Sohrab Hossain

While she had no access to formal education, Saleha Begum, a resident of Char Kashem and a mother of six, dreams of sending her children to school. But that dream is yet to be fulfilled since not a single school exists in the char.

On one fine winter evening, exactly a year ago, a launch named MV Abhijan-10 left Dhaka for Barguna around 6:00pm, with over 600 on board, although there was room for only 420.

Travel-enthusiasts, holidaymakers and tourists are planning to rush to various vacation spots across the country during an upcoming three-day holiday, which includes the weekend.

The price of coal in Bangladesh has flared up by some 78 per cent over the past year, hitting Tk 32,000 per tonne at present compared to Tk 18,000 per tonne previously, as depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar has made imports costlier, according to industry people.

Although her name is Jyotsna, which means a moonlit night, her reality is the exact opposite. There is only uncertainty in her life. After spending three years in jail with her mother, Jyotsna stepped into Patuakhali orphanage at the age of seven.

The demand for dried fish from Barguna’s Taltali upazila seems unencumbered by rising inflation as the region is supplying some 150 maunds to markets across Bangladesh each week amid the ongoing production season, according to traders.

Passengers across the country are facing hardships for the second consecutive day due to a strike called by water transport workers.

The number of people who go on vacation in Kuakata has increased exponentially ever since Padma Bridge was opened in June this year.

Abdul Mannan Mridha, a farmer in Kalaraja village of Patuakhali’s Galachipa upazila, found some artefacts while digging a pond in 2015.Seven years later, on November 21, Galachipa Upazila Nirbahi Official (UNO) Mohiuddin Al Helal handed over the artefacts to a delegation of the archaeology

In Char Kajal union  of Patuakhali stands Uttar Chhota Char Kajal Government Primary School. This is the only school in this remote area, where some 120 students are currently enrolled.

Several thousands of BNP leaders and activists boarded 41 trawlers and reached Barishal amid transport strike around the division to join the party rally scheduled for tomorrow (November 5, 2022).

Passengers of Patuakhali are bearing the brunt as bus services in the district were suspended this morning (November 4, 2022) ahead of BNP’s divisional rally in Barishal tomorrow.

Only eight out of 61 plots have so far been allotted in the BSCIC industrial estate in Barguna as entrepreneurs are not showing much enthusiasm in securing land for higher costs in the coastal district well-known for agricultural produce and fisheries.  

Due to technical problems, operations of Patuakhali’s Kalapara radar station have remained suspended for four whole years.

Fishers in the coastal district of Patuakhali are yet to get any support from the government’s Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme even though eight days have passed since the 22-day ban on catching hilsa began on October 7.

A total of 20.45 kilometres of flood-control embankments have been damaged in eight upazilas of Patuakhali due to downpour and tidal surge, triggered by depression over the Bay.

Some influential locals have reportedly built dams in at least 10 places of the 2.5-km Char Immersion Government Canal  in Patuakhali’s Rangabali upazila for farming fish.

Barguna’s Chawra canal is on the verge of extinction due to encroachment and pollution.

Former expat Habibur Rahman Matubbar, a resident of Kewabunya village under Amtali upazila in Barguna, has been enjoying great success in cultivating malta on his 15 bighas of land for the past seven years or so.

Farmers of  Rangabali upazila of Patuakhali are struggling to save their crops from flooding as most of the sluice gates installed on various rivers and canals  remain inoperative due to a lack of maintenance.