Eid, the occasion of great festivity for Muslims after a month of fasting, will hardly bring joy for the hapless people in some northern districts who have been left flat broke by the recent flooding and river erosion.
The Eid would perhaps bring tears for Atiar of Aditmari or Rahmia Khatun in Chilmari of Lalmonirhat districts.
Like Rahima and Atiar, thousands of flood-hit people and victims of river erosion in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Pabna and Sirajganj would celebrate Eid without new clothes or good food.
These unfortunate poor villagers lost their homesteads, crops and cattle to flooding and erosion.
They can hardly afford to buy foods not to speak of new clothes to celebrate the Eid.
Many vulnerable people who took shelter on roads or high lands after losing everything said they had hardly received any government support in their struggle for livelihood.
New Age Lalmonirhat correspondent reported that about two lakh people in Adar, Aditmari, Kaliganj, Hatibandha and Patgram upazilas in Lalmonirhat district were passing days in great sufferings.
‘We are struggling to manage our daily meal…’, said Atiar Rahman, a
flood-hit farmer of Aditmari upazila.
Azghar Mia of Lalmonirhat sadar upazila said he could not buy clothes for his children. ‘I don’t have any ability to buy even food for the Eid day...’
Many others, whose homesteads and croplands have been eroded by the Teesta and Dharala, narrated similar stories of their grim battle for survival.
Khotib Uddin, Sindurna union parishad chairman in Hatibandha upazila, said the people of the union would celebrate a different Eid this year as they had lost their homesteads and crops to the flooding and erosion.
He said 2,300 Vulnerable Group Feeding cards had been distributed among the destitute in his union as a special allocation for Eid.
Habibur Rahman Khotib, Mogolhat UP chairman in Lalmonirhat sadar upazila, said 2,100 VGF cards had been distributed in his union. Both of them alleged that the number of VGF cards were not sufficient to cope with the situation.
Lalmonirhat district relief and rehabilitation officer Anwarul Islam claimed that his office had distributed sufficient VGF cards in the district as Eid special allocation covering all vulnerable families in the district.
Each card holder gets 10kg of rice. The rice has been distributed by the UP chairmen and members concerned, he said.
New Age Kurigram correspondent reported that Eid this year would hardly bring joy for about 2.50 lakh flood-hit people in Kurigram Sadar,  Nageswari, Ulipur, Chilmari, Roumari and Rajibpur upazila.
People living in the vast char areas of Brahmaputra, Dharala, Teesta, Dudkumar and Zinzaram rivers were yet to overcome the impact of the flooding.
Rahima Khatun who took shelter on a dyke in Chilmari upazila said they were struggling to eke out a bare living. ‘We have no Eid, no joy.’
Char people said they did not have any work in the Bangla month of
Bhadra and Aswhin, which causes great hardship to them. ‘The Eid this year falls in Bhadra and the flooding caused more hardship to us,’ said Abdur Rashid. 
Sohrab Hossain, Austomir Char UP chairman under Chilmari upazila, said only 50 per cent poor people in his union had received VGF rice before the Eid.
Abul Hashem Sarkar, Kachakata UP chairman in Nageswari upazila, also alleged that the number of VGF cards distributed in his union was not adequate.
New Age Pabna and Sirajganj correspondents reported that several thousand people in the districts, made homeless by the erosion of Padma and Jamuna rivers, would celebrate Eid without joy.
There is no air of festivity as the homeless families are struggling to manage their daily meal.