S Dilip Roy

Local varieties of fishes are facing extinction amid disappearance of waterbodies and spread of fast growing hybrid fish cultivation in Lalmonirhat.

It’s Friday afternoon. She lost everything to the river before her eyes. It was not the first time. The flood victim’s life has been chained to the wrath of nature for years.

Talukder Rice Mill is registered with the local food office and eligible to sell rice to the government. According to papers, it is located in Jummapara village of Lalmonirhat sadar upazila. But when this correspondent went to visit the mill recently, all he found at the location is an abandoned concrete surface, two tin-roof houses, and a poultry farm.

Basic Literacy Project (64 Districts) run by the Bureau of Non-formal Education (BNFE) under Primary and Mass Education Ministry did not bring any fruitful results in two upazilas of the district due to alleged irregularities and corruption.

Hundreds of commuters cross the Teesta Railway Bridge every day risking their lives as the longevity of the age-old bridge on the Teesta river in Sadar upazila expired in 2001.

Monaram Das, lone son of martyred Freedom Fighter Bocharam Das, and his family of five members are crying for livelihood, living in a small house of government’s Sonapukur Abasan at Daikhowa village of Lalmonirhat’s Hatibandha.

With frustration in his eyes, rice grower Raziur Rahman was seen selling paddy reluctantly to a buyer at Durakuti Haat in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila last Tuesday.

By the time Saminul Islam reached the government buying centre with 500kg of paddy on Thursday, the officials had already wrapped up the procurement activities there. No more buying, he was told, because the procurement limit was reached.

Like many others, chhola boot (fried and spiced chickpeas), puffed rice, beguni (a popular item prepared with aubergine), piyaju (made with finely chopped onion with lentil paste) and seasonal fruits should be their usual iftar items but farm labourer Abu Taleb, his wife and two daughters used to break their fast with chal bhaja (fried rice) daily.

Villagers in Baura union of Patgram upazila reacted with disbelief after they found out that the union parishad (UP) chairman himself auctioned off 240 live trees beside a road.

If it were before 1983, people would be seen fishing at the exact same spot where children now play football, on Teesta’s sandy floor lying arid and barren. The river is no longer blessed with water, except for a few months of the year.

In a span of five years’ time, since 2014, they lost their 32 decimals of ancestral land to an influential local -- not once, not twice, but a staggering five times!

Sahanara Begum Soma pioneered green tea farming in 2007 in the plain lands of Lalmonirhat, improving the economic fate of the poor farmers in her locality.

Boat making charge has doubled this year in the district, much to the worry of char people, especially fishermen and boatmen.

Physically challenged train passengers at Lalmonirhat railway station have been suffering a lot for long as the flat entrance to the station platform, especially built for them, was kept locked for four years, thanks to the authorities indifferent to the nuisance.

A bridge on a canal was damaged and its approach roads, part of Kakina-Aminganj road in Lalmonirhat's Kaliganj upazila, were washed away by floodwaters in August of 2017, but the authorities are yet to replace or repair those.

Protap Chandra Roy is yet to get the government allowances meant for freedom fighters (FFs) due to a 'slow process'.

An 11-kilometre-long portion of the highway connecting Burimari land port with Lalmonirhat via Patgram is in such a state that at least five to six trucks break down there every day.

Abdur Rashid is a marginal farmer revered and respected for a completely different role he has been playing for the last nine years in the remote village of Lalmonirhat's Dakkhin Dalgram Parshurampara.

The farm had only one cow and a hundred chickens. Now, ten years later, it has 75 hybrid dairy cows, 20 goats, 6 thousand chickens and 200 pigeons. The farm now spans over 11 acres of land in three separate plots where special grass for livestock, fruits, flower and spices are also grown.