Arafat Rahaman

With a smiling face and curiosity in her eyes, six-year-old Anika stood beside a barbed wire fence and gazed up at the sky. Soon, an aeroplane took off with a loud roar.

It was early morning. The sun had not yet risen, and most of Dhaka was still sleeping.

In July 2017, Dhaka North City Corporation took 18 wards under its wing, which were previously under the union parishad system.

Some of the places remain under stagnant water for years, while some lack basic civic amenities, including proper roads or pure drinking water. None of these neighbourhoods has a single playground. Such are the states of the three wards in zone-9 of Dhaka North City Corporation.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board has been stuck in the loop of controversies centring on school textbooks with academics and some NCTB officials blaming it on the negligence of writers and editors, insufficient training and lack of serious punishment for blunders.

The external service of Bangladesh Betar has remained disconnected from the rest of the world for over three years due to a mechanical fault, depriving a vast diaspora of foreign listeners.

As the metro-rail train started its maiden journey yesterday afternoon, Swadhin Ahmed, a young man, had a wide smile on his face. In fact, it was a day of pride for Swadhin, who had been working for the metro-rail project  for three years.

In its latest effort to free the capital’s Satrasta-Tejgaon road from congestion, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) is setting up separate lanes for rickshaws by installing dividers.

The instalment of CCTV cameras in city buses by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has generated a positive response among female commuters as well as bus staffers, as they believe the initiative has brought a change in the behavioural pattern of the overall commuters.

Mohammad Omar Faruque, 27, a graduate of Jahangirnagar University, was hoping to pursue his master’s in the United Kingdom.

Abdul Khalek was heading for an office in the capital’s Agargaon where he was to sit for an exam for a government job at 11:00am yesterday, but he could not sit for the test as police asked him to go back after stopping him at a checkpoint in Aminbazar.

What started as police frisking people and vehicles entering the capital has turned into checking pedestrians at different Dhaka gateways as well.

Rubina Akhter was heading to a family programme at her parents’ house to spend some time with her loved ones. But on that day, she met the most gruesome fate, one no person should face.

Eighty-year-old Renu Bibi left home in the capital’s Lalbagh before daybreak to queue up for subsidised rice and flour sold at a truck under the government’s Open Market Sale programme.

A Chhatra League activist yesterday filed a case against the new BCL president of Rajshahi district unit, Sakibul Islam Rana, accusing him of extorting money promising employment.

Mizan Khandaker, a patient with temporary vision loss in one eye, managed to get a doctor’s appointment at a Chennai hospital. He along with his wife left their Banasree home at 10:00am yesterday to catch the 2:45pm flight to India from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Residents of the capital, especially office-goers and students suffered immensely yesterday as early morning rain coupled with VVIP movement caused massive gridlocks in different parts of Dhaka.

The government yesterday reconstituted Manarat International University’s board of trustees, abolishing the previous one, due to an allegation that some of the immediate-past members were involved in “militancy and anti-state activities”.

Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam has been made the chairman of Manarat International University’s board of trustees.

The prices of stationery items and study materials have gone up significantly over the past two months, putting thousands of guardians, already struggling to cope with surging prices of essentials, in a tight corner.