Female workers deprived of due wages
OUR CORRESPONDENT, Panchagarh
About 400 female workers of five unions under sadar upazila in Panchagarh are being deprived of their due wages by their employers.
These women of Kamat Kajoldighi, Dhakkamara, sadar, Haribhasa and Hafizabad unions put in 12 hours of physical labour a day in the construction sector. But they are paid only Tk 55 for their 12-hour work.
Driven by abject poverty, these ultra poor women gather at the Banani market in the district town much before dawn everyday to be hired for working as helpers of masion.
Some of them were either divorced or abandoned by their husbands. Some are widows. Most of them have more than two children.
Pangs of hunger and hardships of life forced them to come out of the four walls of their homes and seek employment.
Talking to New Age, Momena, a female labour, said she had to take up the work of helper of a mason to support herself and her three children.
If I don’t work, my three minor children and myself will have to starve, she added.
Momena became the bread winner of her family after the death of her husband.
Most of the female workers had the almost the same story of deprivation.
The female workers said their fellow male workers were paid Tk 80 a day for putting in the same amount of work they render.
‘This indiscrimination against women is inhuman and violation of human rights,’ said a female worker.
Some social leaders said the NGOs should come forward to help these destitute women by offering them micro-credit for income generating activities.
A report from our Tangail correspondent said 13,000 distressed women in Tangail are working in crop fields, mills and factories and houses for their survival.
These women are now working outside their homes after their lands were washed away by the erosion of rivers or they lost their crops in natural calamities.
The daily wages of the female workers are too little to meet minimum demand of their families.
Death of husbands and loss of lands or crops by natural calamities drove most of the rural women of extremely poor families to seek job outside their homes.
Bumper production of maize
likely in Tangail
Loans distributed for setting up maize
processing plants in Lalmonirhat
OUR CORRESPONDENTS, Tangail, Rangpur
Bumper production of maize is expected in Tangail this season.
The maize farmers cultivated a total of 4,895 hectares of land which is 2,095 hectares higher than the target set by the department of agriculture extension. The DAE fixed the target at 2,800 hectares.
The DAE said maize was cultivated on 570 hectares of land at Gopalpur, 555 hectares at Ghatail, 360 hectares at Tangail sadar, 320 hectares at Nagorpur, 530 hectares at Madhupur, 470 hectares at Shakhipur, 510 hectares at Basail, 600 hectares at Delduar, 340 hectares at Kalihati, 290 hectares at Bhuapur, and 350 hectares in Mirzapur upazila.
The interest of the farmers along with the favourable weather, proper manuring and proper irrigation has made the prospect of bumper production bright.
Maize is a profitable crop and as the farmers have been getting more profit than other crops they are gradually becoming interested in maize cultivation, added the source.
This year the maize growers cultivated different hybrid varieties of maize such as pacific-11, pacific-60, 987, 988, 3344, pioneer etc.
The maize harvest has already started in some places of the district. The average production is 5 to 6 tonnes per hectare (about 60 to 66 maunds per acre), which is satisfactory.
The agricultural experts said that the demand of maize is about 8 lakh tonnes per year in the country. At present the production is about 3 lakh tonnes per year.
The demand of maize has been increasing day by day due to its increasing use as poultry feed, fish feed and cattle feed.
The main buyers of maize are the poultry farms. The grain is consumed by people also.
Our Rangpur correspondent adds: The Rajshahi Krishi Unnyan Bank and the National Credit and Commerce Bank Ltd launched special credit programmes for the farmers and entrepreneurs to help cultivate maize and set up maize processing plants in Lalmonirhat.
These two banks distributed Tk 7 crore to 4,073 farmers and entrepreneurs in Lalmonirhat for maize cultivation and processing.
The farmers in river basin are showing more eagerness for maize cultivation and they are earning good profit by cultivating the crop in five upazilas under the district.
Already, a number of small industrial units for maize processing have been set up with the finance of the two banks.
The banks said they are ready to finance to the bonafide entrepreneurs if necessary to set up maize-based industry in the district.
Senior assistant vice president of NCC Bank, Rangpur, Md Ali Ashraf Shaikh told New Age that in 2003 the bank as part of its social commitment took steps to extend credit facilities to the agricultural farmers at Pathgram upazila.
‘Encouraged by the success initially, the bank expanded the credit programme to the remote enclaves – Dahagram and Angarpota under Pathgram upazila and got tremendous result last year,’ Ashraf added.
Regarding loan recovery the banker said, it was more than expectation and 99 per cent of the loan disbursed for maize cultivation was recovered during last two years. It was possible because the credit programme is being run under a tripartite agreement between the bank, farmer and the maize processing enterprise, the banker explained.
Area general manager of RAKUB in Lalmonirhat, Abdul Hakim, said that the maize farmers and enterprises of five upazilas in the district were brought under a credit scheme to enhance maize cultivation.
He said, ‘At the very outset of the loan pogramme, farmers were not interested for maize cultivation. Gradually, their mindset changed and now they are very keen to it.’
Narrating the prospect of the maize loan Hakim said, ‘We financed a number of businessmen for setting up maize driers in Lalmonirhat and we are looking for entrepreneurs who intend to set up maize-based industry in the district.’
Noor Mohammed, an official of the department of agriculture extension said that there has been a silent revolution of maize cultivation throughout the district. About 50,000 hectares of land, mostly in shoal areas beside the Dharla and the Teesta, were brought under maize cultivation this year.
15 shops burnt in Gazipur
OUR CORRESPONDENT, Gazipur
A devastating fire gutted at least 15 shops at Minara Market and Sarker Market beside the Sheemultoli-Dhaka Road at sadar upazila in Gazipur Monday.
The estimated loss was Tk 16 to 17 lakh. Watching the smokes coming out,
local people informed the fire fighters of the Joydebpur Fire Service.
The fire men rushed to the spot, but by that time 15 shops were fully destroyed.
Local people said the fire broke out from an electric short circuit of Noman Stationary, a shop at Minara Market.
Kurigram boiler explosion claims 2
OUR CORRESPONDENT, Kurigram
Two persons were killed and five injured seriously in a boiler explosion at a rice mill on the eastern side of the Kurigram Dharala Bridge at 8:00pm on Saturday.
The deceased are Lal Miah, 30, and an unidentified five-year-old child.
The injured are Hamid, 22, Morjena, 30, Amin, 30, Shahidul, 28 and Samad, 25.
Local people recovered the injured and sent them to Kurigram and Rangpur Medical College Hospital in a critical condition.
Three extortionists caught in Barguna
BANGLADESH SANGBAD SANGSTHA, Barguna
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) rounded up three armed terrorists from Betagi upazila of Barguna district on Thursday night.
The police said, acting on a tip-off, a team of the RAB raided the house of one Ejahar Muhuri, 55, of the village Chhopkhali and rounded up Ejahar Muhuri, his son Manirul islam Lavlu, 27, and another M Hanif, 40, from the house.
The police said the RAB arrested them for their alleged involvement in terrorism and extortion. The RAB members also recovered two chapatis, one dagger, and an air gun from their possessions, the sources added.
The RAB handed them over to the police and separate cases were filed with Betagi Thana in these connections.
60,000 cattle heads vaccinated
in Chuadanga
BANGLADESH SANGBAD SANGSTHA, Chuadanga
About 60,000 cattle heads were vaccinated as preventive measure against the outbreak
of some specific diseases in
all the four upazilas of Chuadanga during the current fiscal by the district livestock department.
Official sources said, of the total cattle heads, 14,000 have been vaccinated in Chuadanga Sadar Upazila, 23,000 in Alamdanga, 14,000 in Damurhuda and 9,000 in Jibannagar upazila.
The cattle heads include cows, buffaloes, rams and horses etc.
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