Address monga crisis permanently
Speakers say at discussion
Staff Correspondent
Monga, a famine-like situation, has to be addressed permanently, rather than giving away relief through Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme every year, said the speakers at a discussion yesterday. They said government's goodwill is imperative to solve this problem in northwestern part of the country. The discussion on 'Finding out permanent solution for monga' was organised by Jubo Karmasangsthan Society (Jubok), an NGO, at Biam auditorium in the city. The speakers suggested cultivation of banana, sweet potato and other cereals during this period and make best use of around 2.5 trillion cubic feet of stone found in the region to overcome the situation. They laid emphasis on developing communications infrastructure and promoting tourism in the area to create employment opportunities for the locals. The speakers suggested allocation of micro-credits by government and NGOs to form co-operative societies by the poor people to eradicate poverty there. They also called for protecting the poor farmers from the middlemen by ensuring fair price of their agri-products. The other steps suggested by the speakers included setting up of industries based on local farm products, best use of land ports and alternative food habit to meet monga. Deputy Editor of Prothom Alo Anisul Haque said an amount of Tk 300 crore was allocated last time to face monga, but most of the money was plundered by the politicians for use in the next election. Jatiya Party Lawmaker GM Kader said many projects are taken to eradicate poverty, but most of the project-money is misused. He said politicians are now less committed to people as they can win elections by their black money and muscle power. Left-leaning politician Ruhin Hossain Prince posed a question over the role of NGOs as acute poverty still persists in the area despite their activities. Executive Chairman of Jubok Hossain Al Masum, Director of Power and Participatory Research Centre Ziauddin Ahmed and Editor of Desh Bangla Dr Ferdous Ahmed Quraeshi also spoke at the function. Ex-chairman of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Dr Monowar Hossain was the moderator of the discussion. Manga starts in Bangla months of Ashwin and Kartik in eight districts of northwestern region. As people of the area remain jobless during these two months, they don't have money in their hands to buy food and as a result they starve.
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