SECOND EDITION

INSIDEBookworms bid adieu to Ekushey Boi MelaCurtain fell on the month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016 with a re-cord-breaking sale of books. PAGE 5

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016 | Falgun 18, 1422, Jamadiul Awal 20, 1437 | Regd No DA 6238, Vol 3, No 315 | www.dhakatribune.com | 32 pages | Price: Tk10

ATM swindler attacks DT court reportern Tribune Report

The foreign national charged in the ATM forgery scam, Piotr Szczepan Mazurek, attacked the Dhaka Trib-une court correspondent Sanaul Is-lam Tipu around 4pm in the lower court premises yesterday.

The Polish-German national apparently became aggravated as Tipu attempted to photograph him outside the courtroom at the con-clusion of the remand hearing.

The accused, with his right hand in handcu� s, hurled abuse at the reporter as he tried to carry out his professional duties, before lunging at him.

Tipu managed to avert a direct blow to the face but his mobile telephone was destroyed in the as-sault. He sustained minor injuries to the hand.

According to the law, a suspect's hands are supposed to remain free when in the dock before the judge. At all other times during their transfer between the court and jail, both hands are supposed to be handcu� ed.

During the assault yesterday, one of the suspect's hands was free, allowing the attack. Senior lawyers and witnesses alleged that the police had been negligent

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

2 local ATM scammers under scannern Mohammad Jamil Khan

Detectives have identi� ed two lo-cal men who helped Piotr Szczepan Mazurek withdraw money from ATM machines using cloned cards. The new suspects are under sur-veillance, said an investigator close to the case.

Requesting anonymity, the senior Detective Branch o� cial told the Dhaka Tribune that two technology exper ts were present when Piotr, the prime suspect in the scam, withdrew money from a City Bank booth in the capital’s Kalshi area.

The new suspects would be ar-

rested after a few details are veri-� ed, the o� cial added.

Three more people have also been detained for interrogation. They include a money exchange businessman who helped Piotr convert taka to US dollar and send it to Farid Nabir, the suspected mastermind, in London.

Based on information Piotr provided during his remand, de-tectives are also trying to analyse digital traces to identify two more Eastern Bank employees who re-portedly helped the Polish national.

Maruf Hossain Sarder, a depu-ty commissioner of the DMP, said

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

n Kamrul Hasan

The government is planning meas-urements to curb highway acci-dents based on a seven-year-old survey � ndings, which the survey-ing agency says is too old for such initiatives because changes may have occurred by this time.

If the relevant department of the government had been more sincere about taking care of these accident-prone places – black spots, as they are called in the survey – chances were high the overwhelming number of highway casualties could have been signi� -cantly lowered.

A black spot is a certain section on a highway considered danger-ous because it is prone to accidents. For example, there are several black spots on the busy Dhaka-Ari-cha Highway – the bus stands at Joypurhat, Savar Bazar and Golora/Kamta are some of them.

In 2009, at the completion of a two-year study, the Accident Re-search Institute (ARI) of Buet came up with a list of 209 such black spots across the country. The re-searchers followed two methods – (a) compilation of road accident statistics and news reports, and (b) a few � eld visits.

However, the project titled “Im-provement of Road Safety at Black Spot on National Highways,” under

which ARI conducted the survey, did not get government approval until � ve years later.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) � nally approved the project in No-vember 2014.

According to source from the

Bangladesh Road Transport Au-thority (BRTA) – the implementing agency – around 30% of those black spots have so far been remedied since the list was placed in 2009.

But this was not done under the project, but rather because those black spots were located on some

of the narrow two-lane highways which have now been reformed into wide four-lane highways. Examples include the Dhaka-My-mensingh and Dhaka-Chittagong Highways – two of the most impor-tant highways in the country.

PAGE 2 COLUMN 1

Timely remedy of highway black spots could save lives

Injured Musta� z out, Tamim available forAsia Cup

n Mazhar Uddin

Bangladesh face a major blow after fast bowling sensation Musta� zur Rahman su� ered a side strain inju-ry during the last game against Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in a press release yesterday said dashing opener Tamim Iqbal will replace the injured fast bowler. Tamim has just returned to coun-try after being blessed with a baby boy on Sunday in Bangkok.

Musta� z, the 20-year-old pac-er, went through a scan yesterday and the reports con� rmed that the pacer is su� ering from Grade 1 side strain on the right and will miss the remaining games of the Asia Cup. He will be under observation for the next 48 hours.

Tamim Iqbal went to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur where he batted indoor and spent time with journalists soon after he reached Dhaka.

The Chittagong lad took a pater-nity leave from his national duty prior to the Asia Cup. He also re-turned from Pakistan Super League

PAGE 2 COLUMN 4

The memorial made out of a microbus on Dhaka University campus is a stark reminder of how dearly highway accidents may cost us. Noted � lmmaker Tareq Masud and broadcast journalist Mishuk Munir were killed in an accident while returning to Dhaka by this microbus in August 2011 MEHEDI HASAN

Finally, Leo. Finally

If you don’t already know and have been dwelling in cave, hiding from that ferocious bear from The Revenant, DiCaprio � nally won his Oscar. And the reactions on the internet nearly blew up the whole system. PAGE 30

Timely remedy of highway black spots could save livesAlthough late, now when the BRTA is thinking about moving ahead with the project, Buet authorities are saying that the available black spot data is too old and needs updating, otherwise the project would not be of much use.

In December last year, after the ARI drew her attention, Buet Vice-Chancellor Prof Khaleda Ekram wrote to the director of the project saying it would be unsuc-cessful if implemented with data collected seven years ago.

The letter that the Dhaka Trib-une has seen, read that some of the black spots have changed over time. This has happened because some of the roads have lost impor-tance and the lower number of ac-cidents shows this.

There are several reasons why a place on a highway becomes a black spot. Sometimes, because of

faulty position of billboards and roadside trees, drivers’ vision gets blocked, especially at sharp or hair-pin turnings, leading to accidents.

Remedial of a black spot will dif-fer based on the nature of a road, its surroundings and quality of land.

Black spot treatment varies with the nature of road, surroundings and quality of land. For example, if there is a sharp turn, it could be made sure that there are no bill-boards and big trees blocking the drivers’ vision.

The ARI found in 2009 that those black spots mainly occurred because road safety audit reports were not properly followed.

As many as 2,349 people were killed in a total of 2,515 accidents at those black spots from 1998 to 2007, the ARI said.

When contacted, Subodh Kumar Saha, executive director (road safe-

ty) of the Roads and Highways De-partment, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had sought two things – an updated list from the ARI and an extension from the government.

O� cials said that in primary investigation, they had found that roughly 30% of the black spots from that ARI list are still prone to accidents. Since another study would take time, they now want to move forward with these common spots and in the meantime ARI could do another study.

For example, two new black spots have emerged on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway since 2009 – the Jagir High School point and the Hemayetpur intersection, o� cials said.

Although the ARI conducted the previous study free of cost, anoth-er study might cost around 0.5% of the total Tk165 crore project ex-penditure. l

News2DTTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Injured Musta� z out, Tamim available for Asia Cupearly where he played brilliantly for his side Peshawar Zalmi and scored 267 runs in six matches.

It is almost con� rmed that Tamim will play against Pakistan in the up-coming clash at the Asia Cup as the

Tigers’ opening pair of Mohammad Mithun and Soumya Sarkar strug-gled to put up a good show so far.

Hosts Bangladesh have a bright chance to reach the � nal of the event for the second time. l

2 local ATM scammers under scannerthey were uncovering many more leads in the case that needed to be analysed.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yester-day granted a fresh � ve-day remand against Piotr and three more City Bank o� cials – Moksed Alam Mak-sud, Rezaul Karim Shahin and Refaz Ahmed Roni. The order came after the police placed them before the court at the end of a six-day remand.

Second phase of the scamThe gang of ATM card forgers

were ready to move on to the sec-ond phase of their plans that in-cluded securing contracts from the banks to set up ATM booths them-selves, said a law enforcer involved in the probe process.

The plan was to set up booths that already had skimming devic-

es installed on the automated tell-er machines (ATM). That way, the gang would easily be able to collect client information and clone their cards.

During interrogation, Piotr said he and Farid Nabir were almost ready to carry out this plan, the law enforcer added.

Meanwhile, Piotr’s wife Rozina Akther Marina continues to be un-der surveillance. Detectives said Marina might have deleted infor-mation from Piotr’s laptop and mo-bile phone, which were still at the suspect’s home for an entire day after his arrest.

Md Shahjahan, additional depu-ty commissioner of DB police, said the laptop has been sent to experts to scan and retrieve any deleted data. l

ATM swindler attacks DT court reporterin carrying out their duties.

HM Kamruzzaman, police dep-uty commissioner for prosecution, said: “We have heard about the incident and have instructed the authorities concerned to take nec-essary action.”

The Dhaka Tribune court corre-

spondent also contacted Court Pris-on O� cer-in-Charge Md Murad Ali, under whose care the suspect was. He told the Dhaka Tribune that they were investigating the situation to see why the lapse in security had occurred.

The incident took place after Pi-

otr and the three City Bank o� cials were placed in the court by the De-tective Branch of police seeking a fresh eight-day remand. The court granted � ve days for further inter-rogation of the arrestees.

The accused was previously in six day’s remand that ended yesterday. l

PM: Conspirators still activen Tribune Report

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yes-terday said the conspiracy against democracy is on and the actors of the 1/11 political changeover of 2007 are still active.

“Their conspiracy is yet to come to an end. They want to come to power at any cost through undemo-cratic way,” she told the parliament in her valedictory speech of the 9th session of the 10th parliament.

She said army o� cer Chowd-hury Fazlul Bari and ATM Amin tortured politicians, teachers, stu-dents and businessmen during the emergency regime of two years from January 2007.

The premier also branded The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam and the Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman as cronies of the actors of 1/11 political changeover.

“The two newspapers published untrue and false news before my arrest based on the information supplied by Amin and Bari. Cer-tainly they were involved in con-spiracy. If they had not been in-volved how would untrue news had been published.”

Either they were involved in deep conspiracy or worked as agents of the DGFI, she said.

Hasina added that those people wanted to come to power, but do not have capacity to be elected.

The Awami League chief, who was behind the bar during the care-taker regime, said following her re-lease from jail, she did not read the two newspapers. “I might have lost my con� dence. Why should I read those papers. I know what they will publish,” she added.

Hasina said she was the worst victim of the media criticism. She also said that her government does not control media.

The prime minister said people are rejecting the BNP in the local government elections due to their criminals activities and corruption.

“BNP is a militant organisation. The BNP-Jamaat is involved in mil-itant activities. Whenever any mil-itant was caught by police, either their roots were found in BNP or in Jamaat,” she said.

She thanked the president for presenting an important document before the nation about the so-cio-economic development of the country.

Referring to the sudden increase of child killing, the prime minister hoped that the court will give the perpetrators capital punishment so that none can dare to attack children.

In her windup speech, Oppo-sition Leader Rawshan Ershad praised government’s various de-velopment projects and asked the government to take some initiatives to mitigate public su� erings. l

CJ warns against negative remarks on judiciaryn Tribune Report

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday called upon politi-cians and ministers to refrain from making comments that could cre-ate a lack of trust among the people about the judiciary.

He said politicians term judi-ciary an organ of the government which is not correct.

“The judiciary is an organ of the state. Everybody should remain cautious about making comments to ensure that the judiciary is not undermined and its dignity is not damaged,” the chief justice said.

The warning came after a Supreme Court bench headed by the chief jus-tice accepted BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alam-gir’s explanation on his recent com-ments about the judiciary. The BNP leader on February 7 told a meeting in Sylhet that the government was try-ing to control the judiciary.

On February 18, the court asked Fakhrul to give an explanation for his comments.

His counsels later submitted an a� davit, explaining his comments.

The apex court yesterday said citizens have to abide by the judi-ciary if they want to abide by the country’s constitution, but lawyers, ministers and politicians have been

found talking against the judiciary.The court pointed out the tenth

paragraph of Fakhrul’s explanation where he said the judiciary was failing to work independently.

His counsel Zainul Abedin claimed that his client did not say that and some newspapers had misquoted the speech.

He said rejoinders had been served to the newspapers and they had already printed that.

But the court said the rejoinder was served on February 27, after the court had sought explanation from Fakhrul, and not before that.

After the hearing, Additional Attorney General Murad Reza told reporters the court had � rmly an-nounced that the judiciary was totally independent and impartial, and that there was no pressure from anyone on the judiciary.

He said the court cautioned Fakhrul not to make any controver-sial, contemptuous and fabricated comment about the judiciary and the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, a � ve-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by the chief justice extend-ed Fakhrul’s bail for 15 days in three cases � led over arson and vandal-ism charges in response to three petitions � led by him seeking ex-tension of bail. l

2 kids die after allegedly eating Chinese foodn Aminul Islam Babu

Two children died yesterday after su� ering from what their parents alleged was food poisoning caused by leftover restaurant food.

However, the exact cause of their deaths would be determined follow-ing an autopsy scheduled for today.

The deceased are 13-year-old Is-rat Jahan Arani, a class-� ve student of Viqarunnisa Noon School, and six-year-old Alvi Aman, a nursery student of a local private school.

Their mother Mahfuza Malek Je-smin said the family brought home leftover food after having dinner on Saturday night at a Chinese res-taurant near their Banasree home.

Yesterday, the mother served the rest of the Chinese food to her two children for lunch while she and her husband had a home-cooked meal.

Both children were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital after the mother noticed that they were not waking up from an after-noon nap.

Monjirun Mohsinun Mim, an emergency doctor at the DMCH, told the Dhaka Tribune that both children had died before they reached the hospital. An autop-sy was suggested as the deaths seemed suspicious, she added. l

News 3D

TTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Failure to submit info to make landlords liable for tenants’ crimen Kamrul Hasan

Any landlord who fails to submit information about their tenants within March 15 would be held re-sponsible for any crime committed by lodgers inside their house, DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah has warned.

“If someone [landlord] does not provide information to the DMP on time, then they will be held respon-sible if it was later found that crim-inals were residing at their house without the concerned o� cials be-ing informed,” the DMP boss told a press conference yesterday.

“Those who did not get a [tenant

database] form will have to contact their respective police stations for it,” he said.

If any tenant left a house, the owners would have to collect a new form for the next tenants and inform the police o� cials of the re-spective beat, Asaduzzaman said.

Assuring that neither the in-formation provided in the forms would be disclosed nor the infor-mation providers be harassed, the DMP commissioner said the infor-mation would be stored as both soft and hard copies in the tenant database.

Depending on the area and its population density, police stations

in Dhaka have set up three to nine units to work in this regard, while the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has also created 287 beats.

DMP sources said local tenant information would be collected and maintained by the city’s respective police stations and shared through a central DMP database. The infor-mation would be stored categorised under respective neighbourhoods.

A pilot database is now running at the DMP HQ and would later be introduced to police stations as well, the sources said.

The initiative to create a tenant database was taken by the DMP Headquarters in the past, but the

process did not success then due to several reasons.

The e� orts were revived recent-ly after the Counter-terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit of police raided two houses in Badda and Mo-hammadpur to recover explosives and arrested Ansarullah Bangla Team members earlier this month.

According to section 42 of the code of criminal procedure, every citizen must help the police for government or investigation work. Under this section, police can seek information from anyone and citi-zens must cooperate. If necessary, the police can also take action un-der this section. l

RAB busts international tra� cking gangn Kamrul Hasan

The Rapid Action Battalion has ar-rested eight suspected human traf-� ckers from di� erent parts of the country, who, according to the elite force, are members of an interna-tional human tra� cking ring.

They are Milton Molla, 22, Ha-bibur Rahman, 28, Rokon, 21, Abu Samad, 32, Hasan Khondakar, 30, Amir Hossain, 22, Mamun 28, and Ayasha Khatun, 25.

RAB sources said they opened investigations after receiving a complaint from one Rawshan Ara from Tangail on September 28 last year. She said her daughter Sabina

had been missing since August 17, 2015 and on September 25, she re-ceived a call from India asking her to pay Tk5 lakh in exchange of her daughter.

During investigation, RAB ar-rested Rokon when he was alleged-ly selling one Sohagi, 13, to Ayesha in Gazipur’s Barabari. Their infor-mation led to the arrest of Amir and Hasan from Jatrabari. The men were allegedly buying Sohagi to sell her in India. Another suspected tra� cker Taher � ed during the raid and RAB rescued one Shirin from there based on information provid-ed by the arrestees.

Yesterday, the elite force arrest-

ed Habib, Milton and Samad from Benapole who were said to be re-sponsible for tra� cking Sohagi and Shirin to India, RAB sources added. One Salman, who RAB claimed to be the ring leader, managed to es-cape. Two girls – Sharmin and Riya – were rescued during the drive.

RAB’s Media and Legal Wing Di-rector Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan yesterday told reporters that they had recovered fake appoint-ment letters, passports and some 16 cellphones from the arrestees. The gang had made the appoint-ment letters using names of Mal-dives-based companies.

Mahmud said the gang targeted

the poor and cajoled them with prom-ises of better jobs or married them be-fore forcing them in � esh trade.

During initial questioning, the arrested persons said the gang had members in various districts and that they usually handed the girls to Chandan and Dukhu who took them to one ‘Didi’. This ‘Didi’ would give them some Tk2 lakh for each girl, the RAB o� cer added.

About victim Sabina, Mahmud said she was kidnapped when com-ing to Dhaka to her workplace and was later tra� cked to India. He said they had located Sabina through the Interpol and hoped the girl would be brought back home soon. l

UTTARA GAS EXPLOSIONSumaiya: How are my children and husband?n Mohammad Jamil Khan

Sumaiya Akther, injured in last week’s gas explosion, is � ghting for her life at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). She rarely gains conscious-ness and whenever she does, she enquires after her husband and sons, unaware that three of them have already succumbed to their injuries sustained in the � re at Uttara.

“Whenever she gains conscious-ness, she writhes in pain and asks how her husband and sons are doing,” her brother-in-law Riaz Mol-lah said. He said the family had not broken the news to Sumaiya, who su� ered 95% burns, fearing that doing so could further deteriorate her already critical condition.

“We are trying to give her false hope that her husband and children are okay. When she wants to speak with them, we call her second son Zarif over phone,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.

Zarif, 9, received 6% burns in Friday’s explosion caused by a gas leak in the kitchen. The � re broke out when Sumaiya tried to lit a gas oven. All � ve members of the family were injured. The couple’s 14-month-old son Zayan, and Sharleen, 15, died within 12 hours of the incident while their father Shahnewaz succumbed to his injuries a day later.

Riaz said Sumaiya would try to o� er prayers through gestures if she heard Azan when she gained consciousness and prayed for her family’s recovery.

Zayan and Sharleen have been buried in Barisal while Shahnewaz’s body has been kept at the Birdem morgue. Shahnewaz’s nephew Nazmus Sakib said they would take the body to their village home. “We are preparing for the worst,” he added, hinting at Sumaiya’s deterio-rating condition.

Partha Shankar Pal, residential surgeon of DMCH burn institute, said they were trying their best to save the 38-year-old mother. Zarif is recovering but he is mentally scarred, relatives say. “He is out of danger. Every time he speaks, he says he wants to see his parents,” his cousin Nishat, who is looking after him at the hospital, said.

Ali Hossain, o� cer-in-charge of Uttara west police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had issued letters to Titas and DESCO to learn whether the gas and electricity con-nections to the house, where the accident took place, were legal. “We are yet to get a reply from them,” he said, adding that they would take actions after receiving replies from the suppliers. l

Minister: Govt has 300,000 vacant postsn Tribune Report

The government had over 300,000 jobs vacant as of December 2014, said Public Administration Minis-ter Syed Ashraful Islam yesterday.

Replying to a query in Parliament, he said there were 302,904 vacant posts and the process of updating the list of vacancies was going on.

He added that among the vacant posts – 39,000 were � rst class posts, 30,422 second class, 163,417 fourth class and 69,501 were � fth class.

Replying to another query, the minister said currently there are 187 o� cers on special duty (OSD).

Among the OSD o� cials are two secretaries, 17 additional secretar-ies, 72 joint secretaries, 45 deputy secretaries, 35 senior assistant sec-retaries and 16 assistant secretaries.

The minister also said the gov-ernment had no plan to increase government job entry age from 30 to 35. l

Hawkers, evicted from footpaths in the capital’s Gulistan, return for business as they even sit in the middle of the road to sell products, disrupting tra� c. The photo was taken yesterday MEHEDI HASAN

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016News4DT

Punishment increased for operating � ight at risk n Shohel Mamun

The cabinet yesterday approved in principle the draft of The Civil Avia-tion Law, 2016 replacing the existing Civil Aviation Ordinance of 1960.

The approval came at a regular cabinet meeting held at the secre-tariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

After the meeting, Cabinet Sec-retary Mohammad Sha� ul Alam said according to the new law, if any foreign aircraft intentional-ly violates Bangladesh air space, then the persons responsible for

the o� ense would have to su� er a maximum of seven years’ impris-onment and minimum two-year imprisonment or Tk2 crore as � ne.

He, however, said in case of op-erating � ight in a risky way, the pi-lots concerned would have to face a maximum of � ve years’ jail or a � ne of Tk1 crore.

According to the existing civil aviation act, the punishment for pi-lot violating the law is one-year im-prisonment with a � ne of Tk5 lakh.

The cabinet secretary said: “The draft civil aviation act also contained the security and safety

of passenger. If any aircraft crash-es the passengers will be awarded compensation.”

He said the cabinet also en-dorsed in principle the draft of the The Public Procurement (4th amendment) Bill, 2016. The cabinet has also given its approval to the draft of The Bangladesh Nursing and Midwifery Council Law, 2016.

Sha� ul said: “The draft of Pub-lic Procurement Act was approved keeping the provision for a govern-ment to tender � oat up to Tk3 crore instead of existing Tk2 crore under the Limited Tender Method (LTM). l

BNP announces election to two top positions n Mohammad al masum Molla

The BNP yesterday announced the schedule for election to its two top positions – chairperson and senior vice-chairperson.

The election will be held on March 19 as the BNP set the date to hold its national council in Dhaka.

Addressing a press brie� ng at party’s Nayapaltan headquarters yesterday, party standing commit-tee member Jamir Uddin Sircar told journalists that the nomination pa-pers for the positions would be dis-tributed from March 2.

“The nomination papers will be available at the party headquar-ters,” he said adding that nomina-tion paper would have to be sub-mitted by March 4.

The Election Commission will scrutinise the nomination papers on March 5 and the last date of nomina-tion papers withdrawal is March 6.

He also said party standing com-mittee member Nazrul Islam Khan was made the returning o� cer.

Jamir Uddin Sircar said a candi-date himself can collect the nomi-nation or they can send their nomi-nee to collect it. l

JS speaker: Be attentive when answering questionsn Tribune Report

Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury yester-day asked all ministries to be more careful and attentive in answering questions asked by the members of parliament.

She issued the ruling at the beginning of yesterday’s par-liament session, saying that the Ministry of Home Minis-try had violated the parlia-ment’s rules of procedure by not attending a lawmaker’s question asked in November last year.

The lawmaker in question, Awami League leader and former information minis-ter Abul Kalam Azad, in an unscheduled discussion on February 16 said he placed a question at parliament several times, but the ministry repre-sentatives did not answer it.

Shirin said: “The honoura-ble lawmaker raised the ques-tion on November 19 last year and the question was moved to another day, but the parlia-ment session expired before that day. The question was placed again on February 2 but was moved again to Feb-ruary 16. On February 16, the question should have been answered, or a request to move to a a later date should have been made. But the Home Ministry did neither. It’s a violation of the rules of procedure of the parliament.”

In the ninth parliament, the highest numbers of ques-tions were moved to later dates by the Home and For-eign Ministries. Most of those questions were related to killings, abduction, extra-ju-dicial killings and border killings. l

One Billion Coalition looks to build resilience capacityn Mohammad Al-Masum

Molla

Bangladesh Red Crescent So-ciety (BDRCS), in collabora-tion with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has launched the “One Bil-lion Coalition for Resilience” programme to scale-up com-munity and civic action to strengthen individual and community capacity to thrive in the face of adversity.

“Resilience may mean dif-ferent things in di� erent con-texts. In some context, it may refer to � ghting drought and in another context, it may refer to health issues. Resilience needs to vary from place to place and

from individual to individual,” IFRC Secretary General Elhadj As Sy told reporters yesterday after the launch ceremony at Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Auditorium in Dhaka yesterday.

The initiative aims to en-gage at least one billion peo-ple around the world in taking active steps to become safer, healthier, and more prosper-ous by 2025, according to the IFRC website.

Asked why Bangladesh was chosen for the launching cere-mony, As Sy said the country had displayed excellent indi-cators in disaster prepared-ness and response and there had been inclusive leadership in this sector. l

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016News 5

DT

PRAYERTIMES

Cox’s Bazar 30 21Dhaka 33 23 Chittagong 31 21 Rajshahi 34 17 Rangpur 31 18 Khulna 33 18 Barisal 33 24 Sylhet 32 15T E M P E R AT U R E F O R E C A S T F O R TO DAY

Source: Accuweather/UNB

D H A K ATODAY TOMORROW

SUN SETS 6:00PM SUN RISES 6:20AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW32.2ºC 14.6ºCJessore DimlaTUESDAY, MARCH 1

Source: IslamicFinder.org

Fajr: 5:06am | Zohr: 12:11amAsr: 4:22pm | Magrib: 6:01pmEsha: 7:17pm

DRY WEATHER

AMAR EKUSHEY BOOK FAIR 2016

Bookworms bid adieu to Ekushey Boi Melan Nure Alam Durjoy

Curtain fell on the month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016 with a record-breaking sale of books.

This year saw thousands of vis-itors thronging the fair grounds every day last month. Height-ened security measures were put in place to ensure safety for the visitors, especially in light of the attack on blogger-writer Avijit Roy and his wife Ra� da Ahmed Bonya last year.

The huge turnout daily made publishers nothing short of ec-static as it also meant a splen-did amount of book sales. “All publishing houses have had im-pressive sales, much better than the previous fair,” said Shahadat Hossain, publisher of Annesha Prakashan.

According to Bangla Academy,

the overall sale at this year’s book fair amounted to around Tk40.5 crore, almost double of last year’s sale, which was around Tk21.95 crore.

The last day saw 144 new books published at the fair. With those, the total number of new arrivals in 2016 stands at 3,444 – a few hun-dreds less than last year’s 3,700.

<2016 bestsellers>Muhammad Zafar Iqbal’s sci-

ence � ction “Cranial” topped the bestsellers’ list at Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2016.

Attendants at the stall of Tam-ralipi, the publishing house that brought out the book, said they were selling the seventh print of the book yesterday.

“We have been getting really good response from the readers with ‘Cranial.’ It has been a top choice since Day 1,” said Tamralipi

publisher AKM Tariqul Islam Roni.Besides “Cranial,” two other

books of Zafar Iqbal that came out at the book fair were bestsellers as

well. “Tituni Ebong Tituni,” an-other science � ction published by Kakoli Prakashani, went into third reprint, and “Sa tey Sentu,” a novel-

la published by Somoy Prakashan, went into second reprint.

Other bestsellers include chil-dren’s novella “Idiot Unlimited” written by Sumanto Aslam and published by Kakoli Prakashoni, “Ajo Keu Hatey Abiram,” a poetry book written by Gultekin Khan and published by Tamralipi, and “Masrafee,” a biography of Bang-ladesh national cricket team cap-tain Masrafee Bin Mortaza, writ-ten by Debabrata Mukharjee and distributed by Oitijhya.

Besides, “Bangladesh Flood-ed by Change, written by Bosse Kramsjo and published by Ag-amee Prakashani, and “General O Narira,” a novel written by Anisul Hoque, and “Hetey Jai Jonomb-hor,” a novel written by Selina Hossain, published by Prothoma Prakashan, were also popular among readers. l

Visitors throng the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela to buy books yesterday, the last day of the month-long fair MEHEDI HASAN

BD to shop for power in India’s energy market n Asif Showkat Kallol

Bangladesh is preparing to pur-chase electricity on India’s open energy market in a bid to mitigate the country’s power crisis, ahead of peak demand in the summer.

According to a proposal signed by Power Division Secretary Monowar Hossain, India’s Jaiprakash Pow-er Ventures will supply 40MW of electricity to Bangladesh across the Behrampur–Bheramara grid con-nection point.

The proposal said some Tk319.78 crore (approximately US$39,972,500) would be paid over to Jaiprakash Power over the next two years for the 40MW of elec-tricity – a per unit cost of 5.704 US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).

The average price of locally pro-duced electricity is 8.375 US cents. Local rental power plants charge up to 37.2125 US cents per kWh.

“The government has decided to purchase 40MW of electricity on the Indian open market to meet local demand,” State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid con� rmed to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The bid was selected in a limited tendering process, o� cials said.

Nigrie Super Thermal Pow-

er Station in Madhya Pradesh, owned by Jaypee Group subsidiary Jaiprakash Power Ventures, will supply the electricity.

The open market electricity pur-chase proposal will be placed before the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase, chaired by Finance Min-ister AMA Muhith, for approval this week. State Minister for Power Nas-rul is expected to attend the meeting.

Power Division insiders said the proposal is likely to be approved.

Other Indian power companies that participated in the tender in-clude private � rms GMR Chhattis-garh Energy and Jindal Power as well as state-owned West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Com-pany Limited. Their bids, ranging between 5.734 US cents per kWh and 6.125 US cents per kWh, were not as competitive as Jaiprakash Power’s o� ering, the proposal said.

Bangladesh currently imports around 500MW of electricity from India at the Behrampur – Bheramara grid connection and is scheduled to import a further 500MW from 2017.

The country plans to import an-other 100MW of electricity from Tripura’s Palatana power project, sources in the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said. l

Minister: No new random business outlet in posh areas n Abu Hayat Mahmud

The authorities of two Dhaka City Corporations have decided that businessmen will no longer be al-lowed to set up new commercial outlets at random in posh residen-tial areas of the capital.

The decision came from a views-exchange meeting held in the capital’s Gulshan Club yesterday.

During the meeting, Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain said: “No businessman will be allowed to set up any new com-mercial outlet at random in posh residential areas—Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Dhanmondi, Nikunja and Uttara residential model town. They (businessmen) must arrange it within the designated areas.

“The decision will take an im-mediate e� ect and stern action will be taken if anyone violates it.”

“However, those who already have their commercial enterprises outside the designated areas of resi-dential neighbourhoods, will have to arrange parking spaces within their establishments and improve the gar-bage removal system on a temporary basis,” added the minister.

Permanent decision in this re-gard would come later after a joint

meeting of Dhaka City Corporations authorities, government high-ups, Rajuk authorities and representa-tives of di� erent business organisa-tions, the minister further said.

The views-exchange was ar-ranged by the authorities of Dhaka North City Corporation.

Among others, Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq, Dhaka South City Corporation May-or Mohammad Sayeed Khokon, Rajuk Chairman GM Jainul Abe-din Bhuiyan and Gulshan Society President ATM Shamsul Huda were present on the occasion.

The minister urged everyone to cooperate with the two Mayors An-nisul and Khokon to reform Dhaka.

Mayor Annisul Huq urged the business owners of the residential areas to free their basement for ar-ranging car parking.

“I have discussed about the matter with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who also wants to see Dhaka clean and livable city. I hope every-one will free their basement with-in next one month. If anyone uses building basement for business purpose, we will demolish that business establishment,” he said.

Mayor Sayeed Khokon said a huge number of o� ces had been

established in residential buildings all over Dhanmondi area causing tra� c congestion.

The government has increased the fees for converting land category from residential to non-residential in the more upscale areas of the cap-ital by 750% over the last few years, apparently to discourage commer-cialisation of the neighbourhoods.

Following recommendations from the parliamentary standing committee on the Housing and Public Works Ministry, the Ra-jdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Ra-juk) increased land conversion fees by almost 7.5 times, or 750%, for converting plots from the category of residential to non-residential or commercial in the residential areas Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Ni-kunja and Uttara.

The capital development au-thority in December � xed Tk5m for the conversion of a plot from resi-dential to commercial, and Tk3m for residential to non-residential, in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara.

For Uttara and Nikunja, except along the Dhaka-Mymensingh road, the conversion fees were � xed at Tk2.5m for residential to commercial and Tk1.5m for resi-dential to non-residential. l

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016News6DT

Mintoo gets bail in seven casesn Md Sanaul Islam Tipu

BNP leader Abdul Awal Mintoo, ad-viser to party chairperson Khaleda Zia, was granted bail yesterday in seven violence cases � led with three police stations in the capital.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Maruf Hossain granted him bail in � ve cases � led with Paltan po-lice after he surrendered before the court and sought bail.

Metropolitan Magistrate Khurs-hid Alam also granted him bail in two other cases � led with Ramna and Shahbagh police after his surrender.

The seven cases were � led over vandalism, sabotage and obstruct-ing police duty in 2014 and 2015.

Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Sanaullah Miah argued for Mintoo while Additional Public Prosecutor Shah Alam Talukdar of Dhaka Met-ropolitan Sessions Judge Court, stood on behalf of the state. l

SC stays Shakila Farzana’s bailn Ashif Islam Shaon

The Appellate Division of Supreme Court has extended the stay on bail for lawyer Shakila Farzana until March 20, in two cases � led over � -nancing militant organisation Sha-heed Hamza Brigade.

A � ve-member Appellate Divi-sion bench, headed by Chief Jus-tice Surendra Kumar Sinha, passed the order yesterday moved by two government petitions.

Earlier on February 22, High Court granted bail to Shakila Farza-na in the two cases. The next day, the government moved to the chamber judge which stayed the bail and placed it for a full bench hearing on February 29.

Shakila was arrested on August 18 last year from outside her cham-ber along with two other lawyers – Hasanuzzaman Liton and Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapon – from the cap-ital’s Dhanmondi for their alleged

link in funding a Chittagong-based militancy unit.

The trio claimed that they had de-posited money to an account to return the advance fees they took for a case. They also claimed that they were una-ware of the owner of the account.

The account is owned by Mon-iruzzaman Don, who is a top lead-er of militant group Shahid Hamza Brigade and is now in jail.

RAB said that the Chit-tagong-based group was formed in November 2013 by former members of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, Hefaz-at-e-Islam and other militant groups.

Shakila is the incumbent joint general secretary of the Supreme Court wing of Bangladesh Jati-yatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a pro-BNP lawyers’ body.

She is the daughter of Syed Wa-hidul Alam, a former BNP whip and lawmaker from Chittagong during the 2001-2006 tenure. l

Foreign � rms hustle for piece of energy sector action n Aminur Rahman Rasel

Around 20 international � rms yes-terday submitted expressions of in-terest (EoI) to implement two new land-based lique� ed natural gas (LNG) terminals.

The period to submit EoIs to set up LNG terminals at Moheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar and at Patuakhali’s Payra sea port expired yesterday.

“We got a major response from international � rms.

“After scrutinising the EOIs and shortlisting promising � rms, re-quests for proposal (RFP) and other relevant papers will be sought,” Md Quamruzzaman, director (PSC) of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Min-eral Corporation, widely known as Petrobangla, told the Dhaka Trib-une yesterday.

The purpose of setting up the terminals is to import LNG so that

the country does not face a sudden supply shortfall.

Plans for the two new LNG ter-minals come despite the fact that the government has failed to set up a � oating storage and re-gasi� -cation unit (FSRU) – a type of LNG terminal – in the � ve years since it was proposed.

The FSRU, which will be the � rst facility of its kind when it is built, was announced amid much fanfare.

Petrobangla, which is under the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) – will implement the projects.

Since assuming o� ce in 2009, the Awami League government has decided on a policy of importing LNG to feed the national grid by 500mmcfd.

The country’s current gas pro-duction is about 2,745mmcf per day against a demand of 3,300mmcfd. l

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016News 7

DT

HABIGANJ KILLING

Accused on 3-day remand againn Our Correspondent, Habiganj

A court in Habiganj yesterday re-manded Shahed, accused of killing four children in the district’s Bahu-bal, for another three days.

Judge Kawsar Alam of Habiganj Senior Judicial Magistrate Court gave the order after Investigating O� cer Moktadirul Alam produced Shahed before the court with a sev-en-day remand petition.

Shahed was put on a � ve-day remand on February 25 in the case.

Defence counsel advocate Trilok Kanti Chowdhury Bijon yesterday said the court remanded Shahed for three days to face police interrogation.

Shahed was accused of killing four minor boys – Zakaria Ahmed Shubho, Tajel Miah, Monir Miah and Ismail Hossain – of Sundratiki village who went missing after they went out to play on February 12. On the morning of February 17, their bodies were recovered from a place two kilometres from the village. l

Bernicat praises Bangladeshisn Our Correspondent, Satkhira

US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat has praised the hardworking Bang-ladeshis who are helping the coun-try meet its nutrition demands and alleviate poverty.

During a visit to Satkhira yes-terday, the diplomat observed that � sh production at hatcheries and milks from farms were meeting local demand while many more

become self-employed through the endeavour.

She lauded the e� orts, saying Bangladeshis were hardworking, who knew how to turn the wheel of fortune. She said the US had been providing Bangladesh with food security assistance.

Ambassador Bernicat visited several projects of Bangladesh Livestock Production for Improved Nutrition at Dhulihar and Kolaroa

upazila and emphasised private sector’s partnership with USAID.

She visited farms and nutri-tion projects and listened to the stakeholders. USAID Mission Di-rector Paul Sabatin, O� ce Director Forhad Ghaussy, Deputy Director Mark Tegenfeldt, agricultur devel-opment o� cer Dr Osagie C Aim-iuwu, Ahsanuzzaman Khan, and Muhammad Nuruzzaman, among others, accompanied Bernicat. l

One killed in ‘gun� ght’n Tribune Report

A listed criminal was killed in a “gun � ght” with the members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) at Kalikapur in Patuakhali early yesterday.

Deputy Director of RAB 8 in Pat-uakhali Assistant Superintendent of Police Fazlur Rahman said Golam Mawla Mridha, 35, an accused in 16 criminal cases, including mur-der, was killed in the “gun battle”

between RAB members and his co-horts in Kalikapur area of Patuakhali town in the early hours of yesterday.

The members of law enforce-ment agencies forced to open � re as the accomplices of Mawla at-tacked a RAB convoy, he said.

“Mawla died on the spot during the gun� ght,” he added. One pistol with three bullets, two magazines and 600 pieces of Yaba tablets were recovered from the scene. l

Restriction on mango plucking worries growersn Anwar Hossain Chowdhury,

Chapainawabganj

Almost all the mango trees in Chap-ainawabganj have already bloomed this year due to favourable weath-er, but growers are not happy as they are apprehending that they would have to incur huge losses this year like the last two years due to restriction on harvesting time.

Growers said wholesalers were not showing interest in buying mango orchards because many traders were not even able to re-cover the investment let alone make any pro� t in previous years.

Local sources said cultivators of Chapainawabganj which was considered as the capital of man-go in Bangladesh were passing busy time in nourishing orchards of Nengra, Fazli, Gopalbogh, Kh-irsapat and Mohanbhog, but they are very much worried over pluck-

ing restriction as many traders in last year imported the sweet fruits from India for late harvest in the northern districts.

Major varieties of mangoes – Nengra, Gopalbhog and Khirshap-at – matured at the same time due to the heat and had to be harvest-ed quickly causing the supply to be greater than the demand, said many mango growers.

According to Department of Ag-ricultural Extension Department, there are 18,58,770 mango trees on 24,460 hectares land in the � ve upazilas of the district.

In total, there are about 4.5m fruit-giving mango trees of di� erent ages and varieties on over 35,000 hectares in the northern districts and the number are continuously increasing every year following ex-pansion of commercial mango cul-tivation in Rajshahi region.

This year, the DAE has set a tar-

get to produce 2.50 lakh tonnes of mangoes from these mango trees.

Last year, the government im-posed a ban on harvesting man-goes before June 1 to ensure chem-ical-free mangoes. Then, mangoes began to ripe early because of the heat spells, but growers could not pluck those due to the ban.

In 2014, farmers of the northern region also counted huge losses due to back-to-back blockades and strike enforced by the BNP-led 20 alliance demanding election under an impartial government.

Di� erent organisations such as Kansat Mango Traders Sami-ty, Bholahat Mango Foundation, Chapainawabganj Chamber of Commerce have already placed their objection over restriction on mango plucking.

Mozammel Haque Chutu, general secretary of Bholahat Mango Foun-dation, said if the government set

any time for plucking mangoes, they would wage a movement against it.

He said they had already started exchanging views with local Mps, DAE o� cials and mango traders to � nd out a way in this regard.

President of Chapainawabganj Chamber of Commerce Abdul Wa-hed told the Dhaka Tribune that a section of vested quarter was hatching conspiracy to destroy market of mangoes.

“We are keeping contact with di� erent forums such as agricul-ture ministry and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Com-merce and Industries so that grow-ers would not have to count losses.”

Monirul Islam, president of Mango Producer Association, told the Dhaka Tribune that last year mobile courts conducted drives at di� erent places of the district but they could not � nd any forma-lin-laced mangoes as growers of

the district run their business with honesty.

“Many orchards are yet to be sold as traders are not interest to invest in the sector fearing losses,” Kazi Emdadul Haque, a wholesale mango trader at Kansat Bazar.

Researcher of Fruit Research Centre Dr Sarof Uddin said” “There is no � x time for plucking mangoes, it depends on weather. So the gov-ernment should not set any time for plucking the juicy fruits.

Deputy Director of the DAE told the Dhaka Tribune that they would take decision over harvesting man-goes after considering situation as mango ripes naturally.

Moreover, Md Jahidul Islam, deputy commissioner, told the Dhaka Tribune that they would take a decision considering mango traders situation. “Loss of mango traders is not expected to anyone,” he added. l

Dhaka North City Corporation conducts a drive at Gulshan 1 in the capital yesterday and demolishes a number of shops built in parking space BAIZID HAQUE JOARDER

News8DTTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

BAN ON FISHING ILISH FRY

Fishermen to face tough situationn Ibrahim Roni, Chandpur

The government has imposed two-month ban on catching, selling and transportation of Ilis fry from to-day in the district.

Fishermen said they will have to face a tough situation this two months as they do not get su� -cient help from the government.

According to Chandpur � sheries o� ce sources, there are 41,032 reg-istered � shermen in the district. Of them, 13,033 are in Haimchar, 7,726 in north Matlab, 3,592 in south Mat-lab and 16,691 in Chandpur Sadar.

The � shermen of the areas al-leged that they have to lead a life of hand to mouth by catching � sh. But they have not been provided help from the government after it imposed the ban on catching � sh.

When asked, Sha� qul Rahman, � sheries o� cer in the district, said he did not know when the � sher-men would get the help from the government fund.

Fihermen Amin Mizir of Haim-char said: “I have to manage a fam-ily of six-member. Only 40 kg rice in day, help from the govt is not enough.”

Abdul Kader of Sadar upazila said: “If the help was provided be-fore the ban, we could manage the family.”

Sawpan Akond, another � sher-man, said: “The government helps us by giving only rice. But there are many items for a family.”

“I have heard that the govt will provide money with rice this year. It will be very helpful for us,” said he.

SM Shakhawat, Haimchar upazi-la nirbahi o� cer, said: “The � sh-ermen in the area lead a hand to mouth life by catching � sh. The

government is concerned about it. We will help them with money soon.”

Sha� qul Rahman said: “The government was supposed to pro-vide an amount of money for the � shermen.”

“But I have not got the money yet,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Abdur Sbur Mondal said: “I have pro-posed a bill to the government for increasing rice and money.”

“If the proposal is success, the � shermen will be bene� ted,” he said. l

Four held with yaba pills in Chittagongn Tribune Report

The police arrested four persons with 230 pieces of yaba tablets from Barapool area, Halishahar police station in the port city yes-terday.

The arrested were identi� ed as Rabiul Alam, 28, Abdul Mannan ali-as Enam, 23, Md Salauddin, 34, and Nurul Alam, 30. All of the arrestees are hailed from Chakaria upazila in Cox’s Bazar.

“We arrested the four people after conducting a drive. They used to sell the contraband stimulating tablets in the city after bringing them from Cox’s Bazar,” said Pra-nab Chowdhury, o� cer-in-Ccharge of Halishahar police station.

“We seized 230 pieces of yaba pills from their possession. A case was lodged against them,” added the OC. l

Court orders asset con� scation of 10 accused of Kibria killingn Tribune Report

A court in Hobiganj has asked the authorities concerned to confis-cate the property of 10 fugitives in a case filed over the murder of former finance minister SAMS Kibria.

Habiganj District and Sessions Judge Atabullah passed the order and � xed March 31 for the next hearing.

Seventeen accused, out of 22, including six people who secured bail in the case, were in the dock during the hearing of the sensa-tional case.

Earlier, police produced 11 ac-

cused before the court amid tight security.

Former state minister for home a� airs Lutfozzaman Babar, Hab-iganj municipality’s suspended mayor GK Gaus and suspended Syl-het City Corporation mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury were not pro-duced before the court.

On September 13, a Sylhet court indicted 32 people, including Babar and Ariful, in the sensational mur-der case.

Five people, including Kibria, were killed and 70 others injured in a grenade attack on a public rally organised by local Awami League held at Baidder Bazar under Hab-

iganj Sadar upazila on January 27, 2005.

Awami League leader Abdul Mazid Khan � led two cases – one for murder and another under the Explosives Substances Act – with the Habiganj police station the fol-lowing day.

The Kibria murder case was transferred to the Speedy Trial Tri-bunal from Habiganj Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on June 11 for its quick disposal.

Earlier, assistant Superinten-dent of CID Munshi Atique sub-mitted a charge sheet against 10 BNP leaders and activists on March 19, 2005. l

2 workers die after falling into oil tankn Our Correspondent,

Narayanganj

Two people died after they fell into a fuel tank at a � lling station at Nayapur Haturapara in Sonargaon upazila of the district yesterday.

Manjur Kader, o� cer-in-charge of Sonargaon police station, said-Masum Mia, 40, a worker of Chand and Surya � lling station, slipped into a mobil tank while he was col-lecting burnt mobil oil there.

Other workers called security guard Hannan Mia to rescue Ma-sum. Hannan went missing when he entered the oil tank. Later, � re-� ghters recovered their bodies. l

Supporters of an Awami League leader block the Dhaka-Mawa Highway at Bhaggokul in Munshiganj yesterday as the leader has not been nominated for chairman candidate in the upcoming union parishad election DHAKA TRIBUNE

Ctg Wasa signs contract for Karnaphuli Water Supply Projectn Tribune Report, Chittagong

Chittagong Water Supply and Sew-erage Authority signed a contract with two contractors for imple-menting Karnaphuli Water Supply Project (phase 2).

The contract signing ceremony was held yesterday at Hotel Radis-son Blu Chittagong Bay View.

South Korea-based company Kolon Global Corporation and Ja-pan-based company Kubota Con-struction Corporation are imple-menting the mega project.

Chittagong Wasa has undertak-

en the mega project with a view to improving water supply in the pre-mier port city. The city dwellers will get 14 crore liters of water per day upon completion of the project.

The contract signing ceremony was attended by Chittagong Wasa Managing Director Engineer AKM Fazlullah and high o� cials of the contractors’. Now, Wasa is im-plementing several mega projects such as Karnaphuli Water Supply Project, Chittagong Water Supply Improvement and Sanitation Pro-ject and Bhandarjuri Water Supply Project. l

n Mahmood Hossain

While Apple continues to take that battle to the FBI, we take a look at something not as serious but signi� cant to the smartphone market. Who doesn’t like an old fashioned comparison between two leading devices of the Android � eld? The point to make here is to get a glimpse into the two most interesting smartphones of the year. With slight changes in design and major upgrades under the hood, we take a look how the LG G5 stacks up with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Tech 9D

T

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Who wins?We compare and contrast between the LG G5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

The biggest attraction set forth by LG is the phone’s ability to swap out a certain part. Because it is a modular phone, the G5 can actually let you swap out the battery or insert other necessary accessories. And Samsung has decided to focus more on its enhancements on their second menu bar display. As the Galaxy � agship keep the design changes to a minimum, the G5 is quite far that of its predecessor. There isn’t a clear winner between the two since we haven’t been able to play with either. What we can say is that Samsung took the safe route and hung onto the idea of, “if it ain’t broke, don’t � x it.”Even though the G5 isn’t as pretty, the inner works continues

to impress, not to mention its excellent use of its camera. Strangely, given its specs, it falls in between the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge models. So if you actually wanted a device that fell in between the two, the G5 would be perfect. However, there are a couple of signi� cant di� erences between the G5 and the Galaxy models. The � rst is its camera and pixels, the other would be the huge advantage of having the ability to expand your storage to 2TB. The only real downside of having the G5 is its battery life, taking a hit by both Galaxy devices. Overall, it might not be a big deal to some, but you would expect the battery life to excel in the modern-day market of smartphones. l

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

• 5.5-inch; 2,560x1,440 pixels• 534ppi• 5.9x2.9x0.3-in• 5.5oz; 157g• Android 6.0 Marshmallow• 12-megapixel camera; 5-megapixel front-facing camera with 4K video• 2.15GHz + 1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor• 32GB, 64GB (storage varies by region); 4GB of RAM• 200GB of expandable storage• 3,600mAh (nonremovable) battery• Home button fi ngerprint sensor• Curved screens, water-resistant

Samsung Galaxy S7

• 5.1-inch; 2,560x1,440 pixels• 576ppi• 5.6x2.7x0.3 in• 5.4 oz; 152 g• Android 6.0 Marshmallow• 12-megapixel camera; 5-megapixel front-facing camera with 4K video• 2.15GHz + 1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor• 32GB, 64GB (storage varies by region); 4GB of RAM• 200GB of expandable storage• 3,000mAh (nonremovable) battery• Home button fi ngerprint sensor• Water-resistant

LG G5

• 5.3-inch; 2,560x1,440 pixels• 554ppi• 5.8x2.9x0.3-in• 5.61oz; 159g• Android 6.0 Marshmallow• 16-megapixel camera;

8-megapixel front-facing camera with 4K video

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor

• 32GB of storage; 4GB of RAM• 2TB of expandable storage• 2,800mAh (nonremovable)

battery• Home button fi ngerprint

sensor; USB-C• Pull-out battery and two rear

cameras

Apple news: The new iPhone 7 is rumoured to have the new A10 processor, 2GB of RAM and waterproof protection

Tech10DT

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is perhaps the world’s largest and most in� uential mobile event. Thousands from around the world gathered in Barcelona to greet the new batch of trendsetters of the technological world, including leading companies such as Samsung, Sony, HP, LG, HTC. For the people who missed it, fear not! Here are the 4 gadgets that will take the market by storm this year.

LG G5Watch how LG took its quest several steps ahead to dominate. It launched arguably one of the bravest � agship Android smartphones to date. Putting everything aside, let’s just focus on how it’s bottom is removable exposing an expansion port and battery. LG hopes consumers will buy into a modular design that allows them to add more battery, accessories and add-ons by slapping them into the bottom of the phone.

It also has a slender and light virtual reality headset, a robotic ball with cameras, IR blasters. a built-in laser pointer and a 360-degree camera.

And then, of course, there’s

the metal body coming with a 5.3 inch quad HD screen, a � nger print scanner on the back. It even runs Android Marshmallow.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edgeRedesigning its primarily plastic phones to premium metal and glass slabs is probably the best thing Samsung did for these models. It came back strong and sturdy, with a curvy 5.1 inch Galaxy S7 and a bigger 5.5 inch Galaxy S7 Edge.

It is waterproof, has an expandable storage with a microSD card slot and conveniently comes with larger batteries. Samsung also launched a 360-degree camera and will start bundling its Gear VR headsets with the S7.

 HP Elite X3Though it has made some attempts before, HP’s Elite X3 can be considered a strong contender this year. It is being pitched as the “do-it-all” Windows 10 device.

It is a dual-sim 6 inch phablet that slots into a dock to turn it into

4 of the hottest smartphones and gadgets at the MWC 2016

Samsung Galaxy TabPro S launched at the CES 2016The rumoured 12-inch Windows-powered Samsung tablet is real. At its pre-CES 2016 press conference, Samsung announced the launch of the 2-in-1 Galaxy TabPro S. The device will go on sale in select regions in Wi-Fi and LTE variants from February, and is the � rst Galaxy device running an OS other than Android. No price information has yet been mentioned.

Taking on Google’s Pixel C, Apple’s iPad Pro, and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, the South Korean technology conglomerate announced the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S to run on a choice of Windows 10 Home/Pro and o� ers top-of-the-line hardware speci� cations.

The hybrid measures 290.3mmx198.8mmx6.3mm and weighs just 693 grams. Moreover, it sports a 12-inch AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 2160 x 1440. It is powered by an Intel Core m3 processor and boasts 4GB of

RAM. The device also comes with 128GB and 256GB SSD for storage.

Other features of the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S include a 5-megapixel rear-camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter, and a 5200mAh battery powering the device.

On the connectivity front, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi is supported, along with Bluetooth 4.1. The LTE version also o� ers 4G LTE Category 6 connectivity, apart from 3G and 2G. There’s a USB Type-C port at the bottom and a Micro-USB 2.0 port. To cap o� the geek talk, it comes equipped with GPS and NFC chips.

The TabPro S � aunts with a detachable keyboard. There’s a digital pen too, however, you will need to purchase it separately. There’s also an optional adapter for allowing USB Type-A and HDMI devices. l

Reprinted from www.sdasia.co

a Windows 10 PC of sorts, allowing users to connect to an external display, keyboard and mouse. The “mobile extender” connects the X3 and allows it to be turned into a laptop.

It’s all powered by the Windows 10’s Continuum feature, which provides a PC-like experience from a smartphone when connected to a keyboard, mouse and screen.

Although the idea is not new, HP

did a fair job executing it.

HTC ViveThe anticipation of the partnership between HTC and Valve has ended at last. The virtual reality (VR) headset, named the “Vive,” has � nally announced a price and release date. It comes at a cost of $799.

The Vive went head-on with Facebook’s Oculus Rift VR

headset (which costs $599) and is being pitched as the “complete VR solution.” The Vive also has a camera built-in for enabling augmented reality experiences as well as VR. Moreover, it has a phone built into it for making calls, sending messages and checking calendar invites. Way to go, HTC! l

Reprinted from www.sdasia.co

INSIDE

Dhaka Metropolitan Police needs to reconsider its initiative asking landlords in the capital to submit personal information including national ID details and photographs, about themselves and their tenants by March 15.

This move to create a tenant database is overly intrusive and lacks justi� cation in principle. Its sudden imposition of a tight deadline on hundreds of thousands of citizens is not realistic in practice.

Of most concern is the commissioner’s statement that landlords will be considered responsible for crimes taking place in their property if they fail to submit information about their tenants by the due date.

This clearly over-reaches the powers and authority the public vests in the police. It is wholly unreasonable to hold landlords responsible for criminal actions by tenants about which they have no knowledge.

The law already requires citizens to help the police in the conduct of their investigations. Creating a database of tenants will not add anything to the police’s ability to carry out investigations.

Indeed, the task of updating and maintaining such a database, while also ensuring that it is kept secure and only used for legitimate inquiries, will only add to the police’s workload.

The police need to allocate and use resources more carefully. Terrorism should not be used as an excuse to justify the intrusive gathering and holding of data which delivers no practical bene� t in stopping crime.

It is not sensible to impose added burdens upon ordinary law abiding landlords and tenants to disclose and register information, when there is no evidence the exercise will actually help in practice in identifying or apprehending criminals.

This database only risks wasting public resources and increasing public concern about private personal data being misused.

It is not sensible to impose added burdens on ordinary citizens when there is no evidence the measure will help investigations

Running between the wickets

Where it all began Paradoxically, Sarajevo prospered under Austrian occupation, in part re� ecting the sad state of the administration of the Ottomans. The city was rebuilt, and for me this has given the city a unique charm, blending the remaining Muslim parts of the city with 19th century Western European styles

PAGE 13

PAGE 12

PAGE 14

Bombay or Mumbai? The post-1990 new-India elite, that has no signi� cant stake in anything to do with the culture or the soil they bene� t from, may yet defeat Mumbai. Mumbai has to defend against what elite rootless classes have done to Bengaluru, including preliminary initiatives to divide the city to give themselves political clout through their White� eld enclaves

The inclusion of Twenty20 in the international arena, for me, has to be the � nal nail in cricket’s co� n. A game, which was all strategy and patience, the subtlety of stroke-play, became replaced by luck and power hitters

Holding landlords responsible for tenant’s crimes does not provide security

11D

TEditorialTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Be heardWrite to Dhaka Tribune

FR Tower, 8/C Panthapath, Shukrabad, Dhaka-1207

Send us your Op-Ed articles:opinion.dt@dhakatribune.com

www.dhakatribune.comJoin our Facebook community:

https://www.facebook.com/DhakaTribune.

The views expressed in Opinion articles are those of the authors

alone. They do not purport to be the o� cial view of Dhaka

Tribune or its publisher.

BIGSTOCK

n SN Rasul

As a kid, I lived and breathed cricket. Bangladesh’s position in world cricket wasn’t

what it is now, and it was common to see people being asked what their “favourite team” was, and to expect a reply that wasn’t Bangladesh.

This phenomenon is perhaps common only to our nation, where, despite having quite a patriotic population, each of us had, on the international level, a team that was dear to us.

For me, that was South Africa. Some may think that my connection to South Africa was tenuous. It was, after all,

attachment to a nation I’d never been to, people who were not my so-called “brothers,” playing sometimes against the very country I was a citizen of.

It was, however, quite the opposite. At the 1999 World Cup, during the semi-� nals between South Africa and Australia, I was in Cox’s Bazar. Hotels back then weren’t what they are now, and the place we were living in had no personal television sets, except for one in the lobby, in front of which sat a rather shoddy, two-seater couch.

I sat on that sofa and watched as South Africa went from winning (having restricted Australia to a comfortable 213) to losing all their wickets until the eventual

Man of the Tournament, Lance Klusener, single-handedly brought them back to life. Klusener, at the time, was quite the sight to see: Pale as a ghost, bat as heavy as the universe, and a stance, with the bat lifted high up and the legs spread half-way across the pitch, that reeked of a subtle overcon� dence.

And, with four balls to go and tied with one wicket in hand, Lance Klusener made a blunder that would go down in history as the mistake that changed the very course of cricketing history.

I repeat, with four balls in hand, Klusener went for a run that wasn’t there, with no call, while Allan Donald at the other end, safe and sound, looked on, unaware that his fellow team member was about to throw the World Cup away.

Klusener was, of course, run out. He did not even look back, instead, just heading straight for the pavilion, knowing very well that he had lifted an entire nation up to let it fall crumbling down.

I sat and watched, watching a nightmare unfold in real life. My young heart, heavy with misery and hope, grasped at straws: But they were tied? Why would Klusener go for it? They had four balls to go, no?

Australia would go on to win that World Cup, beating Pakistan

by eight wickets. They would also go on to win the two after that.

Since then, Bangladesh has risen substantially as a side to be feared in the world cricketing stage, and my passion for both South Africa and the gentleman’s game has faded away.

Occasionally, I will look at the scores, or overhear a piece of news and react as if it changes anything, but really, my investment in the world of cricket -- and I suspect I am not the only one -- has faded away.

Much like the game of cricket itself. Though I do not see myself as anything but a product of the present and the future, when it comes to this particular game, a sense of nostalgia cannot help but permeate the air that surrounds me.

As the T20 Asia Cup goes on, I cannot help but compare the gravitas with which cricket used to present itself to us, be it onscreen or live. There was no Bangladesh as it is now, sure, but there was an emotional thread that connected us to the happenstances on screen, much in the way we see some supporters of footballers doing so abroad.

Cricket, as a game, has always been di� erent from other games in its very format: Even ODIs, the shortest version until recently, would require an entire day’s

commitment. But as cricket was changed to incorporate bigger and bigger scorecards (free hits and powerplay � elding restrictions, to name a couple) and shorter formats such as the T20, the sport itself seemed to lose much of its sheen, being replaced by instant grati� cation, sixes every other ball, and cheerleaders a la America.

The inclusion of Twenty20 in the international arena, for me, has to be the � nal nail in cricket’s co� n. A game, which was all strategy and patience, the subtlety of stroke-play, became replaced by luck and power hitters.

A target such as 213 in a 50-over match, as Australia gave South Africa in 1999, making the match go down to the wire, would be laughed upon now. In the last T20 game between India and Bangladesh on February 24, India posted a target of 167. And the format has seen much higher totals.

It is perhaps a result of the fact that the very way we live our lives has changed. We don’t have the time to sit around, ball after ball, waiting for something to happen, as a Gavaskar or Kallis defends, leaves, and occasionally strokes the ball away for a soft four runs. A run rate below six an over? You must be joking.

I recognise the fact that the new formats and rules, despite the obvious way in which they were imposed to cater to a certain demographic, can be enjoyable to some. After all, there must have been demand for it.

I also do not fail to recognise that cricket has been dying for a while, and this is perhaps a desperate attempt by its organisers and stake-holders to keep it alive. As the world picks up pace, so must cricket.

But, sometimes, only sometimes, I go back to that match in 1999. Sitting in a dingy hotel in Cox’s Bazar, I almost wept as my favourite team lost their chance at glory. Perhaps it is not the game I miss so much, as much as the feeling of caring about something so far removed from me, yet so deeply.

Much like Lance Klusener, who, after making that unforgivable fumble running between the wickets, walked away towards the stands, unable to even look back at the shambles in his wake, I, too, cannot look back at the game I loved, as it is now. l

SN Rasul is a journalist and academic. Follow him @snrasul.

Opinion12DT

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Cricket today is about instant grati� cation, and sixes on every ball MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

The inclusion of Twenty20 in the international arena, for me, has to be the � nal nail in cricket’s co� n. A game, which was all strategy and patience, the subtlety of stroke-play, became replaced by luck and power hitters

T20 has kept cricket’s popularity alive, but have we lost something essential along the way?

Running between the wickets

Opinion 13D

TTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

n William Milam

My � rst stop in Sarajevo was the street corner where, on June 28, 1914, the 20th century

began to fall apart. It is in the mid-dle of the town, across from the “Latin” Bridge over the Miljacka River.

On that day over 101 years ago, the 19-year-old Serbian nationalist assassin, Gavrilo Princip, hap-pened to be standing right at the corner when the open car of the visiting Austrian Archduke mistak-enly turned right. Princip was not more than � ve feet away from his target, and didn’t miss.

For a landmark that changed the course of history, the spot is modestly marked. I suppose Bosnians would rather not have Sarajevo be remembered for the assassination that led to the blood-iest century in modern history, although Bosnia su� ered more than many other countries.

A simple stone marker set in a wall is all that there is. A small museum holds out in the corner building, overlooking the spot, almost out of sight, with some in-teresting photos. We were its only visitors, I suspect, on that par-ticular day. Princip was a Bosnian Serb, but perhaps one who wanted a multi-ethnic Slav nation that was independent of the even more multi-ethnic Austrian Empire.

At least that is the inference one can make from his statement at his trial for the murder of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungar-ian Empire. He said: “I am a Yu-goslav nationalist, aiming for the uni� cation of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be freed from Austria.”

There is some reason to believe that he might have been of that mind. Sarajevo had a history of inter-ethnic and inter-religious tolerance and harmony for much of its preceding history. (Since ethnicity is closely aligned with religion in the Balkans, inter-eth-nic and inter-religious harmony are basically the same thing.)

After the Ottoman Empire annexed Bosnia in 1463, the � rst Ottoman ruler made Sarajevo into the capital, building a mosque, a public bath, a covered market, and some o� cial buildings.

In the next 200 years, Sarajevo became the largest and most im-portant city in Ottoman-controlled Europe. At its height in the mid-17th Century, it boasted having 80,000 inhabitants, six times more than Belgrade, and � ve times more than Zagreb.

These centuries of growth and progress also fostered a tradition of ethnic/religious co-existence that would be the envy of many countries today (including Bosnia). As the military fortunes of the Ottoman Empire turned sour in the 17th century, Bosnia became a frontier state in the empire, and its fortunes also declined.

At the end of the 17th Centu-ry, Sarajevo was attacked by the Austrians and the city was burned down. By the early 19th Century, internal instability was growing (the 1830s revolt against the Otto-mans foreshadowed major chang-

es) so that Sarajevo’s population had shrunk to about 60,000.

The second half of the 19th cen-tury saw the Ottoman Empire con-tinue to weaken and lose territory to Russia and others. The “sick man of Europe,” as the Ottomans came to be called, was unable, inter alia, to control and admin-ister its European territories, and conditions in Bosnia continued to deteriorate.

In 1878, in an e� ort to � x the problems that the deteriorating Ottoman power and grasp had created, as almost an afterthought, the “great powers” (UK, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire) gave to Austria-Hungary the re-sponsibility to occupy and admin-ister Bosnia while keeping it under de jure Ottoman sovereignty.

How they expected this to work while recognising in the same conference the independence of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro, and an amputated Bulgaria, is a mystery.

Paradoxically, Sarajevo pros-pered under Austrian occupation, in part re� ecting the sad state of the administration of the Otto-mans.

The city was rebuilt, and for me this has given the city a unique charm, blending the remaining Muslim parts of the city with 19th century Western European styles. Austrian investment also brought rapid economic progress.

But in 1908, Austria-Hunga-ry took it one step too far and annexed Bosnia. This action in-creased the agitation among Bos-nians to break away from Austria, and brought Princip to Sarajevo on that fateful day in 1914.

World War I brought the end of both the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman empires. Sarajevo joined the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the centre of the Bosnian region of the kingdom. World War II brought a quick end to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Sarajevo fell to the Axis Powers in April 1941. The German/Italian occupation authorities created an independent state of Croatia, which was an Axis ally from the very beginning, into which they forced Bosnia. Many heroic myths about the Yugoslavian resistance against the Germans are still cur-rent, and some are even true.

But as in all of the occupied countries of WWII, the truth is much more intricate and hard to make out. In the great majority of occupied countries, ideological and/or ethnic groups used the resistance as much to advance their own agendas and � ght their domestic enemies as to � ght the Germans.

In many of those countries, their domestic enemies were sometimes collaborators with the Germans, sometimes not.

What could account, otherwise, for the fact that there was a Wa� en SS regiment of Bosnian Muslims recruited to � ght against Tito’s Communist partisans?

And how to explain the famous photo of the celebrated Serbian partisan � ghter about to be hung -- by soldiers of the collaborationist Serbian government.

And often the Germans were not even involved. Istvan Deak sums it up best: “After the triumphs of 1941, the occupiers e� ectively controlled less and less territory. More and more, the Balkans were dominated by various guerilla groups -- commu-nists, republicans, monarchists … nationalist Chetniks (whose aim was a greater Serbia, not a restored Yugoslavia) and Josip Broz Tito’s communists in Croatia, Serbia, and other parts of the former Yugosla-via.”

The war ended in Yugoslavia when the Soviet and British Army teamed with Tito’s partisans to establish order. Sarajevo became the capital of the Socialist Repub-lic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Socialist Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia. And, for a while, life was good.

A sense of the pre-war co-exist-ence returned (religious con� icts were simply not allowed under communism), and the commu-nist federal government invested heavily in building up Sarajevo. It became one of the Balkans’ major cities again. In 1984, it hosted the winter Olympics, and its charms became better known around the world.

The modern history museum in Sarajevo is divided into two parts. The � rst covers this period of progress and prosperity under Tito’s socialist regime. As I went through it, the positive feelings about that period were clearly on display. This was, for the present generations, their halcyon days.

But around two-thirds of the way through, I began to pick up a subtle change of tone -- well, it was a great period, but Sarajevo wasn’t getting its share of the nation’s resources.

This became more insistent toward the end of this � rst part of the museum. Of course, Tito, half Croat and half Slovene, had died in 1980, and his successors had been Serbs (Serb nationalists perhaps). Moreover, after the Soviet Union broke up, other Yugoslav states began to declare independence.

It is a short and slippery step from declaring independence to civil war, as we all know.

Wait a minute! A member of a federation that feels it is being discriminated against by a larger, more powerful, national fed-eral center which sees its parts disappearing -- I have seen this movie before, and the ending is not necessarily a happy one. But that will come in Part 2, after the intermission. l

William Milam is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington, DC, and former US Ambassador to Pa-kistan and Bangladesh. This article � rst appeared in The Friday Times.

There’s plenty of history buried in Sarajevo

Paradoxically, Sarajevo prospered under Austrian occupation, in part re� ecting the sad state of the administration of the Ottomans. The city was rebuilt, and for me this has given the city a unique charm, blending the remaining Muslim parts of the city with 19th century Western European styles

The city of Sarajevo changed the history of the world

Where it all began

n Garga Chatterjee

There is a section of the Bombay-not-Mumbai crowd that refuses to admit even temporary

defeat to Maharashtra or Mumbai. When Amol Rajan, the Kolkata-born editor of a British newspaper, recently decided to start using the term Bombay in his daily life to refer to what most people in Mumbai have always referred to as Mumbai, the Bombay-not-Mumbai folks felt appreciated.

They felt that at least someone understood them. They felt slightly less beleagured, if only very slightly so. It was a moment of re-a� rming their faith.

It felt nice. But few others seemed to care. But I have still chosen to react because the tussle between Mumbai and Bombay is not a Hindu-nationalist versus cos-mopolitan-liberal-India divide, as the editor falsely made it out to be.

Elites with hurt egos and those who share their world-view will conjure up any reason to make their point. Bombay still controls the representation of Mumbai -- inside the Indian Union and across the world. They control this representation through their trans-metropolitan networks of other sympathetic deracinated elites.

The fact that I am reacting to something that is probably of very marginal interest to Maharashtrians, except for some who want to milk its potency as a powerful symbol of real people,

shows how the Bombay crowd, the Independent editor, and this author are probably closer to each other than each of them is to the Mumbai imagining of the city.

But this mis-representation creates anger. Any injustice does. Hence, such representations or mis-representations must be contested, for self-respect of the

salt of the earth is not for sale.With the breakdown of Congress dominance all over the Indian Union, there was also a slight loosening of the power-grip of the Anglo-Hindi Nehruvian elites.

Their self-declared cosmpolitanism was a poor excuse for their own parasitism. Rooted people of the soil, who lived by their own identities and not borrowed colonial ones, asserted themselves in the political front.

While some pundits portray assertion of rootedness or native

identity as a speed-breaking hindrance to a cosmopolitan love-fest, most mobilisations based on rootedness draws life-force from exclusion and injustice. Maharashtra happened.

And then Mumbai happened. Bombay lost both the battles because, slowly but surely, the numbers of the servants have

started mattering compared to the numbers of the masters.

These are defeats from which Bombay never recovered.

There is a slow but unmistakable trans-generational shift of their children, assets, and resources towards the NCR, the next metropolis anointed to be the sprawling, glitzy celebration of alienation, of rootlessness, of deracination of the idea of India.

The tiny minority of Mumbai who call it Bombay, as opposed to the rooted majority who have

always called it Mumbai, is overjoyed that a British newspaper has decided to “change back” to Bombay. This doesn’t mean that Britain controls Mumbai.

This shows, once again, that the minority that uses Bombay (and are likely to have a compatriot in a British newspaper) still controls Mumbai, as they always have.

The basis of that lies in the marginalisation of the rooted majority. Celebrating Bombay over Mumbai is celebrating distributive injustice. No one represents Bombay’s vaunted cosmopolitanism of yore as does Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. Though he was a migrant to Mumbai, his rootedness is unquestionable.

When he was setting up the JJ School of Art, he brought GW Terry from Britain as a drawing teacher with a lucrative annual salary of Rs300 in 1857.

Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy’s condition to GW Terry was that he must learn Marathi within a year of joining.

That was then. The post-1990 new-India elite, that has no signif-icant stake in anything to do with the culture or the soil they bene� t from, may yet defeat Mumbai.

Mumbai has to defend against what elite rootless classes have done to Bengaluru, including preliminary initiatives to divide the city to give themselves political clout through their White� eld enclaves.

Sobered by defeats, Bombay-not-Mumbai may be smart enough to let the name remain Mumbai and not risk a renaming con� ict while continuing to dominate in many other ways.

They may be on the rise again, but the rooted Maharashtrian has not still disappeared. Mumbai, in its de-throner-of-Bombay avatar, can still o� er resistance, and has not been defeated. Yet.

All great cities have multiple names. When the most commonly-used name isn’t the “internationally” used name, it tells us more about elite-minority clout than anything else.

Bombay gets a reality-check from Mumbai every time the municipal elections are held. There, where people matter, Mumbai wins. l

Garga Chatterjee is a political and cultural commentator. He can be followed on Twitter @gargac.

Opinion14DT

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Not everybody believes this sign needs to be changed BIGSTOCK

The post-1990 new-India elite, that has no signi� cant stake in anything to do with the culture or the soil they bene� t from, may yet defeat Mumbai. Mumbai has to defend against what elite rootless classes have done to Bengaluru, including preliminary initiatives to divide the city to give themselves political clout through their White� eld enclaves

Where people matter, Mumbai wins

Bombay or Mumbai?

15D

TBusinessTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

US shale’s message for OPEC: above $40, we are coming backFor leading US shale oil producers, $40 is the new $70. Less than a year ago major shale � rms were saying they needed oil above $60 a barrel to produce more; now some say they will settle for far less in deciding whether to crank up out-put after the worst oil price crash in a generation. PAGE 18

China cuts reserve requirements in bid to boost economyChina’s central bank yesterday cut the proportion of funds banks must set aside as reserves, in Beijing’s latest attempt to tackle slowing growth in the world’s sec-ond largest economy. PAGE 17

NBR begins preparatory work for next � scal year budgetThe National Board of Revenue has launched the groundwork of budget preparation for the � scal year 2016-17. PAGE 16

Capital market snapshot: MondayDSE

Broad Index 4,512.0 -0.5% ▼

Index 1,099.8 -0.8% ▼

30 Index 1,722.9 -0.8% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 4,629.3 9.1% ▲

Turnover in Mn Vol 130.5 5.0% ▲

CSEAll Share Index 13,920.5 -0.5% ▼

30 Index 12,567.9 -0.7% ▼

Selected Index 8,458.4 -0.5% ▼

Turnover in Mn Tk 510.3 77.0% ▲

Turnover in Mn Vol 14.7 47.3% ▲

INSIDE

Banks lending rate drops to 11.05% in January n Tribune Report

The lending rate in Bangladesh’s banking sector dropped to 11.05% in January this year from 12.32% one year ago, said Bangladesh Bank data released re-cently.

The interest rate on deposit also fell to 6.21% from 7.26% during the same period.

During the period, the lending rate plunged by 1.27 percentage points compared to 1.05 percentage points drop of deposit rate.

A senior executive of a private bank in the country said the deposit rate fall was slower than that lending rate as the new banks were still struggling to attract deposits.

However, the banking sector moved to reduce lending rate gradually to stimulate credit demand amid economic recovery after a long stagnation, add-ed the executive asking not to be named.

Bangladesh Bank data showed that the gap be-tween lending and deposit rates, known as spread, came down to the “expected level of 4.84%” in Janu-ary this year from 5.05% a year earlier.

The private bank executive said the downward trend of lending rate had played a role in boosting credit growth to 14.19% in December last year, which was high in three years.

Alhough the average lending rate has come down to 11.05%, the new banks are still lending at high in-terest rates like 13%-14% in January 2016. The lending rate of nine new banks were between 14% and 15% in January last year.

Of the new banks, Farmers Bank lent at the highest 14.54% rate while its interest rate against deposit was 9.56% in January this year, and Midland Bank, anoth-er new bank, o� ered lowest lending rate of 12.18% against deposit rate of 7.56%.

However, the weighted average lending rate of state-owned banks fell to 10.2% in January this year from 11.28% one year ago. The deposit rate dropped to 6.42% from 7.19% during the same period.

Sonali Bank, the largest state-owned commercial bank, saw 2.66% credit growth year-on-year in De-cember last year. But the bank experienced negative credit growth of 1.95% one year ago.

The lending rate of private commercial banks dropped to 11.45% in January from 12.82% a year earlier while the deposit rate also fell to 6.3% from 7.52%. l

Anti-smuggling taskforce to reveal statistics on smugglingn Tribune Report

The recently reconstituted central anti-smuggling taskforce will pre-pare a research paper which will disclose a complete statistics for smuggling and depict its real sce-nario.

It will also formulate a year-long work plan considering three key issues – security of the state, threat to revenue mobilisation and protection of social system – for carrying out its task.

National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Nojibur Rahman, also head of the newly recon-stituted central anti-smuggling taskforce, made the disclosure to reporters on Sunday after its � rst meeting of the newly formed com-mittee at the NBR headquarters.

The anti-smuggling watch-dog will focus on bringing dyna-mism to the country’s regional anti-smuggling taskforces and also work closely with the depu-ty commissioners of districts and

upazila nirbahi o� cers to make its plan a success, he said.

The taskforce will take both preventive and punitive measures and play a proactive role, added Nojibur.

Information sharing with dif-ferent agencies and the media will also be done in due manner.

Some 80% of the money launder-ing incidents are trade-based. The task force has sought cooperation from all agencies to deal with the challenge, o� cials said.

The meeting discussed 17 core issues including expediting the

cases related to smuggling, con-struction of Border Outpost on In-do-Bangla border, seeking support from Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission on expansion of mobile network in the Sundarbans, appointment of lawyers and increasing vigilance to Moitree Express train service, which runs between India and Bangladesh, to combat combat transportation of smuggled goods.

The meeting also discussed how to seek support from the Di-rectorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) of India to stem the entrance of Yaba in Bangladesh from India. Earlier, Yaba was transported to Bangladesh from Myanmar, but now the smugglers have changed their route. They are mulling the smuggling of Yaba into Bangla-desh from India, said o� cials.

The meeting also discussed re-structuring duty on entrance of cattle from India and division-al commissioner of Rajshahi was assigned to look into the matter.

It also talked about tasking Bang-ladesh Coast Guard with formu-lating a combined monitoring cell and a joint intelligence cell to combat smuggling in coastal are-as, meeting sources said.

The � rst meeting of the recently reconstituted central anti-smug-gling taskforce was attended by NBR members, commissioners of customs houses; customs, excise and VAT commissionerates and members of the taskforce includ-ing representatives from di� erent government o� ces and law en-forcement and intelligence agen-cies including all divisional com-missioners, representatives from Rapid Action Battalion, Narcotics Control Department, Police, Bor-der Guard Bangladesh, National Security Intelligence, Bangladesh Coast Guard, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence and Bangla-desh Bank.

The existing anti-smuggling committee was earlier formed in 1988. l

‘The taskforce will take both preventive and punitive measures and play a proactive role’

‘The downward trend of lending rate had played a role in boosting credit growth to 14.19% in December last year, which was high in three years’

Sur: Prioritise energy-e� cient projects in funding n UNB

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Gover-nor SK Sur Chowdhury urged the bankers to prioritise water- and energy-e� cient projects while � -nancing investment.

“E� ciency in terms of water consumption is an investment in future service reliability, environ-mental stewardship and econom-ic viability,” he said at a workshop on “Water and Energy E� ciency Financing” yesterday, organised by IFC’s Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT) programme.

“Greater energy e� ciency is the key for shifting the country’s devel-opment paths toward lower-car-bon economic growth,” he said. l

Business16DT

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Dhaka stocks end in red n Tribune Report

Dhaka stocks ended in red yester-day extending losing steak for the four consecutive sessions as inves-tors were on selling spree to book their pro� ts.

DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), lost 25 points or 0.55% to end at 4,512 points.

The DS30 index, comprising blue chips, registered a 14 points fall to end at 1,723 points, while the DSE Shariah based Index lost 8 points or 0.76% to close at 1,100 points.

“For the fourth consecutive ses-sions, the market registered losses backed up by heavy sell-o� in large cap stocks like Square Pharmaceu-tical, Beximco Pharmaceutical and Lafarge Surma Cement,” said Lank-aBangla Securities in its analysis.

Due to persistent sloth in the market and absence of conviction on long-term view, investors opt-ed for pro� t booking, said IDLC Investments in its regular market commentary.

Daily turnover at the premier bourse stood at Tk460 crore, which was 9.1% higher than the prevision session’s value of Tk424 crore.

Out of 318 issues traded, 97 gain, 173 closed lower and 48 remained unchanged.

In the days trading hours, the large cap sectors showed mixed performances. Engineering sector posted a 1.95% gain, which was the highest gain followed by Telecom-munication 0.09%.

Power shed 1.70% followed by Banks 1.60%, Non-Banking Finan-cial Institutions (NBFIs) 0.78%, Pharmaceuticals 0.56% and Food and Allied 0.44%. l

Innovation Xtreme to be held on March 19

n Tribune Report

Innovation Xtreme, a largest start-up event in Bangladesh, is scheduled to be held in the cap-ital on March 19 this year for fostering creativ-ity among the Bangladeshi youths.

Chief Executive O� cer (CEO) and founder of SD ASIA Musta� zur Rahman Khan came up with the disclosure at a press conference held at Dhanmondi in the city yesterday.

SD ASIA, an event and content making plat-form for Bangladeshi start-up, is going to or-ganise the event for second time.

Sonia Bashir Kabir, managing director of Microsoft Bangladesh, Fayaz Taher, chief ex-ecutive o� cer of Fortuna Bangladesh and Samad Miraly, executive director of Olympic Industries Limited also addressed the press conference.

SD ASIA is bringing back Innovation Xtreme (IX) this year again for the second time.

With the theme of ‘Bangladesh: The Next Tech Frontier’, Innovation Xtreme will be held at the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel.

Musta� zur Rahman said: “Innovation Xtreme is bringing more than 25 renowned speakers and investors to meet 22 local start-ups.

Apart from getting extensive opportu-nity for networking, all the participants in the event will receive Microsoft’s BizSpark/YouthSpark packages worth US$10,000.

The organisers informed the press confer-ence that local and international speakers will share their experiences at the main event.

The speakers will include Muhammed Aziz Khan, chairman of Summit Group, Rajeev Sethi, chief executive o� cer of Grameen-phone, Anis Uzzaman from Fenox Venture, Sonia Bashir Kabir, managing director of Mi-crosoft Bangladesh and other industry ex-perts.

Local start-ups are able to showcase their ideas or products in front of renowned inves-tors and speakers.

Grameenphone, country’s largest telecom operator, is the main sponsor for this year’s event. Microsoft, Facebook, Tech In Asia, IPDC, Top-of-Mind are also participating as the event partners.

Sonia Bashir Kabir said: “We believe that more and more Bangladeshi people are going to get involved in online businesses.”

“The tech start-ups are going to play a ma-jor role in building Bangladesh’s future,” Mi-crosoft Bangladesh MD added. l

NBR begins preparatory work for next � scal year budgetBusiness chambers asked to submit their proposals to FBCCI by March 10n Tribune Report

The National Board of Revenue has launched the groundwork of budget preparation for the � scal year 2016-17.

It already started inviting opinions and proposals from the stakeholders as part of prepara-tion to make the budget partici-patory, business-friendly and rev-enue-maximising but pro-people, said o� cials.

NBR First Secretary and Chief Budget Coordinator Mohammad Akbar Hossain sent letters to all the

stakeholders including business chambers and associations seeking proposals and opinions.

The chambers and associations have been asked to submit their proposals to Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) by March 10.

They have also been asked to email soft copies of the proposals to the NBR at nbrbudget2016@gmail.com.

The organisations having no a� liation with any chamber or as-sociation would submit their pro-

posals to the NBR appointed chief budget coordinator directly or via email at the same address.

Usually, the trade bodies and business organisations forward their proposals to the apex trade body, which submits the propos-als to the revenue authorities in a compiled form.

Earlier, the NBR sent letters to its all income tax zones, customs houses and to the customs, excise and VAT commissionerates asking them to send proposals and rec-ommendations on laws and budget measures based on their practical

experiences.After receiving proposals and

recommendations, the NBR will hold month-long pre-budget sec-tor-wise discussions with trade bodies and other stakeholders, likely in April.

With an annual budget, the gov-ernment brings amendments to the existing laws and rules related to customs, VAT and income tax to maximise revenue earnings, pro-vide protection to local industries, facilitate international trade and solve procedural complexities in revenue collection. l

SD ASIA, an event management platform for start-ups, announces the country’s biggest start-up event at a press conference yesterday COURTESY

Business 17D

TTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

India’s economy: Five things to know about its annual budgetn AFP, New Delhi

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jait-ley presented the annual budget yesterday with big giveaways for the rural poor. Here are � ve key questions about India’s economy:

Why has India failed to achieve its huge potential?India is the world’s biggest democ-racy and one of its biggest markets, but it has struggled to haul its 1.2 billion people out of poverty.

Millions of people in rural ar-eas live on less than $1.25 a day and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is just $1,540 a year. By some development metrics, India performs worse than poorer neigh-bours Bangladesh and Pakistan.

India has a � ourishing services sector, especially in IT, but this only employs a relatively small number of skilled, educated people.

Manufacturing was a key way for China to lift its vast population out of poverty and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to emulate that with his Make in India

campaign. But India’s slow, bureaucratic

business climate and poor infra-structure puts o� investors.

And unlike China, where the ruling Communist Party makes decisions without debate, in� ght-ing in India’s parliament paralyses many key reforms.

What has Prime Minister Modi offered and has he delivered?Modi swept to power with a huge mandate in 2014 and promised to bring in sweeping reforms to re-duce poverty, revitalise business and attract foreign investment. But many key promises have not mate-rialised.

A land reform plan which would have made it easier for businesses to buy land from farmers is widely considered dead in the water.

And a bill to introduce a Goods and Services Tax (GST), which would simplify a patchwork of existing taxes in India for the � rst time, is stuck in parliament’s upper house, where the ruling party lacks a majority.

Of 30 key reforms tracked by the Center for International and Strate-gic Studies (CSIS) on its Modi Gov-ernment Reforms Scorecard, only six have been completed.

Catchy initiatives such as Make in India have succeeded in raising the pro� le of India abroad, and for-eign direct investment rose in 2015.

But many of the underlying reforms necessary for Modi’s eye-catching initiatives to have a real chance of success have yet to come to fruition.

What has this budget promised?This budget is aimed squarely at India’s farmers, who are su� ering after two bad monsoons and with high in� ation.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be hijacking ideological territory more associ-ated with the left-leaning Congress party as it tries to counter accusa-tions it doesn’t do enough to help the poor.

Jaitley has pledged to spend 359bn rupees ($5.2bn) on doubling the income of India’s estimated 120

million farmers over the next � ve years through measures including a crop insurance scheme and better access to markets.

The budget also promised mas-sive spending on infrastructure, including for roads, railways and ports.

Will it be enough?A slowdown in the global economy over the past year has hurt India’s growth, which is expected to � at-line in 2016.

India does not sell much abroad given its size and weak demand means it is selling even less, with exports slumping for 14 months.

This means that bolstering do-mestic consumption, a major en-gine of India’s economy, is vital to stimulate growth.

This budget should do this - measures to hike farmer incomes will put more money in many people’s pockets, with 68% of the 1.25 billion population living in the countryside.

A bumper pay rise for civil serv-ants and a new pension for retired

soldiers will see the government pump in billions of dollars and should encourage people to spend more.

And the promised boost in spending on infrastructure should help to attract private investment.

What are the implications if these initiatives fail?India is the world’s fastest-grow-ing major economy, consistently outpacing China over the past year, with GDP set to expand by 7.6% in 2015-16.

But economists say it should be growing at about 10% to bring people out of poverty and create the tens of millions of jobs need-ed each year to cater to its young, growing population.

The measures for rural India will help to ease the crisis in the coun-tryside.

But if Modi’s government can-not pass key reforms such as the GST bill, and if it cannot vastly im-prove the ease of doing business, it will not attract the investment needed to power its growth. l

China cuts reserve requirements to boost economyn AFP, Shanghai

China’s central bank yesterday cut the propor-tion of funds banks must set aside as reserves, in Beijing’s latest attempt to tackle slowing growth in the world’s second largest economy.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said in a statement it would trim the so-called “reserve requirement ratio” (RRR) for � nancial insti-tutions by 0.50 percentage points, freeing up more funds for them to lend.

The move came immediately after a G20 � -nance ministers’ meeting in Shanghai, which stressed the use of all available policy tools to boost global growth, and with Chinese and world stock markets assailed by worries over the economy.

“The move underscores a message that o� -cials have repeated in recent days, including at the G20 meeting: policymakers still have room to support the economy,” chief China econo-mist at Capital Economics, Mark Williams, said in a research note.

The decision also came ahead of the open-ing this weekend of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber stamp parliament, which will unveil economic targets for 2016 and a � ve-year de-velopment plan.

China’s economy grew an annual 6.9% last year - the lowest in a quarter of a century - and analysts forecast it to slow further this year.

The RRR cut, which was expected by econ-omists, is the � rst across-the-board reserve ratio cut since October last year, when the cen-

tral bank also lowered it by the same margin.The latest move lowers the reserve ratio to

17% for major banks, analysts said.Analysts anticipate Chinese Premier Li Ke-

qiang will declare a lower growth target at the NPC meeting, likely a range of 6.5 to 7% from the previous target of around 7%.

Liquidity shortageThe PBoC said in a statement on its website the RRR move aimed at maintaining liquidity and guiding the steady growth of money and credit.

“The central bank wants to make up for a shortage of liquidity ... to stabilise the econ-omy,” Chen Ji, a senior analyst at the Bank of Communications in Shanghai, told AFP.

On Friday, on the sidelines of the G20 min-isters meeting, PBoC chief Zhou Xiaochuan said China could still use monetary tools to help boost its slowing economy.

“China still has some monetary policy space and monetary policy tools to address potential downside risk,” he said.

The central bank has already slashed inter-est rates six times since late 2014 and lowered the RRR several times, as well as injecting massive amounts of funds through open mar-ket operations.

Before the announcement of the RRR cut, the central bank pumped 230bn yuan ($35bn) into the � nancial system Monday to ease tight liquidity, bringing total fund injections over the past week to more than 1.0 trillion yuan, according to state media. l

Business18DT

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

CORPORATE NEWS

AB Bank Limited has recently signed an agreement with Nokkhottrobari Resort and Conference Center on providing the bank’s debit and credit cardholders with preferential rates at the resort, said a press release. The bank’s deputy managing director, Sajjad Hussain and managing director of Nokkhottrobari Resort and Conference Center, Tauqir Ahmed have signed the agreement

Prime Bank has recently held a business conference on commercial banking in Gazipur, said a press release. The bank’s managing director, Ahmed Kamal Khan Chowdhury was present at the conference among others

Samsung Mobile Bangladesh has recently announced winner of its Samsung Studio campaign. The design of freelance designer, Lutfun Nahar Moonmoon has been selected as champion design. The company’s managing director, Seungwon Youn was present at the prize distribution ceremony, said a press release

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Qauder has recently attended factory launching event of Bengal Feed and Fisheries Ltd in Noakhali, said a press release. Chairperson of Bengal Group of Industries, Morshedul Alam was also present at the event

US shale’s message for OPEC: Above $40, we are coming backn Reuters, New York

For leading US shale oil producers, $40 is the new $70.

Less than a year ago major shale � rms were saying they needed oil above $60 a barrel to produce more; now some say they will set-tle for far less in deciding whether to crank up output after the worst oil price crash in a generation.

Their latest comments highlight the industry’s remarkable resil-ience, but also serve as a warning to rivals and traders: a retreat in US oil production that would help ease global oversupply and let prices re-cover may prove shorter than some may have expected.

Continental Resources Inc, led by billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm, is prepared to increase cap-ital spending if US crude reaches the low- to mid-$40s range, allow-ing it to boost 2017 production by more than 10%, chief � nancial o� -cial John Hart said last week.

Rival Whiting Petroleum Corp, the biggest producer in North Da-kota’s Bakken formation, will stop fracking new wells by the end of March, but would “consider com-pleting some of these wells” if oil reached $40 to $45 a barrel, Chair-man and CEO Jim Volker told an-alysts. Less than a year ago, when the company was still in spending mode, Volker said it might deploy

more rigs if US crude hit $70.While the comments were

couched with caution, they serve as a reminder of how a dramatic decline in costs and rapid e� cien-cy gains have turned US shale, in-itially seen by rivals as a marginal, high cost sector, into a major player - and a thorn in the side of big OPEC producers.

Nimble shale drillers are now helping mitigate the nearly 70% slide crude price rout by cutting back output, but may also limit any rally by quickly turning up the spigots once prices start recovering from current levels just above $30.

The threat of a shale rebound is “putting a cap on oil prices,” said John Kildu� , partner at Again Cap-

ital LLC. “If there’s some bullish outlook for demand or the econ-omy, they will try to get ahead of the curve and increase production even sooner.”

Some producers have already be-gan hedging future production, with prices for 2017 oil trading at near $45 a barrel, which could put a � oor un-der any future production cuts.

Global ambitionsWhile the worst oil downturn since the 1980s sounds the death knell for scores of debt-laden shale pro-ducers, it has also hastened the decline in costs of hydraulic frac-turing and improvements of the still-developing technology.

For example, Hess Corp, which pumps one of every 15 barrels of North Dakota crude, cut the cost of a new Bakken oil well by 28% last year.

What once helped fatten mar-gins is now key to survival in what Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi de-scribed last week as the “harsh” reality of a global market in which the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries is no longer willing to curb its supplies to bolster prices.

While Deloitte auditing and con-sulting warns that a third of US oil producers may face bankruptcy, leading shale producers say their ambitions go beyond just outrun-ning domestic rivals.

“It’s no longer enough to be the low cost producer in US horizontal shale,” Bill Thomas, chairman of EOG Resources Inc, said on Friday. “EOG’s goal is to be competitive, low-cost oil producer in the global market.”

Thomas did not say what price would spur EOG to boost output this year, but said it had a “premi-um inventory” of 3,200 well loca-tions that can yield returns of 30% or more with oil at $40. l

Three oil and gas rigs owned by Transocean Ltd sit idle in the Grand Harbor in Valletta, Malta REUTERS

Biz Info 19D

T

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Jadoo Digital to launchA new entrant called Jadoo Digital has joined the revolution of digital cable services. With high-de� nition, premium TV and Internet-based services, Jadoo Digital is due to launch soon to serve customers across the nation. The service is the consumer-facing brand of Digi Jadoo Broadband Limited which started its operations back in 2007.

A concern of Mohammadi Group, and under the leadership of its chairman, Annisul Huq, Jadoo Digital was conceived to provide consumers with breakthrough and unparalleled entertainment.

Over the past few years, Digi Jadoo Broadband Limited has evolved into one of the largest cable TV distribution houses in Bangladesh, exclusively pro-viding 20+ channels including the STAR TV Network, BBC, Ten Sports, Neo Sports, ABP and Times.

Jadoo Digital was built to be

an advanced, state-of-the-art converged video and Internet service capable of delivering 250+ digital channels, ensuring crisp imagery and crystal clear sound with entertainment con-tent from around the world, all day every day.

Consumers will also be able to experience video recording, video on demand and electronic program guides. Moreover, a range of internet-based services such as high-speed internet, IP telephony, and a 24/7 call center support will be available. To enable the future potential of such a converged, two-way addressable system, Jadoo Dig-ital has recently partnered with the world’s largest TV software company, TiVo.

Jadoo Digital will start its test transmission from next month and plans to launch its on-ground services for consumers with its very own set top-box from April 2016 onward. l

| inauguration |

NCC Bank Limited, a prominent bank in the country, had signed an agreement with Software Shop Limited (operating under the brand name “SSL Wireless”) to implement 3D secure solutions for their customers. The service has recently been activated.

The cardholders of NCC Bank will be prompted with a numeric password while performing card-not-present or e-commerce transactions.

Golam Ha� z Ahmed, manag-ing director and chief executive o� cer, Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, additional managing director, Abu Zafore Md Saleh, deputy managing director and Md Fa-zlur Rahman, deputy managing director of NCC Bank Limited along with Sayeeful Islam,

managing director and Ashish Chakraborty, general manager of SSL Wireless were present during the activation ceremony on behalf of their respective organisations at the head o� ce of NCC Bank.

3DSecure allows cardhold-ers to authenticate themselves while making an online pay-ment. The cardholders shall retain a peace of mind that their card cannot be used without their authorisation.

Merchants are protected from fraud and can provide the product and service without delay or extra costs. Banks are able to see that the transaction has been authenticated and are more likely to approve the transaction as well.l

3D secure solutions for NCC Bank clients

| banking |

Inspired by the richness of the historic era, The Mughal Kitchen serves authentic Mughal cuisine with a variety of inventive dishes, desserts and drinks. Mouthwatering dishes and delectable drinks are prepared using the freshest ingredients, by a team of veteran and highly-

trained chefs.The Mughal Kitchen recently launched Kala Bhuna, Chicken Tikka, Chicken Boti, Mutton Boti, Chicken Chaap and Beef Sheek, all priced reasonably at Tk180.All dishes come with luchi, salads, Tzaziki and soft drinks. l

Spend an evening with The Mughal Specials

| dining |

Great news for Mexican food lovers! Brews & Bites is now introducing Mexican bites to their existing cuisine! One can enjoy the exciting � avors of Mexican classics such as nachos, tacos and fajitas in the warm ambiance of Brews & Bites. Visit them at 112 Gulshan Avenue (opposite Agora, above Dhaka Republic).l

Mexican bites at Brews & Bites!

| food |

Lime and thyme presents Steak Festival, where four types of steaks are made available foodies.Sirloin Steak, T-Bone Steak, Pepper Steak and Fish Steak are all priced reasonably at Tk550. l

Steak Fest at Lime and Thyme

| cuisine |

IUPC 2016

The “SUB Inter-University Programming Contest 2016” was held at the State University of Bangladesh (SUB) premises, on February 27. Organised by the Department of Computer Sci-ence and Engineering, the con-test drew many programming enthusiasts to solve complex real-world problems using ad-vanced knowledge of program-ming within an exhaustive, � ve-hour session, with a hundred participating teams. The contest was inaugurated by Professor Dr Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury, vice chancellor, SUB. Professor Dr Mohammad Kaykobad from BUET led a � fteen-member pan-el of judges. In the concluding session, prizes were handed out

by the chief guest Professor Dr S M A Faiz, advisor, SUB. Champi-ons, � rst and second runner-up prizes were awarded to teams SUST_ron-O, BUET Rayo and NSU BugLovers, respectively. Dr Kaykobad suggested that such programming contests would develop the intellectual capital of the youth in Bangladesh for a prosperous future. The chief guest expressed his satisfaction and praised the Department of CSE for hosting IUPC successful-ly for the second time. Finally, the registrar of the university, Professor AYM Ekramud-ud-Daulah thanked everyone concerned in making the grand assembly of programmers pos-sible. l

| contest |

Downtime20DT

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS

DILBERT

How to solve: Fill in the blank spaces with the numbers 1 – 9. Every row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain all nine digits with no number repeating.

CODE-CRACKER

CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS

CODE-CRACKER

How to solve: Each number in our CODE-CRACKER grid represents a di� erent letter of the alphabet. For example, today 9 represents B so � ll B every time the � gure 9 appears.You have two letters in the control grid to start you o� . Enter them in the appropriate squares in the main grid, then use your knowledge of words to work out which letters go in the missing squares.Some letters of the alphabet may not be used.As you get the letters, � ll in the other squares with the same number in the main grid, and the control grid. Check o� the list of alphabetical letters as you identify them.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

CROSSWORD

ACROSS1 Of various colours (4)6 Vigour (3)7 Tibetan priest (4)9 Cicatrix (4)10 Wall painting (5)11 First public appear-ance(5)12 Day before (3)14 Discourage (5)17 Burdened (5)20 Anger (3)21 English port (5)23 Exclude (5)25 Labyrinth (4)26 Minute particle (4)27 Help (3)28 Narrate (4)

DOWN1 Soft colour (6)2 Dodged (6)3 Dreadful (4)4 Distant (3)5 Close friend (3)7 Old stringed (4)8 Manufacturer (5)10 Wet soft earth (3)13 Manservant (5)15 Long angry speech (6)16 Make known (6)18 Dutch cheese (4)19 And not (3)22 Send out (4)23 Water storage (3)24 Container (3)

SUDOKU

INSIDE

21D

TWorldTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

India pledges billions for farmers in populist budgetIndia’s federal government promised billions of dollars to help struggling farmers and boost the rural economy as it unveiled its annual budget on Monday, looking to kick-start growth and bolster its � agging popularity. PAGE 22

2016 Super Tuesday to be super nail-biteySuper Tuesday is the big gulp moment for any US presidential candidate who makes it that far. It’s the biggest day of competition in American democracy except for Election Day itself. It’s super nail-bitey, super expensive and often super-clarifying - the killer and maker of dreams.

PAGE 24

Pakistan executes killer of anti-blasphemy law activist governor Pakistan on Monday executed a man who killed the governor of Punjab province over his call to reform strict blasphemy laws that carry a death sentence for insult-ing Islam. PAGE 23

EUROPEAN MIGRANTS CRISIS

Clashes break out in Greece-Macedonia border, France’s Calaisn Agencies

Macedonia sent special police re-inforcements by helicopter Mon-day to its border with Greece, after repelling hundreds of frustrated Iraqi and Syrian refugees with tear gas and stun grenades when they tried to force their way across the border, Reports Associated Press.

Meanwhile, in other part of Eu-rope, clashes with police broke out as work got underway to clear part of the shanty town outside Cal-ais in northern France where mi-grants are trying to reach Britain, reports Reuters.

Thousands of desperate ref-ugees have been stuck for days on the Greek side of the border, over� owing from a packed refu-gee camp at Idomeni into the sur-rounding � elds as they waited for Macedonian authorities to let them continue their trek through the Balkans. Only a tiny trickle of peo-ple from speci� c countries have been allowed to cross every day.

Chanting “Open the border!” and “We want to go to Serbia!”, the protesting migrants broke down a gate at a nearby rail cross-ing Monday after pushing their way past Greek police.

Macedonian police repelled the protesters. Several women and children were nearly trampled in the melee and Macedonian author-ities said one o� cer was injured.

Macedonian police opened the crossing to receive about 50 peo-ple just before midday Monday but closed it again after the clash-es. A police spokeswoman said a train with 450 refugees left the Greek border early Monday and was heading for Serbia.

Macedonia has said it will only allow in as many people as Ser-bia accepts, and Serbia has been responding to refugee caps set by Austria further up the migrant trail into Western Europe. This has led to a huge bottleneck in Greece, where authorities say more than 22,000 people are stuck and more are arriving every day.

About 6,500 Syrian and Iraqi refugees are camped out around Idomeni, with another 500 moved to a hastily erected camp on a small concrete landing strip 20km away.

While in Calais, Police lobbed tear gas around midday, about 150-200 migrants and activists threw stones, and three makeshift shel-ters were set ablaze, according to a Reuters photographer at the site.

Earlier, one person was arrested for trying to stop a group of about 20 workers under heavy police pro-tection from clearing the site, where about 3,000 people are staying.

Regional Prefect Fabienne Buc-cio had said the police presence was needed because “extremists” could try to intimidate migrants into turning down housing o� ers or buses to reception centres.

Interior Minister Bernard Ca-zeneuve said last week that author-ities would work with humanitar-ian organisations to relocate the migrants to a nearby park of con-verted shipping containers or other reception centres around France.

On Thursday, a judge upheld a government order to evict mi-grants living in the southern part of the camp, although a few makeshift buildings of social im-portance such as a school and a theatre are to remain untouched.

Thousands of migrants � eeing war and poverty, from Afghanistan to Syria, have converged on the northern port over the past year. Many attempt to climb illegally onto trains using the Channel Tun-nel or into lorries heading to Britain where they hope to settle. Their presence has led to tension with some of the local population and to a permanent police deployment.

In recent weeks Austria — at the north end of the Balkan corridor — has severely restricted the in� ow of migrants, causing a domino e� ect through the Balkans. Many of those countries are now refus-ing to let Afghan refugees in, al-though UN authorities say no one has explained to them who made this decision or why.

Diplomatic tensions are ris-ing too, with criticism mounting against Austria. Athens has threat-ened to block decisions at an up-coming EU-Turkey summit unless the bloc forces members to shoul-der more of the refugee burden.

Authorities say over 1,800 peo-ple a day have reached Greece’s islands from Turkey in February, slightly down from 2,175 a day in January before the latest border restrictions.

After long delays, Greek au-thorities have constructed a series of screening centres and tran-sit camps for migrants. But the centers are now all over� owing, forcing hundreds of families to sleep outside in a central Athens square or at a passenger terminal in the port of Piraeus. l

1

2

3

4

1) Stranded refugees and migrants try to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border 2) Stranded refugees and migrants try to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the border 3) French riot police face o� with migrants and their supporters outside a makeshift school during the partial dismantlement of the camp for migrants called the "jungle" in France's Calais 4) A man carries a � re extinguisher as smoke and � ames rise from a burning makeshift shelter set ablaze in Calais camp REUTERS

WorldTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

22DT

India pledges billions for farmers in populist budgetn AFP, New Delhi

India’s federal government prom-ised billions of dollars to help strug-gling farmers and boost the rural economy as it unveiled its annual budget on Monday, looking to kick-start growth and bolster its � agging popularity.

India is now the world’s fast-est-growing major economy. But two years of drought and a fail-ure to create jobs for a burgeoning young population has left millions of rural residents struggling and led to deadly protests in recent weeks. The government came to power nearly two years ago promising to transform India’s economic for-tunes. But it has been hampered by the global economic slowdown and a failure to push much-needed re-forms through parliament.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley acknowledged the challenges as he presented the budget in parlia-ment, but said he had a “vision to transform India”.

Jaitley pledged to spend Rs-359bn ($5.2bn) on doubling the income of India’s estimated 120m farmers over the next � ve years through measures including a crop insurance scheme and better access to markets.

The vast farming sector is suf-fering after two years of weak mon-soon rains, and from high in� ation.

The budget outlined plans to raise credit available to farmers to Rs9tn for 2016-17, and pledged to ensure all the country’s villages have electricity within two years.

The government will increase spending on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,

which guarantees 100 days of em-ployment on public works each year for any household that requests it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi previously called the scheme a “living monument” to the “failures” of the previous Congress-led government.

Stalled reformsThe BJP performed poorly in elec-tions in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar last year and faces polls in other major farming states this year and next.

The BJP needs to perform well in upcoming state elections in or-der to push stalled economic re-forms through the national parlia-ment’s upper house, where it lacks a majority.

These include Modi’s � agship plan to introduce a national Goods and Services Tax to replace myriad

complex state and national levies seen as deterring much-needed in-vestment.

India is considered a relative bright spot in the world economy, but feeble global demand has caused its exports to shrink for 14 months and investment remains weak.

The opposition Congress party dismissed the budget as “a wasted opportunity”.

The main Sensex index on the Bombay Stock Exchange closed down 0.66% after the budget, which included a hefty 23% pay rise for millions of civil servants and a pension scheme for retired soldiers.

The two schemes will add bil-lions of dollars to the government’s spending bill over the next year, but Jaitley said it would stick to its am-bitious target to cut the � scal de� cit to 3.5% of GDP in 2016-17.

The government plans to coun-ter big spending pledges with dou-ble-digit increases in tax collection -- with plans to bring more people into the tax net, raise levies on ciga-rettes and SUVs and increase an in-come surcharge on the super-rich.

Jaitley also pledged to spend Rs2.21tn rupees on improvements to roads and other infrastructure.

The government will also inject Rs250bn rupees into public-sector banks, which are weighed down by bad loans.

Despite a major push to boost manufacturing, farming remains by far the biggest employer in India.

Earlier in February the Jats, tradi-tionally a farming caste, sparked riots in northern India to press demands for better access to government jobs and education. They say they are struggling to make a living. l

WorldTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

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SOUTH ASIAMyanmar parliament to change presidential elections dateAung San Suu Kyi is likely to speed up elections of the country’s president, in a last-minute change following weeks of talks with the military that bars her from assuming the highest o� ce. Myanmar’s par-liament dominated by the National League for Democracy will change the date of presidential elections, previously set for March 17, accord-ing to the agenda for Tuesday’s parliamentary session. -REUTERS

INDIAIndia, US closer to share military logisticIndia and the US are closing in on an agreement to share military logistics after 12 years of talks, o� cials said, a sign of strengthening defence ties between the countries as China becomes increasingly assertive. The progress comes as the countries consider joint maritime patrols that a US o� cial said could include the S China Sea. -REUTERS

CHINATen children stabbed outside Chinese school A knife-wielding attacker stabbed 10 school children in the city of Haikou, on the southern island province of Hainan on Monday, severely injuring 2, state media reported. The assail-ant was identi� ed as 45-year-old Li Sijun, who later committed suicide, reports said, adding no motive had been determined. -REUTERS

ASIA PACIFICMahathir quits ruling party over PM scandalsMalaysia’s former premier Mahathir Mohamad said on Monday he is quitting the ruling United Malays National Organisation party, as it is being seen as supporting corrup-tion under Prime Minister Najib Razak’s leadership. Mahathir has for months been a leading voice calling for the ousting of Najib, who is under pressure over allegations that billions of dollars had been pilfered from state � rms. -AFP

MIDDLE EASTIsraeli military braces for battle over beardsIsrael’s long-running struggle to balance modern standards with Jewish tradition has come to a head in the military, where new orders curtailing beards among sol-diers have met protests from some rabbis. Many Orthodox Jewish men go unshaven, a religious obser-vance that Israel’s armed forces ac-commodates. But in recent years, many secular soldiers have also grown beards, a trend that new orders going into e� ect on Tuesday aim to combat. -REUTERS

Iranian reformists win majority in parliament, assembly of experts n Tribune Desk

Iranian reformists and relative moderates who support last year’s nuclear deal won the most seats in parliament and a clerical body charged with selecting the next supreme leader in a major setback for hard-liners who opposed the agreement, Associated Press re-ported on Monday based on o� -cial election results.

Final results released by the interior ministry and broadcast on state TV show that reform-ists, who favour expanded social freedoms and engagement with the West, and other backers of President Hassan Rouhani, won at least 85 seats. Moderate con-servatives -- who split with the hard-line camp and support the nuclear deal -- won 73, giving the two camps together a majority over hard-liners in the 290-seat assembly.

Hard-liners won just 68 seats, down from 112 in the current par-liament. Five seats will go to reli-gious minorities, and the remain-ing 59 will be decided in a runo� ,

likely to be held in April.While none of the country’s

three main political camps will dominate the next parliament, the assembly will be much friend-lier to President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate elected in 2013 on pledges to relax restrictions on freedom of expression and im-prove ties with the West.

Reformists and moderate con-servatives are expected to work together — at least on economic issues — and the next parliament will be far friendlier to Rouhani, making it more likely he can also deliver on promises to promote social freedoms.

Moderates also won a 59% ma-jority in the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body which will choose the successor to Ayatol-lah Ali Khamenei, who has been Iran’s top decision-maker since 1989. The 76-year-old underwent prostate surgery in 2014, leading to renewed speculations about the state of his health.

Rouhani and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, both considered moderates, retained

their seats in the assembly.However, several prominent

hard-liners, including Ayatol-lah Ahmad Jannati, were also re-elected. Jannati is the leader of the Guardian Council, an unelect-ed, constitutional watchdog that vets election candidates, and has been a leading opponent of demo-cratic reforms.

He has also led e� orts to dis-qualify reformist candidates. Out of 3,000 reformists who applied to run in this year’s elections, just 200 made it through the vetting process.

The Assembly of Experts is elected every eight years. Mod-erates previously held around 20 seats in the assembly.

Rouhani and his allies like-ly bene� ted from last month’s implementation of the nuclear agreement, which lifted crippling sanctions that have been in place since 2012.

But analysts said the election results were also driven by do-mestic factors, including linger-ing anger at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani’s hard-

line predecessor. Ahmadinejad repeatedly clashed with the West over his dramatic expansion of the nuclear programme, his question-ing of the scale of the Holocaust and his predictions of Israel’s de-mise.

His policies led many conserv-atives to break with hard-liners, and the moderate conservatives’ support for the nuclear talks and subsequent agreement widened the rift.

Reformists last rose to power in 1997 with the election of President Mohammad Khatami and secured a majority in parliament three years later. But the pendulum soon swung back toward hard-lin-ers, who dominated Iranian pol-itics from 2004 until Rouhani’s election nearly three years ago.

Khamenei, who makes all � nal decisions on major policies, in-sists he is above the political fray. But the supreme leader remains deeply suspicious of the West and has warned that too much openness to Western in� uence could dilute the country’s Islamic values. l

Pakistan executes killer of anti-blasphemy law activist governor n Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistan on Monday executed a man who killed the governor of Punjab province over his call to reform strict blasphemy laws that carry a death sentence for insult-ing Islam.

Street protests broke out within hours by supporters of the killer, who consider him a hero for defending the faith. The head of the Islamabad Bar Coun-cil called for a day-long strike of lawyers in protest against the hanging.

Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard for Salman Taseer, governor of Pun-jab province, shot him dead in the capital, Islamabad, in 2011.

After his arrest, Qadri told po-lice he killed Taseer because the governor had championed the cause of a Christian woman sen-tenced to death in a blasphemy case that arose out of a personal dispute. Taseer had said the law was being misused and should be reformed.

Qadri’s attorney said his client told him he had no regrets for kill-ing the governor.

His lawyer also predicted larg-er demonstrations coinciding with Qadri’s funeral, which his

legal group said would be held on Tuesday.

Late in 2011, an anti-terror-ism court handed down a double death sentence to Qadri for mur-der and terrorism. The sentence was appealed and upheld by the Supreme Court late last year.

More than 100 people are charged with blasphemy each

year in predominantly Muslim Pa-kistan, many of them Christians and other minorities.

Conviction of blasphemy car-ries a death sentence. No one has yet been hanged, but those con-victed languish in prison.

Controversy over the law has exposed the growing gap between religious conservatives and liber-

als in Pakistan, with hard-line reli-gious leaders considering Taseer a blasphemer himself for even criti-cising the law.

Some lawyers showered Qadri with rose petals when he � rst ar-rived in court days after the kill-ing. The judge who � rst convicted him was forced to � ee the country after death threats. l

Supporters of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan religious party protest against the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri during a demonstration in Peshawar on Monday REUTERS

WorldTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

24DT

USACongressional Hispanic Caucus PAC backs ClintonThe political arm of the congres-sional Hispanic Caucus — CHC BOLD PAC — is set to endorse Hillary Clinton at a press conference at the Democratic National Com-mittee’s headquarters on Monday morning, in yet another sign of the presidential front-runner’s strength in Washington and among Hispanic leaders. Among the states voting on Tuesday is Texas, which has a large Hispanic population. -POLITICO

THE AMERICASBrazil justice minister to quit as Lula probe tension growsBrazil’s Justice Minister Jose Eduar-do Cardoso plans to resign, fed up with rising attacks from his Work-ers’ Party over a police probe into the activities of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, two Brazilian newspapers reported Sunday. Cardoso will quit this week, Folha de S Paulo said. -REUTERS

UKUK retail sector predicted to cut 900,000 jobs The retail sector, one of the UK’s largest employers, is facing up to 900,000 job losses and the closure of thousands of shops in the next decade, according to a report by an industry body. The British Retail Consortium warns that rising costs due to the national living wage and the apprenticeship levy – both introduced by George Osborne in last year’s budget – could increase the rate of job cuts. -THE GUARDIAN

EUROPEAustria rejects criticism on migrants policyAustria’s government hit back on Monday at absurd criticism of its tougher migrants policy, after coming under � re from Germany and Greece where a bottleneck is building due to Vienna’s measures. Germany in particular has criti-cised the limit on the number al-lowed to pass through Austria, but Interior Minister Mikl-Leitner said that Germany itself had imposed daily caps in December, leading to huge backlogs in Austria. -AFP

AFRICAAl Shabaab kills 30 in twin blasts in SomaliaSomalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group bombed a busy junction and a nearby restaurant in the town of Baidoa on Sunday, killing at least 30 people, police and the group said. Police Colonel Abdi Osman said the death toll was 30, with 40 others injured. The al-Qaeda aligned Shabaab jihadists claimed respon-siblity for the attacks, saying local o� cials were targeted. -REUTERS

FACTBOX

2016 Super Tuesday to be super nail-biteySuper Tuesday is the big gulp moment for any US presidential candidate who makes it that

far. It’s the biggest day of competition in American democracy except for Election Day itself. It’s super nail-bitey, super expensive and often super-clar-ifying - the killer and maker of dreams.

So will it set everything straight in the chaotic presidential race?

Maybe. Quite possibly not.

The lineupBoth parties are holding contests Tuesday in these states: Alabama, Ar-kansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Min-nesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. As well, Repub-licans vote in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado. Democrats also have a contest in American Samoa and for Democrats Abroad.

A transitionUntil now, it was ephemeral. Who’s doing better and worse than expect-ed? Who’s rising and falling? Who’s got momentum? It’s mainly about the number of delegates now - the inexorable grind of arithmetic. Until now, voters in four states have picked not much more than a sliver of the delegates who are needed to clinch the party nominations. That changes overnight, with each party holding

contests in 11 states. Democrats also vote in American Samoa.Republicans will allocate 595 delegates from the results of Super Tuesday, nearly half of the 1,237 needed for the nomination. Democrats will allocate 865, more than one-third of the necessary 2,383.

What’s the score?3-1 for Trump and Clinton. He won New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. She won Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina. Republican Ted Cruz won Iowa. Sanders won New Hamp-shire.

Momentum still countsAs enormous as the prize is on Tues-day, no one candidate can win their party’s nomination on the night. The delegate trove is proportional in each party, and delegates will be divvied up according to how well each contend-er does. That’s an oversimpli� cation of an arcane process, but the bottom line is that a strong second place in a particular state can be worth almost as many delegates as a victory. So the perception of who’s making headway still matters. A candidate on the move can attract more money, national at-tention and voter interest.

At least for a few more weeks.A series of winner-take-all Repub-

lican primaries is coming, none bigger than Florida on March 15, where a cache of 99 delegates is at stake and Rubio will be bidding furiously for a

home-state victory against Trump, a part-time resident who got a head start on organising there.

Texas and the southThe South bid for more in� uence in this campaign by adding states to its Super Tuesday roster, naming this subset the SEC primary in a nod to the Southeastern Conference of college sports. Clinton demonstrated her pull with black voters in South Carolina, suggesting she may do well in other Southern states with signi� cant black

populations. The biggest Super Tues-day state overall is Texas, where Sen-ator Cruz has a home-state advantage built on prime endorsements from the governor down the political chain and a veritable army of some 27,000 volunteers. Everything in politics is double-edged, though. If Trump’s rebel yell attracts enough support to make him the winner or even a close second, Cruz will face sharp questions about his viability. l

Source: AP

INSIGHT

Super Tuesday showdown: How the southern states won the spotlightn Reuters, Atlanta

Things were not looking too good a year ago for Georgia’s top elections of-� cer as he tried

to stitch together a mega-presiden-tial primary in the US South.

E� orts to bring Alabama and Arkansas online had stalled. Ten-nessee was threatening to defect.

But Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp kept working the phones, arguing that a bloc of Southern states all voting on March 1 was the only way to make US presidential candidates pay at-tention to the region.

Eventually key state leaders came around and their e� ort seems to have paid o� .

Candidates have campaigned more in the South this election year in an e� ort to woo a group of states voting early on so-called Super Tuesday than Kemp can re-

call seeing in any contemporary primary. And the seven states holding contests in the region ap-pear poised to play a pivotal role in selecting the Republican and Democratic nominees for the No-vember 8 race.

Elections o� cials nationally are watching how the concurrent races in the South play out on Tuesday, and are talking about possibly replicating the strategy in other parts of the country to win a greater say in the primaries.

Kemp has dubbed the coordi-nated Southern races that he’s or-chestrated the “SEC primary” - or Southeastern Conference primary - after a regional college athletic conference.

It was not easy.A year ago, Kemp stood in his

statehouse o� ce fretting that bills to set the primary date in Alabama and Arkansas were not going to pass. An Alabama state party chair was worried her state would get lost in a big group, he said, but

Kemp argued that Alabama would still be better o� by voting when it was early enough to matter.

In Arkansas, the bill to change the primary date did not pass until it was included in a special legisla-tive session.

Four other states, from Alaska to Vermont, also hold contests to award delegates on Super Tuesday.

Candidates began showing up once the regional primary was in place. A rally for Republican billion-aire businessman Donald Trump

drew as many as 30,000 people to a football stadium in Mobile, Ala-bama in August, for example.

The primaries in the political-ly conservative South got a boost in signi� cance this year from the size and unpredictability of the Republican presidential � eld.

On the Democratic side, the region’s large concentrations of African-American voters are seen as a test of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s and US Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders’ appeal with a key Dem-ocratic voting bloc.

While the South has not seen such a coordinated e� ort in dec-ades, it is not the � rst time the states have tried to gang up.

Yet in 1988, when the region almost entirely held primaries on March 8, votes were split among Democratic candidates and the contest left the South to be settled elsewhere. A number of states eventually walked away from the plan. l

Candidates campaigned more in Southern states this year in an e� ort to woo voters, casting ballots early on Super Tuesday

25D

TSportINSIDE

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

India gear up for Lankan testIndia will look to continue their dominance when the men in blue lock horns against Sri Lanka in a high voltage Asia Cup T20 2016 encounter at the SBNS today. Dhoni and his troop registered a � ve wicket win over the arch-rival Pakistan on their second game. PAGE 26

Silva admits to post-WC depressionBrazil defender Thiago Silva has admitted he su� ered from a bout of depression after the host nation’s humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany in the semi-� nals of the 2014 World Cup. In an interview the PSG captainsaid, "Yes. It was a somewhat di� cult period." PAGE 27

Van Gaal apologises for 'diving'Louis Van Gaal blamed high emotions for his bizarre touchline spat with fourth o� cial Mike Dean during United’s 3-2 win over Arsenal. The Dutchman threw himself to the ground under Dean’s nose in an attempt to illustrate his frustration. PAGE 28

Caballero enjoys rare day on City stageAs Ivorian Toure wheeled away in celebration, the Argentine, City’s second-choice keeper who played every minute of the League Cup campaign, was wagging his � nger and heading back towards goal ready to try and stop another penalty. PAGE 29

Pakistan captain, Shahid Afridi In this format you can’t relax. We

are making some mistakes and we can’t a� ord that against the

big teams. I told my batsmen just play normal cricket, don’t go for

big runs. We thought after we took three wickets we thought we

would get them out for 90-100 but they played well and some shots

went o� for them.

UAE captain, Amjad Javed: We wanted about 120 but we got 10 runs extra, we knew it would

be di� cult to chase, we got some early wickets but we could not capitalise on that. We are still

learning, Malik and Akmal took the game away from us. The team is really doing well, I did my best to contribute and try and bring the game back, and make Pakistan

work hard. Our coach Aaqib Javed was sure we could give them a � ght

if we scored 100.

Shoaib Malik,the Man of the Match

Tough conditions, we all know the � rst six overs has been crucial, if

you survive then you can play shots and that is what we did. We lost

early wickets but then we decided to forget about the run rate and focus on playing out the � rst six

overs. We bowled well in the � rst six overs but then we were a bit all

over the place, hopefully we will talk about it.

WHAT THEY SAID

Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik glides a ball during their Asia Cup T20 2016 match against United Arab Emirates at Sher-e-Bangla national stadium in Mirpur yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

UAE INNINGS R BRohan c Afridi b Sami 1 5Kaleem b Amir 1 11Shahzad c Sarfraz b Irfan 5 3Shaiman c Sarfraz b Irfan 46 42Mushtaq c Nawaz b Afridi 9 19Usman b Amir 21 17Amjad not out 27 18Naveed not out 10 5Extras (lb 2, w 7) 9

Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 129

Fall of wickets1-5, 2-5, 3-12, 4-41, 5-72, 6-118

Bowling Amir 4-1-6-2, Sami 4-0-28-1, Irfan 4-0-30-2, Afridi 4-0-24-1, Nawaz 3-0-26-0, Malik 1-0-13-0

PAKISTAN INNINGS R BHafeez c Fahad b Amjad 11 12Sharjeel lbw b Amjad 4 3Khurram c Patil b Amjad 0 2Umar not out 50 46Malik not out 63 49Extras (w 3) 3

Total (3 wickets; 18.4 overs) 131

Fall of wickets1-11, 2-11, 3-17

BowlingNaveed 3.4-0-28-0, Amjad 4-0-36-3, Shahzad 4-0-19-0, Raza 3-0-20-0, Rohan 3-0-20-0, Fahad 1-0-8-0

Pakistan won by 7 wickets MoM: Shoaib Malik

SCORECARD

Pakistan clinch tensed win against UAE n Minhaz Uddin Khan

Despite an early debacle Paki-stan pulled a seven-wicket win with eight balls remaining over minnow Unites Arab Emirates in the sixth game of the Asia Cup Twenty20 2016 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday. A record unbeaten fourth-wicket partnership between Shoaib Ma-lik and Umar Akmal ensured Paki-stan’s � rst win in the tournament in two matches.

Chasing 130 runs, Pakistan had a horri� c start losing top three wickets with just 17 runs on the board. UAE skipper Ahmed Javed took three wickets to rattle the Pa-kistan top order. Javed came into attack in the second over and dis-missed opener Sharjeel Khan on 4 in the third ball. Two balls later Javed struck again and this time it was Khurram Manzoor. In his next over, Javed removed the experi-enced Mohammad Hafeez. Hafeez was caught at the covers on 11 runs.

After that Umar Akmal and vet-eran Shoaib Malik cooled down the situation and with an unbeat-en 114 runs stand for the fourth wicket, the duo took their side to the victory. The partnership was recorded as the a highest for the

fourth-wicket in T20Is. For the � rst six overs of the

partnership, Umar and Shoaib went for only singles and never made e� ort to take the run rate over � ve. They took real charge of the chase from the fourteenth over when Pakistan required 66 runs from 42 balls. In that over the duo picked 11 runs. The 18th over was the major blow for UAE as it conceded 23 runs.

Malik got the winning runs

with a boundary and remained unbeaten on 63 o� 49 balls. The right-handed batsman hammered seven boundaries and three sixes. Umar on the other end remained not out with 50 o� 46.

Earlier, Shaiman Anwar and some late power hitting saw UAE side post a challenging 129 runs in 20 overs for six wickets.

UAE won the toss and opted to bat � rst on a wicket which looked

moderate to bat on. But the UAE expectation was ruined as the top three batsmen were sent back to the dressing room with only 12 runs on the board.

Mohammad Sami removed opener Rohan Mustafa in the last ball of the second over to start the small debacle. In the next over Mo-hammad Amir removed the other UAE opener, Muhammad Kaleem and eight balls later Mohammad Irfan struck to dismiss in-form Mo-hammad Shahzad on � ve.

Later, Shaiman’s 42-ball 46 with � ve boundaries and two six-es and a 46 runs partnership for the sixth wicket by Muhammad Usman and skipper Amjad Javed saw UAE post a modest total.

From over 11 to 20 UAE batters scored 89 runs and had lost only three wickets. UAE picked 17 runs fromt the 13th over, bowled by Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi. Shaiman who batted sensibly on the day hammered three consec-utive boundaries. Shoaib Malik bowled a single over in the innings to concede 14 runs and see Usman � re for a six and a boundary.

In-form Amir bowled brilliant-ly to take two wickets and gave only six runs in his stipulated four overs with one maiden. l

POINTS TABLETeams M W L Pts NRRIndia 2 2 0 4 +1.970Bangladesh 3 2 1 4 +0.483Sri Lanka 2 1 1 2 -0.225Pakistan 2 1 1 2 -0.494UAE 3 0 3 0 -1.266

26DT Sport

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha congratulates new dad Tamim Iqbal (R) during a practice session in Mirpur yesterday. Tamim, who became father of a baby boy in Bangkok Sunday, returned to Dhaka yesterday to join the squad for the ongoing Asia Cup T20 2016 MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Con� dent India gear up for Lankan testn Mazhar Uddin

Favourites India will look to con-tinue their dominance when the men in blue lock horns against a demoralised Sri Lanka side in a high voltage Asia Cup T20 2016 encounter at the Sher-e-Bangla na-tional stadium today.

MS Dhoni and his troop regis-tered a � ve wicket win over the arch-rival Pakistan on their second game after a solid performance from the bowlers to bundle out the opposition on just 83/10.

Medium pacer Hardik Pandya bowled superbly to pick up three wickets and will once again look to prove his worth in the side along with Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah with the new ball.

However the Indian batters struggled at one stage when they were reeling on 8/3 but Virat Kohli played a brilliant knock of 49 runs under pressure to eventually take his side home.

On the other hand, defending champions Sri Lanka will be moral-ly down after their 23 runs defeat to Bangladesh and will surely look to bounce back to stay in hunt for the � nal spot.

Regular skipper Lasith Malin-ga, who missed the previous game against the hosts due to an injury, is unlikely to play against India as well which will be a major blow for the holders.

The Sri Lankan are going through a transition period after the retirement of the legendary pair Kumar Sangakkara and Mahe-la Jayawardene and this time the young Lankan players will have to step up and perform well under skipper Angelo Matthews.

Batting has been the major area of concern for Sri Lanka after they were able to score just 129/8 and 124/8 against UAE and Bangladesh respectively.

Apart from Dinesh Chandimal at the opening spot, none of the Lan-kan batters were able to score sig-ni� cantly. Veteran cricketer Tilla-karatne Dilshan also failed to score in both the games and his team needs him to perform in the vital match against the Indians.

On the other hand Nuwan Ku-lasekara will lead the fast bowling along with skipper Matthews while experienced left arm spinner Ran-gana Herath will take care of the spin department. l

Today's Match 7:30PM at SBNS

India v Sri LankaMaasranga TV, Gazi TV, Star Sports 1

VIRAT KOHLI India

Virat Kohli has been in terri� c touch as the dashing batsman played a brilliant 49-run innings against the arch-rival Pakistan to clinch a � ve wicket win. More importantly his knock came under immense pressure after India were reeling on 8/3 chasing the target of 84 courtesy of a � ery spell by Mohammad Amir. But the stylish right hander took the responsibility yet remained aggressive to ensure no more hiccups and guided India home. And the 27 year old will once again play a vital role on their crucial encounter against the defending champion Sri Lanka today.

DINESH CHANDIMALSri Lanka

It has been a tough start for the defending champion Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup where batting has been the main area of concern for Angelo Matthews side. But Dinesh Chandimal has been the only exception as the right hander has been scoring consistently in the opening spot for the Lankans. The 26 year old scored a � fty on their opening game against the UAE followed by his 37 runs knock against Bangla-desh was promising. And the wicket-keeper batsman would surely utilise his form in greater e� ect to stay in hunt for the � nal of the Asia Cup for his team today.

–MAZHAR UDDIN

PLAYERS TO WATCH

About the Pitch As international teams, we should be able to adapt to whatever conditions we are given. We have been happy with the way we have

come out on top and its given us a dress rehearsal for the batsmen lower down the order, the fast bowlers and its given every-one a good outing ahead of the World T20.

On Virat Kohli’s innings against PakistanWe needed someone to stick their head

out that day as Amir was in the middle of a very good spell. We needed someone to show intent, some who would attack and

defend. His innings gave a lot of comfort to the dressing room and we knew if a 20-30 run partnership builds, then the game will

be over since we were just chasing 84. From that perspective it was a great knock. Virat showed a lot of courage and it was great to

see his knock.

On Sri LankaMalinga is a champion bowler and it will help any team playing Sri Lanka without

him. You are familiar with all the teams in international cricket since there are only

about 10 teams. One thing we wary about Sri Lanka is that they will always punch

above their weight and in big games –they raise their standard and they are a very good

team. l

WHAT ASHWIN SAID

Indian batsman Virat Kohli grabs a ball during a practice session in Mirpur yesterday MAINOOR ISLAM MANIK

Sport 27D

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TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Pioneer Football League starts today The super league matches of the Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation Pioneer (Under-16) Football League will get underway in the capital to-day. A total of 20 teams who qual-i� ed from the � rst round among 60 teams will take part in one of country’s biggest football league in � ve di� erent venues in Dhaka. The venues are – Outer stadium in Paltan, East End Club ground, Bashabo, Army Museum � eld and Gollartek � eld in Mirpur. Three teams – champions, runners-up and third-placed – will promote to the third division football league.

TRIBUNE REPORT

Cuevas wins in Brazil againUruguay’s Pablo Cuevas won the Sao Paulo claycourt tournament on Sunday, retaining the title he won last year by beating Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6 (7/4), 6-3. It was a second straight tournament vic-tory in Brazil for Cuevas, the world number 27, after he overcame Rafael Nadal on the way to sealing the Rio de Janeiro event last week. The two tournaments take the 30-year-old’s career tally to � ve, all of them won on clay since 2014.

AFP

Sacked Cup captain sues for 1.5 millionFrance’s former Davis Cup captain Arnaud Clement is suing the French tennis federation (FFT) for 1.5 million euros after he was sacked from the job in September, a legal source told AFP on Sunday. “Arnaud Clement has initiated proceedings...to resolve his disagreement with the federation,” the source said without elaborating on the details. Clement had one more year left on his contract when he was dismissed and the FFT pro-posed a 400,000-euro pay-o� .

AFP

Scott wins Honda Classic title Australia’s Adam Scott won his � rst title in nearly two years on Sunday, � ring a level-par 70 to capture the US PGA Honda Classic by one stroke over Sergio Garcia. The 2013 Masters champion had not claimed a trophy since the Colonial in May of 2014, when Scott was ranked number one in the world. “It feels very good,” Scott said. “It was nice to hit some quality shots coming in. Luckily for me, it was just enough.”

AFP

QUICK BYTESNantes 0-0 Monaco

Saint-Etienne 1-2 CaenEysseric 90+1 Delort 78, Rodelin 82

Lyon 2-1 PSGCornet 13, Darder 45+2 Lucas 51

LIGUE 1

TOP FIVETeam GP W D L GD PTS

Paris SG 28 23 4 1 53 73

Monaco 28 13 11 4 10 50

Lyon 28 12 6 10 10 42

Caen 28 13 3 12 -6 42

Nice 28 11 8 9 7 41

Thiago Silva admits to post-World Cup depressionn AFP, Paris

Brazil defender Thiago Silva has admitted he su� ered from a bout of depression after the host nation’s hu-miliating 7-1 loss to Germany in the semi-� nals of the 2014 World Cup.

In an interview which aired on Canal+ on Sunday, the Paris Saint-Germain captain was asked whether he was a� ected by depression following the World Cup, to which he replied: “Yes. It was a somewhat di� cult period.

“(PSG) president (Nasser Al-Khelai� ) gave me lots of guidance. He told me: ‘You’re the best defender in the world, but you still need to work more’. I told him: ‘President, I always work. But in my head, I don’t know what’s happening, there’s a problem’.”

Silva also spoke about his omission from recent Brazil squads, with the 31-year-old having been over-looked by Dunga since the Selecao’s quarter-� nal exit to Paraguay at last year’s Copa America.

“I don’t know what exactly is going on. I’m telling the truth. Everyone has forgotten that, even if I think I was responsible, that I didn’t actually play against Ger-many (due to suspension). Everyone thinks it was my fault...it’s not my fault, that.”

He also thanked PSG coach Laurent Blanc for his

support during those trying times.“Every day, a journalist asked him if he was going to

continue to play me, because I wasn’t playing as well. He always responded that I was going to carry on, that I was the captain. And that gives you con� dence,” said Silva. l

Lyon's French forward Maxwel Cornet (L) vies with Paris Saint-Germain's Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic during their French L1 match at the New Stadium in Decines-Charpieu, central-eastern France on Sunday AFP

PSG’s 36-game unbeaten streak shatteredn Reuters, Paris

Paris St Germain’s league record 36-game unbeaten streak came to an abrupt halt when they lost 2-1 at Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday.

Maxwell Cornet and Sergi Dard-er, with an audacious piece of skill, scored the � rst-half goals that handed PSG their � rst Ligue 1 de-feat since a 3-2 reverse at Girondins Bordeaux in March 2015.

Laurent Blanc’s side are still 23 points clear at the top of the table, after 28 matches, as they sail to-wards a fourth consecutive title.

“Congratulations to Lyon,” PSG

defender David Luiz told Canal Plus television. “They played well.

“We didn’t play well tonight and the manager told us to wake up a bit at halftime but it was too late. We played badly and although we scored a goal, we were tired.”

PSG’s chances of beating the re-cord unbeaten run of 32 games in a single league season, set by Nantes in 1994-95, were ended despite a Lucas Moura goal after the break.

Lyon have � attered to deceive this season but started strongly and took the lead in the 13th min-ute when Cornet brought the ball down inside the box, evaded Greg-

ory van der Wiel and slammed the ball past keeper Kevin Trapp.

Darder doubled the advantage in � rst-half injury time when he re-ceived a cross from Rafael, � icked the ball over the head of PSG cap-tain Thiago Silva and � nished em-phatically.

The visitors were lucky to go in at halftime with 11 men, mid� eld-er Thiago Motta escaping with a yellow card after punching Jordan Ferri in the face in the 23rd minute.

PSG improved after the break when manager Laurent Blanc in-troduced Javier Pastore for Benja-min Stambouli.

Pastore was quickly in� uential as his side got back into the game in the 51st minute, the Argentine playmaker tearing into the Lyon box before � icking the ball into the path of Lucas who beat Anthony Lopes with aplomb.

Lyon are third on 42 points, eight behind second-placed Monaco who drew 0-0 at Nantes on Sunday.

Marseille’s match at Ajaccio was postponed due to bad weather while Caen moved above Nice into fourth spot after securing a 2-1 vic-tory at St Etienne whose European aspirations have been dented after going three games without a win. l

Ranieri rolls dice again as Leicester face West Bromn AFP, Leicester

Leicester City face the next test in their extraordinary Premier League title challenge with manager Clau-dio Ranieri prepared to take more risks in search of victory over West Bromwich Albion.

Ranieri’s boldness was reward-ed on Saturday as his substitutions paid o� with a late 1-0 win against Norwich City.

And the Italian is ready to take the bull by the horns again on Tues-day as Leicester look to claim a sec-ond home win in four days and ex-tend their fairytale season. l

EPL FIXTURES Bournemouth v Southampton Aston Villa v Everton Leicester City v West Brom Norwich City v Chelsea Sunderland v Crystal Palace

28DT Sport

Van Gaal apologises for 'diving'Louis Van Gaal blamed high emotions for his bizarre touchline spat with fourth o� cial Mike Dean during Man-chester United’s 3-2 win over Arsenal at Old Tra� ord. The Dutchman threw himself to the ground under Dean’s nose in an attempt to illustrate his frus-tration at alleged diving by Gunners striker Alexis Sanchez.

With Wenger standing only yards away and trying hard not to react, Van Gaal continued to argue with Dean while he lay momentarily prostrate on the turf. But Van Gaal later admitted he had gone too far and revealed he had o� ered his apologies to the o� cials concerned.

Van Gaal said: “That was too emo-tional - it is not good for the referee

and the linesman and the fourth o� -cial. It doesn’t happen much normally - I have had a lot of criticism because I am sitting on my bench and now I am o� my bench and I have lot of criticism because I’m doing that. I have apolo-gised to the referee and the linesman. I have to control my emotions and I have said that also to my players.” l

Messi, Pique spark Barca comeback victoryn Reuters, Barcelona

Defender Gerard Pique grabbed a rare winner and Lionel Messi scored yet another beauty as Bar-celona came from behind to beat Sevilla 2-1 at the Nou Camp on Sun-day and reclaim an eight-point lead at the top of La Liga.

Second-placed Atletico Madrid had narrowed the gap to � ve points by winning the capital derby 1-0 at the Bernabeu on Saturday, a result that leaves Real Madrid 12 points

adrift of Barca.Sevilla, who meet Barca in the

King’s Cup � nal on May 22, went in front following a break down the left as full back Benoit Tremoulinas crossed to the far post and Vitolo volleyed the ball past keeper Clau-dio Bravo after 20 minutes.

Messi equalised just past the half hour with a sublime free kick that dipped over the wall and nes-tled in the top corner.

Barca’s winner, which extended their unbeaten run to 34 matches in

all competitions, came three min-utes into the second half as Messi cut the ball back to Luis Suarez and his cross was converted from close range by centre half Pique.

Luis Enrique’s men have now drawn level with Real Madrid’s record undefeated sequence set in 1988-89 under Dutchman Leo Beenhakker.

Valencia’s sequence of four wins in La Liga and the Europa League came to an end after a 3-0 defeat at home to Athletic Bilbao. l

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Villarreal 3-0 LevanteBaptistao 12, Castillejo 30,Adrian 48

Valencia 0-3 BilbaoMerino 73, Muniain 77,Aduriz 80

Deportivo 0-1 Granada El Arabi 24-pen

Barcelona 2-1 SevillaMessi 31, Pique 48 Vitolo 20

LA LIGA

TOP TENTeam GP W D L GD PTS

Barcelona 26 21 3 2 48 66

Atletico 26 18 4 4 25 58

Real Madrid 26 16 6 4 46 54

Villarreal 26 15 7 4 15 52

Sevilla 26 11 8 7 9 41

Celta Vigo 26 12 5 9 -5 41

Athletic Bilbao 26 11 5 10 3 38

Eibar 26 10 6 10 5 36

Real Sociedad 26 9 7 10 1 34

Deportivo 26 6 14 6 1 32

Malaga 26 8 8 10 0 32

Barca records nothing without titles: Enriquen AFP, Barcelona

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique in-sists he will only be satis� ed once his side have delivered another La Liga title after equalling a Spanish record by stretching their unbeaten run to 34 games.

Victory restored Barca’s eight-point lead over Atletico Madrid at the top of the table with Real Ma-drid now 12 points adrift.

“The record tells me nothing. If we win titles then � ne, but if not it doesn’t tell me a thing,” said Enrique.

“We have wanted to retain the title since the � rst day of the sea-son. That is the primary objective and we are in better position. Now we need to win the points neces-sary to be champions.”

Barca have been far from their brilliant best in many of their re-cent league games with fatigue starting to set in from an already gruelling campaign of 46 games across six competitions. l

Rashford in dreamlandEven Rashford’s most ardent believers could not have imagined such a stunning impact from the 18-year-old. After a dream double on his debut against Midtjylland on Thursday night, the local lad’s Roy of the Rovers story continued as he marked his � rst Premier League appearance with two more goals and the assist for Herrera’s de� ected third. Rashford brought a sense of anticipation whenever he touched the ball, and his electric pace caused Arsenal problems from the o� .

Same old Arsenal?After yet another big-game defeat in which they fell well short of their potential, however, Arsenal � nd themselves in a grimly familiar situation. The Gunners were let down by defensive mistakes by Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny at crucial moments, but they looked vulnerable through-out, with Nacho Monreal’s early miss setting the tone for another afternoon of falling short.

Kids come good for Van GaalManchester United are currently without 12 � rst-team players. The injury crisis has left Van Gaal with few options when it comes to team selec-tion, but Rashford was not the only young player to make his mark on the occasion and ease the pressure on his beleaguered manager. Memphis Depay also produced one of his best perfor-mances of the season on the left-hand side of their attack, and the United XI that � nished the game only featured two players over the age of 26.

Walcott worry for ArsenalArsenal were collectively poor at Old Tra� ord, but what of Theo Walcott’s struggles? The England man has scored just once in his last 14 appearances for the Gunners, and Wenger’s decision to start him ahead of Olivier Giroud was made to look foolish as he drifted through the game without making any impact whatsoever. When Walcott was hauled o� just after the hour mark, he had touched only 17 times on the ball. l

Barcelona forward Luis Suarez tries to score against Sevilla goalkeeper Sergio Rico during their Spanish La Liga match at Camp Nou stadium on Sunday REUTERS

MAN UNITED v ARSENAL TALKING POINTS

Sport 29D

T

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

DAY’S WATCHCRICKET

STAR SPORTS 17:30PM

Asia Cup 2016India v Sri Lanka

FOOTBALL STAR SPORTS 2

1:35 AMBarclays Premier League

Leicester City v West Bromwich STAR SPORTS 4

1:35 AMBarclays Premier League

Aston Villa v Everton SONY ESPN

2:00 AMLiga Bbva

Atletico Madrid v Real Sociedad SONY ESPN HD

3:00 AMLiga Bbva

Las Palmas v Getafe

KABADDI STAR SPORTS 2

8:20 PMPro Kabaddi LeagueKolkata v Bengaluru

9:30 PMMumbai v Vizag

Augsburg 2-2 M’gladbachFinnbogason 50, Ra� ael 33, Caiuby 53 Johnson 55

Dortmund 3-1 Ho� enheimMkhitaryan 80, Ramos 85, Rudy 26Aubameyang 90+2

Mainz 3-1 Leverkusen Malli 14, 58-pen, Hernandez 65Cordoba 32

Frankfurt 0-0 Schalke

BUNDESLIGA

Palermo 0-0 Bologna

Carpi 1-1 AtalantaVerdi 75-pen Kurtic 52

Udinese 2-0 Verona Agyemang Badu 31, Thereau 56

Chievo 1-0 GenoaCastro 51

Sampdoria 2-0 FrosinoneFernando 44, Quagliarella 69

Juventus 2-0 InterBonucci 47, Morata 84-pen

SERIE A

TOP TENTeam GP W D L GD PTS

Juventus 27 19 4 4 33 61

Napoli 26 17 6 3 33 57

Roma 27 15 8 4 27 53

Fiorentina 26 16 4 6 19 52

Inter Milan 27 14 6 7 9 48

AC Milan 27 13 8 6 11 47

Sassuolo 26 9 11 6 1 38

Lazio 26 10 7 9 0 37

Bologna 27 10 5 12 -2 35

Chievo 27 9 7 11 -4 34

Juventus' Spanish forward Alvaro Morata (L) scores from the spot during their Italian Serie A match against Inter Milan at the "Juventus Stadium" in Turin on Sunday AFP

‘Derby of Italy’ joy as Juve go four clearn Reuters, Turin

Leonardo Bonucci and Alvaro Mo-rata were on target as Juventus de-feated Inter Milan 2-0 in the ‘derby of Italy’ to open a four-point lead at the top of Serie A on Sunday.

Bonucci scored for the hosts from close range in the 47th min-ute after Inter’s Danilo D’Ambrosio made a horrid mistake by heading Paulo Dybala’s free kick across his own goal. Substitute Morata added the second goal from the penalty

spot after being tripped by Joao Miranda with six minutes to go.

Juve now have 61 points from 27 matches, four more than sec-ond-placed Napoli who travel to Fiorentina on Monday, and remain on course for a record � fth consec-utive ‘Scudetto’.

“We absolutely had to win,” Bo-nucci told Italian television. “Two consecutive draws would have been too many, we had to win to send out a message.

Roberto Mancini’s inconsistent

Inter are � fth on 48 points, four behind fourth-placed Fiorentina and � ve adrift of AS Roma who are third.

After defeating title rivals Napoli 1-0 on Feb. 13, Juve’s club record 15-game winning streak was halted by last weekend’s draw with Bologna.

Massimiliano Allegri’s men dominated the opening stages on Sunday with Dybala, Mario Mand-zukic and former Inter mid� elder Hernanes going close in the � rst 45 minutes. l

Dortmund leave it late to beat Ho� enheimn Reuters, Berlin

Borussia Dortmund scored three times in the last 10 minutes to rally from a goal down and beat 10-man Ho� enheim 3-1 on Sunday, allow-ing them to maintain their lone pursuit of runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich.

Goals from Henrikh Mkhitary-an, Adrian Ramos and Pierre-Emer-ick Aubameyang completed the hosts’ dramatic late comeback, lift-ing them to 54 points, eight points behind champions Bayern who moved to 62 with a 2-0 win at VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday.

Schalke 04 missed a chance to climb into the top four after a lack-lustre 0-0 draw at Eintracht Frank-furt left them in seventh spot.

Borussia Moenchengladbach are fourth despite their 2-2 draw at Augsburg.

Sterling investment yet to pay dividendsSterling was actually well below his best and the England winger missed two golden chances to double his side’s lead. He must do better on the big stage in future to ful� l his undoubted potential.

Substitution frustrates SakhoLiverpool defender Mamadou Sakho had to be consoled by the club’s backroom sta� after being forced o� with a � rst half head injury Klopp de-cided he didn’t look right, provoking a furious reaction from the defender.

Aguero’s class shines throughThe Argentina forward showed his class in the 49th minute when he seized possession on the edge of the penalty area and held the ball until just the right moment to slide a perfectly-weighted pass for Fernandinho to score.

Kompany key to City successPlaying for just the third time in 2016 after recovering from a nag-ging calf injury, Vincent Kompany underlined his importance to City with a towering display. l

Jeepers keepers! Caballero enjoys rare day on City stagen Reuters, London

For a moment, just after Yaya Toure’s penalty had won the League Cup for Manchester City on Sunday, hero Willy Caballero seemed unaware of what had just transpired in the Wembley � nal against Liverpool.

As Ivorian Toure wheeled away in celebration, the Argentine, City’s second-choice keeper who played every minute of the League Cup campaign, was wagging his � nger and heading back towards goal ready to try and stop another penalty.

The penny dropped when Ca-ballero was mobbed by his team mates following their 3-1 shootout victory. The keeper was a virtual spectator for the � rst 90 minutes that ended 1-1. He made one crucial stop near the end of the goalless extra-time period and left the best to last with consecutive spot kick saves from Lucas Leiva, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana.

“It’s fantastic for all of the blue people,” an emotional Caballero, Joe Hart’s deputy, said on the pitch.

It was a stark contrast to a week earlier when he was part of a sec-ond-string City side thrashed 5-1 by Chelsea in the FA Cup, after which local media demanded that Hart take over between the posts for the Wembley showpiece.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini kept faith with the 34-year-old former Malaga keeper, though, and his de-cision was vindicated.

Pellegrini even said he was happy to endure a nerve-jangling

shootout so Caballero could grab the spotlight.

“We deserved to win before the penalties but if you ask me I would prefer to win it this way with Willy the great hero,” the manager told reporters.

“There was no chance Willy would not play,” said Pellegrini who will be replaced by Pep Guar-diola at the end of the season.

The Manchester Evening News apologised to Caballero after the � -nal, having urged City to pick Hart before the match.

Pellegrini again justi� ed his de-cision to � eld a weakened team at Chelsea, saying that move allowed City to win at Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League in midweek and see o� Liverpool on Sunday.

The Chilean says they will now set about pursuing the leaders in the Premier League title race, start-ing at Liverpool on Wednesday.

“We have 36 points to play for,” added Pellegrini. “We have three or four players coming back (from injury) and we are not going to give up on winning the league. l

THINGS WE LEARNT FROM THE CUP FINAL

Showtime30DT

TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

n Mosabber Rahman

The 88th Academy Awards � nally announced this year’s winners and there were hardly any surprises – that’s a good thing. The biggest winner turned out to be Mad Max: Fury Road which won six Oscars out of its 10 nominations, while the most nominated � lm The Revenant won only three Oscars out of its 12 nominations. However, The Revenant took home two of the big ones: Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio’s � rst Oscar) and Best Director (Alejandro Iñárritu’s second Oscar in a row and now going for a hat trick). Who is the biggest “loser”? Well that would be my pick for Best Picture, and the third most nominated � lm of the year, The Martian which won none out of its seven nominations.

Throughout the week we have been doing critical analysis of the � lms nominated, ranking all the best work in the 10 major categories, according to their merit. Seven out of 10 times our number one pick won the Oscars this year. Two out of three times we got it wrong, the winner was our number two pick. The big surprise (and a happy one) was Spotlight winning Best Picture. The reason it’s so di� cult to choose the winner for this category is because they use preferential voting method with recursive elimination for Best Picture instead of the standard pick-your-favourite voting method used in every other category.

Here’s the list of Oscar winners along with the reasons why we choose them.

The seven deserving winners:

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)My Pick: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), for enduring extreme conditions to breathe life into a character that does not represent a single person but an entire generation.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Winner: Mark Rylance (Bridge Of Spies)My Pick: Mark Rylance (Bridge Of Spies), for giving such an intelligent performance that will be studied by the experts of the craft of acting for years to come.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Winner: Brie Larson (Room)My Pick: Brie Larson (Room), for revealing the inner workings of the sacri� cing soul and the nature of the purest form of love, the love between mother and child.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Winner: Spotlight (Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer)My Pick: Spotlight (Tom McCarthy

and Josh Singer), for honouring journalism by creating a screenplay, through extensive research, that is one of the greatest ever written.

CINEMATOGRAPHY Winner: The Revenant (Emmanuel Lubezki)My Pick: The Revenant (Emmanuel Lubezki), for bringing the excitement of hard-hitting realistic photography back into cinema.

ORIGINAL SCORE Winner: The Hateful Eight (Ennio Morricone)My Pick: The Hateful Eight (Ennio Morricone), for the unabashedly glittering music that captures the love of movies as the best form of public entertainment.

DIRECTOR Winner: The Revenant (Alejandro G Iñárritu)My Pick: The Revenant (Alejandro G Iñárritu), for taking the risk of telling an important story of the genocide of the Native

Americans, articulated with incredible clarity.The three that got away:

BEST PICTURE Winner: Spotlight My Pick: The Martian, for giving science � ction the serious treatment it deserves and in� uencing future space missions.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Winner: Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)My Pick: Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs), for embodying a character not by imitation, but by deep empathy, that compelled us to suspend all disbelief.

FILM EDITING Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road (Margaret Sixel)My Pick: The Big Short (Hank Corwin), for a � amboyant storytelling method using – title cards, famous quotes, still photographs, music videos, and celebrities – to inject the � nancial gobbledygook of the stock market into pop-culture.Here are two of the most deserving winners this year that we haven’t covered before:

BEST ANIMATED FILM Winner: Inside OutMy Pick: Inside Out, for creating an entertainment that is not only a masterpiece but something that will contribute to the mental health of children and parents alike.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM Winner: AmyMy Pick: Amy, for creating a new language of documentary � lmmaking where a person is brought to life through archival footage like never before. l

n Showtime Desk

This was no ordinary or even boring year at the Academy Awards. It was politically charged with so many agendas on the plate steered brilliantly by our host comedian Chris Rock.

The opening monologue was smart and funny. In fact, we haven’t seen a opening like that since the Billy Crystal days. Usually, the show starts with a bang then � zzles down 10 minutes later. Since the whole #OscarsSoWhite controversy, it was unwillingly the theme of the show, and Mr Rock played

his hand quite well. For the most part, you’d do your comedy rant and move onto the next in a stage performance. Rock made sure he wasn’t throwing it down your throat or rubbing your eyes with it to make you cry bloody murder. And even though at times it felt like a stretch, it was appropriate given the evening’s theme.

As the for the winners, well, we’ll save that for the entire list of winners section in a di� erent part of this page. However, we must touch on one little win. It is something that moviegoers and Leonardo DiCaprio have been

waiting for after 25 years. That’s right, if you don’t already know and have been dwelling in cave, hiding from that ferocious bear from The Revenant, DiCaprio � nally won his Oscar. And the reactions on the internet nearly blew up the whole system.

From a beautiful, heart-melting reaction by Kate Winslett to pure ruckus and chaos by internet celebrities, it was pure bliss. And when you thought it wasn’t overwhelming enough, Leo pulled the humble card and addressed something larger than an award show. His acceptance speech won the hearts of many more.

Apart from one or two nominations, majority of the awards were well deserved. There were no shocks or surprises in any of the categories, which left us with a satisfying outcome and a lasting smile on our faces. l

Oscar 2016: the winners v/s our pick

Finally, Leo. Finally Oscars 2016: Winners list in full

Here is a full list of winners at the 88th Academy Awards.

Best picture: SpotlightBest actor: Leonardo DiCaprio - The RevenantBest actress: Brie Larson - RoomBest supporting actor: Mark Rylance - Bridge of SpiesBest supporting actress: Alicia Vikander - The Danish GirlBest director: Alejandro Inarritu - The RevenantBest adapted screenplay: The Big ShortBest original screenplay: SpotlightBest animated � lm: Inside OutBest foreign language � lm: Son of Saul - HungaryBest animated short: Bear StoryBest cinematography: The RevenantBest costume design: Mad Max: Fury RoadBest documentary feature: AmyBest documentary short: A Girl in the River: The Price of ForgivenessBest editing: Mad Max: Fury RoadBest live action short: StuttererBest make-up and hair: Mad Max: Fury RoadBest original score: The Hateful Eight, Ennio MorriconeBest original song: Writing’s on the Wall, Sam Smith - SpectreBest production design: Mad Max: Fury RoadBest sound editing: Mad Max: Fury RoadBest sound mixing: Mad Max: Fury RoadBest visual e� ects: Ex Machina l

Showtime 31D

TTUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

Oscars red carpet 2016n Mahmood Hossain

This year’s lot wasn’t too impressive. It wasn’t bad either. We have our standouts and near misses, but it still made for a very good show. In other words, you could probably � nd more stunning looks on the runways

of Milan Fashion Week right now than on the red carpet at the Academy Awards. Again, let’s not take away too much from the ladies that did shine on the red carpet. Here’s our top 10 looks from the Oscars red carpet.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Armani and Kate Winslet in Ralph

LaurenCharlize Theron in Dior

Haute Couture dress and $3.7 million worth of Harry Winston diamonds.

Cate Blanchett in Armani Prive, Giuseppe Zanotti shoes and Roger Vivier clutch

Rachel McAdams in August

Getty Atelier and Stuart Weitzman heels

Julianne Moore in custom Chanel Haute Couture gown and Chopard jewels

Tom Hardy in Gucci and Charlotte Riley in Gauri & Nainika

Alicia Vikander in Louis

Vuitton Emily Blunt in Prada with

Judith Leiber bagMargot Robbie in Tom Ford

with Forevermark Diamonds jewellery and The Row bag

Priyanka Chopra in Zuhair Murad and Lorraine Schwartz jewellery l

n Showtime Desk

Pakistani-Canadian � lmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has won the second Oscar in her career at the star studded Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California this past Sunday.

Her � lm A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness won in the category of best short documentary.

The � lm examines the case of an 18-year-old Pakistani girl who survived a brutal attack by her father and uncle bent on “honour killing.”

A Girl in the River is the latest in a series of socially charged investigative � lms from Obaid-Chinoy’s Karachi-based � lm company SOC Film. The � lm is set to air on HBO Canada on March 7.

“This week, the Pakistani prime minister has said that he would change the law on honour killing after watching this � lm. That is the power of � lm,” said the 37-year-old director on stage, after recieveing the award.

A triumphant Obaid-Chinoy said she was grateful to see the Oscar nomination sparked discussion around religiously motivated murders.

“I think that’s a win in itself because it’s such a di� cult topic and people shy away from it, normally,” said Obaid-Chinoy, a dual citizen who lived in Toronto from 2004 to 2015.

Her competition included Toronto-based journalist Adam Benzine, up for his short � lm Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah.

In the year 2012, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy made Pakistan proud after her documentary Saving Face was awarded the Best Documentary Short Subject at the Oscars. lSource: Hu� ngtonpost

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy wins Best Documentary Short

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TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2016

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