Development after a cost

The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) a few days ago began the construction of a one-and-a-half kilometre road from Malopara to Jessore-Khulna highway.
The workers are busy round-the-clock to finish at least 500 metres to the village as the path is muddy. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to visit the area tomorrow.  
Yesterday, a unit of Border Guard Bangladesh was working to build some tin-roofed houses for the Malopara victims. The villagers were also helping the BGB members and workers.
Some were busy felling trees to make space for new houses amid unplanned clusters of homes. BGB is making 400 square-feet houses which are even bigger than what the victims had earlier.
“We will build a total of 65 houses for them. In our first phase we have selected those houses which were mostly damaged in the January 5 attack. We want to finish the construction in a day or two,” said Lt Colonel Mustafizur Rahman, director, BGB logistics, on Monday.  
The house of Sanchita Barman is one of those eight houses BGB members are making in the first phase.
Sanchita and her four-year-old daughter Bipasha Barman fled when their house came under attack on January 5. When they came back a day later, they did not have anything to eat as the attackers had destroyed everything.
Some placards made by members of Gonojagoron Mancha, using a photo of Sanchita and Bipasha, were lying beside the piles of bricks brought for the construction.
Little Bipasha was found playing delightedly on the piles of brickbats and bricks. Obviously, she had never seen such activities in her village earlier.
“Now we are getting a better house. But we are not sure whether we will be able to sleep in the house peacefully ever. Bipasha still cries out in her sleep,” said Sanchita.
The people of Malopara have never seen development work in their village. After the January 5 violence, relief from many organisations began to pour in. They have been getting clothes, food, cash and utensils.
Even so, they are yet to have normalcy restored in their lives.   
“We feel we are animals kept in a cage and people are coming to see us. We don't want warm clothes or food or roads and electricity. We just want peace. We just want to live in peace as we did before the attack,” said Susoma Sarkar, one of the victims in Malopara.
Magoli Biswas, daughter of Dulal Biswas, has not been to her college since the attack. “I feel that something might happen if I go to college,” she said.
Her three sisters do not go to school either.
“Fear is deep-rooted in our hearts after the attack. We don't know how we can get relief from it,” said Dipti Biswas, a housewife.
Officials of the district administration said they had arranged trauma counselling for the Malopara victims to help them deal with the trauma.
They have also set up a 30-member committee comprising people from Malopara and other villages which will work on building trust among the people of the locality.