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Capital shortage coupled with bird flu scare has pushed the poultry industry in Magura into dire straits.
   The poultry farmers in the district are facing multifarious problems, mainly for want of sufficient money to get on with their business.
   At least 70 per cent poultry farmers have already closed their farms due to fund crisis.
   Besides, a good many farmers had closed their business in the wake of bird flu scare in the last winter.
   There are more than 1,000 registered and non-registered poultry farms, under supervision of the livestock department, in Magura sadar, Sreepur, Mohammadpur and Shalikha upazilas.
   Inspired with the rise in prices of eggs and broiler few months ago, the farm owners started to make fresh investment in the industry.
   But, again they saw dwindling of their capital due to a sharp fall in prices of their produces and increase in the prices of poultry feed and other inputs.
   On the other hand, to recoup the losses after the bird flu attack, the poultry feed sellers and hatchery owners raised the prices of feeds and chicks while the prices of chicken are decreasing.
   The prevailing situation is forcing the poultry entrepreneurs to count huge losses.
   This correspondent talking to some farm owners at Parla, Niznanduly, Parnandualy and Sonatundi villages came to know that broiler was selling at Tk 85 to Tk 90 per kilogram, while eggs were selling at Tk 500 to Tk550 per hundred.
   But the farmers have to buy each sack of feed at Tk 1300 to Tk 1400 and each chick at Tk 35 to Tk 40.
   Rise in prices of vaccines, vitamins and other medicines has also marked two to three times higher.
   The Magura Poultry Farm Association general secretary, Shariful Islam Shofiq, said that to boost existence of the poultry industry the government should formulate a policy for the farms and have control over owners of the hatcheries and the poultry feed companies.
   Besides, the government should keep a close watch so that bird flu scare cannot recur, he added.

The revised boro rice procurement target was exceeded by 34,000 tonnes this year in the 16 districts of the country’ northern region on the expiry date of the drive on Monday.
   Regional controller of Food of Rajshahi Division M Mosharraf Hossain said a total of 8.36 lakh tonnes boro rice was procured in all 16 northern districts by Monday against the fixed revised target of 8.02 lakh tonnes.
   ‘We have procured 34,000 tonnes more boro rice than the fixed target this year in Rajshahi Division,’ the top divisional level food official added.
   Dinajpur district controller of Food Abdullah Al Mamun said he procured 1.41 lakh tonnes boro rice, which is 14,000 tonnes more than the target, by Monday against the revised procurement target of 1.27 lakh tonnes.
   Similarly, DC food of Jaipurhat Jamal Hossain, Rangpur DC Food SM Mohsin and Naogaon DC Food Santosh Kumar Pandit said they had procured more rice than their respective targets by the deadline.
   Meanwhile, harvesting of t-Aman paddy has already been begun and prices of rice started falling in the local markets with arrival of the new variety, markets sources, farmers and common people said.
   The common people are happy with the falling trend of rice price in the last three weeks as the grip of unscrupulous trades on markets has been slackened.
   The per kg price of both coarse and fine variety fell down by Tk 7 to Tk 9 depending on quality during the period since last October 21 and the newly harvested coarse rice is now selling at Tk 23 and Tk 24 per kg at rural markets.
   However, the farmers are unhappy as they are selling newly harvested T-Aman paddy at Tk 600 per maund (one maund is 37.3 kilograms) though the paddy price was around Tk 850 per maund only one and a half months ago in the region.

At least five persons were killed and more than 50 injured when a microbus collided head-on with a bus on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway at Dakshin Surma of Sylhet on Thursday.
   The police said a microbus heading for Sylhet collided with a Dhaka-bound bus on the highway, killing three dead on the spot and injuring more than 50 others.
   Later, two seriously injured women died soon after they were taken to the Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital. Their identity could not be known immediately.
   Three of the deceased are Makan Miah, 55, of village Patakhain, and microbus helper Abdullah, 22, of village Manoharpur under Bishwanath upazila of Sylhet and Rojina Begum, 25, of village Sonapur in Sunamganj.
   The police came to the spot and sent the injured to different hospitals and clinics in the city with the help of local people.
   The police sent the bodies to hospital morgue for post-mortem examination. They also seized the two vehicles but the drivers managed to get away.
   Eighteen of the injured were identified as Jewel, 30, Mohammed Ali, 9, Abdul Haqim, 40, Maklis Ali, 60, Bilal, 25, Ahmed, 20, Zakir Hosen, 24, Salah Uddin, 14, Abdul Mannan, 55, Nur Uddin, 20, Motalib Ali, 30, Salam, 35, Fazar Ali, 30, Mizanur Rahman, 30, Mahram Ali, 35, Suhel, 20, Tasir Ali, 25, and Sabina Begum, 20.

A Chapainawabganj court on Thursday sentenced six persons to life-term imprisonment for killing a man 13 years ago.
   Additional district and sessions judge Arup Kumar Goswami handed down the verdict and also fined the convicts Tk 10,000 each, in default, to serve six months more in jail.
   The convicts are Abdur Rahman of Kadamtoli, Hoda and Enamul Hoque of Chowdala Mominpara, Faruk of Chowdala Kalitala and Safiqul of Chowdala Linapara.
   The court also acquitted two others, Samsher Ali and Jamal Uddin, as the prosecution jailed to prove their guilt.
   According to the prosecution, the convicts killed one Abdur Rashid of village Chowdala after calling him out of his house on August 5, 1995.
   Later, the police recovered the body from a pond on August 14.
   Deceased’s brother Abdul Gofur filed a murder case with Gomastapur police station.
   Our Sylhet correspondent reports a court on the day sentenced a drug peddler to life-term imprisonment.
   District and session judge Md Momin Ullah also fined the convict Tk 10,000, in default, to face another one year more n jail.
   The convicted is Alamgir Hosen.
   According to the prosecution, Sylhet Narcotics Control Department arrested Alamgir along with 52 grams of heroin in the Bharthakhala area of the city on April 26, 2006.

Two persons were killed and two others injured in an attack by wild elephants in frontier Dewanganj upazila Wednesday night.
   The deceased are Ahsan Ali Hasan, 22, of Makhaner char and Abdul Motaleb, 40, of Bagher char of the upazila.
   Local people said a herd of 20/22 wild elephants came down to Makhaner Char and Baghar Char villages in the upazila from the hill of Meghalaya State of India and damaged standing paddy plants.
   The herd attacked the villagers when they tried to resist them from damaging the paddy. At one stage, the elephants trampled Ahsan and Motaleb to death and left two others injured.
   The herd damaged standing aman crops on five acres of land and a number of houses during the attack.
   Dewangonj thana police visited the areas.

A reception was accorded to 225 poor and meritorious students of Lohagora upazila in Naril on Tuesday.
   The students, of school, college and madrassah levels, also received scholarship at the function organised at the Lohagora Pilot High School auditorium under the auspices of the Nur Mohammad Education Trust.
   The Lohagora upazila nirbahi officer, Mohammad Rezaul Karim, also president of the education trust, presided over the function.
   The deputy commissioner of Narail, Mohammad Moshiur Rahman, was present as chief guest while Lohagora municipality chairman, Thakur Nazrul, educationist and freedom fighter Principal SM Anwaruzzaman and Dr Shah Faez Alam were present as special guests.
   The DC, Moshiur Rahman, terming the students future helmsmen of the nation, called on them to dedicate themselves to acquiring knowledge so that they could grow up as worthy citizens of the country.
   Each of the students was given Tk 1,000 and a certificate.