RAJSHAHI, Apr 26: With frequent load shedding and sweltering heat, people of Rajshahi are experiencing the scorch of desert with no water in the river Padma and most of the city ponds and water bodies dumped and dried up.
The highest day temperature recorded on Friday in the district was 41.2 degree Celsius and the Meteorological Office in Rajshahi indicated further rise of temperature in the days ahead.
On Aprl-23, the highest temperature recorded in the district was 40.6 degree and in 2000, the highest recorded temperature recorded in the district was 42 degree.
The highest recorded temperature in Rajshahi was 45.1 degree on May-18,1972. There is no example of breaking this record throughout the country so far.
With robust, hot sunshine and blowing heat wave, every house of the city have become like hot furnaces. The conditions of the working people were miserable and unbearable. Specially, the rickshaw-pullers, day labourers and street vendors found it difficult to continue their works in the scorching heat.
On the other hand, the frequent load shedding at the city and upazilas have doubled the sufferings of the people. Though the government has announced there will be no load shedding during ongoing HSC and Degree Pass examinations, the load shedding in the district has become a regular phenomenon.
City and the district mosques after the Juma prayer offered special Munajat to Allah seeking rain.
Due to excessive heat, the normal life style of the people has been changed. People are reluctant to come out of their houses except for emergencies. As a result, a stagnant condition in all trade and commerce is being noticed. Specially, the local transport owners are suffering for the want of adequate passengers.
The heat has also increased spread of seasonal diseases like suffocation, diarrhoea, cold, fever and cough among children and elderly people. At the same time, green mangoes, litchis are withering away and Irri-Boro fields are turning yellow due to excessive heat.
Street children's protection in RCC stressed
A BSS report says: The issue of protection and development of the disadvantaged street children should be incorporated in the social welfare department of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC), speakers said here today.
The RCC has 24 disciplines of work areas including birth registration and primary healthcare programmes but its elected representatives don't have any responsibilities for mainstreaming the street children, they added.
These observations came at a press conference, arranged by INCIDIN Bangladesh, a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the Moonlight Garden conference hall.
