Five Kushtia villages form a rice hub serving country\\\'s needs

JHENIDAH, Nov 24: Kaburhat, Dastopara, Ayilchara, Khajanagar and Ballavpur -- five interconnected villages of Battail union of Kushtia district covering four kilometres area beside Bottail-Poradah road have turned a big rice hub meeting a large-scale demand for rice throughout the country.
The hub having 13 plants of 9 auto rice mills produce a total of 550-600 tonnes of rice daily while around 300 husking mills supply more 3000 tonnes everyday, which are exported to various wholesale points across the country including in Dhaka.
Sources said a big plant and a small one of an auto rice mill have daily capacity of 128 tonnes and 64 tonnes paddy respectively whereas husking mills each capacitate 10 tonnes paddy everyday.
Rashid Agro Food, Bepari Agro Food, Progati Agro Food and Swanra Agro Food, among others, are famous auto mills producing the best quality brand rice which have earned reputation across the country.
Sources said in all auto and husking mills including around 12 terraces, a total of about 8,000 people from Naogaon, Natore and Kushtia have been employed.
The workers boiling and drying paddy in the husking mills, mostly couples, get an amount of rice worth Tk. 110 -140 against their drudgery from dawn till night, said one Rina Khatun, an employee under Harun Mollah, a rice trader, at Bandhu husking Mill at Ayilchara bazar.
''We, the labourers, cannot afford to meet our basic human needs. We cannot save for future despite our hard labour in terraces,'' said another worker Mahidul hailing from Natore.
 Poor sanitary system is a great problem for the labourers while no facilities of treatment and festival bonus from the employers lead to job-dissatisfaction of the workers.
Nearly 2,000 contract labourers who are engaged in the hub for unloading paddy from trucks and loading them with rice destined to reach various places of the country including Dhaka, are rendered unemployed by countrywide general strikes   enforced by the opposition parties, sources said.
Hazi Md. Zamshed Ali, proprietor of Progati Agro Food, and secretary of Rice Mill Owners' Association, Kushtia came up with the complaint that all Dhaka-bound trucks laden with products including rice from south-west regions face extortion of Tk. 2,000 per vehicle on over-scaling excuse by a section of local people in collusion with police in Manikganj. ''We informed Manikganj district administration of the matter. But our problem seemed to have gone unheeded,'' he added.
Abdul Mazid Bablu, president of Rice Mills Owners' Association, Kushtia told this correspondent existing 18 per cent bank interest which reaches 20 per cent including insurance, registration fees and compound interest, proves very high for rice producers. He added that the BB authorities should consider lowering the existing rate of bank interest for the businesses for smooth running of their trades.
Many millers at Khajananar expressed their concern over rampant counterfeiting of Khajanagar rice brands by some unscrupulous low quality rice traders all over the country.