Obaidul warns against irregularities in relief distribution

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader has warned that the government will take action if any official is found neglecting the distribution of relief materials among the flood-affected Haor people. He was addressing a programme at Juri upazila in Moulvibazar on Tuesday where some 600 affected people, mostly farmers, of Hakaluki Haor got 20kgs of rice and Tk500 each. But, the government on April 23 announced that each of 335,000 families of the flood-ravaged Haor region in Sylhet division would get 30kg rice and Tk500 as emergency support under a 100-day scheme. Moulvibazar has seen at least 100,000 people being affected, including 35,000 farmers, according to a government estimate. But, locals claim the number of affected farmers would be around 50,000. President Abdul Hamid visited the flood-ravaged Haor areas on April 16 while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina toured Sunamganj 14 days later. Reiterating the prime minister’s pledge, Obaidul, also the Road Transport and Bridges minister, said that the government would continue its relief supplies until the next harvest. “Do not consider yourselves helpless. Until you all are rehabilitated and the next crop is harvested, the government will keep providing relief supplies to you. Sheikh Hasina’s government is always by the destitute,” he said. Expressing concern over reports of inadequate relief, he said: “I heard that 36,000 people of Hakaluki Haor have been affected [in the recent flash flood]. Of them, just 600 people received relief supplies. So, I will talk to the ministers concerned to increase the allocation.” The government would take all possible steps to help protect the Boro crops in the area. Moulvibazar acting deputy commissioner Ashrafur Rahman and local lawmaker Md Shahab Uddin, among others, attended the event. At the outset of his speech when the party leaders and activists started chanting slogans praising the minister, Obaidul criticised them, saying: “I am not here to be accorded floral reception. Rather, I came here upon the prime minister’s instruction to stand by the flood victims.”