Farmer Israil Hossain had cut the paddy from a bigha of land and stacked it in the field to protect it from storms and rain. Under cover of darkness, miscreants set it on fire.
It happened early on Saturday 29 April in Dakop beel, Ward 6 of Brojobaksha in Helatala union, Kalaroa upazila of Satkhira. Israil Hossain is the son of Golam Hossain of Brojobaksha village.
Israil told Jagonews that, fearing storms and rain, he had stacked the cut paddy in the field until 8pm on Friday and gone home. In the morning local union parishad member Nasima Khatun rang to say someone had set fire to it. "I went and saw that the paddy from a bigha of land had burnt to ashes," he said. He still owes Tk 2,500 for irrigation water and money at the fertiliser and pesticide shop, which he had planned to pay by selling this paddy. He could also have kept rice from it to feed his family for a year. "Now all my paddy has burnt to ashes."
Loss put at Tk 40,000
Ziarul Islam, guard of the field's deep tube well, said the irrigation season ended five to seven days ago. At about 4am he heard that paddy stacked in three places was burning and rushed there to find all of Israil's paddy burnt to ashes.
Raju Ahmed, operator of the deep tube well, said Israil's bigha would have yielded about 15 sacks of paddy worth about Tk 25,000, and the straw for cattle feed is worth much more. Irrigating a bigha costs Tk 3,000, and fertiliser, pesticide and seed cost about Tk 10,000. With labour, his loss comes to about Tk 40,000.
Nasima Khatun, UP member for Ward 6 of Brojobaksha, told Jagonews that Israil Hossain is in financial hardship and the paddy was his family's food for the coming year. Steps will be taken to bring those responsible to justice, she said.
Upazila agriculture officer Abul Hossain, an agriculturist, told Jagonews that a sub-assistant agriculture officer has been sent to investigate, and steps will be taken so that the farmer is compensated.
Mustafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Kalaroa police station, told Jagonews the incident is very sad and that legal action will be taken after an investigation if a complaint is received.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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