Tk 13 cr For 7 Flood-Hit SW Dists
Affected poor farmers deprived of aid
Amanur Aman, back from Chuadanga and Meherpur
A large number of small and marginal farmers in seven southwestern districlts were deprived of government assistance under its flood rehabilitation programme due to irregularities and anomaly in preparing lists. The districts are Kushtia, Khulna, Jessore, Jhenidah, Bagerhat, Magura and Chuadanga. The issue was also raised in the Jatiya Sangsad by ruling BNP lawmakers Shahidul Islam, Monjur kader and Rustom Ali Faraji on Thursday. Local Union Pariashads in cooperation with Block Supervisors of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) had prepared lists of 2,14,500 farmers in the seven districts for assistance under the government's Tk 13 crore programme. The UNOs distributed the money among the so-called affected farmers. It was gathered from local DAE sources that most of the lists did not include the affected people. Local influentials who were not affected by the flood got the lion share of the assistance. "I have not heard of any list and got no assistance", Abdul Jabbar, a marginal farmer in Kazipur village in Gangni upazila in Meherpur told this correspondent during a recent visit. Many of the flood affected poor and marginal small farmers in Chuadanga, Kushtia and Meherpur expressed the same view. "I heard of government assistance but did not see any poor man getting any thing", Altaf Hossain and Hossain Malitah, two poor farmers in Gokulkhali village in Alamdanga upazila in Chuadanga said. The same view was sheared by Samsuddin Mollah and Montaz Ali of Ramanathpur village in Khoksa upazila in Kushtia district. When contacted Khondokar Hasibur Rahman, regional DAE officer in Kushtia said DAE officials had nothing to do as grants were distributed according to lists prepared by UP chairman and members. Local UP representatives made the lists on political consideration, he said quoting affected poor farmers. DAE Khulna sources said the government had sanctioned Tk 82,55,000 for 13, 800 flood affected marginal farmers in Khulna district, Tk 56,27,000 for 25,600 in Jessore, Tk 32,58, 000 for 54,600 farmers in Jhenidah, Tk 1,70,61000 for 28,500 in Magura, Tk 32,51000 for 5,700 in Kushtia and Tk 52,27000 for 22,200 farmers in Chuadanga. They said crops on 50, 740 hectares were damaged in Jessore district, 29168 hectares in in Jhenidah, 25327 in Magura, 4315 in Khulna, 14220 Bagerhat, 13350 in Kushtia and 4615 in Chuadanga.
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