NEWS IN BRIEF
Century-old trees felled on Tangail-Bhuapur highway
Our Correspondent, Tangail
Century-old trees of different varieties are being felled on the Tangail-Elenga-Bhuapur zonal highway, causing damage to the environment.
A source in the road and highway (RH) department said there are 271 such trees on the zonal highway. The RH department sold the old trees to some contractors at Tk 4,560,000. All the trees on both sides of the 17-km road have been felled.
Executive engineer of the Tangail RH department, Aminul Ehsan, said the road will be extended to 24 feet from the existing 18 feet. Ten old bridges are being reconstructed on the 17-km road.
Executive engineer of Dhaka division agriculture department, Abu Sayed, said the trees were under the ownership of road and highway department. A survey was conducted and the trees were sold under open auction tender.
Harunur Rashid, the DFO of Tangail division, said about 2,220 plants had been transplanted by the side of the Elenga-Bhuapur zonal highway 11 years ago under social forestry. They are now being felled now for road expansion works, he added.
After completion of the work, new trees will be planted by the road, he noted.
Similarly, 330 old trees on Dewhata-Pustakumari road under Mirzapur upazila and about 300 old trees on the MadhupurDhanbari zonal road are being felled.
Senior research officer of BELA of Tangail, Somnath Lahiri, said the indiscriminate felling of old trees will adversely affect the environment.
Orphan girls get police job
UNB, Meherpur
To the surprise of many, two orphaned girls have been recruited as police constables without paying any bribe.
They only had to pay Tk 103 as registration fee.
Lata Khatun and Priya Khatun have been attached to Meherpur Police Lines reserve office after they clearing the recruitment test.
Police Superintendent Mostafizur Rhaman announced the final results on Thursday for recruiting nine male and as many female personnel.
Lata is the daughter of late Bahar Ali of Meherpur Sadar Upazila and Priya is the daughter of Noornabi Sheikh of Mujibnagar Upazila. They were being raised at Mujibnagar Government Shishu Paribar.
Shishu Paribar Schools head teacher Tonmoy Kumar Saha said he was elated at the success of his students. I cant believe my girls would get jobs without bribe. But Im happy theyve been recruited on merit, Saha said.
Priya said she used to think that nobody was with her. But the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has hired me. I vow to work for the country and serve people, she said in a firm voice.
Before the recruitment procedures began, Meherpur SP Mostafizur Rhaman had announced that police constables would be hired solely based on merit. This encouraged the girls to apply for police jobs.
Weve proven applicants can get jobs without paying bribe, SP Rahman said. From now on, police constables will be recruited based on merit and qualifications.
Child murdered in Dinajpur
UNB, Dinajpur
A minor boy was murdered at Gopalpur village in Birampur upazila on Saturday. The deceased was identified as Ashik Rana, 3, son of Shahin Mia of the village.
Sub-inspector Majedul Islam, duty officer at Birampur Police Station, said Shahin and his 2nd wife Rozina Akhter Sumi went to sleep along with their son Rana on Friday night keeping the door of their house open.
They found the boy missing when they woke up on Saturday morning, he said, adding that locals spotted his lacerated body in a jute field later and informed police.
On information, police recovered the body and sent it to hospital morgue for autopsy, the SI said, adding that they detained three people for interrogation over the incident.
