Irrigation badly hampered

A husking mill and its chatal (paved ground) set up on the land of a deep tube-well of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) at Hariharpur Balapara village in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila hampers irrigation on 500 acres of land, much to the worry of farmers in the ongoing Irri-boro season.            
Water Development Board acquired 2.55 acres of land at the village and set up a deep tube-well (No 29) there for providing irrigation, said BMDA officials and locals.
But in last September, local rice trader Nazmul Hasan started setting up a husking mill and its chatal on the same land and removed irrigation pipelines from there, said locals and officials of BMDA.
During a recent visit to the village, this correspondent saw that the mill's room and a godown were already complete and workers were constructing the paved ground of the husking mill adjacent to the deep tube-well.   
"After start of the work of the husking mill, the operation of the deep tube-well stopped. About 65/70 local farmers who cultivate crops on around 500 acres of land around the deep tube-well are facing irrigation problem in the ongoing Irri-boro season," said Mohammad Bablu, a sharecropper of the village.
Md Rafiqul Islam, a farmer of the same village, said the rice trader is also threatening to file a case against them for protesting against setting up of the husking mill.     
Shafiqul Islam, assistant engineer of BMDA in Thakurgaon Zone, said, "We sent three letters to the mill owner in September, October and November last year, asking him to remove the husking mill and its chatal from the land of the deep tube-well."
"We filed a written complaint with Thakurgaon Police Station in this connection on November 6 last year and its copies were sent to the deputy commissioner of Thakurgaon, upazila nirbahi officer concerned and BMDA officials. In late December, we also wrote a letter to the deputy commissioner requesting him to take steps to remove the structure from the government land, but to no effect yet," he said.     
Contacted, husking mill owner Nazmul Hasan said, "The land is our ancestral land. The irrigation activities will not be hampered due to setting up of the mill."      
AKM Mehedi Hasan, officer in charge of Thakurgaon Police Station, said, "We have received a complaint from BMDA. A decision will be taken after examining the documents of both sides."