Plight of haor people

According to reports, nearly two hundred thousand farmer families in the north eastern region of the country are in severe distress having lost everything in flash floods which have come earlier than normal, just before the harvest time. We had only recently called upon the government to address the distress of these farmers on an emergency basis.  Some OMS,and relief in terms of cash and rice we understand, have been provided in some of the affected areas only, but more substantive measures need to be undertaken to address the long terms consequences of the untimely flood this year. What good is OMS if the affected people do not have cash at hand to buy food on sale? And although the interest on agricultural loan has been waived by the government the farmers would need both cash and kind to tide over the interregnum till the next harvest, this area being a one-crop land. 

But it is not so much the flash floods but the breaches in the embankment that cause us concern. And the government should immediately go into the causes of the multiple breaches in the embankments. Reportedly, some of the repair work last year was not done properly. There are allegations of misuse of funds by local WDB officials. Flash floods are not new to the people of this area and the government had taken measures by embanking the likely threatened areas, which gave away at many places in this instance, due to flawed repair work. Not only must the mendingof the breaches be started as soon as possible, those responsible for dereliction of duty in repairing the embankments must be made examples of.