Sohrab Hossain

After the demise of her landless husband, domestic help Runu Begum, 45, with her only child Surma, took shelter at her father's house at Sakhipur village in Barguna's Bamna upazila several years ago. Surma is now an HSC first year student of a local college.

Good news for local residents as well as tourists in Kuakata.

Two local traders have allegedly built over 50 tin-sheds on Kuakata beach and rented those to small traders who run cheap hotels, restaurants, tea-stalls and handicraft shops. The tin-sheds are divided into two markets, Sarder Market and Sunrise Market, near Zero Point.

A section of Yaba smugglers are using 'safer and less costly' waterways to bring the illegal drug from Cox's Bazar or Myanmar to Kalapara in the district, said public representatives and local elites at a recent upazila development committee meeting.

Fighting odds like congenital physical challenge and family poverty, Gious Uddin achieved a bachelor degree 16 years ago.

One hundred and thirty families who lost their home due to land acquisition for construction of 1,320MW Payra Thermal Power Station at Dhankhali under the district's Kalapara upazila are now happily waiting to get their new houses.

Instead of cultivating their farmlands, many villagers of four moujas in Dhankhali union under Kalapara upazila built hundreds of houses on their lands between May and September as the lands have been acquired for building a power plant in the union, and the compensation rate is higher for homesteads than farmlands.

Bidders of Baliatali kheya ghat (boat landing station) in Kalapara upazila under the district force the passengers to pay four to five

The common playground of two schools in Amtali upazila of Barguna, and an open field in Kalapara upazila of Patuakhali remain under water for six months a year, much to the trouble for students and locals.

Uncertainty has gripped crop cultivation on over 3,000 acres of land at a number of villages in two upazilas of Patuakhali and adjacent Barguna as saline water keeps entering the croplands through the collapsed embankment on Bauria canal.

A five-member broker gang allegedly swindled over Tk 47 lakh and 2.70 tonnes of rice from villagers in different areas of Amtali upazila under Barguna district in the name of providing power connection from Rural Electrification Board (REB), said a group of cheated people at Amtali Upazila Press Club yesterday noon.

Most of the roads in Patuakhali municipality have remained in awfully bad condition and became unfit for use due to lack of renovation work, much to the sufferings of the townspeople.

Risky journey by small launches and trawlers continues on different routes in the coastal areas of the district during the ongoing stormy period, defying a yearly government ban.

Believe it or not, a well furnished government primary school in Kalapara upazila under the district is running with three teachers and seven students.

Not a single student passed this year's Dakhil examinations from four madrasas in Sadar, Mirzaganj and Baufal upazilas.

Although the construction work of a biogas plant with a capacity to produce 80 kilowatts of power in Dashmina upazila of Patuakhali under Barisal was completed in June 2016, it is still sitting idle.

Ten teachers of Lamua Chandrakanda Alim Madrasa under Mirzaganj upazila in the district have continued receiving

Influential people are building structures in Kuakata town haphazardly, defying ban on construction without permission.

The ongoing Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent Dakhil and SSC (vocational) examinations at all 12 centres in Baufal

People from home and abroad are losing interest in visiting the Kuakata tourist spot as most of the facilities have been damaged by tidal surge from the Bay of Bengal.