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The target of wheat production in 10 south-western districts and one eastern district is unlikely to be achieved this year due to acute crisis of seed.
   The farmers of these districts have been frantically trying to procure seed after preparing lands for wheat cultivation.
   According to a report from our Jhenaidah correspondent, at least 10,312 tonnes of wheat seed are needed to cultivate wheat on 82,576 hectares in the south-western districts. But the Bangladesh Agriculture Development
   Corporation has earmarked only 1,000 tonnes of wheat seed for the 10 south-western districts under the Khulna Division. The seed will be sold through dealers at the rate of Tk 22 per kilogram.
   Many of the wheat growers might be tempted to use smuggled wheat seed if its crisis persists. But there is a danger in sowing the smuggled seeds as these are of much inferior quality and do not germinate properly, local sources said.
   The Department of Agriculture Extension sources said the target of land for wheat cultivation has been set at 10,690 hectares in Jessore, 13,110 hectares in Jhenaidah, 3,388 hectares in Narail, 12,195 hectares in Magura, 20,620 hectares in Kushtia, 10,090 hectares in Chuadanga and Meherpur each, 135 hectares in Khulna, 68 hectares in Bagerhat and 2,190 hectares in Satkhira. The target of wheat production has fixed at about 1,60,000 tonnes in Khulna division this season.
   A report by our Narsingdi correspondent said only five tonnes wheat seed were made available to the growers of the district as against the requirement of 20 tonnes.
   Nearly 3,800 hectares of land have been targeted for wheat cultivation at six upazilas of the district this year. Three fourths of the total land will not be covered with the wheat seed so far allotted to the district.
   Many farmers have approached the BADC officials for wheat seed only to be told that their stock has already run out.
   The crisis of wheat seed has severely affected the sharecroppers of the district. They are not getting it either from the BADC or from the big land owners.

The government has undertaken a Tk 50-crore project to create income-generating facilities for the ultra-poor people of 12 districts in the country, including the five districts of greater Rangpur.
   The project will create scopes for generating income through implementation of a number of multi-dimensional and comprehensive action prepared by the concerned ministries and departments.
   The project will be launched soon in Rangpur, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Jamalpur, Sherpur, Faridpur, Rajbari, Shariatpur, Madaripur and Gopalganj.
   This was disclosed during a daylong exchange of views meeting organised by Rangpur district administration in the conference hall of Rangpur Collectorate building on Thursday with the deputy commissioner, Nazrul Islam Khan, in the chair.
   Secretary of the ministry of food and disaster management Muhammad Fazlur Rahman was present as chief guest while director general of the Relief and Rehabilitation Department Mahfuzur Rahman attended the meeting as special guest.
   Additional deputy commissioners (general) and district relief and rehabilitation officers of the five districts, senior officials of different departments, NGO activists and journalists took part in the meeting.
   The meeting was informed that each of the beneficiaries under the project would be provided with Tk 5,000 to Tk 10,000 easy-term loans and training for maximum utilisation of the loan money.
   Necessary arrangements were made for disbursing, recovering of the loans and monitoring of the performances of the project with a view to make the ultra-poor self-reliant through multi-dimensional works in the districts.
   The speakers also discussed the issue of seasonal job crisis, known as ‘monga,’ that hits the greater Rangpur region every year during the Bangla months of Ashwin and Kartik when the poor of the region do not get any job to earn their living.

People travelling on the Rangamati-Mohalchari-Khagrachari Road are often robbed of their money and other valuables by well organised gangs of extortionists.
   Local sources said the armed extortionists fall on the passengers at different points of the RMK road at regular intervals and extract money from them at gunpoint. Sometimes, they kidnap passengers for ransom.
   On October 29, toll collectors kidnapped two forest officials of the Chittagong Hill Tracts North Forest Division from this road and set them free only after realising Tk 41,000 in ransom.
   On October 28, the extortionists kidnapped three officials from Gilachari on the RMK road.
   Businessmen, government officials and members of the public have been waylaid and robbed by the miscreants on this particular road during the last several months. People nowadays feel scared to go by this road which connects Rangamati with Khagrachari.
   Locals alleged that the administration was indifferent to the security of the people using this particular road.
   The police super of Rangamati, Sheikh Maruf Hassan, said the police patrolled the RMK road, though irregularly.

Three persons were killed and at least 20 others injured in an attack by wild elephants on the frontier village Haldi under Jhenaigati upazila in Sherpur on Friday.
   The deceased are were identified as Tara Mia, 13, son of Abdullah, Shafique, 30, and Hashmat, 40, — all residents of the village.
   Local sources said a herd of 60-65 wild elephants came down from the hilly areas and damaged paddy fields at Haldi, Halchati, Gandhigaon, Nakshi and Rantia villages on Thursday afternoon. About 4,000 to 5,000 villagers managed to drove away the rampaging animals.
   Tara, Shafique and Hashmat were trampled to death by the wild elephants at about 7:30am when the villagers went to drive away the wild elephants who again entered the Haldi village on Friday.
   The death of three people cast a pall of gloom among the villagers who are passing their days in panic fearing further attack by the wild elephants.
   Local sources said wild elephants, coming from the hilly areas, have been harassing the local people and damaging crops and trees for the last one week.

Three persons were killed and three injured in separate road accidents in Gazipur, Comilla and Mymensingh on Friday.
   New Age Gazipur correspondent reports that one person was killed and three were injured in two different road accidents.
   The first accident took place when a bus hit a motorcycle killing Amir Hossain, 40, a plate operator of Agro Industrial Trust of Safipur Bazar under Kaliakoir upazila, on the spot at about 12:30pm.
   The body of Amir was sent to the Gazipur Sadar Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination.
   A case was filed with the Kaliakoir police.
   The second accident occurred when a bus hit a rickshaw injuring the rickshaw puller, Shorab Ali, 30, and its two passengers — Arfat Nesa, 60, and her daughter Anwara Kahtun, 35. All the injured are residents of the Nawroj area under sadar upazila.
   Anwara was taken to Orthopaedic Hospital in Dhaka.
   New Age Comilla correspondent said: A young man, Md Akter Hossain, 20, of village Mostanpur at Sadar-Dhakkhin upazila in Comilla, was killed at about 6:00pm when a truck hit him, killing him on the spot.
   The police seized the truck but its driver managed to flee. A case was filed with the police.
   A UNB report adds: A man, Babul, 35, was crushed under the wheels of a bus at Shibpur on the Mymensingh-Kishoreganj Road on Friday.
   The police seized the bus but could not arrest the driver.

A five-day long ‘Jor Ijtema’,a preparatory gathering for the main Ijtema in which thousands of Muslims from different parts of the world join every year to seek the blessings of Almighty Allah, began on the bank of river Turag at Tongi in Gazipur on the Ijtema ground on Friday.
   Organisers estimated that as many as 50 thousand people had already gathered for the Jor Ijtema that began after jumma prayers.
   Members of the police and Rapid Action Battalion were deployed to maintain law and order in the area.

The Rapid Action Battalion on Thursday arrested two suspected members of an active gang of inter-district arms and alcohol traders in possession of arms from village Radhanagar under Kamalganj upazila in Moulvibazar.
   Jahangir Alam Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of the Kamalganj police, said tipped off, a team of RAB raided the village in the night and picked up the two — Mizanur Rahman Labu Miah, 24, of village Radhanagar and Shahidur Rahman, 30, of village Koilashi under Kulaura upazila.
   According to their confessional statement, the RAB team recovered a single pipe-gun, a cartridge, two mobile phone sets and a motorbike from a paddy filed near Eidgah Road of village Radhanagar.
   Later the RAB team handed them over to the Kamalganj police.
   A case was field with the Kamalganj police.