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The delay in crushing sugarcane at the Rajshahi Sugar Mills has frustrated the growers in the region as huge stock of their harvested sugarcane has remained unsold.
   Earlier the mills authorities announced to start crushing sugarcane on October 21. Later the crushing schedule of sugarcane was deferred till October 25 citing inclement weather as the reason. But the mills authorities are yet to start crushing sugarcane for the reasons best known to them.
   The inordinate delay in starting sugarcane crushing has placed hundreds of growers in a very awkward position. They harvested sugarcane from the fields when the mills authorities notified that the crushing of sugarcane would start on October 21.The crushing schedule was later changed to October 25.But the mills is yet to start crushing sugarcane.
   Some of the affected sugarcane growers said huge quantity of their harvested sugarcane is now exposed to various hazards. The stockpiled sugarcane was drying up at the fields and losing weight. The growers would incur heavy losses if the mills authorities failed to start crushing immediately, they added.
   Local sources believed that the syndicate of the sugar importers had a role in deferring the crushing schedule of sugarcane of the state run sugar mills several times. These people thought that the price of their imported sugar would come down if the mills started crushing sugarcane. They might have prevailed upon the authorities of the state run sugar mills to delay crushing, according to the sources.
   The Rajshahi Sugar Mills authorities have set this year’s target of sugar production at 11.25 thousand tonnes by crushing 1.50 lakh tonnes of sugarcane.
   The sugarcane growers have urged the mills authorities to begin crushing sugarcane without losing any further time.

Cotton seed on about 6,500 hectares of land has come under pest attack in Jhenaidah, Magura and some areas of Faridpur to the concern of the growers.
   Pests called ball worm have invaded cotton seed fields under 18 units in these three districts. The spraying of soap water, locally made pesticide from neem leaves and pressing net traps have so far failed to combat the pest menace. The growers are now in a fix how to save their cotton from the pest attack.
   Cotton production in these three districts would be far below the target this because of the pest menace, local sources said.
   The growers have been losing interest in the production of cotton because of the hassle in getting its price from the cotton development board, fluctuation of its prices and pest attack.
   The cotton development board purchases bulk of the cotton from the growers. But it does not make spot payment to the cotton sellers.
   Earlier cotton seed was to be cultivated on over 8,000 hectares in these districts this season. But the farmers brought about 6,500 hectares of land under its cultivation, local sources said.
   Another report from Moulvibazar said pests known as pamri, chungi and mazra have totally damaged aman crop on 622 hectares of land under seven upazilas in Moulvibazar. The unofficial figure is much higher.
   The pest attack has shattered the hope of the farmers of good aman production in the district this season. They cultivated aman crop with the high hope that the good production aman paddy this season would enable them to recoup the huge losses they sustained by several bouts of flood last year.
   Aman paddy at different areas under sadar, Srimangle, Rajnagar, Kamalganj, Kalaura, Boro Lekha and Juri upazilas has come under the pest attack.
   Medicines so far supplied to the pest affected areas are too inadequate to meet the requirement, according to affected farmers.
   The field level staffs of the agriculture department have been holding group meetings with the farmers to create awareness about pest menace and suggest measures to save lands from the pest attack.

More than 30 leaders and activists of the main opposition Awami League and its front organisations were injured in a clash between its two rival groups in the Pabna district AL office and Radhanagar area in the town on Saturday.
   AL district president Samsur Rahman Sharif Dilu MP, district vice-president Abul Kalam Azad, vice-president Abdul Hamid Master, sadar upazila AL president and former municipal chairman Mosharaf Hossain, district committee’s members Amjad Hossain, a former lawmaker, Azizur Rahman Tinku, Habibur Rahman Habib, BCL leader Saiful Islam Babu were among those injured in the clash.
   They were all admitted to Pabna General Hospital. Later, Tinku were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   Witnesses said the clash erupted during the second executive body meeting of the newly formed Pabna district AL committee at the district AL office.
   The rival groups attacked each other with home made lethal weapons, hockey sticks and iron rods, sources said. The district AL office was also ransacked during the two-hour long clash.
   Sources said the clash was a reflection of a rivalry between the loyalist of Dilu, and general secretary Samsul Haque Tuku and the former lawmaker Waziuddin Khan and sadar upazila AL president Mosharaf Hossain.
   Their rival group declared Dilu and Tuku persona non grata in Pabna a few days ago.
   Pabna district AL in an urgent meeting Sunday night issued show cause notices to four senior leaders of the district committee and asked them to explain why disciplinary measures should not be taken against them for violating party discipline.
   The additional police have been deployed in the area to fend off further trouble.
   A case was filed on Monday against 17 people belonging to Waziuddin-Mosharaf group.

A wanted criminal, who was in handcuffed, escaped from the custody of police early Friday.
   Shahin, a notorious snatcher and drug peddler at Ajaipur of the Chapainawabganj municipal area, was an accused of a number of cases and a warrantee of a drug case.
   The police arrested him from his house at Ajaipur at about 2:00am. When they were trying to arrest another warrantee Shahin managed to flee away, said the police.
   According to locals, about two months ago local people caught him and after mass
   beating handed him over to the sadar police. But he fled away from a hospital while being treated without police protection.

A sixty-year-old man was killed in a road accident on the Dhaka-Khulna Highway at Hakimpur under Muksudpur upazila in Gopalganj on Sunday.
   According to the police, the accident took place when a bus hit Nuruddin Sheikh of village Hakimpur while he was trying to cross the road.
   A case was filed with the Muksudpur police in this connection.
   The body was sent to the Gopalganj Sadar Hospital morgue. The police arrested the bus driver, Hafizur Rahman, and seized the bus.