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Inadequate relief, diarrhoea cripple people in N-region

Khetmajur Samity leaders say

STAFF CoRRESPoNDENT
The lives of the people in the northern region where a famine-like situation has been prevailing are under threat, Bangladesh Khetmajur Samity leaders said yesterday after a visit to the region.
The monga (famine-like situation) and outbreak of diarrhoea have left over 1,000 people dead and triggered a mass migration of starving people, they said at a press conference in the city.
The seasonal monga has assumed its extreme form in about 100 upazilas of Nilphamari, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat, and Naogaon districts.
The farm labourers have been jobless for long and they are passing their days in starvation as there is no food-for-work and test relief programmes, the leaders said.
"The food crisis in the region this year is acute," said the Samity General Secretary Saiful Huq.
According to media reports, more than 1,000 people died of starvation and diarrhoea in the northern districts in the past three months -- Bhadra, Ashwin, and Kartik, said the leaders.
Hundreds of people are being affected with diarrhoea everyday as they are forced to take inedible food day after day, they said.
"The people are too poor to afford even an oral saline to cure diarrhoea," Saiful Huq said while reading out a written statement.
"Men, women and children are dying everyday due to lack of treatment and medication at the upazila health complexes." Moreover, skyrocketing prices of essentials have worsened the situation for the marginalised and low-income people, he added.
To cope with the situation, the labourers are selling their labour in advance at Tk 25 to 30 per day instead of usual Tk 70 to 80 and the farmers are selling their paddy harvest in advance at a rate of Tk 150 to 180 per mound when the market price is Tk 250 to 300.
"More than 50 per cent students of my school have been suffering from starvation, " said Samity VicePresident Anwar Hossain quoting Mamtaj Uddin, a teacher of Jhunagachha Safani Dimukhi High School in Dimla Upazila of Nilphamari.
"During the visit, we came across a gathering of about 300 people at Kanchipara, Gaibandha, who were waiting for the UP chairman in the hope of getting some food," said Shiblul Bari, a leader of the Samity.
The leaders criticised the government for not taking adequate relief programmes for the affected people.
The Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) cards are also not being allocated as required, they said.
Some UNO officials and union parishad chairmen also blamed inadequate relief grants and local politicians' interference in relief distribution for the situation, the leaders said.