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The rapacious Meghna river has devoured over 50 dwelling houses and washed away arable lands and betel nut and betel leaf plantations at Charbhairabi union under Haimchar upazila just in seven days since March 22.
   The internal ring dam of the Chandpur irrigation project also broke down under the heavy pressure of the swirling water.
   Besides, hundreds of houses and fertile lands covering hundreds of acres are threatened with erosion at different places under the same upazila.
   The Charbhairabi union council office is now being dismantled because of the threat of erosion.The local dakhil madrasha is being shifted to other place for the same reason.
   Panic has the gripped the people of over 25 villages along the 10-kilometre bank of the river Meghna after it became choppy. The villages facing the wrath of the mighty Meghna include Munshikandi, Kholijakandi, Charsholadi, Charbhanga, Telirmur, Balikhola, Haimchar,Madhyabazar, Char Krishnapur, Uttar Algi, Nilkomol , Batakhali and Charmanipur.
   Many of the people of these villages are now busy shifting their houses, cattle head, poultry birds and other immovable property to safer places of the region.
   Local people said the Meghna became turbulent after the gusty wind started blowing since the last week of the last month. The villagers are apprehending that the river might take a still serious turn with the setting in of the rainy season.
   They pointed out that major parts of the four out of total six unions under Haimchar upazila have been lost in the river due to continued erosion by the river Meghna since fifties. The worst affected unions are Gazipur, Nilkomol, Haimchar and Charbhairabi.
   Losing their homes and lands for cultivation hundreds of erosion hit people of these four unions have taken shelter on the embankment of the Chandpur irrigation project. They have been living on the embankment braving the whims and caprices of nature.
   Yet many others have migrated to neighbouring districts for their survival.
   The two other unions which have so far escaped the fury of the Meghna are Algi Durgapur Uttar and Algi Durgapur Dakhin.
   ‘ It is an irony that no government that came to power since the independence of the country had taken any concrete step to save the people of Haimchar upazila from the erosion by the river Meghna’, said an inhabitant of Haimchar union.
   Addressing a meeting at Chandpur recently the local law maker has called upon the government to save Haimchar upazila from the threat of erosion.

Timely intervention by the headmistress and some teachers of the Nilphamari Government Girl’s High School has saved a minor girl from forced marriage.
   Ayub Ali, a saw mill worker of Debirdanga under Nilphamari pourasabha, arranged the marriage of his school going daughter Parvin Akhtar,14, with a carpenter of the same area.
    Parvin, a meritorious student of class nine of the Nilphamari Government Girl’s High School, opposed the marriage tooth and nail at such an early age.
   She tried in vain to convince her parents against the marriage which was to be solemnised on April 28.
   When her classmates came to about it they quickly brought it to the notice of their headmistress.
   Headmistress Dilruba Rahman immediately sent two teachers to the parents of Parvin to dissuade them from marrying off their daughter at such an early age.
   At first, Parvin’s parents were adamant to stick to their decision to give their daughter in marriage to the carpenter citing their poor economic condition as the main reason. When the efforts of some local people and the two teachers failed to convince the Parvin’s parents against the marriage, headmistress Dilruba Rahman personally came into the picture.
   Ayub Ali finally relented and agreed not to marry off his daughter right now when the headmistress and the assistant teacher of the school, Mahmuzzaman held out the assurance of bearing all educational and other expenses of Parvin.

All the major rivers, rivulets and canals flowing through the seven upazilas in Jamalpur were full of water for most of the period in a year in the yester years, but they are now dead at many places.
   The rivers Jamuna, Brahmaputra and Jheni and their tributaries provided employment to a large number of people including fishermen and boatmen. Abundance of water was utilised for the irrigation of vast tracts of land.
   With the passage of time, most of the rivers, water bodies and canals have either dried up or silted at many points.
   The people are cultivating various crops on the newly accreted lands from the rivers.
   The drastic fall in the water level of these rivers, canals and water bodies coupled with siltation has hampered the navigation of water transports and led to the decline of fish and aquatic resources.
   Consequently, hundreds of fishermen and boatmen have lost their means of livelihood.
   Dearth of water has also deprived many farmers of access to water free of cost.

The people of different villages living beside the river Karotoa under sadar upazila have demanded the intervention of the government to check dumping of effluents from the mills and factories into the river without treatment.
   Talking to New Age, some people of the sadar upazila complained that the untreated waste from the distilleries and sugar mills have been polluting the water of the Karotoa and harming the ecology of the region.
   A large number of people living at Telipara, Phultola, Ahmednagar, Nutanbasti, Tulardanga, Rangapani, Nolkora, Katamoni, Barodaha and Manikdoba have been suffering from skin diseases because of the pollution of water of this river, according to them.
   They further said the Karotoa has of late become bereft of fish resources for the same reason.
   The red-coloured harmful chemical wastes and effluents with offensive smell have been degrading the environment and making the life of the people miserable, they added.
   According to rule, 44,000 litres of water should be mixed with 400 litres of wastes of the distilleries before throwing them out.
   But the management of the distilleries cared little to abide by the rule, local sources said.
   The sources alleged that the authorities of the sugar mills and distilleries have been flouting the environment and river protection laws with the connivance of some corrupt employees of the environment department.
   When contacted, the authorities of some sugar mills and distilleries dismissed the allegation of pollution of water and environment by waste effluents as absurd and unfounded.
   An official of a local distillery refuted the claim that its waste polluted the river water and made it devoid of fish.
   On the other hand, the waste of the distilleries served as nutritious food for the fishes in the river, he insisted.

Wheat procurement faces setback in Chapainawabganj as the growers are not selling their produce to the government sales centres.
   Some farmers said they were getting price of wheat in the market higher than that fixed by the government.
   The government fixed the price of wheat at Tk 12 per kilogram while the market rate at Tk 13.
   The food department has set the target of procuring 1,614 tonnes of wheat from the five upazilas of the district.
   The upazila-wise break up of target is as follows: 668 tonnes in Sadar, 756 tonnes in Shibganj, 68 tonnes in Gomastapur, 53 tonnes in Bholahat and 63 tonnes in Nachole.
   The food department could not purchase even a single grain of wheat till April 23, though the procurement drive commenced on March 24.
   The setback in the procurement has been attributed to less production of wheat in the district due to the pest attack and rains.