City life upset; farmers happy

Source: Photo: Sk Enamul Haq

Two children wrap themselves with a towel and the long scarf of their mother as they travel on a rickshaw van near Shahbagh yesterday during the spring rain.

The sudden drizzle over the last two days across the country brought smiles to millions of Boro farmers, but it also disrupted the city life.  
A popular Bangla proverb goes that if it rains in Falgun, cereal crops grow double (Jodi borshe Fagune, China Kaun digune).
The Met office said there was only five millimetres of rain in the capital between 8:00pm on Saturday and 6:00pm yesterday, but it brought back the chill and caused much trouble to the city dwellers.

The rain was caused by westerly low, said the deputy forecasting officer, adding, “The sky would be clear by noon [today] in the northern part of the country. But the southern part may experience light rain and chill tomorrow [today] as well.”
The drizzle grew a little heavier as the night wore on, creating puddles at different points.
City people were already suffering on the streets since the beginning of last week, as the construction of several flyovers and the beautification work of the city are underway, ahead of the T20 World Cup.
At several key points, significant portions of the roads are occupied with construction materials.
Many lanes and bi-lanes became muddy as the city utility providers dug the roads to install pipes and wires, increasing public suffering.
In the northern districts, the rain began on Friday morning. In Rangpur and Dinajpur, the drizzle brought further woes to the potato farmers who have already incurred losses this season. Their produce will start rotting if the rain continued, report our district correspondents.
However, agriculture experts said the rainfall would help the standing crops like Boro.
“This drizzle would increase the Boro and wheat production,” said Wais Kabir, former executive chairman of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC).
It would reduce the irrigation cost of Boro farmers, he said.