Nilphamari boro farmers besiege power office
Several hundred boro farmers of Sadar upazila yesterday besieged the district office of Rural Electrification Board (REB), demanding uninterrupted power supply for smooth irrigation.
Police and REB officials said, farmers from at least 10 villages -- Khoksabari, Chaora, Gorgram, Kundupukur, Polashbari, Tupamari, Ramnagar, Laxmichap, Charaikhola and Itakhola -- gathered on Nilphamari-Saidpur road in front of the REB office at about 1.00pm and later besieged the power office.
At the time of protest, a meeting of the 'regional power management committee' was going on at the REB office, chaired by chief engineer of PDB Masud Al Faruk.
Agitating farmer Abdul Jabbar of Khokshabari village alleged he had cultivated boro on 16 bighas of land.
"As we get only one to two hours of power supply a day, which is also disrupted four to five times due to frequent load-shedding, we cannot irrigate boro," he said, adding most of our boro plants have turned yellow".
Farmers Noor Islam of Dhakkhin Chaora village, Bimol Chandra Roy of Gorgram village complained that at least 20 power pump motors went out of order due to frequent load shedding.
During agitation, farmers tried to enter the REB office to meet the high officials of PDB and REB present at the meeting. But police closed the gate to prevent the farmers.
At one stage, general manager (GM) of REB in Nilphamari SM Habibur Rahman along with other officials went to the spot under police protection.
The GM assured the farmers of uninterrupted power supply within a few days.
During the siege, about a hundred vehicles remained stranded on both sides of the road causing immense suffering to the passengers.
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