. The vacant grand residences and mansions of Hindu elites were turned into multi-family dwellings, such as tenement housing, to provide accommodation for the migrants; of course many properties were also swapped by wealthy Muslims who left their properties in India. This change had a far-reaching impact on Puran Dhaka.

The next two or three decades till the '70s saw a gradual but steady change in the pre-partition Muslim neighbourhoods. With the abolition of the zamindar system in the mid-1950s, the elite mohallas gradually lost their shine, and eventually saw redevelopment on their properties. Puran Dhaka was sliding back into despair. Post-1971, as the population of the city increased very rapidly, the stress of migration was also felt in the old neighbourhoods of Puran Dhaka.

Although there appears to be a causal link in the whole process, the problems and failures of the concerned to take any effective steps to stem this degeneration of the traditional urban fabric seems to have been orchestrated in order to achieve an overarching goal of transforming Puran Dhaka into a high-density, high-rise development.

Today, it is not just that buildings are straight-up being broken down. Take a closer look into the wiping out of Puran Dhaka and you'll find that besides the demolition of old monuments, there are quite a few other ways of destroying the tradition at urban fabric of the old town. High-rise buildings built with incompatible construction materials can have quite a negative impact on the street.

Photo courtesy: USG

In many cases, we find vertical extensions on old buildings, where the adding of one or two floors is a very common practice. However, they usually have a telling effect on the façade of the building. In case of streets, which are designated as heritage sites as a whole, the extra height can also have serious negative effects on the skyline of the area, thereby its heritage value. Other times, the extension is built horizontally either on the back side or the front side of the heritage buildings, obscuring the façade of the heritage buildings as a result. Even if these extensions are just patchwork additions, they can have a very negative effect on the heritage value of the site. It is a common practice in Puran Dhaka to build structures in the open around a building. A multi-storeyed building constructed in the backyard of a heritage site can actually look quite disrupting, while a multi-storeyed structure built in front of heritage building is often constructed solely to hide it and eventually demolish it.

In certain areas it is quite obvious the construction of high-rise structures is being deliberately done in order to promote similar developments along that road or line. This phenomenon is pursued without any regard for heritage properties. Examples of this can be seen in the Chawkbazar area and Bikrampur Garden City in Islampur. In certain neighbourhoods of Puran Dhaka it is quite obvious that when the demolition takes place they actually focus on certain areas and then gradually get rid of all the old buildings there. A case in point is Amligola. Only in 2007, there were around 60-70 old buildings on JN Saha street. Unfortunately, after pursuing aggressive demolition of heritage buildings over the last decade, the street has been stripped of its heritage properties by the dozens. We have seen similar examples in the case of Golokpal Lane, Bakshi Bazar, Orphanage Road and Nawabpur Road among others.

Construction in front of Choto Katra. Photos: joybrata sarker

Often the destruction of the urban fabric appears less significant than the construction of multi-storeyed buildings that destroy the skyline. On the north-eastern corner of Boro Katra, an 18-storeyed building has been constructed at a handshaking distance. To take advantage of the building construction rules regarding Floor Area Ratio, almost a dozen smaller plots have been consolidated to form a single large property that overshadows the magnificence of Boro Katra. This is being touted as a success story by RAJUK. Similar structures can be seen at the Mitford Road-Imamganj intersection. Multi-storeyed buildings within the buffer zone of a historic building can actually compromise the heritage value of the monument and the campaign to designate the Boro Katra as a world heritage site in the long run is affected.

Much of this destruction has been the result of sheer negligence and failure of policymakers, concerned government agencies and regulatory bodies. The failure of agencies such as the Department of Archaeology, mandated to preserve the heritage assets of our country, has resulted in steady loss. On the other hand, the unwillingness of regulatory bodies like RAJUK to intervene in case of violations has created major stress on the whole urban fabric of the old town, as a result of which the historic city is fast losing its identity. Towers being built within the courtyard of Choto Katra not only reveals the incompetence of the concerned government agencies—their reluctance to enforce the laws for the protection of monument can be seen as tacit support for the perpetrators of this criminal offence. Topping all that, a series of major policy decisions by the Dhaka South City Corporation, the most important people's representative body for the old town, are having serious negative impacts on the heritage assets and historic urban fabric of Puran Dhaka.

Taimur Islam is the Chief Executive of Urban Study Group.

Juboraj, the 19-year-old ailing lion is awaiting death in a cage at Comilla Zoo. His skeletal body and the rotting wounds on his back are stark signs of the extreme negligence that put him in this fatal state. This near-dead lion has passed 13 years alone in his cage, with meagre food and no medical care. Now he has stopped eating. He does not move at all; he spends the whole day lying on the ground, as if he has no desire to live anymore.

After a video of Juboraj went viral on social media, the zoo authority called in veterinarians who reported that the lion's health had deteriorated beyond recovery. Recently, the lion's cage has been concealed as the zoo authority stopped putting him on exhibition in the face of public outrage. However, the cover-up could not prevent over-enthusiastic visitors from climbing on top of the roof of the cage to take photos of the ailing lion. There was no security guard or caretaker anywhere in the zoo to stop this blatant breach of the zoo's safety rules. In fact, the unfortunate fate of Juboraj is representative of the derelict conditions of Comilla Zoo.

There is no caretaker or security guard at Bonobilash zoo to stop visitors from going dangerously close to the cages and injuring animals by throwing stones and sticks at them. Photo: Dipankar Roy

Established in 1985 on 0.5 acres of land by Comilla district administration, at present, the zoo possesses only a couple of macaques, two deer and a turkey as exhibits. At least eight cages of the zoo are vacant and several others have been demolished. At the time of our visit, only one of the 11 caretakers were present and, on conditions of anonymity, he shared with us a shocking tale of irresponsibility and mismanagement.

The zoo started its journey with seven monkeys of different species, two bearcats, nine deer, several Indian peafowls, two rare Egyptian wild fowls, several rabbits, a couple of jackals and an Indian python. In 2004, Juboraj the lion was brought in at the age of four. Several initiatives were taken to procure a mate for the lonely Juboraj, but she never made it. According to the caretaker, the district administration mostly contracts the maintenance of the zoo to local politicians of the ruling party who hardly care about the treatment and nutrition of the animals. Furthermore, high-ranking government officials often make the zoo caretakers run their personal errands and even their domestic chores. Only one or two of the caretakers spend their working hours in the zoo. They feed the animals just enough to keep them alive. As a result, in the last 10 years, 90 percent of the animals have died of starvation and disease.

The zoo's infrastructure is also in a bad way. Lands surrounding the zoo have been developed in recent years and run-off waters from the surrounding high grounds flood it during the slightest showers. Garbage from the surrounding multi-storeyed buildings is often thrown directly into the cages and at the open deer pens. Through several broken parts of the boundary walls, local youths freely enter the zoo premises and tease and torture the helpless, captive animals. However, Sonjoy Kumar Bhawmick, Executive Officer of Comilla District Council, denies all these facts. He says, "We select the contractor through a free and fair procurement process and our officials regularly monitor the maintenance works. The animals are fed well and treated well. They have died of natural causes and old-age complications. However, we will bring in new animals after reconstructing the old, demolished cages."

Visitors often climb on top of the roof of the cage of the ailing lion. photo: NavidNooren

Like Comilla Zoo, most of the district-level zoos in Bangladesh are extremely neglected and poorly maintained. Rangpur Zoo is the only zoo catering to the people of seven northern districts in Bangladesh. It is also one of the two zoos (the other being the Bangladesh National Zoo) directly under government control. However, due to the poor maintenance and unhealthy environment of the zoo premises, very few visitors come by. Needless to say, the animals are also in a miserable state. Most of them can be seen sleeping and lying about with no trace of food or water in their cages. Noticing journalists in the zoo, a caretaker rushes in with a chunk of meat and a jug of water and takes them to the cages of a lion and an Asian black bear. When asked why he is so late to feed them, he replies, "Not really; I served them breakfast in the morning." And what did they have for breakfast? "Tea and puffed rice". However, according to experts, a full-grown lion in captivity requires 18-20 pounds (roughly 8-9 kilograms) of meat every day, which should be supplemented with vitamins and calcium.

The only Asian black bear of the zoo was very sick and too weak to respond to the caretaker's call for lunch. When the caretaker prodded him to move aside, his back exposed blood-stained wounds.

Besides constant starvation, the animals of Rangpur zoo are also suffering from loneliness. Except for the macaques and a couple of donkeys, most of the animals are confined to the cages alone. Without any mates, breeding has altogether stopped and the animals seem to have lost all interest in life. 

The water is so shallow and dirty that the only crocodile of Bonobilash zoo spends most of its time on ground. photo: Dipankar Roy

Udoy Chandra Barman, a local journalist and a resident of Rangpur city, says, "This zoo is quite unpopular amongst the people of Rangpur because of these feeble animals. We feel so bad for them. Besides, the environment of the zoo is also unsafe. The mango and guava orchards in the zoo are filled with junkies and couples; nobody else dares to go. The only restaurant inside the zoo is also unusable." However, Dr. Shahadat Hossain, the sole veterinarian of the zoo, claims that the maintenance and overall environment of the zoo have improved significantly. He says, "When I joined Rangpur zoo, the situation was even worse.

"The animals you are seeing today were introduced here in 1989. All of them are very old and have already exceeded their usual lifespans. From our end, we are trying to give them the best service."

However, in Khulna's Bonobilash Zoo, we did not find any veterinary surgeons or even any zoo officials who could talk to us about the zoo's condition. Situated in Jahanabad cantonment, the zoo is said to be operated by the army. In reality, we found that it is in fact operated and maintained by a gang of four cooks who have no knowledge about the care and nutrition of captive animals. According to one of these cooks, Kazi Rakib, "Our NCO [non-commissioned officer] sir provides us with the necessary food for the animals. We feed them and take care of them. If they get sick, we give them saline and glucose syrup and they become well again."

Due to this inappropriate treatment, several animals died in the zoo in the last couple of years, including a tiger and several deer. At present, the zoo has only a tiger, a mugger crocodile, some spotted deer, a barking deer, a wild cat, some ostriches, macaques and four pairs of falcons. The deer have been kept in a low, sand-covered enclosed area where no grass grows. During every rainy season, they become sick due to the waterlogging and excessive mud. The shallow, dirty water in the crocodile's tub is brimming over with thrown-away garbage so that the aquatic reptile spends most of its time on the ground. Due to the lack of security guards, visitors roam around freely on the zoo premises. Many visitors were seen going dangerously close to the hungry, carnivorous animals to take photos. Many visitors were also seen throwing stones and sticks at the animals.

Visitors often throw rotten foods, stones and sticks at deer through this damaged fence at Comilla zoo. photo: Navid Nooren

A total of eight kilograms of meat has been allotted for all the carnivorous animals of the park, of which seven kilograms of very low-quality meat is given to the sole surviving tiger. The remaining one kilogram of meat is distributed among the Falcons and the wild cat. The crocodile is given only a chicken every week. However, on Monday, all the animals in the zoo are not given anything to eat. Asked why, Rakib explained that it was simply the rule of the zoo and could not provide any further reason. Despite several attempts, the NCOs in charge of the zoo could not be tracked and contacted either. "We don't have any contact number for them either. We see them once or twice a month. We do all the works of the zoo on our own," adds Rakib.

Like these district-level zoos, Bangladesh National Zoo, although bigger in size and better resourced, is in no better shape. Much of its 186 acres of land—which makes it the fourth largest zoo in Asia—remains unused. Most of the animals are old and sick and many of the newly imported ones, such as the dingoes, oryxes and antelopes, have already died prematurely from the lack of companions, inappropriate habitat and malnutrition. However, the government is quite indifferent about the catastrophic conditions of these zoos. Md Kamruzzaman, Joint Secretary (Livestock-1), Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, says "As there is no legal framework or directives for establishing and managing a zoo, the zoos in Bangladesh are run by different authorities, which causes uncoordinated and unmonitored management."

"We have prepared a Draft Zoo Act but it could not be passed due to objections raised by the Forest Department, which issues licenses to private zoos." However, when contacted, Chief Forest Conservator, Mohammad Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, denied this claim. He says, "The Forest Department does not issue licenses or permissions for establishing zoos. We also have no objections against the Draft Zoo Act. These claims are not true."

Most of the animals at Rangpur zoo are confined to cages alone with no trace of food and water. Photo: Udoy Chandra Barman

Work to formulate the Zoo Act started in 2005, but for more than a decade, it remained suspended due to bureaucratic complexities. However, zoologists and researchers have expressed their concerns and termed this deadlock as just an excuse to justify the procrastination. According to Dr. Mohammad Firoj Jaman, Professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, says, "There might be no act but there are codified rules of running and managing a zoo which were promulgated during the establishment of Bangladesh National Zoo. The government can enforce the rules for running other zoos as well."

"Currently the government runs zoos with veterinary surgeons who have no academic knowledge about the habitats, behavioural patterns, diet and nutrition of wildlife. To make these zoos liveable for the animals, the government should form multi-disciplinary teams involving zoologists, botanists, entomologists, nutritionists and veterinary surgeons who will work together to create customised natural environments and diets for every captive animal," he adds.

Another zoologist and animal rights activist, Dr. Niamul Naser, Professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, and ex-officio of the Zoological Society of Bangladesh recommended closing the zoos and relocating the wildlife to safari parks and sanctuaries. "We cannot expect natural behaviour from wild animals in captivity. Most of the animals are territorial and much of their food and breeding habits develop as they patrol their territories. So, in captivity, these animals become completely different entities," says Dr Naser. "Zoosare an outdated and inhumane concept. To preserve rare wildlife and learn more about them, we should establish sanctuaries where visitors will get the chance to have safari tours within a limited range," he adds.

However, at present, all initiatives for the improvement of the zoos and all suggestions made by experts have been stalled by the government's failure to pass the Zoo Act. In this deadlocked state, unmonitored mismanagement and indifference towards animal rights have turned Bangladeshi zoos into death camps for animals. Zoos are where rare species are supposed to be preserved from extinction, where people can learn about the animal kingdom and learn to be respectful towards nature, but in Bangladesh, they have completely lost their purpose. In this situation, the proposition of dissolving the zoos and releasing these starving and languishing lives into sanctuaries is worth taking into consideration.  

The writer can be contacted at [email protected]

For someone whose first vivid memory of football was the Italia 90 and whose lasting impression from that World Cup was Salvatore Schillaci's euphoric goal-scoring celebrations, it is hard to take in the fact that Italy will not be part of next year's World Cup in Russia. Thirty-two teams have made it to Russia, including 14 from Europe, and four-time champions Italy is not one of them.

It is a shame that the joint second-highest title-holders will be missing out from the greatest show on earth. It is a shame that the World Cup will not see a record sixth final's appearance of arguably one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time or one of the meanest defences in world football.

But it's not anyone else's fault that Italy couldn't make it to the grand stage, a competition which they only missed twice before—once in the inaugural World Cup in 1930 when they willingly didn't participate, and the next time in 1958 during the World Cup in Sweden. It was their own doing and they had to paid the price.

It has been 59 years since then and Italy has added two more titles to their two pre-WWII title-haul during this era, with the last one coming as late as 2006. What could have happened in the past 11 years that a team, which under Marcello Lippi had conceded just one goal during their entire 2006 World Cup campaign, failed to even go through to the qualifying stages?

A few things have happened actually. The most visible of them was that they were put in a very tough group for the qualifiers, with Spain being the in-form team of the group. It was always going to be an uphill task to grab the lone direct qualifying spot from the group, which they eventually did not. They didn't do all that bad, but were second-best to Spain, meaning they had to go through a double-legged playoff. For the playoffs, Italy were one of the four seeded teams, but as the luck of the draw would have it, they were pitted against the strongest unseeded team of the competition, Sweden.

Yet one would have expected them to move past Sweden, a team whose biggest achievement at the World Cup is a runners-up finish, back in 1958 on their own soil. But Italy did not only fail to win either of those matches, they also failed to score in 180 minutes of football, despite dominating possession for most part of the two legs. It was as much as a tactical failure from Italy boss Gian Piero Ventura as much as it was a failure of his charges to break down a resolute and disciplined Swedish defence. The one deflected goal from the first leg proved to be the deciding factor as the men in blue huffed and puffed around the Swedish penalty box, without any outcome whatsoever.

So who is to blame for all this? A lot of people, including the 69-year-old coach Ventura and his employer, the highly controversial Carlos Tavecchio. Ventura was a provincial coach whose greatest achievement thus far had been taking Torino from Serie B in 2011 to the Europa League round of 16 in 2015. However, he never managed any top Serie A clubs and had only the 1996 Serie C title in his trophy cabinet. His appointment was made by Tavecchio, a man who is more renowned for inciting racism, xenophobia and misogyny than for his footballing acumen.

These people failed to read the warning signs that were getting more and more pronounced ever since their triumph in 2006. Since that famous night in Berlin, Italy have only managed to win one of their World Cup finals and were eliminated from the group stages in the following two competitions. They did, however, reach the final of Euro 2012 and made it to the quarterfinals of the 2016 edition, but pundits will say, those squads far exceeded their potential, thanks to the innovativeness of Cesare Prandelli and Antonio Conte. These two coaches, in those two particular tournaments, took two aging squads and turned them into something that was much bigger than its parts. Those performances only masked the fact that Italy was an aging team, devoid of young legs and the ability to play fantasy football.

That brings us to the core of the problem, which is a dearth of local talent coming through the systems in Italian football.

A few statistics will help illuminate the argument. For the record, the last time a Serie A club—an Inter Milan team which had fielded 11 foreigners in their starting 11 in the final match—won the Champions League was in 2010. The last time an Italian side contested in a UEFA Cup/Europa League final was in the last century. And there has not been an Italian Ballon d'Or winner since 2006.

Thankfully, in the wake of this debacle, both Ventura and Tavecchio have left, and hopefully someone with a lot more pedigree in European football will take charge. Italy still produces the best coaches in Europe—in the last two years, three of the top five European leagues were won by Italian coaches—so finding a good coach with a vision will not be hard, but whether he will be provided with the right kind of environment and a forward-looking system, remains to be seen.

There are plenty of problems at the heart of the Italian system, and they need to be fixed pretty soon because a country that has produced players like Meazza, Piola, Mazzola, Riva, Facchetti, Zoff, Rossi, Baresi, Baggio, Maldini, Buffon, Nesta, Cannavaro, Del Piero and Totti should be too much of a miss at the world stage.

Atique Anam is a senior sports reporter, The Daily Star.

For a few years now, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), the largest state-owned publishing house in the world, has been immensely criticised by civil society for their misprints, factual errors and ideologically inappropriate content. What was missing from the conversation was the breadth of the problem—and that is what came out when Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) published their research paper on November 13.  

The study took almost a year to complete and reveals some horrifying aspects of NCTB's activities. Misspelled words, incorrect grammar, inappropriate teachings—what might seem like minor mistakes from the surface hides a system of irregularities and corruption. The report concluded that the independent government body is a mess. For example, according to the study, which interviewed numerous officials within the NCTB and outside, only the ruling party loyalists get picked as members of different committees. In some cases, members get excluded even if they are actually competent. According to one informant, who was an excluded candidate, “I have never been called by the NCTB, because the only qualification required for the selection of committee members is political influence.” This is in spite of the fact that NCTB is ideologically supposed to be an independent organisation.  

The same thing happens when it comes to selecting people for the writers' panel, as many of the writers are picked through favouritism, personal choice and recommendations from the ministry. Many of them lack proper understanding of the curriculum, according to the report.

When contacted, the NCTB Chairman Narayan Chandra Saha informs us that they are also looking into the matter and since the different ministries are involved in the whole process, he cannot give any statement alone, without their opinion. Professor Dr Mohammad Nizamul Karim, Secretary, NCTB, also refused to say anything. 

A serious outcome of favouring political partisanship is that people with actual qualifications are left out. Although there is a policy for employing at least one expert from each subject for editing the textbooks of each grade, there are instances where the editors brought in have no significant expertise.

The report stated that this was also observed in the primary education wing. Instead of hiring experienced experts to strengthen our primary education curriculum, they take in regular employees from the education ministry, who often do not have subject-specific expertise. Many are simply cadres who chose “education” as their sector when passing the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) exam. It does not mean their university training is in designing textbooks.

Rasheda K Choudhury, Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), sheds light on the importance of having experienced people in creating the curriculum. “According to pedagogy, we call it 'developmentally appropriate curriculum and textbook', where a textbook is prepared considering the age, intellectual capacity and psychology of the students. This process requires an expert who understands these aspects well. Simply employing government employees who were placed in the education cadre in their BCS exam will not work if they don't have the required experience or expertise,” she adds.

Renowned academician Hossain Zillur Rahman, who was a former advisor to the caretaker government, also agrees with Chowdhury that since NCTB's activities affect the development of children, the organisation should be more careful and conscious while appointing an expert. “If you compromise with merit, you cannot compensate for the impact! It will influence the entire system,” he says.

This is something that actually happened because of taking in political favourites. Dainik Shikkha published an article in May 2017 recounting how an education ministry official eliminated Abdul Hakim's poem “Bangabani” and Abu Jafar Obayedullah's “Mago, Ora Bole” and put in his own creations instead. To do this, he stopped the presses for a whole month, resulting in delivery delays of the ninth and tenth grades. This happened in 2012.

The report also unearthed that in the beginning of 2016, a number of madrasa leaders met with NCTB demanding the curriculum be changed according to their interests. The NCTB gave in to the demands. For example, a textbook for the madrasa system had a character called Uttam. The madrasa leaders changed it to Oliul because Uttam sounded like a Hindu name.

Another thing the report revealed—the local and revenue audit team took BDT 8-10 lakhs every year for the past few years so that such irregularities are not shown in their audit report. In the 2016 academic year, with the initiative of audit and budget officers, a total of BDT 1,624, 000 was collected from the monthly salaries of different employees to pay BDT 20 lakhs to the audit team. The rest of the amount was taken from the budget.

This is one example of the irregularities of the body—over BDT 50.96 lakh was spent in the last three academic years for minor tasks like making guidelines for tender, publishing advertisements, issuing work orders and preparing a list of books sent to the upazilas. However, when asked, Mohammad Monirul Islam, the Chief Accounts Officer of NCTB, informs us that he knew nothing about it.

Malpractice has also been found in the printing phase. In the 2015 production year, the estimated production cost of each forma (double dimai paper) was BDT 0.85, which increased by 60 percent in the following year. There are allegations that the contracting process was biased—that both the tender committee and printing association members were informed about the projected estimated cost before inviting tenders.

According to an owner of a printing press interviewed by the researchers, it is strictly mentioned on the tender notice that each printing press must have 23 by 36 inches size printing machines, sheet machines and UV for binding covers, as well as necessary equipment for lamination, along with their own printing and binding factory. But, most of the small printing presses do not have their own binding arrangements, and hence, they outsource. “The thing is, there is a clear difference between the quality of work of a contractor and sub-contractor—a contractor might work for the goodwill of his company, but a sub-contractor usually does not care about it,” he says.

Besides, people who are supposed to monitor the quality are allegedly negligent in their duties, and the presses can get away with using lower-quality paper. According to the informer, the presses use good quality paper during daytime, but switch out at night. These books are then sent to the schools of different upazilas.

The upazilas also bear the brunt of irregularities in the case of distribution. According to a 2017 NCTB report, around 50 percent of the books were not distributed in time to nine upazilas of Laxmipur, Noakhali and Chittagong. But, the inspection report shows that all books were distributed on time.

However, Md Farhadul Islam, the new Chief Distribution Controller of NCTB, informs us that he does not believe that this is entirely true. “Last year a shipment arrived in time, but we were not able to receive it within the deadline because of formalities. That is why we tried to bring books from other districts and arranged book festivals in different upazilas of Laxmipur and Noakhali districts,” he says. Islam also assures us that since the information regarding malpractice and irregularities have come out, they are careful about the matter. “I believe that whoever is responsible for this, whether it is NCTB or printing organisations should come to light,” he adds.

Though a large number of media reports have been published in recent years on NCTB's massive blunders, compared to that, no significant steps have been taken by the respective authorities to look at what is actually going on there. However, time has come to give attention to this, as children all over the country should not be deprived of their basic right to education because of malpractice and mismanagement by the NCTB.