Spare dried riverbed from earth dumping till harvest of crops
Farmers of Kashimpur village in Birganj upazila of Dinajpur formed a human chain on the dried up bed of the Atrai river yesterday demanding that the authorities postpone leaving the dredged mud there till harvest of the crops cultivated there.
Around 40 days will be enough to complete harvesting most of the crops in the riverbed area while one or two items like maize will require two months.
Some 70 people of the village, mostly landless ones, grow crops like onion, garlic, different types of celery, pumpkin, potato and maize on the riverbed of the Atrai River for their livelihood.
“The mud dredged from the river is being dumped on the cultivated lands, leaving the crops damaged,” said Alam Sheikh of Kashimpur, who has been growing crops on the sandy river land for last 10 years.
The affected people on Saturday filed a prayer to Birganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Yasin Hossain, seeking his intervention in this regard.
The UNO said he would take steps after discussing with the officials of Water Development Board (WDB) in Panchagarh.
“We landless people grow crops here for livelihood. But, they are dumping the earth gathered by dredging the river here, already damaging crops in a 20-acre area,” said Fazar Ali, a farmer of Kashimnagar village.
“I cultivated maize on 4.5 acres of sandy land in the Atrai riverbed this year and spent Tk 2 lakh for the purpose. I will be able to harvest the crop if the land is spared for two months,” he said.
Several locals said the dredged earth is being left in a wrong spot from where it would go back to the river if there is heavy rain.
Contacted, Touhid Sarwar, an engineer of WDB in Panchagarh, said they advised the villagers not to cultivate crop on riverbed this year as the dredging was to be done.
Steps will be taken after visiting the spot within a day or two, he added.
Comments