S Dilip Roy

The flood situation has started improving in Kurigram and Lalmonirhat districts as the water level of major rivers is decreasing. However, this has led to a new issue.

The recent floods in northern Bangladesh are now affecting farmers in five districts of the greater Rangpur region as significant amounts of land in the economically disadvantaged area have gone underwater.

Thousands of flood victims in the northern districts continue to fight for survival with little access to relief materials, and the situation is unlikely to improve today.  

Burimari Land Port in Lalmonirhat lacks banking facility, causing suffering to people especially those who are travelling to neighbouring countries.

Works of 55 government projects on rural development in Kurigram are yet to start even though the implement deadline expired around a year ago.

A good number of farmers in Rangpur have been earning unexpected profits from growing mint, a medicinal crop, on small patches of land.

Some 150 families are in fear of losing their homesteads in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila as part of a flood protection dam across the Teesta collapsed.

Nearly 150 families who are residents of the riverbank area of Teesta in Khuniagachh village of Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila, are living in fear of losing homestead and cropland as a flood protection dam, which was renovated by Water Development Board (WDB) just 10 months ago, already collapsed.

Dhiren Chandra Barman, a 60-year-old farmer in Char Rajour in Lalmonirhat sadar upazila, nowadays passes sleepless nights after his paddy crop, on which he relies to feed his six-member family, was completely damaged because of an unseasonal flood. 

People of  Mogholhat  union in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila have been aggrieved over the authority’s failure to complete the bridge over the Ratnai river for a long time.

Mobarak Ali (67) is a farmer from Char Gobordhan area on the Teesta river bed in Lalmonirhat.

Even though they were demolished by the authorities concerned more than a year ago, two illegal brick kilns have started operating again in Lalmonirhat.

Farmers of Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila and Kurigram’s Chilmari upazila are worried about their future.

Rabiul fell to the ground and lost consciousness after a policeman kicked him in the crotch around 10:00pm on Thursday night, said a man who claimed to be among those standing close to the scene.

Freedom fighter Abdur Rahman said that the construction of the house will destroy the sanctity of the place. 

“We were tied together with a few other locals and beaten mercilessly," said Parvez. "Right before our eyes, some were tortured and suffocated to death by the Pakistan army supporters and their bodies were dumped in an abandoned hole next to the high school," he said.

Boro paddy on more than 100 bighas of land has remained submerged for several days in Aditmari upazila of Lalmonirhat district due to obstruction of drainage through a canal.

For five hours yesterday, a no mans’ land in Lalmonirhat was transformed into a witness of bittersweet, short-lived reunions.

While some farmers say that potato yields were low this year, most of them argue the opposite as they got the same output as they had in previous years.

Over Tk 23 crore was spent only last year to excavate a 65-kilometre stretch of rivers and canals in five upazilas of Lalmonirhat. But most of the excavated earth, piled up on its side, has already made it back to the rivers and canals obstructing water flows.