My Dhaka
“I wonder whether the
comments reportedly made by HE
Ambassador Mozena directly pressurising
garment factory owners of Bangladesh to
introduce trade unions is in keeping
with his diplomatic status,” said
Siddique. ”He should be aware of
diplomatic norms.” Mozena’s remarks were
described in the letter as ‘obtrusive,
hurting and provocative’ for the
government of the host country.
A
senior BNP leader has alleged that the
government’s decision to ‘ban’ political
rallies in Dhaka for next one month is a
ploy to prepare the ground for imposing
a state of emergency. “They have banned
rallies and meetings to repress the
opposition. All they are left with is to
impose a state of emergency,” MK Anwar
said at a programme on Monday as the
government’s decision ran into stiff
criticism even from within the ruling
Awami League.
The forum demanded
setting up of an independent
international commission on water and
developing a mechanism to share water
among China/Tibet, India/North Eastern
states and Bangladesh by respecting the
right of the Indigenous people in the
North East region.
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Siddique pulls up US envoy
The
Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif
Siddique has tersely objected to US
envoy Dan Mozena’s asking managements to
allow trade union rights in readymade
garment factories.
The textiles minister conveyed his
feeling in a letter to the US envoy on
Monday. Copies of the letter were sent
to media outlets.
“Ambassador Mozena will further
appreciate that having or not having
trade unions is essentially an internal
issue of the country,” Siddique said in
the letter.
Mozena reportedly asked for trade unions
in garment factories during a public
hearing organised by the Parliamentary
Standing Committee of the Ministry of
Labour and Manpower in Dhaka last
Saturday.
Siddique said the government was
actively considering allowing labour
welfare committees of collective
bargaining agent (CBA) at garment
factories, and a bill for amending the
Labour Act 2006 is now underway.
The US Ambassador on several occasions
has said that failing to allow trade
unions in garment factories sends a
negative signal to US buyers and might
impact on Washington’s decision to
continue the GSP facility for
Bangladesh.
Govt
planning emergency : BNP
Anwar is a member of the BNP Standing
Committee.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, however,
on Sunday said ‘the government for the
sake of maintaining law and order won’t
allow any political party to undertake
any political programme in the aftermath
of cyclone Mahasen that might encourage
acts of sabotage and damage to public
life and property’.
Anwar said, “The government is trying to
repress the people by using fear. They
want to grab power again by holding an
election which they can influence.”
“I am challenging the head of the
government, if you are sure of your
popularity, then contest from any other
area. Organise a referendum and find out
whether you have any support. You will
understand what the people want,” Anwar
said.
The
BNP would be fine with a non-party
interim government even if the caretaker
government was not available, he said.
“But the BNP will not go to any election
with an Awami League leader heading the
interim government. That election won’t
be allowed to take place.”
Statements of the leaders of the ruling
party over the non-party polls-time
government were also ‘confusing’, Anwar
said.
“Different leaders are making different
remarks,” he said," Some are saying the
Prime Minister will head the interim
government. [LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful
Islam] has said that the election will
be held according to the Constitution.
But discussion can take place to
determine who will be the government
head.”
Anwar said: “I will tell Syed Ashraf,
make yourself clear on what you want.
The people will give positive reaction
if you are right. Otherwise, they will
oust you [the government] through
movement.”
Anwar was speaking after a special
prayer held at the party’s Naya Paltan
headquarters seeking early recovery of
BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza
Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, now undergoing
treatment at the National University
Hospital in Singapore.
Fakhrul flew to the city state on May 14
for better treatment.
'Save
rivers'
The
Northeast Dialogue Forum, a conclave of
human rights and indigenous people’s
organisations based in India’s
north-east, has sought intervention of
India, China and Bangladesh to prevent
adverse impact of development projects
on the region’s water sources.
After a two-day long deliberation on
water sharing between the three
countries and dam construction by India,
China and Bangladesh on major rivers, at
Dimpaur in Northeast India’s state of
Nagaland, the forum on Monday dispatched
three separate letters to the prime
ministers of these countries.
In
a letter to the prime minister of
Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, the forum
called for a proactive role by her
country for a “collective and consensual
decision making processes” for all
stakeholders on all trans-boundary
rivers.
It also drew her attention to the
impacts of arbitrary interventions in
rivers in upper riparian countries and
urged her to desist from compromises for
political or economic gains.
India’s decision to go for Rs 80 billion
mega dam on Barak River at Tipaimukh in
Manipur raised environment and
ecological concern both in Bangladesh
and north eastern region.
But Prime Minister Hasina says she has
been assured by her Indian counterpart
Manmohan Singh that India “would not do
anything harmful to Bangladesh and that
future steps would be taken on the basis
of an understanding between the two
countries.”
One of the participants in the conclave
told bdnews24.com over phone that the
impact of Tipaimukh dam on Bangladesh
would be severe. “A parallel can be
drawn with India’s building of the
Farakka Barrage on the Ganges River
shared by the two countries,” he said.
In 1975, after years of objections from
people in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh
government agreed to a trial run of the
Farakka Barrage. Once the water began
flowing, India extended the trial and
the power plant is still operating.
Critics in Bangladesh say their country
now receives less water from the Ganges
and that farming, fishing and logging
have suffered.
Secretary, Centre for Research and
Advocacy, Manipur, Jiten Yumnam in a
statement, made available to
bdnews24.com, stated that they were
concerned with the aggressive
development interventions on water
bodies in the region, such as the
construction of series of mega dams over
Brahmaputra River by the Governments of
India and China, with “minimal
consideration” of the rights and
relation of indigenous peoples to these
rivers and without their participation
and free, prior and informed consent.
“We, the representatives of the
indigenous people's organizations of
India's North East concerned over the
issue of water and adverse impacts of
mega development processes, such as mega
dam constructions, mining in the region,
affirm that water is life and inherent
source of our physical, spiritual,
cultural, economic and political
survival.”
“We further affirm our right to use,
manage and control all water bodies and
its sources like rivers, wetlands,
groundwater, glaciers, forests etc in
India’s northeast, which is crucial for
sustaining our agriculture, food, rich
biodiversity, cultures and identity as
peoples,” the forum said in a statement,
christened the 'Dimapur declaration’.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a
meeting with his Chinese counterpart Li
Keqiang voiced India’s concern over
construction of mega dams by China on
Brahmaputra River. Assam chief minister
Tarun Gogoi in a statement on Monday
welcomed Singh’s initiative and said it
would allay the apprehension of people
of Northeast over the Chinese
dam-construction spree.
Representatives of the dialogue forum,
however, said unless the three countries
make a coordinated effort it would be
difficult to protect the water sources.
“The increasing intrusion of
international financial institutions in
directing policies and projects on the
use and management of waters in our
region, only led to increasing
privatization and corporatisation of our
water bodies,” the Dimapur Declaration
stated.
The forum urged India and China to take
no decision on intervention on Water
bodies, especially trans-boundary rivers
passing through India's NE such as
Brahmaputra and Barak without giving
'due recognition of the rights, rightful
participation and free, prior and
informed consent of all indigenous
peoples in the region'.
“Implement the recommendations of the
World Commission on Dams, 2000 in all
decision making processes on mega dams'
construction over Brahmaputra (Tsangpo)
River,” it further demanded of India and
China.
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Published by: Mrs.Mahmuda Sultana.
Dhaka, Bangladesh
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