Eight out of nine ‘possible’ polling centres of a union council in Mehendiganj upazila under Barisal district exist in name only, as the river Meghna has devoured at least two-thirds of the union’s total land area.
Locals said the size of Gobindapur union under Mehendiganj upazila was reduced to that of a ward because of river erosion. However, land accretion raised hopes of the people high.
Upazila Election Office on August 19 in 2010 sent a list of nine schools as the possible polling centres to the chairman of Gobindapur union ahead of the Union Parishad (UP) election across the country. But these schools are no more located there where they were few years ago.
All the schools were shifted to some other places in the union as well as in other unions due to river erosion, said Mohammad Abul Hashem, chairman of Gobindapur union.
The polling centres are Dakkhin Goalvaor Govern-ment Primary School, Dakkhin Nalghora Reg Primary School, Poma Government Primary School, Dakkhin Paschim Tetulia Government Primary School, Alfatu-nnesa Government Primary School, Ladua Government Primary School, Purba Tetulia Government Primary School, Uttar Shahabazpur Secondary School and Uttar Pashchim Goalvaor Reg Primary School.
The chairman said most of the residents of the erosion-hit areas also moved permanently to other areas while many others became homeless.
Abul Hashem, who was elected chairman of the union for five consecutive terms, said many areas devoured by the river surfaced again thanks to land accretion. In some areas, development activities such as construction of roads and setting up of schools already began, he added.
The chairman and members of Gobindapur appealed to the upazila election office to redraw the boundary of the union, including the new chars. But no initiative was taken in this regard.
Following the nonchalance of the upazila election office, the elected representatives of the union applied to the district election office and the Election Commission to postpone polls to Gobindapur before redrawing its boundary. But they did not receive any official reply yet.
Sources at the upazila election office said they were not able to take any decision about Gobindapur, as they faced pressure from an influential quarter.
Locals said a vested group is out to hold election to the union council and grab the chars.
If the border of the union is now redrawn excluding the char areas, owners of the chars will lose their land.
“To whom will we go to claim our land, if the areas do not belong to the Gobindapur Union?” said a villager who lost over 20 acres of land.
He now hopes to reclaim most of his land, as new chars are emerging thanks to land accretion. Some of those areas, including Poma, Dadpur, Gobinda-pur, Shibpur, Kistipur, Chartula, Saicha, Natunchar, Nalgora and Goalvaor, have already become livable.
Note: The story was published on daily sun.
http://www.daily-sun.com/?view=details&archiev=yes&arch_date=22-02-2011&type=daily_sun_news&pub_no=135&cat_id=1&menu_id=8&news_type_id=1&index=4
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