& 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

Please sir, may I haue some rice?

Jahangir Aiam, Netrakona
"Please sir, may I have some rice? I just want one kg, my family has not had a proper meal in two days."
Aslam Mia, a day labourer, almost begged the Open Market Sale (OMS) dealer at Rajur Bazar under Netrakona pourashabha yesterday but was turned down.
He was refused because there was no nee ten at me snop oy me time Aslam's turn came.
Aslam, of Bahirchapra area, had sold a cooking pot to get the money to buy one kg rice at Tk 25.
He has been without work for two days now like Niran Das from Bichipara village. Niran has no savings and had sold a mango tree -- at only Tk 200 — to buy rice. “I sold my only possession and yet 1 am not sure if I will get any rice today," a womed Niran told The Daily Star as he waited in the queue.
“My pregnant wife and two -year-old son have been living on boiled potatoes for the last two days, that’s all I could manage for them," Niran said, his voice thick with emotion.
Like Aslam and Niran, thousands of day labourers, marginal farmers and even people with regular jobs like non-govemment school and college teachers in the ten upazilas of Netrokona are the losers in the fight against rising prices.
Coarse rice was selling at Tk 34 to 36 per kg in Netrokona yesterday while fine rice sold for Tk 40 to 44. The OMS shops sold coarse rice at the subsidised rate ofTk 25.
Abdul Karim, a marginal farmer from Bijoypur said all marginal farmers in the area are struggling to get two meals a day. Like him, most of them lost their aman harvest to the floods and are left with nothing. Their families are living on the occasional potatoes. An indigenous schoolteacher of a Garo Baptist Convention (GBC) school in Durgapur spoke to The Daily Star requesting anonymity.
“I came to the Amlapara shop to buy rice with 150 taka I have borrowed. We had nothing lo eat but hilly arum for the last three days"
It has become impossible for this teacher to feed a family of five on his monthly salary ofTk 1800.
Rafiqul Alam, a non-govemment high school teacher, has the same story. He told The Daily Star that he tries his best to not let people who know him see him standing at the OMS centre queue with destitute people.
“The price of rice has increased more than a two-fold but has my salary? How can I manage?" he asks, “Teachers like me have to swallow their pride and buy rice from here."
OMS dealers in the district said that they turn down around 40 per cent of those who queue up at the shops because of stock shortages.
To tackle this in the short run, some OMS dealers are not selling more than 2kg to each person so that more people are able to get at least a small portion of rice.
With this shortage, and the poverty. the number of people almost begging for a little rice at the OMS centres in Netrokona is not about to go down.