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Hundreds of poor landholders in Patuakhali are losing their ancestral croplands to the whims and greed of land surveyors now engaged in surveying agricultural lands in the district for preparing new ‘parcha’ (land record).
   The poor landholders complained that the surveyors were tampering with their old parcha only to exact money from them.
   The illiterate and ignorant farmers are submitting to their threats of losing the lands of their forefathers if they don’t comply with their demand for money.
   Those failing to meet the illegal demand of the surveyors are being subjected to harassment of all forms, it was alleged.
   There are allegations that being influenced by money power of the rich farmers , the land surveyors were giving the lands of the poor peasants to them by delivering new parcha to them. In such cases the surveyors are ignoring the genuine parcha of the poor landholders.
   In their scramble for grabbing lands illegally some rich farmers are not hesitating to give taka ranging from fifty thousand to one lakh to the land surveyor, local sources said.
   High officials of the settlement office, however, said that they have not received any allegation from the land owners about corrupt of practices of the surveyors at the field level. They said stern action would be taken against the surveyors if they were found guilty of tampering with parcha or taking bribe from the land owners.
    Moreover, they pointed out that the land surveyors had no power to adjudicate on any land dispute.
   Some affected farmers said the senior officials of the settlement department should visit the spots to see for themselves the real situation and plight of the poor land owners at the hands of surveyors.
   When contacted, some land surveyors said they were appointed on purely temporary basis for the purpose of land survey. They had to give to handsome money in bribe
   to the officials of the settlement department to get appointment.
   ‘If we don’t get some money from the land owners,how we will realize the big amount we paid to the officials of the settlement department as bribe’, a land surveyor said.
   Land survey is now going on at sadar, Galachipa, Mirjaganj, Dashmia, Dumki and Kalapara upazilas in the district.

Hundreds of residents on Sunday brought out a broomstick procession protesting frequent power failure in Narayanganj.
   The power failure has been causing immense sufferings to the people in general and students in particular, hampering production in industries and trades in markets, locals said.
   The sufferings of all sections of people due to load-shedding have gone beyond control, they noted.
   They said the Muslims have been facing problems in praying tarabi namaj, ahaving iftar and sehri due to the continuous power shortage.
   The mob attacked three power substations and offices in the last two days. Additional
   police forces were deployed at six power stations in Narayanganj.
   Locals complained that power failure has become a regular phenomenon.

Some 29 people have fallen victim to arsenicosis, arsenic related diseases, at the western part of Vulbaria, a remote village under Shalikha upazila in Magura.
   The village is now called ‘Arsenic village’ as a good number of its inhabitants have been suffering from various arsenic related diseases.
   Sandha Rani of Vulbaria village said she consulted a local doctor when some black spots appeared at different parts of her body. But the local doctor failed to diagnose her disease and cause of it. Finally the doctors of Shalikha Health Complex correctly diagnosed it as arsenic related disease, she added.
   The health officials of Shalikha upazila said as many as 160 people were detected to have been suffering from arsenic related diseases at different parts of the upazila.
   Water in over 3,000 tube wells out of total 12,500 were found to have contained arsenic much above permissible level under this upazila, according to a survey report.
    Nearly one lakh people at seven unions of this upazila are exposed to the threat arsenic related diseases, the report said.
   The tube wells containing high level arsenic have been marked with red colour. The people of area have been advised not to drink water of the red marked tube wells. But no alternative steps have been taken so far for the supply of potable water to the arsenic affected areas.

Five persons were injured, three of them seriously, in a road accident at Kansat under Shibganj upazila in Chapainnawabganj on Saturday.
   The police said the mishap occurred when a minibus and an auto rickshwa collided head on near the local office of the Rural Electrification Board (REB) in the morning.
   Seriously injured Rezaul, 30, son of Abdul Quddus of Parkalupur, and Jwel, 38, (driver) of Durlavpur under Shibganj upazila and an unidentified middle-aged person were admitted to Chapainawabganj Sadar Hospital.
   The other two were given first aid from the Shibganj Upazila Health Complex.