S Dilip Roy

With frustration in his eyes, rice grower Raziur Rahman was seen selling paddy reluctantly to a buyer at Durakuti Haat in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila last Tuesday.

By the time Saminul Islam reached the government buying centre with 500kg of paddy on Thursday, the officials had already wrapped up the procurement activities there. No more buying, he was told, because the procurement limit was reached.

Like many others, chhola boot (fried and spiced chickpeas), puffed rice, beguni (a popular item prepared with aubergine), piyaju (made with finely chopped onion with lentil paste) and seasonal fruits should be their usual iftar items but farm labourer Abu Taleb, his wife and two daughters used to break their fast with chal bhaja (fried rice) daily.

If it were before 1983, people would be seen fishing at the exact same spot where children now play football, on Teesta’s sandy floor lying arid and barren. The river is no longer blessed with water, except for a few months of the year.

Villagers in Baura union of Patgram upazila reacted with disbelief after they found out that the union parishad (UP) chairman himself auctioned off 240 live trees beside a road.

In a span of five years’ time, since 2014, they lost their 32 decimals of ancestral land to an influential local -- not once, not twice, but a staggering five times!

Sahanara Begum Soma pioneered green tea farming in 2007 in the plain lands of Lalmonirhat, improving the economic fate of the poor farmers in her locality.

Boat making charge has doubled this year in the district, much to the worry of char people, especially fishermen and boatmen.

Physically challenged train passengers at Lalmonirhat railway station have been suffering a lot for long as the flat entrance to the station platform, especially built for them, was kept locked for four years, thanks to the authorities indifferent to the nuisance.

A bridge on a canal was damaged and its approach roads, part of Kakina-Aminganj road in Lalmonirhat's Kaliganj upazila, were washed away by floodwaters in August of 2017, but the authorities are yet to replace or repair those.

Protap Chandra Roy is yet to get the government allowances meant for freedom fighters (FFs) due to a 'slow process'.

An 11-kilometre-long portion of the highway connecting Burimari land port with Lalmonirhat via Patgram is in such a state that at least five to six trucks break down there every day.

Abdur Rashid is a marginal farmer revered and respected for a completely different role he has been playing for the last nine years in the remote village of Lalmonirhat's Dakkhin Dalgram Parshurampara.

The farm had only one cow and a hundred chickens. Now, ten years later, it has 75 hybrid dairy cows, 20 goats, 6 thousand chickens and 200 pigeons. The farm now spans over 11 acres of land in three separate plots where special grass for livestock, fruits, flower and spices are also grown.

Ninety-year-old Language Movement veteran Abdul Quader Bhasani still works hard at his spice field amid enthusiasm while most people in his age stay indoors and live a passive life.

The Sindurna char in Lalmonirhat that once saw at least three maternal deaths in a year is now free of the menace, thanks to the free of cost prenatal services being arranged in the remote char.

Rampant use of stone crushers is causing severe noise and air pollution in Lalmonirhat's Burimari land port area under Patgram upazila.

When other children of his age are at school, it was third grader Golam Rabbani's turn to tend plants at a field. His parents are growing tobacco in the field in Baje Majurai village of Mahendranagar union under Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila.

Many rural roads under different upazilas of the district have been facing threat of collapse as local brick kiln owners continued removing the topsoil from roadside farmlands, using excavator machines.

A good number of women in char (landmass emerging from riverbed) areas of Teesta and Dharla rivers are now engaged in cattle rearing to bring solvency to their families.