Mintu Deshwara

Habiganj town’s one of the largest government-owned ponds -- on nearly 200 decimals of land -- is right across the office of Water Development Board (WDB).

Meant to be used for a public library, the building in Notun Bazar area of Tahirpur upazila town in Sunamganj is being used for everything else but a library since its construction was completed 33 years ago.

Construction of the trauma centre in Habiganj’s Bahubal upazila was completed in 2013 but it is yet to be opened due to lack of electricity and gas connections.

A church was ransacked and at least one person sustained injury during an attack on Ichhachhara Khasi village in Kulaura upazila on Monday night -- several hours after the upazila administration in a raid evicted illegal occupants from a betel leaf garden belonging to an indigenous family at Katabari Paan Jum.

Several thousand farmers are finally cultivating Aman rice again on about 400 hectares of land, in Kawadighi Haor of Moulvibazar Sadar and Rajnagar upazilas, which otherwise had been under water for about twenty years.

Allegations are surfacing about a rice dealer who is giving short weight to recipients of an affordable rice distribution programme of the government in Moulvibazar’s Baralekha upazila.

A contractor abandoned construction of a road that was scheduled to be finished by May this year, under Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Nabiganj upazila of Habiganj.

It is called Old Khowai and as if to justify its name, it is on its deathbed being deserted by all.

The water has a yellowish tinge and is even somewhat black in parts. The strong stench it emanates keeps people from going near it.

The huge quantities of garbage collected from Habiganj town is left in the open space on an important road, causing serious environment pollution and posing health hazard for the locals.

Tea gardeners in Moulvibazar have seen a new business prospect in the market of coffee and started leaning towards coffee cultivation.

Exactly when the world went into a complete standstill due to the coronavirus outbreak, it was also time for Bengal loach or Rani fish to breed. Good weather and total absence of people from the haors due to a shutdown resulted in their return.

Communications on roads in Sunamganj have become extremely difficult after three back-to-back floods destroyed about 930 kilometres of roads in the district.

A mangetout seed invented by a team of researchers of Sylhet Agricultural University (SAU) has opened new opportunities for farmers to grow the winter crop round the year.

In the vast expanse of Moulvibazar’s Baikka Beel, there are wooden boxes painstakingly set up some distance apart from each other.

Forty-three-year-old Khairun Begum, a resident of Hajipur union in Moulvibazar, has been getting old-age allowance over the last few years.

Farmers are expecting a bumper harvest of Aus paddy this season, for the first time in Moulvibazar in ten years.

Illegal silica sand lifting at various quarries in Moulvibazar continues unabated while the Bureau of Mineral Development is yet to conduct an environmental impact assessment of the extraction zones despite a High Court order two years ago.

It has been a good time for lemon farmers as they are getting fair prices of the fruit amid the pandemic. The growers in Sreemangal upazila are largely dependent on lemon farming.

Summer fruits like watermelon sell very well during normal times, when sweeter and vibrant coloured fruit varieties usually sell better. But this year’s summer is like no other.