Crisis in Haors: Long queues for OMS rice

It was 6:00am yesterday when Mina Begum reached a dealer of rice meant for open market sale (OMS) in Pachim Juri union of Moulvibazar.

Though only the first 200 customers are served a day, the 45-year-old stood in a queue behind 418 others, keeping alive the false hope that the dealer might have a change of mind and bend the rule at the last moment.

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The desperation was evident as she told this correspondent of it being the second consecutive day that she had spent Tk 40 to reach the OMS centre in Basidpur area, starting off on an empty stomach in the early hours from her home in Khagtega village of Juri upazila.

The queue was still quite long when this conversation took place around 1:30pm. Mina kept waiting, the thought of her seven family members keeping her spirit alive.

Rice plants rotting under water in the upazila's Khagtega area. Photo: Star

The district administration says 4,26,775 people have been affected in the floods hitting late March and April and only around 1,000 got vulnerable group feeding (VGF) cards.

That explained the long queues at the district's 17 OMS centres where one can buy a maximum of five kilogrammes of rice for Tk 15 a kilogramme.

Mina, along with the hundred others arriving at the Basidpur OMS centre from areas adjoining Hakaluki Haor, urged this correspondent to make public their demand for more OMS centres.

AL'S OBAIDUL QUADER ON BNP

BNP is interested in photo sessions only, not in standing by flood victims of haors, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader alleged at a rally in Juri upazila yesterday morning.

Refuting BNP's allegation that the government is not taking adequate measures to ease sufferings of the flood victims, he said, “They (BNP) do not provide relief assistance to the people."

The Awami League's Moulvibazar district unit organised the rally to distribute relief among flood victims.

Replying to a query on whether BNP will participate in the next parliamentary polls, he said, “Irrespective of what they are saying at the moment, they will ultimately participate.”

FARMERS' RALLY IN SUNAMGANJ

Farmers, rights activists and local  council representatives at a rally yesterday afternoon demanded adequate support for people of haors and punishing those whose negligence and corruption led to building of faulty embankments, which gave way to flood waters recently.

Eminent rights activist advocate Sultana Kamal demanded that the government take up long-term plans to protect haor areas especially during seasons when natural calamities hit regularly.

Sultana Kamal also demanded an end to the leasing out of haors and giving locals the scope to freely fish in the waters.

Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kori, demanded waiving all kind of loans and giving out more loans to farmers so that they can recoup losses through Boro cultivation again.

The rally was organised for farmers by a platform, Poribesh O Haor Unnayan Sangstha, at the Tahirpur Upazila Parishad Complex in Sunamganj.

The platform raised a six-point demand including providing "compensation" to farmers in haor areas, dredging rivers and canals there, building proper embankments in some areas and protecting the ecosystem there.

[Our Sylhet and Moulvibazar correspondents contributed to the report.]