Mintu Deshwara

The rubber industry in Sylhet is facing tough times due to a continuous fall in prices.

These days, Shamnarayan Goor doesn’t do much other than sitting on the porch of his hut and watching the day go by, over the hilly terrain of Lungla Tea Garden in Sylhet.

An eight-storey building was built for it at a cost of Tk 30.25 crore, but the 250-bed Habiganj Sadar Hospital has yet to start its operations after more than four years of its inauguration.

Residents near Ekhtiyarpur canal in Madhabpur upazila of Habiganj can now finally breathe a sigh of relief after a factory in the vicinity was shut down for polluting the environment with industrial waste.

“I only had some shemai (sweet vermicelli) this morning. I don't have any new dress this Eid.”

There are a total of 424 haor areas in Sylhet where boro paddy is cultivated. Due to a lack of free space in the region, local roads and highways are the first choice among farmers to dry and thresh their stock.

Young Nurjahan Begum and Nuru Mia got married in early 1971.

Farmers that cultivated yardlong bean in fallow lands in two unions of Kulaura upazila in Sylhet’s Moulvibazar district are enjoying tremendous success thanks to bumper yields and a reasonable market price.

Farmers have already harvested about 25 per cent of the boro paddy sown in haor areas of Sylhet despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Sunflower cultivation in Sylhet’s haor areas has helped thousands of farmers secure financial solvency as they successfully made good use of the abandoned lands.

Dipthandu Dip Roy Bablu’s family was thrown into uncertainty when his young son was diagnosed with autism. Bablu was at his wit’s end to figure out how he would get treatment for the young Debabrata Roy in Kusumbagh area of Moulvibazar sadar upazila.

After black, green and white tea, growers in Bangladesh have developed highly valued yellow tea, a development that will take the country to another step forward in saving foreign currencies spent on importing expensive varieties of the beverage.

The tea industry in Sylhet has been revitalised by recent rains that came after a dry winter season. Around 30 millimetres of rain was recorded in Sylhet on March 8-10, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

Half of the work of a government building has been completed without ensuring the quality of the rod and other materials.

12-year-old Sonia Akhter drew the applause of thousands as she finished top among 30 jockeys in one of Bengal’s traditional events, the ancient competition of horse racing,.

With the goal of bringing fresh water from the Sutang river to irrigate surrounding villages, the authorities re-excavated the Shoiljura canal in Habiganj. Seven years later, the canal has become a means of hazard for nearby villagers and the river itself.

Amidst heightened health consciousness for the pandemic, lemon prices are skyrocketing in its present off season, benefitting a huge number of farmers in Sylhet division, especially those in Moulvibazar’s Sreemangal upazila.

Since her husband Abrahm Soreng died two years ago, 70-year-old Veronica Kerketa doesn’t get the chance to talk in her mother tongue at home. None of her children or grandchildren speak the Kharia language.

The deadline for rehabilitation work of Kulaura-Shahbazpur railway track in Moulvibazar has expired again but only 30 percent of work has been completed.

Tourism in Sreemangal upazila of Moulvibazar has started to bounce back after suffering massive losses from the coronavirus pandemic that has affected almost all sectors of the economy.