Predicament of Aila victims
Reports are being published in The Daily Star on the predicament of the Aila hit people of Satkhira and Khulna districts. The stories published in the paper emanated from the sympathy of the reporters, though these are inadequate and most of the sufferings of people are not properly described. Actually, it cannot be described unless anybody lives on the spot for a few days, at least.
The main callings of the local people are seriously hampered; most of the shrimp farms are inundated, most of the arable land are still under saline water, ponds are inundated, homesteads are under influence of the saline flush water, where vegetation is not possible. Right after the devastation few young girls were harassed and violated by the local political goons while they had to take shelter on the embankment, makeshift shelters were looted by the dacoits and the left-behind houses were emptied by the thieves. There were no fish, no milk, no pure water to drink and for other essential purposes, no road communications, nothing!! It is hard to believe that after several months people are yet living on the embankments of the rivers.
All these mess failed to attract the proper attention of the rest of the people of the country as the media was not ready to cover all these, may be they had limited resources to cover such a humanitarian tragedy!
Questions may arise what the political leadership has done to overcome the aftermath of the devastation. As the Aila hit areas are in the coastal belt and far away from the capital city, most of the sufferings of people went unheeded.
The leaders mostly live in the capital city, or they were reluctant to go there just after the incident in apprehension that with little resources how they could overcome the devastation, or they had been waiting to see what the government would do. They might have some other reasoning which people could not understand.
Whatever the reasons may be, they were absent at that time and most of the people had to suffer a lot. Most of the people subsequently left that area having no food, no shelter, no water and no employment.
I sincerely thank The Daily Star for covering the issue in detail.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments