Several thousand slum dwellers of all ages, who lost their shelter due to the ongoing eviction drive of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and Bangladesh Railway, are passing their days amid utter suffering as they are yet to get any help from any quarters.

The evicted slum dwellers in Bhasantek, Mirpur Kalshi, and near Karwan Bazar and Mohakhali railway tracks are passing the cold nights under the temporary shelters made of corrugated tin or polythene sheet.

However, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) distributed old clothes and rice among the dwellers of Mohammadpur Bashpatti slum that was gutted on Monday night.

In Bhasantek slum, eviction-affected shopkeepers were seen sitting on the street with their groceries or vegetables for sale yes-

terday. They spent the last night under the open sky after DCC bulldozers knocked down their houses and shops to widen the Mirpur-Bhasantek road.

“I came here from Bhola in the year of the Liberation War. Since then different governments demolished my houses here for five times,” said elderly Maleka Begum, who was sitting in front of her demolished house.

Staring blank with her cataract-affected eyes, Maleka said, "Last time I voted for BNP and got nothing but house demolishing and price hiking. This time I will not vote for anybody."

The problem of Minara Begum, Monti Mia, Ratan Mia and many others is more severe. As they took loan from NGOs under micro-credit programme, they have to pay Tk 175 every week although their small businesses are gone.

“I could not go for work leaving all my things on the street. We spent last night on the cot under the open sky. Now how can I go for work to earn bread and how will I repay the NGO loan?” said Ratan Mia, a fisherman.

Tasnura, a nine-year-old girl, who along with 40 kids studies at a school run by Assistance for Slum Development, said the police demolished their schoolhouse too.

"I came to know from newspapers that many lawmakers grabbed lands in Gazipur and built industry there. But the government cannot provide us 10 feet land for our shelter,” said Monti Mia, a grocery shop owner.

People from the slum near the railway tracks in Karwan Bazar and Mohakhali areas are staying in makeshift houses a little away so that they can come back when the situation becomes 'normal' again.

However, the dwellers of Bashpatti slum in Mohammadpur that was gutted on Monday midnight, told this correspondent that Rab members gave them some old clothes and a few kilograms of rice for each family.

There the slum dwellers have started making bamboo structures for their shanties.