''Govt to provide food aid to flood affected families''

The government will provide food aid to all flood-affected families in the haor areas, said Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossen Chowdhury Maya.

"The government has adequate food grains ...so nobody will suffer from any food shortage during the reign of the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," the minister said this while addressing a meeting at Abdul Gani Bhuiyan High School in Mithamoin upazila under Kishorganj district yesterday.

After visiting the flood-affected areas of the upazila, the minister asked the concerned officials to send the demand notes for food grains immediately after carrying out assessment on the demand in the affected areas.

Local Parliament Member Rezwan Ahemed Towfique, Disaster Management and Relief Secretary Mohammad Shah Kamal, Director General of the Department of Disaster Management M Riaz Ahmed, officials of the local administration, among others, were present.

According to the report of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), standing crops on 24,100 hectares of land out of 99,200 hectares under Itna, Mithamoin and Austrogram upazilas were damaged due to flooding.

Meanwhile, speakers at a roundtable meeting in here in the capital today urged the government to take proper steps immediately for protecting lives and standing crops of those affected by the early floods in haor areas, including Sunamganj, Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj.

"The government should have to take steps immediately for removing all the problems of the common people created due to the early floods in the haor areas," said former advisor to the caretaker government Advocate Sultana Kamal.

She was addressing the roundtable organized by Association for Land Reforms and Development (ALRD) in association with Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) and Water Rights Forum.

Source: BSS