Speakers at a press conference yesterday said the proposed national budget for 2008-09 fiscal has failed to meet the expectations of the water supply and sanitation sector. They said this sector needs to be brought under a separate budget line in the national budget. The press conference was organised by the representatives of the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in Bangladesh at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity to make an analysis of the fund allocation in the draft national budget for this sector.

A residential area in Chittagong after flash flooding. FORMAL city planning in this part of the world began with Sir Patrick Geddess producing a Master Plan for Dhaka in 1917. The plan was never implemented. With the establishment of a planning department in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in the year 1948, planning activities got an institutional beginning. A British consultant was engaged for producing the Master Plans for Dhaka and Chittagong; Khulna was added later on. The Master Plans for Dhaka and Chittagong were prepared in 1960 and 1961 respectively.

The Bangladesh Health Watch, a coalition of health-related organisations, on Thursday suggested recognition of the country's traditional health workforce and called for developing proper strategies to manage and improve their health care practices.

The government has refixed the fare of CNG-run passenger buses and minibuses at Tk 1.20 and Tk 1.10 per kilometre respectively for Dhaka and Chittagong cities. It also set the minimum fare of the CNG-run buses at Tk 5 and directed diesel-run bus operators to convert their vehicles into CNG within next three months, said a press release of the Road and Railway Division yesterday. A nine-member committee formed on May 21 refixed the fare in the wake of price hike of CNG to Tk 16.75 from Tk 8.5 per cubic metre as the CNG bus operators were demanding an increase in bus fare.

This new year has come as a breath of fresh air for Dhaka residents, with polluting two-stroke three-wheelers being ban

The crowded streets of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, are in for a green makeover. Even as the polluting baby taxis are on the last leg of their