& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

The Flash Flood
Flash floods in the eastern districts have till Sunday claimed 38 lives. Of the more than a crore people affected, about a million have been described as marooned The floods have to date engulfed vast tracts of land in 35 upazilas belonging to seven districts and are as yet showing no sign of stopping in its sweep. As much as half of the standing crops in the affected areas are feared to have been completely lost and the condition of what remains would be poor even for a consolation. Death, suffering and material loss is the order of the day in those areas of Sylhet. Comilla and Mymensingh — and the situation wouldn t look up for quite some time even if the spread of water stops in a day or two.
That's a very bad outlook for not only those areas but for the nation as a whole. But the fact remains that the whole nation can hardly come and share in the suffering and lessen the distress of those marooned. Tne cataclysmic elemental strike in the coastal belt a"nd the human and material toll exacted by that are demanding all of the nation's capacity to care — and much more. In other years similar floods — or even lesser inundations — used to engage the full attention of the government as well as the people. This year when that is not simply possible — the floods are fuming with some added disdain for human well-being As if coming in tandem were not enough of a scare.
Man has-been living with such floods in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Bengal Delta for thousands of years. He should have learnt to live with these by now. Not that he hasn't. In any other country such floods would have taken a far greater price. Here people do not perish so easily because of floods. The present floods is something special for it has in a span of a more 72 hours taken 38 lives. These are unfailing indexes to the specially difficult situation in Mouki Bazar and Brahman-baria, Netrakona and HabiganJ.
How will the government as well as the people react to this extra challenge which, as celebrated by the Bengali proverb involving a stalk of spinach on a regular bundle of load, comes on top of a surfeit of problems — perhaps to test us as never have we been tested, for our fitness to tick on as an independent self-reliant and self-respecting people.
The destruction in the offshore belt that surpassed the effects of nuclear bombings of Japan, the steady draining of the sap that gives life to a nation, namely . the will to stand against odds, by the diarrhoeal sweep, and now the deluge in the eastern districts — the combined impact of this all is beyond the power of comprehension of perhaps all in this country, with a handful of talented exceptions here and there with their hearts in the right place. Wouldn't this trebly confounded catastrophe shake us into giving up our ways of ad hoc responses to questions of physical survival of opr society ?
The present challenge — the biggest ever for us in centuries — would very muchleave an em-Khatic message for all willing to look for it and eed it. The visitations would continue. In order to live and prosper, both individually and socially, in spite of them, and may be a little because of them — we shall need to effect very many radical changes not only to our habitation and agricultural pattern — but to our overall economic and social aspects of existence. Anything short of that will mean a very poor country getting abysmally poorer with every elemental strike.
Taking the present challenge successfully in our stride and recasting our society for all it will take, we can. on the other hana reach up to newer horizons of civilised social being freed from poverty and illiteracy, avoidable death and suffering.
Many of the groups collecting relief in Dhaka have started thinking of changing direction and heading for the flooded districts. Not at all a bad Idea. And surely government wouldn't be found wanting in reaching traditional relief in required quantity and on time to the affected areas. The anti-epidemic precautions will have to be taken here too.
Our sympathies to the victims.