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Fish catch worth at least one crore taka perishes in Patuakhali every year for the lack of any fish processing plant in the area.
   The rotting of fishes after their catch from the Bay and the coastal rivers causes heavy financial losses to thousands of fishermen of the district and throws them out of their ancestral profession.
   Local source said more than 2,000 trawlers and several thousand engine and country boats are pressed into operation to catch fish from the Bay and the coastal rivers in the south.
   Nearly 17 to 18 thousand maunds of hilsha fish and 30 thousand maunds of other varieties of fish are caught by fishermen for three months from the Bangla month of Baishak and sold mainly at Mohipur and Alipur fish ports under Kalapara upazila.
   As there is no fish processing plant in the district fish and hilsha catches valued at about taka one crore rot every year.
   The rotting process compels thousands of fishermen to throw rotten fishes into the sea and the rivers and sell their catch at throw away prices.
   Some affected fishermen said they could have sold their catches at much higher prices to the wholesale buyers if they had the fish preservation facility at Mohipur and Alipur fish ports.
   They pointed out that the Bangladesh Fish Development Corporation has built fish unloading centre, wholesale fish market, ice factory, cold storage, marine workshop, dockyard, fish processing plants and many other facilities at different places of Chandpur, Cox’s Bazar, Khulna, Barisal, Rangmati, Chittagong, Khulna, Mongla, Barguna, Rajshahi and Dhaka.
   But the fishermen and fish professionals of Kuakata, Alipur, Mohipur and other coastal areas in Patuakhali are deprived of these facilities, they noted.
   They have appealed to the government to build at least one fish processing plant either at Mohipur or at Alipur fish port in the greater interest of fishing community.

Nor’wester struck Pabna and Sunamganj on Saturday, killing two persons and injuring 25.
   In Sylhet at least 25 persons were injured in Sunamganj town as the nor’westers hit the district, wiping out more than 500 houses and a huge number of trees.
   Of the injured, five were admitted to the Sunamganj Sadar Hospital. They were Shamsul Alam, 40, Fazlul Haq, 22, Hosen Ali, 35, Abdul Kader, 25, and Parvin Akhter, 12.
   The nor’wester also uprooted the electric and telephone poles and damaged nearly one kilometre of electric lines.
   As a result, the telecommunication of Sunamganj with many other parts of the country remained disrupted for some time.
   In Pabna two persons, Gopal Pramanik, 80, of Sripur and Abdullah, 7, of Mahendrapur under sadar upazila in Pabna, were killed and over 100 injured as the branches of trees and walls fell on them in a fierce nor’wester.
   Eight of the injured were admitted to the Pabna General Hospital.
   The district administration sources said, the storm hit at least 18 villages in Sadar, Atgharia, Ishurdi and Sujanagar upazilas wiping out over 700 houses and educational institutions, and destroying the standing crops.
   It also snapped electricity lines at many places.

Cross sections of people in Bhola staged demonstration in the town Saturday against the government move to award blanket immunity to the World Bank.
   The demonstrators also formed a human chain, held a rally and submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner, urging the government to refrain from passing the immunity bill in the parliament.
   At the moment a bill titled ‘International Financial Organisation (Amendment) Bill’, providing legal immunity to the World Bank, is awaiting passage in the Jatiya Sangsad.
   The Sushashaner Janya Pracharabhijan (Supra) organised the demonstration programme participated by scores of NGO activists, members of socio-cultural organisations, students and teachers of schools and colleges, and representatives of professional bodies.
   Presided over by Mobashwir Ullah, president of Supra for Bhola district unit, the rally was addressed, among others, by Akhter Hossain Liton, Supra general secretary, Jibanananda Joyanta of the Coast Trust, Maksudur Rahman of the Jatiya Bandhujan Parishad and professor Rafiqul Islam.
   The speakers in the rally said all organisations, however powerful they may be, must abide by the laws of the country. No decision to give undue advantage to any organisation for supplying loans can be accepted, they maintained.
   They warned that it would not be possible to take any action against the World Bank after the enactment of immunity law even if the people are affected by the bank activities. It is against the basic rights of the citizens, they noted.
   They said that the government has to think of the interest of 15 crore people of the country, not the interest of the international financial institution.
   If the World Bank is awarded immunity, other international organisations will also claim the same privilege, which will pose threat to the sovereignty of the nation, they said.
   In case the World Bank is awarded immunity, the lending agency will compel other poor nations to give it immunity using Bangladesh as an example of precedence, they observed.
   They requested the government to reassess the immunity already bestowed on the Asian Development Bank.
   The Supra sources said the copy of the memorandum disapproving immunity has also been sent to the speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad, the finance and planning minister and the law and parliamentary affairs minister.

Nearly two lakh people of five upazilas in Narsingdi have been drinking arsenic contaminated tube well water for a long time exposing themselves to arsenic related diseases.
   A survey conducted by the Bangladesh Arsenic Mitigation Project with the UNICEF assistance found arsenic beyond permissible limit in 20,812 tube wells out of 1,96,195 under five upazilas of the district.
   Local sources said about two lakh under Raipura, Manohardi, Polash, Sadar and Belabo upazilas have been drinking water from the red-marked tube wells because of the lack of alternative sources of potable water.
   The public health engineering department has painted the arsenic contaminated tube wells with red colour and warned the villagers against drinking water from those.
   Abdul Munnaf, a farmer of Nilakha union, told New Age that they were drinking water of the red-marked tube well as they have no means to arrange arsenic-free water.
   Though the number of people suffering from arsenic related diseases has been increasing steadily in the district over the years, no medical centre or counselling centre has been set up in this region to give advice to the people to protect themselves from the arsenic related diseases called ‘arsenicosis’.
   The public health engineering department has installed five deep tube wells at different places in the district to supply arsenic free water.
   More such tube wells would be installed in the district in phases, local PHED sources said.

The farmers of Jamalpur are happy with the bumper production of boro paddy this season. They have already started harvesting the golden crop with cheerful mood.
   According to the Department of Agriculture Extension, the cultivated land exceeded the DAE target set for the district, despite a few problems including that of irrigation.
   The DAE sources said, the use of high yielding variety seeds and fertilisers in presence of favourable weather contributed to the bumper production of boro.
   The farmers of Jamalpur Sadar, Melandah, Madarganj, Islampur, Dewanganj, Sarishabari and Bakshiganj upazilas are busy in harvesting boro paddy now.
   The harvest of the early varieties of boro paddy, have started from the first week of May and 50 per cent of this crop have already been harvested.
   The DAE brought 1,02,300 hectares of land under boro cultivation in the seven upazilas with a production target of 3,38,519 tonnes of paddy.
   The target was exceeded both in cultivating lands and the volume of production.
   The local paddy market sources said, the prices of various varieties of paddy have already come down in the markets due to the arrival of the new harvested paddy.
   The district farmers said, the rain in the Bangla month of Phalgun to middle of Chaitra helped the boro plants grow up properly.
   The harvest of boro crops will be in full swing from the first week of June.
   Mohammad Afaz uddin a farmer of village Parpara under Jamalpur sadar upazila said, ‘We have lost our two crops last year but this year we have not faced seed scarcity though the rate of fertiliser was higher. Still all the farmers are happy with our good boro harvest.’

Three unnatural deaths were reported in Rajbari district on Friday and Saturday.
   Police sources said a team of the Sadar police recovered the body of an unidentified woman, aged about 20, from a crop field at Lakkhipur village in Rajbari Sadar Upazila on Friday noon.
   The body was sent to Rajbari Sadar Hospital for autopsy.
   In another incident, Nurjahan, wife of one Abdus Salam Khan of village Bankur in Baliakandi upazila, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling in her house on Saturday noon.
   Another Nurjahan, 70, wife of Munsur Mollah of village Udaypur in Rajbari Sadar upazila committed suicide by taking poison following a family feud. She died on her way to hospital.
   Separate unnatural death cases were filed with the respective police stations.

A three-year-old child met the tragic end of his life under the wheels of a vehicle driven by his father in Sathia upazila in Pabna Saturday.
   Tuhin was run over by the pick-up van when his father Monjil Hossain, a resident of Hengua in poura area, was driving his vehicle in back gear.
   A pall of gloom descended in the village following the accident.

Ten people were wounded when activists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League locked into a clash at Madanpur village of Sripur upazila in Magura, some 104km west of Dhaka, on Saturday.
   The police said the rivals, one led by Babul Mia of the BNP and the other led by Zakir Hossain of the AL, fought with lethal weapons for establishing supremacy in the area.
   Three houses of AL activists were damaged and plundered during the clash.
   The wounded were admitted to Magura Sadar Hospital where the condition of Abul Kalam, 34, Abdul Alim, 28, and Babar Ali, 35, was stated to be serious.
   The police were sent to the village to quell the situation. A case was filed but none was arrested.

The construction plan of 240 institutions has been taken by the education department of Chandpur at an estimated cost of Tk 47 crore 85 lakh 17 thousand.
   It is hoped that the project work will be completed during the current financial year.
   Under the plan 140 schools, 65 madrassahs, 20 colleges, 2 education offices, 5 vocational institutes and 5 polytechnic institutes will be constructed, directorate of engineering in Chandpur said.
   According to sources, the construction work of 150 schools is about to finish and the rest of the work is likely to be finished on or before June this year.