Sohrab Hossain

Most owners of brick kilns in Amtali upazila of Barguna do not comply with any rules set by the government. Most of their kilns use illegal drum chimneys, consume firewood as fuel and many of them even have sawmills on the yard.

Shoals on around 33 kilometres of waterways are posing threats to water vessels operating on Patuakhali-Dhaka and Barguna-Dhaka routes.

About five km east from Kuakata zero point and nearly three km west from Kuakata main point in Kalapara upazila, there lies an attractive spot -- Lal Kakrar Char (shoal of red crab) – giving a picturesque look for the tourists from home and abroad.

Although Mayda Government Primary School under Amragachhia union in Mirzaganj upazila was established in 1940, the institution is facing serious student crisis.

The government has approved multiple power projects near hilsa sanctuaries in Patuakhali coastal area, posing a threat to the breeding and nurturing of the national fish.

The palyground of a school in Barguna's Betagi upazila remians covered with plants most of the year as the school authorities cultivate

Defying a court's stay order, a local influential person has built 50 shops on 45 decimals of khas land in Barguna's Amtali upazila.

Visitors have been suffering a lot due to the dilapidated condition of the lone foot rail in Horinghata reserve forest area in Barguna and lack of other facilities.

After the demise of her landless husband, domestic help Runu Begum, 45, with her only child Surma, took shelter at her father's house at Sakhipur village in Barguna's Bamna upazila several years ago. Surma is now an HSC first year student of a local college.

Good news for local residents as well as tourists in Kuakata.

Two local traders have allegedly built over 50 tin-sheds on Kuakata beach and rented those to small traders who run cheap hotels, restaurants, tea-stalls and handicraft shops. The tin-sheds are divided into two markets, Sarder Market and Sunrise Market, near Zero Point.

A section of Yaba smugglers are using 'safer and less costly' waterways to bring the illegal drug from Cox's Bazar or Myanmar to Kalapara in the district, said public representatives and local elites at a recent upazila development committee meeting.

Fighting odds like congenital physical challenge and family poverty, Gious Uddin achieved a bachelor degree 16 years ago.

One hundred and thirty families who lost their home due to land acquisition for construction of 1,320MW Payra Thermal Power Station at Dhankhali under the district's Kalapara upazila are now happily waiting to get their new houses.

Instead of cultivating their farmlands, many villagers of four moujas in Dhankhali union under Kalapara upazila built hundreds of houses on their lands between May and September as the lands have been acquired for building a power plant in the union, and the compensation rate is higher for homesteads than farmlands.

Bidders of Baliatali kheya ghat (boat landing station) in Kalapara upazila under the district force the passengers to pay four to five

The common playground of two schools in Amtali upazila of Barguna, and an open field in Kalapara upazila of Patuakhali remain under water for six months a year, much to the trouble for students and locals.

Uncertainty has gripped crop cultivation on over 3,000 acres of land at a number of villages in two upazilas of Patuakhali and adjacent Barguna as saline water keeps entering the croplands through the collapsed embankment on Bauria canal.

A five-member broker gang allegedly swindled over Tk 47 lakh and 2.70 tonnes of rice from villagers in different areas of Amtali upazila under Barguna district in the name of providing power connection from Rural Electrification Board (REB), said a group of cheated people at Amtali Upazila Press Club yesterday noon.

Most of the roads in Patuakhali municipality have remained in awfully bad condition and became unfit for use due to lack of renovation work, much to the sufferings of the townspeople.