Osama bin Laden killed, finally*****

At last, the inevitable has happened. Osama bin Laden has been killed after 10 years of manhunt by the United States. His killing near the Pakistan Military Academy vindicates the world's stand that Pakistan was playing the double game of providing a safe haven to the terrorist, while being the frontline ally of the U.S-led coalition in the war against terror. The post-Laden scenario in Pakistan remains ominous. Religious extremists' reaction to their leader's killing could prove explosive. The news of the most sought after terrorist's elimination will boost the morale of anti-terror campaigns all over the world. But before the world gets carried away by the euphoria, it should scrutinize the role played by Pakistan, which has consistently denied knowledge about Laden's whereabouts. After one too many false reports of his death since 911, the U.S-led coalition has finally achieved its mission of eliminating the elusive fugitive. America's most trusted ally continues to remain the biggest hindrance to a successful global campaign against terror. The killing also marks the end of a failed experiment that the U.S. unleashed on its erstwhile Cold War rival. Pegged to take on the Soviets in Afghanistan, the experiment went horribly wrong when the monster it created turned on its master with disastrous consequences for the entire world. Gopal Sengupta Canada. E-mail gopalsengupta@aol.com Saving Buriganga The famous Buriganga river that contributed so much to the environment of Dhaka city and its aesthetic appeals, is now a pathetic remnant of its former glory. It has become nothing better than a drain in some of its parts for transporting various types of effluents, human excreta as well as industrial wastes. Its fish resources and aquatic life have practically come to nil from lack of oxygen in the water and toxicity. The very slender flows of it in parts of the city stand threatened from complete blockages if the ceaseless grabbing of the river continues unabated. Over the years, landfills created on the river have narrowed its width at many places near the city. The encroachers have set up platform like structures on the rivers and gradually filled out the bottoms by piling up earth and rubbish. Even multi-storied structures have been built on encroached such high grounds created at the expense of the course of the river with the only effects being more and more narrowing it down. It should not be an overstatement to say that if the unlawful encroachments and setting up of unauthorised structures on the Buriganga continues, then the day is near when the river will be completely dead from lack of flows in some of its parts in or near Dhaka city. Such a development will have spill over consequences in the form of floods upstreams in the wet season. What is happening to the Buriganga is also happening to many other rivers in the country. The illegal occupations and structures on all of them must be ended and destroyed respectively for good. Sheikh Abduallah Farashganj, Dhaka Excellent speech of Sheikh Hasina! We, the people, are really proud of Sheikh Hasina who is an Ideal leader and head of the government of. She gave excellent speech in a grand gala inaugural programme of construction of sky road from Shah Jalal (R) International Airport to Jatrabai in the city. She asked us not to waste water opening the tap continuously during shaving and brushing our teeth. We are really impressed and thank her for giving such a nice speech. She turns on and turns off the light of her own room as far as possible, she said adding she cannot swim in the air conditioner as she is concerned about the people who are suffering from severe load shedding. Not very long ago, the present government wasted a huge amount of public money turning the name of Zia International Airport to Shah Jalal (R) International Airport. When the electricity is hardly available for about an hour in a day in the remote areas and there is intolerable load shedding even in divisional towns, the government is providing eight computers and UPSs, a printer and other accessories in many schools in remote areas. Most important, in all the schools the computers had to be installed after requesting the engineer of REB asking for electricity. Again, the government is going to provide multimedia and laptops to more than twenty thousand schools, colleges and madrasas within a very short time. But the teachers do not know how to take class using multimedia and classroom is not suitable either. Again the teachers' salary is very poor particularly in the non-government schools and colleges. The government even had stopped the time scale of teachers of non-government schools and colleges. All these activities of the government prove that they are running after something else, obviously not for the wellbeing of the people but the wellbeing of the members of a particular party. Please do work and use the public money for the wellbeing of the people. Merina Hossain Rampura, Dhaka E-mail : mhossaindhk@gmail.com Rising inflation hurting the poor The present rate of inflation in Bangladesh, according to unofficial estimates, is considered to be already in the double digits, though the official figure put it below that. Whether it is inflation in the economic sense or the outcome of unethical businesses practices, people's experience is that the value of their savings have been eroding continuously without a pause. The loss of Taka's value has, thus, been accelerating. It has led to a vast number of people getting declassed and actually going down in the class hierarchy. One hears a plenty of inspirational rhetoric from government leaders to the effect that people's incomes are growing and people in increasing number are escaping to an existence above the poverty line. But the stark realities tell us a different story of middle class people turning into lower middle class ones and the latter in turn joining the ranks of the poor. The story is also one of the poor turning poorer from living costs fast outpacing earnings and buying powers of the non-affluent sections of people decreasing dramatically from the lower purchasing power of the currency as such or the lowered value of their savings. Sumona Islam Khilgaon, Dhaka Recovering all railway land According to a media report some 2,500 acres of prime lands of the Bangladesh Railway (BR) is under the occupation of local land grabbers. As it is, BR owns vast tracts of lands all over Bangladesh. Railway was a big government establishment from the British period and it continued to be so in the Pakistan and Bangladesh periods. But BR was progressively dispossessed of its possession of vast areas of land all over the country which were not ever quite recovered. The government should swing into action to recover 'all' of these lands over which the BR claims ownership. The restoration of the authority of the BR over all the lands owned by it would be a big plus point towards its overall recovery. BR is found to be strapped for funds and has been a losing concern for some years. It stands a chance of considerably improving its financial position by utilizing well the recovered lands. The same can be commercially let out to deserving entrepreneurs and the same should add sizeable amounts to its coffers. Even for its self development and for various works towards its rehabilitation and welfare schemes, the recovered lands can play a useful role. Like in the cases of all other government-owned lands that have been freed from illegal occupation, the recovered railway lands, too, must be secured from reoccupation. The same will call for the railway authorities to effectively take control over these lands, to guard them and to take steps physically so that reoccupation becomes an impossibility in the future. Shariful Islam Pahartali, Chittagong