Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

A large number of people at five upazilas in Lalmonirhat have been living a miserable life as they have practically no work in rural areas to earn their living during the current lean period.
   Natural calamities such flood and erosion have washed away their croplands and homesteads and deprived them of all means of their livelihood. The vagaries of nature have also inflicted a crushing blow on the income of the landless workers. They are not finding any work in the countryside for their survival.
   The marginal farmers and the landless farmers of the district have been facing the major brunt of the present dull situation. Many of them left their homes for Lalmonirhat and other district towns in quest of job. But luck did not favour these destitute people even in towns where job opportunity is also little. Some had to be content with pulling rickshaws for earning their livelihood.
   The gatherings of the ultra poor from the countryside are mainly found at the Mission crossing, Puran Bazar and Goshala Bazar in Lalmonirhat town.
   But job opportunities in this small town are not all encouraging.
   Talking to New Age at the Mission crossing, Monsur Ali, Rahmat, Salam and Momin said their families at villages were starving.
   Finding no work in Lalmonirhat town, many monga-hit people have returned homes high frustrated. They don’t know how they will eke out their existence in the days ahead.
   They said they would get work in villages when harvesting of aman crop would start in late November and early December.
   They complained that relief materials in the rural areas were being misappropriated by the local musclemen, activists of political parties, UP members and chairmen.
   A report from our Nilphamari correspondent said diarrhoea has broken out in an epidemic form at Dingding Para of Chapra union under sadar upazila.
   Consuming inedibles, nearly one thousand extremely poor people of this village have been attacked with diarrhoea in the last seven days. Many fell victim to waterborne diseases by drinking polluted water of canals and tube wells which went under flood water.
   Some of the inhabitants of this village said they were surviving by taking loan from the village money lenders with high rate of interest.
   The chairman of Chapra union, Khalilur Rahman, said he has requested the concerned authorities to send adequate relief materials and medicines for the people of his union struggling for their existence.

Dumping of wastes in the Shimulia residential area near the Magura-Jessore Highway has been polluting the environment, posing a threat to public health.
   Some residents of Shimulia complained that everyday about 15 to 20 trucks of the Magura municipal authorities dump wastes in the area, caring a little about public health.
   They said they pleaded with the municipal authorities not to dump garbage in the area. But the authorities turned a deaf ear to the appeal, they said.
   Abdul Malek, a resident of the residential area, said, 'We cannot bear the bad smell of the garbage any longer. So, we have decided to shift our house to another place.'
   Wahiduzzaman, another inhabitant, spoke in the same vein. He too decided to shift his house from this area.
   A ward commissioner said he did not support the dumping of garbage in a place of human habitation. By dumping wastes in the residential area, the municipality has been acting against the interest of the people, he said wishing not to be named.
   An official of the Magura Municipality said the authorities had earmarked two acres of
   land at Shimulia for dumping the waste. But he cannot specify whether the project would start soon.

Despite ban poly bags have reappeared in the local markets and many shoppers are
   found using them to carry fish, meat, fruit, vegetables and other items.
   Poly bags have been kept hanging at different kitchen markets in the district town and upazila headquarters. Fish, meat, fruit and vegetable sellers are providing poly bags to their customers free of cost.
   A shopkeeper at Panchdona Bazar under sadar upazila said most of the customers prefer poly bags to jute bags as the former do not leak water.
   Many customers opt for poly bags as they are supplied by the shopkeepers free of cost, he added.
   Shahida Begum, a housewife in Narsingdi town, said a jute bag costs between Tk 6 and 8 whereas the shop keepers supply poly bags to customers without charging any price.
   Local sources said poly bags have been put on display in front of many shops under the nose of the officials of the health department and the law enforcing agencies.
   Ignoring the harmful effects of poly bags on health, environment and fertility of soil even many educated and conscious people are using them in a carefree manner, according to Khandaker Abdur Rahim, head master of Satirpara High School.
   A senior officer of the district administration said they were unable to monitor the sale of poly bags in the markets due to shortage of manpower and lack of logistic support.
   Manufacturing of poly bags carries sentence for 10 years and a fine of Tk 10 lakh.
   A poly bag user may be fined Tk 500. But nobody seems to care about the punishment for manufacturing, marketing and using of poly bags.

Load shedding and fluctuation of voltage for the last one month have been severely affecting all sections of people including students at seven upazilas in Jamalpur.
   The people of Jamalpur district town are not also immune from the frequent disruption of power supply. The district town plunges into darkness regularly soon after sunset because of power outage.
   Thousands of students of different schools in the district have been hit hard by power outage as they are unable to prepare their studies for the annual examinations which are scheduled to be held in November and December. The power trips soon after dusk and often comes back after 10:00pm.
   Disruption of power during the peak period of studies is seriously hampering the education of the students.
   Though Jamalpur is very backward in the industrial sector, the few small mills and factories across the district have been incurring heavy losses due to frequent power failure.
   Fluctuation of voltage has damaged electrical gadgets of many people.
   Repair costs of damaged electric fans, TV set and radio set, CD and cassette players and refrigerators are putting additional financial strains on the budget of the middle class people.
   The operation of deep tube wells and irrigation machines is facing setback because of irregular supply of power.

Birulia, a habitation of some 70,000 people under Savar upazila in Dhaka, has long been cut off from the capital by the river Turag in absence of a connecting bridge.
   Inhabitants there live mainly on farming and have to depend only on boats for moving to and from the metropolis, suffering immensely during rainy days.
   The government in early 2004 had approved a project for immediate construction of a bridge over the Turag at the Birulia point to facilitate smooth movement of the people towards Dhaka.
   Birulia’s location, only eight kilometres from Mirpur area, makes it a small hinterland behind the river that supplies vegetables and other agricultural produces to the city.
   However, the construct work remained suspended several times on the plea of rainy season and it is hardly likely that the bridge will be completed by the upcoming dry season.
   Allegations have it that vested quarters had been trying to disrupt or at least delay the construction of the bridge to serve their interest at the cost of the suffering of the hundreds of people who will be beneficiaries of such a bridge.
   The conscious segment of the people of Birulia urged the authorities concerned to take proper steps for expediting the construction work of the bridge to complete it within the dry season and solve their problem of communications to and from Dhaka city.