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Sixteen northern districts under Rajshahi division, with the beginning of dry season, are facing acute scarcity of pure drinking water.
   The level of ground water has fallen down in the draught-prone area in recent times, sources in the Department of Public Health Engineering said, disclosing the fact that the water level has fallen below 40 to 50 feet and it is likely to fall further.
   Drawing of water with hand-driven tube-wells has now become difficult and some tube-wells are not even capable of lifting water due to the fall in the ground water level.
   Dry spell will starts in April and will continue in the area till July. The fall in the water level will pick in June and July, anxious people of the areas said. People here largely depend on hand-driven tube-wells for drinking water and they are suffering much nowadays.
   Sources in the public health department of Rajshahi circle office told New Age that at present about 4 lakh hand-driven tube-wells are in operation in the 16 northern districts of the division.
   Of those, about 70,000 hand-driven tube-wells have run dry. Of them, 4,300 of which are in Pabna, the sources said and added that the lifting of water with hand-driven tube-wells would be more difficult as the dry spell appears.
   Our correspondent from Natore adds: The people of six upazila of Natore are facing acute crisis of pure water as the under ground water level has fallen down.
   The Department of Public Health and Engineering sources said water level has fallen down below 60 feet and is likely to fall further.
   At present about 42,551 hand-driven tube-wells are in operation in sadar, Shingra, Gurudaspur, Biroigram, Baghtipara and Lalpur. Of them, some 6 to 7 thousand have gone out of order.
   Lifting of water with hand-driven tube-wells has now become difficult and some tube-wells are not able to lift water.
   The people of rural areas are largely dependent on the
   hand-driven tube-wells for drinking water and their suffering are much higher than town people.
   The situation might deteriorate as the fall of underground water level during June and July will pick.

A group of activists of Gazipur district unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra League staged agitation and ransacked the party office Saturday evening over formation of new district committee.
   The activists declared some leaders, who formed the committee, persona non grata in the district. They alleged that the leaders formed the committee taking bribe.
   The district committee was formed on Friday with Anisur Rahman Arif as president and Khorshed as general secretary.
   A procession was brought out immediately in the district town in protest against the formation of the new committee.
   When the procession reached the party office, some activists ransacked the office furniture.
   Meanwhile, leaders of the new committee distributed sweets and brought out procession at Chandana, Kapasia and Kaliganj.

Cow-dung has become the source of livelihood to many poor and distressed families in Comilla in recent times.
   Members of about 400 families in different parts of the district have engaged themselves in making and selling cow-dung sticks.
   About 45 per cent people in the district use the cow-dung sticks, locally called ‘goyee’ or ‘gatay’, as fuel, 27 per cent use firewood, 15 per cent use jute sticks, straw and dry leaves and only 13 per cent use natural gas for cooking, sources concerned said.
   The demand for cow-dung stick is maintaining an increasing trend day by day following the shortage of natural gas and scarcity of firewood in the locality.
   A few years back, trees were in abundance and hence firewood was in wider use as fuel in the district.
   But due to the indiscriminate felling of trees, firewood is not that much in use as fuel, which, in turn, has prompted many families to opt for cow-dung sticks as fuel as it is cheaper and available.
   Even the people of the low-lying areas of the district were used to depending solely on straw as fuel for cooking.
   But due to flash floods and water-logging, many crops were damaged in the previous years triggering severe scarcity of food, straw and employment.
   Rehala Khatun of village Gobindapur in Sadar upazila, with her two children, had been passing through tough times as she had lost everything due to the flash flood last year.
   She had nothing to feed her children. Finding no other alternative, she began collecting cow-dung from pastureland and made cow-dung sticks for cooking.
   She sold those sticks at Tk 4-5 per unit in the market and earned money to maintain her family.
   She, thus, started earning Tk 700-900 per month by selling the cow-dung sticks. Now she has taken it as her occupation for a living.
   Rehala is not alone in her new revolutionary venture as members of at least 530 poor families in different parts of the district are selling cow-dung sticks nowadays to have a better living considering its economic prospects.

A BNP leader in Natore said that he was implicated in a false extortion case and that some people were hatching conspiracy against him.
   At a Natore Press Club conference on Saturday, Israfil Ali alias Kajal, former general secretary of Singra Gol-e-Afroze Government College and the incumbent office secretary of the Singra thana BNP, accused Sarman Ali, son of late Sabed Ali, of plotting against him.
   Hailing from Binahar area under Singra upazila of Natore, the victim said Sarman was known as a thief in the locality and was punished several times by the village arbitrators for his offence.
   A few days ago, he stole fish from the pond of Ekabbar Ali of village Sukan Gari. Local people caught him and a village arbitration, initiated by Kajal, fined him Tk 28,000 for the offence.
   At this, Sarman got angry with Kajal and threatened to kill him.
   ‘I have registered a general diary with the Singra thana on 13 December, 2004 in this regard,’ he said.
   ‘After some days, Sarman filed a case with the local magistrate court on March 2 accusing me of collecting toll and giving bribe to the officer-in-charge of the Singra police in a bid to kill him in police crossfire,’ an anxious Kajal said.
   The complaint is completely baseless, he claimed, asking the police to take action against the culprit.

The Natore police arrested an Indian citizen from Station Bazar area in Natore town on Thursday evening.
   The arrested was identified as Gopal Chandra, son of Ramlal, of village Shuash Palli under Bangaon in Chabbish Pargona district.
   The police said, they arrested him while he was suspiciously moving in the area. He held no pass port or visa. The police filed a case against Gopal under the border crossing act.