Bone-chilling cold batters public life in Lalmonirhat

Public life in Lalmonirhat district and adjoining areas is now in a vulnerable state because of a severe cold wave coupled with chilly weather blowing in the northern region for the last couple of days.
Meanwhile, lowest temperature in Bangladesh was recorded in Chuadanga district at 9.8 degrees Celsius on Thursday morning as a mild cold wave was sweeping parts of the country.
Our Lalmonirhat correspondent reports: Biting cold accompanied with dense fog paralysed public life across five upazilas of the district and adjoining areas for the last couple of days.
Foggy weather also disrupted road, rail and waterway communications in most areas of
the northern district.
Farm labourers and daily wage earners like rickshaw-pullers, van-pullers, fishermen and other low-income group people could not come out of home for works braving extreme cold.
Quite a few people were seen moving on the streets amid the cloud weather while the sun remained covered with thick fog in many areas whole day. After the sunset, chilly wind started sweeping everywhere in the district.
Vehicular movement on the roads and highways was partially affected as thick fog enveloped the areas reducing visibility to less than 15-20 metres on all routes. It is almost impossible to run vehicles without keeping headlights open until 11am.
Elderly people, women and children are the worst suffers for the cold weather intensifying especially in the rural areas and Teesta and Dharla riverine char areas.
Tendency of various cold-related dieses like asthma, coughing, and pneumonia has increased among the children and elderly people, hospital sources said.
People are seen warming up themselves by lighting fires with waste papers and straws as the sun remains hiding from morning to evening due to dense fog.
People are thronging the footpath shops to buy warm clothes. Poor cold-hit people try to collect second-hand clothes from footpath and street shops. According to the local Met office, the district's temperature on Thursday was recorded at 11.4 degree Celsius.
The district admiration, different charitable organisations and other types of socio-cultural organisation are distributing warm clothes and blankets among the cold-stricken poor people, but their initiatives are not reportedly sufficient against the demand.
The district administration has already distributed 11,250 blankets and cash Tk1.5 million for five upazilas of the district.
UNB reports from Chuadanga: The prevailing cold weather has thrown life of the low-income people out of gear in the district, and among them children and elderly people are the worst sufferers.
Rakibul Hasan, senior observer at Chuadanga First Class Weather Observatory, said they recorded the country's lowest temperature at 9.8 degree Celsius at 9am on Thursday. He forecast that the temperature may fall further at night.
Though the day-labourers came out from the houses in search of work amid the knee-shaking cold, most of them failed to manage work.
Sohag Mia, a day-labourer of sadar upazila, said, "I have to wake up early in the morning and come to Chuadanga town for work. It is difficult to reach the town by bicycle amid such cold. The hands become numbed. People are not going out of the house unless it is urgent. That's why I failed to get work. After waiting for a long time, I've to return home empty-handed."
Jakir Hossain, a trucker who came to Chuadanga from Narayanganj, said it was difficult to operate vehicles amid the dense fog.
Rana Mia, a restaurant trader of Chuadanga Bazar, said they experienced a low turnover due to the severe cold as people were reluctant to come out of houses due to cold weather.

[email protected]