“Deep in the heart of nowhere”
Zafor Sobhan's post editorial on the charlands up the stream of the mighty river Jamuna gave a vivid description of the land, the people and opportunities to develop those areas and the people (July 25, 2008).
Although Bangladesh is a small country, Sobhan travelled there by a seaplane that landed on the water and he spent a few hours to see how life goes in those remote places not connected with the main roads even from the small towns in greater Rangpur areas, such as Kurigram and Nilphamari.
He has noted the changes recently brought in these chars by the activities of some NGOs in income generation, health and education services. Grameen Shakti has put a few solar panels in these chars to supply electricity to a few homes. It is unfortunate that these areas remained neglected by our politicians and governments so far because of the Dhaka-centric governance that prevailed in the country since we became independent in 1971. We have a few written accounts from the Liberation War as to how these areas provided sanctuary for the Mukti Bahini to organise and operate within the territory of Bangladesh. But then the Dhaka-centric political system and the ineffective parliament ignored the plight of the people in rural areas, mostly in the northern parts of Bangladesh. Even after the famine of 1974 that caused havoc in these areas and the seasonal monga year after year failed to draw our attention.
Although the system of local government was rightly placed in the constitution in 1972, we could not establish it for lack of interest among our Dhaka based politicians. Now that the Election Commission has taken steps to hold upazila elections in October under the CTG, the main political parties are resisting them unnecessarily on one pretext or the other. People have seen the true faces of these politicians from the corruption cases so far unearthed by the ACC. This is only the tip of the iceberg. For strengthening national security, as poverty is the greatest threat to a nation, the upazila elections must be held as scheduled and the present government should allocate sufficient funds to the outlying upazilas such as the charlands in the north and bay areas in the south to undertake projects to develop schools and health clinics in association with NGOs already working in these areas. Besides some new crops such as maize and peanuts that are being grown now, these chars can be our source of protein through livestock farming, especially water buffalos and the Black Bengal goats.
I thank Sobhan for taking the trip to these nowhere places and would like to request him to continue exposing the plight of the people in the char and monga areas of Bangladesh.
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