Newspaper (April 25): ‘All weather radars are broken’

All weather radars are down, The news on the front page of the Desh Parwand newspaper says that the Meteorological Department gives advance notices about what the weather will be like, when it will rain, when people’s life will be normal, etc. And that message is given through radar. But that radar is now broken.

Two defunct radars in Dhaka and Rangpur were supposed to be installed through a project funded by JICA. But before the installation of these two, all the old radars were damaged and the Meteorological Department was in trouble.

These facts have emerged in the intensive monitoring report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED).

According to the Meteorological Department, there are five radars in Dhaka, Rangpur, Cox’s Bazar, Patuakhali, Rangpur and Moulvibazar. Dhaka and Rangpur radars were installed in 1999.

And since the term has expired in 15 years, the radar is already inactive in Rangpur. Dhaka’s radar is also useless due to radio jamming due to high buildings.

All radars have lost parts. These spare parts are no longer available in the global market. As a result, two are completely destroyed, the remaining three are almost useless.

Another news of this newspaper – ‘How hot is it in Dhaka’, where it is shown that the temperature in the areas of Dhaka city where greenery is present is relatively low.

The lowest temperature areas are Botanical Gardens and National Zoo. Among the second lowest temperature places are Ramna Park, Dhanmondi Lakepar, some areas including Cantonment.

Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS) research also provides information on areas of maximum temperature. This list includes several commercial areas including Tejgaon, Motijheel, Mirpur, Jatrabari.

According to the information of the police headquarters, it is said here that last year, 18 thousand 941 cases were registered in police stations across the country under the Suppression of Violence against Women and Children Act.

Besides, there are many such cases in court.

According to people who work on cases of violence against women, about 10 percent of the cases that are filed in the police station are in court.

As a result, in 2023, the number of cases under the Prevention of Violence against Women and Children Act is expected to be no less than 20,000.

But the judicial process in these cases is so slow that many people give up the hope of justice.

Agri production fall feared amid heatwave This is the front page news of the New Age newspaper.

It has been said that due to the intense heat wave of about two weeks, cracks have already started appearing in the paddy fields. Among these is ongoing loadshedding, due to which farmers are unable to even irrigate their land.

They are in the midst of severe financial losses for more than two years due to inflation. Meanwhile, the government is asking them to irrigate the land using diesel-powered water pumps.

Since April 11th, the temperature in most parts of Bangladesh has been above 36 degrees Celsius, causing the crop fields to get scorched by the scorching heat of the sun.

Children at very high risk, the news is on the front page of Nayadigant newspaper. It has been said that children are at very high health risk due to the heat wave that continues throughout the month in different parts of the country.

UNICEF representative in Bangladesh Sheldon Yate said this in a statement yesterday. In the current situation, he urged the parents to take extra precautions to protect and keep their children safe from dehydration.

Unicef ​​says abnormal temperature rise poses serious risk to children. Especially for newborns, newborns and young children. Children are more susceptible to altitude sickness, such as heatstroke and dehydration-related diarrhea.

Thani Nei Shishu Hospital, this is a front page report of Manavzamin newspaper. It is said that children are suffering from various diseases including fever, cold, cough, pneumonia, diarrhea every day in intense heat.

It was seen on the ground at Dhaka Children’s Hospital and Institute that the patient’s relatives are waiting in front of the ticket counter for tickets. There was a lot of panic in the ticket counter and in front of the emergency department. Visiting the various wards of the hospital, all the wards are full of patients.

Total beds in this hospital are 681. But none of them remain empty. An average of 110 to 140 patients are admitted here every day. Doctors are seeing about 1200 patients in the outpatient department and emergency department.

Poverty levels were higher in 2010 and 2016 than government estimates, the report front-paged Vanik Barta. It is said that in 2010 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) calculated that the average poverty rate in the country is 31.5 percent. After six years in 2016, it came down to 24.3 percent. However, the World Bank believes that poverty levels in the country were high in those two years.

According to a recent review by the organization, poverty rates were shown to decrease in 2010 and 2016, but extreme poverty rates were higher. The extreme poverty rate was six percent lower in both periods than the official estimate.

According to BBS, the extreme poverty rate in the country was 17.6 percent in 2010. In 2016, it came down to 12.9 percent. According to the latest statistics of 2022, this rate is 5.6 percent.

EU passes law to hold brands accountable EU has passed a new law to bring brands under accountability. This is the main headline of The Daily Star newspaper.

The European Parliament passed a law on Wednesday that would hold big companies and brands responsible for human rights abuses or environmental damage, reports said.

In this regard, as the European Union is one of the top destinations for Bangladesh’s ready-made garments, this law will indirectly affect garment manufacturers in Bangladesh.

Because after the law came into effect, any European or foreign clothing brand could be held legally liable for garment factories violating labor rights or damaging the environment.

Local reality is gaining importance in the upazila, this is the front page report of Kale Kantha Patrika. It has been said that the local Awami League is holding a special extended meeting at the upazila level in view of the upcoming upazila parishad elections. There is also a case of finalizing a single candidate from these meetings.

Even though the Center is talking about keeping the elections free from influence, the local reality is different. Influential leaders of the district and upazila are supporting their favorite candidate openly, sometimes secretly.

However, even if the candidate is not finalized in all places, the local leaders are deciding which candidate they will work for. Basically, local political reality is gaining importance in Upazila Parishad elections.

Discussions are going on from the center with the Awami League leaders at the local level regarding the elections. No one is publicly supported by the party. But the candidate who is more popular and clean at the field level, is being given tacit support from the centre.

Incompetent leadership, strong factionalism sinking BNP, is the main headline of Samakal magazine. It has been said here that BNP’s leaders and activists are not getting the same enthusiasm as before. Now, at the behest of the central leaders, committees are formed consisting of incompetent and weak leaders. Many are disappointed by such underestimation.

All the 13 organizational metropolitan committees of the BNP are now term-less. As a result, the leaders of the metropolis have already failed in the anti-government movement. The role of responsible leaders, lack of support for the workers and lack of coordination led to major disarray in the party after the national elections. Besides, some sort of ‘Kupokat’ team personnel deal with various assault cases.

Activists said that after being imprisoned, the family had to bear everything from handling their cases to treatment and prison expenses. Due to these reasons, many people have turned away from politics and withdrawn themselves.

Ministry-hub face-off, it’s front page news of today’s newspaper. It has been said here that this year, a major crisis has arisen regarding Hajj management.

As previously announced, the visa application period for Haj pilgrims ends on April 29. But 80 percent of pilgrims under private management have not yet applied for a visa. The Ministry of Religion and private agencies are now blaming each other for the crisis. The Ministry of Religion, however, has written to the Saudi government to extend the application period for Hajj visas.

Apart from that, because the representatives of the private agencies or the munajjims did not get the visas, the houses were not rented for the pilgrims in Makkah-Madinah, and because it was not confirmed that about 28,000 pilgrims would be accommodated in Mina-Muzdalifah, the visas could not be applied for. The Association of Private Agencies of Bangladesh (HAB) blames the Ministry of Religion for this.