source www.nytimes.com

?Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina made her first official visit to India, where she and her Indian counterpart were to sign four pacts, officials said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Hasina were to meet Monday to discuss bilateral relations, focusing on security, terrorism, border aspects, trade, cooperation in infrastructure building, the Press Trust of India reported.

Three agreements to fight terror, organized crime and drug trafficking, along with an accord on shared electricity were expected to be signed, officials said.

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said India was looking into the “entire range of developmental issues of direct interest to Bangladesh,” including economic aid in developing railway infrastructure, transportation, and investment and trade, the BBC reported.

However, Bangladeshi officials said the two countries also must resolve sharing water from more than 50 rivers. The country’s officials told the BBC Bangladesh thinks it isn’t getting enough water because of the number of dams built in India.

Also at issue is resolution of a maritime border because of potential gas and oil deposits in the Bay of Bengal, the BBC reported.

Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Dipu Moni, said his country could go the United Nations if bilateral negotiations cannot resolve the maritime boundary dispute

India has for so long been obsessed with the security of its north-western frontier and relations with Pakistan that issues on its eastern borders have been neglected. But various events are forcing New Delhi to focus on some interrelated security challenges in the east and northeast. So the four-day state visit to India by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed of Bangladesh that began Sunday has an importance far beyond the ceremonial.

While geography alone makes Bangladesh highly dependent on its giant neighbor, India is beginning to appreciate that bullying Bangladesh makes other problems worse. In reality, both nations have security and economic issues that require cooperation.

Three particular issues have brought home India?s eastern vulnerability. The first is China?s newly confrontational stance over its claims to much of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. China regards these areas as part of Tibet. That in turn links to the second issue: separatism in some of India?s seven northeast states. The insurgency in the largest state in the region, Assam, may now be at least as troublesome as that in Kashmir. China does not at present appear to be helping the insurgents but clearly has the potential to do so.

One cause of these tensions is the third issue: the relative lack of development in the region, including nearby eastern Indian states such as Bihar and Jharkhand, which has spawned the growing insurgency. The Naxalites, radical communists who have informal links to the Maoists recently in government in Nepal, have become a major threat to the state, killing officials and disrupting rail traffic. Bangladesh may be a poster state of poverty but it has been outshining neighboring Indian states in social development.

The election of Sheikh Hasina last year has opened an opportunity for cooperation with India to which Delhi needs to respond generously. Her Awami League has long been seen as less suspicious of India than the rival Bangladesh National Party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. She has bought some Indian good will by arresting and handing over to India the chairman of the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam. Her government is also seen as less likely to turn a blind eye to Islamic militants. But for her own credibility she must get something meaningful in return if good relations with India are to be a vote winner at home.

Top of the Bangladesh wish list is a reduction in trade barriers that contribute to a 10-to-1 trade advantage in India?s favor. But Bangladesh in turn needs to be more open to Indian investment generally and development of its gas industry in particular, which have long been stymied by nationalism and corruption. Likewise both countries have long hurt each other by impeding transit rights and thwarting the full use of rail and river links that date back to British rule. India also has been frustrated by Dhaka?s unwillingness to be a conduit for piping Myanmar gas to energy-short eastern India.

Indeed, oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal is frustrated by lack of agreed boundaries between Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.

Even more fundamental issues need to be addressed. Bangladesh?s biggest security issue is water. It has legitimate worries about Indian plans for dam building on shared water resources that are the lifeblood of all of Bangladesh and much of northern India. Can the two cooperate for mutual benefit ? and to oppose any plans China, the source of many of these rivers, has to divert them for its own use?

Indeed, given the depth of Chinese influence in Myanmar and its fostering of relations with Bangladesh, it is surprising that India has not made more effort to treat its neighbor with respect, not condescension. But a new chapter in relations between two nations that share so much culture, language and history could be opening if Delhi responds to Sheikh Hasina?s visit with the generosity and leadership that should be expected of the regional power

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To develop the road infrustucture of Bangladesh Dhaka Chittagong road is the most prior to develop as national transportation infrustucture.
The government on Sunday signed agreements with three construction companies to turn the Dhaka-Chittagong national highway into four lanes, one of the priority projects of the government.

Chief Engineer of the Department of Roads and Highways (R&H) Munsi Mustafizur Rahman, on behalf of the government, signed the agreements with the concerned representatives of the constructing companies at a function in a city hotel here.

Under the plan, 192.30 kilometer of Dhaka-Chittagong highway from Daudkandi to Chittagong City Gate would be made a four-lane expanded road at a cost of Taka 1,655 crore.

The project work, divided into ten roadwork packages and three bridgework packages, is scheduled to be completed in 36 months, officials said. The project will have a five-meter wide Median with plantation, a number of bridges having total 1137 meter length, three railway overpasses, 33 steel foot-over-bridges and two underpasses.

The underpasses will be constructed at Comilla Cantonment and Chittagong while railway overpasses will be constructed at Comilla, Feni and Chittagong.

Chinese company Sinohydro Corporation Ltd. was awarded the work of seven road packages as the lowest bidder while two other local construction firms- Reza Construction and TBL-ACL-JV were given the works of three other road packages.

The present government took the project as a priority one as the existing two-lane road has become insufficient to carry the present traffic volume.

The highway now carries goods of around Taka 4,000 crore annually, but about 400 to 600 people die every year in accidents mostly in head-on collisions.

A four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong highway, which is called main economic lifeline of the country, would make the communication with the port city easy, safe and fast and contribute immensely to the country’s economy.

Officials said the highway would have a provision of six lanes and, if necessary, an access controlled road could be constructed to separate the passenger transports and goods carrying vehicles.

Peng from Sinohydro Corporation Ltd, Managing Director of Reza Construction Khan M Aftab Uddin and Managing Director of TBL-ACL JV Abul Bashar signed the agreements on behalf of their respective companies.

Additional secretary of the Ministry of Communications Iftekhar Haider, Economic and Commercial counselor of Chinese Embassy in Dhaka Lin Weiqiang and senior officials of the Communications Ministry were present.

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Education is the key infrustucture of a person- Nation.Only through the quality education a nation can be lead to the proper success.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday reaffirmed her government’s firm commitment to fulfil each of the rights of people including ensuring quality education for all.

“Our government has taken various pragmatic steps including imparting training to the teachers and providing quality textbooks to the students free of cost at primary and higher secondary levels,” she said while inaugurating the National Primary Education Week-2010 at Osmani Memorial Auditorium here.

Presided over by Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr Md Afsarul Amin, the function was also addressed by State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md. Motahar Hossain, Secretary-in- charge of the ministry Abu Alam Md. Shahid Khan and Director General of the Department of Primary and Mass Education Shaymol Kanti Gosh.

The Prime Minister said her government has taken various measurers including providing textbooks and Tiffin free of cost in different schools and introduced school terminal examinations to stop drop out.

She expressed the hope that disparities in primary education would be removed along with raising competitiveness among the students with the introduction of school terminal examinations across the country.

Laying emphasis on increased number of quality teachers to raise the standard of education at school levels, she said considering this her government has already recruited more than 20,000 assistant teachers in primary schools while a process is underway to recruit 22,315 more primary teachers to this end.

Besides, she said, another process is on to appoint 1,000 headmasters at primary schools within this month.

About school curriculum and syllabus, she said the existing curriculum seems huge in terms of the age of students. She asked the authorities to reduce curriculum and syllabus at the school levels after consultation with all concerned and experts.

But, she regretted, the vital education sector was ignored during the last seven years, especially when the BNP- Jamaat clique was in power, taking no step to raise the quality of education and literacy rate in the country.

The Prime Minister said Father of the Nation and the greatest Bangali of all time Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman nationalized 36,165 primary schools and services of over 1.50 lakh primary school teachers in the war-ravaged Bangladesh as he thought that only quality education could help build Sonar Bangla.

Referring to providing textbooks free of cost among the primary and higher secondary students for the first time this year and at the beginning of new academic year, she said the previous governments could not reach textbooks to the students in such a smooth way and in time in the past.

In this context, The Prime Minister mentioned her personal feeling saying that she felt that education up to the degree level should be free of cost. “Although our government is now under pressure. We will take steps to make education up to the degree level free for all in future,” she added.

Sheikh Hasina said her government has made the highest allocation in the education sector and this trend would continue in future to ensure education for all.

“We have taken steps to fulfil our election pledges to ensure enrolment of all children in primary schools by 2011 and eradicating illiteracy from the country by 2014,” she said.

She said Bangladesh has achieved significant success in enrolment in primary schools so far while gender equality has been ensured in this regard.

Besides, she said, fresh programmes have been taken along with the existing ones in different areas to eradicate illiteracy from the country. “Special programmes has been taken for the remote, inaccessible and hilly areas to this end,” she added.

Calling upon all to supplement the government’s efforts to eradicate illiteracy from the country, Sheikh Hasina expressed the hope that her government would be able to reach its desired goal of building a digital Bangladesh if it gets support from the people.

Later, the Prime Minister handed over prizes and medals to the best teachers, best schools and the students who secured brilliant results in the last Primary School terminal Examination.

Students, who performed best in different extra-curricular activities at national levels competition, were also awarded in the function.

As the formal programme is over, an excellent cultural function was presented by the school students. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina witnessed the performances of the children.

Ministers, Advisers to the Prima Minister, representatives of diplomatic missions, academics and high civil and military officials were present on the occasion.

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