Tribute to Tara Banu, a farmer of Bangladesh

She had seen enough of the life's vagaries. Yet, she never gave in.

Few years back when her husband developed physical disability, Tara Banu of Habiganj took it upon herself to trudge along the path of life as a solitary reaper. 

She minded farming for a livelihood for her ailing husband, three wards and for herself.

Tara Banu finally gave in to the vagaries of nature, when she met a tragic end of her life at a productive age of 45. Why?

This year's unusually early flash flood destroyed standing crops in Banu's two-and-half acres of land, where she tilled managing farm credit from a local NGO.   

Flash flood shattered her dream of having a good harvest. But after having visiting her farmland and seeing the crops being washed away, Banu returned home last Thursday dejected. She wept for hours. She could not bear the shock and suffered a cardiac arrest.

Banu died.

Death of one Tara Banu of Habiganj's Baniachang upazila may not matter much to us. We do not know the dream she had of her children. Did she want them to get educated? Who will now take care of them?

However, like Banu, many a hundred farmers of the backswamps of Habiganj, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj and few other northeastern districts suffered immense losses due to crop-damage by flash floods. Will their plight not matter to us either?

And also, was that only a vagary of nature? Or there were human hands to it too?

It was not completely a natural disaster. People's greed caused the disaster. Locals alleged of corruption in the construction and repairing works of the embankment surrounding the haor areas. The faulty embankments were damaged, causing huge loss to farmers including Tara Banu. They are now wailing for the loss.

Who are responsible for the damage -- the flash flood only or the Water Development Board (WDB) officials also or the peoples' representatives and bureaucrats, who were supposed to monitor the works?   

The flash flood alone is not responsible for the damage. The embankment has been prepared to save crops from the flood. But construction and repairing works of the embankment was not good due to corruption. It was a complete negligence of duties on the side of WDB.

Therefore, the WDB under the Ministry of Water Resources should be held responsible for the crop damage. The board should compensate the farmers. Those who failed to perform their duties should be brought to book. If the government does those, it will be a tribute to Tara Banu, a farmer of Bangladesh.

Will the government do it in the honour of the farmers in our country?