S Dilip Roy

It has been two decades since the longevity of Teesta Railway Bridge in Lalmonirhat’s Sadar upazila expired. But till this day, hundreds of people cross the bridge daily, risking their lives.

About 10,000 farmers across five districts, namely Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Nilphamari and Rangpur, are benefitting from the production, use and sale of vermicompost, which is a natural fertiliser produced by decomposing organic material using earthworms.

On the bank of the Brahmaputra, 60-year-old Sekendar Ali had sown seeds of hope for his family, with just his own hands and a spade. But little did he know, the tides of the river had a different fate in store for him.

Once upon a time, flowers were cultivated in acres and acres of fields in a Lalmonirhat village, so much so that the place was named Fulgachh, which literally means a flower tree.

It has been 12 years since Felani, a Bangladeshi teenager, was shot dead by a member of India’s Border Security Force and left hanging from the barbed fence of the border along Kurigram, but her family is still waiting for justice.

Ekramul Haque, a farmer of Lalmonirhat sadar upazila, had leased four acres of land in Harati union back in 2018 to try his hand at growing oranges.

Jatiya Party’s Mostafizar Rahman Mostafa was reelected  Rangpur mayor while the ruling Awami League candidate, in the fourth position, managed to bag only 8 percent of the vote in the city corporation polls yesterday.

Both the ruling Awami League and opposition Jatiya Party said they would win the Rangpur City Corporation election today.

Ghoshal Sarobar, a pond on the premises of the 400-year-old  Tushbhander Zamindar Bari in Lalmonirhat’s Kaliganj upazila, was leased to a local resident for fish farming. He has, however, constructed over a hundred shops illegally by filling the pond’s bank with earth.

While date molasses is being sold at Tk 160 per kilogramme (kg) in local markets, the same product made by seasonal producers is going for up to Tk 200 per kg from the factory floor, according to traders.

Teachers and officials engaged in temple-based pre-primary education programmes in Lalmonirhat are in trouble as they are not getting salaries for 18 months.

When almost all the 26 small rivers in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram have already been dried up, the two major rivers--Teesta and Dharla -- have turned into narrow channels due to lack of water flow from the upstream, creating hindrance to the livelihood of thousands of people living in different shoal areas of the two districts.

The process of reopening a defunct customs station and immigration checkpost on the Bangladesh-India border in Lalmonirhat has been underway since September this year, said Shahriar Alam, state minister for foreign affairs, yesterday.

The reopening of Mogalhat, a decommissioned land port on the Bangladesh-India border in Lalmonirhat, has been stalled for a long time now even though resuming trade and immigration activities would be of great benefit to local businesspeople, according to officials.

With a goal to build a well-read society, Sarpukur Youth Forum Library, situated in a remote village of Lalmonirhat’s Aditmari upazila, has been a hub for like-minded people who love to read and educate themselves.

Rasheda Beram (28), a mother of two and a homemaker of a poor family in Kurigram’s Chilmari upazila barely forgot the last time she spent a day with a smile on her face.

Local farmers are getting frustrated as two illegal brick kilns, demolished by the local administration over one and a half years ago in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila, have started operation once again.

Local farmers are getting frustrated as two illegal brick kilns, demolished by the local administration over one and a half years ago, in Sadar upazila have started operation once again.

Peanut farmers in the greater Rangpur region have been left disappointed this year as prices for their produce are far below the expected level of Tk 7,000 to Tk 7,500 per maund (37 kilogrammes).

Aman paddy harvesting season has begun, but the general mass is struggling to buy rice as the price of the staple food is still high in the local market.