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About six thousand children, mostly girls, in sadar upazila of Magura are deprived of primary education, sources concerned said.
   Due to the financial hardship of their parents, the unfortunate children, numbering 1,891 boys and 3,805 girls, finding no other alternatives, often engage themselves in different odd jobs instead of going to schools.
   According to the district primary education department, there are about 40,405 children, between the age group 6 and 10, in the upazila.
   Of them, 19,918 are boys and 20,487 are girls. But only 34,709 children are school-goers, of whom 18,027 are boys and 16,682 are girls while the remaining 5,696 children are deprived of primary education.
   According to a survey, conducted by the local primary education department, there are 4,970 boys and 4,722 girls of 6 plus age group, 4,149 boys and 4,955 girls of 7 plus age group, 4,100 boys and 3,603 girls of 8 plus age group, 3,800 boys and 3,703 girls of 9 plus age
   group, 2,899 boys and 3,504 girls of 10 plus age group in sadar upazila.
   Among the children, 4,807 boys and 3,638 girls of 6 plus age group, 3,870 boys and 3,878 girls of 7 plus age group, 3,794 boys and 3,696 girls of 8 plus age group, 3,306 boys and 3,185 girls of 9 plus age group, 2,250 boys and 2,255 girls of 10 plus age group are now going to school.
   According to another survey, conducted by different non-governmental organisations of the district, the number of deprived children stands at more than 10,000.
   Although some children took admission to the primary schools at the elementary stage of their childhood, they could not complete their primary education for want of support from their parents, the survey reports said.
   Most of those children are engaged in various hard works in shops and business places including hotels, confectionaries, brickfields, garages and workshops, the sources concerned said.

The indoor and out-door patients at the sadar hospital are being deprived of proper
   treatment mainly because of shortage of doctors and indifference of many of them to their duties.
   The 100-bed hospital is supposed to be manned by 44 physicians. But only 17 doctors are now performing their duties at the hospital at the moment. The department of medicine has no consultant for a long time.
   A child specialist has now been placed at the medicine department in addition to his duties.
   Most of the doctors of this hospital are people of local areas. Enjoying patronage of the local political leaders most of the doctors spend more time at private clinics than in their place of duty at the hospital.
   Some of them stay at the Rajshahi divisional headquarters which is about 48 kilometres from here.
   They prefer to stay at the divisional headquarters because of their private practice there.
   These doctors come late to the sadar hospital from all the way from Rajshahi and leave the hospital after spending only two to three hours.
   As a result, a large number of indoor and out-door patients of the hospital miss their services. .
   The resident medical officer is supposed to stay at his residence within the hospital compound.
   But he too resides at the Rajshahi city. There should be three shifts at the hospital.
   But the doctors perform their duties in one shift only.
   There seems to be none to make them accountable to their responsibilities.

The two state-run sugar mills in Narsingdi and Kishoreganj have been facing shortage of sugarcane because of production of molasses on a large scale by power crushers.
   About 1,200 power crushers are now crushing sugarcane illegally in the zones around the Kaliachapra Sugar Mills in Kishoreganj and the Desh Bandhu Sugar Mills in Narsingdi for the production of molasses.
   The owners of power crushers have been producing 600 tonnes of molasses everyday by crushing 32,000 tonnes of sugarcane in 18 zones of these two districts.
   The authorities of the two sugar mills have expressed their grave concern over the production of molasses by power crushers.
   The supply of sugarcane to the two sugar mills has sharply fallen in recent days.
   There would be no alternative but to close down the two sugar mills for want of sugarcane if the production of molasses illegally could not be checked, according to the officials of the two sugar mills.
   The  mill authorities have filed a number of cases against the owners of power crushers, but no action has so far been taken by the local administration against them.
    Local sources said sugarcane growers feel tempted to sell their produce to molasses producers as they offer better price compared to them compared to the mill authorities.

The target of garlic production may not be achieved here for acute scarcity of seeds this year.
   Garlic growers of the district did not get a good harvest last year because of thick fog.
   The department of agriculture extension sources said, about 8,200 hectares of land have been brought under garlic cultivation with a production target of 36,900 tonnes this season.
   To recoup the losses of flood last year, the farmers prepared beds for the cultivation of onion on a large scale. But scarcity of garlic seeds has frustrated them.
   A section of businessman is selling garlic seeds at a high price. Farmers here have to buy one kilogram of Indian garlic seeds at Tk 60 to 70 as against Tk 30 to 40 last year.
   Most of these seeds that they have got are of low quality.
   Apart from seed crisis, pest attack on garlic seed beds also threatens the farmers.
   Many farmers of sadar, Barigram, Lalpur and Bagatipara said the pest attack damaged their garlic fields.
   Most of the poor and small farmers have not been able to collect pesticide for monetary problem.

Cattle lifting by the members of some orgnaised gangs has sent panic down the spine of many farmers in three upazilas of Jamalpur.
   The surge of cattle lifting has assumed a grave proportion at sadar, Islampur and Dewanganj upazilas. As many as 56 cows and bullocks were stolen from the cowsheds in these upazilas during the last 12 days.
   Losing their cattle the affected farmers are now in a fix as to how to cultivate their lands.
   Farmers at many places have been spending sleepless nights at their cowsheds to check cattle lifting.
   Local farmers said after lifting cattle the miscreants take them to distant places to sell.
   Some butchers have also link with the cattle lifters. Many of the cattle lifters maintain clout with the law enforcing agencies. The affected farmers do not dare file against them in fear of retaliation.
   Failing to stop cattle lifting on a large scale because of the strong nexus of the cattle thieves with the police, the angry mobs of Madarganj police station of this district burnt to death nearly half a dozen of them in the year 1969.
   The people armed with lathis raided the hideouts of the cattle lifters, dragged them out, hung them with the branches of trees and set them ablaze after sprinkling kerosene.
   The police had a difficult time to stop the orgy of violence let loose by the people of Madarganj thana to annihilate the cattle lifters.
   The incidence of cattle lifting did not take place anywhere in that police station for a couple of years after the mass upsurge against the cattle thieves.

Thousands of landless people under Barigram upazila in Natore on Sunday held a rally and brought out a procession demanding distribution of khas land among them.
   They submitted a memorandum to the Barigram upazila nirbahi officer, Hazera Begum, in this regard.
   About 3,000 people gathered at the rally. They came from different unions of Barigram upazila.
   They demanded that the landless people in Bamihali village be given khas land on lease.
   The landless leaders observed that a good chunk of khas land had been occupied by influential quarters, especially jotdars, in the district for a long time.
   Ten non-government organisations led by Karbala Gram Unnayan Kendra submitted another memorandum to the upazila nirbahi officer, demanding distribution of khas land among the landless.
   But the UNO did not accept the memorandum, according to sources.

The kitchen markets in Madaripur have been flooded with tomatoes allegedly ripened with harmful chemicals posing threat to public health.
   These tomatoes are too red, hard and very cheap, said a buyer of a local vegetable market.
   ‘I have come to buy local tomatoes. I find there all hard tomatoes which are too red in colour,’ said Fazal Matbar of Shariatpur.
   Some traders of the retail markets admitted that the hard and red tomatoes are ripened with chemicals. Tomatoes that ripens naturally are soft, they added.
   Health officials recently found artificially ripened tomatoes at Madaripur markets.
   Some sellers confuse buyers by terming these tomatoes hybridised. But many buyers do not believe that.

Intercropping has been gaining popularity in Jamalpur as the farmers are earning extra money by cultivating their lands through this method.
   Shamsul Alam, 45, a farmer of village Kamdevbari under Melandah upazila, said they were already reaping benefit of the method of intercropping.
   According to this method, he said, onion, garlic, radish, lentil and vegetables could be cultivated along with sugarcane and some other crops at the same time.
   ‘It does not require extra land as a farmer can easily earn extra money cultivating the same land under this system,’ he said.
   A farmer can usually harvest crop worth over Tk 5,500 from one bigha of land, but by adopting the intercropping method the same farmer can earn Tk 2,500 more from the same piece of land in the same season, he added
   Sources in the Department of Agriculture Extension said the exact area of lands that has been brought under intercropping system could not be known as the farmers adopted the method without proper planning.
   The farmers could harvest additional crops by bringing their lands under intercropping method, the sources said.
   An official of the DAE said they have taken initiatives to motivate the farmers for adopting the intercropping method as it can make them financially gainer by reducing their production cost.

Three persons were killed and one was injured in separate incidents in Bagerhat Saturday-Sunday.
   Two persons died and another sustained injured in a road accident at Kalibari on the Bagerhat-Shoronkhola road Sunday.
   Witnesses said Shahedul Islam, 22, died on the spot and Helal Hossain, 32, and Emdad were injured as Shahedul lost control over the steering of his motorbike and hit a tree.
   Helal was taken to hospital where he died the following day.
   One Yunus Sheikh, 50, of village Bade Korapara of sadar upazila died on the spot falling from a coconut tree on Saturday. A case was filed in this connection.

The Department of Agriculture Extension has taken up a massive boro farming programme in all the seven upazilas of Jamalpur in the current season.
   Under the programme, high yielding variety and local variety of boro paddy will be cultivated on the 1,02,300 hectares of land with a production target of 3,38,519 tonnes in the district.
   Upazila-wise break-up of boro cultivation is: 28,200 hectares of land with a production target of 92,214 tonnes in sadar upazila, 8,000 hectares with a target of 26,160 tonnes in Dewanganj, 11,220 hectares with a production target of 36,689 tonnes in Islampur, 11,950 hectares with a target of 39,076 tonnes in Madarganj, 17,200 hectares with a target of 56,244 tonnes in Melandah, 17,100 hectares with a target of 55,917 tonnes in Sarishabari and 8,630 hectares with a target of 28,220 tonnes in Bakshiganj.

A court in Sylhet Monday convicted a man and sentenced him to life term imprisonment for killing a JCD leader.
   The court also fined the convict, Kamal Ahmed of Moulvibazar (in absentia), Tk 2000, in default, to suffer two years more RI.
   According to the prosecution, the convict and two of his associates called JCD leader AL Ashref Russle out of his house in Kazitula area of the city and killed him on June 24, 2001 as he protested their drug trading.
   A case was filed against three persons of the area.