& 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

Crisis in the North
North Bengal is not a world apart from the rest ot the country but It surely has its special at-tributes as well as problems. Indeed, every region ot the country is different with its bounties and lackings and all of them together make a whole. The northern region is currently experiencing a sort of famine not officially acknowledged. But reports regularly carried in different dailies give an unmistakable picture of famine stalking at least parts of the greater Rangpur district. President of Gapo Forum. Dr Kamal Hossain, after his visit to the region, has demanded that the region be declared a distress area.
Known as a deficit area for long, Rangpur. Gaibandha. Nllphamari. SiraJganJ. Thakurgaon. Panchagar, Lalmpnirhat, Kurigram etc have faced a prolonged drought this year at a time when the cultivation of aman paddy was supposed to go on in full swing. It needs little elaboration to get an idea of what happens when the main crop of an entire area gets lost due to natural vagaries. When the crop failure was reported, we ran an editorial asking for meeting the emergency situation. However our plea seems to hav« fallen on deaf
Now the situation is worsening with every passing day. People are dying of starvation and the authority refuses to accept the fact. Instead, if is very adamant to pass the incidents of death as the death from diarrhoea. With virtually no preparation for meeting the emergency situation in the area, the government's refusal to accept the fact can be politically convenient but for the famine-stricken people it surely is a cruel dispensation. Our suggestion was that free-food — which has to be cooked — centres for the starving people should be started because the distribution of foodgrains leaves enough leeway’ for mishandling <>f the programme and even misappropriation of the cereals.
Reports reaching here are categorical that the government feeding programme has proved to be too little too late. Whether the arga is declared as a distress area or not, is entirely an administrative choice. Any such declaration makes some sort of a difference in that national attention is drawn to the issue and a collective attempt is made to share the burden of the wherewithal. If the government feels its administrative capacity to meet the situation is good enough, no question ot finding fault with the decision. But if it does neither take the responsibility of making the nation known of the real situation nor engage its organs for efficiently dealing with the emergency, then of course it is faltering on the most important Job of managing an affair involving the lives of people.
The structure of North Bengal society is such that a persistent food deficiency has chain real tion on the vulnerable groups, peasants In particular. Even if emergency food delivery is ensured, the real farmers have te borrow money from Jotdars (a class of land owners) at an irrationally high rate of interest for cultivation of their land on lease. With the farmers providing the inputs and repaying the loans qt^thg.time of harvest, they are left with little crop as their share. Reportedly the agricultural rehabilitation, programme in the North of the country has already run into a snag. The scheme drafted for i overing as many as 33,000 small farmers has been sliced to benefit only 1.700 of them.
So the cumulative effects of a flawed relief programme and a reduced agricultural rehabilitation scheme will be felt for a longer tune than expected. The government seems to be little aware of the negative impacts of such a sit nation on the economy as a ‘whole. The people of the area have been forced to sell their last bits of possession to keep their body and soul together. Their purchasing power has fallen to the lowest possible level. The situation therefore demands a crash programme both for feeding the starving people and for their agricultural rehabilitation.