Fast-unto-death event postponed

Land subsidence affected villagers around Barapukuria Coal Mine area postponed their fast-till-death programme on Thursday night after Dinajpur deputy commissioner's office gave assurance of compensation within January 30.
On January 2, residents of 10 affected villages around the mine called a three-day fast programme in Dinajpur's Parbatipur upazila demanding full payment of Tk 190 crore damages.
The programme was later changed into fast-till-death Thursday night, as authorities remained indifferent to their demand.
However, on the same night in a meeting held between leaders of Jibon O Shampad Rakkha Committee and upazila administration officials, the affected villagers accepted the DC office's assurance.
“We agree with their proposal and called off the programme for now,” said Ibrahim Khalil, convener of Jibon O Shampad Rakkha Committee, adding that if the DC office breach the agreement then the programme would resume in the first week of February. Over Tk 5,26,00,000 was distributed among 113 villagers yesterday.
Zakir Hossain, ADC (Revenue) of Dinajpur, Mujib-Ul-Ferdous UNO of Parbatipur, advisers of Jibon O Shampad Rakkha Committee Sultan Mahmud, Sadequl Islam and Farhad Hossain were present at the meeting among others.
From September 22 last year, the DC office gave cheques to affected villagers but it was only 40 percent of the full amount, said villagers and DC office sources.