Pinaki Roy

West Bengal moves to divert more water from the river

According to a new study, at least 56 rivers flowing through different parts of the country are suffering from extreme pollution during the lean period -- when natural flows of rivers are at their lowest

A Tk 3,020 crore government project to popularise cultivation on big plots of land with the help of modern agricultural tools has seen little success in the last two years.

At least 1,053 people were killed and 9.4 million more displaced internally in different climate-related disasters in 58 districts in seven years from 2014, says a recent study.

"On one hand, there was a fear of being the target of machete attacks while there were laws like the ICT Act. We were sandwiched in between. "

When Abdul Haque woke up at dawn yesterday, not even the bone-chilling cold or the fog could stop him from getting out onto the field.

"The only security of all is in a free press," Thomas Jefferson, famous American statesman and the country’s third president once said.

When Covid-19 began to spread at an exponential rate across countries in January 2020, ministers and government officials in Bangladesh assured people that "adequate measures" were taken to prevent coronavirus from entering the country.

Bangladesh made gains in food production and ensured the availability of rice in recent years. But surging inflation, erratic weather, and the Russia-Ukraine war affected the availability of cereals and reduced low-income people’s access to food this year.

Only two decades ago, people bathed in the Hyderabad canal in Tongi, Gazipur.

Paddy farmers in the northern districts have struggled to turn a profit for the past five years, as production costs have risen significantly but rice prices have not increased proportionally.

When Bangladesh and India were about to ink a deal on sharing the Teesta water in 2010, people living by the river in Rangpur region dreamt of better days.

The Joint Rivers Commission has not been much effective in resolving the issues of water sharing of transboundary rivers due to a lack of commitment from India and also for Bangladesh’s technical incapacity to be persuasive.

Azmat Ali is a daily wage earner in the northern district of Lalmonirhat. Just a week ago, he bought coarse rice for Tk 44-45 a kg. But yesterday he found the price of the staple rose to Tk 52.

Twenty-two years have come and gone since her husband was shot to death, but Selina Akhter Lucky has all but given up hope for justice for the brutal murder.

Indigenous leaders and researchers have questioned the accuracy of ethnic population data shown in the latest census report and said the actual figure would be much higher.

Floods, low rainfall and then fertiliser price hike -- the woes of farmers just won’t stop. And now, they will have to bear the brunt of a sudden 42.5 percent rise in diesel cost, which is likely to make them spend an additional Tk 4,000 in irrigation for per hectare Boro production.

After a spell of extreme heat and scanty rain in the last two consecutive months, farmers across the country were expecting favourable weather for a good harvest of rain-fed Aman paddy, which accounts for 39 percent of total grain production.

The government has raised the price of urea fertiliser for the first time in 11 years, burdening the farmers with an increased production cost.

It has been around a month since flood waters began receding across Sylhet division.