SMS voting for Sundarbans begins

Dhaka, June 23 (bdnews24.com)?Voting through SMS for the Sundarbans to have its niche among the 'New Seven Wonders of the World' has begun.

State minister for environment and forest Hasan Mahmud on Thursday noon launched the voting through a media briefing by sending an SMS to vote for the world's largest mangrove forest.

"The Sundarbans has already been in the first position of the New Seven Wonders of the World contest and it will have this position consolidated if people vote through SMS enthusiastically," he said.

The junior minister said currently there are at least 50 million active mobile SIM cards in the country and if 20 SMS were sent through each SIM card, the Sundarbans would get one billion SMS votes to its credit.

"These one billion votes will obviously take the Sundarbans much ahead," he added.

For voting, one needs to go to the message options of their cell phones and type SB and then send it to 16333.

Acknowledging every SMS vote, the New 7 Wonders Foundation will thank the voter through a return message, Mahmud said.

The Zurich, Switzerland-based Foundation is also accepting SMS votes for 27 other places that have come to the final list of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Mobile operators will charge Tk 2 for each SMS and with 15 per cent VAT, the cost for each SMS will be Tk 2.30, of which the Foundation will get Tk 0.68.

The minister said the government had taken an initiative to exempt VAT from SMS for the Sundarbans, but as it was a complicated issue it would take time to withdraw the VAT. "Until then, mobile subscribers need to pay Tk 2.30 for each SMS."

Primarily, Teletalk, Grameenphone and Robi have started receiving SMS voting and it will be introduced by Banglalink, Airtel and Citycell in a day or two, he said.

Sheikh Mizanur Rahman, project director of the campaign to motivate people to vote for the Sundarbans, told bdnews24.com the SMS voting would continue in other countries of the 28 places selected for the final round of the competition.

He also called upon all to vote for the Sundarbans to see it among the world's seven wonders.

The Foundation and the government earlier signed an agreement to allow SMS voting for the Sundarbans. The decision to allow SMS voting was made at a meeting between the foundation director Jean-Paul de la Fuente and the state minister in Dhaka recently.

bdnews24.com/mk/sht/bd/1545h

View the original article here