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Many of the small raw-hide traders of greater Rangpur including Nilphamari could not buy the hides of sacrificial animals in adequate number this time because of fund constraint and high price of non-iodised salt.
   The owners of 10 Dhaka-based tanneries have not yet paid about Tk 18 crore they owe to 300 small raw-hide traders of greater Rangpur district.
   Some of the small raw-hide traders purchased hides of sacrificial animals by borrowing money at high rate of interest.
   But many of them were unable to preserve them because of high price of ordinary salt.
   The price of one kilogram ordinary salt has shot up to Tk 12 from Tk 6 before Eid-ul-Azha. As a result, they were compelled to sell the hides to big raw-hide traders at cheap prices.
   The fixation of the prices of different grades of hide by the big hide traders also adversely affected the hide business of the small traders.
   Hamidur Rahman, a hide trader of Kalua Para, said the small traders usually borrowed money from the agents of some big tanneries of Syedpur upazila for buying hides of sacrificial animals.
   But this time the agents of big tanneries did not advance money to the small hide traders. This put the small hide traders into great financial crisis, he added.
   Another small hide trader pointed out that sometimes non-bona fide hide traders try to dominate the hide trade of sacrificial animals by their sheer money power.
   The business of the small hide traders suffers because of the intervention of these people in the hide trade, he said.
   The small hide traders have urged the government to take steps for advancing loans to them on easy terms.
   Nearly 700 families in 20 villages of greater Rangpur district are engaged in hide trade.
   They purchase hides from the wholesale traders, middlemen and village markets round the year.
   Their activities go up during the Eid-ul-Azha festival. The hides are processed by the members of these families.

Shortage of bullocks and their high prices have been hampering cultivation of land for growing crops in six upazilas of Narsingdi.
   About 25 per cent of land in the district remains uncultivated every year as most of the marginal farmers have no bullock to plough their land.
   Sometimes they have to borrow bullocks from Jotdars. The prices of bullock are too high for the poor farmers to buy them.
   Farmers are often compelled to use their milking cows to carry on their agricultural work, which eventually leads to reduction in milk production.
   Many farmers regret that no short term bank loan is available for them to purchase bullocks.
   Every year cattle diseases break out in an epidemic form in different parts of the district taking a way heavy toll.
   The cattle in the remote areas do not get proper treatment in absence of visiting veterinary doctor and non-availability of life saving drugs in the livestock hospitals, it is alleged.
   The poor farmers have to buy necessary medicines from black markets at an exorbitant price.
   Indiscriminate slaughtering of cattle also add to the problem. It is learnt that some butchers slaughter cows, calves and bullocks everyday in hats and bazaars defying government ban on doing so on particular days.
   There is rearing problem also. The traditional grazing fields of the district have been turned into crop land.
   Prices of all kinds of fodder have registered a sharp rise, which has made it difficult for the farmers to rear bullocks.

Two pedestrians, who were injured in a fatal road mishap near Baniajuri bus stand on Monday, died at Sadar hospital in Manikganj on early Tuesday.
   The victims were identified as schoolteacher Ali Reza, 55, of Bamna village, and Mala Rani Shil, 30, of Baliaghora village in Khior upazila.
   With this, the death toll rose to eight in the tragic accident.
   The accident occurred on Monday night when a Dhaka-bound coach from Khulna rammed into tempos, rickshaws and a motorbike standing near Baniajuri bus stand and fell into a roadside ditch at 7:00pm, leaving six persons dead on the spot.
   The police said in separate road mishaps an unidentified man was killed and three others were injured at Falmati in Shibalaya upazila Tuesday afternoon.
   The police said the man, aged about 55, died on the spot when a speeding truck ran over him while he was crossing the road.
   They said three persons identified as Jahirul Islam, 26, Shimu Sarkaer, 24, and Rashed, 46, sustained serious injuries when a Jhitka-bound bus rammed into a rickshaw and a motorbike near Manikganj bus stand.

Fifteen posts of magistrate out of the total 29 with the district administration have been lying vacant in Joypurhat.
   Sources of the administration said the posts have fallen vacant due to transfer of the staff including general certificate officer (one post), trying magistrate (one post), land acquisition officer (one post), upazila magistrate (5 posts), assistant commissioner (Land: 4 posts), and assistant commissioner (3 posts).
   Because of the vacancies, the officers on duty have to take extra work load hampering the normal function of the office and speed of the administrative activities, the sources added.