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With the onset of monsoon, rivers in different districts are swelling and overflowing banks to the detriment of human habitation.
   In Nilphamari heavy rainfalls in the last few days and rush of hilly water from upstream have made the Teesta River turbulent.
   The situation is deteriorating further as India allegedly opened all the gates of its Gajal Doba Barrage. Six villages of Dimla upazila are under water now.
   According to the control room of the Water Development Board in Rangpur, the Teesta was flowing at a level of 51.30 metres at the Teesta Barrage point on Thursday.
   This level is only 1.12 metres below the danger mark. The danger mark of Teesta at the Teesta Barrage point is 52.25 metres.
   This rise of water in the Teesta have made one thousand families marooned in Purba Kharibari, Char Khari Bari, Kisamot Chhatnai, Doholpara, Baishpukur and Vendabari villages of Dimla upazila.
   More than five thousand people of these families are now facing immense suffering. People of these villages have started to go to safer places.
   The executive engineer of WDB Dalia Division, Atiquar Rahman, acknowledged the rise of water level in the Teesta but he said that it may fall with the stop of rain.
   Meanwhile, other rivers of the district like Charal Kanta, Deunai, Buri Teesta, Buri Khora, Jamuneswari and others are also swelling. Already a vast vegetable plantation and seedbed has been damaged.
   Sources in the local WDB office said they were closely watching the situation at Teesta Barrage point.
   They warned that if rain continues for more several days the devastating flood would engulf the whole area causing heavy damage to life and property.
   Our Sirajganj correspondent reports: The sudden flood caused by heavy rainfall and onrush of water from the upstream has affected nearly 20,000 people under sadar and Kazipur upazilas in Sirajganj.
   The water level of the river Jamuna at Sirajganj point has marked a sharp rise during the last 48 hours inundating many areas at 50 villages under the two upazilas.
   The affected villages are at Shuvogacha, Gandhairl, Ratankandi and Sonagacha unions under sadar upazila and Kazipur upazilas.
   The onrush of the flood water has disrupted road communication at Shimantobazar high point between Sirajganj and Kazipur.
   Ropa-aman seedlings on about 200 hectares of lands were damaged by the recent flood water.
   A total of 90 mm rainfall was recorded in Sirajganj in 24 hours till Friday afternoon.

Fish production has been declining over the years in Comilla due to lack of any initiative to reform the derelict tanks and re-excavate the silted up canals and check the process of drying up of water bodies.
   Local sources said 5,500 ponds out of total 7,320 at 15 upazilas in Comilla have remained derelict for more than a decade.
   Fish worth Tk 1.5 crore could be produced annually if these derelict ponds were reformed for fish cultivation, according to the sources.
   The sources informed that 65 per cent of these ponds are under joint ownership due to laws of inheritance.
   Fish can be cultivated in these ponds under co-operative farming if the fishery department takes initiative in this respect, some villagers suggested.
   Besides, silting up of many canals and drying up of a large number of water bodies have affected irrigation of lands, navigation and pisciculture.
   Some 1,450 canals under different upazilas in the district have silted up since long hampering navigation and irrigation of cultivable lands and affecting cultivation of fish.
   In the rainy season, water overflows the banks of the canals and inundates crop fields even after a slight rainfall.
   There has been no initiative from any quarter of the government to reform the derelict ponds and re-excavate the silted up canals.
   The drying up of a large number of water bodies and turning marshy lands into cultivable fields have dealt a severe blow to the cultivation of fishes.
   These factors were contributing to the decline of fish wealth in the district gradually, informed sources said.

Dilapidated roads, poor sanitary system, load-shedding, inadequate supply of potable water and mosquito menace are some of the problems gripping the residents of Comilla municipality.
   Most of the roads in the pourasabha are in bad shape. Big holes have developed here and there on the roads making these unfit for vehicular movement. Besides, most the roads are so narrow that two vehicles cannot cross each other.
   The worst damaged roads in the district town are Jhowtala Road, Station Road, Degree Collage Road, Darmapur Road, Nazrul Avenue, Race Course Road, Badurtala Road and Rajganj Road.
   These roads have been left uncared for a long time. Most of the roads are not cleansed by the sweepers. As a result, heaps of garbage are a common sight along the roads.
   In the absence of drains, many areas of the town go under water after even light rainfall.
   The drains are not cleared regularly. Empty plastic water bottles, poly bags and filths have clogged many of them.
   The roadside ditches filled with water-hyacinths have become the ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
   Its menace has assumed an alarming proportion making the life of the town dwellers miserable.
   The poura authorities appear to be least bothered about this menace.
   The pourasabha has only five small hand operated spray machines. Three of them are now out of order.
   The markets in the town are in a deplorable condition. No buyer can come out from these markets with clean clothes.
   Rajganj bazar, the main market, presents a dismal look. Lack of proper maintenance is the main reason behind its poor condition.
   The meat shops are in most unhygienic state.
   Bad smell always emanates from the poultry markets as those are not cleaned daily.
   Poor supply of drinking water has been adding to the sufferings of its 4.25 lakh town dwellers. Everyday the residents require one and a half lakh gallons of water, but they get a supply of only 56,000 gallons.
   Moreover, the people cannot drink water of the shallow tube wells because of arsenic contamination.
   Some of the residents said there seemed to be no responsibility of town fathers except realizing taxes from the residents.

Most of the cyclone shelter centres situated in Hatiya have become unusable and dilapidated leaving the people of the area more vulnerable to the natural disasters.
   Numerous populated chars including Dhalchar, Bayar Char and Nijhum Dwip lie around Hatiya Island.
   Natural disasters have become an indispensable part of the lives of the inhabitants of the area as they have to live in natural disaster prone areas to earn their living.
   Many casualties occur in the area due to lack of proper shelters when natural disasters hit the area.
   At least 50 thousand people lost their lives in natural disasters within the last 33 years after Bangladesh achieved its independence.
   Sources said that 105 cyclone centres were set up in Hatiya after a severe cyclone battered the area in 1991.
   Among those centres, Saudi Arabia constructed 43 and Japan 6, while the Red Crescent Society set up 22, the World Bank 18, Caritas 9, the Proshika 4, HEED Bangladesh 2 and Oxfam 1.
   Now the cyclone shelters have become ramshackle due to dearth of proper maintenance and care. Most of the toilets and tube wells of the centres have become unusable now.
   Besides some local influential persons have been using some centres as warehouse while some are being used as police barracks.
   The cyclone shelter centres built under long term planning in the area are becoming unusable due to lack of supervision by the local administration.

Male residents of Alinagor Union under sadar upazila in Bhola have left their residences in fear of harassment and reprisal by the police after two police officials were beaten by villagers Wednesday evening.
   The police raided villages in the area and arrested three men — Ilias, a carpenter of a furniture shop, Mofij, a rickshaw puller, and Abdul Hye, a postal peon — early Thursday.
   Local people said over 100 men and women beat up sub-inspector Narayan Chandra Das and assistant sub-inspector Zakir Hossain of the Bhola Sadar police station when they, in plain clothes, arrested one Rashid, a tea seller, near Palanbari at Biswa Road under Alinagar at about 8:00pm on Wednesday.
   A mobile phone set of one of the policemen was also looted by the mob attack that forced the law-enforcers to flee the scene leaving behind their motorbikes.
   The injured police officials were admitted to sadar hospital.
   Sohrab Ali, officer-in-charge of Bhola police station, said the two police officials went to the area in plain clothes to arrest three phensidyl sellers, two of whom managed to flee.
   When the law-enforcers were taking Rashid to the police station, the villagers swooped on the policemen and beat them up.
   Shanewaz, a sub-inspector, lodged a case with the Bhola Sadar police, accusing 23 peoples, including the three arrested.

Cultivation of the Amropali variety of mango on fallow lands has vastly improved the economic status of a mango cultivator at a village under Aditmari upazila.
   Ashraf Ali alias Lal of village Kamlabari began cultivation of the grafted Amropali variety of mango on his fallow land on an experimental basis a couple of years ago.
   He started with the grafting of 50 Amropali trees in the year 2000. The local department of the agriculture extension provided him the grafted Amropali plants free of cost.
   As his experiment with the plantation of grafted Amropali tree proved a huge success, Ashraf expanded the area of cultivation of this particular variety of mango from half a bigha to four bighas now.
   He is expecting to earn a profit of one lakh taka by selling Amropali mangoes from his orchard this year.
   He had 50 grafted mango trees in his orchard at the initial stage. Now the orchard has 300 trees.
   He said fallow lands in the district could be profitably utilised by cultivating Amropali variety of mango.
   Talking to New Age, Asharaf said he intended to raise the number of Amropali trees to 2,000 in course of time for earning a profit of Tk 10 lakh annually.
   The interested mango cultivators of the region are now coming to Ashraf in a large number to seek his guidance for the cultivation of this particular variety of mango.

A Bhola court on Thursday sentenced a man to death for killing his wife and a minor brother-in-law by poisoned food two years ago.
   SM Solaiman, additional district and session judge handed down the verdict convicting Md Ibrahim, 29, of Rasulpur union under Char Fashion upazila of Bhola.
   Ibrahim had given sweetmeat mixed with poison to Ayesha Begum, 22, his wife, and Shahabuddin, his 11-month old brother-in-law at his in-law’s house on the night of September 27, 2003.
   Both the victims died at the Char Fashion hospital within 24 hours and the fact that they were poisoned to death was revealed by the post mortem examination.
   Abul Hossain, maternal uncle of the victims, lodged a case with the Char Fashion police station on September 29, 2003.
   Later the police succeeded to arrest Ibrahim and after investigation submitted a charge sheet against him.
   Md Shahjahan, additional public prosecutor, pleaded for the state and Swapan Krishna defended the convict.

Abdus Salam, son of Patrapara under Keshabpur upazila in Jessore was strangulated on early Friday. His body was recovered from a tree near his residence on Friday morning.
   His relatives claimed that Abdus Salam was kidnapped by some unknown miscreants on Thursday night. A case was filed with Keshabpur police station in this regard.

Four persons died and two others were seriously injured in a road accident early Friday at Parla on Magura-Narail highway.
   The deceased were Noor Islam Bishwas, Mohammad Bishwas, Md Chand Mia of village Chandpur under Magura sadar upazila and Kabul Hossain of village Nagra under Mohammadpur upazila. The injured were admitted to Magura Sadar Hospital.
   The police and witnesses said the accident occurred when a Narail-bound passenger bus collided with a tempo of a wedding party from the opposite direction. Four passengers of the tempo died on the spot.
   The bus managed to escape.