Farmers in Brahmanbaria's Sarail upazila have held a human chain demanding the quick construction of an underpass on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway at Dakshin Kuttapara so that they can reach their fields safely, Manab Zamin's Sarail correspondent reports. More than fifty farmers, residents, elected representatives and leaders of social organisations joined the protest, organised by local farmers on the Kuttapara stretch at about 11am on Monday.

Carrying banners and placards reading "If the farmer lives, the country lives — underpass now" and "The right to cross safely — underpass this time", speakers said four-lane construction is under way on this section of the highway, with extensive cropland on its southern side. Farmers must cross the busy road every day with ploughs, tractors, cattle, inputs and harvested crops.

That raises the risk of accidents, wastes farmers' time and labour and disrupts farm work, they said. A large number of people in Kuttapara and nearby areas depend on agriculture, and with no safe crossing to the several thousand bighas of farmland south of the highway, farmers risk their lives every time they cross, above all with tractors, livestock and produce.

The farmers want a planned underpass built before the four-lane work is completed, which they say would secure safe passage, ease access to the fields and reduce the risk of crossing accidents in future.

How farmers whose land ends up on both sides of a widened highway are to cross is a question on other national highways too; whether Sarail's demand is answered before construction ends remains to be seen.

Source: Manab Zamin — Reporting: Sarail (Brahmanbaria) correspondent