There was norwester along with hail storms across the capital. The rain was accompanied by heavy winds.

A tree fell down on the way from Kakrail Mosque to Matsya Bhavan during heavy rain.

Traffic Sergeant Zafar Imam, who is in charge of this road, removed the broken trees and branches alone.

This incident happened on Sunday (May 5) around 11:30 pm.

Traffic almost came to a standstill during the storm due to the falling tree of the Directorate of Public Health Engineers. At this time, traffic jams were created in the surrounding area.

Later, Traffic Police Sergeant Zafar Imam came from Matsya Bhavan to the spot and cleared the branches and normalized the traffic.

When asked about this, Traffic Police Sergeant Zafar Imam said, "People were trying to reach their destinations like crazy in the rain and storm." In the meantime, there was a traffic jam on the road. After going to the spot; I saw a tree lying down. I tried to remove the branches and the tree alone in the rain storm.'

The Election Commission (EC) has directed ministers and members of parliament not to participate in the campaigns of candidates for the upcoming Sixth Upazila Parishad elections.

Deputy Secretary of EC election management Atiyar Rahman sent a letter to the returning officers on Sunday (May 5) to implement the directive.

It has been said that in the sixth upazila parishad election honorable members of parliament and government beneficiaries may send a letter to the returning officer to refrain from participating in the election campaign by going to the election area and referring to the provisions of the upazila parishad code of conduct. The commission gave its decision.

In this regard, Rule 22 of the Upazila Parishad (Election Conduct) Rules, 2016 states, (1) Government beneficiary very important persons and no government officer or employee shall participate in campaigning or election activities in the constituency during the pre-election period: Provided that, if such person is a voter of the concerned constituency, he can only go to the polling station to cast his vote.

During the pre-election period, no contesting candidate or any other person, or organization on his behalf can use government propaganda machine, government vehicles, use any other government facilities and government officials or employees for election purposes.

Election Commission is conducting polling in four phases in 476 upazilas out of 495 upazilas. Election time for 19 upazila parishads has not yet taken place, later voting will be held in all those parishads.

According to the schedule announced by the EC, polling will be held in the first phase in 150 upazilas on May 8, in the second phase in 160 upazilas on May 21, in the third phase in 112 upazilas on May 29 and in the fourth phase in 55 upazilas on June 5. In the first phase, 22, 24 in the second phase, 21 in the third phase and two upazilas in the fourth phase will be conducted in electronic voting machines (EVM).

Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rauf Talukdar said, 'There is talk of printing money from different stages. This is a misconception. Now the central bank is not giving any loan to the government. All of the government loans are provided by commercial banks. As a result, the net effect of printing money is now zero.

He said these things while speaking as the chief guest at an event organized at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital on Sunday (May 5).

Dhaka University's Department of Development Studies and Banik Barta jointly organized the first International conference on 'Adapting Development Approaches to Controversial Global Situations'. The Plenary-II session on the first day of the conference was on the coordination of monetary policy and fiscal policy.

Chaired by former governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr. Atiur Rahman panel discussant in the session were former BB governors Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed and Fazle Kabir, former finance secretary Dr. M Tarek and Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury.

Various issues such as strong central bank, interest rates, inflation, foreign exchange reserves, liquidity crisis came up in the discussion.

Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed said, "The central bank has enough power." No one gives freedom. To be achieved through manpower, skills. Again, there is external pressure; you have the ability to deal with it.

The former governor said that not everyone was an angel when he was the governor. There was pressure to approve new banks. However, he wasted time in various ways and went to the last stage and said that giving the bank will cause damage to the economy.

He said the time has come for the central bank to be tougher in the current reality of the financial sector. No country's central bank is beyond political influence. Here everyone wants to walk in easy way. Collection of direct taxes is easier than indirect taxes - that is what everyone is looking at. Here the rich and the poor have to pay the same rate of tax on a piece of bread.

Dr. Salehuddin said that it will not be enough to reduce the inflation only by tightening the monetary policy. If not for employment, investment, inflation control, then contractionary monetary policy will have the first impact on the investment of small and medium industries.

Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, the former finance secretary and one-time auditor and controller, said contractionary monetary policy is being talked about. Again, the government has issued a bond of Tk. 20,000 crore against the subsidy on electricity. Again the banks can borrow money from the central bank by keeping this bond, they can save the SLR. As a result, if the money multiplier effect is taken 5 times, the effect of Tk. 20 thousand crore on the economy is Tk. 1 lakh crore. However, the good news is that now the central bank is lending to the government instead of lending to commercial banks.

He said, in various fields including interest rates, it is often said to be determined on the basis of demand and supply. But it is not good in all cases. Some players sometimes use this term for their own benefit.

Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder said the government has issued bonds against government subsidies for electricity and fertilizers. If this bond was not issued, two types of crisis would have been created. First, those who received money from the government were defaulting even if there was no problem. Another is that the banking sector is already in a liquidity crisis. If the bonds were not issued, the liquidity crisis would have worsened. Now the question is whether it has 'money creation'. It is not true that money creation has taken place with bond issue.

Speaker of the National Parliament Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury was the chief guest at the opening session of the two-day conference. Minister of State for Finance Waseka Ayesha Khan was the special guest.

Under the chairmanship of Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. ASM Maksud Kamal, the panel discussant was the advisor of the former caretaker government Wahiduddin Mahmud who is a professor of various universities. Dhaka University Development Studies Department Chairman Professor Dr. Rashed Al Mahmoud Titumir hosted the event.

Even after India lifted the onion export ban, a class of unscrupulous circles manipulated the product. After the import, the price of all types of onion is expected to decrease if the supply increases.

But, the domestic price is being targeted at Tk. 100 per kg which is currently being sold at Tk. 60-70 per kg. A month ago it was sold for Tk. 45-50.

Market analysts said that strict measures should be taken so that onion prices do not increase unreasonably. Otherwise the consumer will be cheated by buying the product.

Meanwhile, importers said that the export price of onions from India has been fixed at 550 dollars per ton. Due to which the price per kg may fall to Tk. 70 in local currency. Tk. 75-80 in wholesale and retail price will increase slightly to Tk. 85-90. Hence there was a need to further reduce export prices from India's side. Because a lot of onions have been produced in India this time.

On Sunday (May 5), it is learnt that after visiting several retail markets including Kawran Bazar, Nayabazar, Shantinagar Kitchen Market and talking to the sellers, on this day, per kg of local onion is being sold at Tk. 60-70 which was sold at Tk. 65-75 earlier (two days ago) before the news of Indian onion export.

And a week ago it was sold at tk. 58-60 Which was sold a month ago for tk. 45-50.

Nayabazar onion seller Ismail said that the big traders in the wholesale market are manipulating the price of onion again. According to the news of export from India, the price has reduced by Tk. 5 per kg and the retail level is selling by Tk. 5. But, when they calculated, they found that India's onion import cost is Tk. 70 per kg.

And the price of that onion to come to the retail market from the wholesale market is about Tk. 90, since then the price of domestic onion has risen. They are saying that the price of local onion will increase from now. So wholesale is asking to buy more from now.

They also said that later the price of the local variety will increase to Tk. 80-85 at the wholesale level which is being sold on Sundays at Tk. 55-65.

He said that if it takes more money to import onion from India, then that onion will be sold at a higher price at the wholesale and retail levels. That's what's supposed to happen. But, currently, per kg of local onion is being sold wholesale at Tk. 55-65. How will that onion sell Tk. 80-85 in the wholesale market? How can the price of the same onion be Tk. 30 more per kg? All their manipulation. To maintain the market price with imported onion, they have made a table to increase the price of domestic onion to make additional profit. If onion is sold at Tk. 80-85 at the wholesale level, the price of domestic onion at the retail level will be above Tk. 100. That seems to be what they are targeting which is absurd. Administration should pay attention.

The wholesale onion traders of the capital's Kawran market said that the export of onion from India through legal channels was stopped for a long time. So the supply has to be fixed with local onions. But the price of onion in India is high.

The export price has been fixed at 550 dollars per ton. As a result, that onion is supposed to be sold at Tk. 75-80 in the wholesale market and Tk. 80-90 at the retail level. So it seems that the price of local onions will also increase along with Indian onions.

Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) president Golam Rahman said that the product should be sold at the same price. But the picture is different in the country. If the import price of a product is high, then the price of the produced product is also increased to make extra profit in the country. Care should be taken to ensure that this does not happen in the case of onions. Monitoring should be strengthened as well as strict action should be taken.

Meanwhile, after visiting Rajganj market in Cumilla city on Saturday (May 4), Director General of National Consumer Rights Protection Directorate AHM Safikuzzaman said that the price of onion may come down to Tk. 50 per kg before next Eid-ul-Azha. This possibility has arisen as India lifted the ban on onion export.

He also said that if the manpower is increased and the law is reformed, the consumer department will be able to work more intensively for the benefit of the people.

Incidentally, India stopped onion exports from December 8. As announced at that time, there was a ban on exports till March 31. However, before the expiry of the period, on March 23, India announced an indefinite ban on onion exports. At that time, the price of onions in the retail market in the country exceeded 100 per kg.

However, in spite of this ban, India last February approved the sale of onions on a limited scale to some countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates. Besides, when domestically produced onions start coming in the market, the price drops to Tk. 40-50 per kg. Later, on the pretext of shortage in supply, the price of onion in the retail market increased again.