Waiting for the end of monga spell

Roving Correspondent, from Rangpur

The grim shadow of near-famine, locally known as monga, is likely to lengthen in Rangpur and Gaibandha for another 15 days but might fade out of six other northern districts in a week or so, officials and experts forecast.
Agriculture experts blamed the crisis partly on standing floodwaters in Rangpur and Gaibandha, where thousands of people have been living next door to starvation since early September.
Floodwaters receded from the arable land of the Himalayan uplands of Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon and Dinajpur 10 days after the flood spell set in, but stayed as long as a month in Rangpur and Gaibandha, delaying the cultivation of aman rice, agriculture expert Mohiuddin Ahmed explained.
Ahmed, deputy director of Kurigram Agricultural Extension Department, said drought in September, twinned with delayed farming and harvest, resulted in scarcity of grains.
"The harvest will begin in mid-November, which will open up job opportunities for workers," State Minister for Youth and Sports Fazlur Rahman said at a recent press conference at Kurigram Circuit House.
He said the government initiated a Tk 300 crore project to roll back monga that sweeps farm-dependent eight districts in the north, forcing millions to live through scarcity every year.
Worse threatened as micro-credit disbursement decreased this year, said an NGO worker in Rangpur, preferring not to be named.
"Credit recipients can hardly afford payback for loans and the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) feel discouraged to dole out credit," he said.
A bleak scene unfolds in Kurigram and Rangpur every day: men, women and children living on the outermost edge of society are turning to inedible food in their frantic bid to survive.
In eight villages of Laxmitari union in Gangachhara upazila, Rangpur, many workers found themselves begging for survival, finding no alternative.
The Teesta river erosion hit seven of ten unions of Gangachhara upazila home to 2.5 lakh people, worsening the situation the destitute are living in.
Some 13,000 people on 27 shoals in and around the upazila were left with almost nothing to live on.
Gangachhara Upazila Nirbahi Officer Fazlul Haq said 12,000 VGF (vulnerable group feeding) cards were distributed among monga-affected people.