Democracywatch organizes democracy festivals around different parts of Bangladesh in support of its awareness building activities on democracy, good governance, and human rights.

The goal of these festivals is to spread the significance and implication of these issues within the people, specially the youths and women; introduce democratic norms and values

Bogra needs Capital Investor to rescue over 300 Industries

BOGRA: Over 300 industries in northern district including renowned Jamil Soapworks, Virginia Tobacco and Bogra Cotton Spinning Mill in the district ceased production over the few years, says BSS.

Lack of running capital, inadequate marketing facilities and availability of smuggled goods in local markets forced the closure of the industries, creating unemployment of over one lakh workers.

Rajshahi divisional industries inspector's office sources said that most of the establishments, numbering about 3,397, were either closed down or became sick.

The lone ceramic industry in the northern region, Tajma, is facing bottlenecks due to lack of natural gas and absence of marketing facilities.

Customs officials along with board of investment (BOI) sources said notable among the closed industries are Jamil Soap of Jamil Group, Virginia Tobacco, Jamil Jarda, Bogra Cotton Spinning Mill, Noorani Bread and Biscuit, Northern Tannery, Jahed Wear, Bhandari Iron, Hasna Oil, Habib Match, Bogra Lithographic Printing Press, Hasna Textile, Khan and Jaman Textiles. Mrs Golam Kibria Shop, Bangladesh Litho Press, Islamia Tant Shilpa, Dashtika Weaving, Popular Dying and Weaving, Sutrapur Weaving, Salamat Weaving and Shahjalal centre.

They said over two hundred small, medium and large-scale enterprises in Bogra were closed down. Similar scenes prevailing in the industries sector in Dinajpur, Joypurhat, Rajshahi and Nogaon.(BSS)

Bogra Social Welfare Department disbursed Tk 11 Crore

Social Welfare Department disbursed Tk 11 crore interest-free loans among the people in the district during the last 26 years. The department disbursed the loan under its poverty alleviation programme to generate self-employment opportunities in 754 villages of 11 upazilas of district since 1974.

The loans were utilized in poultry and dairy farming, cattle rearing, purchase of rickshaw van, cottage industries and pisciculture. The department took 10 percent service charge from the borrowers.

The outgoing Deputy Commissioner of Bogra Mr. Bimal Kumar Kundu distributed last year this loan among the 148 farmers of Galua union for small trading and five farmers of Saturia union for buying tilling machine.

The Battle of Bogra

(Source: www.defencejournal.com)

A Pakistani Col (Retd) writes from his memory about the battle of Hilli, Bogra in 1971. This article of Defence Journal has been documented the days from night 22/23 Nov. 1971 to night 15/16 Dec 1971 in Bogra. The subject and context are not our views. The author takes full responsibility. We from www.bogra.info just want to give an information what happened 30 years before on these days in Bogra.

Bogra 6th May 2004: [Source: The Daily Star] Local Government, Rural Devel-opment and Cooperatives Minister Abul Mannan Bhuiyan inaugurated a five-day Agri-Tools and Seed Technology Fair on Bogra Rural Development Academy (RDA) premises on Tuesday.

State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Rural Development and Cooperative Secretary Hedayetul Islam Choud-hury and a large number of Bangladeshi and foreign researchers and officials attended the inaugural function. Bangladeshi researchers and officials included those from Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Agriculture University (BAU), Bangladesh Sugarcane Research Instate (BSRI), Depar-tment of Agriculture Extension (DEA), Rural Devel-opment Academy (RDA) and from some non-government institutions.

The purpose of the fair is to popularise various modern and affordable technologies used in agriculture. Various indigenous machines and tools used in fields and post-harvest processing of crops are on display at the fair. Speakers at the inaugural function included Kazi Rafiqul Islam MP and Golam Mohammad Siraj MP, both Managing Board Members of RDA; Patric Renz, General Manager of Swicecontact-KATALYST and Veena Khaleque, Country Director ITDG-Bangladesh.

RDA Director Abdul Matin presented the keynote paper. The fair has been organized jointly by the RDA Bogra, DEA Bogra, TMSS-Bogra, ITDG -Bangladesh, KATALYST, a multi-donor project funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

Muhammad Ali was born in Bogra in an aristocratic Nawab family. Officialy he was carring the family name Bogra. He studied at the Calcutta University and in 1937 he was elected to the Bengal legislative assembly.

In 1943, Muhammad Ali became parliamentary secretary to Khawaja Nazimuddin, the then Chief Minister of Bengal in undivided India. Later in 1946, he became Finance and Health Minister of the province.

After the formation of Pakistan, he was appointed Ambassador to Burma in 1948 High Commissioner to Canada in 1949 and finally Ambassador to USA in 1952.

Khawaja Nazimuddin, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan was dismissed by the Governor General, Malik Ghulam Muhammad in April 1953, and Muhammad Ali Bogra was appointed Prime Minister on April 17, 1953 by the Governor General.

Muhammad Ali Bogra was very renowned diplomat but almost unknown as a politician. His appointment as Prime Minister came as a surprise to political observers and public alike, and it was widely suspected that his transfer from Washington to Karachi, elevation to the office was a prelude to closer relations between the US and Pakistan.

Only three days after the new premier's nomination, the US President Eisenhower asked Congress for authority to ship hundreds and thousands of tons of wheat to Pakistan. The US was at that time conducting a vigorous anti-Communist policy and looking for friends in Asia. Pakistan entered into defense pacts with it.

After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in 1954 by the governor-general, Muhammad Ali was again invited to form a new cabinet call "ministry of all talents."

Muhammad Ali Bogra was replaced by Chaudhary Muhammad Ali in August 1955 after the second constituent Assembly was elected. Muhammad Ali again resumed his assignment as ambassador to the USA. He died in the year 1969 and has been buried in the family gravie of Bogra Nawab Palace.