Playing upon monga plight

Anwar Ali, from Kurigram

Relief distributors and loan sharks are cashing in on the desperate plight of millions living close to starvation in eight northern districts reeling under near-famine, locally known as monga.
The spectre of starvation looms up ahead of Shatish Chandra Nandi of Chilmari upazila: once a schoolteacher, the 99-year-old man found himself begging for survival with his wife and adopted daughter.
"I have been going without food for days together. I had only some muri (parched rice) Tuesday morning. I did not get the fund for the elderly. Nor was any VGF (vulnerable group feeding) card available for me in the last six months," cried Nandi, too frail to move alone.
It is alleged that each government-allocated VGF card, meant for free distribution, is sold at up to Tk 50 in Kurigram, one of the monga-hit districts.
Locals accused the government relief distributors of preferring the ruling BNP supporters to the real needy in distributing grains and misappropriating a huge amount of relief.
But State Minister for Youth and Sports Fazlur Rahman denied the allegation in his address to a meeting in Kurigram on Tuesday.
"Relief distributors here are not involved in corruption unlike in Gaibandha," he told another meeting at Durgapur Union Council.
Relief and Disaster Management Deputy Minister Asadul Habib Dulu, visiting Kanchipara union in Fulchhari, Gaibandha, on Tuesday caught Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Akbar Hossain in the act of distributing VGF rice less than allocated 10kg a person.
"The UP members did not give me a VGF card, as I could not pay them Tk 30 they demanded," said 85-year-old Abbas Ali of Fakirpara village.
Sakhina Begum, a widowed mother of five, alleged the UP chairman and members prepared the relief distribution list favouring their party supporters and the poor who gave them money.
On the allegations by Nandi, Abbas and Sakhina at the relief distribution centre at Ramna Primary School, Tofazzal Haq, Ramna union BNP organising secretary, said: "They are rich. It's their business to make extra money through emotive words."
In seconds, about 100 destitute people surrounded Tofazzal and challenged him to show how Nandi, Abbas and Sakhina are rich. Tofazzal fled to escape public wrath.
Ramna UP Chairman Abul Kashem denied the allegations of taking money for VGF cards and said about 3,500 of the 5,000 families in his union are affected by monga and he provided 2,700 families with VGF wheat in the last one month.
Playing on the job and food crises during the spell of near-famine, the moneylenders in Kurigram are giving loans to borrowers and waiting for the aman harvest to get the money back with high interests.
Zahurul of Fulbari Char borrowed Tk 2,000 from Bachhu of Mongalgachha village when monga set in early September. Last week, Bachhu confined Zahurul to his home to collect the money he lent. Zahurul was released on relatives' promise of paying the loans back in a week.
Kobad Ali of Fakir village has a similar story to tell.
Dulu, Saiful, Doshman and Yakub are a few other victims of moneylenders at Buraburi in Ulipur upazila, who tag Tk 300 to Tk 450 in interest a month on every Tk 1,000, villagers said.
Buraburi UP Member Hasina Begum said the UP chairman asked her to prepare a list of 50 people for VGF cards, which put her in a dilemma as about 7,000 need such cards.
Last week, 20 UP members, five of them women, were sued for selling VGF cards and anomalies in card distribution in Alambiditor and Borobeel unions in Gangachhara, Rangpur.
On the five-mile bank of the Brahmaputra river in Chilmari, several hundred destitute people are passing days in plight that recalls the hardship of people in Roumari and Rajibpur upazilas of the district.