Gone with the winds of change
Four members of an ultra poor family of Peerpara village in Bangalipur union under Saidpur upazila of Nilphamari district are heading towards permanent blindness as they are deprived of the special treatment facility that they had started getting under the directive of the then chief advisor of last caretaker government.
Following a newspaper report in June 2008 that the father and three minor children of the family were becoming blind for want of proper treatment and nutrition, Fakhruddin Ahmed, the then chief advisor of former caretaker government directed the district administration to arrange better treatment for them.
The district administration promptly arranged taking the patients -- Nazrul Islam, 45, and his three children Mahbul, 12, Mohsin, 9, and Nadira, 5 -- to Dhaka and they were admitted to National Institute of Ophthalmology in Dhaka.
"They got treatment in that hospital under famous eye specialist Ibrahim Khalil. They were released from the hospital next month. In the prescription, the physician concerned advised them to report to that hospital and take treatment after every three months," Mohsena Begam, wife of victim Nazrul Islam, told this correspondent.
Meantime, the caretaker government handed over power to the elected government after the national elections of December 29 in 2008.
"We waited for months to get a message from the upazila or district administration to go to Dhaka for routine treatment as directed by physician but in vain," Mohsena Begum said.
After a few months, Mohsena along with her husband and three children met Saidpur upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) and requested her to take steps as per advice of the physician in Dhaka.
But the UNO told her that she had nothing to do in this regard.
As this correspondent recently visited the hapless family's hut that was built on others land, he learnt that the three children had stopped going to school as their eyesight problem worsened.
Nobody gives Nazrul any work due to his serious visual problem while his wife, working as domestic help in neighbours' houses, struggles hard to maintain the family.
Contacted, Saidpur UNO Sabina Alam told this correspondent that she did not get any fund from the government for helping Nazrul and his three children after arranging their treatment in Dhaka.
"I had contacted with several NGOs to find a way to rehabilitate them. I also directed the union parishad chairman concerned to include the family in any government programme for helping the poor. It would be unwise to say that former chief advisor's directive was ignored after the political government came to power."
Musauddin Pramanik, chairman of Bangalipur union parishad, said, "Nazrul's Family was given a card under the government's vulnerable group development programme. But the help given against the card is not sufficient even to sustain the family, let alone their eye treatment."
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