From a distance it looked like a government road repair project. But up close it turned out that it was not a government initiative at all: a day labourer was having the road repaired, hiring workers with his own money. On top of that, the day labourer, Amir Hossain (34), regularly plants saplings of various species on both sides of the road.

Locals say Amir Hossain spends his own money planting trees along these roads running close to the zero line of the border. Repairing any hole or pothole he sees in a dirt road seems to have become an obsession for him.

Amir Hossain is the son of Mottuja Ali of Bishwanathpur in Binodpur union, a border union of Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj.

In Bishwanathpur village, workers were seen cutting earth from beside a dirt road and filling its holes. Amir Hossain himself was also digging earth from the roadside with a spade and carrying it on his head to repair the road. He has been repairing dirt roads at his own expense like this for 12 years.

Local resident Kawsar Ali said: "Amir Hossain is a day labourer who works in people's homes. With the money he earns, he plants trees of various species on both sides of the road. Besides planting, he waters and tends the trees every day. Repairing holes and potholes in dirt roads and planting trees along empty roads is his obsession."

Another resident, Abul Kalam, said: "There is a crop field beside our Bishwanathpur village, near the Indian border. The problem is that the road to my land is a dirt road, and it is very hard to get there. Amir Hossain always repairs the road. Not only me, but many farmers here have benefited."

Amir Hossain's wife Sukhi Begum said: "My husband does not think much about the household. Even though we can barely make ends meet, he works one shift a day and then repairs dirt roads from the afternoon until late at night. My small child has had a fever for two days, and he has not even brought the medicine. He is just mad about roads."

The social worker and tree lover Amir Hossain told Jago News: "My wish is to help people. I cannot bear to see people suffer. But I do not have the means to help people with a lot of money. So I work for people with the money I earn working in others' homes. It gives me peace of mind. I will keep repairing roads and planting trees like this all my life."

Praising Amir's work, Mojahar Ali Pramanik, executive engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Chapainawabganj, said: "This is certainly good work. If we have any opportunity, he will be helped. We will look into Amir's situation."

Besides repairing roads and planting trees, Amir Hossain also digs graves without payment. But he said he has no wish to stand in elections or become a public representative through this work.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.