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Books on Bangladesh
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Update No: 020 - (27/08/07)
VIOLENT CLASHES BETWEEN STUDENTS AND POLICE
After seven months of army-backed rule, violent clashes erupted between
students and police compelling the government to impose an indefinite curfew on
22 August, in six of the country's largest cities. The leader of the caretaker
government, Fakhruddin Ahmed said that the administration was compelled to
impose the curfew and to shut colleges and universities across the country to
"protect public life and property as well as stop illegal activities."
Mobile phone networks were also closed down. The political unrest developed
after a minor scuffle broke out between students of Dhaka University and the
police. The scuffle led students to demand that troops on the campus be removed.
On August 21, the protests spread, with demonstrators setting fire to a military
vehicle in the capital. In clashes around the country, at least one person was
killed and several hundred, some of them police officers, were injured. The
government said that the army had already withdrawn from the Dhaka University
campus and that a judicial inquiry had been opened into the initial clash that
prompted the protests. Mr. Ahmed suggested that the student protests had been
exploited by others to stir political unrest. "It's unfortunate," he
said, "that some evil forces and opportunist, unruly people created anarchy
in different parts of the country, including Dhaka, are capitalizing on the
university incidents."
DEVASTATION CAUSED BY FLOODS
This month Bangladesh has been devastated by one of the worst floods yet to hit
the country, and this has forced a re-allocation in budget resulting in pooling
0.8 percent of the country's GDP toward flood rehabilitation. Finance Secretary
Dr Mohammad Tareque has said that "donor supports are needed to achieve
growth objectives as well as macroeconomic objectives." He said that
budgetary allocation amounting to about 0.8 percent of GDP was shifted to flood
rehabilitation while budget deficit would increase to keep momentum of the
planned activities. This would mean more borrowing from banks, and fueling
inflation.
The finance secretary informed the donors that the food safety net budget was
reallocated to meet the immediate relief requirements to the tune of 21 billion
taka (about 300 million U.S. dollars) and the maintenance budget also
reallocated (about 21 billion taka), to cater to the immediate post-flood
rehabilitation priorities. The World Bank earlier estimated that the country's
GDP growth would be slowed down by 0.2 percent to 6.8 percent from the projected
estimate of 7 percent in the current fiscal year. The United Nations had
previously warned of a food crisis across northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal,
after monsoon floods destroyed millions of acres of farmland.
The annual monsoon rains, which run from June to September, are vital to an
increase in farm production, key to faster economic growth in South Asia. But
this year's rains have also caused rivers to burst their banks and inundate
thousands of villages, devastating crops across the region. More than 2,000
people have died in South Asia since the monsoon season began in June. Aid
agencies say the death toll will rise, as stagnant waters become a breeding
ground for diseases, including diarrhea, malaria and dengue fever.
FOREIGN AID REQUIRED TO BOOST ECONOMY
As a consequence of the havoc wreaked by floods, Bangladesh has asked foreign
donors and development partners for hundreds of millions of dollars to help its
economy since the floods destroyed thousands of crops and left millions
homeless. Bangladesh's economic growth might slow down to 6.8 percent from a
target of 7 percent and the budget deficit is likely to widen due to an increase
in unforeseen expenditure caused by the floods. Mohammad Aminul Islam Bhuiyan,
secretary of the Economic Relations Division, told Reuters "that to deal
with the budget deficit we requested the development partners to provide
initially $150 million, but after the final assessment we will require more
assistance from them". An official who attended a meeting with the World
Bank and the Asian Development Bank on Sunday, said the two organizations might
provide $300 million and $150 million respectively as budgetary support over the
next four months. Officials said that initial assessments showed the worst
affected sectors are agriculture, communications, education and health. The
floods affected nearly 700,000 ha (1.73 million acres) of farmland, washing away
mainly rice crops.
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