<i>Cheque returned as amount 'too small'</i>

A cheque for Tk 10,000, given by Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila parishad chairman for 311 Teesta erosion-hit families of Khuniyagachh union, has been sent back to him.
Khuniyagachh Union Parishad Chairman Khairuzzaman Mandol returned the cheque to UZ Chairman Nazrul Haque Patwary on Thursday, saying the amount is too small to support the erosion victims.
The UP chairman said 311 families were rendered homeless and farmlands, two mosques, two schools and a temple were eroded by the Teesta in his union last month.
“Upazila Parishad Chairman Nazrul Haque Patwary told me to submit a list of erosion-hit families to his office. Accordingly, I prepared a list of 311 families and submitted it to the UZ office. The upazila chairman on November 5 sanctioned only Tk 10,000 for the victims,” UP chairman Mandol said.
Erosion victim Shamsul Alam, 62, of Khuniyagachh village said,”My homestead, five bighas of cropland and a bamboo cluster were eroded by the Teesta in the middle of October, but the upazila chairman sanctioned only Tk 32 for me.”
He hailed the decision of the union parishad to return the cheque to the upazila parishad chairman.